Opening in typical style with the wraparound What Are You Afraid Of? illustrator Natalie (Kristin Lorenz) is creating the scariest stories imaginable. She sets to scribbling, leading us, and Hi-Fear, neatly into Losing It At The Devil’s Whorehouse.

Two college dudes take their geeky friend to lose his virginity. The portrayal of bespectacled nerd with a voice that wobbles up through an octave and down again with every sentence is perfect, giving the nod that this segment’s only a bit of fun. Hustled inside to the strains of You Belong to Me, the trio meet the staff, including occultist Aleister Crowley. Before long geek boy is at their satanic mercy, with green bile, teeth in unimaginable places, and innards swiftly becoming outards (if that’s even a word). A cheesy goreporn fest with loads of slime and plenty of 80s-style jokes about teen boys and brothels.

In the second segment When the Shadows Come Alive, hypocritical televangelist Marshall (Todd Martin) kills his unfaithful wife and strikes a deal with Officer Grantham (Trish Erickson-Martin) when she discovers his wrongdoing. They slope off to the woods to dispose of his guilt, but what awaits Marshall may be worse than facing up to his misdeeds.

These first two are presented in shot-on-video style and enjoyably naff. If you’re expecting the more polished level of production anthologies often attain these days you’ll likely be disappointed. However, if you don’t take it all too seriously you may find they’re better than a first glance suggests. So bad they’re good, if you know what I mean. This isn’t to say the storylines are terrible; they have a few sharp twists nostalgically reminiscent of Tales From the Crypt. One of the aspects of short films I love the most; maximum impact in a bite-sized bundle (and a variety pack at that). The effects, knives through heads and disgustingly visceral sounds are effective, but also wonderfully tongue-in-cheek (someone skipping with a string of sausages meant to represent intestines? Unmissable). The downside’s shaky camerawork, deliberately bad acting, and frenetically irritating music.

The third segment, The Streets Are Watching was for me the best so far.  Everybody in it has a different story about how ‘KKK’ (Krazy Killer Karl; Brandon E. Brooks) became what he is and ended up on the streets. Chud (Leila Jean Davis) is convinced she’s his next target, but is this really the case? Oddly moving after the first two, the tone seems set for a light-hearted cornfest, then we divert into the world of a homeless teen, living desperately, followed by an apparently insane man whose sole purpose is to ‘save’ her. As freaked out by him as her transient counterparts and suspecting him of being behind the disappearance of one of their number, she flees; but is he really what lies behind her deepest fears?

The final segment is Day Out of Days. In a remote location on a filming job, Taylor (P.J. Brescia), Laura (Ingrid Dittmeier Hansen), and Alexis (Julie Anne Prescott) become entangled in an Insidious Tommyknockers-esque alien invasion. Promising at first, it becomes drawn-out, overlong, and the acting crumbles along with the structure.

Meanwhile, the wraparound’s begun showing its own teeth. Whoever called Natalie with her tasks has been replaced by an unknown caller with Scream-like attributes. The final instalment of the trilogy beginning with Hi-8 and followed by Hi-Death. As a full-on fan of anthologies they’re now on my watchlist. A trilogy of anthologies? My movie heaven.

Hi-Fear displays the best and worst of the anthology; take the rough with the smooth, because there’s something here for everyone; pick and choose at will, and make sure you stick around for the great little extra after the end credits.