I had picked up a copy of the 2018 movie "Surprise". I didn't know what I was in for here, really, as I hadn't heard about it at all. But my interest in the movie drastically fell down a few notches as I realized that this was a horror anthology. Usually I enjoy horror movies quite a lot, but for some reason then most anthologies with a horror theme tend to be laughable attempts that are more of a waste of time than anything else.

And guess what? Surprise, surprise, yeah "Surprise" was just exactly that, a waste of time. The stories told in the anthology were not overly interesting and mostly fell short of being something that entertains me in the horror genre. So this anthology was a swing and a miss.

It came and went without leaving a mark or a dent, much less leaving a lasting impression with me. Well, unless you consider the fact of knowing that it will never ever be watched again as an impression.

The storylines were mundane and often downright laughable and annoying, so that was definitely not within the scopes of proper entertainment. And "Surprise" is most certainly not an anthology of horror tales that I would recommend you rush out to waster your time, money or effort on.

The acting performances in the anthology were semi-adequate, for the most part. I mean, the actors and actresses could manage to get by, but this was hardly groundbreaking works, nor were it performances that would harvest much of any awards.

Visually then "Surprise" just didn't cut it. The special and practical effects were just too mundane, bland or just downright boring.

Sure, the effort put into the anthology counts for something, and it is the majority of why I didn't flat out give this anthology a single star. Nay, my rating of "Surprise" lands on a three out of ten stars, given the production value and the apparent effort put into the project.

Don't waste your time on this. There's definitely worse out there, but this is some bottom-of-the-barrel material that cheats people into watching it with the fake rating. The acting ranges from terrible to bad, and the writing is just as bad.

As of writing this, the movie has 5.5 stars, but if you check the rating statistics, there's an unrealistic amount of 10s compared to everything else, but at least it seems like the people see through it and pull it back down with a well-deserved 1 star rating.

Before I continue, credit to all the actors, writers, crew and everyone concerned with this film.

No joke, it takes a lot of commitment to make a movie.

Now my honest critique - after watching horror movies and especially my favourite genre... anthology films, watched all my life.

Okay. Its not a good movie - just deserves a 1/10.

If I was watching a parish council local theatre production, it would be a 7/10.

The acting was amateur, plots were extremely thin and the entire plot for each segment could have been more than summed up in one sentence, in the script.

I'm British. I think the British are superb at anthology movies - or at least we used to be.

We need to re-examine our roots (and learn) from films such as 'Dr Terrors House of Horrors, Torture Garden, From Beyond the Grave etc (and I know these are Amicus, but the above are examples)

Its late, I'm going to have an ice cream now, but please please please (again) British guys... don't give up, continue, but DO GOOD MOVIES! - think like Amicus or Hammer - even Blumhouse is a good example now.