Portals (2019)

Portals was a production from Bloody Disgusting, the horror news and reviews website that began in 2001. Co-founder Brad Miska began expanding out onto film producing V/H/S (2012) and sequels, along with other works such as Southbound (2015), Siren (2016) and Kid vs. Aliens (2022). Portals was another of their Anthology works featuring contributions for different directors and based around a common concept. It had a sequel with Doors (2021) where Miska and creator Chris White spun out another anthology film based around the same mysterious alien portals concept.

The first segment The Other Side comes from Liam O’Donnell who wrote the script for Skyline (2010) and directed its two sequels Beyond Skyline (2017) and Skylines (2020). Unlike the other episodes, the telling of this story is interspersed in between the other episodes. This has Neil Hopkins waking up in a mysterious hospital where he is told he has come back through a portal. The doctor has a strange interest in Neil because a shard of portal has been embedded in one of his eyes. This leads to a horrible ending where Neil must sacrifice both eyes as he is reunited with his family. While interesting, this is also a more confusing episode where it is not clear who the doppelganger that appears in the mirror is or even what has happened to Neil.

Call Center comes from Eduardo Sanchez, best known as one of the co-director of The Blair Witch Project (1999) who has maintained a solo directing career since then with the likes of Altered (2006), Seventh Moon (2008), ParaAbnormal (2009), the A Ride in the Park episode of V/H/S/2 (2013), Exists (2014) and the El Vampiro episode of Satanic Hispanics (2022), and Gregg Hale, who had previously worked as a producer for Sanchez.

Call Center is divided into two parts with Eduardo Sanchez directing the first and Gregg Hale the second, although it is unclear what the dividing line between where one part ends and the other begins. Nevertheless, this is an episode that develops well in its crosscut of the people at the center as it is flooded with calls, before the tension when a portal manifests in the office, Paul McCarthy-Boyington loses his marbles and starts waving a gun, ordering everybody to get into the portal.

Sarah comes from Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto, previously one half of the Mo Brothers with films like Macabre (2009) and Killers (2014). On his own, Timo Tjahjanto has made the horror film May the Devil Take You (2018) and sequel, the jaw-droppingly frenetic balls-to-the-wall action film The Night Comes for Us (2018) and The Big Four (2022), plus contributed episodes to three horror anthologies – the completely wild L is for Libido segment of The ABCs of Death (2012), the Safe Haven episode of V/H/S/2 (2013) and The Subject segment of V/H/S/94 (2021).

This is a relatively straightforward piece between two sisters set in an underground parking garage. It resembles more of a zombie film as people are affected en masse and drawn to enter into the portal. Tjahjanto pushes the material for some of his characteristic ultra-violence and there is furious running and fighting through the carpark, although this is fairly tame in comparison to most of his other work.

The final piece The End is more of a bookend with talking heads interviews. There is no director attributed. People discuss the phenomenon, while in the second half of the piece two of them manage to cross through one of the portals with nasty consequences. This is one anthology that never quite hits the mark. Call Center and Sarah are decent episodes but overall the feeling is uneven.

---

Trailer here

---