Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After a devastating battle against a diabolical turtle, a team of five avengers — known as the "Tobacco Force" — is sent on a mandatory retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion, where they share scary stories the film depicts. Their storytelling sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.
Quentin Dupieux's absurdist anthology-within-a-film is a gloriously singular piece of work — its deadpan Sentai-parody framing, embedded horror vignettes, and commitment to surreal non-logic mark it as unmistakably his own voice. Novelty is high because no one else makes films quite like this. The anthology structure means the vignettes vary wildly in quality and the wraparound plot is deliberately anti-climactic, yielding a loose, shaggy whole. Acting is serviceable in the knowing, flat-affect style Dupieux favors. Cinematography is competent but functional rather than striking. The ending is purposely deflating — which is the joke — but as a viewing experience it leaves one slightly cold rather than satisfyingly subversive.