Review: For We Are Many

Director: Lawrie Brewster, Carlos Omar de León, Matthan Harris, Alex Harron, Andrew Ionides, Dane Keil, Mark Logan, Paddy Murphy, Gavin Robertson, Keith Robson, Tom Staunton, Brad Watson, and Mitch Wilson

Screenplay: Gavin Robertson, Vorasine Vince Phrommany, Mark Logan, Chris Keaton, Brad Watson, Mitch Wilson, Andrew Ionides, Tom Staunton, Claire Norton, Matthan Harris, Dane Keil, Paddy Murphy, and Keith Robson

Year: 2020

My name is Legion, for we are many. According to Mark 5:9, this is the response Jesus got in an encounter with a possessed man. In this verse of the Bible “For We Are Many” finds its inspiration; a horror anthology based on different demons. 

“For We Are Many” combines about a dozen horror stories from different directors, each based on a different demon. Succubus, wendigos, and other demons wreak havoc in this collection of short films. 

The runtime for “For We Are Many” roams the 80 minutes, in which it packs about a dozen stories. Evenly distributed this would mean that each story gets around six minutes and considering also that the movie also has an intro, outro, and credits. Some of these stories last even less, which barely allows them to establish its idea. 

The short time and the number of stories make them all go for the same formula, which is reduced to a featured demon to follow and kill the main character, in many instances without time to establish the characters or the plot and betting for the demon an deaths to be impressive enough. Besides the runtime, it is evident that many of these short films were done with a tight or even a micro-budget, another limitation to its quality and what it can achieve. As expected, the short time and low budget make neither the demons be impressive, nor the plot be interesting or at least understandable in most shorts. 

The group of director involved in this project composed of Lawrie Brewster (“Automata”), Carlos Omar de León, Matthan Harris (“The Inflicted”), Alex Harron, Andrew Ionides, Dane Keil, Mark Logan, Paddy Murphy (“The Perished”),  Gavin Robertson, Keith Robson, Tom Staunton, Brad Watson (“Hallows Eve”), and Mitch Wilson (“Knucklebones”) are rookies for the most past with little or no full-length features under their belts. Similarly, in the cast there are just a few known names such as Laurence R. Harvey (“The Human Centipede II”), Eileen Dietz (“Halloween II”; “Itsy Bitsy”) y Nicholas Vince (“Hellraiser”; “Book of Monsters”)  while most are unknown actors. This lack of experience from the cast and directors materializes in the shorts and in most cases, it takes center stage, projected in incoherent stories and shameful acting. 

“For We Are Many” tries to make the most out of the boost in popularity that horror anthologies such as “The Field Guide To Evil” and “Nightmare Cinema” have been receiving, but it fails in its attempt. The lack of experience of its cast and director together with the tight budgets proves to be too much of a limitation for such an ambitious project. Except for two or three shorts, most are uninteresting, absurd and its problems and limitations end up being the real Legion of the movie.