First up is "Valley of the Shadow." Angela's (Amy Marsalis) husband has been missing in the jungle for three years. She finally finds funding to lead a search team to try and find him. She has to get it funded by David (Marty Schiff), whose one condition is that he is allowed to come along. Angela, David, Monte (Matt Walsh), and Miguel (Antone Pagan) have left camp looking for hints. Of course I'm not sure what they'll really find after three years, but they don't have to look long because trouble is going to find them. They rush back when they get a radio call saying that something is wrong and when they get back to the camp, they find a grisly scene of death. Everyone is dead and dismembered. They get back to the boat and Angela demands that they go upriver, much to the others' chagrin. When they finally land where she tells them to, the boat driver is killed and David is hit. Now they're on the run pursued by an unknown enemy and their numbers are dropping. The real question is not whether they're going to die or not, but how horrific and painful the death will be. But is death really the end of life?
Next up is "Wet." In "Wet," Jack (Jeff Monahan) finds a mermaid's hand in a box. He takes the box to the antique store and the guy there, Swan (Nick Mancuso), recognizes the box and knows what it contained. He tells Jack that mermaids aren't always good and that the only way you can kill one is to dismember it, put the pieces in a Morai Tomb, and bury the pieces separately so Jack should take what was in that box, put it back in the box and bury it back where he found it, lest the mermaid come back to life. Of course, Jack's going to do the exact opposite and goes to dig up the rest of the boxes and puts the skeleton back together, I guess because Swan told him that any man who meets a mermaid will have his life changed forever. Jack ignored the part where that man will also pay whatever price she wants. I do believe that Jack is going to regret paying her price!
Finally, there is "House Call." A kid named Jimmy (Jason Hoehnen) tells his mother (Maryann Nagel) that he has been bitten in the woods and that he's done horrible things. He has her tie him up so that he won't hurt anyone else. His mother calls Dr. Marsten (Bingo O'Malley) to try and get the doctor to convince her son that it's all in his mind, and that he isn't a monster. Sometimes, a doctor isn't always the best solution!
Of the three shows, "Wet" really was the only one that I enjoyed. In "Valley of the Shadow," the acting is just bad at times and you want to scream at them for being so stupid. "House Call" was boring. I think I lost interest in it so many times that I had to force myself to pay attention. In "Wet," I wanted to yell at the guy for being stupid as well, but he got what he deserved, so it was quite satisfying. I really watch a lot of horror stories and I love short stories. They're easy to do in horror because there's not as much setup of characters required like there is in dramas. But you have to make them at least entertaining! I do hope that Volume 2 is a huge improvement over Deadtime Stories: Volume 1 because I really can't recommend you watch Volume 1 except maybe for "Wet."
