A series of bad events occur to a number of varyingly bad people, all linked by a buzzard-studded strip of lonely desert highway. Indie horror guru Larry Fessenden can be heard as a suspiciously velvet-toned radio DJ, which should hint at the bad mojo going down. Horror anthologies can generally be counted on to contain a whiff or two, but this taut effort—from some of the folks behind the V/H/S series—boasts an admirably high success rate, with each of its five segments generating some clever moments of just-plain-wrongness, including a terminal case of dèjá vu, one seriously botched home invasion, and what happens when a van full of plucky riot grrrls meets up with a hilariously blasé coven. MVP honors, though, go to director David Bruckner’s brilliant centerpiece segment, a cautionary tale about proper cell phone usage and impromptu surgical techniques that plumbs some remarkably icky depths. Throw in a demonic bar and grill, Dana Gould as a sweater-wearing Satanist and some pretty unnerving skeleton squid thingies, and you’ve got yourself a party. Gah, those skeleton squid thingies. By Andrew Wright