Of course Mike is now a serial killer who has become a vampire and is slaughtering people for the sheer fun of it. Katherine goes to Elizabeth to elicit her help in stopping the maniac. And that, as they say, is that. Nothing too complex, not great twists but a solidly acted piece that has a little lore, in that the vampires do have reflections and are not affected by the cross, removal of the heart will kill them. Vamps is the first of the shorts.

Offered in Dolby Digital Stereo, the music is pushed up high in the mix, making dialogue occasionally hard to hear. Other sonic elements – effects, ambiance – are handled well. Overall, the aural aspects of this release are acceptable if unexceptional. The Eggs – an anxious man visits a psychiatrist and tells a surreal tale about being followed by a mime. The silent stalker in the funny striped hat keeps offering the man green eggs and ham, which naturally, he does not like. Macabre pair of shorts is a portmanteau film, indeed it is actually a portmanteau within a portmanteau. It is not two stories – as the title might lead you to believe, it does feature a pre-fame David Boreanaz – but don’t get too excited, and it is on the Troma label – and bizarrely I was quite taken by it.MPS – a behind the scenes look at how the vampire couple scenes were shot – including an interesting bit of casting. This thing does stand up on its own – the wider wraparound gets a bit silly but, by then, you are invested and despite the vampire section being simple it is effective. There is a twist in the vampire wraparound that was nicely handled and understated and, all in all, I can’t help but like this. 5.5 out of 10 is for the vampire parts – The Eggs was even better.

The original inspiration for this tired bit of nonsense, Overtime is supposed to be a spoof of all the '80s films where unsuspecting individuals unleash unholy entities of Hate by the application of standard lifestyle choices (turning on a light, going into the basement, preparing a portion of peas and carrots). Here, our goofy lens cleaners decide to ignore the warning plastered on the reel of film from the vault, thread it up, and come face to face with the most hideous of inhuman creations – and they battle a celluloid monster as well. The comedy is forced and unfunny (only the running gag about Tony's odiferous feet offers any manner of merriment) and the nods to action thrillers like Aliens and Terminator II are very poorly accomplished. Mixing styles (there's stop motion and obvious reverse footage) and moods, we aren't sure how seriously – or conversely, how slightly – we should take this stuff. The anticlimactic feeling one gets when the narrative finally fades away permeates every other cinematic experiment here. Mabbutt is obviously a man of ideas – he just doesn't know how to bring them to entertaining life. This minor moment in the film is supposed to be a slam at how crazy and chaotic a film shoot really is. As David Bonreanaz argues over appearing in the segment, we see grips grunting and groaning, while technicians tweak. The punchline is poor and the overall segment plays like a lame afterthought.