50 States of Fright is a horror anthology web television series whose first season was premiered on April 6th, 2020, and the second season on September 28th, 2020 on Quibi. It stars Travis Fimmel, Asa Butterfield, Taissa Farmiga, Alex Fitzalan, Colin Ford, Lulu Wilson, Drew Ray Tanner in the lead roles.
The first season starts with the story The Golden Arm written by Ivan Raimi and Sam Raimi and directed by Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spiderman, Drag Me To Hell). The story is set in Michigan where David (Travis Fimmel, Ragnar from Vikings) and Heather (Rachel Brosnahan, from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) are married and David work as a lumberjack but one day when an urgency comes and he asks Heather, to help him cut the trees, a tragedy happens and the tree falls right on Heather's right hand. David made her a prosthetic arm made of gold as she requested and she's obsessed with it. David has to sell his truck and many other things to buy that much gold. When winter arrives, her health deteriorates, and is diagnosed with a pulmonary gold disease and later dies due to it. When David tries to take the golden arm off her from the grave she wakes from the dead and whatever happens after you have to watch it. It's predictable and not that intriguing but still watchable thanks to the amazing lead.
The second story is America's Largest Ball of Twine directed by Yoko Okumura. Susan (Ming-Na Wen) and her daughter are on a road trip and decides to go to see the Ball of Twine. They are greeted by some strange people and tells her daughter to go and see the twine. But her daughter disappears and now her mother questions other people, who are made of twine and want to make mother-daughter into twine as well. Ming-Na Wen is on fire as Susan but sadly the story is not all fascinating, and is the weakest among all.
The third story is Scared Stiff by Ryan Spindell (Director of The Mortuary Collection). It follows Sebastian Klepper (James Ransone), a taxidermist, who always wins the best taxidermist awards every year. A man arrives at his door at midnight and tells Sebastian that he has run over a mysterious animal and wants it to get stuffed. After stuffing, Sebastian realizes that the animal is a baby Sasquatch and maybe his mama or father is out for blood. The story has a comical feel to it and the setup is quite intense and the ending is worth seeing, it's the second-best in season one.
Next is the Grey Cloud Island directed by Adam Schindler & Brian Netto. Four boys, Brandon (Asa Butterfield, from Sex Education), Ashley (Alex Fitzalan, from The Society), Bobby (Dan Ginnane), and David (Drew Ray Tanner, from Riverdale), are taken to the woods of the Grey Cloud Island which is haunted. They saw some people in the wood who were holding a woman as a captive, her face and head were blocked by irons. They tried to free her but were attacked by the other people. Whatever happens after that is worth watching and this is the best from season one.
Next is Destino directed by Alejandro Brugués. Maria (Danay Garcia) and Scott (Greyston Holt) are police officers and their two colleagues are informed about the stealing of a goat. When they arrive at that place something unusual happens to them and one of them gets possessed by something unnatural. Not getting any updates from them, makes Maria and Scott go there and sees that a ritual was going on and the goat had been sacrificed. It's shot like a found footage with the cams on the officers, the vibe is creepy but not that effective.
The first story from season two is Almost There by Scott Beck & Bryan Woods. Starring Taissa Farmiga (from American Horror Story and The Nun) as Hannah is outstanding with Ron Livingston (from Band of Brothers and The Conjuring) as Blake. Hannah has a horrific past and now is an Engineer and is called at midnight to work by Blake to fix the problem of the giant Turbine. The fear of height showed in this story is so chilling and terrifying, I was getting dry throat watching the slick camera capturing the endless ladders and the amazing Taissa who brings alive the character of Hannah so convincingly, her expressions are top-notch. It's the best from this series.
Next is 13 Steps to Hell by Lee Cronin, which follows the story of old Maltby Cemetery which is considered as haunted by the locals. Three siblings, Mallory (Lulu Wilson from Annabelle Creation and Ouija Origin of Evil), Graham Verchere (from Stargirl, Summer of 84), and Aiden (Kesler Talbot) are on the way to the cemetery to bury the doll their mother gave to Aiden before she died. But mistakenly the doll falls under a hidden stair in the cemetery, which is believed to be the gateway to hell. The atmospheric creepy vibe is there, and the horror scenes are not quite for the faint of hearts.
Next is Red Rum from Daniel Goldhaber, the story follows three friends Simon (Jacob Batalon from Spiderman Far from Home as Ned), Logan (Victoria Justice), and Kyle (Colin Ford from Daybreak), who go to a hotel which is haunted by many ghosts but you can stay there without hesitation by not disturbing the privacy of the ghosts. But Simon, Logan, and Kyle always try to film everything and even go to the places that are off-limits. The characters and the plot just don't work, no horror nothing just voices.
The last story is the Dogwood-Azalea by Cate Devaney, and tells about the story of a big house, where a girl, Lucy Anna died due to lead poisoning and her ghost lurks in those dark halls. A new family arrives at the place, Sara (Elizabeth Reaser from The Haunting of Hill House), Tom (Warren Christie), and their child Azalea (Erica Tremblay), who slowly becomes friends with the ghost of Anna, and then she kills the parents, and Azalea too so that Lucy could have a friend to play with. This story could've worked if it has been given more time to establish the characters as well as the story.
From the above stories, Almost There starring Taisa Farmiga outranks other stories just because of it's fine execution and captivate screenplay backed up by a strong performance by Taissa Farmiga, the best performance in the series as a whole, and the chilling effects and visuals are gut-wrenching.
50 States of Fright surely has it's fine share of moments, and makes a good one time watch. Episodes of 5-10 minutes have its drawback, that the characters are not that well developed hence the scenes remain ineffective.
Rating:- 3/5
 - Review : A Reasonably Good Anthology Horror Show!!! ){kind=link}
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