The Telling (Video 2009) Poster

(2009 Video)

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3/10
Retelling a cliché
sunniva_reilly19 April 2009
I did not have very high hopes for this film. A horror movie from the Playboy mansion? I think most people probably suspect that Playboy bunnies do not make great actresses, and indeed they do not. They are great at posing and pouting, but pretending to laugh, is sadly beyond their reach (though this might be due to having been pawed at by a 127 year old Hugh Hefner, as that would stop most people from even cracking a smile).

So if you disregard the acting, which ranges from poor to abysmal, you will have heard the stories again and again since childhood. In fact, most Halloween specials have told these stories, and often told them better. So here goes: To gain membership in a Sorority populated by plastic women in their late 20ies and early (?) 30ies (who, at least at one point, are amusingly Borg-like), three pledges must tell a scary story each. Seem familiar yet?

The first story involves an evil doll, the second a creepy castle in Transsylvania and in the third, three babysitters (ok, they're not actually babysitters, but they might as well be to make the cliché complete) get creepy phone calls.

This is far from the worst film I've seen (that honour still belongs to Unearthed), and sadly, it is not so-bad-it's-good either. Overall, I think it deserves a 3/10, because it did manage to hold my attention till the end and because it did give me a chuckle or two. However, it must be said, it is not even remotely scary. Nor is it sexy. Apparently, there is 1 blink-and-you'll-miss-it topless scene, but I blinked, so I missed it.
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2/10
The Telling
Scarecrow-8813 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Three college girls must endure the insults and heresy of the sisters of Omega Kappa Kappa if they wish to become members, and are ordered to tell scary stories as a means of possibly being accepted. The first tale concerns Lily(Rebekah Kochan), who is being driven crazy by a creepy doll her lover found in the trash. The doll wants Lily's man all too itself, and his ex-girlfriend, Sarah(Kimshellet Garner), who is currently living with them until she can find a place to stay, is also in danger of falling prey to the doll. The second tale concerns a down-on-her-luck thirty-something actress, Eva DeMarco(Bridget Marquardt), who accepts a part in a European horror film, "The Crimson Echo", and learns that taking a part for the paycheck isn't always a good idea. The third tale concerns three girls who are besieged in their apartment by a killer they hear murder a guy over the phone while prank calling the victim. The wraparound story has a twist which concerns the suicide of a college girl named Briana who took her life after the sorority sisters rejected her desire to become a member of the Omega Kappa Kappa. This snoozefest has nothing to offer except pretty girls swearing and a climax where we see the bitchy sorority sisters get their comeuppance. The violence is tame; the film offers some minor titillation. None of the tales are exactly earth-shattering(..rather clichéd and uninspired), except maybe for the second story with a quote from a director with a Bela Lugosi accent, "The undead need their entertainment, too." Hugh Hefner's former squeeze, Holly Madison, is given star treatment, that in itself spells doom for this horror yawner. Each and every tale is predictable and by-the-numbers, even the twist which is satisfying because of those getting their just desserts(..pun intended).
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3/10
Waste of Time
gavin694218 June 2013
In this horror anthology film, three girls pledge the most popular -- and cruelest -- sorority on campus. For their final task, they must tell the scariest story they know. Containing three distinct stories -- one featuring a murderous doll, one a has-been actress and her run in with a film crew of the undead and, finally, a hunt-and-kill fright-fest.

There is really nothing to say about this one. I do not know the history, but based on what I was able to determine, this was more or less an excuse to get Playboy models to appear in a movie. And, you know, I guess if that is all they wanted to do, it worked.

Now, if they wanted to be in a good movie, they failed. We have a very poor version of the Twilight Zone's "Living Doll" episode. There is a decent second segment but it is pulled off terribly. And after that... well, ugh.
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A lot of gratuitous non-nudity from a cast of Playboy "actresses"
lazarillo17 March 2010
I once had a plumbing contractor who was in a band on the side and wanted to play at my wedding. It didn't work out for reasons I don't remember, but it was possible his band was really good. Still, this had NOTHING to do with his skills as a plumber. I'd say the same thing about Playboy Playmates who want to be actresses. Some of them are very good at it (two of my favorite 70's exploitation actresses were ex-Playmates-of-the-Year Claudia Jennings and Victoria Vetri). But there is NO connection between having a nice body (and being willing to show it off) and genuine acting talent--as the entire cast of this movie (pretty much all Playboy Playmates) amply demonstrates.

If this portmanteau horror movie DID NOT have an entire cast of ridiculously hot "actresses" (all culled from the pages of Playboy), it frankly wouldn't have been made at all because it's shot on video and has three incredibly lame stories and an incredibly lame frame story where sexy sorority pledges are telling "scary" stories to their sexy older sorority sisters. Strangely, there's very little nudity in this, but that wouldn't matter if the movie was any damn good at all. What's really annoying is the gratuitous NON-nudity--i.e. a sex scene, a bathtub scene, a shower scene that are all completely irrelevant to the plot, but still show nary a nipple! It's like these girls think NOT taking their clothes off, but relentlessly teasing the male audience is going to somehow make them respectable or talented actresses.

It's kind of like if my plumber had played at my wedding, and not only was his band very bad, but he then refused to finish the plumbing job (what he obviously does best), so I'd somehow take him seriously as a musician. No offense, but ridiculously hot Playboy Playmates generally need to stick to Playboy pictorials (or at least softcore porn films where the acting just doesn't matter) and leave the horror films to people who know what they're doing.
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1/10
No scares, no nudity, no acting, no NOTHING!
preppy-314 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Dreadful "horror" film of a bunch of vicious, cruel sorority sisters (right out of Cliché City) who force three pledges to tell horror stories to get into their group. One story deals with an evil doll that (for no good reason) kills people. The second is shot in black and white and deals with the undead. The third has three lousy actresses swearing nonstop and accidentally hearing a murder over the phone...and are sure that the murderer knows where they live.

Every single story here is so predictable it's laughable. Within a few minutes you know how it's going to end. Even the framing story was familiar! The acting was downright atrocious. All of the women are beautiful but just horrible actresses. They look blankly at the camera and recite their lines. That's NOT acting. So you figure there might be some nudity or blood. WRONG! Except for some very mild and brief nudity in the second story all the girls remain fully clothed. As for blood or violence--there is some blood in the first story but it's SO fake it's more funny than scary. So let's sum this up: Predictable stories, terrible acting, no nudity, no violence. Really--what audience were they aiming for here? You can safely skip this one. A 1 all the way.
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1/10
Seriously...
martinsteph793 May 2010
Here it goes, after I heard about our local movie store was closing I decided to go and buy movies because they were 50% - 70% off the original price. This movie was one of the many movies I bought, I really didn't have much to do today so I watched it.....it sucked! I feel really bad to say that because I really like Bridget and Holly. I'm also a huge fan of "The Girls Next Door"and that's another reason why I picked this movie up. The acting was cheesy, the production was lame and the film quality was crappy! This is a movie that is going to never be played again and just sit in my movie cabinet. Save your money and brain cells.
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1/10
Not so great...
ifuseekkody30 April 2010
I was very excited to get this movie; however, this movie was really bad. I feel really bad to say that because I really like Bridget and Holly. They were both great. Nevertheless, the rest of the actors were very cheesy.

There is a live and enthusiastic market for most anything associated with the The Girls Next Door. This is rightfully so even as the series winds down and each of the women go their individual ways. The series had a little something for everybody; each of the girls were charming and sexy in their individual ways; Hugh Hefner did a good job in his role in front of the camera and it would appear that he made a number of good decisions behind the camera; the whole Girls Next Door project had a fair degree of excellence as an entertainment vehicle. Just as a last observation on Girls Next Door, I will say that for those who were seeking some mild, light hearted titillation, it had its moments of genuine sexiness, delivered at a level of quality that only Playboy can do.

Anyone agreeing with the above would like to see The Telling succeed, if for no other reason than Holly & Bridget are not only in it but apparently Bridget was involved as a producer. You have the sense from the Behind the Scenses portion that Bridget in particular put a lot of work in this video. I don't doubt that; she routinely comes across as a hard working, sincere and focused lady.

So, what about The Telling. Let me just say that it's nice to see Bridget and Holly again; however, this video is not a top flight vehicle for them, and a number of buyers will be somewhat disappointed. As for sexual titillation, don't worry yourself about that; there essentially is none. Bridget & Holly look good, but you'll see more sex watching Fox News. As for a gripping horror story with professional acting, it's going to be pretty thin for a number of folks. Real GND fans are still going to buy this video, and if anything the end of the show Behind the Scenes 15 to 20 minutes will be the most interesting part. Bridget and Holly are both individually interviewed in this section. Bridget admits that her time as one of Hef's girlfriends as well as her residence in the Playboy mansion are winding down, and that she will be an upcoming moderator to some extent on the Travel Channel. I suspect that this will be a much more successful vehicle for her.
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1/10
With all that "Talent" ...
boynascar3 May 2013
With all the great actors in the movie, how could it had turned out so bad ?...lol... The Only thing great about the movie is the Playboy bunnies and breast shots !... That's it... Nothing else left to say....... Pass it up unless you want to be bored to death for 80 minutes... Not only is it bad, but the direction, production, sound, and script is AWFUL at best. They stole good ideas from other movies and made them cheap. They didn't even do a good job at editing either, if they would have, the movie would have been about 5 minutes long. Guess that's why there were so many good movie references.... As at as being a "Horror" movie, not even close. The only time I was scared was when I found out my wife had noticed that I watched it, that was scary. It took my 5 days to explain why I sat thru more then 10 minutes of this crap.
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1/10
Bad on acting, screenplay, music; strong on cleavage.
suite9216 February 2014
Warning: Spoilers
There is a bit of a grisly segment where a sorority girl is killed. We flash forward one year to an induction sequence at the same sorority. Three pledges get the challenge to tell the scariest story that they know. So the film anthology has its overarching context ("Sorority Sisters").

Story 1 (Dollface): A man and his girlfriend have a woman house guest for a couple of weeks. The man finds an antique doll in a dumpster. The doll is possessed, supposedly, and engineers the deaths of the two women, and manages to get the man blamed for it.

Story 2 (Crimson Echo): A fading star gets fewer and fewer parts until she gets none when she's over thirty. Out of the blue, she gets a gig in Europe. She's desperate enough to take it. She's drugged and prepped. Then she meets her crew, who are all undead. What becomes of her?

Story 3 (Prank Call): Three young women go out to catch a horror fest, but did not get tickets first. They return home with the hope that the cable guy is done. They get into telephone pranks; things go downhill from there.

After the three stories are finished, the sorority rejects all three of the pledges. One of the pledges is the sister of the girl in the first sequence. Guess what happens next.

-----Scores-------

Cinematography: 7/10 Reasonably good.

Sound: 5/10 Also reasonably good. Some of the incidental music was rather enjoyable, but I could not figure out what it had to do with the film.

Acting: 0/10 John D'Aquino was the only one I recognized as an actor. The rest were uniformly terrible.

Screenplay: 0/10 Oi, as bad as the acting. Well, perhaps worse: nothing new, nothing scary, nothing remotely believable.
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2/10
HORROR-ible
Ed-Shullivan26 February 2023
What a waste of time this so called Horror/Thriller/Mystery was. The film is about some Mean Girls sorority sisters inviting some potential new innocent and shy pledges to each tell the stuck up holier than thou sorority sisters their scariest story. Of course the new pledges were also expected to bring gifts to the stuck up sorority sisters to influence them to invite them in to their stuck up sorority.

As each new pledge got their chance to tell the sorority sisters about their individual scariest encounter and as their scary story was re-enacted we the viewers were left wondering what the heck is their point?

There were three (3) pledges who each told their supposedly scariest story and as hard as I tried I found myself wandering off to my fridge and/or to search IMDb for something else to watch because this film had no redeeming value or interest.

I give the film a very poorly rated 2 out of 10 IMDb rating. I cannot recommend anyone waste their time watching this amateurish so called Horror/Thriller/Mystery film.
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4/10
This sorority killed her.
lastliberal13 March 2010
Maybe the horror has to take a second seat to hot babes. In fact, the greatest horror is what we didn't see during the first episode of this anthology.

This film was shot at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, and stars Holly Madison ("The Girls Next Door", "Dancing With The Stars"); Nicole Zeoli, Christina Iannuzzi, and Ashley Noel (all also in "The Girls Next Door"); and Sara Jean Underwood (Playmate of the Year 2007).

The second episode was a little better, featuring the undead. The last was routine, but it set up the ending.

Any horror buff will guess what happens next, but it was still good.
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10/10
Great film!
te-137-4045834 February 2022
It's impossible to describe why this is the best horror film I've seen this year, but it is. I highly recommend it, you can't go wrong. Spent a rainy evening watching this!
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6/10
Girls Next Door Fans
brooke-hyaatt27 December 2011
Unfortunately, the film was hard to get hold of here in Australia but I eventually found it online. If you're a girls next door (girls of the playboy mansion) fan, (which i am) and saw the episodes when they were filming the movie, you will enjoy watching it and seeing how Bridget's project came together. The acting was pretty dismal and the plot wasn't great, lots of naked hot girls though. Bridget gets her clothes off as well as a couple of other random actors. Unless you watch GND none of the actors / actresses will be familiar, and only 3 of the girls in the movie are from playboy. If you are looking for a horror / thriller, I wouldn't suggest it. Its not very scary or jumpy.
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3/10
Playboy Still Exists?
bemyfriend-4018427 April 2021
I thought they were porn actresses on a side project, ala Andy Sidaris. Other reviewers inform us that these are Playboy bunnies. I thought Playboy disappeared, when the internet appeared. But that aside, it's a bad movie. I gave it three stars; because the women are beautiful. Seen on Tubi, the free streaming site.
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7/10
Needs work, but overall not as bad as expected
Gathered together for Sorority Rush, potential pledges are brought together for the final initiation rites, their telling of a scary story.

The Good Stor(ies): Doll Fear-Living together in New England, a woman isn't particularly pleased with her boyfriend inviting ex-girlfriend to live with them, until he gives her an antique doll as a peace offering. Growing impatient over the situation every day, she gradually comes to think that the doll is alive and after her, which no one in the house believes. As a series of weird incidents around her force her to believe that the doll is alive, she eventually discovers the truth and tries to stop its murderous antics. This was an incredibly enjoyable and entertaining entry, with a lot of really great stuff about it. One of the best things it does is the build-up with the doll being alive. From the different sayings in different situations, him waking up with the doll despite being placed in another location beforehand, as well as the best set-up, watching them have sex and giggling while doing so, followed up by the encounter on the stove afterward which really works well. All of these make the jealousy angle all the more fun and creepy, and once it moves into the final stalking, there's even more fun. The off-screen clattering and giggling set-up the slashing perfectly, the trail of bloody footprints is chilling, and the final resolution is really good. There's only one flaw in this, the fact that it's a pretty clichéd story and pretty much goes right where it's expected to without really offering anything surprising, but it's not a detrimental flaw at all.

Prank Call-As their plans are canceled, friends stay home and decide to play a couple of prank phone calls, only for them to accidentally hear a murder over the phone during one of their calls. Understandably freaked out when they start receiving numerous threatening phone calls tormenting them about what they did, and their suspicions eventually get the better of them, they find that the killer may have found them. This is the most middle-ground of the stories. This here gets the tension of the situation really nicely, with the prank phone calls as well as the act heard over the phone which is quite creepy, followed up by the killer's call knowing of them with no knowledge beforehand. The police investigation segments are perfectly in keeping with that approach, and the first murder is really surprising. The stalking throughout the house is also pretty thrilling, especially the second one with the shadowy figure on the wall. These are all melded together nicely to make for a great premise, despite the execution somewhat lacking as the fact remains, however, that this is incredibly short and really could've done more to expand its stalking parts. There isn't enough to really play with all its' capable of and really should've used a few extra minutes into its stalking moments to actually get going nicely, as well as actually showcase its murders on-screen with some gore, which would've been helpful. However, it's still really good.

The Bad Stor(ies): Crimson Echo-Fallen on hard times, an actress agrees to meet with an eclectic director on a new movie and goes to his house for preparation of the film. As he begins to explain the concept of the film, she grows incredibly uncomfortable with what's asked of her, until she learns the truth about the movie and what they demand of her. This one is really problematic, as it's such a potentially-entertaining segment. Easily the most chilling part of this, and the film as a whole, is the dinner party, from the silence from the guests as they sit around the table to the intense lecture given that goes well with the upcoming tension and growing concern over where it's heading, which works nicely. There's also the rather creepy masks worn as well as the abduction part at the end, along with the rather disorienting dream sequence that is highly erotic and trippy. There's some work to be done, though, in that the most disturbing segment, the showing of the war footage to really throw her off, is marred by the lame song played over the scene, not even showing it but just her reaction which really ruins the impact it's supposed to have as well as being utterly inappropriate for the situation. There's also the fact that, almost immediately afterward, one of the listeners aptly describes the entire segment as being weird over scary, since it's low on scares and tends to get by on its rather hypnotic look and feel to generate scares, and as well as ruining the dinner party scene, the abduction at the end and eventual torture is seen in such mild flashbacks and cuts that it's impossible to determine what happened to her or why it should be something to fear, and instead the end is just her acting like one of them without any explanation why, greatly ruining the power it should've had and altogether ruining the entire segment.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence and Nudity.
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