Anyone remember the 1980s-era Stephen King movie, Cat’s Eye? Or his other movie of similar concept, Creepshow? They were collections of King’s short fiction, several stories that, in and of themselves, were not long enough to sustain a movie, but were collected together to become feature-length. Trapped Ashes is similar to those films, though inspired by even earlier horror anthology movies.

The film is a collection of five tales, each directed separately by different directors, including Sean S. Cunningham of Friday the 13th fame and Joe Dante, who cut his teeth on Gremlins as well as some earlier and more recent stuff, as well as three other directors who aren’t as recognizable, Ken Russell, Monte Hellman and John Gaeta.

Unlike Saw, Hostel and much of the other torture-centric muck that seems to dominate the horror market these days, Trapped Ashes is a throwback to EC Comics and Stephen King-style horror with a sly morality tale slipped into the gross-out goodness.

The cast, largely a group of unknowns, is headlined by character actor Henry Gibson as “the Tour Guide,” who is probably best known for his recent work on ABC’s Boston Legal as Judge Clark Brown. The friendly, impish man plays a studio backlot tour guide who leads our main cast into an old movie set that looks like something out of Psycho, and warns them that if they enter the house, “all the effects are real,” which means they become trapped inside until they share their personal tales of horror.

It’s a somewhat clever, somewhat cornball wrapper around the four main short subjects submitted by the other directors, and credit for it goes to Joe Dante. Surprisingly, the most effective tale – at least in my opinion – comes not from Cunningham, but Russell, whose segment “The Girl with the Golden Breasts” is a sly morality tale on fame and vanity in Hollywood, filled with gross-out moments, nudity and sexual content; it’s the most adult piece in this fairly adult-themed movie.

“Jibaku” is Cunningham’s contribution to the pastiche, and in the 20-plus minutes he’s given, proves he can handle human emotions on film a bit better than he did back when he was filming the first few Friday the 13th slasher flicks, notorious for dehumanizing the victims so much that only Jason was left as a sympathetic character. It is a cautionary tale of temptation and lust.

“Stanley’s Girlfriend” is a very predictable, paint-by-numbers tale that warns of the dangers of betraying a friend, and is probably the least-inspired story in the collection, courtesy of Hellman. “My Twin, The Worm” is a disturbing tale of infidelity and pregnancy that lacks a clear moral core and seems the tale most affected by the brevity in which the tale is told.

While Trapped Ashes made its cinematic run in 2006, it is on sale now on DVD and although uneven, makes for a half-decent popcorn movie for adults. However, due to a fair amount of sexuality and nudity, it’s not for the 17 and under crowd.