Popcorn Frights 2026 Coverage
If It Bleeds review
Familiar faces and a worthwhile framing story make for a fun anthology.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
If It Bleeds
Directed by Matthew Hersh
Written by Matthew Hersh
Starring Catherine Corcoran, Dee Wallace, Doug Jones, Krsy Fox, John Kassir, Bonnie Aarons, Khleo Thomas, Gigi Gustin and Kirby Bliss Blanton
If It Bleeds Review
We usually review horror anthologies with a ranking of the segments from worst to best…but we’re not going to do that with If It Bleeds. First of all, it’s all from one director so the variance in quality of the movie’s parts isn’t really there. Second…If It Bleeds pulls off the rare feat of making its wraparound story both good and integral to the plot of the anthology. Most of the time these things are just throwaway excuses to contain the short stories within the movie…but If It Bleeds uses its framing device to make its anthology feel less like stitched together parts and more like a singular narrative. Kudos for that. Anyone who’s read an anthology review on this site knows how often I find them meaningless and disappointing.
Pop culture has turned the phrase “if it bleeds” into the setup for one of the best lines in Predator…but it’s also the first part of a saying in the news business. If it bleeds, it leads is the direction If It Bleeds takes with its title. Reporter Diane Winters (Catherine Corcoran) is desperate to make her name in the business. That means dragging her cameraman (Justin Miles) around town to various violent and seemingly supernatural crime scenes. If It Bleeds tells the stories behind three of these scenes with Diane in hot pursuit throughout.
The three chapters are, again, of similar quality. They’re all fun and well made. Familiar faces pop up throughout If It Bleeds which you can see represented in the cast list above. The best thing about the setup is that the movie gets stronger as it goes. While all the segments are good…the concepts of the scenes get a bit wilder from stop to stop. Anthologies tend to be up and down…or run out of steam altogether. If It Bleeds gathers momentum as its bloody night rolls on.
The first segment is a very supernatural occurrence at a séance. There’s possession, occult stuff, mirror fun…things go pretty off the rails in a good way very quickly. It’s followed up by a crime scene that appears to be the handiwork of a killer doll. Yeah…If It Bleeds has fun with its concepts. A band receives a strange package that unleashes a killer doll. It’s what we all go to the movies for, isn’t it? The final segment sees a struggling actress head to a plastic surgeon at the behest of her manager. The doctor is played by Doug Jones of Hellraiser fame. Let’s just say it doesn’t work out.
All three segments are bloody and fun. It keeps the movie flowing at a brisk pace. Even with just four segments (including the framing story), If It Bleeds never overstays its welcome. A lot of anthologies with shorter pieces fail to say the same. It really helps that Diane Winters’ wraparound story matches the quality of the components within it. Too many movies like this just drop in entertainment for a few minutes between short stories. If It Bleeds feels like a fully fleshed out character piece with bonus horror stories packed into it. That’s a tough thing for anthologies to pull off.
Even the ultimate payoff of the movie works out. You weren’t just wasting time in the framing story explaining why these segments are connected…If It Bleeds is cleverly designed to work as a movie even if those segments didn’t deliver. But they all do. Which is why If It Bleeds is a horror anthology worth keeping an eye out for. Especially if you like killer dolls, body horror or supernatural spookiness. It’s not quite “something for everyone”…but it is something for most.
Scare Value
I can’t really think of any complaints about If It Bleeds. Not that I start reviews trying to think of things to complain about. But it’s rare to find anthologies that don’t have those pesky down periods where you wait for things to pick up again. If It Bleeds solves the framing story issue that plagues so many of these movies and shows how cohesive an anthology can be when that aspect of the movie isn’t treated like an afterthought. Performances are strong across the board. There are some fun effects at play. A killer doll runs amok. What more could you want in a horror anthology?
