I’m a sucker for a good anthology film. Give me a variety of scares with different monsters or directors. I don’t care. Fill it with gory effects, makeup, and strangeness, and count me in. I will admit to knowing nothing about The 100 Candles Game when the sequel, The Last Possession, was offered for review, but it didn’t take much for me to want to know more about the series. The premise that forms the connective story in these anthologies is fun and simple, as a group of good-looking people light one hundred candles and blow each of them out in front of a mirror after telling a scary story. But things start to get weirder and weirder after every tale told, and the only way out is to finish the game… Like Jumanji with ghosts!

The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession doesn’t exactly build off its predecessor, though it does start with a possessed woman eating bugs, making a retched pie, and finding a book that looks as if it belongs to Dipper Pines. So, if you’re diving into the series with this entry, you may think you’ve missed something. I assure you, you haven’t. It’s just The Last Possession getting underway with a formidable opening titled “Arcana,” written and directed by Jerónimo Rocha. The segment hits all the aforementioned bases necessary to pull you into the movie in record time. What’s somewhat conspicuous about both films’ setups is how “Midnight Society” it feels. Like an R-Rated Are You Afraid of the Dark?, entries are being served buffet style, and it is undoubtedly an enjoyable and nostalgic sentiment working in these movies’ favor.

However, many of my issues with both 100 Candles Game movies stem from the connective tissue segments. The Last Possession particularly has some eye-rolling moments, with try-hard influencer Dylan’s (Nacho Francavilla) incessant commentary and stomach-turning dialogue choices. While some of the acting during these segments can be slightly stiff or a bit on the raw side, I believe Dylan is actually written to be this unlikeable. Influencers are almost always written two-dimensionally, which is genuinely my least favorite modern horror trope.

As The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession introduces individual stories, it puts its most compelling right at the start. Still, “Arcana” feels a little incomplete, but it looks great and fuels viewer optimism for the remaining film segments. Though the wraparound story may slow things down slightly, “The Fortune Teller” revs the film up again. The segment features McKaley Miller (Ma, You’re Killing Me) as a babysitter who does some origami on the wrong newspaper clipping for Conjure’s Leilene Stewart and leads to a frightening display of practical effects that only makes me wish there were more of this swift but captivating story.

“Five Minutes” is the next segment, where a zombie infection has a measurable time frame. House of the Dragon‘s Kieran Bew plays a father protecting his daughter (Hannah Chinn) from the apocalyptic outbreak when an exposed wound turns into a tense and emotionally affecting game of memory. Again, I think we arrive at a slightly incomplete short that’s perhaps missing bits in this edit, as it hopes to provide a more affecting story. But it’s the last segment before The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession begins to slide through stories that become less impactful. While I’ve argued for more from this and previous segments in both films, the following short has the opposite problem.

Arie Socorro’s “Let Her Go” is the longest story told within The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession, and it just doesn’t land. The inconsistent segment length, going from two brief, five-minute-or-less shorts to this fourteen-minute atmosphere-driven piece, definitely affects the film’s pacing. Plus, this story of a honeymooning couple being continuously interrupted is defined only by its ending and some noticeable ADR work that detracts from the mood it’s striving to enrapture the audience in.

Unfortunately, the segment that follows, Andrés Borghi’s “Behind the Door,” about a daughter raising the spirit of her dead father to ask him a favor, suffers similarly. When it comes to subtitles versus poor dubbing, I will side with subtitles every time. And while I understand that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, poor translation or voice attenuation can negatively affect any scene’s acting and tone. Luckily, The Last Possession is only about seventy-six minutes long, which brings us to our final segment: Ryan Graff’s “Black Moon.”

As a last tale, “Black Moon” has a vibe that will hit some better than others. From a reviewer’s standpoint, it isn’t anything that hasn’t been seen before. If you’ve seen Mike Flannagan’s Absentia, Danny Dunlop’s Wolves, or even the recent Listen Carefully by Ryan Barton-Grimley, you’ll find similar scenes recounting horror stories in walking path tunnels. This liminal space makes us uneasy, but “Black Moon” doesn’t present anything more shocking than any of the other films I’ve mentioned with similar scenes. I understand what Graff’s segment is going for, but it ends The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession stories on a bland note before moving back to the generic wraparound tale, which regains none of the film’s footing for a better movie experience.

I watched The 100 Candles Game: The Last Possession right after watching the first entry in this series (Currently free on Prime Video). The first film is a stronger anthology, though it isn’t free from the similar wraparound issues its sequel carries. I appreciate what the film is trying to do and have enjoyed many segments throughout both films that I probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Horror fans who love anthologies or hunt for diamonds in the rough will be pulled into these films. And though they’re not without their issues, there is some fun to be seen in the special effects and makeup presented. If you enjoyed the first entry, you’ll probably see something in this new collection to enjoy as well. Just remember where the bar has been set.