Review:  Horror-story quintet dovetails but fails to take flight

The tepid anthology “Southbound” features a dovetailing quintet of horror tales connected by their spooky location: a remote desert highway where all kinds of evil — human and otherwise — inexplicably lurk. For all its gore and violence, stabs at tension and nightmarish intrigue, the film proves a slow-going, largely unsatisfying ride.

Here’s the story breakdown: “The Way Out” finds a pair of bloodied guys on the run and stalked by weird monsters; “Siren” involves a stranded girl-band taken in by a mystery-meat eating cult; in “Accident,” an average Joe must perform emergency surgery on a woman he hits with his car; “Jailbreak” proves the sibling reunion from hell; and “The Way In” follows a home invasion that ends with an unforeseen narrative twist.

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Only “Accident” jumps out of the pack, but it includes such ghastly business it may be tough for some viewers to stomach.

Writers and directors, with horror film credits including “V/H/S,” “The Signal,” “Under the Bed” and “The Devil’s Candy” on their resumes, display varying levels of ambition and innovation as they craft the movie’s successive chapters. Special effects are decent, but performances by the low-wattage cast are uneven, with “Accident’s” Mather Zickel the clear standout.

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‘Southbound’

No MPAA rating

Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Playing: Arena Cinema, Hollywood. Also on VOD starting Feb. 9.