A 2010 horror Anthology Film featuring George Romero presenting three horror stories.
In "The Gorge", A girl, her fiance, and his best friend get caught in a mountain cave-in. And get hungry. Very hungry. In "On Sabbath Hill", a professor who is a stickler for attendance breaks off an affair with a student, and then discovers that even death will not keep her from attending his class. And in "Dust", a security guard at a high-tech lab steals dust from Mars to cure his terminally ill wife. But, if it can cure cancer, what else can it do?
Tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg: In "The Gorge", Gary's leg is shattered in the rockfall that traps them in the cave. After it goes gangrenous, Donna and Craig are forced to amputate it.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: In "Dust", George intends to use the Martian dust to cure his wife's cancer. In reality, Martian dust is rich in hexavalent chromium, which is extremely carcinogenic (and would thus have the exact opposite effect).
- Bound and Gagged: In "The Gorge", Craig wakes in hospital to find himself gagged and bound hand and foot to his bed with surgical tape as Donna advances on him holding a fork and a scalpel.
- Dead Man's Chest: In "Dust", after George kills Dr. Flesch, he and Audrey hide the body in their chest deep freezer.
- Double-Meaning Title: "The Gorge". Gorge can mean a ravine, like the one where the spelunkers were trapped, or to glut oneself with food, like Donna does after developing an insatiable craving for human flesh.
- Dressing to Die: In "On Sabbath Hill", Allison very carefully does her hair, puts on her favourite earrings and perfume, and dons a sexy low-cut green dress before blowing her brains out in the middle of Professor Weaver's classroom.
- Driven to Suicide: After being rejected by Professor Weaver after telling him she was pregnant in "On Sabbath Hill", Allison commits suicide in the middle of his class. Later, her Vengeful Ghost drives Weaver to do exactly the same thing.
- Dying Candle: In "The Gorge", the slowly diminishing candles from the emergency kits the trapped spelunkers are using for light mark how how their time is slowly running out.
- Eye Scream: In "Dust", George hits Dr. Flesch in the face hard enough with something (possibly a taser) to kill him and knock his eyeball out.
- Green Rocks: The eponymous Martian dust in "Dust" can cure cancer, bring people back from the dead, and imbue people with an insatiable libido. Who knows what over properties it may possess?
- Heal It With Fire: In "The Gorge", after they amputate Gary's leg with an ice axe, Craig cauterizes the stump with a flare.
- I Am a Humanitarian: In "The Gorge", Donna and Craig eat Gary's leg after they amputate it. Driven crazy by hungry, they then go on to devour Gary. And, after they are rescued, Donna finds her self still compelled to consume human flesh.
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: The full title is George A. Romero Presents Deadtime Stories: Volume 2, although Romero is the executive producer and presenter, not the writer.
- Meaningful Name: In "The Gorge''—a story about survival cannibalism—it is probably no coincidence that Donna's name is a homophone for Donner, the leader of the most infamous case of survival cannibalism in US history.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: In "The Gorge", three cavers are trapped by a cave-in. One of them, Gary, has his leg badly mangled in by a falling rock. Nearly a month into their ordeal, they are reduced to eating hibernating bats to stay alive. Gary's leg goes gangrenous and Donna and Craig are forced to amputate it. Donna and Craig then eat the leg. The taste of the flesh drives then crazy with hunger, and they kill Gary and devour him. This keeps them alive long enough for rescue to arrive.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: If you know the legends, then it is apparent that Donna is turning into a Wendigo at the end of "The Gorge", but the word itself is never used.
- Pink Mist: In "On Sabbath Hill", Allison commits suicide by blowing her brains out in the middle of Professor Weaver's classroom. The shot showers her classmates in blood and brains, and even sprays Professor Weaver, who is at the front of the class, with a fine pink mist of blood.
- Powerful Pick: By the end of "The Gorge", Donna has started stalking tour groups in the cave system and killing them with a geologist's hammer.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: In "The Gorge", the spelunkers have been trapped in the cave for weeks and have exhausted their food supply. They are reduced to eating raw bats to survive.
- Roadside Surgery: In "The Gorge", three spelunkers are trapped in a cave by a cave-in. Gary's leg is injured and eventually goes gangrenous and Donna and Craig are forced to amputate it: without anaesthetic and using the only viable tool they have for the job, an ice axe. Craig hold Gary still while Donna hacks the leg off with the axe.
- Sadist Teacher: In "On Sabbath Hill", Professor Weaver is an arrogant and egomaniacal lecturer who does not allow absences from his classes. If a student misses one of his classes, he forces them to withdraw from his course to keep his perfect attendance record intact. This insistence on students attending his class no matter what will come back to haunt him a very literal fashion.
- Stealing from the Till: In "Dust", George learns that the Martian dust might destroy cancer cells, he immediately steals a sample to test on his wife.
- Teacher/Student Romance: In "On Sabbath Hill", Professor Weaver and his student Allison are having an affair, which he terminates when she tells him she is pregnant.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky: In "The Gorge", three spelunkers are trapped in a cave. More than a week into their ordeal, they find Gary's backpack which had been buried in the rockfall, and wolf down the bananas and sandwiches from inside; even though they are going mouldy. Later, they are reduced to eating hibernating bats to survive.
- Vengeful Ghost: After being Driven to Suicide in "On Sabbath Hill", Allison returns as ghost to take revenge on Professor Weaver.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In "The Gorge", Donna visibly vomits in the toilet at the hospital after trying to eat normal food and failing.
- Wendigo: At the end of "The Gorge", Donna is transforming into one: even though the word 'wendigo' isn't mentioned. Trapped in a cave-in, she eats her injured fiance to survive. After being rescued, she discovers she has an insatiable craving for human flesh. In the last scene of the segment, she is physically transformed into a more monstrous form, and is stalking tourists in the cave system where she was trapped.
- Womb Horror: In "On Sabbath Hill", Professor Weaver's pregnant mistress is Driven to Suicide when he callously abandons her. Afterwards, he is haunted by her Vengeful Ghost, who looks like a decaying corpse. Eventually, he sees her rotting body give birth to their monstrous child.
