Just when I thought there weren't enough creepy things hiding in nightmares, closets and black outs, Phobias comes along to give me the creeps! Phobias is an SOV flick that features two short films by Robert J. Massett. It's a fun look at what your dreams may really mean and the true meaning of love eternal.

In When Shadows Lie Darkest, Frank (Jon Fish) is plagued by violent nightmares. The nightmares seem to start when his marriage begins to get rocky. He only sees his wife when she needs money for her next fix. The dreams are starting to take over his life and he's no longer able to tell the difference between reality and the blood soaked world his nightmares have dumped him into. What can it all mean? Is his real life the one in which he misses his wife and suffers through his bad dreams or are his nightmares his true reality? A reality where the people who hurt him pay the ultimate price.

In our second story, Blackout, Sarah (Katharine Leis) is married to an out of work, abusive alcoholic. She would love to escape the brute but he promises her she'll never be rid of him; not even death would part them. During a black out, Sarah tries to leave and in self-defense, ends up killing her husband. The police find her covered with blood and unable to remember what happened during the black out. She's a little bruised up and the police figure it was indeed an act of self defense.

As Sarah tries to put her life back together, she meets Derrick (Jon Fish). Derrick has a nasty habit of playing mean and sometimes scary practical jokes. He tells Sarah she can stay with him being that her roommate needs her place to herself that weekend. Sarah accepts Derricks offer but starts to have second thoughts when weird things start to happen. Is Derrick playing games or could it be that history is about to repeat itself?

I really enjoyed these two stories. The plot lines were a little predictable in places but it was still a lot of fun. The movies did have a surprise or two waiting for me and I can always appreciate that. Both movies were relatively short and things moved at a real comfortable pace. They didn't drag on the way some movies do when they try to make a short story fill more than their true allotted time.

I felt the special effects worked really well within the stories. There wasn't anything overly flashy but there was a decent amount of blood and they managed to keep everything looking fairly realistic. There were a few camera tricks they used for some of the dream sequences but again, it's wasn't too over the top.

Special Features include: Commentary, Bloopers and Behind the scenes. The audio was pretty decent staying clear and legible throughout. Both shorts had a heavy metal soundtrack by bands Death Becomes You and Deadstar Assembly. The first story was presented in Full Frame, while the second one was presented in a matted widescreen. In both stories the picture stayed fairly clear. There were one or two spots where the picture was a little dark and hard to see but it didn't really detract from the onscreen action. It never got so bad that you couldn't make out what was going on.

This movie had heart and that often makes up for the lack of a huge budget, in my humble opinion. Bottom line is that these were good stories with a bit of a psychological twist, I think they're definitely worth a look.