Anthologies can showcase up-and-coming talent (The ABCs of Death, V/H/S), allow a more established creator to approach a theme from several angles or drop in and out of different lives in their imaginary worlds (Coffee and Cigarettes, The French Dispatch), or encourage experienced filmmakers to have fun with different styles and techniques such as in the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The appeal of a series of shorts in quick succession never seems to go away, as we can see from the following list of 11 superb examples.

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Wild Tales

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Image Via Warner Bros. Pictures

One of the most invigorating, inventive anthology films in recent years, Wild Tales is that rare beast: a series of shorts that does not flag despite frequent shifts in tone and pacing. These six dark, funny, violent stories open with a quick skit where the passengers of a commercial flight gradually realize they are all sets in a Venn Diagram and the common denominator is a bleak punchline. From there on out we have murders, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, greedy rich folk, toxic masculinity, a wronged bride, and all manner of less-than-savory characters taking out their anger with the modern world on one another.

BEST SECTION? Whilst there are more subtle and clever stories to come, the third entry "El más fuerte" is pure cinema. Starting out as a Spanish-language Duel, the protagonist and antagonist (which is which becomes increasingly blurry) take a more hands-on approach to settling their differences in a tour-de-force of blind machismo and high-tension filmmaking.

V/H/S/2

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V/H/S/2 beats out any of the other entries in the entertaining V/H/S series of found footage horror anthologies because of its stand-out section, "Safe Haven." It is an improvement on the original, zipping along with plenty of great ideas and gore-aplenty. "A Ride in the Park" – a zombie film captured by a cyclist’s Go-Pro – is a good example of the sort of simple idea executed with panache, and would be the stand-out in any other horror collection.

BEST SECTION? "Safe Haven" ensures V/H/S/2’s position as a must-watch shocker. Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Edwards’ twisted nightmare is best watched with as little forewarning as possible, so we will simply say a documentary crew goes to interview a religious cult…

Creepshow

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Horror legends George Romero and Stephen King united for this homage to EC comics (of Tales From the Crypt fame). It’s a deliberately comic-book, colorful compendium featuring great make-up effects by Tom Savini, most memorably involving cockroaches emerging from human flesh. Viewers expecting the extremes of King and especially Romero’s other works may be disappointed, but anyone who can appreciate the stylized tone will find much to enjoy in this 80s cult classic.

BEST SECTION? It has to be the truly cruel "Something to Tide You Over," in which Leslie Nielsen plays a businessman seeking revenge having learned of his wife’s affair. Ted Danson is the man held responsible and the method of retribution requires a beach, a deep hole, and the slowly encroaching tide.

Four Rooms

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Image Via Miramax Films

It may not be to the standard of Pulp Fiction (but then, how many movies are?) but the much-maligned Four Rooms is better than its reputation would suggest, and possibly suffered upon release due to critics keen to bash golden-boy Quentin Tarantino and his co-director friends (Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, and Robert Rodriguez). Tim Roth gives a manic performance as the bellhop Ted, working his first night in a historic Hollywood hotel, where each of the rooms he visits plunges him into either witchcraft, weird sex games, corpses hidden in the furniture, or a moral dilemma involving a knife and a big-chinned movie director’s pinky finger. It’s no masterpiece, but it zips along from one crazed set-up to the next with plenty of zeal and a ton of fun cameos including Bruce Willis, Madonna, and Salma Hayek.

BEST SECTION? Robert Rodriguez’s contribution "The Misbehavers" is the most enjoyably anarchic offering. Glamorous Antonio Banderas and Tamlyn Tomita head out for a night on the town; they tip Ted to look after their two children (Lana McKissack and Danny Verduzco) – Ted fails to do so in a disastrous style, resulting in a chaotic closing tableau involving a sex worker who has seen better days, a syringe, and a hotel suite on fire.

Coffee and Cigarettes

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Image via MGM Distribution Co.

Featuring some of the most exciting musicians of the day (and the White Stripes), along with various other famous comedians and actors playing heightened versions of themselves, Jim Jarmusch’s highly entertaining series of 11 shorts ruminate on various topics but always come back to the titular stimulants. Shot entirely in black-and-white, frequently in two-shots with the occasional overhead views of checkered coffee tables, scattered tobacco, and pitch-black coffee, there is a sketch-like feel to this arty collection of highly cool, amusing curiosities and running gags. Who could fail to love a film in which a moody Tom Waits and dorky Iggy Pop trade barbs, Alfred Molina desperately tries to win over insincere opportunist Steve Coogan, and Cate Blanchett plays both herself and her bratty, jealous cousin simultaneously, all while sucking down cigarettes and refills?

BEST SECTION? It’s narrower competition due to a consistency of quality throughout, but "Delerium" has the edge due to the fact that it stars GZA, RZA, and Bill “Groundhog Day Ghostbustin’ Ass” Murray (as GZA labels him). They discuss the finer points of herbal alternatives to caffeine and nicotine whilst Murray attempts to remain incognito by working as a waiter.

Trick ‘r Treat

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Image via Warner Bros.

Due to a complicated release history, Trick ‘r Treat sometimes slips under the radar – this is criminal, as it should be a staple of Halloween viewing in every household. Taking place on one Halloween night in the town of Warren Valley, the film weaves in and out of multiple distinct stories that are in some way connected, but also stand alone. Sam, a young boy in a burlap sack deserving of iconic horror status, oversees each macabre tale, and he does not approve of breaks in Halloween tradition. There is a twisted sense of humor to proceedings, plenty of fun blood and gore, and some standout performances from Dylan Baker as the school principal with a secret, Anna Paquin as a nervous Red Riding Hood…with a secret, and Brian Cox as a curmudgeon…er…with a secret.

BEST SECTION? The film works cohesively as a whole, but particular props are due to the midpoint story "Halloween School Bus Massacre." Pitched somewhere between a more adult Goosebumps and an Amblin movie, this short has heart as well as scares, some first-rate child performances, and a story that cleverly ties the strands together.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

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The Western seems like the perfect genre for anthology pictures, lending itself to snappy tales of scoundrels and betrayal, so it is surprising that stand-out examples have been few and far between. Trust the Coen Brothers to see the potential and make a brilliant picture, as usual. The movie begins with Buster (Tim Blake Nelson), a cowboy dressed all in white, making his way across the Old West whilst singing and strumming his guitar. The Coen’s have a lot of fun with this section, at one point mounting a camera inside Buster’s guitar, and later playing with Looney Tunes logic when he pats himself down and steps out of a perfectly Scruggs-shaped pile of dust. What follows is a mix of rambunctious country and Western musical, absurdism, and ultra-violence, in the inimitable but unmistakable Coen’s style. The subsequent shorts generally take more time to breathe with a less over-the-top approach but are still filled with joyful quirk, memorable moments, and plenty of dark humor.

BEST SECTION? Whilst the opening with Scruggs is hard to beat for straight-up entertainment value, the Coen’s interpretation of Jack London’s short story "All Gold Canyon" – in which Tom Waits’ grizzled but determined prospector refuses to give up on his search for fortune - is as profound and wistful as it is brutal and shocking.

Ghost Stories

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Image via Lionsgate Films

This adaptation of a British stage show of the same name has a few tricks up its sleeve. Co-creator Andy Nyman stars as a skeptic investigating three supposed paranormal events in a bid to disprove them. Along the way, he encounters a haunted asylum, a devilish presence in the woods, and a poltergeist, and is dismissive of all evidence of the supernatural no matter how overwhelming. All strands build to an unsettling conclusion that is hard to see coming in this underrated and very engaging chiller.

BEST SECTION? Whilst there are scares to spare throughout, the film never quite manages to recapture the uncomfortable tension of the opening story, in which a night watchman (Paul Whitehouse) investigates strange goings-on in an asylum. The simplicity of the paucity of sound, flickers of torchlight, and sudden, startling activity is unreservedly terrifying.

The ABCs of Death

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Image via Drafthouse Films

Featuring 26 short films, each by a different up-and-coming director assigned a letter from the alphabet, this is a very mixed bag, but there are some diamonds in the rough. Trying to make an impact with such a short amount of time and money proves difficult for many of the directors, who often result to shock value – the usually brilliant Ti West’s offering (M is for Miscarriage) being the most regrettable in this vein. However, at around 3-4 minutes per short, if you aren’t enjoying one another one will be along in a minute, and there are some gems dotted throughout, notably Xavier Gens’ disturbing and thought-provoking X is for XXL.

BEST SECTION? A competition was held to find the 26th director, and ironically winner Lee Hardcastle provided the film’s scatological highlight, an inventive, grotesquely funny claymation – "T is for Toilet" – in which the fears a little boy has for sitting on the john are proved well-founded. A riot of truly disgusting imagery barely made less shocking by the Play-Doh protagonists.

The House

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Image via Netflix

This recent Netflix foray into stop-motion animation features three atmospheric short stories all based around the same house, and all featuring an uncanny sense of the surreal. It suffers slightly from being both top-loaded with the best story, and confusingly featuring human protagonists for the first part and anthropomorphic animals thereafter, but the animation is so delicate and beautiful, and the voice cast so perfect, they just about get away with it. Parents be warned: Wallace and Gromit this ain’t.

BEST SECTION? Opener "And heard within, a lie is spun" tells the tale of a family living in poverty who are convinced by a mysterious benefactor to move into his property; the cost of accepting his offer becomes horrifyingly apparent over time as memory and reality start to unfurl. An unsettling and creepy work that gets under the skin and lingers long after its conclusion.

The French Dispatch

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Image via Searchlight Pictures

Wes Anderson’s ode to a bygone age of journalism is the most tonally consistent offering here, if only because every section is as Anderson-esque as possible. Those who enjoy Anderson’s increasingly regimented style will love The French Dispatch, another meticulously crafted outing with ever-more inventive theatrical flourishes and his usual array of legendary actors fighting one another to join his universe. Conversely, those yet to get on board will try hard not to have their minds changed here as Anderson doubles down on his familiar aesthetic, but perhaps they should give him another chance, as this is a very funny, sweet collection with some riveting in-camera trickery, typically well-crafted stories, and one great performance after another.

BEST SECTION? It’s harder to pinpoint the best section in this film, as it works best when considered as a whole, but at a push "The Concrete Masterpiece" pips the competition due to the endless flurry of ideas, striking imagery, inspired editing, half-poetic, half-comedic dialogue, and flawless performances from Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, and Léa Seydoux, plus an excellent supporting cast including, of all people, Henry Winkler.