2010 Sundance "Park City at Midnight" Lineup... and a controversial statement

I'm about to say something that some filmmakers may think is a bit controversial. When you're writing your film... or when you're conceiving a film idea... think of what's succeeded at the film festivals, what's gone on to cult status on DVD and what audiences are watching in the theaters. I'm not saying you should copy them or rip them off, but you should figure out what your audience is watching and cater to them... Think about it, at the end of the day, who's in charge? The filmmakers or the audience? Do you think that filmmakers create audiences OR do audiences create successful films? In reality, it's probably a mix of the two. There are certainly filmmakers out there that can just do whatever they want and audiences will eat it up, but they're few and far between. If you're not one of those filmmakers, I think you need to look at your audience, understand your audience and give your audience what they want. Now, the only problem is, who's your audience and what do they want?

Me, personally, I like to turn to the festivals to see what's going on there... and there's two reasons. One, they're generally the indie freaks and enthusiasts, so if they like it... chance are, that's what other indie freaks and enthusiasts are going to like, as well. Two, they need to cater to an audience, too. They need to put together a festival lineup that people will watch, enjoy and talk about. So, really, they're doing a lot of the afore mentioned work for you. Why do I bring this up? Well, it's because Sundance is around the corner and they've just recently announced their "Park City at Midnight" lineup... which is where films like "Black Dynamite", "The Blair Witch Project" and "Saw" all premiered. Last year, they screened a pile of classics, including "Black Dynamite", "Dead Snow", "Grace" and "The Killing Room"... all of which were cutting edge and awesome, in their own way. So, what's in store for 2010? Let's take a look...

I've been DESPERATELY waiting for "Splice", from Vincenzo Natali, to come out... the trailer is unreal. It's about a couple of young scientists that engineer a new animal species and become the rebel superstars of the scientific world. However, in secret, they introduce human DNA into the experiment and, well, all hell breaks loose.

"Buried", from Rodrigo Cortes, also has had a ton of buzz about it. It's the film where a US contractor working in Iraq, played by Ryan Reynolds, wakes up to find himself buried alive in a coffin, armed with only a lighter and a cell phone.

"Frozen", from Adam Green, is about three skiers that are mistakenly stranded on a chairlift and are forced to make life or death choices that prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death.

"Les 7 Jours du Talion (7 Days)", from Daniel Grou, is about a doctor that's seeking revenge by kidnapping, torturing and killing the man who murdered his young daughter.

"Tucker & Dale vs. Evil", from Eli Craig, is about a couple of hillbillies that go on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin, but their peaceful trip goes horribly awry. Go to Youtube and punch in "Tucker Dale Evil" and watch the trailer. Looks awesome and f'ing hilarious...

Last up, from The Butcher Brothers, is "The Violent Kind", about a group of rowdy young bikers that are partying it up at a secluded farmhouse, when things take a turn for the worse. Tiffany Shepis makes it into this one...

So, what can you pull away from this? Well, it looks like claustrophobia is in, for starters. Also, revenge, bikers and hillbillies are all looking good. However, my guess is that the hillbilly horror may have run it's course, "Tucker & Dale vs Evil" is sort of a lagging indicator of that... if you're interested, a lot of the trailers for these are online. Also, you can read more about the entire Sundance lineup by going to their site - click here.

"Run Bitch Run" and other new horror out on DVD this week...

I guess everyone that wanted to see "New Moon" already saw "New Moon", as "The Blind Side" overtook it at the box office this weekend, but really only because it slipped the least. Also, the new releases didn't exactly catch on fire... "Brothers" fared best, coming in third and grossing close to $10Million. "Armored" came in sixth with just over $6Million and "Everybody's Fine" came in tenth with just over $4Million. Having said that, those three films were all relatively low-budget for Hollywood, costing somewhere around $20 to $25 Million each. Things heat up a bit next week, as "Invictus" comes out... then, the following week, comes the 800 lbs gorilla, "Avatar". As for the week in horror DVD's, it's a bit slow, I've gotta say... although there are a couple of great looking indie films in here. As usual, you can click on the titles and go to their Amazon page, where you can read more and/or buy them... and you can head over to our Youtube page by clicking here and check out all the trailers.

So, "Run Bitch Run" is my pick of the week and it's written and directed by Joseph Guzman and it's his feature debut, although he's been involved in many other projects in various roles. It's a straight throwback to "I Spit on Your Grave" and like-minded 70's grindhouse fare, but it really amps up the exploitation to eleven... as well as the nudity... and the rape. The trailer is just downright awesome and you have to check it out.

Hey, if you've got Joe Estevez on board, we're on board... and John Sjogren got him for his film, "The Lights", and that means we're going to check it out. It's about four friends who set out on a road trip to catch a better view of a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower, but end up in a cat and mouse game in backwater Texas.

"InAlienable" involves a complete who's who of ex sci-fi D-listers and has-beens and I can't wait to watch it. Written by, and starring, Walter Koenig (Star Trek's Chekov), it stars his own son Andrew Koenig - Growing Pains' Boner (I never made the connection), Alan Ruck - Ferris Bueller's Day Off's Cameron and a long, long list of people that were involved in Star Trek in various capacities. It's about a MAN who gives birth to an alien baby and, I think, raises it as his son... I swear, you need to watch the trailer. Wow... could be a gem.

Also out are the Spanish semi-horror's "Screams in the Night (Gritos En La Noche)" and "Cuidado Con El Angel". I can not, with a good conscience, recommend these films... but the trailer's were just unreal. If you want to see how NOT to make a trailer, go check out the one for "Cuidado Con El Angel"... it's six minutes long, has spelling mistakes in the subtitles, shows lots of useless, boring shots and the voice over is as bad as you can get.

There's a two disc collector's edition of "Gozu " coming out, so if you're into Takashi Miike or just dig messed up Asian flicks, you'll want to pick this up. I don't think it's Miike's best, but it is good and I'm a big Miike fan.

Lastly, there's a pile of Blu-ray rereleases coming out, including: The Kim Basinger vehicle, "While She Was Out"; the awesome "Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer"; the underrated "The Alphabet Killer"; indie favorite "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon"; as well as "Walled In", "Cyclops", "Red Mist" and "Sands of Oblivion"

Excessive gore, boobie hand grenades and well defined characters. A look at "Samurai Princess"

So, full disclosure on a couple things here... distributors send us films to review and this one, an Asian gore flick called "Samurai Princess", was sent to me from Well Go USA. Two, it's an Asian splatter flick and I f'ing love Asian splatter flicks. You see, usually what happens is, a distributor or filmmaker sends us a film, then we watch it and discuss it with the filmmaker and then you get those interviews that we try to regularly post. However, in the case of Kengo Kaji's "Samurai Princess", that's not going to happen. For starters, he probably lives in Hong Kong and couldn't care less to talk with us... But not only that, I'm just going to assume that there would be a bit of language barrier involved. Anyhow, the film stars a hot Asian girl by the name of Aino Kishi and it's written and directed by the afore mentioned Kengo Kaji, who's the guy who wrote "Tokyo Gore Police". If you're interested, "Tokyo Gore Police" ranks up there with "Machine Girl", as one of the best Asian films of the year... for me, anyhow.

As for "Samurai Princess", it takes place in an alternate version of a feudal Japan where people live together with highly developed mechanical dolls called mecha's... and these mecha's are killing people. Then, after a gang of rapists and murderers, well... rapes and murders a group of girls, a mad scientist goes through the carnage and creates the "Samurai Princess" from all the guts and limbs. He equips her with eleven types of built in weapons, infuses her with the souls of eleven of her fallen sisters and, shortly thereafter, she takes everyone on and kicks some serious ass. Look, the film's awesome... if you're in to excessive, over-the-top gore and can handle crazy Asian plot-lines, you should check it out. Also, I was half drunk while watching it, but it did get me thinking...

I think that it goes without saying that what Asian gore films are doing is world's apart from what North American films are doing, but I was trying to put my finger on defining what that difference is and I think I figured it out... you see, North American films are concept based. By that, I mean, the film sprouts from a generalized idea, like... this is a film based around the fact that the world may end in 2012. This is a film that deals with the gritty underground world of street racing. A hitmans daughter gets kidnapped. There's an alien invasion... this theory, of course, excludes adaptations from books and things like that, but, if you think about it, adapting a book, comic or other intellectual property is, in fact, a "concept" in itself... this film is based on the hit series of "Twilight" books... Regardless, my point is that North American films concentrate on creating a believable world in which characters can exist... and those characters and storylines become secondary. I think the Asians do it the other way... and that 'other way' is worth a look.

If you look at most Asian films, especially the gore films, surprisingly, they're very character based. In "Samurai Princess", for example, she's EXTREMELY well defined as a character... her and her sisters were raped and murdered and she was put back together as a machine, infused with the souls of her sisters, and now she's on a mission to avenge their deaths. Of course, you get the typical flash-backs, etc., as well. Now, the point is that the universe that exists around them is secondary. In fact, at times, it doesn't really make sense... and that's cool. Looking back at some of my favorite Asian films, such as "Ichi the Killer", "Machine Girl", "Tokyo Gore Police", "Suicide Club" and "Old Boy", to name a few... that idea stays true. The characters and how they interact is extremely well defined and that's where the film sprouts from, their surroundings and the world they exist in is secondary... and, sometimes, doesn't make much sense.

I'm not saying that one's better than the other. In fact, I think that a fusion of the two is probably ideal. I love high concept films and films that are based on general ideas, but I think that well defined characters and how they fit in to the plot and sub-plots is extremely important. North American horror and sci-fi filmmakers tend to spend too much time on the concept, whether it be the killer itself, the monster or the world that they're creating, and just throw in a group of teenagers as the characters and create typical storylines around them. So, when you're watching films like "Samurai Princess", enjoy the mutant mecha's, boobie hand grenades and the disgustingly excessive amount of gore... but, while you're watching those blood fountains, take a second to see how well those characters are defined and how they interact with each other, maybe you can take something away.

So, that's all we've got for this week... have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday!

Interview With Sara Finder, Director of Horrorfest

Okay, you know about Horrorfest, right? The After Dark Horrorfest? 8 Films to Die For? Well, if you don't, you should. The annual film festival has brought a ton of kick-ass horror films to the big screen for American audiences. Films such as: "The Tripper", "Penny Dreadful", "The Gravedancers", "Frontier(s)", "Nightmare Man", "Borderland", "Mulberry Street", "Autopsy", "Perkins' 14" and "Slaughter", to name just a few. Horrorfest debuted in 2006 and it's a one week national film festival that celebrates nothing but horror. In its first year, it became the first film festival to break into the top 10 at the national box office and they've currently distributed over 1.6Million DVD's. To say that they've been a driving force behind indie horror over the last four years is an understatement....

Now, they're back. On January 29th, 2010, After Dark's Horrorfest 4 hits the screens with more of the best in indie horror from around the world. What can you do to prepare? Well, there's a lot of things you can do... however, you can start by reading this exclusive interview that we did with Sara Finder, the Director of Horrorfest. She offers some great insight into how the festival works and offers up some advice for filmmakers...

First off, tell us a bit about yourself, how’d you get in to indie horror and the film scene?

Sara Finder, Director of Horrorfest, I have been marketing Horrorfest since the Horrorfest I DVD release in March 2007. I have been working in the film/tv scene since 1995 holding various positions. Inevitably my jobs led me into the indie horror world & I have never looked back.

Most of readers are well aware of Horrorfest, but for those who aren’t, tell us a bit about Horror fest. When and why did it get started?

After Dark Films, CEO Courtney Solomon had just completed his film American Haunting. Shortly after, Lions Gate sealed a deal with him to distribute his films. His search for the next film to release led him to find several worthy horror films which then developed into the creation of Horrorfest “8 Films to Die For” Horrorfestonline.com. Horrorfest is a one-week national film festival that celebrates all areas of the horror genre.

Tell us a bit about your selection process. What does it take to get picked up by Horrorfest?

We look for films in various ways, including: film festivals, submissions, referrals etc. The door is always open as to how we get our films. In regards to film selection we do not go out with a set idea of what we want to do. Every year is different, so we keep an open mind about which films will make it into our festival.

As a filmmaker, what could I do to make my film more festival friendly? Is this something that you think filmmakers should even be thinking about?

No, filmmakers should not be concentrating on making it festival friendly. They should be concentrating on bringing their vision to life.

What advice would you give to an up and coming filmmaker in the indie horror genre?

Once your film has been completed, never underestimate the power of publicity. Help spread the word about your film as much as possible.

Are there any success stories of note from Horrorfest?

There are several success stories, many of our directors were offered film projects due to the exposure of their films being released nationwide theatrically by After Dark Films. Last year we produced a few of our own films (Butterfly Effect 3, Slaughter and Perkins 14) and brought back a director who had his film in a previous Horrorfest – Craig Singer director of Dark Ride & Perkins 14. We spotlight the indie filmmakers in ways they would not receive if their films went straight to DVD. This exposure is extremely valuable and can definitely get them to their next film opportunity.

So, as a fan… what can we expect out this Horrorfest this year?

Horrorfest 4 will be an incredible festival. So far we have announced the below & two more films will be announced shortly. Make sure you check out Horrorfestonline.com for more information on each of the films including stills & trailers. We are updating the site with new goodies frequently.

Dread
Dread, the second in the Book of Blood franchise is a stylish horror/thriller about three college students working on a documentary for school focusing on what others dread in life.

Hidden
Painful memories arise when Kai Koss goes back to his childhood home after 19 years and inherits his dead mother's house.

Lake Mungo
Sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer drowns while swimming in the dam. After her burial, her grieving family experiences a series of paranormal disturbances in their home

The Graves
Two inseparable sister's visit to a remote mine town turns into a mind-bending fight for survival against menaces both human and supernatural.

ZMD
Life is wonderful for the people in the quiet, island town of Port Gamble....until a zombie virus outbreak!

The Final
A group of high school outcasts takes revenge on the classmates who tormented torment them.

Tell us about the future of indie horror, where’s it at now and where do you see it going?

Indie horror is alive and thriving. I see the future as one where filmmakers have more opportunities to create & make the films they dream of.

What’s next for you and Horrorfest?

Horrorfest 4 coming this January 29th is keeping me busy and will all the way until its March DVD release. Then we start all over again creating and bringing the fans more horror films they truly want to see on the big screen.

Where can people find out more about Horrorfest and how can they support it?

You can find out about Horrorfest 4 on our site at Horrorfestonline.com. Register with us & get the Horrorfest news first hand. As well, follow us on our social networks at: twitter.com/afterdarkfilms, Facebook & myspace.com/afterdarkfilms

New Horror Out On DVD This Week, sort of including "Silent Night, Deadly Night"

Well folks, here we are... the last day of November, mere hours before we enter the last month of 2009 and less than 3 weeks until "Avatar" comes out. At the box office, "New Moon" continued to dominate, pulling in another $42Million, boosting it's grand total take to over $230Million. "Old Dogs" came in 4th, with a take of over $16Million and "Ninja Assassin" came in 6th, with a take of just over $13Million. "The Road", which I did NOT get to go see, but really wanted to, came in at 11th... but it was in extremely limited release, only coming out on 111 screens. The good news? It DID have the highest average, per theater, take... at $13,721, which is really cool. Reviews have been great and I do hope to check it out soon. As for what's coming out on DVD tomorrow, well... you can check out all the trailers on our Youtube Page, which you can find by clicking here, and you can click on the titles to go to their page on Amazon, where you can read more and/or buy them... otherwise, read on.

I put up "Silent Night, Deadly Night" because Amazon was promoting a box set of all of them, but I just saw that it's been "discontinued by the manufacturer". So, the title links to the latest rerelease of the original... and I put it up because, well... it's December tomorrow and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" is probably the best Christmas horror of all time. Check out the trailer on our Youtube Page and tell me that it doesn't make you want to check it out again... I dare you. "You made it through Halloween... Now try to survive Christmas".

For all you Ash fans, it looks like there's yet another rerelease of "The Evil Dead". I'm not sure what the reason for this particular rerelease is, but it was a great excuse to watch the original trailer again. Do yourself a favor and go check it out on our Youtube Page. That trailer makes me want to go shoot something... "Evil Dead" was really the birth of indie horror. Bless this film.

I couldn't find the trailer for "Little Red Devil", but it's a shot on HD, indie horror from Tommy Brunswick, the guy who brought you "Biker Zombies", "They Must Eat" and various other indie horror films. This stars James Russo and Daniel Baldwin and it looks like the story revolves around a guy that's in a dead-end life, where he's searching for his long lost girlfriend... when he makes a deal with the devil and becomes an unholy servant in a deadly game of evil revenge.

"Deadline" stars Brittany Murphy and she plays a screenwriter that's recovering from a psychological breakdown at a remote Victorian house. Her deadline for the script is approaching, but... the place is haunted and she finds some disturbing videotapes in the attic. Really? Yawn...

"Deader Country" is the sequel to "Dead Country", from Andrew Merkelbach. We discussed the first film with Andrew and you can check out the interview here, if you'd like. In any case, he's back... and he promises more zombies, naked nymphs, aliens, animated cats, warlocks, cyborgs, strange hybrid creatures, nude vixens and ghostly apparitions. Once again, he's got it all covered.

I've gotta say, "Poker Run" actually looks pretty good... It's from Julian Higgins and it looks like "Saw" meets biker exploitation. Basically, a couple of weekend bikers are thrown into a warped world of violence, where they're forced to follow a series of bizarre clues that include doing some crazy, psychopathic tasks, after their wives are kidnapped by a pair of psycho bikers.

"Hair Extensions" is one of those films that could only come from Asia... and I mean that in a "I wish I could see more films like this" way. So, this guy makes wigs and hair extensions from the hair of dead girls and, of course, the extensions carry the grudges of the original owners and can attack people at random. It won the Horror Jury Prize for Best Film at the Austin Fantastic Fest.

I couldn't find the trailer for "Sins of The Father", but it's from Brain Damage and it's about a guy that returns home to uncover the truth about his family's murder.

Black Friday, The Weekend in Movies and a couple of press releases...

Well, it's Black Friday... the biggest shopping day of the year. The only thing that I'm wondering is, what are people buying? Like, we've had the year of the HDTV, we've had the year of the gaming console, people are always buying surround sounds systems, computers, camera's... but what's going to be big this year? Personally, I think gaming is going to be big again... the early adopters all own consoles and so do most casual gamers. However, now the late adopters and the masses are getting into them, as the consoles have really taken ownership of the "media center" space and, believe it or not, I think that's good news for the DVD and home entertainment industry. The studios and distributors just have to figure out how to get their content in there. Netflix appears to be blazing the trail, at this point, but watch out for companies like Sony to change the game. In any case, I'm not buying anything today... I'm waiting. Now, taking a quick look at what's in the theaters, it's a fairly weak weekend. "Old Dogs" and "Ninja Assassin" are the two big releases and, sorry... I'm never going to see "Old Dogs" and "Ninja Assassin", the Wachowski Bros produced ("Matrix") and James McTeigue directed ("V for Vendetta") 80's throwback doesn't look theater worthy... but I could be wrong. If you check it out, let me know what you think. I'm teetering on this one. For you artsy folks, "The Road" is getting a limited theatrical release this weekend and I really want to check it out. It's based on the 2006 novel, of the same name, by Cormac McCarthy, the guy who wrote "No Country for Old Men". It's about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic wastelands...

Other than those ramblings, I just want to pass on a couple of press releases that I found in my inbox, both for indie horror's that we've been following. The first one is on "The Creek", an indie horror that we covered a while ago... and the second is on "The Vampires of Bloody Island", an as-of-yet to be released indie horror out of the UK. Both bits of news are interesting, for different reasons. Now, this post is going to be long, as I'm going to cut-and-paste both releases, but if you're planning a press release or are interested in how people do them, you should give them a read...

Here's the press release from "The Creek", I like the way that Erik's using free content to promote his new release... From a marketing perspective, I think this is pretty smart... check it out:

ANNUBIS PRODUCTIONS RELEASES A FREE DOWNLOAD OF THEIR AWARD-WINNING FEATURE FILM THE CREEK FOR IPHONE – THIS IS A LIMITED TIME OFFER FROM ANNUBIS PRODUCTIONS.

Lebanon, PA - As of November 24, 2009 Erik Soulliard’s award-winning feature film The Creek will be released as a free download for the iPhone for a limited time. The Creek has quickly become a cult favorite in the world of independent horror and it is now available to everyone for free. This is a complete version of the feature film. Preceding the film is the trailer for 12 Bells (www.12bellsmovie.com), Annubis Productions next project which is currently in pre-production.

This download is available through The Creek’s download page which can be reached via their website at www.thecreekmovie.com. There is no fee and no signup required. Annubis Productions has also added free iPhone ringtones that can be downloaded as well. Each ringtone features one of the many highly popular lines from the movie.

Erik Soulliard wrote and directed his feature film debut The Creek in 2006. In 2008, the film was released to all major DVD outlets through Ryko Distribution & Indie-Pictures. The Creek received Best Horror Feature at the Illinois International Film Festival 2007 and was and Official Selection at: Full Moon Film Festival, Milwaukee County Massacre Horror Convention, Atlanta Horrorfest, Spooky Movie Film Festival, Wildwood By the Sea Film Festival, Ava Gardner Film Festival. Erik runs his production company, Annubis Productions, through which he has helmed a music video, worked on a video project for the New York chapter of SMPTE, compressed web videos for McGraw-Hill and is currently working on the feature horror film 12 Bells and a documentary film for the Lebanon Mental Health Association.

Summary - On the fifth anniversary of the death of their friend Billy, six friends are forced back together by his ghost. Billy's death was officially considered an accident but old suspicions and conflicts return. When people start dying they all must ask themselves if it's his ghost, one of them, or because they returned to The Creek?

Now, here's the press release on "The Vampires of Bloody Island". I also like what they're doing here. They're making this press release very personal, which, in theory, should let the reader into their world, making the reader take virtual ownership of the project...

When we last wrote, Pamela and I were just handing over a rather delayed test copy of "The Vampires of Bloody Island" to the British Board of Film Certification for their very expensive rubber stamping, without which we can't sell a film in the UK. They returned the favour by giving us an invoice for the sort of money that could buy a small family car! OUCH!!!

In jubilant spirits, we went off for a pint to celebrate the fact that we are now, on paper anyway, Movie Industry Moguls. (Only one pint though! We're not the sort of Moguls who can afford a proper night out!)

The BBFC said they'd take about a week. By now we've learnt that everyone takes twice as long as they say to get anything done, .but a friend emailed us mentioning he was mates with a film examiner at the BBFC! Result! We had a man on the inside! Pressure would be gently applied!

Failing that, another friend was ready to whip up a crowd of 100 vampires to picket the BBFC demanding they pull their fingers out! And she would have done it too. It really would have been great publicity and we were very, very tempted. But we hardly wanted to piss off the one organisation we needed on our side right now!

We also received an email from Brendan Foley, the director of 'The Riddle' (a Vinnie Jones, Derek Jacobi film I was in a couple of years ago) suggesting we prepare several versions of the DVD cover with all possible BBFC ratings, so that when the mad panic comes we could just grab the right one and go! A handy tip! I made up different artworks with the 15 and 18 ratings and pinned copies up on my wall with glowing pride.

However, we could hardly sit back and relax. The UK is merely one country in this massive world, and due to that damned computer crash we had we were still quite some way behind on the USA & Canadian version.

The American DVD is being made in California by a company owned by Amazon. This has a few handy perks for us as Amazon really "look after their own", a great help in promoting and selling the DVD across the Atlantic!

However, on a technical note, they need the film and all the DVD extras in the American NTSC format. As yet, everything we have exists only in European PAL.
We'd always assumed that converting from PAL to NTSC would be a fairly straitforward job, but apparently it's a very slow, long winded process! All 198,500 frames of the film have to be passed through the edit suit a number of times to have the picture size, frame rate and colour intensity changed! All because of the antiquated way in which USA and European video conventions operate. Blimey! This is NOT the fun part of film making!

Because of the computer crash, we're skating uncomfortably close to the edge of our schedual in terms of a USA Christmas release. We're crossing our fingers and fangs that we don't drop too far behind schedual, but we've been advised to prepare a B-Plan to push the USA release back to January! What, and miss Christmas? We really hope it doesn't come to that!

Meanwhile, the media in both the UK and USA have been getting wind of "The Vampires of Bloody Island" and we've been getting a stream of requests for photos, details and interviews. I'm sure you've noticed there's a lot of vampire film stuff going on right now, with TWILIGHT, NEW MOON, TRUEBLOOD and THIRST all being gossiped about, so the press are quite interested in what we've got and in what way we're different.

However, the press really need to know a release date, and with the delays in both the UK and USA releases I'm still not in a possition to come up with that! Grrr Irritating!!

I sent out a press release saying the DVD would be 'out soon'. A phrase I've actually been saying for over a year and I'm as fed up hearing falling from my lips as everyone else is!

The press release was quite well received and at last count has been pasted, posted, rewritten and rehashed on over 40 horror and film websites around the world.
Ooh! No pressure on us then!!! (Google the film or Wibbell and see what you find! we're deffinitely hitting the mark!)

For the last week, while London has been buffeted by heavy rain and storms, we've been boarded up at home updating the press section on the website and dealing with the tech specs for America. Then, yesterday lunchtime, a soggy and windblown postman turned up with an equally soggy envelope, stamped with the mark of the BBFC!
Pamela and I took a corner each...
We tore open the envelope...

WHOOPEE! The British Board of Film Certification have passed The Vampires of Bloody Island with no cuts!! We're rated 15 and must include the warning "Contains strong language, sex references and sexualised nudity".

Fan-bloody-tastic!!! I immediately phoned the factory in High Wycombe who are making the UK DVD and instructed them to urgently go ahead with full manufacture and packaging of the UK "The Vampires of Bloody Island" DVD! Yay! DVDs in time for Christmas? It certainly looks that way!

Let's hope we can also make a similar phone call to California very soon!

Next time we write we should be standing in a warehouse full of "The Vampires of Bloody Island" DVDs. Do excuse us, we might be giggling a lot!

Put the Champagne on ice people! We'll write again soon!

Allin Kempthorne and Pamela Kempthorne: Producers, stars and cheque-writers of "The Vampires of Bloody Island" Oh, PS. Please please please do tell your friends about the journey we're on and "The Vampires of Bloody Island". Forwarding them a copy of this would be a good start, and tell them to join the mailing list at http://www.wibbell.co.uk/ or our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vampires-of-Bloody-Island/109759167900

We'll make sure that everyone on this list gets the DVD for a special price, and we've got a few other special offers in mind too!

Press resources are at www.wibbell.co.uk/vampire_press.html

Interview with Brian Wimer, the writer/director of "Mantra" and "Eat Me: The Musical"

Considering that 75% of you are taking the next two days off, this could be my last post of the week... maybe. Well, I may just go through my inbox and pass some stuff on to you on Friday. We'll see, stay tuned...

In any case, we're going to take you in to the holidays with one of the better interviews that we've done in a while. It's with Brian Wimer, the writer and director of the yet-to-be-released, "Mantra". It screened at a few festals, it won a few awards and you'll probably be seeing it on store shelves and on Amazon soon enough. As for the film, it's an indie horror... obviously. We wouldn't be covering it, if it wasn't. However, I've gotta say, it's a different kind of indie horror. The production value is fantastic and it's got a great look and feel, but so do a lot of films... in fact, you better have a great look and feel if you want to compete in this market. What makes "Mantra" stand out is that it truly is a unique voice in the genre... it's highly stylized, it's psychedelic and it revolves around Buddhist themes... and it has a naked blue girl with great breasts in it.

Personally, I think that the indie world is about having an independent voice and being able to do unique and daring things. Hollywood is not. Hollywood is about groups of people trying to emulate each other for market share. To succeed in the indie world, I would urge you to write about unique characters, new stories and intriguing situations... do things that haven't been done or tell stories that people are too afraid to tell. Push that envelope. Brian Wimer does all of that in "Mantra", plus some... and, lucky for you, he offers up a very entertaining and informative interview about it here. It's a great read. Enjoy... and have a great holidays!

Tell us a bit about “Mantra”

Mantra is a Buddhist horror film. (Yes, Buddhist.) Buddhism is largely a meditation on desire and suffering. So are horror films. The marketing pitch is: ten minutes of nudity, twenty pints of blood, Four Noble Truths.

Six strangers on a spiritual retreat find themselves hunted by their lives’ transgressions. No one saves them. The story was inspired by my experiences studying “bardo” death-state meditations with monks in Dharmsala, India.

It’s all very psychedelic. Nude, six armed, blue goddesses. Death state trance tunnels. And a woman giving birth to herself. Carl Jung would have had a field day with this film.

If you don’t mind us asking, what was the budget and how did you go about securing financing?

Let’s just say the budget was below $100k. A lot of it was out of pocket (mine). Some was secured through what I like to call “Enlightened Micro-Financing”– small good-karma investments with no guaranteed returns.

One thing that really stood out for me about the film was the acting. Talk a bit about the casting process and your directing style.

Method Acting … or manufactured authenticity. Subjecting my cast to hypothermia, malnutrition and sleep deprivation at a shadowy, deserted sleepaway camp helped me conjure up those rare, raw performances. The trembling, goose-bumped, wide-eyed freaky stuff - all 100% real. (So are the pig brains.) We edited out the part where my nude, freezing, blood-soaked actresses started screaming obscenities at me.

The only significant casting obstacle was Kali, the naked blue goddess. After failing to persuade several actress to do full nudity – I trucked on down to Richmond’s adults-only Club Velvet and was treated to a dare-we-say inspiring audition by the beautiful, talented Lara Blake.

The other thing that really stood out for me was the location. Did you write “Mantra” with this location in mind or did you find the location after writing it?

Fall Appalachian foliage and the perfect 70’s Y-camp atmosphere basically landed in our laps (exactly as it was written). Bunk beds. Graffiti. We named it Camp Waywayanda – which is the actual name of a place in the Poconos I went as a kid. Coincidentally, I was there just one week before shooting, “journeying” with a Peruvian shaman while vomiting bitter, green ayahuaska in a plastic bucket. Quite inspiring.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What are your influences and what got you into indie film?

I studied Drama at Yale alongside Ed Norton and (briefly) Jennifer Connelly. Ended up in advertising, writing for Taco Bell Chihuahua commercials. Worked on two indies in NY. Then launched my own studio Amoeba Films, which went on to win a shelf-full of indie film awards. Low-budget, guerilla shorts. But always good writing. Eat Me: The Musical was the first feature-length endeavor. Mantra was Amoeba stretching its artistic legs … and licenses. Influences? Everything from Dario Argento to Tobe Hooper to Russ Meyers (still carry a Faster Pussycat Kill Kill lunchbox). And I did a lot of Bertolt Brecht in college, so I’m comfortable alienating audiences.

Film school: Yes or No?

Nope. Learned it all on set and in front of the computer – especially compositing. Mantra has numerous visual effects adding up to quite a bit of eye candy. Much of it owes to an old copy of Tom Savini’s gore makeup bible Grande Illusions, which I’ve kept since I was a teenager. The rest is Final Cut Pro, Motion and After Effects.

Did you enter the film in to any festivals? If so, how did it do? What are your thoughts on the indie horror festival circuit?

Mantra won Best Feature Film at the Fright Night in Kentucky and Best Soundtrack at Dark Carnival in Indiana. The circuit’s a trip – meeting the original Leatherface and multiple Jasons. Linda Blair took a copy of Mantra – which I assured her was: “about the gore level of childbirth.” The highlight was Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) tracking us down and taking his hat off to my cinematographer Sallah Baloch.

The press has been fantastic. The Denver Daily News called it: “Scary yet thought-provoking … Defiantly different from anything else on the horror market.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch said Mantra was: “A new genre of art-house horror.” Another critic even went so far as to say it was, beyond the breasts and gore, “As horrific an art film as I've seen, and as artful a horror film as I've seen.”

Talk about distribution. What lessons have you learned and if you could pass on any words of advice to other indie filmmakers, what would that be?

We’ve been approached by three distributors (and I’m not at liberty yet to talk details, since nothing’s been signed). My advice: be wary. I know a few people who penned deals and haven’t seen a penny. Just because you’re on the shelves in Best Buy doesn’t mean you can quit your day job. I’m a big believer in the “Long Tail” of self-distribution – because I come from a marketing background. Create Space and Film Baby will one day be the bread and butter of all indie filmmakers.

Talk about the indie horror scene. Where do you think it is now and where do you see it going?

Mantra was made as the antidote to the current trend of “torture porn.” Why are we so attached to desire and suffering? When the Denver Daily News called Mantra: “A thinking person’s horror film,” I nearly jumped out of my skin. They actually got it. Like Cronenberg’s Crash, Mantra gets at the psychology behind horror. And it provides an answer.

I wrote Mantra to be a graphic, mind-altering meditation on desire, delusion, death and the origins of suffering – resolving in rebirth and redemption. To my mind, that would be a first for a horror flick. As I look at our projects in development, it won’t be the last.

We also had the chance to check out another one of your films, “Eat Me: A Zombie Musical”. Tell us a bit about that project.

Eat Me is an epic collaboration of hallucinogenic creativity between Amoeba Films and absurdist rockers The Falsies. An interactive rock odyssey, it straddles somewhere between Tommy and Rocky Horror. There’s no definition for it. A French critic tried to nail it down to a “cinemusical experience.” Satanic chickens, Buddhists dogs, preppy Scientologists and demonic dominatrixes with cameos by Jesus, Xenu, Mussolini, an entourage of redneck cannibals … and zombies. “Eat Me has the good taste not to be appealing to everyone.” - Gotta love the French.

Where can people find out more about “Mantra” and “Eat Me” or, better yet, buy copies?

Mantra info and DVDs:
MantraMovieSite.com
also on Facebook: Mantra Movie

Eat Me info and DVDs:
EatMeMovie.com
also on Facebook: EatMe TheMusical

What’s next for you?

We’re now shooting Dombie, a dominatrix zombie movie (it’s got a spiritual twist to it, as well). We’re also in development of Eat Me Too: Karmageddon. A lesbian vampire flick Menstrula. And a full-frontal skinny dipping co-eds monster movie: Beaver. Meanwhile, we’re taking Mantra and Eat Me on a European festival tour. Let’s see what those foreign minds make of all the madness.

New Horror Out On DVD This Week: News On Twilight AND Slaughtered Vomit Dolls

Well, all the box office numbers for "Twilight: New Moon" are rolling in and it looks like it had the third highest opening weekend of all time, right behind "The Dark Knight" and "Spiderman 3", grossing over $142Million. What I find particularly interesting about the "Twilight" films is, they don't really have huge budgets... "New Moon" had a budget of $50Million and the original one had a budget of only $37Million, which means that Summit is really doing something right here... having said that, the marketing budgets for both of them must have eclipsed the production budgets. In any case, I was listening to some commentary on the "Twilight" series, where they were breaking down the make-up of the film and going through why it's so successful... it was pretty interesting. Like, how they're pushing the envelope on how cute and cuddly vampires can get and the way they designed the love triangle. It really is horror lite, mixed with the love story from "Titanic". In any case, we rarely delve into horror lite here... in fact, this week is not one for the mainstream crowd. As usual, you can click on the titles and go to each films page on Amazon, where you can read more and/or buy it... and you can go to our Youtube page, where you can see all the trailers... just click on that link.

Okay, well... just because it rules, I have to start with the rerelease of "The Monster Squad". This is the 20th Anniversary Edition and it's out on Blu-ray. Quite honestly, I can't believe it's been 20 years since this came out. Actually, it's been almost 22 years, as it came out in the summer of 1987. To be honest, I'm not sure how it did theatrically... it was no "Goonies" or anything, but it did inform us that Wolfman, in fact, did have nards and that's invaluable knowledge. The film gained a big following when it came out on VHS and there are definitely a lot of life-long fans of the film and it's great to see it come out... again. If you haven't seen it in a while, it's probably worth it.

I'm pretty sure that Dead Harvey is the only site that can manage to mention "Twilight" and "Slaughtered Vomit Dolls" in the same sentence, but here it goes... if you're looking for the complete opposite of the horror lite that is "Twilight", let me direct your attention to Lucifer Valentine's "Slaughtered Vomit Dolls". The film does it's best to answer the question, how deranged, demented and depraved can one person's existence be? Personally, I don't know the answer. However, I do know that the trailer is barely watchable... it wasn't the nudity (there was a lot and the film apparently gets very porn-like) or the blood and gore (in fact, that looked pretty good)... it was the vomiting. Lots and lots of vomiting. Go over to our Youtube page and check it out. Let me know what you think. Is this too much? Anyone seen this?

"The Witches Hammer" actually came out a few years back... it's a low-budget British film that's been gaining a bit of cult status. It first screened at Cannes on May 22, 2006 and then had its theatrical debut in Japan on December 22, 2006. The film also received a nomination for "Best Feature Film" at the 2008 Swansea Film Festival. As for the plot, it's sort of like "La Femme Nikita", but with vampires. After being bitten by a vampire, she's brought back from the brink of death by a secret government agency called Project 571 and trained to be a vampire assassin. I love the low-budget CG effects...

I've covered "Philosophy of a Knife" before, I think. It's about the true history of Japanese Unit 731, from its beginnings in the 1930's to its demise in 1945. The film is actually more of a documentary than a fiction piece, but it's a cool film, regardless. Unit 731 basically used humans as guinea pigs in an array of useless experiments... many of which they give snippets in, in the trailer. The story is told from the perspectives of a nurse who witnesses the horrors and a doctor who's falling in love with an imprisoned Russian girl.

If you're in to the CGI and animation heavy Asian films... or if you're into films that are adapted from manga and anime... or you're into films that are so out there that even Asians don't like them, I bring you "Devilman". It is adapted from an old anime and manga series that originally came out in the 70's. The series spawned video games, novels, music, lunch boxes, tv series', etc, etc... it was big. REAL big. Then, in October of 2004, they released this very film, directed by Hiroyuki Nasu, and... it was universally hated in Japan, even by the hard-core Devilman fans. It then went on to win the Grand Prize in Japan's Bunshun Kiichigo Awards (the Japanese version of the Razzie Awards, which are given to the worst movie of the year). Now, here it is, for North American audiences...

"La Hacienda" isn't actually a Spanish film, although it deals with Spanish... horror-like ghosts and stuff. Not sure why I had to mention that, but it is in English and it's currently not available and is out of stock on Amazon, which leads me to believe that there is no stock. I've got the trailer up AND you can click on that link to it on Amazon to see if it is, in fact, now available.

I couldn't find a trailer for "This Hollow Sacrament" on Youtube and that's a bit of a pet-peeve for me. For me, there's a bare minimum that you have to do to market your film and putting your trailer up, so that people can share it and embed it is one of those minimums. How long does that take? A minute? Anyhow, in silent protest, I'll just cut and paste the description from Amazon... Based on true events, the story revolves around the murder of four young women in Northern California in the late 1990s and the subsequent criminal investigation. The film follows the story of a tortured ex-soldier, now police detective, as he and his partner attempt to track down a bizarre series of disappearances, and the brutal slaying of the young women.

"Twilight", "Bad Lieutenant" or "Driller Killer"? Hmmm.... what to see this weekend.

So, any big movies coming out this weekend? I can't think of anything of note... Maybe you're going to see that new Sandra Bullock film, "The Blind Side"? No? "Planet 51"? Okay... I'll acknowledge the elephant in the room - "Twilight: New Moon" comes out today and, really, no joke, I think it's a good thing for the horror genre. I do. Sure, it's PG-13. Sure, it's a romance. Sure, it's for kids. However, it does have werewolves and vampires in it. I say that's it's good for the genre because "Twilight" may act as a gateway film for these kids... weed can lead to coke and "Twilight" could lead to f'ed up, unrated slasher flicks. Also, on a more believable note, it keeps the viability of horror characters alive. If werewolves and vampires can make money in these films, they should be able to make money in other films. Right? Regardless, I did see the first one and I'll probably see this one, but I won't be rushing out or waiting in line or anything. If I do hit the theaters this weekend, it'll be to see "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans". Two reasons, I like Nicolas Cage and I've heard it's one of his best performances in years AND because the film garnered one of the best comments of the year when Abel Ferrara, director of 1992's "Bad Lieutenant", said, "As far as remakes go... I wish these people die in Hell. I hope they're all in the same streetcar and it blows up". So, go check out this Nic Cage version, then do Ferrara a favor and rent "The Driller Killer" and the original "Bad Lieutenant"... both ARE classics.

So, to take you in to the weekend, I've come across a few other things that I wanted to share...

First off, as you know, a lot of filmmakers think of the theatrical release as the pinnacle of filmmaking and we urge people to think of alternative distribution methods. Sometimes I feel like writing a book about all the different things that I've come across, but... well, I'm not really a success story, so who would care? Regardless, now I don't have to write the book because someone else has... and that someone is Jon Reiss. He wrote a book called "Think Outside The Box Office: The Ultimate Guide To Film Distribution And Marketing For The Digital Era". I haven't read it, but it has been recommended to me and I've read various reviews, all of which are good. If you're interested, he's got a site together and you can read more about it... and the book's only $20. Click on this to go to his site.

I'd also like to mention that the deadline for the 2nd annual Paranoia Horror and Sci-Fi Convention and Film Festival, which is coming up. We talked with Shane Russeck, the festival director, last year, and he offered up a great interview. You can check that out here. The coolest part about the festival is that it takes place on the haunted Queen Mary in Long Beach... just awesome. The actual festival is March 12 - 14, but the deadline for entry is November 30th, so get on it!

Lastly, I'm VERY happy to share a not-so-exclusive clip from indie horror legend, Bill Zebub. He JUST sent out this clip from his upcoming film, "Night of the Pumpkin". He's in the beginning stages of post on it and won't have a rough cut for another month or so... he just pumped this out to show people, just got it last night. Enjoy... and have a great weekend.

Interview With Phil Hughes, Writer and Director of "The Scare Game"

I was listening to an interview with Uncle Lloyd Kaufman this morning, where he was talking about how the conglomerate's are manipulating the theatrical experience and his Troma films don't get the theatrical releases that they deserve. He went on and on about how he shoots on 35mm and how his films are meant to be seen in a theater and that's how Troma fans want to see them.

Well, I hate to disagree with Uncle Lloyd, but... I love Troma with all my heart and I think I've seen one Troma film in the theaters... and that's the original "Toxic Avenger". The interview got me thinking and, really, there's a lot to take away from his comments, but the long and short is people still don't get the DVD and home entertainment market. Like, executives of major entertainment companies still don't get it. So many people are stuck in the theatrical release system and they're trying to apply those rules to a changing DVD and home entertainment market. Further, now they're trying to apply those same rules to online distribution. The reality is, we need to create separate, individual ecosystems for each. What works theatrically is not working for home entertainment and what works for home entertainment won't necessarily work for online.

I don't have answers, but I do have ideas. Truth is, a lot of people have ideas and I love to watch the trailblazers go out there and try new things. One such trailblazer is Phil Hughes, the writer and director of "The Scare Game", a web-based horror-comedy series. The series blends horror and comedy and has great production value... the budget is low, but you really don't get that feeling. It's well put together, fun to watch and as each episode will be 7 to 10 minutes long, they're easy to consume. Personally, I'm very interested in what the future holds for web-based entertainment, so I was quite excited to have the opportunity to discuss this project with Hughes.

First off, tell us a bit about yourself. What are your influences and what got you into indie horror filmmaking?

Well the basics are that I'm male, 32, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico but I've lived in a few different places like Texas, New York, and Japan. I have two degrees- one in computer animation and graphics, the other is creative writing with a minor in photography, so I'm kind of all over the place. I'd have to say my biggest horror influence was my dad. He would rent every ridiculous horror movie under the sun from the shop and let me watch most of them and then try to scare my crap out of me. I had a fairly traumatic childhood, but it was good times. When I got into filmmaking, I started making a variety of short flicks, but most of them were comedies or dramedies with a bit of romance. When I got a little more confident with the camera, then I started to delve into genre filmmaking.

Film School: Yes or No?

No, but I've taken a lot of assorted classes that all relate to the discipline. There wasn't any stellar programs around here so I decided to broaden my abilities and continue to make movies on my own (with a good group of friends, of course).Of course, 6 1/2 years working for a movie theatre can be a hell of a film education.

You've launched a web-based series called "The Scare Game", tell us a bit about the project.

The Scare Game is a horror/comedy about this group of friends whose love of horror movies leads them down some bizarre and dangerous paths. It's hard to get too deep into it at this point. The first 6 episodes all revolve around a mystery and then the back half launch into them dealing with the mystery. I wanted to take time to develop the characters before we started getting into the heavier stuff.

Is there a particular reason you developed this for online?

It's a new medium and the rules aren't set. It's also liberating filmmaking because you can focus your time and money into other aspects of the filmmaking as opposed to worrying if it is in HD and how will project and how will afford the repeated raping of film festival costs. There aren't any specific restrictions, so we can make things as long or as short and/or as risque as we want. The shorter episode format lets me tell a serialized story that's not really intimidating to someone if they come part way through- they can catch up fairly quick.

What is your approx budget for the whole deal and how did you secure financing?

The pilot was a little over a grand and that pretty much covered food, equipment rental, and art department stuff. It all came out of our own pockets (Especially Producer Brian Austin Wenrich's). The money for the 2nd and 3rd episode was donated to us by friends who really believed in what we were doing and wanted to help get the ball rolling. We would eventually like to be ad-sponsored and things like that, but that's probably a ways off. Until then, it's beg, borrow, and steal... and then beg some more.

Talk a bit about where you see the series going and what can people expect?

I answered that a bit in one of the earlier questions. I hope that we create a fun series where people laugh, dig the characters, and then occasionally get creeped out or jump out of their chairs. As it's mapped out now, things will get darker and go into some moral gray area which might be hard for some folk, but I'm hoping they will be with the characters if/when they make decisions that aren't always the most noble. We have very specific ideas and things are mapped out, but I don't want to box myself in. If certain things evolve thematically and tonally that I wasn't expecting, then we'll roll with it.

What's your ultimate goal for the series?

We would like to have the financing to where the team could get paid to get it out there. That way, it'd be getting out on a regular basis and we could really have a steady "dialogue" with the fans. I'd like to be able to pay the rent and the people who work to make this happen and look great. It would be nice to put it out on DVD and actually have a goodly amount of people pick it up.

How are you going about promoting the series? What would you pass on to other filmmakers that are considering doing an online project?

Well our other producer/writer/actor, Jenn Daugherty, has been hard at work on a online campaign. She sent out almost 600 emails to various blog sites and newspapers (mostly college) the night we launched the episode. Plus, she was working hard to get the local media to give us some notice so we can build more support at home and then grow outward through the web. She does a lot on YouTube to meet people and find like-minded individuals and invite them to the site, facebook updates, and twitter feeds (we have a few people working on that).

My advice would be- be prepared to put in a lot of time just trying to reach out to people and get to know them. Become part of the community and hopefully that community will embrace you and lift you up. Jenn says the publicity work she does is like staring into the void, but she keeps going- bit by bit.

Is there money in a web-based series? How do you see "The Scare Game" getting monetized? Talk about online distribution versus traditional distribution

Haha. Again, I answered this a bit. Our plan is to utilize the inherit trickiness of the genre by filming full on horror (nudity, violence, and language) and then putting the edited version onto places like YouTube to try and reach the greatest audience we can, but then point back to the main site for the full, uncensored episode which would theoretically be where the ads would be. We need a few more (haha) people before people would start to consider ads for us, but we'll keep having at it. We'd love it if we could do some product placement. That would be hilarious! Online, we have the power to make decisions about how and what we release- we just don't get paid for it. We don't have to negotiate with anybody over our product; we just have to worry about bandwidth.

Talk about the indie horror scene. Where do you think it's at now and where do you see it going?

There was a brief time where a well made but SUPER cheap indie horror movie could be made and get a decent amount of money from a distributor to go into DVD and on to services like Netflix. I think that window has pretty much dried up. Indie horror has traditionally been the most accessible and profitable genre, but as with all indie film now, there is such a saturation of reasonable film equipment that everyone thinks they can make a movie. And then there are the ones that can, who are a small percentage, but in that saturated market, it turns out to be a lot of people so it's just that much harder to get noticed. As to where it's going... that's a hard one. Lower budget stuff will continue to look better and better, but it will take something truly original and mind-blowing to really break out of the pack. That being said, the web gives the hardcore fan a lot of material to peruse and that is just going to get easier and faster to find. I'm hoping that saturation will raise the bar of quality in general.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I have a feature script that I am almost finished with and another 3 or 4 in the works, but most of my film energy is going toward The Scare Game.

How can people support "The Scare Game"?

They can go and watch it on youtube.com/thescaregame and then if they dig it and want to see the boobs, then they can roll on over to TheScareGame.com. If they like it, then they should get a few friends to see it. If they don't like it, still get a friend to see it. AND if they REALLY like it, then they can donate some change on the main site. Plus, we're a small operation so we don't need big companies to help sponsor us so we're always down for getting the word out to smaller companies and boutiques trying to get their wares out to the people. That helps everyone.