I've gotta say, it's a pretty good week for horror releases. There's a lot of good shit in here... and, as usual, go check out our youtube page to see the trailers and, if you want to buy them, click on the titles and you can get them off Amazon."Frontier(s)
" is a french film, written and directed by Xavier Gens, who went on to direct "Hitman
" right after this. "Frontier(s)" was supposed to be in the 2007 '8 Films to Die For' festival, but the MPAA said that, as it stood, it was going to get an NC-17 rating and in order for After Dark Films to get it to an R rating, they were going to have to cut the last 40 minutes. Considering that the unrated version is 108 minutes, that would've made the R version around an hour long and, I can only imagine, not worth watching. So, rightfully, After Dark said they wouldn't cut it and left it out of the festival... It just got a limited theatrical release on May 9th and less than a week after it's theatrical run, it's now coming out on DVD. So, what's the fuss about? The plot seems somewhat familiar, but apparently the last 40 minutes or so are brutal, disgusting, demented... and, of course, I mean that in a good way. "Frontiere(s)" is about a robbery gone wrong, which is an ongoing theme this week, where the group of crooks are split up and some of them take refuge in a seedy hostel, which just so happens to be run by a bunch of neo-Nazi cannibals, desperate for a New World Order, that will go to any lengths to turn their fascist fantasy into reality. So, if you were into "Hostel
", "Live Feed
" and "Turistas
", this sounds like the extreme version...I actually recently covered "The Cottage
", as it just screened at Tribeca and here's what I had to say: "Cottage" stars Andy Serkis, who played Golum in "The Lord of the Rings" movies and it's being billed as "Shaun of the Dead
" meets "The Evil Dead
". However, "Shaun of the Dead" was about zombies, "Evil Dead" was about, well... zombies and this is about a kidnapping gone wrong. Either way, it's an indie film and it's about a kidnapping plot gone horribly awry when two brothers and their shit-talking hostage stumble into the wrong farmhouse in a gory horror-comedy. It's directed by Paul Andrew Williams, who's only other feature is "London to Brighton", an award winning drama. Either way, it looks pretty damn good. I'll tell you what, there's been a lot of good horror-comedies coming out of the U.K. lately, such as "Severance", "Shaun of the Dead" and "Boy Eats Girl". Apparently, the farmhouse they stumble into is inhabited by a Leatherface kind of character or something... So, okay, okay, it's a horror. (note: I had a chance to see it since I wrote that post and, yes... it would definitely be classified as a horror. A comedy-horror, but still a horror. It's really well done, looks great, it's funny and does deliver on the gore. If you liked "Shaun of the Dead", you should enjoy this... Personally, I enjoyed "Evil Aliens" and "Severance
" more, but it does rank up there with them)Well, "Botched
" is another film that just doesn't sound like a horror, but it won best feature film at the New York City Film Festival, so... I'm guessing it should be classified as a horror. Once again, though, I'll reserve judgement on my official classification until I've seen it. "Botched" stars Stephen Dorff (who won best actor at the festival) and a cast with a few other people that you may recognize. It was written by three guys: Derek Boyle, Eamon Friel and Raymond Friel and was directed by Kit Ryan. It's a horror/comedy about the only survivor of a heist gone wrong (I can't make this up, that's three in a row about heists gone wrong), who finds himself dealing with serial killers, insane hostages, double-crossing psycho Russian hardmen and the real possibility of a horrible death."Timber Falls
" was written by Daniel Kay (with a bit of help from Tony Giglio) and was directed by Giglio. It must have had a decent budget, as it was 'from the producers of "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Lord of War"', plus it's got a decent cast and Giglio has made a few Hollywood style films, including "Chaos", "In Enemy Hands" and, uh... "Soccer Dog: The Movie". Either way, I don't seem to remember this coming out. The plot is, as usual, quite stereotypical, there's this heist that goes wrong and... Actually, it's far more cliched than a heist gone wrong. A boyfriend and girlfriend go camping with their friends, they're advised to stay away from a specific trail, they go anyhow and they end up encountering a pack of psychopaths. However, here's where it gets good - the psychopaths are a deranged fanatical religious family that kidnaps hot chicks in an attempt to procreate offspring. Sign me up...Now, for the only true, micro-cinema horror of the week. Hot off the heals of "Amateur Porn Star Killer
", director Shane Ryan brings you "Amateur Porn Star Killer 2
", his third feature film. Well, he shared directing credit on his first feature, "Big Boobs, Blonde Babes, Bad Blood", but whatever, it counts... Seriously, though, APSK could turn into a bit of a series for him, as they're starting to get a bit of notoriety. They're low budget, shot on DV films, but they're meant to look like snuff films, so they work... and they work really well. What I really like about these are that Ryan doesn't try to do too much with what he has, instead he knows his boundaries, works within it and creates films that, basically, are justified in the way they look and play out. Also, it's got boobs and gore... 'Humiliation. Rape. Murder. You know the drill'. Support indie-horror, check it out."Untraceable
" - Boooooo.........
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