You've finished your low-budget horror, now what?

In our opinion, if you've just finished a low-budget horror, your first move should be to try and get it into one of the horror film festivals. However, truth be told, there's not enough room in the festivals for all the low-budget horror out there... Let's just say you tried the festivals and you're S.O.L. there. What now? Well, your next move is probably to try and get distribution. This is the long process where you look up distributors, figure out how to get in touch with them, send them a screener and, most of the time, never hear back. Every once in a while, though, the sun does shine on a dogs ass... and one of these guys may pick up your film and you're off to the races. Dead Harvey wants to make the whole process a little easier for you. Every Wednesday (until I've done them all), I'm going to write up something about these distributors, give you the link to their home page, plus their email address, if possible. Then, we'll log it all under a new section on the left called "Independent Horror Distributors" or something. Hope it helps... after all, we just want you to get to that rejection letter faster.

Brain Damage Films is where it seems that most low to no budget horror gets distributed through. Some sample titles would be "The Veil", "Satan's Whip", "The Blood Stained Bride"... all of which are low to no budget films, shot on DV. Brain Damage bills itself as "a full service distribution house and film production company dedicated solely to scaring the hell out of you." They distribute worldwide and domestically and they invite you to send your film on over... Contact them at moviedistribution@braindamagefilms.com

Unearthed Films is a little tougher to get distributed through, as they're also into securing rights to Asian films and old, forgotten horror movies, but they will look at your film. They've released some indie films, such as: "Bone Sickness", "Nails" and "City of Rott". It's "the brainchild of a group of hard-core cult film enthusiasts who intend to blow the lid off of the DVD industry as we know it. Setting their sights on rare underground horror films, lost animated gems and psychotic action films, Unearthed Films is making a dramatic impact in the North American DVD market." They can be contacted at heneverdies@aol.com

Elite Entertainment mostly distributes restored 'classics', but they will, occasionally, release a low-budget, never seen before indie film. You'll have to be a cut above the regular fare, but it is possible. Founded in 1993, Elite "was initially created to fill a void in the laserdisc community. At the time it was clear that horror/sci-fi were not getting any special treatment. Once the world made the jump to DVD, so did Elite Entertainment. This year will bring many new classic DVD titles as well as several new and never-before-seen films premiering on DVD." They can be contacted through their website or at info@elitedisc.com.

POPcinema is "home to long-standing genre film labels Seduction Cinema, Retro-Seduction Cinema and Shock-O-Rama Cinema, which have achieved a level of popular and critical success uniquely tied to their consumer-centric marketing and branded style of entertainment". There's a certain type of camp film that they like, but if your film fits the bill, you may be in luck. POP Cinema has released films like: "Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon", "Chainsaw Sally" and "Kinky Kong".

Camp Motion Pictures is parent company to three labels: Camp Motion Pictures, Bloody Earth Films and Secret Key Motion Pictures. Bloody Earth Films is probably what you should be looking at. It's the contemporary horror label of Camp Motion Pictures, a feature film acquisition and production company dedicated to reviving the DIY spirit of filmmaking. You can browse the Bloody Earth Films stuff at their Alternative Cinema page, they've released stuff like: "Splatter Beach", "Zombie Bloodbath Trilogy" and "Trailer Trash!". If you want to contact them, you need to go to their contact us page.