New York City Horror Film Festival has officially announced its call for entries!

If you've got a finished film and you're looking for a good festival enter, look no further than the New York City Horror Film Festival!  Back after a one year hiatus, they are NOW accepting submissions.  Just click HERE to go to their site...   here's the note that was sent to me:

2012 CALL FOR ENTRIES!

We are now accepting submissions from around the globe for the 2012 New York City Horror Film Festival. 2012 marks our ten year anniversary and to celebrate we are planning an horror event of epic proportions!! See the "submissions" section for details on how to submit features, and shorts.

Press Release on Geno McGahee's "Scary Tales"

We received this press release from Geno McGahee about his latest film, a horror anthology called "Scary Tales".  I figured that I would just share the whole thing, so you can check out how he put it all together and, of course, read all about the film.  I would like to mention that if any of you other filmmakers have press releases or want to talk about your upcoming projects, please let us know!

SCARY TALES – New Horror Anthology in the Vein of CREEPSHOW is Set to Release in 2012

On behalf of X Posse Productions, we are excited to announce that the Official Facebook page for their upcoming horror thriller SCARY TALES. 

SCARY TALES is a unique horror anthology featuring five tales. When four friends reunite at a remote cabin, they share some campfire stories, but the line between fantasy and reality soon gets blurred and the unexplainable begins to occur.  There is something for every horror fan.  SCARY TALES features zombies, werewolves, demons, and the devil himself.  The twists and surprises that were seen in FAMILY SECRET, the last X Posse Production, are also in good supply in this new anthology. 

Written and Directed by Geno McGahee, SCARY TALES is a throwback to the 1970’s character driven horror films.  

--------------------------

SCARY TALES - Releasing in 2012

--------------------------

Become a fan of film on Facebook: Click here

--------------------------

Starring: Leeann Aubuchon, Josh Tienson, Jaki Valensi-Lauper, Forris Day, JR., Tim Pieciak, Kate Lago, Charlotte Lewis, Brent Northup, Savanah Lee Gauthier

Directed by: Geno McGahee

Written by: Geno McGahee

--------------------------

########  

Any interview requests or any questions or comments can be sent to genobambino69@gmail.com

Interview with Xu Razer, co-director and co-star of HOUSE OF MIRRORS.

      Here's an interview with Xu Razer, the co-director and co-star of the upcoming indie horror, "House of Mirrors".  If you'd like more information on the film, you can check out it's IMDB page here.  Otherwise, Xu offers up a great interview!  


      Tell us about your film, what’s it all about?

      HOUSE OF MIRRORS is about a rich music executive who wakes up amnesiac the morning after a party and receives a phone call that he murdered someone the night before.  He has no memory of the event and is not sure if he did it.  The caller gives him only 48 hours to comply with his bizarre riddles before giving the police info about the murder.

1    If you don’t mind us asking, what was the budget for the film and how did you secure financing?

All we can say about the budget at this time is that it was less than Superman Returns and 2012.

1    As of right now, what are your goals for the film and what kinds of things are you doing to make sure you reach your goals?

Our goals for the film is that it reach as wide an audience as possible- we would like everyone who likes mind bending horror/thriller to get a chance to enjoy it!

1    What about film festivals?  Are you going to enter your film?  If you have, how did it do?  Tell us about your feelings around the indie film fest circuit.

We have submitted our film to a few festivals.  One festival told us he would waive the fee on Withoutabox if we agreed to world premier it at his fest.  We also have a distributor of one of our previous films who requested a copy for a possible festival screening in April.

1    Talk about distribution.  Have you secured distribution?  If so, how did you go about doing that?  If not, what’s your plan?  

We’ve sent out some copies to distributors.  Bloody Disgusting requested a copy after we sent a press release to their site, and told me by e-mail that they partner with Vivendi-Universal to distribute successful horror movies from the film fest circuit.  We haven’t gotten an offer from them, but it was flattering that they requested a copy nonetheless.

1    Where can people find out more about the film and/or get their hands on a copy?

Copies will be available in the next few months when we sign a contract with a distributor.

1    Talk about the production.  How did it go?  Tell us one good or funny story that demonstrates the trials and tribulations of being an indie filmmaker.

One of the cast members got extremely drunk. You’ll see who when you watch the movie.  I had to take the bottle out of his hand and pour it down the sink.  He was a good sport about it.

1    What about you?  Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into indie horror.

we like interesting off-beat stories.  Some big studio horror movie are so formulaic they are painful to watch.  I want to not be able to guess what’s coming next when I watch a movie.

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

We see it exploding onto the mainstream with movies like Blair Witch and Paranormal activity.  People are getting tired of the same old stories and want to be shocked with novelty.  Studios are trying to figure out how to make their movie look grainy and bounce the camera so it looks indie.

1    Do you have any more projects in the works?  What’s next for you?

Yep, we are shooting next weekend!

News Out of CES that you should care about...

Do any of you guys give a shit about CES?  If you don't, you really should...  and if you don't know what it is, it's the Consumer Electronics Show and it was in Las Vegas last week. Lots of celebrities hit it up and all the major technology and media companies make big announcements there.  For example, Tom Hanks was there announcing that he's partnered with Yahoo for his next creative venture, "Electric City".  He even went on to say that while feature films are "supposedly the top of the pyramid", the ecosystem is changing.  Since then, Hulu has announced that it's developing a series for online distribution, Netflix is already in the game with it's "Arrested Development" reboot and other big time online projects are popping up.  Online, as a distribution network, is just heating up... and I'm going to do a post on that soon.  Until then, there was some other news out of CES that I found interesting and it has to do with Ultra Violet and Blu-ray.

Everyone knows that the disc format is dying, right?  It's VHS, Beta and 8 tracks all over again, isn't it?  Well, apparently, Blu-ray boosted Hollywood's home video business in 2011, growing 20% and topping $2billion in sales.  That's pretty big news, considering that everyone keeps saying that the home entertainment business is in the dumper.  Sure, overall spending was down, but only slightly... 2%.  That's a far cry from what the studios would have you believe.  So, is home entertainment dead or is it just changing? This is interesting for us indie filmmakers because the theatrical market isn't an option for us... Online isn't going to be a viable option for at least a few years and with the DVD and home entertainment market dying, where are we supposed to turn?  Here's the thing...  I'd argue that a lot of Americans still put a disc into a player to watch movies and aren't going to stop soon... way more than you think, and that's good news for us.  Variety did an article on all the numbers, you can find that here.

The other thing that I found interesting, which they talked a lot about at CES, is Ultra Violet.  Have you heard of this?  Basically, there's a consortium of 70 businesses, called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, that back and are connected to Ultra Violet.  What is it?  Basically, the idea is, content (films, shows, whatever) is stored in the cloud and once you buy that piece of content, you get access to it on any device that you'd want... forever.  Read this article on CNET to read more about how it works.  What I like about this... and any online distribution format, is that, technically, if it catches on, the barriers for indie filmmakers to distribute their content should lessen.  Imagine being able to upload your film, make up a profile page and then it's up to you to market it.  You just collect on all the people who access it.  Think about what it would mean for the indie film festival market, too...  the future could be very bright.

We've got a few interviews with filmmakers to post this week, so stay tuned for that!

     

Looking forward to the horror films of 2012

A couple days ago, we took a look at how 2011 ended up.  Now, let's look forward to horror films that are slated for 2012.  Truth be told, there isn't much that's going to blow up your skirt.  Having said that, this is just what's slated for theatrical releases in 2012 now.  More will be added as the year progresses and you can expect lots of quality horror films to not get theatrical releases.  Anyhow, here's how it looks now: 
Jan 20 - Underworld Awakening
Jan 27 - Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes
Jan 27 - The Wicker Tree
Feb 3 - The Woman in Black
Feb 3 - Chronicle
Feb 3 - The Innkeepers
Mar 9 - The Raven
May 11 - Dark Shadows
Jun 8 - Prometheus

Fall and Winter tend to be good for horror and there's nothing on the books now...  also, the Spring and Summer bring some big non-horror films to be excited about, including: Men in Black III, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.  Let's take a closer look at some of the notable films that are slated...

"Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes" is probably going to be an unmitigated disaster, as they're doing this as a "found footage" film.  They do have the producer from "Paranormal Activity" involved, but I just don't see this being a success.  This sounds like an idea that was born out of an executive meeting. 

"The Wicker Tree" is interesting as it's basically a sequel to "The Wicker Man" and it's from the same filmmaker, Robin Hardy.  I say it's basically a sequel because, apparently, it's more like a reimagining.  Wacky religious people seems like a good subject matter these days, I'll bite... and, hey, I liked "Wicker Man". 

"The Woman in Black" is a PG-13 horror, but it stars Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) as a young lawyer that travels to a remote village where he finds a vengeful ghost.  He's done other roles that aren't Harry Potter, but I haven't seen them... a young lawyer?  Hmmm...

"Chronicle" is a found footage style film that I really am interested in, although I'm not sure it needed to be a found footage film.  It's about three high school students that discover they have super powers... and they film themselves.  You need to check out the trailer, very cool. 

"Dark Shadows" could be interesting.  It's a Tim Burton directed and Johnny Depp starring film with an interesting concept - Johnny Depp is a rich, powerful playboy type guy in the 1700's that meets a witch that turns him into a vampire and buries him alive.  He emerges in 1972 and returns to his manor to find it fallen into ruin by his family...

"Prometheus" is probably the film that I'm most looking forward to, as Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi and calls "Alien" the jumping off point for this project.  He goes on to say that "there's strands of "Alien" DNA, so to speak, but the ideas are unique, large and provocative."  Looking forward to that, check out the trailer, it's online.

I'm probably missing quite a bit, but what are you looking forward to?  Is it going to be a good year or is this just going to be another year of sequels and pablum for the masses?   

Top Grossing Horror Films of 2011

2011 has come and gone and I'm betting that most of us are looking forward to a better 2012...  I know I am, anyhow.  It better be good, especially if The Mayans are right.  If they are, we've got less than a year to go because it all ends on Dec 21, 2012.  So, if you were ever going to get off your ass and make that movie, you better do it now.  Otherwise, forget about it and hunker down in your bunker filled with beer and canned food, we'll hope to see you next Christmas.

Anyhow, let's look back at 2011 and see how horror did at the box office.  I went through the list of the 592 films that received theatrical releases and pulled the films that I considered to be horror or horror related and, yeah, yeah, I took some liberties.  I don't consider "Twilight" to be horror either and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is a stretch, but... I liked Apes and "Twilight" had vampires and werewolves in it.  Here's the list and how they ranked overall...

3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
25. Paranormal Activity 3
36. Battle: Los Angeles
37. Immortals
41. Contagion
58. Insidious
71. Final Destination 5
77. Scream 4
97. Priest
107. Sanctum
116. Fright Night (2011)
117. Apollo 18
118. The Thing (2011)
122. The Darkest Hour
133. Straw Dogs
199. Red State
204. Attack The Block
221. Hobo With A Shotgun
239. Creature (2011)
279. Troll Hunter
286. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
323. I Saw The Devil
325. The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence
346. Evil Bong 3D
354. Inkubus
435. 11-11-11
443. Evidence of a Haunting
456. Bonnie & Clyde Vs. Dracula
465. Stake Land
591. A Good Day to Die
592. Redneck Carnage

Do note that all these films are not created equal.  For example, "Twilight" grossed over $276Million domestically and "Redneck Carnage" grossed $372...  I get that.  However, "Redneck Carnage" DID get a theatrical release.  Also, I may have missed a few horror films here and there because from film 300 to film 592, there was lots that I've never heard of.  Anyhow, what can we take away from this?

First off, horror didn't do so well...  there's only a handful in the top 100 and anything below that, for a studio film, would be considered a disappointment.  Now, I don't think that's necessarily a reflection on the state of horror.  I think that's more a reflection on the state of studio horror.  Horror is alive and well, it's just being distributed outside of the studio system...  it is good to see films like "Troll Hunter", "Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil" and "Stake Land" getting theatrical releases, though. 

Now, I'm interested in what you have to think.  What were your favorite horror films of 2011?  Did they get a theatrical release?  Talk to us!