To Kako (Evil) 2005

It's rare for Greece to produce a horror film, and even rarer to come up with a serious zombie splatterfest that plays like the mutant child of 28 Days Later and Bad Taste. Yes, it's generic; thinly plotted with a stilted dialogue, yet the main saving grace is the absolute passion with which it's directed, the thumping techno chase scenes (imagine Run Lola Run with a pursuing horde of the undead) and gore effects straight out of Tom Savini's top drawer.

Set in Athens, the film begins with an industrial accident, machinery clattering through a hole on a construction site. Three of the workers take it upon themselves to investigate and find a forgotten cave. They also stir up more than dust, instead waking something long since dormant. The film cuts to the next day, the three men are in sullen mood, detached from what's in front of them; TV, a football match, a nightclub. Then a violent change takes hold, transforming the men into crazed monsters, ravenously tearing into the nearest person; a wife, a fellow supporter, a girlfriend. The infection is immediate, and in a crowded city like the greek capital, only one thing can happen with an outbreak of flesh gorging, running zombies. Pretty soon the problem is epidemic, and no one is immune.

Our movie's main protagonists are two groups of survivors. In one, a teenage girl, a witness to her father eating her mother, escapes with a neighbour. The other, a taxi driver with two passengers finds himself on the fare from hell. After hearing messages on an emergency channel both groups make for the supposed sanctuary of an army base, the two girls picking up a stranger on the way, a man with an equally bleak story to tell; he had to shoot his entire family. The two groups converge on the base only to find it in disarray, populated by mounds of corpses and the dead still gorging on the once living.

The only survivor from this inferno is a young soldier, and all seven make a break for it, whilst pursued through the city by a screaming mob. Taking refuge in an abandoned restaurant, the stragglers are engaged in what must be one of the most over-the-top gore drenched set pieces ever. With decapitations, eye gouging, disemboweling with machetes, the imaginative use of cutlery and heads being split and squashed, you almost have to check your clothes for bloodstains - it's that gory.

The rest of the film could seem almost an anti climax in comparison, yet even more bloody scenes ensue, mostly helped along by a shotgun and a hatchet. The teenage orphan finds closure in dispatching her zombie father, but gradually a lack of food and sleep brings uncertainty (and insanity) to the group, and their number begins to dwindle as the sheer numbers of undead grow. The end of the film is as nihilistic as they come, with the last of the living hunted by an army of the dead.

This film has attracted a certain amount of criticism, but with the likes of Evil Aliens and Hell also being widely reviewed at the time, perhaps it's more of a visceral overkill. Whilst To Kako certainly scores no points for originality or acting, it possesses the intensity and charm of a film helmed by a director who firmly believes in his creation. He takes a big risk in combining dark humour with over the top effects, but this film succeeds where something like House of the Dead fails, it knows it's limits and exploits them to good effect. Put bluntly, unless your other half's a serious gore fiend then this isn't a date movie. But if this gets a DVD release, buy it, purchase a few packs of beer, invite over your friends and have a rollicking good time.

Review by Dr. Freudstein.

Acne - 2005

Acne is a film about two crazy kids with an acne problem, but not the kind you’d usually think of. No, they’re not your usual greasy, pizza-faced saps, doomed to social awkwardness. Franny (Tracey Hayes) and Zoe (Nails) (harkening to Franny and Zooey, members of Salinger’s Glass family) are the victims of a terrible plot. See, the oil companies and Mershey’s Chocolate company are in cahoots. There is a deliberate oil spill that contaminates the drinking water, which of course, our two heroes do indeed drink. Sure, everyone does, but this virus only affects teenagers—because they have “just the right amount of bodily oil”—leaving younger kids and adults unscathed. The result: all the teens of the town become “zitheads”—characterized by a zombified stupor, the loss of all of their hair, and the tops of the heads transforming into giant, exploding zits.

Needless to say, this is quite disgusting. In fact, I’m not sure which is more gross: the actual popping of the giant zit heads, or afterwards when they are “feeding.” See, they don’t eat brains, oh no. And they don’t eat human flesh, no siree. They feed by rubbing oil-based products on their nasty, gaping, open zit heads after they’ve popped—butter, Crisco, you name it. Soon, the Army is involved and the lives of the teens are threatened (the political undertones of Acne are obvious, taking shots at capitalism, the government, and even the willingness of “the people” to be fleeced). Will Franny and Zoe survive? Will Mershey get away with this diabolical deed? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

Rusty Nails, of New Eye Films, in my opinion, is a filmmaker to be watched. Primarily—and call me an elitist, that’s fine—because he’s clearly not just another Camcorder Coppola. He’s not some guy who really likes zombie movies (though he is a fan) and so decided to spend $50, get his friends together and make a movie. He is a fan of films and a student of good filmmaking, and that makes all the difference in the world. He’s inspired by the French New Wave, and influenced by the likes of Jarmusch, Bunnel, Sirk, Van Sant, and of course, Romero. And these influences show. Acne's storyline is the kind of ridiculous fun that most of us can sit down, have a laugh and enjoy. But an amusing plot does not a good film make. And that’s the difference. In the hands of someone who couldn’t bring themselves to sit through a Lars von Trier film, this would have been a disaster. Instead we have a smart looking little movie, shot on B&W film (Nails seems to have put his $18,000 budget in all the right places)—an anesthetic decision that not only looks good, but hides production flaws—a smart decision, in my opinion.

Nails is also a music fan, and that also goes a long way to the film’s credit. Citing the influence of bands like Le Tigre, 7 Seconds, Minutemen, Operation Ivy, and Dead Kennedys (who’s Moon Over Marin Franny and Zoe wake up to at the start of the movie), Acne also has a fantastic soundtrack including previously mentioned DK, Lunachicks, Devo and Tilt. Instrumental pieces by Lisa Brandt and Scott Lamberty round it out with music to match the wonky 50’s Space Invaders feel of Acne (you can certainly feel the Sirk in this movie).

Also included on the Acne DVD are the short film Santiago vs. Wigface (a vividly colored, wacky romp in the silly vein of Acne--possibly wackier), the videos for Radar’s “God is Dad” and Tilt’s “Animated Corpse” (a completist zombie and punk rock fan must-have), and the 2 minute Blood Drinkers “trailer,” described on IMDb as:

"Blood Drinkers" is a recently found 40's film trailer from the never screened 1945 feature "Blood Drinkers." The trailer itself drove people to insanity and was purposely "lost" to prevent further mass hysteria.

Again, if you love zombies, and you want to see it all, Blood Drinkers is an adder to the list.

Do I recommend Acne? Yes, I do. It’s gross, it’s playful, it’s pleasing to look at, and between the B&W presentation and the score, I sometimes found myself getting that Night of the Living Dead ‘68 feeling, which is always fun. Filmmakers who have a good eye, know how to instruct a good cinematographer (hell, one that even uses a cinematographer), and actually goes out of his way to get the rights to the music he uses (as opposed to doing everything you can, legal or illegal, to save a buck) are rare things in this genre. Show this talented, scrupulous, and inventive filmmaker some love.

Intercessor : Another Rock 'N' Roll Nightmare - 2005

I hate to trash independent film. I am quite aware of how logistically difficult it is to complete a film and especially on a low or zero budget. I never expect awe-inspiring effects, competent acting, or even a firmly laid out plot. Most times these Z-Grade films come across as either charming in their simple effort or brilliant in their illustration of absurdity. Sometimes however, they’re painful to watch and really never should have been made in the first place. Intercessor, Another Rock’N’Roll Nightmare unfortunately is one of those films.

Believe it or not, Intercessor is actually a sequel to a 1987 film titled Rock’N’Roll Nightmare. The only connection really is the role played in both films by 80’s heavy metal musician Jon Mikl Thor as the Intercessor. Time and doughnuts have not been kind to Mr. Thor as he appears in the opening sequence flashback (to the original film) looking like a Beastmaster clone to the present where he seems to have gained over a hundred pounds.

As soon as the movie began, I was blasted with caterwauling high-pitched early 80’s metal, a style of music, which thankfully and deservedly never gained any real success. As bad as the music is however, it’s probably the highlight of the film. All taste aside, it was at least produced efficiently, something I cannot say about the movie, which is just about as bad as filmmaking gets.

The plot is about as contrived and erratic as can be and is overly ambitious for such a mediocre production. There is just way too much going on in this movie to make any sense and it’s presented in such a disorganized fashion that you’ll think there are two films happening at once. It mainly consists of two competing villains, the cheesily named Zompira and Mephisto, who both have the lamest schemes to overthrow humanity. In fact, I’m not sure exactly what they were up to. There was something about an innocent little girl named Laura and if they could corrupt her soul they would rule the world. Then there was a handicap teenager named Harry, who is believed by the villains and anyone watching to be the reincarnation of the Intercessor. So then supposedly the story is about killing him and his true love and that will let either of the villains rule the world or defeat the other or something! Like I said, how they could achieve overthrowing humanity by doing either of these two things is beyond me.

It doesn’t end there mind you. The confusion heightens because for about half the film Harry deftly dispatches undead minions with his crutch and terrifies their masters, who talk endlessly about their fear of him and lead you to believe that he is in fact the Intercessor. Oh, but wait, it turns out that Harry is not the Intercessor after all and Mr. Thor shows up in his cheesy leather costume and metal mask to take over the battle and for some reason he has to get his power back from Harry (why or how Harry had it in the first place went by me). Then there’s the four horsemen, wearing even more pathetic Halloween costumes than Thor, four elemental demonesses wearing street clothes, human followers of Zompira or Mephisto (not sure which), zombies that talk like they’ve got a throat full of phlegm, a hitchhiker-loving dude with a magical car, and an alien lady with no midriff who I wasn’t sure was good or evil or what her purpose was at all. Oh, and I can’t forget how the film segways by having flashbacks done in black and white drawings with actors voices dubbed over (yeah, you read that right).

Now take this mass confusion and add terrible acting, another subplot about Harry’s brother who committed suicide, dialogue that is supposed to sound like gothic poetry but falls absurdly flat, fight scenes with cardboard swords and rubber armor, and effects that consist of Thor reaching above his head and grabbing a tree branch and then pretending that the tree is attacking him. Oh, I don’t want to forget the hellhound who looks like the friendliest pooch you’ll ever meet, the plastic baby’s head on a stick, or how walkie-talkies sound like the person is standing just off camera either. Whew! I’m sure there’s more ineptness I could point out, but I think you get the idea.

Some may read this review and think Intercessor sounds like campy fun. Well, it isn’t. I like camp. This is not camp. This is a catastrophe. I actually didn’t know that the film had been intended to be a comedy until after I had watched it and checked out the official site. It really played as if they were trying to be serious, saw the results, and then decided to tell people it was a comedy. Any quirky unintentional humor will wear thin real fast and viewing this film will turn masochistic if you continue to watch it through. I implore you not to watch it.

The DVD release has a behind the scenes featurette, 3 music videos, a slide show, and deleted scenes, none of which I could bring myself to watch.

Review by !Vision! (Brandon Begley)

Undead - 2002

When brothers Michael and Peter Spierig set out to make a zombie movie, they did it with an originality and flair that was unexpected. Most low budget zombie films rip-off the Romero tradition shamelessly and callously, or they innovate with fast-moving zombies, slow-moving plots, and tired old premises. Not so with Undead. Undead takes a new look at zombies, while still keeping much of the original conventions and adding a new spin on the legends. It’s also a joy to watch; the gore and the special effects, all made at the hands of the two filmmakers and a computer are nothing short of brilliant and amazing.

A strange acidic rainfall, corpse-like reanimated Zombies, and extraterrestrial comets, spaceships, and aliens suddenly victimize a small town in Australia. When everyone in town succumbs to the strange invasion, the only surviving humans must band together to survive, as well as solve the mystery of what has happened to their beloved community. The cast is an assortment of normal humans we might find in our own neighborhoods; there’s Rene, the pretty local beauty pageant winner; Marion, the town Looney and gun enthusiast; Dirk and Emma, small-town police officials; and the pregnant Sallyanne and her lover Wayne. When they hole up in Marion’s house, they quickly learn that they will become zombie food if they don’t make a move, and fast, to get out of town. If only the aliens hadn’t built a huge extraterrestrial wall around Berkeley, they might be able to drive out, but there seems to be no escape. With Sallyanne going into labor, the acid rain burning them as it pours down, and a strange sickness developing around them all, Rene must learn to lead, or to allow her and the rest of the survivors to perish.

This film is compared to Night of the Living Dead and Dead Alive, but to my eyes this Australian zombie movie seems more like early Peter Jackson work. It’s low budget, but well made, and while it is extremely gory and gross, it’s still really funny and campy at just the right moment. Based on an earlier trilogy of films made by the Spierig brothers called The Undead Trilogy, it’s an homage and a cool sci-fi horror movie that seems almost too expensive, too advanced, and too professional, to be just like all the other crappy zombie movies coming out. With a 1950’s feel and a real science fiction element, “Undead” has a similar feel and tone to movies like Night of the Creeps and Critters 2. It has very cool special effects, and some really unnervingly violent gore sequences that shock and amuse. John Woo type action sequences and stunts add an awesome action-film ingredient that lends some spice to a tired sub-genre. Felicity Mason and Mungo McKay give great performances as Rene the beauty and Marion the outcast. Felicity has the ability to play a believable victim while not pathetically giving in to ancient stereotypes of women in distress. Mungo McKay is half hero and half weirdo, a sort of Van Helsing/NRA member crossbreed who concocts new ways to use rifles, and to destroy zombies. The funniest character in the film, Constable Harrison, is played by a very funny Dirk Hunter to perfection. The cussing, nervous, and egotistical cop is a thoroughly needed comic relief for a death-weary audience at just the right moments.

Undead is different from other zombie films, but remember that it is still a zombie movie. It doesn’t make any new innovations in the zombie mythos, but it does add on to the modern folkloric legend by preserving the tenets of Romero’s zombies, while being able to have some fun with the science fiction genre as well. Undead is really fun and really gory. It’s the perfect film for people who wish there were more films from Peter Jackson’s early repertoire.

Written and directed by: Peter and Michael Spierig
Featuring: felicity mason, Mungo McKay, Rob Jenkins, Lisa Cunningham, Dirk Hunter, and Emma Randall
2002
104 minutes

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

The Roost - 2005

This film rocks. I can’t put it any other way. The Roost is in many ways a true horror throwback to the seventies and eighties, when low budget films still looked and acted like films, but in many ways it also employs real tricks of the trade that are fun and imaginative. Some truly eerie cinematography and some fine direction take this idiotically written little flick and turn it into a fun and cool trip down memory lane. Other films, of late, have tried to emulate this style and accomplish this décor (like 2004’s overrated Malevolence by Steven Mena), but few succeed where The Roost does.

A rather long and almost tiresome opening lets the audience in on a small little secret; the film is going to suck. It will suck in that really nice Worms/Pumkinhead/Motel Hell way that we all know and love. And it does. The cute ode to TV horror hosts and black and white comedy horror like Elvira and The Munsters doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the story, but, then again, the rest of the story doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the story. Several ill-fated youngsters on a dark road fall prey to a muddy road on the way to a friend’s wedding. When they can’t get their tire unstuck, they decide to take a walk down the dark and deserted country highway in order to search for help. What happens next s a bunch of creepy and nonsensical events that are so much fun to watch you forget, nay, you don’t care, that The Roost has almost no real plot.

The direction really stands out in The Roost. Bordering on improv, the dialogue feels unrehearsed and the long moments in-between statements comes off as artistic and professional, rather than amateurish and embarrassing. The Roost’s director Ti West really has a definitive style involving dark shadows, long silences, and (thank god!) no excessive or unnecessary dialogue. The Roost also isn’t afraid to show off its b-level special effects in broad lighting, and in color. Unlike so many b-movies and indie horror films, The Roost isn’t embarrassed by its budget. By bold-facedly highlighting the blood and gore, the film seems proud of itself, and therefore, we (the audience) feel proud of it too. West also has an advantage when it comes to his film; his location is really great. The old barn that 75% of the film is shot in is creepy, interesting, and allowed for so many artistic possibilities. West didn’t waste any of them. West has proven that barns can be creepy, too. So can darkness, subtlety, and suspense. The Roost employs all of them.

The acting is above average, probably due to the excellent direction, and the pace and timing are nothing short of perfection for a horror film. However, I won’t lie. The plot makes no sense at all, and there is no effort made to explain it. The Roost involves killer bats and bloodthirsty zombies, and somehow the two are connected. I saw the movie, but I still have no idea how, or even why, these two elements are even together in one film.

Despite its insistence that it is a b-film and deserves to be on a late night horror host show on public access, The Roost is actually better than that. Sure, the grainy, pixilated contours of the images, the lack of budget, and the downright moronic storyline might be qualifiers for such a fate, but the talent of the director, fx team, and cinematographer boost The Roost to a much higher level of horror enjoyment.

Written and directed by: Ti West
Produced by: Susan Leber
Featuring: To Noonan, Karl Jacob, Vanessa Horneff, Sean Reid, Wil Horneff, Barbara Wilhide, Richard Little, John Speredakos
2005
80 minutes

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

They Day They Came Back - 2005

The Day They Came Back centers around a conflict in trio—the government (headed by Paul Kratka of Friday the 13^th Part 3, 1982), a commando (Chico Mendez of Troma’s PDA Massacre, 2004), and the group of young people stuck between the two while zombies have risen and are taking over. These zombies stem from a private research laboratory in which there were experiments in DNA mutation, toxic testing, and blood cell incubation—all of which, the fan will agree, are acceptable ingredients in the zombie flick recipe.

The Day They Came Back is part of what you hope for in a zombie short. Director Scott Goldberg has obviously taken the time and care to make it look slick, which is so much more than what we can usually expect. The Day They Came Back has good cinematography and the atmosphere is brought forward and kept up throughout, aided by an original score by Brazilian composer Marinho Nobre. This is an especially nice touch that sets it apart from the usual thrash-metal score that accompanies low-budget zombie films.

It does, however, run into some problems, but they’re not really the kind that one with $3,000 and 22 minutes can fix. The Day They Came Back runs less like a short film and more like a long trailer. This is only really bothersome in the sense that you really wouldn’t mind watching the feature this could be, if only there was one. It would have been interesting to see what Goldberg could accomplish with a little more cash and a little more time.

Frankly, most other troubles are really too trivial to mention in the face of Goldberg’s accomplishment—which is having made well an intriguing and well shot little zombie flick that I believe that fans of the apocalypse zombie story will appreciate and enjoy quite a bit. Goldberg, who admits to being relatively new to the zombie sub-genre (his introduction was in early 2003 with Day of the Dead!), does better what a lot of people who claim to be zombie fans from birth have done. This is fun to see and will maybe lay to rest the one-upmanship that is often seen on message boards and websites.

According to Goldberg’s website, The Day They Came Back 2 is in pre-production for Fall of 2006. My own advice to him would be to save those dollars and use The Day They Came Back to acquire additional funding. Instead of a short sequel, give us this one again, but in feature form.

To watch it yourself, just click the pic below.

For a ZAGG interview with Scott Goldberg, click here.

Choking Hazard - 2004

I can only assume that the Czech Republic is doing relatively well since the fall of Communism in 1989—in fact, I believe it’s a proven truth, that the sign of a country on the political mends is whether or not it makes a gory zombie movie. It’s also nice to see that the Czech’s have a good sense of humor. Choking Hazard goes a long way in proving that.

Choking Hazard is a bizarre tale weaving the odd, but if you think about it, quite obvious, threads of zombies and philosophy. It opens with a woman in black, who blows a zombie’s head off with a shotgun. This seems a bit disjointed as we don’t see her again until the end, but if you’re living in the Czech Republic, you get the joke. The woman is Dagmar Patrasova, popular children’s television show host. The story swirls around a group of people who head into the woods to the Halali Motel to try to figure out the meaning of life, which is rather ironic. The group consists of a young nihilist named Verner, a girl with an apparent obsessive-compulsive disorder named Hanusova, an alcoholic named Krenocova who believes that one can find the meaning of life in an orgasm, and a hardcore porn start named Mechura who also happens to be a Jehovah’s Witness. A blind philosophy professor named Dr. Renis (played by Czech comedy star, Jaroslav Dusek) heads the group with his constant droning on about this and that philosopher. There is a particularly amusing bit about how a philosopher should die—Renis doesn’t seem to die quite as a philosopher should. Rounding out the group are the organizers, Lefnerova, and her whipped husband, Nedobyl.

During the first evening of their weekend retreat, for reasons not entirely clear, numerous zombie woodsman (called Woombies). According to director Marek Dobes, the traditional Czech forest ranger, or woodsman, “hunt the weak members of the herd in our forests because they try to limit the number of ill and crippled beasts to help with the balance of nature, which can’t work on its own, because the ecological factors are so limited in the surviving European forests.” While no other explanation seems to exist as to why these woodsmen would rise on this particular night and attack the people in this particular motel—this is as good a reason as any. All of the attendees of the retreat are searching for something that they could probably do just fine in life not knowing if they just lived their lives, which might be seen as a kind of weakness.

According to Renis, there are two things that control our actions in our lives, those being Instinct and Reason. And these two things do indeed materialize in the form of the zombie woodsmen, which come in those two flavors: the dumb and clumsy Instinct and the smart and dangerous Reason. While our cast of characters is whittled away (and by the way, how does one properly capture what it’s like to be blind and eaten by zombies? Watch this film to find out), we the audience can toy with the philosophical query of which is most important, Instinct or Reason. In the end, in a silly scene where a Reason zombie gets covered in blood and is attacked by a dimwitted Instinct zombie, you can reach your own conclusion.

What is most enjoyable about Choking Hazard is the obvious thought and consideration put into it that gives it a bit more substance that your average gore-fest, but at the same time, the lack of seriousness that accompanies it allows it to be critical of that very substance. It’s a movie that allows you to feel sort of clever to play with the ideological underpinnings, yet also allows you to laugh it off and have fun with it. Combine that with some slick shooting and some good acting and you’ve got yourself a winner.

Directed by: Marek Dobes
Written by: Marek Dobes and Stepen Kopriva

Feeding the Masses - 2004

Often I wonder if indie horror filmmakers actually watch other indie horror films; you see the same cliché’s used over and over again, the same stories, characters, and ideas rehashed but never made any better, and you also catch them making the same mistakes. Not so with Feeding the Masses. Indie veteran Trent Haaga knows how to avoid the problems, even with newcomers Ted Marr and Richard Griffin taking the reigns.

Feeding The Masses is a very sophisticated zombie film that, like Romero’s trilogy (I hate t use the comparison but it is really fitting) is deeply intelligent and incredibly engaging; it’s just such a shame the budget couldn’t always keep up with the script. Written by Trent Haaga and directed by Richard Griffin, Feeding The Masses is an elaboration on the social implications of having our world taken over by zombies. This time the point of view is that of the journalist, and integrity, truth, and freedom of the press are the main issues. In war-torn times like our present, when anti and pro-war propaganda populate out televisions, radios, and written publications, we as Americans have a hard time deciphering between fact and fiction. Untrustworthy government officials and corporate machines are cliché villains, but they give us an enemy within our own nation to team up against in Feeding The Masses. Basically, with a good story like this, you could substitute zombies for anything; terrorism, war, smallpox...and it would still be a frightening horror film with a strong social commentary.

The strength of this film lies strongly on the characters; Torch, the cameraman, (played by the talented William Garberina) is a strong lead, he’s funny and he’s likeable, while being able to add quirkiness to the role. Rachael Morris is a bland Shelley, the anchorwoman, but her character is fresh and real, while Michael Propster is a sympathetic and charming foil to Garberina’s reckless wit. Add to it all the evilly uncaring government official Agent Barnes (William DeCoff) and a handsome soldier named Roger who has a thing for Shelley (played by Patrick Cotter) and you have a perfect formula for success. In fact, it might even make a pretty good sitcom, if you took out the zombies. Or maybe you should leave them in.

It’s really nice to come across an indie horror film about zombies that doesn’t just show naked women being taken apart by zombies, because frankly, it gets old. Some impressive CG sequences allow the feeling of holocaust and disaster to really sink in. Tanks, buses; they really did their best in terms of budget, but still couldn’t pull off some of the necessary effects that the script demanded. Feeding will show you your fair share of gore, but the emotional impact it has is similar to things you might have felt watching the Dawn of the Dead remake; it’s very well done, though director Richard Griffin sometimes loses opportunities to create action and often his characters go under-directed, keeping Feeding The Masses from being as impressive as it could be. Because of the budget constraints it can’t compete with higher budgeted indie horror like 28 Days Later, which are essentially the same sub-genre and cater to the same audience. An ambiguous and abrupt ending leaves the viewer craving more; gore, death, sadness, storyline; just more.

A great soundtrack adds power and class to the film, showing it’s a cut above the standard in more ways than one.

Written by: Trent Haaga
Directed by: Richard Griffin
Featuring: Patrick Cohen, Billy Garberina, Rachael Morris, Michael Propster
2005

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

Raving Maniacs - 2005

There’s a rave going on. It’s gonna be great. Tuesday and her boyfriend J.T., and their friend Katie, and Katie’s brother, are going out partying to the biggest rave in Providence, Rhode Island. Of course, the reckless kids become part of an alien plot to distribute some strange drugs (they’re so strange, that they glow in the dark) among the ravers at the party. The socially smart storyline tells a tale of reckless youth with no control over the substances they ingest in heir endless quest for stimulation, feeling, and euphoria. The risks of doing some drugs may never be discovered until it’s too late, when the party's over.

This collaboration between Trent Haaga, Richard Griffin, and Christine Peltier all takes place at night in the darkness, at a rave. It’s got great atmosphere, and unwavering action when it comes to the set, costumes, and good cinematography. Unlike in their earlier endeavor, Feeding the Masses, Griffin employs some creative shots, beautiful and otherworldly lighting, and some seriously disturbing sequences guaranteed to make you queasy. Talent allows Griffin and his cinematographer to create atmosphere unlike anything most indie films are capable of generating; it’s stunningly fun and terrifying. Patrick Cohen stars as the club manager, who has a past with the dark and sexy Tuesday. Unfortunately, Tuesday is now dating the volatile and dangerous J.T., and he and Jessie (Patrick Cohen) have an evil rivalry. Throw into the mix a Vietnam vet, a nerd who loves his game boy, and a couple who work at the club, and you get; that’s right. To many characters. Immediately hampered by an opening that takes a good half hour to create because of all the different storylines and sub plots, Raving Maniacs is slow to get started.

Once the action does get going, it’s pretty good. The new glow-in-the-dark drug being distributed is actually of alien origin- it’s actually a pretty gross concept and will make you think twice about what you put in your mouth next time someone offers you something at a rave. The effect of the drug is an induced mindless, zombie-like highly sexual state that inspires you to randomly copulate in the most grotesque of ways with those around you. As the sex turns violent and bizarre, the few who didn’t take the drugs start to notice something is amiss. By that time, it’s too late for those who are infected, and for those who aren’t, because army protocol dictates that the facility be quarantined and no one gets out until after backup arrives. But is backup coming? Can one ex-marine hold down the doors while the innocent and the contaminated alike try to escape the rave? Its all frightening and fun from this point on, with some seriously disturbing scenes that cross the line of decency without being superfluous or unnecessary. (And THAT is a task hard to accomplish)

Griffin takes some pretty big risks with a low budget; it’s impossible to aspire to this level of filmmaking without acknowledging that the rave is going to suffer if the technology can’t be paid for. He does all right with what he’s got and actually makes a pretty intimidating feature relying on clever camera angles and creatively sinister lighting. Where Griffin fails Raving Maniacs is in his relationship with the actors; he doesn’t push them as far as they need to go to be believable. Emily Morettini as Tuesday can’t compete with Andrew Vellenoweth’s charisma and energy onscreen, and Patrick Cohen’s Jessie has a confidant, if somewhat affected, ability to contend. The long character development definitely holds back the characters once they are established; with so many intros and setups, the deaths come too quickly and seemingly out of nowhere. An unexpected love story comes through for the romantics in the end, but the glaringly obvious ramifications of frivolity and a callous attitude towards drugs looms largely over the entire narrative; drugs don’t make you different, they make everyone the same. Just like the traditional mindless zombie that Raving Maniacs imitates, those who indulge in addictions will become part of a pack of desperate and deluded sufferers.

Written by: Richard Griffin, Trent Haaga, Christine Peltier
Directed by: Richard Griffin
Starring: Patrick Cohen, Emily Morettini, Andrew Vellenoweth, Christine Peltier, Ryan Patrick Kenny, Jennifer Zigler, V. Orion Delwaterman, Edwin Cottle, Patrick Pitu, William DeCoff
2005

Review by Heidi Martinuzzi.

After the End, Act I - 2005

After The End, Act I, is a disappointing film, to say the least. I’d like to say that this is D. Ryan Mowry’s firsts film, and chalk up the terrible cinematography and writing to inexperience, but I can’t. Mowry has made several previous independent films through his company Sneuwbal Films, After The End, Act I, being the most recent. 30 minutes is a terribly awkward length for a short film to begin with, and with the lack of budget, the bad sound, and the terribly amateur directing, it’s more awkward yet.

After The End, Act I, is apparently the first of several Acts set in the not-too-distant future when nuclear holocaust has turned everyone into zombies, except for a few pot smoking slackers living out in a Pennsylvania wasteland. Intending to pay homage to an already beaten to death idea of Romero’s Living Dead out in Pittsburgh, Mowry actually sets the film in the decidedly un-Pennsylvania-like Arizona, where desert cacti and sand let us know we are definitely not shooting on location. The beginning credits open with stock footage of H-bombs and nuclear holocaust of a level of professionalism not to be repeated ever again in the film. The music and the opening credits insinuate a much more professional film than what was actually created. Like so many independent filmmakers, the music and the graphics on the credits take precedent over the actual script and filmmaking itself, not only cheating the viewers but providing a stunning good/not good contrast between credits and story that is unforgivable. Mowry’s characters are shallow and hopelessly underwritten people who are not affected by the total destruction of the universe. They sit around all day and smoke pot. This is not a film about survival or about human relationships; it’s a film about pot smokers smoking too much pot. The world happens to be dead all around them. While the idea has merit as a joke, it’s not much to base over half an hour of footage on, let alone subsequent sequels and Acts. The film wants to cause laughter and inspire cult fans, but can never get over how funny it thinks it, and it never gets remotely serious enough to inspire real care on the part of the viewer.

Words that describe After The End, Act I: unintentionally ridiculous, badly filmed, and insultingly condescending in its attitude towards horror fans; yes, we do like zombies, yes, we do like Romero. That’s not enough to make you a filmmaker. Films require talent, planning, and care, and that’s something After the End just doesn’t have.

The Trailers and Teasers for the second and third acts that follow the initial footage is just as badly made. More like a teaser for a company that wants to get their film financed, so they made a short, After The End packages itself as a real movie. It’s not. Not only does this film not warrant any further acts, it doesn’t belong in a video store or on a shelf with other movies made by fans-turned-filmmakers.

Written and Directed by D. Ryan Mowry
2005
33 Minutes
Sneuwbal Films

Review by Heidi Matinuzzi.

Panic Beats-1983

Jacinto Molina directs this take of murder and betrayal. If his real name doesn’t ring a bell, you might better know him as Paul Naschy, keeper of about 9 other pseudonyms. Ah, Paul Naschy—it seems that every time I picked up an issue of Fangoria after a hiatus, it featured an article/interview with Paul Naschy. While Naschy seems to be most associated with the Wolfman, he’s dabbled in zombies as well—he both wrote and starred in El Espanto surge de la tumba (Horror Rises from the Tomb) and La Rebelion de las muertas (Vengeance of the Zombies)—both in 1973. Ten years later in Latidos de panico—Panic Beats—Naschy would write, play the dual roles of Paul/Alaric de Marnac, and direct. Interesting to note, Naschy is reprising this role of Alaric from Horror Rises from the Tomb, in which Alaric is a medieval French warlock who is executed along with his wife. This character is loosely based on real life monster, Gilles de Rais—a 15^th century French nobleman, who kidnapped, tortured and murdered numerous children.

Panic Beats tells the tale of a man named Paul and his sickly wife, Genevieve, who suffers from a heart condition. As advised by a doctor, Paul moves his wife out of Paris to his family mansion near Perrouze, France, for some peace, fresh air, and other things that are supposed to be good for her health. The house is cared for by Maville, who has taken care of Paul since he was a child, and her niece Julie, whom you don’t quite like straight from the beginning. As they are preparing for the arrival of Paul and Genevieve, Maville relates to Julie the story of Alaric de Marnac, a knight and ancestor of Paul, who lived from 1515-1565—there’s a large portrait of him hanging in the house with a look on his face like he ate the last piece of cheesecake.

The opening scene of the film gives you a hint: Alaric, fully garbed in knight-gear, rides his horse after his naked wife, who has apparently been unfaithful. He ends the scene quite nicely by beating her to death with his double-headed morning star. After killing his adulterous wife, he goes on to kill the three of their five children (which, by the way, she sure didn’t look like she squeezed out five kids) that he didn’t think were his. Of course, in good Naschy fashion, he falls into “witchcraft and devil worship”, drinking blood and all that good stuff. His brother-in-law eventually kills him, with an arrow through the heart. Later, as Julie and Genevieve stroll down a path, Julie reveals that Alaric is said to return every 100 years to punish the Marnac women who live in the house—which would, of course, be Genevieve.

It’s little wonder that Genevieve has a heart condition as she freaks out at everything. They get mugged on the road, she freaks out. She sees a snake, she freaks out. There’s some bloody eyeball mush where her lunch should be…she freaks out. Somehow, this house doesn’t seem like the ideal place to take a woman with a heart condition. Hmmm, something’s suspicious! There’s some bad stuff going down in the Casa de la Marnac, but who’s responsible? Is it Julie? Is it Paul? Is it Alaric? I’m not going to tell you, but I will say that while not being set historically, Panic Beats gives off a nice gothic horror feel—which is something I always enjoy.

Like Horror Rises from the Tomb and Vengeance of the Zombies, the zombies in Panic Beats appear late, but better late than never. The seem to be the punished Marnac women, acting as the opening number for the arrival of the vengeful Alaric de Marnac, with their faces so putrefied that their features are almost obscured and their long straggly hair looks treated with their own bodily decay.

Julia Saly (Genevieve) is a familiar fixture with Naschy, also appearing in El Retorno del Hombre-Lobo (Night of the Werewolf, 1980) and El Carnaval de las bestias (The Beast’ Carnival, 1980) and can gasp and swoon with the best of them. Lola Gaos (Maville) also appeared on Jorge Grau’s Ceremonia sangrienta (The Bloody Countess, 1973) and had worked previously with Saly in Rafael Gil’s La Guerilla in 1972.

Midnight Skater-2002

I picked this one up a little over a year ago at the Horrorfind Convention. Well, I probably would have never bought it had I not seen that these were the same folks that made Teenage Zombie House Massacre and shared my thoughts on the latter. Anyway, Stacy Silvers convinced me to buy a copy and I figured a review would be cool.

Tagline: Something strange is happening on a small-town college campus…

Synopsis: Students have been disappearing and the only clues left behind are a bloody corpse and the name “Midnight Skater.” A group of nosy kids take it upon themselves to put an end to the mystery, but find out they may be in over their heads! They’ll have to make their way through the college's dark side of drugs, lies, and murder in order to find out who is behind it all. Prepare for an all-out gorefest in one of the most bloody twisted tales of horror ever told!

As the synopsis tells the viewer, people are disappearing and the name “Midnight Skater” is seen. Otherwise, it has the movie description somewhat askew and leaves me wondering if the author of the synopsis actually paid attention to the film. There is no bloody corpse left behind, although we quickly find out that a maniacal killer is on the campus and preying on young ladies. We also see that the “Midnight Skater” is not the killer because he skates by the home of a victim and stops briefly to listen in on her screams.

There is a group of six college students who are out to discover the mystery of the “Midnight Skater” and stop his vandalism spree on the campus. They do not mention the missing girls at all. The group devises a number of plans to capture the skater and bring him to justice. They finally decide to start staking out the campus in order to capture him and stop his vandalism. Danny, one of the group’s members, finds himself torn between hanging out with his best friend Alvin and helping the gang stop the campus vandal. Alvin also happens to be the roommate of the homicidal maniac.

Add to the mix, a designer drug known as “Z” being distributed by a couple of drug dealers who hang out on the campus. Something goes terribly wrong with the popular and highly addictive drug, turning partying college students into flesh eating zombies. The bumbling gang of would-be heroes ends up in a huge mess between the living dead, a mysterious and menacing skateboarder, and a machete-wielding lunatic.


This is a twisted film, just as the case promises. The gore is plentiful, although not very realistic. In the delivery of much of the gore, the viewers might find themselves having to turn away or be somewhat appalled. One particular moment that got to me was a castration scene. Yeah, these guys didn’t pull any punches when they went for the splatter.

The acting was okay for the most part. Some of it was pretty pathetic and most of it was less than convincing. Some of the actors did well in their rolls though, particularly Alvin although his nerdiness might have been overplayed to an extent. In a way, I wonder if some of the acting was intentionally poor. Regardless, the acting was not enough to make me stop watching the film or prevent me from watching it again on other occasions.

The dialogue was entertaining and original for the most part. Even though viewers might get tired of the constant barrage of nerd jokes, the humor was on for me. That’s not to say that I have the most normal sense of humor mind you. A Scooby Doo reference was also thrown in well at one point. I enjoyed a number of the films lines, such as:

“You’re feisty. I like that in my victims.”

“I have the strength of ten men. The power of the purple ninja flows through me.”

”Did you just piss your pants?”

“That’s the best sex I ever had with a dead body whose arm was cut off that I was using to spank myself on the ass.”

Maybe, they’re better in context. Who knows?

The zombies were decent, but nothing spectacular. Lots of black make-up around the eyes and some crusty white flesh seems to be the gist of it. They shamble and eat flesh. Some of them speak, mainly calling out for more “Z.” They can be killed in a number of ways aside from just the typical dispatching of the head or destroying of the brain. With these zombies, damage that would kill most people seems to keep them down for the count.

The score is decent, although one particular surf rock songs seems to be overused in the film. There is also a campy, but catchy eighties metal style song called Midnight Skater at the end, which always serves to amuse me.

Over all, I say this film is well worth watching. Collectors and fans of the zombie subgenre should definitely have this one in their collection. I watch it on occasion and make most visitors to my home sit through it. What one doesn’t enjoy of the film itself is made up for in the sadistic and over the top humor of the film.

Directed by Lucas Campbell

Review by hatefuldisplay (Ron Clark).

Macchie solari (1975) aka Autopsy

Autopsy is no zombie movie—don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It is, however, what you might expect when you sit down to partake in some classic Italian Giallo, expect maybe slightly more convoluted.

Mimsy Farmer plays Simona, a pathology med student working on her Masters thesis concerning the “difference between simulated and authentic suicides.” It seems as good a cause as any, I suppose, but Simone is certainly not the person to undertake this task and she proves this to us in just the first few minutes of the film by acting batshit crazy.

The film opens on a series of suicides, as apparently, Rome is having an epidemic of them. A women slits her wrists, a man puts a plastic bag over his head then throws himself in a river, a man sets his car of fire with himself in it, and finally, after killing his two kids, a man shoots himself in the chest with what looks to be a semi-automatic machine gun. Sounds promising, doesn’t it? Next, we’re in the morgue with Simona, her perverted morgue co-worker and bunches of bodies. During the autopsy she’s performing, she begins to have delusions that the corpses around her are getting up, screaming, smiling, flailing and ultimately having sex with one another. This is the extent of the “zombie” action, with the very brief exception much later in the film when a “suicide” victim returns in a quick hallucination in which she says something of no importance.

It’s not only all downhill after this; it’s also around corners, down back alleys and through winding tunnels. I’ve seen it said in other reviews of this film that one of its strong points is that it is “intricate” or “complex.” I am of the opinion that these reviewers feel that the more tangled and torturous a film is, somehow, the deeper and more intellectual it is. I strongly disagree. There are examples of where that can be said, such as Momento, and other where it cannot, such as Autopsy. This film is full of mystery, it’s true, but it’s not the sort of mystery that makes one ask “Who dunnit?” so much as “What the hell is going on?” It’s one thing to be intrigued and quite another to have to pause occasionally with your viewing partner just to try and see if you’re even close to being on the same page.

With the rash of suicides, there is one in particular that causes some ruction. Betty Lennox has shot herself in the face and her brother, Father Paul Lennox, is convinced it was a murder and not a suicide. The Lennoxes eventually become intricately involved with Simone, her boyfriend Edgar, her father Lello—but strangely, have nothing to do with the opening suicides. Simona has a theory that the rate of suicides go up in the summer months due to sunspots, but the film has less to do with that and more to do with her own relentless frigidity that Edgar tries desperately to thaw at every given opportunity. I for one could never figure out if Simona is going crazy because of her work and the goings-on around her, or if she was pretty screwed up to begin with. Frankly, it doesn’t really matter.

Director Armando Crispino, also responsible for L’Rtrusco uccide ancora (The Dead Are Alive, 1972) and Frankenstein all’italiana (Frankenstein: Italian Style, 1975), could have done better with a more coherent script. But then, he wrote the script, with co-writer Lucio Battistrada, who also co-wrote The Dead Are Alive with Crispino—so I suspect the blame for that lies squarely with them.

The score was composed by Ennio Morricone, also famously responsible for Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars, 1964) and Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ,1966). This might be the films’ only saving grace, while not quite as memorable as some of his other work, it certainly helps rather than hurt this film.

As for the players, Mimsy Farmer (Simona) also appeared in Lucio Fulci’s Il Gatto nero (The Black Cat, 1981) and Ruggero Deodato’s Camoing del terrore (The Eleventh Commandment, 1987) with Last House on the Left’s David Hess. Classic horror hippie Ray Lovelock (Edgar) also appeared in Umberto Lenzi’s Un Posto ideale per uccidere (Oasis of Fear, 1971), Jorge Grau’s Non si deve profanare il sonno dei marti (Breakfast at Manchester Morgue, 1974) and Lucio Fulci’s Murderrock-uccide a passo di danza (The Demon is Loose, 1984). Barry Primus (Father Lennox) played Rake Brown is Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha (1972) and Hermann Goering in Roger Corman’s The Red Baron (1971). Maybe if you’re a fan of any of these actors, you might find this worthwhile. If not, you might want to pass.

Taglines
It'll take you... apart!

There is one horror that goes beyond the living dead!

Great Line
Edgar: “Enjoy what’s left of the summer. Then, if you want,
just to please you, we’ll all commit suidice.”