Sixty-four horror movies in a five-minute montage; the perfect project to work on until 2 a.m. and then return to an empty, dark, cold apartment.

The last few nights have had some really, *really* twisted dreams.

DYE “Fantasy” Official Video by JEREMIE PERIN from TIGERSUSHI on Vimeo.

First up on the Sunday I managed to catch The Whisperer in Darkness. The HP Lovecraft Historical Society is an organisation that seems to have been started for the purpose of live action role playing with a Lovecraftian theme. Since then they seemed to have turned into a mini-industry for the acclaimed horror writer. In 2005 they made their first film, a silent version of The Call of Cthulu. Now they’ve followed it up with another low-budget gem based on the novella of the same name.

University folklore expert Albert Wilmarth (Matt Foyer) is investigating reports of carcasses of bizarre creatures found floating after recent floods in Vermont. He starts receiving letters from a local famer, Henry Akeley (Barry Lynch) describing these creatures haunting his land and harassing the farmer and his son, George (Joe Sofranko).

Wilmarth is fascinated by old legends in a sociological and historical context but is too intellectually detached and cynical to believe the accounts. Wilmarth’s interest grows as the events grow weirder and the evidence gets stronger until eventually Akeley, having apparently made his peace with the phenomena, invites him down to the farm to experience it for himself.

You have £350k. You want to film a science-fiction horror. You want to film a science-fiction horror by an author who is notoriously difficult to adapt successfully. How are you going to pull this off without having the low budget reduce the film to just another schlocky creature feature? The Whisper In Darkness’s trick is that it’s a homage to 1930s science-fiction.

Filmed in black and white and mimicking the pace of the genre, The Whisperer in Darkness builds slowly as we are immersed in Wilmarth’s life of academia. The film’s success lies in its straight-faced approach. Even when laugh-out loud funny, it’s because the deliberately corny dialogue is so in keeping with the period being recreated. It’s faking being dated but in such away that helps rather than hinders the narrative. The first half of the film would feel slow in a different setting, but freed of quick edits and the information overload of modern dialogue, the pace feels relaxed and comfortable.

The supporting cast are clearly having the time of their lives with the script, particularly a malevolently mischievous Stephen Blackehart as the rich kid Charlie Tower who funds Wilmarth’s investigation.

The last act of the film ups the ante with chases and aerial battles that utilise CG effects which seek to resemble authentic models of the monsters rather than realism. This ending is where the film differs most from the source material and whilst first time director Sean Branney doesn’t quite pull it off you have to admire the audacity when a less ambitious climax would have felt more even. It’s far more fun to watch the filmmakers ignoring common sense and come up with something memorably absurd.

In fact the whole film is one gloriously stupid idea. So stupid it’s hard not to be won over.

The Killing Joke is a 15 minute suspense/fiction short film about a mysterious woman that finds a red balloon tied up to a curious little box on an eery derelict street. Using classic elements of suspense and working within a seventies aesthetic, The Killing Joke is an action packed film that pays homage to some of the horror movies from that era.

Sebastián López wrote and directed the story, and was also responsible for all the impressive post and composition work.

The Killing Joke from sebastian lopez on Vimeo.

And if you’re not too freaked out here’s the Making Of The Killing Joke:

Making Of The Killing Joke from sebastian lopez on Vimeo.

Things get messed up pretty damn quickly, so it’s very much NSFW.

Q.G. – Bomb disaster ( official video ) from Shaker Production on Vimeo.

I was skeptical I’d ever come across another zombie short worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as the classic I Love Sarah Jane, that was until I got a sneak peak at Omar Hauksson’s Undying Love. Omar joined me to discuss the Icelandic film industry and pulling in favours to make a jaw dropping debut short on a shoestring.

I’m actually not a big fan of short films because short films can be really really slow & I lose the attention rather quickly if the story doesn’t get moving.

Undying Love Materials
Behing the Scenes Stills

Showlinks
Undying Love Facebook Group
@Oswarez
Omar Hauksson Vimeo
Twitch
Canon 5D MKII
Adobe After Effects
Video Copilot

Undying Love (2011)
What lengths does a man go to hold on to love.

Paul jerked off in the shower. Paul just impregnated his bath tub.

That short turned out to be TUB, a brilliantly weird, at times comedic, at times horrific film from The Bobby Miller. I tracked Bobby down amidst the rowdiness of Austin’s 6th Street during SXSW for an interview, but never had the opportunity to share TUB with you the DN audience. That is until now…

TUB – A Short Film from Bobby Miller on Vimeo.

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage which seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house on sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets louder and louder in the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what’s going on whilst Laura remains downstairs alone waiting for her father to return.

The plot is based on a true story that happened some time ago in a small village in Uruguay. “La Casa Muda” focuses on the last seventy eight minutes, second by second, when Laura intends to leave the house which hides an obscure secret and she hopes to leave unharmed.

For once, the most interesting aspect of this latest scare isn’t its plot, or the fact that it’s ‘based on true events’, instead where Hernández’s debut really captivates is in its production methods. Billed as Real Fear in Real Time, The Silent House is filmed in one continues shot, with no cuts. Shot entirely on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR, Pedro Luque’s camera stalks our protagonist Laura as she timidly creeps around the supposedly empty house, trying to understand what is happening. At first the camera hangs eerily behind her, floating in the distance like a scared child, but as the story develops and we’re plunged into Hernández’s terrifying on-screen universe, the camera bravely ventures forward, sometimes circling Laura, adding to the disorientating feel of the film. The Silent House lives up to its tagline, with no cut-aways from the action and no break from the tension, this is a film that generates Real Fear as the Uruguayan filmmaker has literally made a film you don’t dare take your eyes off for one second.

Unfortunately, as much Hernández’s impresses with flair and technique, he disappoints with nonsensical narrative. Too concerned with providing the inevitable twist at the end of the tale, The Silent House abandons cohesion and instead opts for a conclusion that just doesn’t make sense in the context of the proceeding scenes. It’s a bitter end after a bright beginning. If Hernández’s film was to be judged solely on its ability to unnerve, then it is without a doubt a success. However, taking the film as a whole, it’s hard not to feel a little unsatisfied; a little more attention to the story and we could have witnessed a modern day classic of the horror genre. Instead what we’re left with is an impressive example of how to develop tension and a nice advert for the Canon 5D.

via videos.antville

MONTI FIORI – BELLA from Sunny Side Up on Vimeo.

RED BALLOON from Alexis Wajsbrot on Vimeo.

Mace and Wajsbrot have also posted a VFX breakdown video you can watch below:

Making the VFX of RED BALLOON from Alexis Wajsbrot on Vimeo.

Mike Flanagan’s missing persons, horror feature Absentia does away with cheap jump scares in favour of a character study on the tolls absence takes on those left behind, with some deftly executed ‘less is more’ frights to boot. Mike joins us to discuss building a film from your available resources and keeping an audience engaged and entertained even during the funding stages.

Selling the movie is the only thing that’s going to really help you make another one.

Showlinks
Mike Flanagan
Absentia
Absentia Facebook
Kickstarter
Canon 5D MKII
Phase 4 Films

Absentia (2011)
Absentia tells the story of a woman and her sister who begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances. Tricia’s husband Daniel has been missing for seven years. Her younger sister Callie comes to live with her as the pressure mounts to finally declare him ‘dead in absentia.’ As Tricia sifts through the wreckage and tries to move on with her life, Callie finds herself drawn to an ominous tunnel near the house. She soon links it to other mysterious neighborhood disappearances, and it becomes clear that Daniel’s presumed death might be anything but ‘natural.’ It seems that the ancient force at work in the tunnel might have set its sights on Callie and Tricia … and Daniel might be suffering a fate far worse than death in its grasp.

There are well made shorts that can stick in your mind for days, but much rarer is a short that is so God damn creepy it will burrow deep into your mammalian brain and lurk there for years, waiting to creep you out whenever it flits across your conscious mind; Christian Simmons’ Pencilface is the unequivocal poster child of such a short, and a film that in the couple of years since my first viewing has lost none of its power to unnerve.

Have a read and watch.

The undead apocalypse scenario has become a staple of horror movies for the last few decades. However this time, it’s not zombies who bring the end of civilisation but vampires, who have seldom featured in similar stories, with a few exceptions such as the recent underrated Daybreakers. And so it is all to the credit of director Jim Mickle going for an original and personal style in this his second feature, displaying a lot more ambition than we regularly expect from low budget horror, and earning the Midnight Madness award at the Toronto Film Festival last year. The title and basic premise might make this sound like a Zombieland rip-off, yet this is where the similarities end. The tone is relentlessly downbeat and the lack of modern artifice means the film has a lot more in common, in style and pace, with the gritty George A. Romero and John Carpenter movies of the 70s and 80s than recent horrors. Yet Stake Land doesn’t fall in the trap of being too reverential a tribute and is very much its own film, earning its place as one of the few recent and truly independent horrors worth watching.

There is not the slightest trace of irony and the film purposefully shuns cheap jump scares and CGI, favouring instead a fantastically atmospheric approach. This is largely thanks to Ryan Samul’s assured and stunning photography and the grim scenery, channelling some Southern gothic in the earlier scenes before moving on to more desolated landscapes of the North, reminiscent of the recent apocalyptic laugh-a-minute, The Road, with an ever present and suitably melancholic score adding to the atmosphere.

However, these strengths are also the cause of some of the film’s weaknesses. In keeping with a more realistic tone, there is no easy resolution to aim at as the characters travel towards an uncertain destiny. And unfortunately with no clear goal comes a lack of narrative drive, which makes the story feel rather episodic. As for the two leads they are also slightly problematic. Although thankfully not presented as cartoonish, wise crack figures with knowing jokes and kick-ass action scenes as in so many sub-par additions to the genre, for a film that favours a more serious approach there is surprisingly little characterisation. Paolo and Damici might play things weary and introspective as dictated by the script, but they simply lack the presence and chemistry needed to make their characters truly come to life, and their dynamic as adopted father and son believable.

The standout performance however is given by one time 80′s star Kelly McGillis in a supporting role as a nun who joins them along the way. She brings emotional depth and warmth as a tormented soul still trying to stick to her original moral compass in the face of the horror around them. There is also a decent turn by horror favourite Danielle Harris who is sadly not given enough to do, but still manages to bring heart and hope among the desolation.

All this is not to say that Stake Land is boring in anyway. It might move at a more considered pace than we’re accustomed to for the genre, yet we are thrown in the thick of the action within minutes, with a gruesome opening scene featuring an infanticide that sets the desperate tone to follow. Vampires might be in vogue right now, but these are absolutely nothing like the recent crop from True Blood or dare I say Twilight. They are mute and savage beasts, who actually have a lot more in common with the infected and ‘fast’ zombies of classics such as 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake, with added fangs. Make no mistake, this truly is a horror film, with enough graphic violence to satisfy gore-hounds, although it’s never dwelled upon, presented instead in short, sharp outbursts.

Despite its flaws, this is an assured example of how an ambitious vision can elevate the horror genre above the drivel we horror fans too readily accept. After his intriguing debut Mulberry Street (a tiny budget shocker about mutated part human/part rat creatures) and now Stake Land, director Jim Mickle is certainly a talent to watch.

Warning: As we’ve come to expect from Murray this is NSFW.

UNTITLED (2011) from Craig Murray on Vimeo.

Fashion and horror collide in the glorious amalgamation that is Alex Turvey’s Bare Bones.

BARE BONES from Alex Turvey on Vimeo.

And here’s the making of Chainsaw Maid 2

Shot in a vérité style, Troll Hunter is the story of a group of Norwegian film students that set out to capture real-life trolls on camera after learning their existence has been covered up for years by a government conspiracy. A thrilling and wildly entertaining film, Troll Hunter delivers truly fantastic images of giant trolls wreaking havoc on the countryside, with darkly funny adherence to the original Norwegian folklore.

In terms of plot and style, Trolljegeren does feel a little like we’ve seen it all before; amateur filmmakers venturing into the unknown to try and discover the truth behind a myth (sound familiar?), but there’s also something that feels fresh and and playful in Øvredal’s film. Although claiming to be constructed of ‘found footage’ there’s never any pretense regarding what kind of film you’re watching and there definitely aren’t going to be any debates into whether this film is real or not. Instead of falling into the trap of taking itself too serious, something other ‘found footage’ films such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity could be accused of, Trolljegeren has it’s tongue firmly planted in its cheek. Øvredal’s film may be tense in places, but its prime goal seems to be to entertain its audience, with thrills, spills and laughs in abundance. Lovers of independent films, like we obviously are here at DN HQ, are often accused of being too serious in their film choices, but there’s no reason indie movies can’t be all about fun and entertainment, something which Trolljegeren undoubtedly proves, as this Norwegian action-thriller can easily cut it with the likes of Cloverfield in providing some spectacular Saturday night watching.

Rubber opens with a shot of a chair nestling in the wilderness of an unknown American desert, the following shots reveal more chairs spread randomly across a dirt track and a man waiting, holding numerous pairs of binoculars. Down the track comes a large American car which weaves its way towards camera, purposefully knocking down every chair in its way, before skidding to a halt. Out of the boot of the car emerges a state trooper in full attire, topped off with mirrored aviator glasses. The trooper marches towards the front of the car, collects a glass of water from the driver and continues to walk straight towards the camera’s gaze. Settling in a mid shot, with the car and desert perfectly framed behind him, the trooper begins addressing the audience…

“In the Stephen Spielberg film ET, why is the alien brown? No Reason! In Love Story, why do the two characters fall madly in love with each other? No Reason! In Oliver Stones JFK, why is the president suddenly assassinated by some stranger? No Reason! In the excellent Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper why don’t we ever see the characters go to the bathroom, or wash their hands like people do in real life? Absolutely No Reason! Worse, in The Pianist by Polanski, how come this guy has to hide and live like a bum when he plays the piano so well? Once again the answer is No Reason! I could go on for hours with more examples, the list in endless, you probably never gave it a thought! But all great films, without exception, contain an important element of No Reason! And you know why? Because life itself is filled with No Reason! Why cant we see the air all around us? No Reason! Why are we always thinking? No Reason! Why do some people love sausages and other people hate sausages? No Fucking Reason!”

The car horn beeps and the driver shouts, “Come on don’t waste your time explaining that garbage, lets go!”

“Just a minute, let me finish.”

“Ladies, Gentlemen, the film you are about to see today is a homage to the No Reason, that most powerful element of style!”

The trooper continues to stare down the barrel of the lens, before emptying his glass of water on the floor. The shot changes and we see an audience watching the trooper, he climbs back into the boot of the car and it drives away. The man holding the binoculars then distributes them to the group, instructs “everybody to turn around” before finally telling them to “enjoy”.

In the realm of film openings, they don’t come much more bizarre or memorable than the opening 5 minutes of Quentin Dupieux’s third feature Rubber. I’ve always believed the opening 10 minutes of a film are probably the most important of all its duration, as this is where its viewers can very quickly be won or lost. Dupieux’s film not only manages to begin in the most intriguing of ways, but also sets the tone for the rest of Rubber’s duration.

In essence, Rubber is the story of a killer tyre that sets off on a mission of destruction, using its psychokinetic powers to annihilate all in its path. It’s a concept as weird and as ludicrous as they come, but as Stephen Spinella’s Lieutenant Chad highlights early in the film, is it any weirder than Spielberg’s ET, one of the most popular films of modern times?

Originality is something that is pretty hard to come by in the feature film industry and it’s not often you come away from a film feeling you’ve truly seen something fresh and innovative. However, this is exactly the feeling I had after viewing Rubber. Feeling like a cross between an extended music video, a B-movie and experimental audio visual project, Dupieux’s film not only manages to be playful, thought-provoking and inventive, but also hugely entertaining. It’s surprising to think that the man responsible for releasing the Levis promoting Flat Eric onto the world, would release one of my favourite films of 2011 so far and if you asked me why I loved Rubber so much, I’d simply have to reply No Reason!

The film opens with the family’s patriarch staring dead-eyed into the window of a department store, before falling down dead on the pavement. Street cleaners then move the body and clean the disgusting liquid that the man coughed up. It’s not a subtle statement on poverty and class but it’s certainly one that is visually arresting. The man’s zombie-like appearance is at odds with the spotless surfaces of his consumerist surrounding, a juxtaposition recognisable to those familiar with Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.

The film then focuses on the man’s wife, two sons and daughter as they struggle to come to terms with their own roles, their relationships with each other and the small issue of how they are going to cope with the killing and eating of strangers now that daddy’s no longer bringing home the er… bacon. Mum is still angry at everyone for dad’s ‘addiction’ to prostitutes, an anger that she expresses at one point through a vicious saucepan-based attack on a hapless hooker.

It is the family politics which engage the audience. They are not monstrous in the same way as Leatherface’s similarly flesh-inclined clan in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but neither are you able to relate to them, each simply representing different roles within the family dynamic. The film’s trick is portraying the cannibals not as invincible predators, but as victims. This is seen in their clumsy coming of age as hunters and social naifs, but also in their roles as personifications of the underclass.

Their world is a maze of shacks and alleyways completely at odds with the metropolitan areas, although it is a maze which all the characters are able to find their way around a little too easily. Stylistically as well as Romero, the film also drops in a scene involving a coroner that is not so much inspired by, as stolen wholesale (albeit presumably as a homage) from fellow Mexican Guillermo Del Toro’s Cronos.

Where the film wastes its time is in attempts to humanise the policemen whose paths cross those of the family in the final act. The film may have made a stronger statement if they had remained faceless authority figures. These are minor complaints in a film that sets its tone so successfully and manages to say interesting things through its social realism while keeping you engaged with its sense of foreboding. As a footnote, we would just like to add that this film is not, as the quote on the cover would have it, just a ‘cannibal gore fest’. It’s surprising in this age that the distributors should feel the need to market a thought-provoking foreign film in such simplistic terms. As unpleasant as some of the scenes are, as a gore-fest it disappoints and that in itself is no bad thing.

With his first feature Down Terrace, Ben Wheatley breathed new life into the hackneyed corpse of the British Gangster flick, so Kill List, his take on the horror movie, was always going to top my SXSW must see list. As it’s very possible I could bump into him back home in Brighton, I was overjoyed that he far exceeded my overblown expectations. I popped round to Ben’s post-festival for a cup of tea and a chat about the merits of a black out festival strategy and living the high life from DVD residuals.

I wanted to go back to an idea where you felt for the people and you worried about them. It means that you don’t have to try as hard with the horror because you feel it more.

How does the idea of a surfing holiday in the Maldives with no one around for miles except for you and your small group of friends strike you? Yep, sounds lovely, that is unless you happen to be on the boating trip created by Australian director Adam Blaiklock in his debut feature Caught Inside; a film that makes the horror staple of the nutter tipped over the edge all the more scary by placing him in the all too familiar realms of everyday possibility. Adam and I sat down at SXSW to discuss the fragility of relationships and his concept of the body as a weapon.

I didn’t want it to be a real black and white film about bad guy/innocent girl. I wanted that line to be a little bit fuzzy. To me the film’s about the monsters we create.

Not only did I get to guest host on the tastier than brains DeadChatter podcast, but I was also able to bring The Walking Dead zombie smack down to Andrew and Morgan too – Erik’s one of the good guys so I spared him:

Let’s face it—Erik did a horrible job of trying to beat down the Shane worship and the Rick hate. Fortunately, he’s got backup this week! MarBelle from DirectorsNotes.com joins us and does his best to straighten us out on some important things. Does he succeed? Check out the show and find out!

If you enjoy talk of flesh chomping dead folks then you should definitely grab your shotgun and subscribe to the DeadChatter podcast, it’s great stuff – especially when I’m not chattering all other it.

If my description seems to be lacking any clues of plot, that is because there really isn’t one. Things happen to people but this is a film about female sexuality told through the senses. The second two parts are erotically charged to an intensity level rarely seen. It is a film with hardly any dialogue but sound is crucial to the experience. From the fantastic music to the scraping, breathing, stepping, and moaning, the soundtrack tells the story as much as the visuals. Amer uses multiple visual tricks from the start (the film begins with a beautiful three-way split screen shot) right to the finish (point-of-view shots that keep you questioning what you’re actually seeing). There is little point in trying to work out if what you’re seeing is real, since the entire movie is reflecting the personality of the protagonist. You are inside her mind and that is all that matters. If this sounds hopelessly pretentious and too much like hard work, don’t worry, it’s actually very easy to get into the right frame of mind and just let the film happen to you. As much as an art house film where little happens and no-one says much can be, Amer is surprisingly accessible. Only Europeans could produce such an interpretation of female passion, one where the action is split between reality, fantasy and metaphor but without frustrating their audience.

Unlike lesser fare shown that day, the festival audience was silent after the film had finished and I would like to believe that after having been thinking for 90 minutes, they couldn’t tune out enough to clap.

Chatter from Espen Gjelsten on Vimeo.

The third film of our day at Manchester’s Grimm Up North Film Festival was Belgian-French horror hick-flick The Pack (La Meute).

When the independent Charlotte (Emilie Dequenne) picks up hitchhiker Max (Benjamin Biolay), they seem to have a lot in common. They both have a similar alternative outlook on life and when they stop at La Spack café for a bite to eat, he gallantly comes to her defence when she is harassed by lecherous, violent bikers. Max then disappears and the director sets up a nice little mystery when Charlotte is unhappy with the café owner’s explanation.

Director Franck Richard keeps you guessing before arriving at a demonic explanation about halfway through. Aesthetically and thematically we’re in American hillbilly horror territory, even down to the word ‘Texas’ on the gate to the café, and the station-wagon driven by Charlotte. In fact at times when I was watching this strong female character searching for answers in the poor rural environment I felt like I was watching a schlock horror version of the recent Winter’s Bone.

I’m not sure why anyone would still want to make a film in this style but the tension rises throughout the first two thirds, and it’s unfortunate that it struggled to maintain the sense of dread for the final act and instead went for an action set-piece. To its credit, as a homage to American seventies horror, the film works far better than any of the Hollywood remakes of recent years. I wouldn’t have thought anyone could do anything in this vein that would hold my attention for 90 minutes, but through some decent characters (including a wonderful local off-duty sheriff) you’re not simply waiting for elaborate deaths to happen, you’re genuinely hoping they don’t.

It’s unfortunate that the film ends with a misjudged shoot-out and a badly explained twist that leaves you feeling you may have wasted your time investing interest in the story. Saying it compares well with American mainstream horror may be a backhanded compliment, but there is more to like than dislike in The Pack.

Evil: In the Time of Heroes is tremendous fun and genuinely funny. Any fear that the Europeans might have approached the genre too sincerely is dispensed with post-modern humour sitting happily alongside some gleefully immature moments. On the one hand you have a hopeless hero trying to impress the beautiful girl who seems more interested in his fat balding father- a situation that seems lifted from a 70s British sex-comedy. There are also moments that have you dumbstruck at the film’s gall- near the start we see an aerial shot of a group of four zombie slayers in the middle of a football stadium surrounded on all sides by an army of the undead- presumably a cliff-hanger ending from the first film. A moment that audiences had been waiting four years to see resolved. Cut to the next shot of them emerging, blood-drenched, from the stadium entrance: “Wow, that was close” says one character, “Yeah, that was a really good idea you had” replies another. And that’s it! Far more entertaining than a genuine explanation. The action thunders along from there, and although it doesn’t have the emotional realism of say Shaun of the Dead, you do feel for the characters: stereotypical band of misfits that they are.

By the final scene the film completely loses its way and is just confusing and deafeningly loud. Luckily you’ve had such a great time up to that point, as it’s been such an insane ride that you barely think to question what’s going on. It may also be one of the only zombie films to go for a genuinely happy ending. Needless to say the film received a round of applause from the audience.

It seems that every filmmaker and writer has spent his (or her, but let’s not kid ourselves here) life waiting for the chance to give us their take on the zombie story. This new era seems to have begun with the not-technically-zombies zombie film 28 Days Later. Danny Boyle’s straight-faced tale of running zombies was then answered by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s shuffling zom-com Shaun of the Dead. Since then there’s been a consistent run of original takes on the genre.

So news that Frank Darabont was taking time off from making decent Stephen King adaptations to helm a TV version of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic series was met with excitement (not least from MarBelle). The first episode aired in the UK on Saturday so in quality terms was it a Dawn or a Diary of the Dead?

Spoilers ahead!
After an attention-grabbing first scene that has cop Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) shooting a zombie child in the head, the programme rewinds to the events that led Grimes to be unconscious in hospital when the zombie outbreak occurs. It then steals the same scene from Day of the Triffids that 28 Days Later borrowed, with Grimes waking up in an apocalyptic world seemingly free of living beings. He then spends time with a father and son who are squatting in a house on Grimes’ road, being haunted by zombie-mum. Here we get a measure of a world where everyone you know is dead, or worse, undead. After this, Grimes heads to Atlanta to get chased around by an army of shuffling evil, hungry for the innards of anyone who appeared in This Life ‘walkers’.

So far, so good. It’s cinematic in its scale and look, the atmosphere is incredibly tense and the emotional realities of the situation are well written and convincingly performed. Lincoln not only comfortably carries the narrative but also has a decent American accent. Accents are a curious British concern but they can be distracting for us if done badly. The only criticism is that thus far it hasn’t gone into any areas that haven’t been fully covered by previous films- the Triffids scene, the parent/child survivors and scenes of devastation are all conventions of the zombie and post-apocalypse genres. Its only unique aspect so far is that it can spend time with character development- something that’s difficult when you’re limited to 90 minutes and have to squeeze the dialogue around imaginative undead slayings. So now Darabont’s got our attention, what’s he going to do with us next?

The premise for Fragment is a promising one. Lloyd (Wayne Bradley) is a photographer, and while taking pictures in Iraq after Operation Desert Storm is a bit too near to the action and consequently ends up with a piece of depleted uranium embedded in his head. Upon his return he discovers that when he photographs the dead, they return to life. This progresses nicely as he begins with animals but then discovers a snuff film in his apartment and, for reasons not really explained, decides to take a photograph of it when it’s playing. In doing so he reanimates both victim and murderer. He is pursued by the killer and even has a love affair with the blood-covered victim (played by Bree Robertson). The thought of a necrophile, zombie, detective film sounds appealing doesn’t it? The reality is a mess and, less forgivably, a boring mess.

Plot-wise Fragment takes you on detour into the underground world of snuff movies but doesn’t know what it wants to do when it gets there – the killer wants his DVD back (or does he want the girl, it’s never made completely clear), but the DVD plot could have been handled without introducing a character who is an authority on and procurer of snuff. This character is then dispatched in a manner completely incongruous with the rest of the film. By turns the narrative wants to be Eyes of Laura Mars, Final Destination, The Frighteners and 8mm but none of these aims sit well with each other.

Stylistically Andrew Miles’ film owes a debt to Michael Mann and film noir. All the sets are cold and urban, with neon lights flooding through window blinds. Everything is very clean and you spend the film wanting to wash the surfaces every time the oil covered psychopath or bloody victim touch anything. Unfortunately this was the most emotionally engaged I got whilst watching.

What could have been a nice little detective tale with an original, macabre twist ends up weighed down by its own humourlessness, seemingly unaware that the story’s preposterousness could actually have been its strength.

BTW, The trailer’s probably NSFW.

“FRAGMENT” – TRAILER from Kelvin Crumplin on Vimeo.

Since then, film-making has taken a backseat as his time has been taken up with organising this year’s festival and looking at the films on offer, it’s been time well spent. Opening the festival is the Vincent Price classic Last Man on Earth, the original movie adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend novel.

This is followed by Outcast, an interesting looking psychological horror from Ireland starring James Nesbitt.

Other recommendations from Halligan included:

Dream Home, a Hong Kong film about a woman who will do ‘anything’ to get that much sought after property and judging by the clip we were shown, she goes further than gazumping.

Chop, an American black comedy that puts a twist on the torture porn genre.

Amer, more art-house than horror with a nod to Argento, in evidence on the fantastic poster.

Evil: In the Time of Heroes, a Greek zombie horror comedy with half the action taking place in Ancient Greece. Frankly this film looks absolutely nuts.

Bedevilled, a promising looking Korean revenge tale.

Halligan and the rest of the festival organisers are also particularly excited to present Brit teens in peril horror 13hrs and will have members of its cast and crew for a Q&A session afterwards.

Other films on the line-up that DN’s looking forward to are:

We Are What We Are (Mexican cannibal family drama – god, those four words look great next to each other!)

Fragment (an Aussie flick about a guy who brings corpses back to life by photographing them, before getting emotionally involved with one)

Dead Hooker in a Trunk (hmm, really could go either way this one)

and Altitude (Canadian film about some friends on a plane that won’t stop ascending).

As well as films on offer there will be various guests, seminars, gaming and a special effects exhibition.  Jump over to grimmfest.com for details.

From Kanemoto:

Just so there’s no confusion, I’m not affiliated with the production in any way — I’m simply a huge fan of both Frank Darabont and Robert Kirkman, and this is my attempt at creating a cinematic introduction to one of the all time great “continuing stories of survival horror.”

Unless Imaginary Forces are already elbow deep into this, I suggest AMC save themselves the time and effort and just assign that budget line to Kanemoto. I’m also thinking that he should be given a gig creating inter-titles from the comics’ front covers for each episode.

THE WALKING DEAD “Opening Titles” from Daniel Kanemoto on Vimeo.

Despite being urged by practically all my comic loving friends for years to check it out, I only got round to reading Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead this week (I’m currently on issue 6). I thought that few things would make me as happy as the knowledge that I have a good 70 issues ahead of me; that is before I realised Frank Darabont was directing the AMC TV series which will be getting a good old 90 minute Halloween premiere as part of the network’s Fearfest programming.

You don’t need me to tell you the damage that’s more often than not been done to excellent comic books in the adaptation process, but with Darabont at the helm, writing and directing, Kirkman’s close association with the project and the 16mm exclusive shooting, I’m getting a good feeling on this one. I was also pleased to see Andrew Lincoln taking up the lead role as police officer Rick Grimes; This Life and Teachers aside he hasn’t really had many chances to shine.

Until October you can get your fear on with the trailer, just remember to aim for the head!

YouTube – The Walking Dead trailer.

Claire Denis is fast becoming one of the most respected and critically acclaimed directors in world cinema. With this in mind, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that before this week I could count the number of Denis films I’d seen on one finger (that film being Beau Travail). However, this week I managed to rectify this grave error on my part, by finally sitting down to watch her blood drenched, cult film of 2001, Trouble Every Day. whilst also heading off to the Curzon to watch her latest offering White Material.

Trouble Every Day tells the parallel stories of Shane (DN favourite Vincent Gallo) and Coré (Betty Blue sex bomb Béatrice Dalle), an American scientist and a French doctor’s wife, who both seem to be suffering from violent sexual appetites and a severe lust for blood. It’s a film impossible to pin down to genre, at times coming across as French erotic thriller, before switching to blood fuelled horror, whilst sometimes also managing to somewhat remind of aspects of Jim Jarmusch’s work (although maybe the appearance of Alex Descas just triggered that peculiar link in my jumbled mind). The unusual premise of the film originated from a dream the director had as child, when her mother’s bedtime kisses turned to bites and she started eating her.

Trouble Every Day is definitely not a film based around witty dialogue and quick talkers, in fact Denis’ film is almost silent at times and instead uses strong performances and distinctive cinematography to build a sinister atmosphere. Gallo plays the troubled Shane with his usual sense of style and individuality, injecting his character with an oddness that only he could. As Coré , Dalle brings a totally different kind of strangeness to the film, she slinks across the screen craving blood, skin and sex, as if she were the pure embodiment of raw lust. Her performance is almost animalistic at times and when she is feasting on what she most desires, you really believe the contented look in her eyes. At the complete opposite end of the scale, the stunning, pixie-like Tricia Vessey portrays Shane’s wife as the personification of innocence and purity. Newly wed and on her way to a Parisian honeymoon, she floats across the screen at the beginning of the film, radiating love for her husband. However, as Shane’s problems escalate, she soon appears to be carrying the weight of the world of her tiny frame and her carefree, untroubled nature soon becomes fragile and heavily burdened.

With inventive photography by her usual cinematic collaborator Agnès Godard, Denis has managed to create a film full of contradicting tones and emotions. With close up images of skin and cameras hugging characters’ necks, Trouble Every Day often has a highly intimate and sexually charged feel to it. Yet, the low-lit interiors of the doctor’s house and the trade corridors of the Parisian hotel, fill the film with a sense of dread and apprehension. This is obviously quite confusing for a viewer, as at times you are filled with compassion at the tenderness shown by the characters in the film, then all of a sudden thrown into a state of shock and disgust at their actions.

Trouble Every Day is definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, some will love it, many will hate it! My feet are firmly stuck in the love camp.

The film also features a haunting, trance inducing soundtrack from the Tindersticks, which in turn spawned the great video below.

White Material is similar to Trouble Every Day in terms of being a film that will split audiences, but its style and content couldn’t be more different.

Denis’ 10th full-length fiction film focuses on an unnamed area of Africa, ripe with political and social unrest and rapidly descending into a war zone. At the centre of the film is the resolute, stubborn Maria Vial (the ever-impressive Isabelle Huppert), a French colonist and coffee farmer, refusing to leave her home, despite the impending doom working its way towards her. In terms of story, we’re never spoon-fed too much information and as usual with a Denis film, we’re left to form our own readings and connect the dots.

Isabelle Huppert portrays Maria with a steely determination and unyielding drive, as her blinkered view seems to make her totally oblivious to the volatile situation she finds herself in. The character of Maria elicits mixed reactions for the viewer; at times she is admirable, as her strength and strong will keep her calm and controlled in a time of crisis. Whilst at other times, she is frustrating and selfish, as she puts her family, friends and workers in mortal peril by refusing to shut down and evacuate the plantation. Huppert must be on-screen for at least 75% of the films duration and although the actress is definitely the star attraction, she is capably backed up by some strong performances. Isaach De Bankolé carries on his strong, silent performance from Jim Jarmusch’s Limits of Control, as ‘the Boxer’, a rebel leader whose time is swiftly coming to an end. Whilst Nicolas Duvauchelle, as Maria’s lazy son, Manuel Vial, brings something unexpected to the film as his character transforms from bed-ridden layabout to shaven headed, rifle-wielding rebel.

White Material is a film full of tension, a tension that builds and builds as the film unwinds, the atmosphere bubbles away like a kettle warming up, knowing full well it will reach its boiling point very soon. Dramatic moments and vital information are never dwelled upon or over-played, but are instead casually introduced into the film’s narrative, like a passing comment. The underlying anxiety in the film comes from the unknown and the unexplained and this ambiguity has the viewer forever on edge, never knowing what to expect next. It’s a refreshing approach in an industry all to often riddled with the Hollywood approach of making sure we always know what to be afraid of and even guiding us when to be shocked or anxious.

As with Trouble Every Day, the directors’ latest film seems to straddle genres (not that a film has to be specifically defined to a genre, in fact a lot of the best films aren’t), instead, White Material giddily mixes parts from a variety of film types. There’s not enough war for this film to be a war film, not enough politics for it to be considering a political film and not enough thrills to be a thriller. What this film most certainly is though is a Claire Denis film. At times dreamlike, often intimate, yet always powerfully compelling, White Material has the talented director’s trademark style stamped all over it.

Bobby has set up a kickstarter page where, until the 6th June, you can pre-order the signed DVD or a signed DVD + poster combo and contribute to the $2000 goal that will see TUB joining video collections worldwide. The film alone is worth your hard earned but it’s chock-full of extras that make this a no brainer purchase!

TUB – Sundance Film Festival 2010 Short Film Trailer from Bobby Miller on Vimeo.

You can watch the first three episodes below, with the remaining three released in the run up to game launch.

NSFW – Contains boobs

Shooting a short can be, and often is, a grueling experience; so filming in -25ºC temperatures is something most would avoid. Luckily for us director Jonathan Van Tulleken is made of sterner stuff, otherwise we’d miss out on the opportunity of having his BAFTA nominated horror short, Off Season send shivers up our spins. Jonathan joins us to discuss freezing lenses and the inverse acting relationship between man and his best friend.

If you don’t know what to do directorially, it’s probably because there’s something quite weird going on with the script. Your blueprint isn’t telling you what you should do.

Off Season Materials
Script
Script Breakdown
Call Sheet

Showlinks
J Van Tulleken
Off Season
Red Camera
UK Film Council