Film at Eleven

Writer-director Richard Gale and horror filmmaking collective Fewdio were audience favorites at the first annual Daggers short film festival; so was Transrexia, a stop-motion animation treat by the multi-talented Voltaire, who appeared in person on the festival’s first night.

“While the films that won audience’s hearts certainly deserve acclaim,” observes Festival Director Peter Gutierrez, “I’m most pleased to report that eight of the nine films we screened garnered votes in both the Best Film and the Best Film ‘Pound for Pound’ categories. That points to the overall quality of the entries and the success of Daggers’ something-for-everyone approach to programming.”

The two other categories on which audience members voted on October 22 and October 23 were Scariest Film and Scariest Film “Pound for Pound” (explained on the ballot as “Fear & Dread per Minute”). And although their overall voting results were quite different, these two categories amazingly yielded the same top 1-2 finishers:

Audience Awards for Scariest Film and Scariest Film “Pound for Pound”: Criticized (Audience Award), written and directed by Richard Gale; Creep (Honorable Mention), directed by Drew Daywalt and David Schneider, written by Drew Daywalt

Even more remarkably, the voting in the coveted Best Film category resulted in a dead tie. So although perhaps offensive to grammarians and the late George Carlin, co-winners of the Audience Award for Best Film were: The Tale of Haunted Mike, written and directed by Drew Daywalt and David Schneider, and Criticized, written and directed by Richard Gale

You read that right, Alex Ferrari’s Red Princess Blues is going where no independent film has gone before and is releasing Red Princess Blues: Blade of Vengeance, the video game based on the upcoming feature film Red Princess Blues.

The animated prequel has already been released and the much anticipated feature is getting close. In the meantime, click here to check out the stunning looking trailer for the game.

Hell on Earth comes to New York on 24th October, with Gothkill: The Soul Collector.

This tongue-in-cheek occult horror outing features a willing cast of New York underground and avant guard music and fetish performers, including Flambeaux, Eve Blackwater, and a special appearance from FUSE’s Mistress Juliya.

When Catholic Priest and Inquisitor Nicholas Dread finds out that innocents are being burned as witches he decides to do something about it. Unfortunately for him, his superiors don’t agree and he’s burned at the stake alongside two women he forced confessions from. While dying, Nick curses god and makes a pact with Satan to reign over his own kingdom someday at any cost.

Now, in 21st century New York City, Dread has returned to finish the deal. His end of the bargain with Satan must be fufilled, and many will die so Dread can take the throne in his kingdom of over one hundred thousand corrupt souls. He just has to find the right bunch of victims…and it just so happens the best Goth Club in the city is ripe for this bloodthirsty butcher bent on revenge!

Can a group of Goths and wanna-be vampires hold their own when the real thing arrives?

For more information, visit www.twoboots.com/pioneer. Tickets can be ordered from Tix.com.

Wild Eye Releasing presents the first Nazisploitation film made in nearly 30 years, one that has been called “The most daring and disturbing exploitation roughie to attack the screen this century,” and the film that made director Uwe Boll proclaim “Blitzkrieg should be screened in German schools to teach German kids what the Nazis really did.”

Wednesday, October 22nd. Two shows 7:30pm & 10:30pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema (Alamo Westlakes) 1255 SW Loop 410, San Antonio, TX 78227. 210-677-8500.

During the last days of World War II, Helmut Schultz and his cohorts in Nazi terror brutalize their POWs with biochemical weapons experiments and torture for entertainment. After a group of captured showgirls arrive at the camp, the women begin to plot their escape alongside the other misfit prisoners in hopes of overthrowing the Nazi demons, even if it means leaving the camp on a slab. Meanwhile, ritually-tortured Russian prisoner Natasha takes on soldier after soldier using only her body and her wits as she gouges, gores and guns down the brown and black shirts and paves a path for the bloodiest, most brutal Blitzkrieg ever committed in any war!

No one admitted into the theater without a Blitzkrieg Barf Bag, which will be given out with each ticket purchase at the box office.

Preliminary production on BiFF JUGGERNAUT’s newest feature flick, Dead Sucks, is underway.

Written originally as a feature-length TV pilot, the film’s writer/director Elias (LovecraCked! The Movie, The Voice Inside) would like to see the movie spawn a series or at the very least some sequels.

Dead Sucks chronicles the misadventures of Burt, a wayward vampire with a messy past, an uncertain future and a disproportionate need for sleep. Rejected by both vampires and humans alike, he searches to find his place in a world where the only thing that sucks more than being alive is being dead.

A teaser trailer, pics and more are now available on the movie’s official site www.deadsucks.com. Look for a full trailer soon, to be followed by the online release of a short prologue (the first 7 minutes of the film), intended to give viewers a taste of what’s to come.

Between the mid 50s and the early 70s, Britain was the undisputed king of the Horror Film. Before American horror maestros like Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter came along British horror films were painting the screen red with what affectionately became known as ‘Kensington Gore’. Off the back of these films actors such as Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price became stars and household names… although not necessarily the kind you would invite in for a drop of red.

It was not always like this. Before seminal Hammer Horror film The Quatermass Xperiment (its title a play on the new, adults-only X certificate) was released in 1955, British horror films were the victim of a strange bit of legislation by the Board of Film Censorship, stating that nothing produced in the horror genre could be ‘too horrific’. The new certificate changed all this, ushering in two decades of classic films like The Beast Must Die, Peeping Tom and The Wicker Man which took the genre to new heights.

Then, just as quickly as the revolution took hold, the British Horror Film vanished…

Since then, there have been some great British horror films - just not nearly in the same numbers nor so recognisably British as they had been. Now, two British filmmakers - Luke Dormehl and Tom Atkinson - are helping to bring back British horror with an exciting and groundbreaking new project called The 10 Pound Horror Film. The idea behind the concept is simple: through contributions of £10 (far less than the cost of an average night out!), to take audiences on the journey of creating a 21st century British Horror film.

Contributors, (nicknamed 10 Pound Horror Fiends) can subscribe to the website at www.the10poundhorrorfilm.com and follow the progress of the film throughout production with regular blogs, behind-the-scenes videos and a chance to interact with the filmmakers themselves. For people with talent wanting to help with the production there is also the chance to get involved! In addition, every 10 Pound Horror Fiend receives a free exclusive personalised frame of the film upon its completion. Every penny raised will go into funding the making of the film. So far, The 10 Pound Horror Film has won support from international horror film icons such as John Landis (American Werewolf in London), Kane Hodder (Jason from the Friday the 13th saga), Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Spaced).

Initial interest in the production has been huge. The teaser trailer has had over 70,000 views on YouTube and in its first weeks online the website has already attracted thousands of hits from around the world. For more information on this project and how to get involved with the UK’s most exciting independent film production, visit www.the10poundhorrorfilm.com

Imagine…it’s a cold, eerie night. Outside, the wind is howling. The clock strikes midnight. You hear a knock at the door. Carefully…cautiously…you open the door and find…it’s Terror Film Festival calling!! Get your tricks and get your treats, because it’s the funnest, coolest, and scariest Halloween event on the entire East Coast!! Move over Edgar Allan, step aside Vlad, and keep your shirt on Mr. Incredible Hulk…because there’s a new scary in town. And it’s waiting for you at…Terror Film Festival.

Now in its 3rd year, the Terror Film Festival is a world renowned international independent film festival that runs every October in the heart of Philadelphia PA at the prestigiously creepy Ethical Society Building (right across from beautiful Rittenhouse Square). It’s Halloween Cinematic!! And the energy level of having so many creative artists in one place is a life changing experience that will fill your heart with warmth for years to come. Plus, the Claw Awards ceremony on Saturday night is one of the most exciting live award shows on the East Coast. Hosted by Shawn Cain and Julie Robbins of Blog Talk Radio’s Independent Film United, it’s an event you don’t want to miss. And it’s all presented by the lovely, Princess Horror.

Among the attendees this year will be Alan Howarth (Academy Award winning sound and music team on The Hunt for Red October, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Back to the Future 3, and Flatliners, and Sound FX Master on Star Trek 1-5, Stargate, The Mask, Fortress, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Army of Darkness, and, John Carpenter’s personal music composer on Halloween 2-6, Big Trouble in Little China, Christine, and Escape from New York. Alan Howarth is one of Hollywood’s best.

Some of the films being screened at the festival this year are Lunicidal from hometown director/writer Norman Macera (now working on his next feature with Willie Nelson); Eel Girl from Aussie director Paul Campion; Swamp Devil starring Bruce Dern; Alien Raiders, Warner Brothers’ new sci-fi action flick due out mid-2009 (this is a special sneak peek!); Kirksdale, director Ryan Spindell’s extremely creepy horror film that will make you cringe; Basement Jack the 2nd in the Necropolitan film series and starring a killer so handsome that women just die for him; Squeal a frightening tale of a detour gone horribly wrong; Attackazoids! an awesome sci-fi film with incredible style; and, Gomeda a stunning and idiosyncratic visual composition and adventurous exploration in surrealism, brilliantly scored with haunting and alluring music. “As you can see, there’s something for everyone and every film is outstanding”, says TFF spokesperson, Princess Horror.

Among some of the other local filmmakers at TFF this year will be Mitch Csanadi with Nothing Face; Charles Christman III with The Eye of Menw (review, trailer); Kevin Corcoran with Cube Zombies; Soo Hee Han’s First Memories; Chris McGuinness’ Serial TV; Ted Roach with Morphine; Steve Oskie the screenwriter for Dead Meat; and, Jason Contina the screenwriter for Remake.

Showtimes are Tuesday to Friday 5pm, 6:45pm, and 8pm. Saturday 1pm, 2:45pm, 4:30 pm, 6:15 pm, and the Claw Awards at 9 pm. Tickets for TFF start at $7.50 and are available from TerrorFilmFestival.net.

If you had success with someone, doesn’t it make sense to do it again? That’s what Lee Perkins thought when Justin Paul Ritter asked him to do a voice for his animated horror film The Living Corpse.

The film is based on the comic of the same name, Ken Haeser and Buz Hasson. Morris Ruskin from Shorelineis producing.

Perkins is playing Timmons, the Administrator of the East Bend Boarding School where displaced children end up.

Wild Eye presents another double dose of deadly Grindhouse trash in New York City on Saturday, October 18th starting at 10pm at the Pioneer Theater, 155 East 3rd Street at Avenue A. All trailers and films are screened from 35mm prints!

The splatter and chatter starts with The Son of the New York Grindhouse Trailer Show, an all-new collection of original Horror and Trash trailers from the 60s, 70s & 80s – and featuring monsters, madmen and the bad make-up effects you’ve come to love and laugh at.

Following the trailers is the famously freaky flick by renowned schlock director Ted Mikels’ – the 1972 garbage classic, The Corpse Grinders – and featuring a special call-in introduction of the film by Ted himself, direct from Nevada!

When the owners of the Lotus Cat Food Company (manufacturers of an exotic, high-priced type of kitty chow), run short of cash, they find themselves in big trouble with their suppliers. The two disreputable partners soon turn to a new and plentiful source for product – fresh cadavers! Grave robbing and unreported murders soon provide plenty of raw material for “the food cats crave,” but there’s only one problem – pussies all over town have begin pounding on and killing their human owners, filled with a newly-found taste for human flesh! Bone-Crushing Terror! Corpse-Raising Chills! Killer Kitty-Kats!

The Wild Eye trailer nights always sell out, so be sure to reserve your tickets early!

For more information, visit the Pioneer website. Tickets can be ordered from Tix.com.

The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the premier venue for nonfiction film in the American West, is seeking submissions for its sixth annual event. From February 13-22, 2009 the festival will screen 100 films, including world and U.S. premieres, classics, rare and experimental works on Montana’s largest screen at the historic Wilma Theater in downtown Missoula, Montana. In addition to ten days of screenings, the event will feature many public and VIP events including panel discussions, galas, receptions and networking round-tables.

The competitive event is open to non-fiction films and videos of all genres, subject matter, lengths and production dates. Awards and cash prizes will be given for Best Documentary Feature (over 50 minutes), Best Documentary Short (15-50 minutes), Best Mini-Doc (under 15 minutes) and best documentary about the American West (the “Big Sky Award”).

The final deadline is October 20th and you can enter via Withoutabox or download entry form in pdf format from the Big Sky website.