Film at Eleven

Two films have just been released on DVD that are worth checking out.

The Horror Vault (review, trailer) brings together nine films around a common theme of madness and cruelty and it’s well worth looking into and one which manages to maintain a consistently high standard throughout. The Unrated Uncut Special Edition of this film can be purchased from the film’s official site.

Also out is Deadly Pursuit (trailer) in which things are about to get a lot tougher for LA detective Michael Denison. The limited edition DVD of Deadly Pursuit can also be purchased from the film’s official site.

Alter Ego Cinema have launched the official subsite for I Fell In Love With The Devil’s Daughter.

The film, which follows a young Japanese Girl in a small American town, involving sex, murder, cannibalism and spirituality, is set to begin shooting this Spring by Amateur Porn Star Killer creator Shane Ryan.

“I grew up on Shô Kosugi films (with “Revenge of the Ninja”, “Enter the Ninja” and “Black Eagle” being my favorites) from the time I was about 3 until I was about 10 (and was also a huge fan of TMNT) before other interests took over. Eventually I became interested in small town stories (my most recent favorites being “Dandelion”, “Rain” the Martin Scorsese presentation, among others). And I just spent the past 2 years of my life dating a Japanese Girl, so I guess this is like a combo of everything. I’ve always had some kind of connection to Japan. My only other long-term relationship the girl had been born in Japan. Michiko (who I worked with in numerous films, including APSK) was born in Japan. And we had a couple Japanese girls stay with us when I was in high school as a foreign exchange program, so I think it was inevitable that I eventually make something Japanese.” -Shane Ryan

Filming was postponed while Shane needed to prep for Amateur Porn Star Killer 3, but they plan to get back on track very soon. “This will be my first non-mockumentary feature released”, says Shane. Expect to see it early next year.

Red Princess Blues Animated: The Book of Violence, the 7 minute animated film starring Paula Garces, will be screening at the Cannes International Film Festival 2008 Short Film Corner.

From Keith Crocker, director of 1997’s The Bloody Ape comes a brand-new Nazi exploitation flick for 2008! For nearly 30 years no one has dared tackle the genre, leaving us rerunning Ilsa in our VHS, laserdisc and DVD players. Now, dressed in authentic period costumes and refashioning New York, Long Island locales, Crocker has fathomed a return to the glorious ’70s when the Nazi genre was more grindhouse fodder rather than a political nod. Handing his feature opus over to Wild Eye, the film has been pistol-whipped into shape for a limited theatrical release.

During the final days of World War II, Helmut Schultz and his cohorts in Nazi crime terrorize the prisoners with biochemical weapons experiments and shoot-on-sight torture for entertainment. After a captured showgirl, the voluptuous Southern belle Candice, escapes her captors and hides out in the women’s camp, other ragamuffin defenders bolster up their wits to overthrow on the Nazi demons, even if it means leaving the camp on a slab… while Russian POW Natasha takes on soldier after soldier using only her body and her wits as she tackles the brown and black shirts all on her naked own.

Featuring fan favorite Brandon Slagle (guest at the 2008 Austin Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors), and a cast willing to get naked and bloody, Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 has all the violence, gore and torture you would hope for a Nazi exploitation flick, filtered through the underground auteur sensibility of Nathan Schiff contemporary Keith Crocker. Which means it’s got just a teench (okay, maybe a pinch) of that good ol’ John Waters camp touch.

Wild Eye Releasing is platforming the release with several playdates across the US with professional movie posters and lobby card sets, just like they used to make ‘em. This grindhouse treat comes complete with absolutely no rating system in place, no judge nor jury except for the viewers themselves.

The official poster for Danish retro-thriller, No Right Turn has been released. And here it is…

The film is currently in post-production and will - hopefully - be released very soon. In the meantime, check out these stills

Mama and Damian (review, trailer) is now available on indieflix.com for $9.95. Now is your chance to own this cult comedy about a dominatrix and her bear-boy son for an amazing price!

Click here for ordering and information about the film.

Bavaria Film International has sold all rights to its European Film Market hit Let The Right One In to Magnet, Magnolia Pictures new genre arm, for North America. Right on the heels of its first market screening negotiations got under way over Thomas Alfredson’s romantic horror film and two times Gothenburg award winner with Magnolia finishing the race.

Let The Right One In, based on a best-selling novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, tells the story of a lonely twelve year-old boy and his friendship with a young girl, who appears to be a vampire.

“This modern-day vampire romance proves to have the right amount of poetic art house feel injected into the horror genre and therefore appeals to a wide audience”, says Stefanie Zeitler, Head of Sales with Bavaria Film International. “The cross-over potential is immense and I am very glad that Magnolia sees it the same way. They are the perfect partner as they have proven the right touch for films like this and we look forward to this cooperation”.

“A stand out film in any market or festival, ‘Let The Right One In’ is a master work of horror,“ says Tom Quinn, Senior Vice President at Magnolia. „What Bong Joon Ho’s ‘The Host’ did for monsters, Tomas Alfredson’s ‘Let The Right One In’ will do for vampires.“

Quickly becoming an underground sensation, a man with a camcorder, a girl, a motel room, and nothing else, managed to make a $45 movie that has not only ranked up approx $45,000 in sales since it’s November 2007 release, but is a huge critical success as well, spawning a sequel due out next month. And to top that off, filmmaker Shane Ryan even broke his own record, producing the sequel with just $20, once again creating the cheapest feature film ever made to garner a distribution deal.

Film Threat and Pretty Scary were the first to acclaim the movie calling it “very realistic and utterly unforgettable” and “downright mesmerizing”, respectively. Ryan spent a year pushing the film to critics and distributors (avoiding festivals for the most part after spending 4 years and nearly $10,000 on getting his short films into film events). The film created a lot of controversy on the net simply because of the title, Amateur Porn Star Killer, and the trailer, featuring a 13 year old victim being talked into making a “home movie”. Nothing much else happened with the film the first year, though, so Ryan slightly re-cut it and then started up again in 2006. “After the re-cut things blew up” says Ryan. The attention blossomed even more and critics kept loving it. The distributors, unfortunately, shied away, calling the film too risqué, and/or not knowing how to categorize it. Some called it horror, yet the film features not one drop of blood. Some stores, since it’s release, have labeled it under mature, though Ryan insists it’s a drama.

Exact details seem to be shady, but apparently the film was overlooked at one particular company. Later it was rediscovered and picked up through another company. It was set to be released as part of a Grindhouse series last year but when Tarantino and Rodriguez’s 70’s throwback saw disappointing box office results the series was, for the most part, cancelled. It then came down to, “can ‘Amateur Porn Star Killer’ sell on it’s own?” Ryan insisted it could, mainly because of the in-your-face title, and to make a long story short, is has done pretty well for itself. “But what now”, thought Ryan. He didn’t want to spend another 3 years trying to get a feature distributed, so the next best thing, make a sequel. Apparently is worked as we will see Amateur Porn Star Killer 2 on DVD this May 13th with a Los Angeles Theatre release set for some time around late March.

The success of “APSK” will also allow Ryan to shoot “I Fell In Love With The Devil’s Daughter”, a movie about a Japanese woman who doesn’t speak English trapped in a small American town, with sex, murder, cannibalism, and lots of fun and drama. This time we’ll get a real movie versus a mockumentary, which has almost become Ryan’s trademark. In the meantime, for those who have not yet seen the first “Amateur Porn Star Killer”, it is now available to download directly to your computer from Eztakes.com, or you can just pick up your copy through the film’s website.

“APSK” is Distributed by Cinema Epoch.

Back in August I mentioned The Horror Vault, an anthology of horror films one of which was Dead to The World. At the time Dead to the World was about a man who has to take care of a haunted house after its owner dies. But things have changed.

Dead to the World will still be appearing on The Horror Vault, but the 15 minute film has been significantly reworked so that it now tells the story of Ted Bundy’s most violent killing spree.

And we have stills…


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Rogues Harbor Studios’ inaugural release, the award-winning documentary Shoot Down, will open theatrically in select US cities on January 25, the studio announced today.

The film, by first-time director and Rogues Harbor co-founder Cristina Khuly, a Miami native, is the first feature-length film to take on the true and gripping story of the 1996 shoot down of two unarmed U.S. civilian planes by Cuban fighter jets.

Winner of 2007 Sonoma Film Festival honors for Best Documentary, Shoot Down follows on the critically acclaimed War/Dance, of which Rogues Harbor Studios was an associate producer.