Pulp Features

Independent cinema seems to be gaining in popularity at the moment. Not only because of surprise hits such as Donny Darko and The Blair Witch Project but also with the rise of digital filmmaking and DVD, enabling ever more independent filmmakers to bring their visions to a geographically diverse public. At the same time, there have been a host of scream queens making the rounds, appearing at conventions, in films, and on the web. One of these independent scream queens is Amy Lynn Best.

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Best has spent several years in indie films, learning the ropes from the ground up on the short
haunted house film, Tenants. She has since gone on to become both a director and very popular actress in many low budget horror films and has recently completed a screenplay, Envious Moon.

Aside from her work in film, Best is a trained dancer, an avid kickboxer and also a horsewoman, a master rider.

More recently she has been involved with the filming of The Resurrection Game - both as an actress, co-producer - along with long time associate, Mike Watt. The Resurrection Game is Best and Watt’s contribution to the zombie genre and blends a load of dark comedy with political commentary and outright horror.

In a recent interview for Hacker Source magazine, Best said of the film: “One theme of the movie is how big corporations can
manipulate society and get away with pretty much whatever they want. We have seen somewhat of a breakdown of this in the past couple of years, but it’s still there. There are too many big businesses out there who think that they are omnipotent-hence the God/Corp name (in the film). There are a few organized religions that seem to feel that way too. They can do anything they want because it’s in your best interest! Most people have gotten that out of the film. It’s pretty in your face.”

As well as appealing to the horror buffs and zombie lovers out there, The Resurrection Game also draws its audience from Best’s (rapidly growing) legion of fans, and possibly an even wider audience - the growing army of Americans who have become disillusioned with corporate America during the past decade, the increasingly vocal religious right and the antics of the
Bush administration. Time will tell.

As Sister Mary Bliss in this film, Best once again portrays a strong woman, staying true to her repeatedly stated a dislike for
‘weak” or traditional female roles as found in many horror – and especially slasher - films.

“Mike wrote the role of Sister Bliss for me. He knows I don’t like weak, stupid women’s roles and Sister Bliss is far from that. I really enjoyed playing her. She had her issues, but no one was going to get in her way. And she got to wear black leather and drive a motorcycle.”

As well as being a regular on the horror convention circuit - making appearances at various shows throughout the Midwest, including Frightvision, Chiller Theatre and the Pittsburgh Comicon, Best is also a co-founder of Happy Cloud Pictures who describe themselves as “decent, hard-working people, who just want to make movies.”

Happy Cloud’s second film Were-Grrl tells the story of a young woman who falls under an ancient Gypsy curse and is forced to spend each full moon as a lesbian and marks directorial debut of Amy Lynn Best

And if all that wasn’t enough, Best is also one of the people behind the website and magazine, Hollywood is Burning and moderates a forum where her fans can connect and keep informed.

Maplewoods is a film about zombies trapped in an abandoned experimental army town where experiments from the past that went awry are brought back to haunt the present.

This film, traditional in its Romero-esque interpretation of zombies, and rich in story and characters, is in the vein of Day of the Dead. It’s a film about the breakdown of order and loyalty when people are faced with monstrous realities.

Dave B. Stewart III is the writer and the director of this film.

Maplewoods is, in fact, just the first of many instalments…

Dave: I was going to say ‘episode’, but I didn’t want to sound too much like I was talking about ‘Star Wars.’

In this story. There are sequel and a prequel in pre-production. Dave has a total of 5 scripts ready, and the last films will require a big budget. Using the military as a basis for not only the storyline but as a metaphor for society’s hierarchy is an idea that came to Dave not from his own experiences in the Air Force, but rather from his grandfather. Tales of Nazi Germany hiding stores of occult lore and inhuman experiments throughout the third Reich inspired Dave to create the setting of Maplewoods: a community subjected to experiments by the U.S. Government.

Dave: My grandfather is a Military Historian, so growing up I learned a lot from him about the history of the military. Especially the war in Europe in WW2. So those stories and artefacts that he collected were a big influence in my creativity when it comes to my story telling when it involves the military. Castle Wolfenstein, the game, was based off the real SS castle during the war, I think it was either Castle Wolfburg or Weiwelsburg Castle I’m not too sure which one it was exactly. The SS conducted all sorts of occult experiments and bio weapon experiments there as well.

How does Dave describe the story of Maplewoods?

Dave: Maplewoods is a breakdown of the characters. There is a God Fearing soldier, and a soldier who finds out he might have no God after all. Things that are already dead, things that cannot be killed are chasing them. They have been set up by the government, by their own people. They have no loyalty, their oath means nothing. They have to go rogue to survive. It’s about these different points of view. The main character tries to get his men out of there, and tries to remain a team. They will deal with the betrayers when they get out, but their first priority is to Survive.

Reminded somehow of Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, and even Dog Soldiers, I can’t help but feel that Dave might be slightly annoyed when he sees such similar films achieving success at the box office.

Dave: It’s all about Budget and Money. They had a big budget and Hollywood behind them. They already had a huge following. But I feel that we preserved something for the Romero fans out there. Our zombies. The zombies in 28 Days Later and, it looks like, in the upcoming Dawn of the Dead remake, are not even zombies. They are fast. I think that’s going to scare away some the traditional zombie lovers.

And Dave, like so many, is of the mind that 28 Days Later is NOT a zombie movie.

Dave: It was more like Stephen King’s The Stand, or Romero’s The Crazies.

This is an issue that many die-hard zombie fans argue over: The “zombies” in 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake act more like fast vicious animals than zombies. There is something so awesome about a zombie trailing you slowly, its limbs falling off from decay, it’s jaws menacing as it desires to eat your brains….any animal can be frightening. Even ants can be scary. But it takes serious talent to make a dead person who is still decaying an actual threat….

Dave: I think they focused too much on CGI in Resident Evil.

I believe that too much CGI is used in horror films today. In fact, the other day, I watched Terminator 1 and 2 on television. The second terminator, though fabulous and great with all the computer stuff everywhere, cannot compare to the Harryhausen-esque scene in Terminator 1 that shows the robot eerily creeping toward its victims, the camera shaking, and the robot-puppet inching towards them like some insect or wicked toy…

But I digress. Dave’s film doesn’t use the computer as an excuse to avoid special effects.

Also, it’s expensive.

Dave: It’s a shame to put all that effort and hard work into the makeup and the effects and then cover it all up with computer imaging.

Something else important about Maplewoods that you may notice: it’s military is very accurate, according to the type of uniform, the weapons, the equipment…Dave is a stickler for accuracy.

Dave: In my film, people may ask why the special ops force isn’t wearing camouflage when they enter the town. They know what they are up against; they know who their enemy is. They wouldn’t be wearing camouflage. Their uniforms pay homage to the German history of the real experiments my film is based on.

It’s good to see a movie that doesn’t let its budget destroy the believability of the story.

Dave: I would have loved to have a helicopter, but oh well…

The thing that makes Maplewoods stand out as a film instead of just another zombie flick is the incredible attention to detail and dialogue that D.B. Stewart has paid. The storyline, like Romero’s Dead series, focuses on the breakdown of the world in steps. Like, 28 Days Later or Dog Soldiers, the rigid command breaks down under the stress of such an apocalyptic catastrophe. In order to figure out who will survives and who will be dead, the film explores how madness an loss of control can make a human being no better than the monsters around him/her, yet as a result, able to survive in the new harsh world.

Dave uses subtle acting and a good script to tell this story without all the razzle-dazzle that higher budget films employ. Because they had no budget for thousands of zombies and monstrous special effects, they focused on the characters. The ability to tell a story without one-liners or unnecessary dialogue is a talent that many film makers lack. Instead of making fun of himself and his film like so many indie horror filmmakers do, Dave takes himself, his budget, and his cast very seriously. He focused on the individuals and the inner structures of the characters.

Dave: When I write, I try to get my story across with characters and dialogue. Actions speak louder than words. I try to use facial expressions, tell my actors to ‘say it with their eyes’. Tell them to feel angst and disgust without saying anything. That adds to the suspense level. My actors got used to hearing me say, ‘hold that face!’ A film that inspires this kind of film making in me is The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly with Clint Eastwood. That last second where he’s in the standoff-and you can see the sweat coming off his skin and you can tell what he’s thinking…”

Would Dave ever make a horror western? I think that’s a really good idea.

Dave: It would have to be not like Army of Darkness. Ghost Town, wasn’t that old film western horror?

After seeing Maplewoods, I have some questions for Dave. Their own government sets up the special operatives team sent in to the town of Maplewoods to destroy the zombies. They discover a bomb planted there that will kill them. Why is this hypothetical government so intent on introducing a whole new batch of witnesses to this clandestine site – just to blow them sky high? Why not forget the rag tag crew and simply explode the facility? Is it to erase any possibility of Major Gibson revealing what he has known about since he was a child? Are the other soldiers somehow involved and have knowledge of Maplewoods and its experiments?

So many things I need to know….

Dave: There is an answer to that. My brother is writing the novelization of the book, and he explains it all far more in-depth. Ok…. The original story is that in 1971 the experiment took place when a chemical was leaked onto the town, turning everyone into a zombie. If you look in the scene in the medical facility where they discover the bomb, you’ll see a zombie kneeling on the floor in green camouflage-that uniform wasn’t in issue until the 80’s.

So where did that zombie come from if it wasn’t in the town in 1971 when all the shit went down?

Dave: The CIA and the military thought it was too risky for any of this information to ever get out to the public. They decided they’d better cover their tracks. They shut it down. They sent in an operative to place the bomb. Of course, he never got out alive. That was the day before the second team, the main characters of Maplewoods, were sent in. If you look closely in that scene, you can see the computer screen flashing something like, ‘I’ll see you in hell’.

AH.

There will be sequels. They are going to stick in a little Science Fiction, as well. Cloning, Dave suggests.

Aspiring filmmakers, beware of what Dave says:

Dave: Try not to trust too many people working in your organizations with website access.

He knows what he’s talking about.

The film premiered in 1999 and sold out. It was a very “positive experience”. Although it took Dave some trouble to get his first interview, in his town’s paper. The journalist said, ‘Do you know how many independent film skills come across my desk?’ to which Dave said, ‘How many of them are actually premiering publicly?’ The journalist replied, ‘Just Yours’.

Tough town, that is, Pennsylvania, the Zombie Capital.

Dave is shooting the sequel to Maplewoods this summer, and it should be out by the end of next year. He is also working on a project called Cult of the Dragon, about Nazi’s in WWII and the horrific things that no one knows…

You can buy Maplewoods through Cinema wasteland.

There is no in between as far as Pedro Almodóvar is concerned. You either love him or hate him. In any case, his reputation for uncanny scenes, twisted humor and sexual situations that would have been unthinkable - let alone filmable - in Franco’s Spain (the dictator, not the director) have earmarked a career that is still going strong. Almodóvar’s work is strange and fascinating, sure to offend the purists and the moralists at every turn.

His films are not for the born-againers, so to speak.

One of Almodóvar’s earliest works was Matador, with Antonio Banderas as an aspiring matador, who faints at the sight of blood. His trainer, retired matador, Diego Montes (played with amazing arrogance by Nacho Martinez), has been forced from the bullring due to a goring and no longer able to kill bulls, he kills women. (One of the darkly humorous opening scenes shows Martinez masturbating in front of a TV screen. One expects him to be watching pornography until when the camera shifts to the screen and he is seen masturbating to murder scenes from horror films). The matador encounters a lady attorney, played by Asumpta Serna, who coincidentally, is a serial killer herself, killing bullfighters. The two of them meet, have sex, then kill each other, leaving Banderas and the matador’s lover, Eva Cobo, behind.

Several other films followed and continue to follow, all with a cast of strange or oddball characters. Banderas has since moved on for the bright lights and bigger paycheques offered by Hollywood and it is probably safe to say that many of his fans would surely hate these earlier, pre-macho man works in which he plays either a wimp or a bungling idiot. Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, for example, has Banderas as a dim witted kidnapper in love with a drug addicted porno star, played by Victoria Abril. In the end, after all they go through together, they fall in love.

Almodóvar, who started out making silent, super 8mm short films as an amateur, has certainly come a long way, rising to the position of one of Europe’s most controversial and recognized directors. With his rise to stardom, his budgets have increased, where he has been able to work with more name actors and others. Ennio Morricone, for example, who provided music for Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down.

Others who have appeared in Almodóvar films as regulars or for one shot deals include Rosy De Palma, Concha Hidalgo, the late Paco Rabal (as a lust-driven film director in Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down), Nacho Martinez (who returned off of Matador, years later, to be in High Heels), Veronica Forque, Chus Lampreave and Julieta Serrano. He has also used famed… uh… “showgirl”, Bibi Anderson in various spots in his films.

Not everyone likes Almodóvar’s brand of dark humour. In fact, when Matador came out, many bullfighting fans – who were expecting something like Blood & Sand or The Sun Also Rises - were outright offended, failing to see that it was a comedy.

Regardless, one momentary and chilling scene stands out that no one missed. As the matador and his soon to be victim/suicide partner drive to a chalet where they will terminate their lives, he stops and buys flowers from a vendor. The vendor offers to read his palm, and then draws back in horror when the recipient’s destiny is revealed. The matador gives her a little grin, shrugs, and moves on, as if to say, “Yeah…you got it right…”

Not for everybody, but beloved by his growing legion of fans, Pedro Almodóvar will be someone to watch for a long time to come. With the formation of the Deseo production company to crank out his films, finances and distribution should no longer be the problem they once were, leaving him plenty of way to create, make people laugh and even, occasionally, offend.