June 2007

Devil Girl

Devil Girl poster Fay is a small town girl on a cross country road trip, trying to escape her own reality after the death of her father. When her muscle car breaks down during a drag race she finds herself stranded along route 66 in an isolated desert town.

Short on cash, she makes a series of choices to make enough money to repair her car. After encountering a neurotic, drug abusing clown she finds herself sliding down a dark spiral. Soon , her road trip starts to devolve into a living nightmare. Trapped and desperate, she fights to regain her identity while navigating through a host of locals: a creepy motel clerk, an overzealous preacher, and a sexy temptress with horns and a tail.

According to the quote on the first page of the film’s site, “Devil Girl was the movie we were hoping Rob Zombie would give us when we settled for House of 1000 Corpses”.

The Trailer

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Dirty Habit

Dirty Habit poster A crack-addicted prostitute and a nun get stuck on an elevator. One is going to, one is coming from, a meeting with a killer.

In a seedy hotel, battered prostitute Leslie (Kirsty Hinchcliffe) flees the scene of a crime only to get trapped on the elevator with young Sister Amelia (Reagan Dale Neis). When no one responds to their cries for help, they reluctantly turn to each other. Leslie starts smoking crack and goes from standoffish, to giddy, to ferociously hostile at the drop of a hat. The unlucky sister learns more than she wants about the violent crime Leslie has just perpetrated. Tensions mount as Leslie pries into Sister Amelia’s private affairs and they discover a shared secret that binds them together in a macabre and surreal plot involving a talking handbag and a Catholic bishop (Sam Anderson).

Dirty Habit is a dark, hallucinatory ride with powerful performances and supernatural thrills that goes straight to the heart of a girl on her way to Hell.

The Trailer

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It Came from the West

Still from It Came from the West Virgil lives alone with his bully father and a mute bartender and he is being mocked by the two tough cowboys Eddie and Hank. Because of The Dark Butcher who has been terrorizing the local Indian tribe, the Indians see no other way, than bringing the dead to live by performing The Forbidden Rituals. When the Zombies suddenly attack the saloon, action begins and true characters are brought to daylight.

It Came from the West is inspired by Sergio Leones’s classic Westerns as well as the legendary films by Peter Jackson and George A. Romero and there are several references to the genres to be found in the film. The style is a mixture of hand held puppets and animation. Besides the funny characters and the gory action, it is the richness of highly prepared and surprising details that makes this film a unique experience full of dark humour.

The Teaser

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Trailer 1

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Trailer 2

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B.I.K.E.

A bike from BIKE Two filmmakers infiltrate an underground bicycle club.

Driven by anti-materialism and a belief that the impending apocalypse will render cars useless and leave bicycles in power, Black Label Bike Club (BLBC) battles mainstream consumer culture and rival gangs for its vision of a better tomorrow. Pulling threads from Critical Mass and the wider bike counterculture, B.I.K.E. explores such themes as radical politics, personal artistic vision, global responsibility, relationships, group formation, and perhaps most prominently, pain and love.

Co-directors, Jacob Septimus and Anthony Howard follow the Brooklyn chapter of BLBC for over two years to meetings, parties, jousts, gatherings of the tribes in Amsterdam and Minneapolis, and the protests of the 2004 Republican National Convention to create their masterpiece.

This fascinating and gorgeously gritty film provides insight into a passionate subculture, and exposes the darker aspects of living on the wild side. Edited from over 385 hours of footage for over 2 years Fountainhead Films presents B.I.K.E., a riveting look into the ways in which identity is important for a collective of fiercely independent people.

The Trailer

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(Found at Twitch)

1408

1408 poster The only demons in room 1408 are those within you.

Renowned horror novelist Mike Enslin (John Cusack) only believes what he can see with his own two eyes. After a string of best sellers discrediting paranormal events in the most infamous haunted houses and graveyards around the world, he scoffs at the concept of an afterlife. Enslin’s phantom-free run of long and lonely nights is about to change forever when he checks into suite 1408 of the notorious Dolphin Hotel for his latest project, “Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms.”

Defying the warnings of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson), the author is the first person in years to stay in the reputedly haunted room. Another best seller may be imminent, but like all Stephen King heroes, Enslin must go from sceptic to true believer - and ultimately survive the night.

The Trailer

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The Vanguard

Still from The Vanguard 2015 - the world is in chaos - the last known oil-fields have been vanquished, over-population has reached critical levels and mankind is about to become a thing of the past.

Out of this apocalyptic nightmare, an entity known only as The Corporation devise a course of action to cull the human race and initialise a depopulation programme. But in a last ditch attempt to save mankind, the scientists tasked with this act revolt and create a drug that reduces humans to a primitive ape-like state, known as Biosyns. Their sight reduced to virtual blindness, the Biosyns rely on sight and sound to survive.

But for Max - a young man cast adrift into the wilderness to live as a hunter-gatherer - the Biosysns are the enemy, and must be fought in order to preserve his very existence. Max has forged a life without human existence and every day is a battle to stay alive.

And then the Biosyns begin to evolve - learning first to communicate, then banding together, their vision slowly returning - and now they’re coming for Max. And so is The Corporation…

Matthew Hope’s The Vanguard is currently in post-production and due to be released later this year.

The Trailer

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(Found at Late Film)

The Chair

Poster for The Chair Danielle, a young psychology student, is trying to rebuild her life when she sublets a century-old Victorian house. Unknowingly, she awakens an evil specter lurking in the dark recesses of her new home. To prove to her sister, Anna, that she isn’t delusional again, Danielle sets out to document the haunting with horrifying results. She unleashes the soul of Edgar Crowe, a vicious child killer, who quickly seizes control of her life. Hungry to satisfy his taste for torturing boys, Crowe uses Danielle like a pawn to resurrect his ghastly “Panic Chair.” Now, Anna faces an impossible task - destroy Crowe without destroying her sister. The solution comes to Anna, but is it buried too deeply in the long dead past for her to reach?

The Chair, which was originally known as Hush, has just wrapped production.

The Trailer

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(Found at Twitch)

The King of Kong

Poster for The King of Kong A middle-school science teacher and a hot sauce mogul vie for the Guinness World Record on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong.

In 1982, LIFE Magazine assembled the world’s greatest gamers for a photo shoot that would become the center spread of their 1982 Year-In-Photos edition. Billy Mitchell, who would later be named the “Gamer of the Century,” was one of the invitees.

Mitchell, the World Record holder on Centipede, had been tracking the score on Donkey Kong, and knew he could take that title as well. In front of the 20 best gamers in the world, Billy scored 874,300 points, a record many thought would never be broken.

In 2003, 35 year old family man Steve Wiebe, after losing his job at Boeing, found solace in Donkey Kong. Steve stumbled upon Billy Mitchell’s record online, and set out to break it. He began perfecting his game every night after his wife and kids went to bed, and not only surpassed Billy’s record, but ended up with a thought-to-be-impossible 1,000,000 points.

A tidal wave of media coverage followed, and Steve Wiebe quickly became a celebrity in his hometown of Seattle, WA. He also rediscovered his love for teaching, and regained the respect of all who once doubted him. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, FL, Billy Mitchell hatched a plan to reclaim his fallen Donkey Kong record?

In the months that followed, Steve and Billy engaged in a cross-country duel to see who could set the high score that would be included in the 2007 Guinness World Records’ book and become The King of Kong. Along the way, both men learned valuable lessons about what it means to be a father, a husband, and a true champion? discovering that you don’t always need to win to be a winner.

The King of Kong is due to be released on August 17th.

The Trailer

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Black Gold

Black Gold Multinational coffee companies now rule our shopping malls and supermarkets and dominate the industry worth over $80 billion, making coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil.

But while we continue to pay for our lattes and cappuccinos, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields.

Nowhere is this paradox more evident than in Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee. Tadesse Meskela is one man on a mission to save his 74,000 struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price.

Against the backdrop of Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the enormous power of the multinational players that dominate the world’s coffee trade becomes apparent. New York commodity traders, the international coffee exchanges, and the double dealings of trade ministers at the World Trade Organisation reveal the many challenges Tadesse faces in his quest for a long term solution for his farmers.

Black Gold is currently on release in the UK. Go see it.

The Trailer

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Pirates of the Great Salt Lake

Pirates of the Great Salt Lake poster Pirates of the Great Salt Lake is the story of Captain Kirk Redgrave and Flint Weaver, who met only three weeks ago. But that hasn’t stopped them from becoming the greatest pirates the Great Salt Lake has ever known.

Still, pirate life isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. For Kirk, it’s a life of failure. For Flint, one without reward. That is until they stumble across a long lost treasure map that brings them into battle with a ruthless rival.

And so the race is on for a booty that has the power to not only fulfil their wildest pirate dreams, but curse them as well.

The Tease Arr!

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The Trailer

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