It's here, that one event of the year that could be called the horrorphile's Christmas. That's the release of After Dark Horrorfest 4, 8 Films to Die 4. This is eight movies that were picked for the Horrorfest Film Festival held in January.
After Dark Films formed as an independent studio and partnered with Lions Gate Films to release An American Haunting, they began the annual festival called Horrorfest. Every year has drawn better and better writers and directors, and this year is the best yet with films from Britain, Australia and Norway as well as right here at home; the directorial debut of comic favorite Brian Pulido; a screenplay based on the twisted working of Clive Barker; and performances by some of the unknowns, up and comers, and established names such as Bill Mosley, Tony Todd, Jackson Rathbone and Taryn Manning. And this year we have ghosts, time manipulation, school gone wrong, mental problems, a demon savior, zombies and an experiment in revenge.
There's two types of people, victims and killers.
My first tale of terror is called Kill Theory. A man (Kevin Gage – Sugar Creek) is being released from prison and is receiving his therapy appointments. His crime is that during a hiking trip, he and three friends become stranded tied to a cliff face, and he cuts them loose to save himself. The man doesn't see the need for further sessions stating "Anyone would do the same thing in the same situation", but the therapist, Dr. Tuftin (Don McManus – Ocean's Thirteen), disagrees. Jump forward to a group of vacationing college students, Amber (Ryanne Duzich – Friday Night Lights), Brent (Teddy Dunn – Jumper), Freddy (Daniel Franzese – Killer Pad), Jennifer (Agnes Bruckner – Blood and Chocolate), Michael (Patrick Fleuger – Brothers), Nicole (Steffi Wickens – Safe) and Carlos (Theo Rossi – Sons of Anarchy), heading out for a party in the country. Brent's step-sister Alex (Taryn Manning – Sons of Anarchy) shows up as well. The alcohol flows, sex is anticipated and all signs point to a great time, until Nicole comes flying through a window with her throat cut and a video made by the killer. It seems that he's going to force the partiers to play Battle Royale for three hours.
Special Features:
– Kill Theory: Behind the Scenes
– Deleted Scenes including two alternate beginnings
– Original Trailer
They're just like you…only dead.
The next film involves those lovable, cuddly eaters of flesh, zombies. Zombies of Mass Destruction take a humorous, tongue-in-cheek look at a zombie invasion of the town of Port Gamble, Washington.
The town of Port Gamble is a quaint, quiet little town where everybody knows each other and they all live peaceful lives – until terrorists unleash a zombie plague on the sleepy 'burb. Then everyone's fears and prejudices surface and ZMD takes a poke at the funny side of human nature.
Frida (Janette Armand – film debut) is of Iranian descent that has to fight not only zombies but her heritage as well. Joining in the fight are Tom Hunt (Doug Fahl – film debut) and his significant other Lance Murphy (Cooper Hopkins – film debut), who have come to Port Gamble to come out to Tom's mother (Linda Jensen – Perfect Sport), only to fight for their lives against zombies and the religious zealots who believe they can be tortured straight. Throw in Frida's father (Ali Hamedani – film debut), incumbent Mayor Burton (James Mesher – A Thousand Men and a Baby), his opponent Cheryl Banks (Cornelia Moore – film debut), Reverend Haggis (Bill Johns – The Decapitator) and the Miller Family – mom Judy (Victoria Drake – Seconds) who is bitten by a zombie, son Brian (Andrew Hyde – film debut) who has a thing for Frida and dad Joe (Russell Hodgkinson – The Big Fish), who insists on torturing Frida to get her to confess to having a part in the terror plot.
Special Features include:
– The Making of ZMD: The Zombies of Mass Destruction
Alice Palmer died…her nightmare didn't.
Lake Mungo comes to us from down under and is a documentary style movie that starts with the accidental drowning of Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker – Ned Kelly) and the mysterious events that plague her family.
Sixteen year old Alice drowns while swimming in the lake during a family outing with mom June (Rosie Traynor – Rush), dad Russell (David Pledger – Waiting at the Royal) and brother Matthew (Martin Sharpe – Neon Skin), but her apparition keeps showing up at various times. This is a strangely compelling movie that captures your interest with the intrigue and mystery surrounding her life prior to drowning, and the events following. While not a horror film in the classic sense, there is an element of the supernatural present, and when coupled with the mystery of Alice, this is a great movie for squeamish and jaded alike.
Special Features:
– Producers Trailer
– Original Trailer
Fear what you can't see.
The next movie comes to us from Norway in the form of psychological thriller, Hidden.
Kai Koss (Kristoffer Joner) has come home, after nineteen years, to settle his mothers' estate, which KK tries to do by burning the house to the ground and breaking the fingers of her corpse. It seems that KK has been running from his past which included a hidden room in the basement where his mother would punish him, like using boiling water for crimes like wetting the bed. His past also included the death of his brother Peter (Anders Danielson Lie). But as strange disappearances start happening around the family home, Kai starts to think that Peter may not be dead, but possibly held captive by his mother and escaped only upon her death. Confusion ensues as Kai hunts for Peter, as he is being hunted by the sheriffs and deputies who suspect him for the disappearances.
The only Special Feature is the Original Trailer.
How old were you when you had your first nightmare?
Dread comes to us from the twisted darkness more affectionately called Clive Barker's imagination. Adapted from one of the stories from his Books of Blood series, Dread is about cinematographer student Stephen (Jackson Rathbone – Twilight) who is struggling to come up with a graduate thesis and befriends loner Quaid (Shaun Evans – The Take), who has an idea. Both young men are damaged; Stephen lost his brother in a car accident and doesn't drive; Quaid has horrible nightmares reliving the murder of his parents by an axe wielding maniac when he was six. Quaid has an idea for the project based on the fact that everybody is afraid of something – something they dread. Stephen gets Cheryl (Hanne Steen – Ideal) to be the editor, and after a series of disappointing confessions, Cheryl gives her story for the camera and inspires the trio to dig deeper for people's personal horrors. Stephen's friend Abby (Laura Donnelly – Hex) makes a confession about an incident with her birthmark (it covers almost half of her body), which starts a chain of events that inspires Quaid to take the research one step further, physical experimentation of peoples fears. In true Clive Barker fashion, this movie will disturb you from beginning to end.
Special Features:
– Facing the Fear: Behind the Scenes of Dread
– A Conversation with Clive Barker and Anthony Diblasi
– Deleted Scenes
– Original Trailer
"You secretly want to be a monster hunter." "Doesn't everyone?"
Up next is the directorial debut from the creator of Lady Death and Evil Ernie, and now The Graves, Brian Pulido.
The Graves sisters Abby (Jillian Murray – Drake & Josh) and Megan (Clare Grant – Black Snake Moan) are your average goth girls – comic book geeks and horror aficionados who get lost on their way to see the world's largest thermometer. And of course the best substitute is the haunted mine at Skull City. There, you get to play tag with brothers Jonah (Shane Stevens – Star Quest: The Odyssey) and Caleb (Bill Mosley – House of 1000 Corpses), and you get to meet the pastor of the local religion Reverend Abraham (Tony Todd – Candyman). There's a demon in the mine that's being worshiped as Savior, and the brothers are feeding it the souls of lost travelers at the behest of Reverend Abraham and his congregation.
Special Features:
– Auditions/Script Reads
– Music Video with Calabrese: Vampires Don’t Exist
– Trailer
– Plan to Actual
– Spot the Gnome
– The Graves: Behind the Screams
– Sound Designing The Graves
– Original Trailer
– A Downloadable Version of the Original Script (A computer with a cd-rom drive, and a PDF viewer required).
Our next vacation into the paranormal comes to us from Great Britain, whose horror is on the abstract side – The Reeds is no different. Three couples are bound for a weekend at a backwater pub and the only way there is by boat.
Laura (Anna Brewster – The Tudors), Nick (O.T. Fagbenie – Breaking and Entering), Helen (Scarlett Alice Johnson – Eastenders), Chris (Will Mellor – Eastenders), Mel (Emma Catherwood – Spirit Trap) and Joe (Daniel Caltagirone – Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life) have an out-of-the-way weekend planned, but things go awry before the trip starts. First, they have to take a replacement boat; then, when they pick it up, there's a group of hooligans hanging about. To make matters worse, they end up lost in a maze of reeds. Things go from bad to worse when Nick sees himself outside the window and the hooded man shows up. There’s a time rift and ghosts, and only one of the survivors can save them.
The only Special Feature is the Original Trailer.
Some tests you don’t want to pass.
And finally The Final (I can’t believe I did that, either.). Dane (Marc Donato – Degrassi: The Next Generation), Emily (Lindsay Seidel – film debut), Ravi (Vincent Silochan – film debut), Jack (Eric Isenhower – film debut), and Andy (Travis Tedford – Little Rascals) are a band of misfits who have had the ‘make my life miserable’ target hung on them by Bradley (Justin Arnold – God and Country), Bernard (Daniel Ross – Prison Break), Heather (Julin – Killer School Girls From Outer Space), Tommy (Hunter Garner – film debut) and Bridget (Whitney Hoy – film debut). But Dane and company are throwing a party the bullies won't forget. And the party favors include bear traps, cattle guns, pruning shears and flesh dissolving creams.
Special Features:
– Producers Trailer
– The Final: Behind the Scenes
– Deleted Scene
– Original Trailer
I have been asked why I enjoy these movies so much. After all, they never had major theatrical release. They are written and directed by relative unknowns. Heck, even the name actors are surrounded by bit players and first timers. So let's take a look at the films.
Kill Theory, on the surface, is a run-of-the-mill slasher flick, but unique in that the bad guy is the catalyst for the behavior and the end has a twist that you may or may not see coming (but was always uncertain about it).
Zombies of Mass Destruction isn't so much a look at the horror genre but how people act in life-threatening situations. The humor helps overlook the overuse of middle-east racism and religious homophobia.
Lake Mungo is a bit disconcerting in the fact that the entire movie is a documentary and there are actually no action sequences or scares. However, the crafting of this film creates a captivating story that weaves in and out of the paranormal. This would be a great date movie.
Hidden is a psychological thriller that skillfully builds both tension and plot to an ending that doesn't finish until the very last scene. Subtitles are a pain in the butt but are better than a lousy dubbing.
Dread is …well it's…umm…okay, it's Clive Barker – twisted, dark and disturbing. I actually had bad dreams the night I watched this. This is possibly the best Clive Barker adaptation to date, which could be good or bad depending on your view.
The Graves is written and directed by Brian Pulido, of Evil Ernie and Lady Death fame, and this movie has the feel of those comics. Pretty girls, charismatic bad guys and an evil entity that makes people do things they don't want to. This is just a fun movie that has another stellar performance from Bill Mosley and Tony Todd.
The Reeds is a mix of time manipulation, ghost story and a clever twist, with an ambiguous ending that is subject to interpretation. The British have some of the best endings.
The Final is disturbing, but in a different way. One group has tormented and driven the other group to the edge, and their version of retribution is cruel, disturbing and clever.
So it seems that all these movies have something unique and different to offer, and while every film may not appeal to every viewer, there’s something fresh and new – a passion to the Horrorfest films that, frankly, doesn’t happen in many larger productions.
ComicsOnline gives the 8 Movies to Die 4 the following ratings:
Kill Theory gets 3 survivors out of 5
Zombies of Mass Destruction gets 3 zombie plagues out of 5
Lake Mungo gets 3 1/2 séances out of 5
Hidden gets 3 subtitles out of 5
Dread gets 4 fears out of 5
The Graves gets 4 1/2 big thermometers out of 5
The Reeds gets 3 time warps out of 5
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