‘Stop screaming, keep skating’

Murderdrome is a 2013 Australian action horror comedy directed by Daniel Armstrong and starring  Kat Anderson, Rachael Blackwood, and Jake Brown.

Plot teaser:

Roller Derby sensation Cherry Skye loves nothing better than competing in her favorite sport. When Skye catches Brad’s eye the sparks fly. Unfortunately, she also catches the attention of Brad’s ex, her Roller Derby nemesis Hell Grazer. If that isn’t bad enough, the heat generated by this romantic rivalry arouses a malevolent demon-spirit, hungry for human souls. Trapped between the wrath of Hell Grazer and damnation at the Gates of Hell, she has no option but to throw down and sort this mess out the only way she knows… on four small wheels.

Buy Murderdrome from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Murderdrome is a bit all over the place but it’s a fun watch that doesn’t overstay its welcome. How much it’ll work for you will depend, at least in part, on your interest in the very concept itself: if you find the idea of roller girls fighting evil a winning one, check it out, you will likely be able to look past the flaws and enjoy this for what it is.” Rock! Shock! Pop!

“It’s 75 minutes of undemanding midnight movie fun, which looks good, has great music, some good gags, some good kills, and some quotable one-liners. And I doubt anyone who sees it will ever forget the term ‘duck butter.’” Brutal as Hell

“This mix of funny lines, exploitation kitsch and sub-culture setting almost guarantees that it will become a cult classic. It’s not a good movie in the slightest but given that the entire thing cost less to produce than the price of a family car, that’s to be expected. If you’re a roller derby junkie who likes dumb horror movies with a punk rock and horror aesthetic, or if you’re just looking for something to put on in the background after a successful bout then this is likely to make you giggle.” Starburst

” … this is a narrative light series of events involving substandard punk music, one dimensional characters, sloppy gore scenes and dialogue that you imagine director Daniel Armstrong thinks is Tarantinoesque but in fact is just trite, unconvincing nonsense delivered with flatness that is quite astonishing by the cast of non-actors (and predictably, the worse the actor, the more dialogue they get). It’s dismal entertainment, fails miserably as an exploitation film and drags on and on and on, going nowhere slowly.” David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening

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The Spanish Chainsaw Massacre – aka Carnivoros in Spanish – is a 2013 horror film directed by Manolito Motosierra and starring Nereida Lopez Vilaplana and Dani Mesado.

Plot teaser:

Las Pollas del Metal (The Metal Dicks), a heavy metal band, are on tour to promote their first album. On the road to Galicia, their van suffers a flat tyre and they have to stay overnight at the “Gutierrez’s town”, a small village located nowhere. Next day, the town is throwing a festival where its inhabitants celebrate the patron saint’s day. The Mayor invites the artists to join the celebration and they accept, without knowing a brutal danger awaits them…

 Buy The Spanish Chainsaw Massacre from Amazon.co.uk

Spanish trailer:

IMDb

WH

Haunter is a 2013 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali (Splice), written by Brian King, and starring Abigail Breslin, Peter Outerbridge, Michelle Nolden and Stephen McHattie. The film premiered at the 2013 South by Southwest Film Festival, and was picked up for U.S. distribution there by IFC Midnight.

Plot teaser:

15-year-old Lisa (Breslin) lives with her father Bruce (Peter Outerbridge), mother Carol (Michelle Nolden) and little brother Robbie (Peter DaCunha). However, she is the only one in her family who realises they are repeatedly living out the same day in 1985 – the day before her 16th birthday. As she investigates, she learns that she and her family were killed and and are trapped in the day of their death. She manages to make contact with Olivia (Eleanor Zichy), a girl from a family presently living in the house, who helps Lisa discover that previous occupants of her home have met a similar fate. Can Lisa find a way to put a stop to the murders in time to save Olivia and her family?

Buy Haunter on Blu-ray from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“As most ghost stories do, Haunter winds up becoming a murder mystery as well, and its creators carry off the combination smoothly and pay off both sets of expectations satisfyingly. There are a few good jolts along the way, though for the most part, Haunter aims and succeeds at keeping you caught up in its atmosphere and guessing, along with poor Lisa, about what will happen next and why.” Fangoria

“Vincenzo Natali’s films are always a pleasant surprise. The director tends to bring an enormous amount of depth and subtle visual pageantry to his films that we can easily acknowledge. Haunter is carefully constructed by Natali for audiences to absorb in an engaged and thought-provoking fashion.” Canadian Film Review

“Haunter is one of those films that I want to love. Its cast is great, its premise is solid, and its execution sturdy, but the result is less than the sum of its parts rather than greater than them. That’s not a terrible criticism, so fans of Breslin or McHattie will certainly want to check this film out, as will fans of Natali’s other films. Haunted house fans will especially find something to love in the slightly offbeat take on the genre.” DVD Verdict

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‘The experiment is real’

Malignant – working title: Black Butterflies – is a 2013 sci-fi horror film written and directed by Brian Avenet-Bradley (Free’z’er; Ghost of the Needle; Dark Remains). It stars Gary Cairns, horror icon Brad Dourif, Nick Nicotera and Sienna Farall.

Following a VOD outing, the film is being released on DVD in the US on February 17, 2015, courtesy of MVD Visual, that includes extras such as ‘Surgery for the Soul,’ an exclusive 38-minute documentary.

Plot teaser:

After the death of his wife, a grieving alcoholic (Gary Cairns) becomes the victim of a mad doctor (Brad Dourif) and his horrific twelve-step program to “cure” him…

Reviews:

“Unfortunately, the viewer would need to be as drunk as Cairns is for much of the film to miss the incongruity, implausibility, and inconsistency of the entire effort. A plan as elaborate as the one we are asked to believe would require an X-Files-esque government conspiracy, but we get a couple of guys working out of their garages, one of whom is Dourif. Maybe. The character allegedly being played by Dourif is seen from behind or in blurred focus or with a mask at least half the time he’s on screen. Then again, when we do see Dourif, his face looks like it’s been pumped with enough Botox for him to be a Real Housewife.” Meet Mr. Karma

“Brad Dourif steals the show in this one. He uses his voice, facial expressions, everything to execute a monstrous and slithery villain. Truly, he is of the Karloff/Lugosi/Carradine caliber—an old school ghoul of the highest degree … good, atmospheric camerawork, competent acting, grotesque, but sparing makeup effects, a creepy soundtrack. But because the screenplay neglects so much, Malignant comes off mediocre, and any suspense or emotional impact suffers for it.” Ross Peterson, HorrorNews.net

“Perhaps those more personally connected to themes of addiction struggles will find better reasons to engage with the metaphorical overtones. But above all else, “Malignant” is the partly quiet portrait of one man’s battle against grief through a realized nightmare scenario. And ultimately, the personalities providing the fulcrum are too weak to bear the weight of a moody character study burdened by this much underdeveloped psychological drama.” Culture Crypt

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Chimères (English: Chimeras) is a 2013 Swiss drama/horror film and the feature film directorial debut of Olivier Beguin, who co-wrote with Colin Vettier. It stars Jasna Kohoutova, Yannick Rosset and Catriona MacColl (City of the Living Dead; The Beyond; The Theatre Bizarre). Italian film director Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust; House on the Edge of the Park; The Washing Machine) has a cameo role.

The film had its world premiere on July 5, 2013 at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, where it won a special mention for best feature film.

Plot teaser:

Alex (Yannick Rosset) and Livia (Jasna Kohoutova) are a young couple on vacation in Romania. Their trip is uneventful until Alex severely injures himself while drunk and requires a trip to the hospital. His injuries necessitates a blood transfusion and Alex initially seems like he will be fine.

However when he and Livia return home, Alex begins to develop strange new symptoms. He has an all new aversion to light, he is unable to eat anything, and develops insomnia. Alex and Livia initially believe this to be brain damage, but they soon discover the reality of the situation: that Alex is turning into a vampire.

Reviews:

“With its final minutes offering multiple gasps and an action-packed revenge sequence filled with blood, head-crushing and spine-ripping,Chimères’ arguably slow, over-edited start makes more sense compositionally as the movie reaches its violent crescendo. Well-written and acted Chimères is a balanced take on vampirism and the creatures’ ancient struggle with companionship and love.” Norberto Gomez Jr., Fangoria

“The technical side of things is where Chimères finds its strongest assets, with some impressive cinematography and lighting for the budget, and robust editing. Beyond that, however, is a shaky attempt at intimate connection that ultimately transforms into dolly shots of people being beaten to death. Ringing hollow in the end, Chimères is a respectable effort at doing something different with the genre…” Gareth Jones, Dread Central

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“Fans of the genre can probably guess that steak tartare is never going to satiate bloodlust, and there seems to be no bigger fan than Chimères director Olivier Beguin himself. In his first feature length film, Beguin plays ably with both genre conventions and the necessities of low-budget filmmaking. Rather than the usual focus on the hunger and the hunt, the film mines more intimate territory, examining how Alex’s transformation affects his relationship with Livia, and more intriguingly, his own sense of self.” Ben Croll, Twitch Film

Cast:

• Jasna Kohoutova as Livia
• Yannick Rosset as Alex
• Catriona MacColl as Michelle
• Ruggero Deodato as Butcher
• Paulo Dos Santos as Fred
• Derek Robin as Doctor

Wikipedia | IMDb

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House of the Witchdoctor is a 2013 American horror film directed by Devon Mikolas, his first feature film. It stars newer names such as Callie Stephens (When the Lights Go Out) and Summer Bills as well as actors who have appeared in many horror and genre films over the past few decades, in particular Dyanne Thorne (the Ilsa series, Blood Sabbath) and Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; House of 1000 Corpses; The Devil’s Rejects). The plot sees a group of typical American teens offering consolation to their bereaved friend at her parent’s plush residence, only to find themselves stalked… and even worse.

Serial nutcase Cliff Rifton (Allan Kayser, Night of the Creeps) has been released from prison and immediately hooks up with his old sidekick, Buzz Schenk (David Willis), both of them eager to pick up where they left off and terrorise as many people as possibly whilst taking as many drugs as possible. After killing his mother, raping a drug dealer’s girlfriend and then torturing and murdering him, new opportunities are sought and their new target is white, middle-class Leslie Van Hooten (Stephens) and her four friends, who manage to evade them on their way to her parent’s well-appointed pad on the outskirts of town, primarily for them all to help her come to terms with the anniversary of the death of her boyfriend.

An unfortunate series of Last House on the Left-like coincidences lead the criminals to the Van Hooten residence, a stroke of luck they are unwilling to let pass. With her parents away (Mosely and Leslie Easterbrook from The Devil’s Rejects and many Police Academy films) the teens are terrorised by a distinctly 1970’s-style home invasion; rape, torture and dehumanisation all getting a run-out. Before the plot becomes too predictable, the parents return, accompanied by neighbours, Rose (Thorne) and  Emmett (Howard Maurer, Thorne’s real-life spouse and star of two Ilsa films himself, Tigress of Siberia and Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks), as well as assorted locals, all of whom are equipped with a wide array of garden tools and more traditional weapons.

Down in the basement of the house, true identities are revealed and voodoo wrong-doings require sacrifice and rites, volunteers both unwilling and otherwise already assembled. Will the local deities be appeased or will help arrive in time?

The home invasion angle of approach doesn’t really date and, if played correctly, is always an unnerving experience, the defiling of both body and property an eternally horrific thought. In this respect, the film doesn’t do a bad job, let down only by idiotic, dislikeable teens behaving in the most sickeningly forehead-slapping daft manner imaginable. The diabolical duo of Buzz and Cliff are played with eyeball-spinning glee and the enthusiasm and appalling satisfaction they gain from their crimes are demented and unhinged enough to be attributed by drugs and society – backstories are left to a minimum.

Do people still watch horror films just for nudity? Well, those who do won’t be disappointed, though Dyanne remains mercifully clothed. Her role is minimal, as is that of Mosely, despite the pivotal part he plays in the story. As such we are left with the curse of Rob Zombie – a parade of old faces, used poorly, to disguise flimsy plot under the guise of “I know my stuff, me!”. Though a twist is necessary in the film to prevent stale, though graphic sexually violent thrills, the notion of introducing voodoo and spell casting is so ridiculous that it feels like two half ideas half executed.

The net result is a film which would play well on late-night cable television, particularly for an audience with low expectations, low I.Q. and a penchant for low-necklines.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Dracula: The Impaler is a 2013 American horror film directed by Derek Hockenbraugh from a screenplay he co-wrote with producers Diana Busuioc, Steve Snyder and Daniel Anghelcev.

It stars: Diana Busuioc, Teo Celigo, Christian Gehring, Christina Collard, Marcienne Dwyer, Katelynn Derengowski, Rocco Nugent, Mark Jacobson, Mindy Robinson, Gregory Lee Canyon, Vera Nova.

The Full Moon Films production is being distributed by Acort International.

Plot teaser:

Seven friends begin their Euro trip at the actual castle of Vlad the Impaler where he supposedly sold his soul to the devil over 500 years earlier, but the decrepit castle’s past envelopes them in a bloody ritual…

Buy on Safecracker Pictures DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

” … the violence is weakly handled, the pacing slack, and the atmosphere/suspense pretty much nil. What starts at and stays on the lower echelon of B-movie horror mediocrity for quite some time finally clicks into gear — though it turns out that gear is the one that drives the pic straight off the cliff of unintentional camp hilarity. Performances get worse as the characters get more annoying in the throes of crisis…” Dennis Harvey, Variety

“The plot becomes so convoluted with reconstructed historical and spiritual mythology it gets difficult to tell whether the principal fault lies with Busuioc’s nonsensical script or director Derek Hockenbrough’s apparent inability to adequately light a scene or maintain a sense of continuity. Stock-image inserts, fake wolf howls and shoddy set construction would be much better suited to an Abbott and Costello-style spooky comedy parody, but these filmmakers take themselves way too seriously to attempt any intentional humor.” Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter

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‘Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster’ is a 2013 song by San Francisco-based indie rock band Thee Oh Sees. It was the second single taken from their album Floating Coffin.

The violent and disconcerting music video for ‘Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster’ was directed by John Strong, who previously directed the video for the band’s “Lupine Dominus”. The video depicts a killer dragging a body to his car in a seemingly empty car park, only to be disturbed by a horrified witness…

Buy Floating Coffin from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

‘If you see him… run’

Mr. Jones is a 2013 horror thriller film and the feature film directorial debut of Karl Mueller, who also wrote the screenplay. It had its world debut on April 19, 2013 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Anchor Bay on May 2, 2014. It stars Jon Foster and Sarah Jones.

While filming, Mueller was inspired by director David Lynch and the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and wanted to design the film’s soundtrack to “make it feel like you’re under water, or in somebody’s head and they have a bad cold.”

He was also inspired by the memory of a neighbour of his during childhood in Minnesota, as the man had lived in a “primitive shack of a cabin with no running water, trapped animals and hung them up around the woods. He had lots of bizarre farming equipment overgrown by weeds around his house. He was the boogieman we made up stories about to scare ourselves at night.”

Plot teaser:

Penny (Sarah Jones) is on her way out to the woods to help her boyfriend Scott (Jon Foster) make a nature documentary. The two end up fighting, as Scott has not fully planned out his documentary and Penny had given up a good job to come help him. Things turn strange when one of Scott’s possessions is stolen, prompting the two to seek it out. They end up finding a cabin filled with various strange, weird artefacts and figures.

They eventually realise that the cabin is the home of Mr. Jones (Mark Steger), an elusive artist who sends his artwork to random people with no rhyme or reason. Scott investigates the mythology and rumours surrounding Mr. Jones with the intent to make him the subject of his next documentary, despite warnings that he stay far away from the man in question…

Reviews:

” … a thriller with a promising outsider-art premise that ultimately gets too wrapped up in mystical, reality-questioning headgames to tell a satisfying story. That failing and an annoying spin on the found-footage trope shouldn’t hurt much with genre auds, who will enjoy the distinctive atmosphere of this sometimes beautiful film.” John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

“But as beautiful and creatively shot as the first half of the movie is, Mr. Jones takes an unfortunate turn at around the halfway mark. Much of the handheld camera work becomes shakier as the characters are in situations where they need to run. And everything eventually breaks down into disjointed, dream-like, choppy scenes. Things become hard to follow and sometimes even hard to see. By the time I got to the final ten minutes, I had had enough of the ongoing trippy scenes and was absolutely ready for the end.”Scott Hallam, Dread Central

“Their encounters with the silent creepster, in and out of his subterranean lair, are spooky, but Mr. Jonesultimately warps into a self-absorbed ode to its own making. By film’s end, it implies through easy montage barfs of Scott’s unedited doc footage that the story’s boogeyman isn’t so much scaring Scott and Penny as the couple is scaring themselves by trying to unravel the mystery of his identity. Mueller asks us to look at his film as one might Mr. Jones’s art—to validate its authenticity using a barometer of fear.” Ed Gonzalez, Slant

“You can’t really dip into dream logic if you have nary a single eye-popping visual, and in doing so, Mueller completely wastes a unique, potentially durable concept: just imagine a hooded monster in the woods making a side-living as an avant-garde darling of the art world. The movie you’ve now visualized in your head is probably a good deal more interesting than Mr. Jones.” Gabe Toro, Indiewire

Buy Mr. Jones on Blu-ray | DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com

“An assaulting, strobing, surreal sprint through the forest, Chris and Penny keep encountering frightening visions of themselves and each other; the strangeness on display specifically recalling Lynch in its colors and frightening duality. It’s also massively frustrating. The choppy, jerking style employed by Mueller becomes abrasive in the extended sequence, wrapping up with a possibility there might not be as much to chew on as all the spectacle would have you believe. If you are not turned off, however, a second viewing seems in order.” Samuel Zimmerman, Fangoria

Cast:

• Jon Foster as Scott
• Sarah Jones as Penny
• Mark Steger as Mr. Jones
• Faran Tahir as The Anthropologist
• Stanley B. Herman as The Old Journalist
• Ethan Sawyer as Alleged Scarecrow Recipient
• Jordan Byrne as Peter Cavagnaro
• David Clennon as The Curator
• Jessica Dowdeswell as Penny
• Diane Neal as The Scholar
• Rachel O’Meara as The Skeptic

Buy Mr. Jones on DVD | Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Filming locations:

Santa Clarita, California

Wikipedia | IMDb

Army of Frankensteins is a 2013 US horror film produced, edited, written and directed by Ryan Bellgardt.

The film stars John Ferguson, Jordan Farris, Christian Bellgardt, Lucas Ross, Rett Terrell and  Raychelle McDonald.

It should not be confused with Richard Raaphorst’s 2013 movie Frankenstein’s Army.

Plot teaser:

“After a failed attempt to propose to his girlfriend, Alan Jones is beaten to within an inch of his life by a street gang and taken to a mysterious lab where Dr. Tanner Finski and his kid genius assistant perform horrible experiments on him hoping to re-animate a Frankenstein. The experiments lead to a hole being ripped in space and time, manifesting an army of Frankensteins from hundreds of parallel universes and sending them all back to the 19th century, directly into the heart of a bloody battle between the North and South.”

IMDb | Official site | Facebook

‘Death lies beneath’

Neverlake is a 2013 Italian horror film directed by Riccardo Paoletti from a screenplay by Manuela Cacciamani and Carlo Longo.

The film stars Daisy Keeping, David Brandon (StageFright; Delirium; Beyond Darkness), Joy Tanner, Martin Kashirokov, Lisa Ruth Andreozzi, Alice Belardi, Riccardo Bono, Claudio Ciabatti, Anna Dalton, Davide Frondaroli.

Plot teaser:

When Jenny, an English teenager who studies in New York, visits her father’s home in Tuscany, Italy, she expected it to be a time to see the world and bond with her father. She soon discovers that this is far from reality. When Jenny visits the Neverlake, a lake that legend calls “The Lake of Idols” for its healing powers in ancient times, Jenny meets a peculiar group of children.

As she digs further into the mystery of these missing children and their leader Peter, Jenny discovers a world of horrific medical experiments, secrets and lies. When Jenny is called upon by three thousand year old spirits of the Neverlake to help them retrieve ancient artifacts stolen from the lake she comes face to face with her greatest pain and possibly her greatest pleasure…

Reviews:

“The tight close-ups are quite memorable along with the visuals of opening (and shutting) doors. Paoletti’s filmmaking abilities are extraordinary, and his career will be enjoyable to follow, but unfortunately the plot of Neverlake has a slight tinge of predictability and the Peter character is a huge distraction. But then again — maybe it won’t be a distraction to millions of “Twilight” fanatics. Genius move?” Quinn Vincent Hough, Critical Movie Critics

” …solid tale that rarely drags, and the only thing that distinguishes this from a film made 30 years ago is the crispness of the digital video cinematography and the fact that certain tense scenes are lit not by flashlight, but by iPad, an odd idiosyncrasy that works better than you might expect mostly due to the little attention called to it.” Daily Grindhouse

“It ends as it begins—with Percy Bysshe Shelley—coming full circle, and committing to its Romantic horror.  Not a masterpiece, but worth a look for the sake of its intriguing hint of originality, an unfortunately rare trait in contemporary horror.” Caitlin Huggins, HorrorNews.com

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‘The evil that men do lives on and on…’

House of Forbidden Secrets is a 2013 US horror movie written, edited, produced and directed by Todd Sheets (Zombie Bloodbath and sequels; Bloodthirsty Cannibal Demons; Hi-8 “The Request” segment). The film’s score was composed by Fabio Frizzi (Zombie Flesh Eaters; City of the Living Dead; The Beyond).

The film stars Antwoine Steele, Nicole Santorella, Lew Temple, Howard Maurer, Dyanne Thorne, George Hardy, Paxton Tarbell, Lloyd Kaufman, Bryan David, Millie Millan, Brad Westmar, Allan Kayser.

House of Forbidden Secrets has its British premiere at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival in Southend on 23rd January 2015.

Plot teaser:

Jacob Hunt has had some very bad breaks in life.  His wife left him, his friends have all abandoned him and his children barely see him. He needs a break to get back on his feet. Jacob is given an amazing gift when he is called to be the overnight security at the old Shadowview Manor. It’s been turned into a commercial office and retail building. The tenants hear strange things at night.  Some claim to see strange people. Jacob is about to learn that nights around the Shadowview Manor contain many secrets…

Buy Fabio Frizzi’s soundtrack on CD from Amazon.com

Reviews:

” …one for fans of genre films. The performances vary in quality, but do not hamper the appeal of the low budget style of the movie. The film itself feels like a VHS, with slight imperfections that were synonymous with the old format, which works extremely well for the type of film Todd Sheets has created. There’s blood, guts, naked bodies, horror and a splash of tongue-in-cheek humour which will appeal to the right audience.” Horror Cult Films

” …despite taking forever to get moving and the annoying confusion that plagues the characters throughout the movie, the back story and slaughter scenes redeem the movie enough to make it worthwhile. The demon effects are well done; my favorite scene involves a demon walking on all four limbs down a hallway with her head turned completely around, it’s quite creepy! There’s plenty of gore and enough varied ways characters are killed off to make it interesting enough for any horror fan. In the end, this is a decent movie that could have been better if the first 30 minutes would have been condensed into 10.” LL Hanson, Ravenous Monster

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‘The Mold knows Jack, The Mold knows.’

Motivational Growth is a 2013 independent comedy horror film written, edited and directed by Don Thacker. It stars Jeffrey Combs (as the voice of The Mold), Adrian DiGiovanni, Danielle Doetsch, Pete Giovagnoli, Ken Brown, Robert Kramer, Hannah Stevenson, Laura Carlson.

Plot teaser:

Ian Folivor, a depressed and reclusive 30-something, finds himself taking advice from a growth in his bathroom after a failed suicide attempt. The Mold, a smooth talking fungus who was born of the filth collecting in a corner of Ian’s neglected bathroom, works to win Ian’s trust by helping him clean himself up and remodel his lifestyle. With The Mold’s help, Ian attracts the attention of a neighbour he’s been ogling through his peephole, Leah, and he manages to find a slice of happiness despite his unnatural circumstances. But Ian starts to receive strange messages from his old and broken down TV set that make him realize that The Mold may not be as helpful as it seems to be, and strange characters combined with stranger events cast Ian’s life in the shadow of an epic battle between good and evil that Ian is only partially aware of…

Buy/Rent Blu-ray | Instant Video from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Writer/director Don Thacker makes this film work on so many levels. First, he tries many different techniques to make the story interesting and succeeds. Ian breaks the fourth wall with the audience early on and teaches a lesson on how little things become significant when one is depressed and lives alone. Next, Thacker moves the story forward through the use of animation (splendidly created by Jérémie Périn) and by inserting Ian into the very television programs he has been hooked on watching. Finally, the camera is utilized to make the most of a cramped and cluttered apartment.” Namtar, Nuke the Fridge

“The fact that 90% of this film takes place with a guy talking to the camera on his couch, all the while maintaining a creative, interesting, and intelligent edge all the way through, is a testament as to how great Motivational Growth truly is. The alternating dark and light tones give this film a unique texture, never really letting on as to where it will go next. Sure to poke, prod, and play with your brain in ways normal cinema does not, Motivational Growth is unlike anything you’ve seen before.” Ambush Bug, Ain’t It Cool News

“It’s set in the 1990s, uses chiptunes by Alex Mauer for a soundtrack that sound straight out of a video game, and even has 8-bit video game style cutscenes for certain scenes that add even more character to the film. What’s even more interesting is the film’s budget, and what Thacker was able to do with it. Shot for just over $176K, the limited number of effects that Thacker was able to pull off were quite impressive. As far as the gore goes, there isn’t too much going on, but there are more gross-out moments than gore, such as Ian eating fungus, vomiting various types of goo, rotted dead bodies and more.” Pat Torfe, Bloody Disgusting

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Blood Slaughter Massacre is a 2013 slasher horror movie edited and directed by Manny Serrano (Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead) from a screenplay co-written with Louie Cortes (The Attack of the Brain People).

The film stars Matt W. Cody, Mike Roche, Byron M. Howard. Carmela Hayslett, Melissa Roth, Darlene Heller, Danielle Lenore, Bradley Creanzo, David Garelik.

Plot teaser:

“Ten years ago, the sleepy suburb of Havenwood was plagued by a string of unsolved murders by a masked maniac remembered only as The Ripper. Now a new series of killings has begun, and teenagers are turning up dead everywhere. But can The Ripper be stopped this time around?”

In the US, the film will be available on DVD via Wild Eye Releasing April 21, 2015. Extras include:

Audio commentary by director/co-writer/editor Manny Serrano, producer/AD/FX creator Lindsay Serrano and co-writer/cinematographer Louie Cortes
• Over 12 minutes of deleted scenes
• Extended scenes
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
• VHS rip of the Blood Slaughter Massacre promo tape, containing the three faux trailers the film is based upon
• “Demons of the Night” music video by Midnight Flashback, with footage from the film
• The Ripper action figure toy commercial, starring Johnny Dickie of Slaughter Tales

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British-based Hemlock Books was formed in 2007 by author and film historian Denis Meikle, whose own books include A History of Horrors: The Rise and Fall of the House of Hammer (1996), Jack the Ripper: The Murders and the Movies (2002), Vincent Price: The Art of Fear (2003) and Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out (2006). 

Buy Amicus Anthology from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy X-Cert from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The company was set up with a dual purpose: as a retail publisher of niche titles for horror and fantasy fans on one side, and as a retailer of (mostly) American fanzines on the other side. Hemlock has many exclusive US contacts and is now the online presence in the UK for genre magazines like Little Shoppe of Horrors and Rue Morgue. It is the official distributor of GoreZone and producer-director Charles Band’s new publishing offshoot, Delirium.

Buy Mind Warp! from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Hemlock’s publishing arm was established to produce ‘cult’ titles of specific interest to fans of classic British horror. Many of these would be too narrow in their appeal to be of value to mainstream publishers but with modern digital technology, a niche publisher like Hemlock can print in lower volume and produce books for a limited audience who would not otherwise be catered for in the conventional marketplace. The model for this fan-based approach was US publisher Midnight Marquee Press, with whom Hemlock has a co-publishing agreement.

Buy The Hammer Frankenstein from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Some titles have been specifically commissioned, such as those in Hemlock’s ‘British Cult Cinema’ series, but most are unsolicited submissions. Anyone can suggest a book to the company, the criteria being that a) the author can write, b) it should bring something new to the table in a field where many of the topics have effectively been ‘done to death’, and c) unique access or exclusive material is a definite plus. Proposals can be submitted to info@hemlockbooks.com

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New and forthcoming titles include X-Cert 2, the sequel to John Hamilton’s X-Cert (2012), Frightmares: The Films of Pete Walker, a new series of ‘Hemlock Horror Companion’s featuring Witchcraft & Black Magic in British Cult Cinema, the films of Canadian cult director Bob Clark and actor Udo Keir, as well as four new Midnight Marquee UK editions.

Future titles will include the sequel to 2013’s Empire of the B’s, examining Charles Band’s days with Full Moon Features, and a new definitive film biography of Vincent Price.

Buy Empire of the B’s from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

In the space of a few years, Hemlock Books has established itself as the leading publisher of genre titles in the UK, with a reputation for original and quality writing. 

Buy Urban Terrors from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy Bob Clark: I’m Gonna Kill You from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy Retro Screams from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy The Hammer Vampire from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy Fright Films from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

www.hemlockbooks.co.uk

‘Piece by bloody piece… he built a nightmare!’

Dr. Frankenstein’s Wax Museum of the Hungry Dead is a 2013 US comedy horror movie produced and directed by Richard Griffin (Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon; Atomic Brain Invasion; The Disco Exorcist) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Seth Chitwood.

The film stars Michael Thurber, Jamie Lyn Bagley, Samantha Acampora, Andre Boudreau, Sean Carufel, Alex DiVincenzo, Jesse Dufault, Christopher L. Ferreira, Aurora Grabill, Ryan Hanley, Shannon Hartman, Patrick Keeffe, David Langill,Beatriz Lopez, Jamie Lyn Bagley.

The film is unleashed on DVD in the US courtesy of Wild Eye Releasing DVD on March 24, 2015 as Frankenstein’s Hungry Dead.

Plot teaser:

A group of high-schoolers on a class trip to a wax museum become the latest victims of the evil doctor Charles Frank, who is attempting to create the perfect human being from the reanimated parts of previous unlucky patrons – reanimating an army of undead mistakes and experiments as the teens try to survive the night.

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The House at the End of Time (Spanish: La casa del fin de los tiempos) is a 2013 Venezuelan horror-suspense film written and directed by Alejandro Hidalgo.

The film was well received in its country of origin and became the highest grossing thriller of all time in Venezuela.

Plot teaser:

In 1981 Dulce (Ruddy Rodríguez) lived in an old house with her sons Leopoldo (Rosmel Bustamante) and Rodrigo (Hector Mercado), and her husband Juan José (Gonzalo Cubero). During that time she experienced multiple cases of strange supernatural phenomena, most notably an elderly woman that continues to warn her that Juan José will soon murder their children. Dulce desperately tries to keep this from happening but is not only unsuccessful, but is also shocked when the police arrive and find that Juan José has also been killed. As there are no other people in the house, Dulce is arrested and imprisoned for the murder.

Thirty years later, an elderly Dulce has been released from jail, but under the requirement that she serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest in the very house where the murders took place. Once settled, she is visited by a local priest (Guillermo Garcia) who wants desperately to get her to turn back to religion. She successfully manages to enlist his help in discovering what exactly happened in her home thirty years ago…

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Reviews:

‘ …one of the most inventive supernatural thrillers to come along in a while – an impressive, confident and creepy debut from Venezuelan writer-director Alejandro Hidalgo. This fresh voice in the genre adopts many of the usual genre tropes, however, he crafts them in a relentless, meticulous manner to serve a story that is full of shocking twists and turns.’ Ryan Turek, Shock Till You Drop

‘A cleverly constructed horror film, Alejandro Hidalgo’s The House at the End of Time plays like a surprising short story on a rainy evening. A patient, reflective work that’s less concerned with ghosts than with how we haunt ourselves, the Venezuelan feature pores over the nature of regret and personal slights, and comes to a mature conclusion in the process.’ Samuel Zimmerman, Fangoria

‘End of Time looks great, with a palette of blue, black and gold helping the story move between moments of suspense and beauty. If this is truly ‘Venezuela’s first horror film’ then it’s quite an achievement as it surpasses the majority of Hollywood horror in both direction and cinematography.

There are myriad other aspects worthy of praise including the set design, editing and especially the performances that Alejandro Hidalgo manages to coax out of an entire group of children (it’s usually a miracle to find one child actor who doesn’t grate on an audience).’ Gary Collinson, Flickering Myth

Wikipedia | IMDb

‘Sex, party, alcohol & death’

Hooked Up is a 2013 Spanish horror film directed by Pablo Larcuen from a story he co-wrote with Eduard Sola. It stars Jonah Ehrenreich, Júlia Molins, Stephen Ohl, Natascha Wiese. The Ombra film was executive produced by Jaume Collet-Serra, the director of House of Wax; Orphan and Non-Stop and shot entirely with an iPhone.

The film will be released in the US on VOD via Uncork’d Entertainment on April 7,2015 and June 9 on DVD.

Plot teaser:

Looking for a good time, two friends from New York on a trip to Barcelona befriend a couple of girls but it’s not fun they find, instead they get trapped in a house haunted by a devilish ghost bent on tearing apart anyone that enters her dwelling…

IMDb

‘There is a God. He’s just not here.’

Prayers in the Dark aka Exorcist: Prayers in the Dark – is a 2013 American horror movie directed by Joaquin F. Palma (Followed Home) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Alexander Fitchett. It stars Noshir Dalal, Don Simkovich, Jon Lance Duran, Eddie Diaz, Byron Vasquez Jr., Amanda Greig, Mariangelica Cuervo, David Polcyn.

Plot teaser:

An underground Brotherhood battling the demonic forces that thrive in the shadows of society find themselves unwillingly up against an evil more powerful than any one of them has ever seen… or so they think. Their faith, trust and friendship is put to the test as they discover that the true path to redemption – is sacrifice…

IMDb

The Amityville Asylum – also known as The Nesting 2: Amityville Asylum – is a 2013 direct-to-video horror film written and directed by Andrew Jones. It stars Lee Bane, Sarah Louise Madison, Eileen Daly, Kenton Hall, Sophia Del Pizzo, Matthew Batte, Paul Kelleher, Jared Morgan, Judith Haley, Robert Graham, Andy Evason.

It is the eleventh film based around the 1977 novel The Amityville Horror and follows the trend of the sequels having little to nothing to do with the events in the book only using the location and the DeFeo murders as a plot point.

Plot teaser:

Lisa Templeton begins a new job as a cleaner at High Hopes Hospital, a mental institution in Amityville, Long Island. Initially delighted to get the job, Lisa soon realises that all is not as it seems. Intimidated by staff and the psychotic ramblings of the patients, she is further unnerved by apparent super natural occurrences on the night shift. To preserve her sanity, Lisa must uncover the mysterious history of the institution and its inmates. But the truth is far more terrifying than she could ever imagine…

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Reviews:

‘While not a direct sequel to any of the films (was there ever one?) this eleventh (or so) entry in this series does nothing to boost the Amityville legend. If anything, it fortifies its reputation for being one of the worst franchises in the genre. The violence is below television caliber, it’s void of jump scares or creepiness, and in all honestly you’d never know it was tied into the Amityville story if the actors hadn’t repeatedly delved into the past to discuss its history.’ John Marrone, Bloody Disgusting

‘The so-called ‘creepy’ bits pass harmlessly by and the parts that are meant to be shocking twists are about as harrowing as getting the hiccups. Incredibly, it also has the balls to try the tired “you’re telling me X? But that can’t be true because Y” twist – the oldest trick in the book – twice in the space of twenty minutes.’ That Was a Bit Mental

‘The thing that I hated most about this film is that it takes forever getting to it’s point. And while you’re waiting, you’re bored to tears. It’s entirely too slow and you’re stuck watching characters you don’t give a damn about, doing nothing important. This is one of those movies like ones I’ve mentioned before, where you can get up, use the bathroom, get a snack and drink, text, and come back in the room without having hit pause and still understand everything going on.’ Grimm Reviewz

Cast:

• Sophia Del Pizzo as Lisa Templeton
• Sarah Louise Madison as Allison
• Eileen Daly as Sadie Krenwinkel
• Kenton Hall as Pemberton
• Lee Bane as Delaney
• Matthew Batte as Dennis Palmer
• Paul Kelleher as Hardcastle
• Jared Morgan as Doctor Elliot Mixter
• Andy Evason as Atkins
• Liam Hobbs as Inmate #3
• Robert Graham as Asylum Doctor #1
• Sean Robinson as Asylum Inmate
• Carwyn John as Inmate #2
• Judith Haley as Mrs. Hardesty
• Ina Marie Smith as Nancy

Wikipedia | IMDb