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The Penny Dreadful Picture Show (2013)

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‘The undead movie party’

The Penny Dreadful Picture Show is a 2013 American horror anthology film comprising of three tales of terror written and directed by Nick Everhart, Leigh Scott and Eliza Swenson.

Main cast:

Eliza Swenson, Craig Blair, Theodore Bouloukos, Sid Haig, Jeffrey Combs.

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Plot:

In an old movie theatre, undead Penny Dreadful, zombie Ned, and lycanthrope Wolfboy relate three horror tales: ‘Slash-in-the-Box’: A young couple find themselves being stalked by a lethal jack-in-the-box. ‘The Morning After’: Alice, a young lady, ponders what exactly happened to her last night. ‘The Slaughter House’: After their van breaks down, a group of friends must deal with a bizarre backwoods family.

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Reviews:

“The title and the concept look like a cheap way to stitch together three unrelated short films of questionable quality … Thankfully the picture show is anything but “dreadful.” It is actually quite good, entertaining and amusing. It has a witty, wicked sense of humor prevalent in the wrap around and the shorts themselves in a favorable Tales from the Crypt flavor.” Doc Rotten, HorrorNews.net

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The Penny Dreadful Picture Show isn’t perfect, by any stretch. It’s got its problems, and a couple are easily detectable. However, if ever there was an inspired indie anthology, it’s this one. In terms of pure entertainment value, it’s right up there with recent successes All Hallows’ Eve, Little Deaths, V/H/S, and The Theatre Bizarre.” Matt Molgaard, Best Horror Movies

“This was a very enjoyable anthology film. Do I think it can compete with the other compilation films that are hogging all the spot light? I don’t think so, at least not yet. Luckily, The Penny Dreadful Picture Show is fronted by a beautiful and entertaining face, a new horror hostess capable of captivating an audience. That is by far the strongest trait of this movie.” Mike, Horror Society

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Trailer:

IMDb | Facebook



Knights of Badassdom (2013)

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‘Tis about to get medieval up in here’

Knights of Badassdom is a 2013 American comedy horror film directed by Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End; Chillerama) from a screenplay by Kevin Dreyfuss and Matt Wall. Allegedly, the producers took over Lynch’s direction and reduced the film’s humour to repeated one-joke ideas.

Main cast:

Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn, Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau.

DF-0374	(l to r) Peter Dinklage stars as "Hung" and Ryan Kwanten as "Joe" in Entertainment One's upcoming release, KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM.

Plot:

Three best male friends and dedicated roleplayers (Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn) take to the woods to reenact a-like live-action medieval role-playing game. Trouble arises when a prop book of spells purchased on the internet ends up being a genuine grimoire and they unwittingly conjure up a blood-lusting succubus from Hell…

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Reviews:

“While the LARPers are ostensibly treated with affection, the film still repeatedly goes for low-hanging comedy fruit such as the histrionic and incorrect olde-English-speak they use while in-game, an obvious gag that quickly grows tiresome.” Dan Kaufman, Paste Magazine

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“It has plenty of humorously over-the-top gore, and a knowing way around its subject, though its inside jokes are available to all. It’s hardly a masterpiece, but then, it shows no signs it ever wanted to be, and sometimes that’s a relief.” Sam Adams, The Dissolve

DF-2708	(l to r) Summer Glau stars as "Gwen", Ryan Kwanten as "Joe" and Steve Zahn as "Eric" in Entertainment One's upcoming release, KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM.

“the movie’s ideas feel like desperate homages/ ripoffs that someone got afraid of, legally speaking, at the last minute, such as an opening credits sequence designed to look this close to the prologue of “Evil Dead 2.” Todd Gilchrist, The Wrap

Knights of Badassdom actually delivers everything the 2011 Danny McBride-James Franco comedy “Your Highness” purported to be but fell short on. The film is This Is the End festooned with Middle Ages accoutrements. In spite of its B-movie low-tech effects, the cheesiness does not attenuate the gruesomeness quotient.” Martin Tsai, Los Angeles Times

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Cast and characters:

Filming Locations:

Spokane, Washington, USA

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Trailer:

Wikipedia | IMDb


Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map (2013)

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Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map is a direct-to-video production of Scooby-Doo, this time featuring puppets. It premiered on July 21, 2013 at San Diego Comic-Con International, and was released on July 23, 2013 as a digital download and as a Walmart-exclusive DVD.

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Plot:

The Scooby Gang is little and hanging out in their tree house. Fred is lifting weights talking to himself in the mirror, Velma is using her computer, and Daphne is looking at her shoes and orders them to be lined up. Then Shaggy orders a pizza. The gang denies eating the pizza when it arrives. Then Scooby finds a rolled up map in his slice of pizza. The gang sets out to find the treasure of Gnarlybeard the Pirate. On the adventure they encounter Phantom Parrot and Gnarlybeard the Pirate, among others…

Reviews:

“Pirate and parrot puppets make this an oddball Scooby offshoot. Ultimately it doesn’t hold up well next to even the weaker animated Scooby series, but for those five and under it might prove enticing.” Chaz Lipp, The Morton Report

“I asked Gammon if he minded it being with puppets rather than his usual cartoon. He said ‘no’, and he must have been telling the truth, because he asked me to put it on for him every afternoon for a week after school while he sat down ready to eat his snack. Four year old praise indeed!” Gammon & Chips

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Having previously assumed that Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! was the lowest of the low when it comes to Scooby and the gang’s antics (so, clearly, I had consigned A Pup Named Scooby-Doo to a part of my brain that refuses to remember such abominations), I am sorry to report that this puppet ‘mare is extraordinarily awful. Even without the fact that the puppets look nothing like their animated antecedents, the script is insultingly idiotic and the apparent intention of aiming this at very young kids is even more insulting. Let them watch the real cartoon deal when they are old enough not to be scared! And I thought I’d seen it all when I encountered the XXX Scooby scuzz.

Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia

Cast and characters:

Clip:

Wikipedia | IMDb


The Vampire Diaries – TV series (2009 to present)

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The Vampire Diaries is an American supernatural drama television series developed by Kevin Williamson (Scream; I Know What You Did Last Summer) and Julie Plec (co-producer of Scream 2 and 3; Cursed), based on the popular book series of the same title written by L. J. Smith. The series premiered on The CW on September 10, 2009.

The series takes place in Mystic Falls, Virginia, a fictional small town haunted and surrounded by supernatural beings such as vampires, werewolves and witches.

The pilot episode attracted the largest audience for The CW of any series premiere since the network began in 2006. The first season averaged 3.60 million viewers, and following seasons have maintained an audience of over 2 million viewers.

The series began with mixed reviews, but critics agreed as the first season progressed that the show improved. Subsequent seasons have premiered to more positive critical reception. On March 11, 2016, The CW renewed the series for an eighth season.

In 2013, a spin-off series, The Originals, was launched and is still airing.

Plot:

The series follows the life of Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl who falls deeply in love with a 162-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Their relationship becomes increasingly complicated as Stefan’s vicious, malevolent and mysterious older brother Damon Salvatore (Ian Somerhalder) returns with a plan to wreak havoc on the town, seeking revenge against his younger brother for turning him into a vampire against his will. Because Elena resembles their past love Katherine Pierce, Damon also begins to fall in love with Elena.

It is revealed that Elena is a descendant of Katherine, who eventually returns with plans against the trio. Elena undergoes many hardships and deaths of close family members and loved ones throughout her high school experience.

The series is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, a town charged with supernatural history since its settlement of migrants from New England in the late 19th century.

Additional story lines revolve around the other inhabitants of the town, most notably Elena’s younger brother Jeremy Gilbert (Steven R. McQueen), her best friends Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham) and Caroline Forbes (Candice King), and their mutual friends Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) and Matt Donovan (Zach Roerig).

The town’s politics are orchestrated by descendants of the original founding families, all comprising a “Founders’ Council.” The founding families of Mystic Falls includes the Salvatores, the Gilberts, the Fells, the Forbes, and the Lockwoods. They guard the town mainly from vampires, although there are many more supernatural threats such as werewolves, witches, originals, hybrids, travellers and ghosts.

Wikia guide to each episode

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official website | Twitter


Mischief Night (2013)

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‘The lucky ones die quickly.’

Mischief Night – aka The Night Before Halloween – is a 2013 American horror thriller film written and directed by Richard Schenkman (Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies) from a story by producers Jesse Baget and Eric D. Wilkinson. It should not be confused with the 2014 film with the same title that stars Malcolm McDowell.

Main cast:

Ian Bamberg (Delirium), Noell Coet (Within the Dark), Adam C. Edwards (Fear of Clowns 2; The Quiet Ones; Teen Wolf), Stephanie Erb, Daniel Hugh Kelly and Erica Leerhsen.

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Plot:

Emily Walton is a young woman who suffers from psychosomatic blindness caused by a car accident that killed her mother. Emily is trying to adjust to her blindness and at the same time is being smothered by her father. On Mischief Night, when her father goes out on a date leaving her alone, she is terrorised by a hooded figure. Emily must fight for her life in order to survive and protect herself and everyone she holds dear from the intruder…

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Reviews:

“Many of the scenes will inspire audiences to clench here and there as Schenkman is able to derive a lot of cringe inducing moments based around Emily’s lack of sight. One scene in particular has her hanging over a shattered fruit bowl as she attempts to shut off a smoke detector. Coet’s performance is great considering the character could have easily been overplayed and incredibly over the top.” Felix Vasquez, Cinema Crazed

” … the film is shot and directed beautifully. It looks absolutely gorgeous. The director makes wonderful use of the house and the shadows that lurk in all the nooks and crannies are used to great effect. There are also a couple of good gore set-pieces that stand out in the film that I wasn’t expecting. The acting is great across the board.” Michael Juvinall, Horror Society

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Mischief Night is like a scaled down version of The Strangers.  Although other people cycle in and out, it is basically one stalker and one victim in one house lit by venetian blinds in every single room.  Decent performances fight off narcolepsy in places, but Mischief Night has nothing original to say, and no new ways to say it.” Ian Sedensky, Culture Crypt

“Beyond the horror formula being played out pitch perfect, there were lots of other clichés that weren’t quite so “charming”… Mischief Night is more like a jigsaw puzzle, pulling together a bunch of stock scenes and responses, than a creative work. Still, stupid as it sounds, the film is very entertaining.” Don Sumner, Best Horror Movies

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“The premise is rife for a Home Alone-esque scenario, but it’s never truly capitalized on until it’s too late. Even then, it’s still never played to its full potential; it’s suitably gory and violent at times, but for those looking to experience a modicum of genuine tension, you’d do best to look elsewhere.”Brad McHargue, Dread Central

Mischief Night is a small indie slasher, which has a few compelling film elements, such as: lighting, music and tone. However, the film’s central conflict is not setup well enough to create any real action. The protagonist overcomes a series of obstacles, but the ending feels flat. Mischief Night might satisfy a few indie horror fans, but the majority might want to seek out better slasher films…” Michael Allen, 28 Days Later Analysis

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Cast and characters:

Wikipedia | IMDb | Facebook

 


Grave Halloween (2013)

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Grave Halloween – aka The Suicide Forest and Deathly Halloween – is a 2013 Canadian made-for-TV supernatural horror film directed by Steven R. Monroe (The Exorcism of Molly Hartley; I Spit on Your Grave and 2; Mongolian Death Worm) from a screenplay by Ryan W. Smith and Sheldon Wilson (The Hollow; The Unspoken; Scarecrow). It is an original production by CineTel Films for Syfy.

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Main cast:

Kaitlyn Leeb (The Three-Breasted Woman in Total Recall; Wrong Turn 4), Cassi Thomson, Graham Wardle, Dejan Loyola (Evangeline), Jeffrey Ballard (R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour), Hiro Kanagawa, Jesse Wheeler, Tom Stevens and Kevan Ohtsji.

Plot:

On October 31, Maiko, a Japanese-born American student at a Japanese University, travels into the Aokigahara Forest to find her birth mother, who has recently committed suicide. Her friends Kyle, Terry and Amber travel with her, in hopes to produce a documentary for a class project…

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Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“The issue with this feature is simply the jarring fusion between J-Horror and a made-for-TV sanitised scare-fest. The narrative is burdened with an overly complex backstory … which – fascinating though it genuinely is – feels ungainly inserted as the film itself seems more concerned with developing the Evil Dead vibe that it so obviously craves.” Dave Wain, Scream magazine

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“It’s all luminous, moss-covered trunks and the damp mulch underfoot just about buries some of the more glaring cliches and irritations. It’s an exercise in atmosphere and body count rather than detailed plot — nothing wrong with that — and there are just enough moody set-piecesScreen Shot 2016-08-15 at 18.34.23 to keep the viewer entertained.” Phil Lunt, The British Fantasy Society

” … the scenery sets quite a stage for filmmakers, but spending an hour and a half looking at the same trees over and over again wastes every bit of natural beauty on a lame repetition factor. Alternate realities are introduced … but Ryan W. Smith’s story simply boils down to running Americans and clumsy falls continuing on a wasteful loop.” Matt Donato, We Got This Covered

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“… kudos must be given to Monroe for keeping the pace moving once everything derails. He doesn’t allow the viewer one moment’s breath for reflection on the nonsense transpiring. Also showing his keen hand behind the camera when handling violence, the kills are well staged, most notably a drawing-and-quartering courtesy of evil foliage.” Rob Getz, HorrorNews.net

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Cast and characters:

  • Kaitlyn Leeb – Maiko
  • Cassi Thomson – Amber
  • Graham Wardle – Kyle
  • Dejan Loyola – Terry
  • Jeffrey Ballard – Craig
  • Hiro Kanagawa – Jin
  • Jesse Wheeler – Brody
  • Tom Stevens – Skylar
  • Kevan Ohtsji – Policeman
  • Hyuma Frankowski – Junior Policeman
  • Maiko Miyauchi – Maiko’s Mother
  • Luna Kurokawa – Maiko’s Sister
  • Isabelle Beech – Young Maiko
  • Yukari Komatsu – Bracelet Woman

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: The Forest


The Horror Network (2013)

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‘It’s prime time for evil.’

The Horror Network aka The Horror Network Vol. 1 is a 2013 American horror anthology film written and directed by Brian Dorton, Joseph Graham, Manuel Marín, Lee Matthews, Douglas Conner and Ignacio Martín Lerma.

Main cast: 

Nick Frangione, Artem Mishin, Jan Cornet, Brian Dorton, Javier Botet, Macarena Gómez.

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Plot:

The film presents five horror stories:Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 19.50.47

3.00 am: A woman is taunted by an unknown caller in the middle of the night.

Edward: A troubled young man sleepwalks and sometimes wakes up with blood on his hands, his therapist uses hypnosis to try and unlock the secrets inside his troubled mind. Instead, he awakens a monster.

The Quiet: When a young, deaf schoolgirl is bullied and left to walk home alone, she realizes that she’s being followed and a frantic game of cat and mouse begins.

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Merry Little Christmas: A little girl and her mother live in a bizarre world of fear and pain, unable to regain their lives after the scars left on them by the brutal beatings they’ve endured.

The Deviant One: A serial killer preys upon a teen boy that he befriends.

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Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“This is not amateur hour. There is serious, professional filmmaking going on here, and bright futures are ahead all involved. If you have the stomach, and are in the mood for some really dark, really thought-provoking horror, give this one a look.” Elliott Maguire, UK Horror Scene

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Horror Network is a disparate collection of hidden gems. It’s a bit uneven at times, but that’s only natural given its international flavor and multitude of contributors. If, as reported, primary creators Dorton and Douglas Connor reviewed about 200 films before settling on the final five, they certainly did their homework.” Allan Walton, Ravenous Monster

Dark and edgy with an fast pace, The Horror Network is non-stop action. Extremely well acted by the entire cast, with gritty cinematography that leaves an indelible mark on the viewer. The special effects are outstanding, and blend perfectly into each scene no matter how bizarre or gruesome.” Robyn Andrew, Cryptic Rock

IMDb | Facebook | Image credits: Cryptic Rock


Dry Bones (2013)

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‘Sometimes you shouldn’t go home again.’

Dry Bones is a 2013 American horror film directed by Greg Lamberson (Johnny Gruesome; Killer Rack; Slime City) and Michael O’Hear (The Fate of Sophie Miller; Something Dark) from a screenplay by producer Lamberson.

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Main cast:

Debbie Rochon, Michael O’Hear (Death House; Model Hunger; Snow Shark), John Renna (Johnny Gruesome; Porkchop 3D), Paul McGinnis (Let Her OutFrankenstein’s Patchwork Monster), Kathy Murphy, Kevin Van Hentenryck [as Kevin Van Hat Trick] (Brain Damage; Basket Case and sequels), Kim Piazza, Jessica Zwolak (Killer Rack) Tia Maurice, Mark Goodfellow, Kaelin Lamberson, Alexander S. McBryde, Robert Bozek (Not Human), Tim O’Hearn.

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Plot:

As a boy, Andy is terrorized by a monster under his bed. Decades later, psychiatrists have convinced Drew (Michael O’Hear) that his childhood trauma is a figment of his imagination – until he returns home to confront his darkest fears. As the people in his life begin to disappear, Drew suspects the creature is hellbent on his destruction…

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Reviews:

“For a monster movie it surprisingly has little blood and guts but it does have human skeletons that you can roll up like a rug. Overall it’s a well directed piece by the duo of Lamberson and O’ Hear that keeps you entertained and holds your attention.” Peter Hopkins, Horror Screams Video Vault

Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 13.12.29“The entire cast offers up some great performances and work very well with each other. That is something very rare in the indie horror community. Most indie horror films have a cast of people trying to be the next De Niro from Taxi Driver while others lack experience to actually deliver their lines and not just read them.” Blacktooth, Horror Society

Dry Bones is a damn fine time for those into low budget horror. There’s really nothing to complain about with this one. I’m sure plenty would argue that the film could use some more gore but it honestly functions just as well without it.” Foul Feast

IMDb | Facebook

 



7 Days to Die – survival horror video game

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‘The survival horde crafting game’

7 Days to Die is a survival horror video game set in an open world developed by The Fun Pimps. It was released through Early Access on Steam for Microsoft Windows and OS Xon December 13, 2013. Versions for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in June 2016 via Telltale Publishing.

Story:

The game’s events happen after a nuclear Third World War that destroyed an extremely large part of the world, except for some areas such as the fictional county of Navezgane, Arizona.

The player is a survivor of the war who must survive by finding shelter, food and water, as well as scavenging supplies to fend off the numerous zombies (hinted to be the consequence of nuclear fallout) that populate Navezgane…

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Gameplay:

In 7 Days To Die, the player spawns into a randomly generated world or the preset world of Navezgane, Arizona, with the objective of surviving for as long as possible. As the days go by, the zombies get tougher and more aggressive. The game features the ability to craft, destroy, and manipulate objects. There is also a physics system in which building a structure with no support such as pillars and walls can lead to its collapse.

The game’s main focus is to have the players try to survive the night, as the game features a day and night cycle, making the zombies slow and weak during the day, yet fast and aggressive during night-time. The game features a system in which the character constantly needs food and water.

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Reviews (2016 version):

7 Days to Die looks significantly worse than its PC counterpart — even with the aforementioned fog and reduced view distance it struggles to run. Thanks to an auto-saving system the game will seize every minute or so. The loading times for saved games are abysmal, to the point that I was waiting more than 20 minutes for a game to load. Zombies regularly glitch and die standing instead of falling down dead…” Joab Gilroy, Gamespot.com

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“This is a sandbox game through and through, and while it does some basic zombie-survival-fantasy things right — hence the traction it has gained on Steam Early Access, and the interest from Telltale as a publisher — it is largely disappointing.” Jordan Devore, Destructoid.com

“There’s a hint of a good game in 7 Days to Die‘s mix of zombie attack preparedness and crafting and cooperative stands against zombies, and it has valuable ideas to contribute to the genre. In fact, you can almost hear them screaming to escape from beneath terrible graphics, barely useable menu controls, and shoddy console optimization. This is an apocalypse amongst apocalypses.” Leif Johnson, IGN

Wikipedia


Zombie-Opoly – board game

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‘This game is rotten!’

Zombie-Opoly is a 2013 American board game created by games manufacturer Late for the Sky of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is based upon the classic capitalist board game Monopoly.

The game includes six silver player pieces consisting of a shovel, a severed ear, a femur bone, a hammer, a zombie boy and a human remnant.

Gameplay:

You are trying to collect the four different spaces that are labelled: VooDoo, Virus Outbreak, Pandemic, and Mad Science. Players purchase favourite zombies and increase the rent by buying Boxes of Flesh and trading them in for a Screaming Human.

It’s all fun and games until someone gets sent to ‘Buried’ and is under ground and clawing their way to the surface for three turns! Choose your token and shamble to RRrrrrrr! You may soon be re-animated… or you may just be blood spewed and bitten.

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Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk


Antidote (2013)

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‘The cure is the curse’

Antidote is a 2013 American science fiction horror film written, produced and directed by Craig DiFolco and Pete DiFolco. The film was first shown on October 14, 2013, at Screamfest Horror Film Festival and was initially known as Viscera.

Terror Films has set a wide re-release for the film on October 21st, 2016. The film is set to be released across major digital platforms including: Amazon Instant, YouTube, Xbox Live, VUDU, Sony PlayStation, Vimeo On Demand and Google Play.

The film is also set to be released on Amazon Prime, the 24-Hour Movie Channel (Roku) and cable VOD, at a later date.

Main cast:

Kate Flanagan, Michael Izquierdo, Matthew Rauch, Kathleen Wise.

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Plot:

In a plague-ridden, post-apocalyptic world a man and woman face unimaginable horrors. When he suddenly becomes infected, they have to contend with the fact that the only possible cure slowly drives him mad…

IMDb

 


The Trail of Dracula (2013)

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The Trail of Dracula is a 2013 British feature documentary written, directed and shot by Dave Mitchell. The documentary examines Bram Stoker’s classic novel, the life of the author and a history of the vampire genre including Vlad the Impaler, as well as the controversy surrounding the novel’s release in Romania.

In the US, Intervision Pictures Corp. are releasing the film on October 25, 2016.

Press release:

‘Diabolical. Seductive. Immortal. Vampires have been an icon of evil in folklore and popular culture for more than three centuries, yet only one name still personifies the ultimate aristocrat of bloodlust.

Now join the world’s foremost experts on Dracula – including academics, authors and horror historians – as they explore the untold story of the Transylvanian Count, from the screen-shot-2016-10-01-at-20-39-21legend of Vlad The Impaler and Bram Stoker’s celebrated novel through its landmark stage productions and classic movie adaptations.

It’s a crimson trail of twisted archival materials, startling film clips and rare interviews – featuring Jonathan Rigby, Kim Newman and John Florescu (Dracula: Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times) – plus Bonus Materials that include additional interviews with Udo Kier and Werner Herzog (Nosferatu the Vampyre), over 90 minutes of Dracula movie trailers, and more!

Special Features:

Filming locations:

London, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, and at various locations in Romania.

IMDb


Worm (2013)

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‘Chase your dreams’

Worm is a 2013 American science fiction horror film directed by Doug Mallette and produced by Untrademarked Productions. It stars John Ferguson, Jes Mercer, and Shane O’Brien. It should not be confused with Worm, also made in 2013, directed by Andrew Bowser.

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In the US, the film was released by Synapse Films on August 12, 2014 with the following special features:

  • Worm – Original Short
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Audio Commentary Featuring Jeremy Pearce, Julian Herrera, Jennifer Bonior and Doug Mallette
  • Trailer

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Buy: Amazon.com

The film is released on DVD in the UK on 16 January 2017 by Left Films.

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Opening plot:

Small town journalist, Posey Mapleton, does a Special Report on Fantasites, a genetically-engineered parasite that allows users to once again dream – an ability they all lost 30 years ago. Seeing the new miracle product as a way escape his boring life, socially inept, maintenance man, Charles, attempts to purchase Fantasites but discovers he can only afford the cheaper Economy version as opposed to the highly sought after Premium.

When his Economy worms aren’t enough to impress his neighbor, Reed (a Premium user), Charles considers giving up Fantasites all together. But when a delivery of Premium worms are left outside Reed’s apartment, Charles decides to start swapping them for his undesired Economy worms. With the Premium Fantasites in his possession, Charles is finally able to live out his wildest fantasies…

Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“…an exceptional film that masters its diverse mix of tone, proving its storytellers to be both ambitious and skilled.” Film Threat

” …a stand-out feature of the bunch because of the direction in social examination that it took. It features an interesting concept about a world where people are no longer able to dream, and blends together comedy and drama to tell an emotionally effective story.” Film Bizarro

“One might consider Worm something of a parable about the various “miracle cures” that turn out to have unforeseen, and deadly consequences. I don’t know if this was intentional, but the basic premise of Worm reminded me of David Cronenberg’s Shivers. The big difference is that Mallette’s worms are suppose to be benign, so much so, that there is a cartoon mascot for the company, Fantasites, as well as children’s masks and a stuffed Fantasites worm doll.” Peter, Coffee, Coffee and More Coffee

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“…an original, modern tale of love and addiction plus the isolation and desperation that both these subjects can sometimes cause.” James Simpson, UK Horror Scene

“There’s a lot of high concept stuff going on here, and it’s worth the watch. I won’t say it’s the best film I’ve ever seen, but once I made it through to the second half I was totally involved.” Rio, HorrorNews.net

Cast and characters:

  • John Ferguson as Charles
  • Jes Mercer as June
  • Shane O’Brien as Reed
  • Sarah Shoemaker as Posey Mapleton
  • Scott Ferguson as Pop
  • Josh Matthews as Stephen
  • Mark DeMaio as Walt

Wikipedia | IMDb

 


Panzer Chocolate aka Panzer (2013)

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‘The darkest Nazi secret… is about to be revealed!’

Panzer Chocolate – aka Panzer – is a 2013 Spanish horror film directed by Robert Figueras from a screenplay co-written with Gemma Dunjo and Pep Garrido. It was shot in English and is designed to be interactive by using the sound to trigger a mobile phone application.

Main cast:

Melina Matthews (Mama), Geraldine Chaplin (A Monster Calls; BloodRayne), Ariadna Cabrol, Tony Corvillo (Sleep Tight), Mark Schardan, Josep Seguí, Richard Felix (The Possession of Amy Evans), Luka Peros, Asha Mendel Brookes, Iria Esteller, Berta Sola.

Plot:

When an archaeology student and her friends discover a Nazi bunker called ‘Valhalla’, their search for stolen pieces of art becomes a nightmare. The place is guarded by a hideous beast, and they find themselves running for their lives…

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Buy: Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

” …when the guardian shows up and starts chasing everybody, Panzer Chocolate switches things up a bit, becoming a standard slasher flick with a few creepy moments. Even these scenes have their charms (one kill is particularly gory), but, unfortunately, the big reveal at the end is a major letdown.” Dr. Shock, Horror Movie Podcast

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IMDb | Official site


The Thingy – Yves Sondermeier and Joël Rabijns interviewed by Ben Spurling

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When thinking about horror films, Belgium doesn’t obviously immediately jump to mind as a hot bed of genre production. 

Without question, there have been stand outs though, going all the way back to such films as the meagre, but effective, late entry Seven Deadly Sins romp, Devil’s Nightmare (1971); Harry Kümel’s Daughters of Darkness (1971), an adequate, if overly serious, entry in the typical lesbian vampire sub-genre that succeeds more with juvenile titillation than with scaring up proceeds; and more recently, Cub (2014) delivered a well-produced feral child take on the comatosed slasher movie school of filmmaking.

There have been the oddball examples, as well: Johan Vandewoestijne’s Lucker the Necrophagous (1986), a revolting film with all the nuance of an unventilated slaughterhouse in August, and Rabid Grannies (1988), Emmanuel Kervyn’s homage to balmy, over-the-top grindhouse. But, still, Belgium just isn’t known for its genre output as far as most horror fans are concerned.      

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However, that could all change if Yves Sondermeier and Joël Rabijns have anything to do with it. Their film, The Miracle of Life (US title: The Thingy: Confessions of a Teenage Placenta), is a somewhat previously overlooked exploitation/horror nonpareil from 2013 that takes the surprisingly varied, if not abundant, Belgian genre cinema world to a whole new level of freakishness by introducing a cognizant placenta as the main character.

screen-shot-2016-12-05-at-22-05-41The placenta, Luke, begins as an innocent baby then develops into a hopeful youth longing for love and acceptance and finally, in his teenage years, arrives at a sad awareness of exactly how powerful dysfunction can be.

While this might sound like any other direct-to-video slop-fest trying for a cash grab while delivering nothing beyond greasy effects and a proliferation of callousness, Yves and Joël have, instead, taken all of the typical trappings of cheap exploitation and salted their acutely bizarre narrative with scenes underscoring a thoughtful and sophisticated theme of insecurity.

With a miniscule budget, a good cast, a deep love of the genre, and refined implications, Yves and Joël have done something a cut above the common 42nd Street retro muck. Their film is now available for streaming via Amazon   

Ben: What triggered the idea of using a sentient placenta as the lead character?

Yves: So, once, we were sitting with a friend of ours drinking too much coffee (let’s get this out of the way fast: we never take drugs and don’t get our inspiration out of that). At the time, Joël and I had already worked together a lot on each other’s productions, but we hadn’t truly made anything together, yet.

So that friend of ours, Shana, suggested we make a film in a collaboration; that’s why the movie starts with “For Shana”. We asked her if she had any ideas in mind, and she said, “Yes, a living placenta in a totally fucked up horror movie”. We found that idea so funny that it stuck; we kept on laughing about it and without a word on paper, the story basically created itself.

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

When we started writing “The Miracle of Life”, the horror element disappeared a bit into the background because we found it too easy to just make Luke kill things. Everybody thought about it, and we realized it was funnier to make him a gentle being and all the clichéd human beings around him the true “monsters”.

Ben: So, we can thank this crazy Shana person for planting the disturbing seeds. Is she a filmmaker, as well?

Yves: She’s not a filmmaker; at the time, she was studying psychology. She wanted to become a shrink🙂

Ben: Wasn’t it Père Obhscure (is that a real name?) who created Luke? Zoë only operated Luke, correct? How did that go, and how was Luke created?

Joël: Père Obhscure is more of a collective name for everyone who worked on building Luke (mostly the two of us, Zoë, and Liesbeth Eeckman, who also animated the dream sequence). Zoë primarily did the art direction and costumes. She was with us on set almost all the time, plus, being part of the Père Obhscure team, she knew the ins and outs of Luke as well as we did. So, to ask her to do the puppeteering felt like the obvious thing to do.

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

Interestingly, creating Luke took us exactly nine months. We knew nothing about sculpting or painting or animatronics, so there was a lot of trial and error to get to something that was functional and had the right look. It was a process consisting of little sleep and (again) lots of coffee.

Whenever we were broke we had to steal expired bottles of silicone and resin (that no one else was going to buy, anyway). Yves probably lowered his life expectancy by a few years by always having to sleep in the same room where the chemicals in the mold were drying.

Ben: You’ve both said you grew up during the fading years of VHS in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and the video stores, with their stock of trash cinema, were a big influence on you. Can you delve deeper into that and describe that experience and how that impacted this film?

Yves: Because we both grew up in strange, but nice, families, the video deck gave us the chance to flee into a world of bodybuilders, steroids, car crashes, mutants, explosions, boobies, etc. In other words, it was the kind of world which would obviously be a huge influence on a little boy. Discovering and watching these movies, which our parents would have strongly disapproved of if they had known, still has a subconscious influence on what we create today.

The huge amount of movies that were produced during, and for the VHS-rental age, spoke to our imaginations. In part, the films themselves, and their presentation, were highly creative, but even when a film was boring, the fact that it was out there proved that we shouldn’t just limit our viewing behavior, thoughts, and dreams to whatever television stations and big theaters were showing. There was a whole other movie world out there to be discovered. It created this notion that if you can make it up, there can be a movie about it. That notion really broadened the range of things to make up.

Here’s an anecdote which makes the answer less theoretic and more personal:

When my parents divorced, my little brother and I stayed at my dad’s. In this time, we developed a slight addiction to television. My father decided to cut the cable, just keeping the video player, and he got a lot of movies he thought, for educational reasons, would be better for us to watch rather than television. No joke, he gave us De Sica, for example. He let me watch The Bicycle Thief at age 7 (which made me a communist for a short time).

Also, there were tapes with the films of Jacques Tati and Orson Welles. Even if I liked these movies, he didn’t know that the babysitter provided my little brother and me with a lot of sleazy video tapes to keep us silent while she made out with her boyfriend. No joke, the first movie she gave us was Halloween. Like that, I watched Predator, Indiana Jones, and Jean-Claude Van Damme films, etc. a million times. I loved this stuff a lot, and it was nice to watch these movies hidden from my dad.

Without a doubt, these movies had a huge influence on me. Not just in my own creations, but now that I am an adult, I drive a black sports car, always with sunglasses on (even in the winter), while listening to Jan Hammer.

Joël was always allowed to watch the sleazy stuff; the more violent the better. He now has a small collection of swords, but they aren’t really sharp.

Ben: Wow. De Sica, Tati, Welles. That’s far from trash cinema! Your dad was really giving you a top quality education in film! It looks like your babysitter was giving you the high-end stuff from the genre world. Halloween, Predator, Indiana Jones: that’s pretty high-quality genre filmmaking. Can Joël recall any of the sleazier titles?

Joël: The most insane one I remember is In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro, which is basically The Birds, but with baboons. Hundreds of actual living baboons. I rediscovered that one last year, but didn’t remember a single image of the film, just the VHS artwork (which was terrifying for a kid).

Many of the tapes we rented or bought at flea markets were dubbed in German or French, so, with my native language being Dutch, I wouldn’t understand a word of what was said. I liked martial arts films for a while, but I don’t think I saw a single one that wasn’t in German. One I remember was a Drunken Master rip-off, but I can’t remember what it was called.

Another one I remember vividly is The East is Red, probably because it had a transgendered villain (I think? the character was supposed to be male but clearly played by an attractive female actress) and a dwarf in a big mechanical samurai suit. But now that I look it up again, it actually seems like quite a classy arty film. Only the bigger productions were available with Dutch subtitles. I loved The Terminator, but they would only ever show Terminator 2 on TV for some reason. So I always had to borrow the (way cooler) first film from friends.

Ben: The concept for In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro reminds me a lot of another great film: Sands of the Kalahari. Similar situation with baboons, but the characters are stranded in a mini-oasis, battling a group of baboons over the limited supply of water-heavy melons. Sounds odd, but very well done.

The East is Red, with the male character being played by a female, is interesting, because I was thinking Pascal Maetens was a curious choice to play Marianne in The Thingy. When did you know you wanted a man (with definite masculine features) to play Luke’s mother, and what was the reasoning behind that?

Joël: Pascal was our first and only choice for Marianne. At first it was part of the joke, of course. What kind of person would eat her baby and raise her placenta? A feminist-without-a-cause power-mom who’s natural habitat was the neon-coloured 80s fitness hall. A female bodybuilder that had become so macho that giving birth was merely part of the workout. We didn’t have to think about it at all.

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Image courtesy of Tom Callemin

The moment we imagined what a movie about a living placenta would be like, we spontaneously (as if the entire picture came to us out of nowhere) decided that she would be a tough-ass female bodybuilder who only trained one ridiculously mutated arm and Pascal would have to play her.

We had worked with Pascal before, and he had become a good friend in the meantime. We knew that he was the only one who would have the skill and the balls to play the placenta’s mother. The one existing person who was certainly an influence for Marianne was Divine, especially in Female Trouble. He/she had the right kind of dominant energy and physical presence, while still keeping some genuine kind of femininity and glamour.

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

By the time we actually started writing the script, the character made total sense to the story. Her reasoning behind the arm, the way she’s forced to be a mother and a father for Luke at the same time. There’s a line of dialogue we sadly had to cut from the film for pacing; near the end, when Marianne has taken the steroid overdose, Luke tries to encourage her to hang on to life by saying “Soldiers are made for fighting. Show me you’re the man you always wanted me to be”. That line summed up Marianne’s character for us.

Ben: That line is fantastic! It’s a shame it didn’t make it in. You mentioned having worked with Pascal before; you’ve both done short films in the past with him. Can you tell me how the process was different doing the feature?

Joël: We wrote the script in such a way that we could keep the production realistic for our limited resources and experience. Actually, we shot the film as if we shot several separate short films. We would prepare everything for a certain setting, shoot for three or four days on that location, with those actors and then we’d work odd jobs for a couple of weeks to earn money to produce the next scenes on the next location with the next batch of characters/actors for a few days.

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

Since the story spans Luke’s entire youth, it was appropriate that characters would come into his life and move on again. So, except for Marianne, obviously, we managed to wrap up every character’s scenes in one to four shooting days, max.

For Pascal, it was a huge commitment. He had about 30 days of shooting, scattered over a six month period. At the time, he didn’t have a girlfriend or any steady income, and running around with bleached hair and traces of nail polish on his hands didn’t really help him much.

But aside from how much more patience, energy, and sacrifice a feature film demands compared to a short film, it was totally worth it for everyone involved, we think. Actors get a lot more room to give some depth to their characters and literally be part of something bigger.

Every one of the cast and crew was genuinely excited by the film’s concept and approach. They were contributing to a movie they actually wanted to see. Without that energy (especially from people like Pascal and Zoë, Koen who played the bully, David and Tom who worked on the lighting), we’re not sure if we would have pulled it off.

Ben: So, it took about six months to shoot? That’s some real commitment on everyone’s part! Sounds a little rough, especially for Pascal!! And there was never a time when anyone thought the movie was just too strange to make? No one had second thoughts?

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

Joël: We had the impression that for almost every actor there was some point at which, for just a moment, they would stop and ask themselves “what the hell am I actually doing”. But a minute later, without us having to say anything to them, they’d just see the humour in all the absurdity and just continue working.

For example, Renato, who played the fitness doctor, was perfectly fine with the entire birth scene. The bodybuilders, the placenta, the blood, the screaming, he had no problem with any of it. Then a new take came up and we told him, “OK, Renato, now you put the baby in the plastic bag”. He just stood there for a moment, giving us an unmistakable “are you fucking kidding me” look. He knew it was in the script, but actually standing there with the fake baby, with the umbilical cord dangling from it, and the nurse standing next to him with the shopping bag, seemed to make him realize how weird the entire situation was. But when we started rolling, he got back into it without a problem.

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

We would like to add that the script was kind of a casting filter by itself. Most actors we approached said no from the start; one of the best answers was: “It is not in my nature to beat up a placenta… No thank you….” The ones which joined the team were enthusiastic from the start. Karel Vingerhoets (the priest) said to us: “Nice for once I don’t have to play the disappointed father or uncle or something like that. It is the first time I can play something like that in Belgium”…

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Image: Yves Sondermeier

Ben: Karel stood out immediately; he’s amazing in the movie. Extremely talented actor. It sounds like everyone who was cast wound up getting the joke and having a great time in the end. I understand you’ve started scripting your next project, American Juice. Isn’t it inspired by the Blaxploitation movies of the 1970’s? How close to filming are you, can you give me a few details about it, and will anyone from The Thingy be in it?

Yves: While finishing The Miracle of Life, the idea for American Juice came up and it’s still vividly alive in our head, taking shape and growing every day. But it is definitely for a later point in our lives. Currently, we are busy with the preproduction of our next feature called Baldis Beans, which takes all our energy and time. If everything ends up well, we start shooting next year; familiar faces from earlier work will be in it, for sure.

Ben: So, American Juice is on hold, but you’re doing a feature called Baldis Beans? Where did that title come from?

Yves: So, we think it’s the easiest if we just give you the pitch:

Doctor Umbaldo Uribe Jr., a forty-year-old virgin, is forced by his tyrannical mother to open an illegal gynecological clinic. He’s longing for a normal life, love and recognition, while she only seeks the perfect woman to carry her grandchild. When Umbaldo falls in love with his new neighbor, Hildegard, all hell breaks loose in the Uribe family. So Baldis Beans is short for Doctor Umbaldo Uribe Jr. Beans…. Even if the short pitch sounds more down to earth than the last film, we have a couple of surprises up our sleeves and will not disappoint the fans of The Thingy.

Ben: That sounds right up The Thingy alley. I look forward to seeing it, and I do very much appreciate you taking the time to do this interview. Thanks again, and thank the cast and crew for me! It’s been a pleasure.

Yves and Joël: For us, as well.



Skypemare (2013)

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‘Log in. Dial a friend. Chat. Die.’

Skypemare is a 2013 American horror short film written and directed by John Fitzpatrick. It stars ‘scream queen’ Cerina Vincent (Tales of HalloweenFreaks of Nature; Cabin Fever) and Annika Marks (Brentwood Strangler; Anguish).

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Alison (Cerina Vincent) is left home alone on Halloween night, but while chatting with her best friend Jenna (Annika Marks) over Skype, something terrifying happens to Jenna, leaving Alison helpless on the other side of the computer screen, watching in horror…

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Having premiered at the 2013 Telluride Horror Show, Skypemare was posted online Halloween 2014 and became a viral YouTube short hit, receiving over 1.5 million views.

The same production team made a follow-up film, Brentwood Strangler, in 2016.

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Reviews:

” …well directed, with decent performances from the two leads. I like the way it’s shot and lit, with warm tones in Alison’s apartment, and cold blues the other end of the video connection. It borrows from classic slasher movies like the original Halloween and April Fool’s Day, but with a sprinkling of modern technology added to the mix.” Gore Blimey

“When it comes to the other key components – the acting and the special effects – there is enough greatness here to satisfy horror fans. Although Skypemare is far from torture porn, the blood and guts were used wisely and didn’t look the slightest bit fake.” Horror Society

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“It’s nice and compact, so there’s not a second of padding. The performances and camera work are great, as are the lighting and direction… they simply hit every facet out of the park. It’s as near to perfect as one can get.” Creative Jamie

“Previous features such as the disappointing Smiley have struggled to generate the same fearful trepidation that Fitzpatrick has crammed into a fraught 8 minutes, successfully balancing the need for gory scares with bleak humour.” John Townsend, The Horror Asylum

Cast and characters:

  • Cerina Vincent as Allison
  • Annika Marks as Jenna
  • Ryan Dillon as Steve
  • Adam J. Yeend as Gary Gray

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official site | Facebook


Bunni (2013)

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‘Don’t keep mother waiting’

Bunni is a 2013 American slasher horror film written, directed by and starring Daniel Benedict (Fall of Grayskull; The Unwanted).

A group of teens explore an abandoned factory at the request of one of their friends. Little do they know he is leading them to a slaughter at the hands of his mentally deranged mother…

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Following an initial self-distributed DVD, the film was picked up by Wild Eye Releasing and released on March 8, 2016.

Reviews:

screen-shot-2017-01-16-at-23-05-18“This fast paced slasher film was written and directed by Daniel Benedict, some may recognise him as the talented man behind the short fan film Fall of Grayskull. He has written this really well and just throws us into the action without the need for a big build up to our unlucky Halloween party friends.” Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins, Horrorscreams Videovault

“The movie suffers often from the lack of proper funding, when one hears the term low budget everyone has his or her own level of interest and for this production an estimated accounting suggests $2,000. This blueprint for the checklist of issues, muffled audio with regard to dialogue exchanges, poor lightning, filming mostly at night in darkened rooms, bad framing and what every horror with blood-loss, good special effects, that lacks; too.” Duane, Rogue Cinema

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“You can tell the cast and crew had a blast making Bunni and that always produces stellar results. What Bunni is lacking in overall depth it makes up for with great gags and kill scenes … Benedict not only reaches the desired results of the effects he exceeds them.” Horror Movies Uncut

Bunni is a no budget, independent film that suffers from bad acting, forced dialogue, and stereotypical characters. That said, there are surprisingly solid special effects, and it fooled me with the twist. The second half of the movie is much better than the first because many of the worst actors are finally killed off, and it’s just the Final Girl and the antagonist.” Branden Chowen, Cinefessions

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Filming locations:

Owensboro, Kentucky, USA

IMDb


Truth or Dare (2013)

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‘It’s not just a game anymore…’

Truth or Dare is a 2013 American horror film directed by and starring Jessica Cameron (Mania) from a screenplay co-written with Jonathan Scott Higgins. It co-stars Ryan Kiser (Lillith; Red to Black; House of Manson) and Heather Dorff (Scream Queen Stream; Movie of the DeadRed Eye).

Six college friends find internet stardom when they make “Truth or Dare” videos with a violent twist. It’s all fun and games until their number one fan decides he wants to play by his own rules…

After many festival showings and awards, the film was finally released on DVD + Digital HD by Invincible Pictures on January 24, 2017 and is reportedly selling out fast.

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Buy: Amazon.com

Main cast:

Jessica Cameron, Ryan Kiser, Heather Dorff, Shelby Stehlin, Devanny Pinn, Brandon Van Vliet, Jesse Wilson, Buz Wallick, Grae Drake, Brett Wagner.

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Reviews:

“Despite some amateur performances, Truth or Dare manages to make its name as 2014’s most f*cked up film and earn plenty of accolades for visual effects. Cameron should be proud as her first foray in the directors seat has left a stamp across the horror community and will require strong stomach for anyone not used to this level of blood and guts on their screen.” BloodGuts UK Horror

” …Cameron’s themes have already been mined more effectively in films like The Den and Lucky Bastard. Her strictly B-movie script, penned with Jonathan Scott Higgins, strings one ludicrous contrivance after another, each requiring the ridiculous response of a weakly crafted character to work, all in the name of extreme gore.” Hope Maddern, Screen Relish

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“Jessica Cameron’’s first outing as director is fast-paced and tight. Though the torture is excruciating, it’s the truths of who these people are as individuals that really turns the stomach. The script, co-written with Jonathan Scott Higgins, focuses on horrifying its audience in a different way, with the truth, not the dare.” Christopher Jiminez, ComingSoon.net

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“It’s a real testament to the films script and direction that you side with this pretty horrible bunch, of course it helps that Ryan Kiser, as Derik, is such an evil psychotic bastard […] With a lot to say on the pursuit of fame (or infamy) in this YouTube-loving generation, and the price people can pay when they achieve it, Truth or Dare is most definitely a product of our time. It’s also damn good gory fun!” Phil Wheat, Nerdly

Filming locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA
Tucson, Arizona, USA

IMDb | Official site | Facebook


Mysterious Island 2 aka Far Cry 2 (2013)

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Mysterious Island 2 – aka Far Cry 2Gu dao jing hun 2 and 孤岛惊魂 2 – is a 2013 Chinese horror film directed by Rico Chung. It stars Deng Jiajia and Leung Wan-yi.

The film is largely unrelated to the plot and cast of Mysterious Island (2011), but shares the producer, director and many of the same crew. It was released in China on January 26, 2013 but did not perform well at the box office taking approximately a fifth of the receipts of the first movie.

Plot:

In present day Bangkok Zhou Qing (Deng Jiajia) tells her psychiatrist (Leung Wan-yi) about recurring nightmares involving a female ghost and a killer lorry on a highway.

Zhou’s younger sister Zhou Xi (Deng Jiajia) finds Zhou Qing missing and on looking for her finds her house deserted and full of horrific paintings and newspaper clippings about a murder spree. There she meets Zhou Qing’s boyfriend, taxi driver Zhang Lai (Julian Chen), who is also looking for her.

Zhou Xi receives a garbled call from her sister, saying she is on K61. Zhang Lai says the road, which is known as Death Highway because of the large number of casualties on it, is on a deserted offshore island, and the two of them set out to find Zhou Qing.

En route, Zhang Lai explains that the house Zhou Qing was living in was the scene of the murder spree. They stop to pick up Black Dragon King (Wei Yuhai), a Buddhist priest friend of Zhang Lai…

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Reviews:

” … as the script abandons any attempt at coherence, and the direction, jazzy camerawork and feverish editing follow suit, the only mystery about this Island is how it ever came to be thrown together in the first place.” Derek Elley, Film Business Asia

 

IMDb


The Last of Us – video game (2013)

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The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 worldwide on June 14, 2013.

Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States. The Last of Us is played from a third-person perspective; players use firearms and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus.

The game has received widespread critical acclaim, with praise directed at its narrative, gameplay, visual and sound design, characterization, and depiction of female characters.

Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

The Last of Us became one of the best-selling games on the PlayStation 3, selling over 1.3 million units in its first week and over eight million units within fourteen months. It won year-end accolades, including multiple Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications, critics, and game award ceremonies.

Naughty Dog have since released several downloadable content additions; The Last of Us: Left Behind adds a single-player campaign following Ellie and her best friend Riley. An enhanced edition of the original game, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 in July 2014. A sequel, The Last of Us Part II, was announced in December 2016.

Wikipedia


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