Zombos' Closet of Horror

Godspeed (2009) In Search of Intensity

A small picture vibrating with grand passions, “Godspeed” transforms the vast lawlessness of the Alaskan wilderness into a playground for damaged souls and Old Testament mischief. (Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times)

Once again, Ms. Catsoulis' review is perplexing to me. Interesting, but very perplexing. (Zombos)

ZC Rating 2 of 7: Fair

Twice I started watching Robert Saitzyk's thriller Godspeed and twice I stopped at the same scene in the movie. I wondered why. It's when faith healer Charlie Shepard (Joseph McKelheer) and Sarah Roberts (Courtney Halverson) have awkwardly met and each wants the other to go in a different direction, which is either to find something or to lose something, or maybe both. Intensity should be radiating from them but it doesn't and I couldn't pin down why. Maybe it's Saitzyk's direction, which lingers too long on scenes, trying to give them importance the story and its characters can't muster, or maybe it's McKelheer's struggle (he co-wrote with Saitzyk and Knauf) with overly contemplative dialog inadequate for fully expressing his struggle with his inner demons. There's a weightiness to Godspeed that doesn't add up given its story, and for a thriller--I wouldn't call Godspeed a horror movie--it never finds the intensity it needs to involve us, or justify its artsy spiritual despair spilling over into bloodshed at the beginning and the ending of the movie.

Given the beautiful but lonely vista of the Alaskan location, Saitzyk doesn't allow his tormentors or their tormented much interaction through metaphor or religious iconography with the wilderness surrounding them--and in them; instead, he fills the empty spaces with drawn out, self-conscious talkiness, where everyone moves hopelessly around a lot  pontificating on their desires and sins without making us feel they're sharing the burden with us. Neither are their actions embellished or even made insignificant by God's intrusive knack with nature all around them. This leaves the movie's underwhelming religious-poking bland to watch, forcing more of our attention on a weak story just not engrossing enough to hold it, which, given the soul-searching and ulterior motives abounding at its heart it should. Godspeed doesn't let us feel the philosophical ardor it so heavily tries to concern us with.

Thicker Than Water Hits Festival Circuit

Director Philip Messerer sends along this update on his vampire trilogy, The Vampire Diaries, which kicks off with Thicker Than Water. Look for my review coming soon; I enjoyed this quirky entry to the trilogy overall.

October will be a big month for Thicker Than Water.  We are selected to Terror Film Festival, Bram Stoker International Film Festival, 28 Hours Later (28 hour horror marathon where we are up against The Open Door for Best Picture) and we are currently leading the Vampire Film Festival trailer contest (which decides who gets in). 

Fangoria is coming out with an extended article, interview and contest for the film on September 20th.

Ponder This: Ludlow Needs Our Help

Stacie Ponder over at Final Girl needs our help...as well as a better watch.

"Alright, people, this is it. As you may well be aware because I won't shut up about it, Ludlow is finished. It's been slapped on a DVD and screened for some friends. In fact, I thought I'd reached a time when it would no longer rule my days and haunt my nights...and I'm sure you all thought you could just watch the f*cking thing and be done with it, right? That's nice, in theory, but...

"See, the final cut of the film turned out to be a whopping 63 minutes. 63 MINUTES, a result that was rather unexpected, to say the least. After all, the script was only 20 pages.

"Now, as you may notice, 63 minutes is quite close to the running time of a feature film, yes? And a wee too long a run time for a comfortable short, yes? Yes. Obviously, this only means one thing: I need to write some more, shoot some more, and make Ludlow longer. I need to expand the elastic waistband on the comfortable short(s) and make this into a feature, which will be easier to get into the grubby mitts of audiences. Stronger, faster, better!

"Shannon Lark (ze star) will be back here in Los Angeles in early August. Once more, we're going to truck out into the Mojave Desert and, barring any typical Ludlow-related shenanigans, we're gonna finish this puppy.

"Here's where you come in, o dear reader. We need to raise funds to complete our arduous task. Travel, lodging, FX, these all need to be covered, so we're asking for donations.

"Donate $10 and your name gets in the credits of the film. The person who donates the most by Friday, August 7th will also receive a 16" x 20" painting by me, subject matter of the donor's choosing."

Max and Me Look At Experiments in Terror 3

"Striking for the third time, Experiments in Terror 3 unleashes another hallucinogenic orgy of the uncanny, the dreadful, and the macabre."

Well, perhaps...

"Employing a mesmerizing montage of terrifying tropes and fiendish footage, our kino-coven conjures more than a bewitching hour of visionary cinema. Pounding a stake through the heart of genre convention, this shocking program expands the cinematic language of fear, breaking the chains of narrative logic and leaving only the black void of the infinite unconscious."

We'll be the judge of that...

Max and me chat about our likes and dislikes with Experiments in Terror 3. TK from Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire was scheduled to join us, but she ditched at the last moment. Smart move given our level of conversation. We did copiously borrow from her review, though, as she is much more articulate than either of us.

me: I looked for eit3 on imdb, but didn't see it.

Max: To hell with the corporate fellatio that is IMDB! (Raising clenched fist in the air) ;)

me: Swish! and another proletarian-despised head hits the basket. Hey, no fair, you're using emoticons! I can barely type.

Max: YOU can barely type? I don't even exist! I'm a roomful of monkeys--one of us at a time accidentally producing coherent sentences!

me: Well, then send a few of them over to help me out. While I'm waiting let's discuss the first film about Richard Chase.

Max: You know, when I was told that the first film on the review screener I was going to get was a Dick Chase film, I thought it was going to be a different sort of film!

me: Long pause as I look up Dick Chase...

Max: Aw, Zombos, you don't look up *subtext*!

me: Ohhhhhh. I did find Deck Chairs, though.

Killer Films on Massify

Amy Allen over at Massify says...

"Check out www.massify.com/killerfilms to get involved in our first production with the iconic Killer Films (Boys Don't Cry, Kids, Far From Heaven).

"These short films will be created entirely by the Massify community, beginning with the selection of a filmmaker to helm each one. So anybody with a provocative and funny story should pitch it now. The deadline is May 14. After selecting one of the concepts, Killer co-founder Christine Vachon will work closely with the filmmaker and the Massify community to cast and produce the project. She talks more at length about the program on Indiewire.

"Even if you don't plan on submitting an idea, please help out by rating the entries. Your opinions play a key role in Killer's decision, and there are already a lot of great concepts to explore, so please check them out at www.massify.com/killerfilms."

Edges of Darkness (2008) Zombies, Vampires, and Saviours

ZC Rating 2 of 7: Fair

Jason Horton and Blaine Cade's Edges of Darkness is the kind of low-budget arthouse film that, given its uneven acting and shoe-string budget production values, is still important to watch for those flashes of good writing and good direction that shine through. In three separate stories following people dealing with a zombie apocalypse in their own ways, God and Devil, vampires, and organic computing provide the unusual themes wrapped around this flesh-eating grue.

While the stories do not intertwine, they are intercut, which at times jostles the pacing and dramatic continuity. Tying them together is the gated community locale, an unrelenting threat from zombies lumbering just outside, and the need for satisfying hungers that go beyond flesh-munching closeups and dripping gristle.

Even in the least engrossing story there is a wonderful and unexpected flash of macabre poetry shown when Dana (Alisha Gaddis) dreams she is dancing with a roomful of zombies. It is compelling, like the dance of the dead in Carnival of Souls and the dancing dead in Robert Aickman's short story, Ringing the Changes, because it plays with our sense of propriety. It is unsettling enough that the only person who listens to her is Morris (Wayne Baldwin) the zombie--out of reach, of course--outside her bedroom window, while her husband writes endlessly on his computer. Has he gone mad from the stress? Who does he think will read his story? We never find out, and instead watch as he eagerly plugs in the weird computer chip from DHell. When the lights go out, it starts searching for an alternate power source, sending out wires (tentacles) that first power-up from a house plant, then a mouse, and eventually you know what.

While Dana yearns for romance, her husband Dean yearns for backup power. Uneven acting almost cripples the pent-up tension and despair here.The climax is predictable, but the relationship between Dana and Dean (Jay Costelo) provides a refreshing psychological perspective seldom seen in more mainstream fare. We need to explore more atypical relationships like this one in the cinema of the undead, and devote time to the frustrated, freaked-out, living, coping with the voracious dead, instead of the over-used gut-churning closeups of zombies feasting.

Undead or Alive: A Zombedy

In Undead or Alive: A Zombedy, a Union soldier on the lam and a cowboy with nothing left to lose make the mistake of crossing paths with a corrupt sheriff by the name of Claypool. Teaming up with Geronimo's "sexy niece" (played by Navi Rawat) for help, they also have to contend with Geronimo's curse, which is causing an unusual amount of nasty zombies to crop up and get in their way.

I asked director Glasgow Philips a few questions about his film.

Wanted: Undead or Alive is a film that takes place in the wild west. What challenges did you experience directing the characters and action for this time period?

Did you just copy and paste your questions for Brian Corder?! What the f**k?! Ahhhh...just kidding, it's a good question.

The honest answer is that the movie's more about Western movies than about the actual Wild West. I didn't do a lot of research into how things actually were back then—just enough to know that many of our details (Chris Kattan's shirt, the way people talk) were NOT authentic period. We were basically going with "what's the most fun?" rather than "what's the most real?" as our guiding question.

Our propmaster, Phyllis Detrich, was a true expert on period detail—she's worked on a ton of real Westerns—so she kept me advised when we were doing something waaaaaaaay out in left field, and we'd decide whether or not to make adjustments. For the most part we didn't make them, but it was wonderful to have someone like Phyllis on hand so that we weren't making too many mistakes by accident. We like to make mistakes on purpose! Except when we make them by accident.

Head Trauma (2006)

ZC Rating 4 of 7: Very Good

Suppose you left your town and home many years ago, and drifted along here and there, never putting down roots. Suppose you are homeless, friendless, and suffer from a fragmented memory, whose shards of clarity are confusing and terrifying. What is it you can't remember, but can't seem to fully forget? Portrait of a man in crisis: George Walker.

In indie director and co-writer (along with Brian Majeska) Lance Weiler's Head Trauma, George Walker returns to his deceased grandmother's house and soon goes head to head with those shards of memory; and a mysterious and ominous Snorkel Parka dressed individual who just may be a maniacal killer.

But why does he go after George? Is it because George's return to his grandmother's abandoned and condemned house, filled with dark corners, squatter debris, and a really creepy attic—

"This review won't fly, you know," said Zombos, peering over my shoulder.

"What?" I said.

The Last Broadcast (1998)

ZC Rating 4 of 7: Very Good

Is the following fact or fiction? Two young movie makers use a desktop PC and less than nine hundred dollars to produce the first all-digital documentary-styled horror film in 1998?

It's fact. A few months before The Blair Witch Project brought documentary style horror to the forefront, The Last Broadcast presented a chilling account of three bloody murders that happened one cold night in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Beginning as a fictitious documentary about the Jersey Devil Murders using salvaged video footage, interviews, and police evidence, the film's twist ending reveals the real murderer--or does it?

Using Photoshop to enhance scenes, consumer-grade video recorders, and lots of post-production doctoring on a desktop PC,  Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler digitally composed their thriller using mostly non-actors, Weiler's mom, and anything not nailed down. The final product is an eerie, slow-building, story that takes a sudden left turn to  reveal the true murderer. According to the audio commentary on the DVD, seven clues are in the film pointing to the murderer. I missed all seven.

Technology plays an important part within the film itself, first as visual and auditory information is manipulated to create the pseudo-documentary structure of the film, and then as impetus for the events within it.