Pre-Teen Fare

Loosely based on a book for young adults, this story follows a beautiful young disillusioned werewolf in Romania as she fights against her destiny in the pack and falls for a human.

Agnes Bruckner plays the main character, Vivian. Her Aunt is raising her after her family is murdered in the States. She works in a chocolate shop and tries to fit in as she fights the expectations of marriage to the pack leader, and the amorous pursuit of an American tourist.

If this movie had a different title I may have not been so disappointed by it. The words blood and chocolate evoke thoughts of sensuality and passion, two things this movie seriously lacked. Perhaps because of its beginnings as teen fare, it was never seen as an option but with a PG-13 rating I would have expected a little more sophistication. The characters do no more that kiss, while the scenes of the pack hunting their prey show only the catching of the prey and a quick shot of the aftermath. There is not enough horror, romance or sex to fulfill any adult’s preference.

To the unitiated there are multiple scenes of free running/Parkour that might captivate if you have not seen any of the documentaries on that subject or the beginning of the latest James Bond film. The cinematography by Brendan Galvin, who also did Behind Enemy Lines, is beautiful and made this movie bearable.

That being said this movie is not a total waste if you are twelve years old or love old Eastern European architecture. Mostly shot on location, the scenes are beautiful. And if you have a precocious child who wants to see a ‘grown-up’ movie this is probably the one to feed them as the cinematography and acting are well-done and the plot more sophisticated than your usual Disney fare but they won’t see any anatomy they shouldn’t or extended/frightening fight scenes.

The special features on the DVD provide false hope. With fifteen deleted scenes I briefly thought that perhaps the intended movie was hidden in there. Except for one character’s death, the deleted scenes were snippets of different takes of scenes already watched. The Director’s Commentary only showed how Olivier Martinez (the leader of the pack) phoned in his performance as he asked questions to Director Katja von Garnier that he should’ve known the answers to.

Tromapalooza!!

After we wrapped up our interview with genre pioneer and Troma owner Lloyd Kaufman, we were approached by the man himself to cover an event he was hosting in downtown Dallas later that evening. A few hours later, we were at the Blood Club for Tromapalooza 2007. Lots of people came out, many of whom were at the Frightmare Festival. A few beers and a couple of punk bands later, I was covered in blood and watching a burlesque show on stage.

Needless to say…Kaufman throws one fucking hell of a party.

See for yourself:

Also, I’d like to thank Lloyd for being such a generous bastard to us. Our weekend wouldn’t have been the same without you. Thanks for making it a literal bloody mess!

Also, all of the photos taken at the event were provided by my new mancrush, Jason Harper. Aside from being generally suave, sexy, and something else that starts with an “s”, the guy takes some amazing shots. If only he’d take one on my face. …I meant a picture, sickos!

Jason Harper
361.523.1448
www.jasonharperonline.com
andrewout.

Haig Joins Rob Zombie’s Halloween!

Source:Bloody Disgusting

According to the folks at Bloody Disgusting, Sid Haig has joined Bill Moseley, Leslie Easterbrook, and other “Devil’s Rejects” cast members on the set of Rob Zombie’s “Halloween”.

I can’t wait for this film to hit the theaters. You gotta hand it to Zombie, the guy really knows how to cast a flick. The only complaint I have is that I wish it was opening on Halloween, but at the same time I’m really excited that I don’t have to wait until October.

Killer Film interviews “Zombie Honeymoon” director Dave Gebroe

: Hey Dave, thanks a lot for sitting down with us.

: Not a problem, man. Thanks for your interest.

: It’s my pleasure. I really loved [Zombie Honeymoon]. It had a lot of more heart than I expected.

: Yeah, that was kind of the idea with the title. To lower people’s expectations to reach the basement so that they would be hopefully emotionally sucker-punched.

: And once you watch the ‘Behind the Scenes’ featurette, it certainly adds a lot more to the story.

: Yeah, it’s rare that a movie that’s titled like a Troma film would have some personal content to it.

: Well since the film is based on your sister’s late husband, did you find it difficult presenting the idea of ‘Zombie Honeymoon’ to her?

: I felt a little bit weird that maybe it would be interpreted that I was capitalizing off of her tragedy, but she knows me and after mulling it around in my head for a little while, the two of them are and were really big horror fans. Not just horror but, psychobilly and anything horror related. So the idea of the kind of juxtaposition of two people who are really into cartoony death imagery having to go through the real thing was kind of the initial excitement of working through the real life tragedy and trying to get some understanding in them. But she was okay with it. There’s no way I would have gone ahead with it if she weren’t.

: Is that where the psychobilly and surf rock soundtrack came from? Is that something you interpreted onscreen through their relationship or were you trying to fit the musical scene of the jersey shore area?

: Honestly, a lot of those bands like The Photon Torpedos were some of their favorite bands. I really wanted to have it hit close to home on that level, but it also certainly fit into the feel of the film in the beginning. I wanted it to sort of have that zombie/psycho-beach party vibe. So a lot of the psychobilly is frontloaded on the movie so as your expectations of what it is melt away, the score comes in and hopefully it’s very unnerving.

: Aside from the obvious classics like Night of the Living Dead, are there any other recent zombie/infected films that influenced the style of the zombies and their behavior in the movie?

: No. The honest truth is that the accident where Danny died happened in March 2002, and I was done with the script by August 2002. So there was not a zombie revival happening yet. I started getting a little excited when there was a resurgence and I think it was the week before production kicked off when “28 Days Later” came out. And then with “Shaun of the Dead” and some of the lesser films like “Die You Zombie Bastards!”, it seemed like the timing was serendipitous. But really, the zombie movie that will always be most influential to me is “Dawn of the Dead.”

: In your movie, all of the actors are amazing and cast perfectly. Did that just fall together on its own or was there extensive casting?

: I went through a lot of actors. I knew I wanted a certain type of acting style like the John Cassavetes films like “A Woman Under the Influence.” I wanted to play it straight. I could’ve played it with a wank and went in that direction where the audience is in on the joke, but I wanted it to be played like he was cheating on her or had cancer, really straight-faced shit. So during auditions, I had a page handed out with the sides, and we used the scene when she first catches him eating the fat jogger in the bathroom. And I said, ‘You’re gonna walk in, you’re going to see Danny eating severed body parts. And don’t come in [to the set] and say ‘Hi.’ If you’re casted, then there will be plenty of time for that. You’re just thrown into the deep end. Feel free to go off script.” There were improvs and if [the actors] could roll with it and not be scared by the prospect of creating something out of real life, then they had a shot. And there were really only as far as the leads went, the two of them. We didn’t actually rehearse any of the scenes. We used improv experiments where they met in character and fell in love in character and I followed them around and gave them situations to grapple with in character. So when we were in front of the cameras, everything would be unfolding in real life as if for the very first time. And that kind of nervousness and fear of ‘Oh fuck, what’s gonna happen now?’ would hopefully come out in the terror and panic of the characters. It was a calculated risk because I had never worked like that before, but for me, the result speaks for itself. It was exactly what I wanted onscreen.

: And I think that worked. The film goes from being wildly silly to straight up serious between the main characters.

: I wanted the pacing to flip it. Something will build up in intensity and speed as it goes on to wrap things up and get the audience’s adrenaline pumping. I wanted it to feel like the movie was dying so it’s really fast up front and as the movie goes on in the third act it’s very methodical camera movement and stillness and that comes out in the same kind of concept.

: In almost any independent film nowadays, budget constraints can prevent directors from including everything they want in their movie. I don’t think that “Zombie Honeymoon” suffers from these constraints, but is there anything different you would have done with a bigger budget?

: [laughs] Yeah I would’ve liked to have shot it for a hundred billion dollars! That’d be great! I’d have a salary and everything. What I’ve gotten used to is a style of budgeting called reverse budgeting and you start with a number and work backwards so that in the final result, people won’t say ‘Wow that was a good movie for its budget’ but that it was just a good movie. It was written to be mostly shot in the house with a small handful of locations. One luxury I would’ve liked to have had was more time. We shot it over twenty days and 5 of those days were 21 hour days. It was madness, but who’s to say…if I had more money there might have been a certain amount of laziness that would’ve crept in.

: I had noticed in the behind the scenes that they wouldn’t let you film in the grocery store.

: Yeah there was supposed to be a scene where she was shopping, but they kicked us out. Looking back at it, I probably would’ve used that if we had it, and it’s totally irrelevant. It wouldn’t have added anything. So I guess it wound up being the movie it was supposed to be. That being said it would’ve been nice to have a little bit more money. It was pretty crazy at times and we had no money and were running on that steam and that momentum.

: So you won the “Best With Less” award at Fangoria’s 2006 Chainsaw Awards. After touring the festival circuit, was that a rewarding experience for you and your cast?

: Oh yeah. For me, starting out there were two goals. And really, the main goal was to make a great movie. But externally, the two things I wanted to happen were to get the Fangoria Seal of Approval and to get Roger Ebert’s seal of approval. In fact, I just sent Roger an email today. He’s seen the film. I bumped into him at Park City a couple of years ago and he said he would review the film if I could get a Chicago release. But I wasn’t able to procure a theatrical release in Chicago. But he only publishes reviews for movies that he likes so although I don’t exactly know how he feels about it, I know Roger Ebert liked it [laughs]! And Fangoria..they’ve been so fucking supportive. And it’s a dream come true. I think that I have issues from 1 – 150. Every single one. And I’ve known who Tony Timpone was since I was a little fucking kid. So it’s a dream come true. And now they’re starting a feature division and I would really love to work with them.

: Well, as we all know, message boards can be pretty brutal. Do you keep up with user reviews of your films and if so, how do you handle the criticism?

: Once it goes out there, it has its own life and I’d be lying if I said that shit didn’t affect me at all, but if I read something that says ‘This movies sucked and I’ll never get those hours of my life back,’ then I’ll just assume that they don’t like me personally for some reason [laughs]. But to even go on and type up a review, that person cared enough to do that. Honestly I’ve met enough people who were affected by the movie in a positive way. I did a film previous to this called ‘The Homeboy’ and I was proud of it, but not proud the way I am with “Zombie Honeymoon.” So when people would tell me they didn’t like it, I was more defensive because I knew it was more flawed than “Zombie Honeymoon” and I guess it comes down to your relationship with the movie as a filmmaker. If you have a good relationship, you can be a little more thick skinned with the Internet dicks.

: The Internet Movie Database recommends “Titanic,” “The Notebook,” “Nurse Betty,” and “Dawn of the Dead” for those who enjoyed “Zombie Honeymoon.” Does that sound like a fair mash-up to you?

: [laughs hard] I think we should throw in “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Steel Magnolias” as well. I love that “Titanic” is in there. And I actually agree with “Nurse Betty” because the tone of that movie is hard to pin down and I’m really flattered that it somehow got in there because I love that movie.

: I know you’re not a fan of Hollywood remakes, but if you were approached to do one, what would it be?

: I was actually talking with a company about doing Oliver Stone’s ‘The Hand’. I would really love to do that but maybe it’s not a great example because I love that movie and I don’t know offhand how I would improve on it. Off the top of my head…let me think here for a second, it’s a tough one. To reintroduce this movie to people, Monte Hellman’s “Cockfighter.” It’s a great movie. But the danger is that I’d only want to recreate it because I love it so much. Man…that’s a good question. [laughs] I’m gonna stick with “Cockfighter.”

: So I noticed in “Zombie Honeymoon” there’s a scene in a video store where a customer is complaining about a crappy movie rental. It took me a second glance to realize it was your previous film “The Homeboy.” Was that a self-deprecative jab to your early film career?

: I feel like you can only be self-referential if you’re self-deprecating or else you’re a pompous asshole [laughs]. I figured the only way I could get away with it was to have the character badmouthing it.

: But then again you have the zombie eat him as he leaves the store, so what does that say?

: [laughs] I think it’s the zombie defending “The Homeboy.”

: [laughs] He represents those IMDB users!

: Finally, what does the future of horror and film hold for you?

: I have a script that I’m done with that I’m setting up now. And I have two ideas that I’m developing which aren’t written yet but the ideas are flushed out. It’s on the line of “Zombie Honeymoon” in terms of what I call “emotional horror” by really using the brutality that’s been exploited recently in modern horror films and flipping it around so that it creates more of a sense of empathy. There have been a lot of horror movies recently that are cold-hearted experiences and if there is a glut of those, it’s gonna fuck the genre up for another 10 or 15 years like it always does. Horror goes in waves because as soon as a couple of movies are successful in the genre, there’s a flood of bullshit and whatever I can do to hopefully reverse the trend, I’m going to do.

Lew Temple Talks With Killer Film

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Killer Film Girl - Heather Westwood

Killer Film decided that to truly be a site that the fans can really get into we needed hot girls. So with that said we picked Heather Westwood (Hef) as the head bitch in charge, or in simpler terms the Killer Film spokes woman. We are going to give you a new Killer Film Girl every month and Hef is going to give us something new to gander at every week. She is also going to be conducting interviews and other fun video goodies as well. I hope all of you enjoy visiting Killer Film, and please come back often…or Hef might get upset.

Hef’s Loaded

Texas Frightmare Weekend 2007 – Toys & Collectibles Old and New

Showing up with wads of cash would have been your best bet at this year’s Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas. In addition to the interesting cavalcade of guests, I was overwhelmed with the many possible goodies I could have blown my life savings on! There were the usual DVD and clothing vendors, and there were plenty of toy and movie memorabilia dealers.

If you were looking for anything from monster magazines to classic movie posters and lobby cards, this was the place to be. My personal favorites were the monster magazines. Everything in that department was mostly reasonably priced and there were all the standard classics – Famous Monsters, Eerie and Fangoria to name a few. The plus was that there magazines in different states of condition, so if money was tight there was a cheapo to purchase. There were also a ton of posters ranging from original theatrical one sheets to modern reproductions.

In the toy department there was something for everybody. I don’t know how the vintage toys did, but it seemed that Rob Zombie’s Devil’s Rejects Toys from Neca were the first choice amongst the fans. In addition, the Nightmare Before Christmas toys, Living Dead Dolls and Movie Maniacs were also popular. I think some vendors were going a little steep on some of the classic toys. With Michael Bay’s Transformers movie coming out, you would expect that the newly released toys would be there, but there were more vintage 1980’s offerings on up to the $400.00 mark and barely any from the upcoming movie. Those are more for the impulse buyer – most of the same toys are available on eBay at a more reasonable price. There were also plenty of replica weapon toys and movie props, mostly guns knives and swords. And if you really wanted to, you could make some pretty nasty fake wounds to go with the props from other vendors.

Another little extra pleasure were the reissues of the Mego Mad Monster series toys from the mid 1970’s (mostly made up of Universal Monsters); they were very faithful to the originals right down to the packaging, and were around ten bucks each.

So, for me the event’s offerings were a pleasure, except for the fact that I have so much of that crap already that my wife would have killed me if would have bought anything! Oh well, maybe next time…

Horror Gets Dolled Up

If you’re from my generation and anything like me, your favorite Goosebumps tale is ‘Night of the Living Dummy.’ When your parents would take you to the fair, you would always try to win the giant Chucky doll. The names Jester, Blade and Tunneler are probably kept close to your heart. Dolls have always evoked a strange fear in us as children but even more so as adults. Their eyes always reflect an innocent, yet, judgmental and sinister glare that can chill us to our core. Director and ‘Splat-Pack’ member James Wan (creator of the ‘Saw’ franchise) and writer Leigh Whannell (writer and actor of the ‘Saw’ franchise) apparently understand this better than most. Their latest horror venture, ‘Dead Silence’, is filled with enough creepy puppets and ventriloquist dolls to get Dolly Dearest moist. But this movie isn’t always a perfect act. Unfortunately, once in a while, you can see its lips moving.

The film’s story revolves around a small town called Raven’s Fair and the late Mary Shaw, a ventriloquist who has been said to haunt the town since her brutal murder. Jamie Ashen and his wife Ella, have since moved away and have started a life free from folklore and lives plagued by fear. When a package arrives at the couple’s apartment, they are surprised to find a ventriloquist doll inside. Though it reminds them of the legend they had heard as children, they think nothing of it. But soon, Ella is viciously murdered in their apartment and Jamie is forced to return to Raven’s Fair to confront his past and sever his connection with 70-year-old ghost story. There he finds his father, now crippled, in the care of his new and beautiful young wife. Jamie doesn’t take kindly to his father or his new stepmother and focuses all of his attention on solving Ella’s murder. Also hindering his investigation is the snooty Detective Jim Lipton (Saw II’s Donnie Wahlberg), who is under the impression that Jamie murdered his wife. But soon the town is plagued by death and dolls as Mary Shaw’s revenge begins to manifest itself once more.

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of ‘Saw’. The only one I thoroughly enjoyed was ‘Saw III’, because it had the least amount of plot holes and a convincing storyline. So it’s safe to say I was bit nervous about ‘Dead Silence’, a film that (from the previews) looked to be another ‘Darkness Falls’ or ‘Boogeyman’. Instead, I sat back and found myself thoroughly entertained and even spooked a few times. You could say it made my wooden jaw drop wide open (Sorry, I had to).

The cinematography is gorgeous and along with the color scheme of the film, creates a pale but historical world, similar to ‘Batman’s’ Gotham City. Characters look almost as bleak as the dolls and grey hues slather the woods, lakes and houses, shrouding a thick mist over a town plagued by mystery. The dolls themselves are something to behold. If you’re terrified by dolls, then you’ll probably want to sit this one out. There are enough doll eyes and heads turning on their own to give you a coronary if you can’t take that sort of thing. The now infamous ‘clown scene’ (which had the theater crooning loudly) is a gorgeous sight to behold in all of its Barnum & Bailey creepiness.

The acting for the most part is respectable, but it’s Wahlberg who gives a surprising performance. Twice he had me laughing aloud with lines like ‘If you say ‘I told you so”I’ll shoot you,’ during a tense and eerie scene where he’s proven wrong by Jamie.

The film’s main flaw is its over-thinking. When the final plot twist is delivered, a series of flashbacks (a la ‘Saw’) is shown to help the more simpler-minded understand what’s going on. Though the final twist seems like it’s falling into M. Night Shyamalan territory, it really isn’t. It’s only in the film’s lack of story that makes this twist feel rushed and forced on the audience. Had there been a little more time for some character development and back-story, this twist would actually be quite creative for a modern horror flick. But for those fans of ‘Saw’ who thought its ending was genius, then ‘Dead Silence’s’ ending will give them an aneurism.

All in all, ‘Dead Silence’ is a nice throwback horror film that proves that director Wan refuses to be pigeonholed in the shock-and-torture genre. After seeing how stylish this film was and how well he handled a different type of horror/thriller, I’m very eager to see his Kevin Bacon revenge-thriller, ‘Death Sentence’. Though ‘Dead Silence’ may lack in fully developed story and characters, it makes up for it in atmosphere and creepiness and will probably go down as a modern cult classic.

The Hidden Message: You can’t ditch your roots, baby. Those with a keen eye will be able to spot the famous ‘Billy’ doll from ‘Saw’ hiding in the movie.

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