For college student Josie Kane, it starts as a simple internship: to shadow a group of high-tech land surveyors as they make their first foray into an ancient wilderness. Assisted by grizzled security guard Dale Philip, the crew knows how to handle protesters and saboteurs — but there’s something much, much worse in the woods this time.

The local natives say the land is cursed — haunted by a demonic entity older than time. Now people are going missing, turning up dead or worse, and Josie and the crew are about to discover the truth behind the legend. The most alarming horror is the one you never see coming!

From New Image Entertainment and Vancouver’s indie horror mavericks at Plotdigger Films, Ryan Nicholson’s next shocker is a darkly hilarious onslaught of creature-feature horror and mayhem. It all ends in 2012!

Source: Plotdigger Films

With The Theatre Bizarre, Chillerama, The ABC’s of Death and now The Profane Exhibit – the horror anthology is back in a big way. The poster design is by world famous photographer Chad Michael Ward.

Source: Facebook

Jason Bene: With films like Grindhouse and Machete, it appears old school viscera is back in a big way. What made you decide to jump in and make your own balls-out horror film?

Ryan Nicholson: I kind of got a head start with Gutterballs, doing the whole retro thing but it was so mean-spirited that it had a very little audience, but very loyal audience diggin’ what I was doing…with Famine, it has more mass appeal I think.  No fifteen minute long rape scene in this one!

Jason Bene: Would you say that Famine is your Thanksgiving? Eli Roth will probably never get around to turning his faux trailer into a feature film, and I am sure he can’t outdo you in the exploitation department.

Ryan Nicholson: I think Famine and my upcoming one Alarming are very much homages to 80′s horror. It is my era that I grew up in. If I could live in the 80′s forever I would.

Jason Bene: I think it’s awesome you are doing a retro slasher flick. Just how much carnage will Famine have compared to your other movies?

Ryan Nicholson: Famine is gorier than Gutterballs which will make the gorehounds happy. I haven’t had a movie that gory since then.  Alarming will have serious creature carnage as well.

Jason Bene: The plot sounds a lot like a favorite film of mine – Slaughter High. Did that Caroline Munro film influence you at all?

Ryan Nicholson: That one and Massacre at Central High, Prom Night and Sleepaway Camp really inspired me with Famine. The whole 24 hour Famine thing was such a good idea to base a slasher around; my son and his friend thought that one up!  Runs in the family.

Jason Bene: I noticed some scalpings in the trailer ala Maniac. Are you a big fan of the William Lustig sleaze-a-thon?

Ryan Nicholson: I am a huge Lustig fan, although I think he walked out on Bleading Lady in Calgary when we did a double screening with Maniac. It wasn’t his cup of blood. But I dig it. Some people don’t like my style of film-making…it’s very odd, my style of film-making I mean!

Jason Bene: How many kills is Famine going to have?

Ryan Nicholson: I think off the top of my head, there’s 14 kills, give or take…some are very very gory.

Jason Bene: One thing I miss dearly about 80′s genre films is the copious amounts of nudity. What can we expect from your throwback to those trashy fun flicks from that time?

Ryan Nicholson: There’s a good nipple getting cut off scene…close up, lingering, sawing off the aureola…it’s a vicious scene, it really takes the movie into a dark place when that happens. I went gory on Famine as opposed to massive nudity.  I am shooting one now called Transmitters which is beyond nudity! Like take all my movies and their nastiness, roll them into one and Transmitters is still a billion times worse.  It’s so violent, so depraved and so sexually explicit, I’m sure people will remember it, for a long long time.

Jason Bene: It is safe to assume this will be NC-17?

Ryan Nicholson: Famine will be a hard R, as will Alarming…Transmitters will be, hmmm, what’s beyond XXX? Murder Mack is another one gearing up…that one will be NC-17 or Unrated.

Two years after a high-school prank involving flesh-eating acid nearly kills popular teacher Mr. Balszack, the graduating class of Sloppy Secondary holds a ’24-Hour Famine’ charity event on school grounds. But there’s an uninvited guest at this event, masquerading as the school’s handyman mascot, and he’s got an insatiable hunger of his own. The power’s cut, the doors and windows are chained shut, and now it’s not just cheerleaders who are getting nailed! Has Mr. Balszack come back for revenge? Is his sad tale just a cover for a brand-new psycho? Can the Nailer be stopped before the whole Class of 2011 goes six feet under?

Famine is set to be a feast of bad taste. This retro rampage arrives in the tradition of Gutterballs, a colourful kill-a-minute gorefest from Ryan Nicholson, writer Jeff O’Brien and the co-production team at New Image Entertainment. Get nailed in late 2011!

A release date has been set for Winter 2010.

Plotdigger Films is proud to announce “The Murder Mack”.

“From the mind that brought you Torched, Live Feed, Gutterballs, Hanger and the soon to be released Star Vehicle comes a twisted tale of two best friends….
Larry and Roy.

“Larry and Roy have been friends since they met in prison and shortly after Larry is released the two reconnect at Larry’s halfway house. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that they have needs to be met and the house is full of worthy candidates as well as the community. Once the wheels are in motion none will be spared in this all out orgy of murder, mayhem and torture we call “The Murder Mack”.

There will be no shortage of gore and all the good things that fans of Plotdigger films have come to expect from our movies. We are really going back to our roots with this one and pulling out all the stops with a Plotdigger, no holds barred, in your face kind of attitude!
Ryan will be teaming up with Plotdigger alumni Dan Ellis (Gutterballs, Hanger and Star Vehicle) in more ways than one… Ryan will be staring as “Roy” as well as writing and directing and Dan will be playing “Larry” and making his debut as a producer.
I think we both knew it was only a matter of time before we would work together on a project outside of the “director/actor” relationship. We have been good friends since “Gutterballs” and working together, behind the scenes, has been an easy transition.

This promises to be a busy year for Plotdigger films with “Star Vehicle” set for a Fall release and “Famine” ( Another co-production with New Image Entertainment) going into production in August.
Independent horror is alive kicking in Canada and we intend to prove it!

For information on all things Plotdigger please visit www.plotdigger.com for links to all our films, Facebook, twitter, IMDB and MySpace pages.”

“Dan Ellis takes the lead in this blood-drenched tale of Hollywood horror. Star Vehicle tells the tale of frustrated Teamster driver Don Cardini, abused by spoiled stars and arrogant students, who becomes a ticking time-bomb of revenge. As Don goes on the rampage, his favourite scream queen finds herself up for a new role in the greatest gorefest of all — real life.

Star Vehicle was co-produced by the fine folks at New Image College of Fine Arts, who contributed locations, acting talent and make-up expertise. The film combines our patented Plotdigger bloodshed with a self-aware script, sunny outdoor locales and a gritty performance from Dan Ellis, who stole the show in two of our previous films. Your ride to hell is scheduled for late 2010!”

Rose is a prostitute who makes the error of getting knocked up by one of her regular customers, known as “The John” (Dan Ellis). Instead of going Wayne Brady on her and choking the bitch, her pimp daddy decides to to a back-alley abortion and yanks out the fetus, scaring the baby terribly, and killing Rose in the process. The baby grows up to be a young man named “Hanger”, and with the help of his daddy, seek retribution for the death of the woman they loved.

I find it ironic that Darren Lynn Bousman’s remake of Mother’s Day, which was shot in Ryan’s backyard of Canada, was interruped by the police when they thought a scene in which a couple characters were driving around covered in blood brandishing a gun was the real mccoy. Thank God they didn’t go anywhere near the set of this film, because they would of shut it down for the malicious acts of depravity on display. A baby gets torn out a woman’s vaginal cavity, a close-up of a woman masterbating, and a homosexual rape involving a infected injury that makes the stuff seen in David Cronenberg’s Crash seem like child’s play.

The acting is average across the board and the production value is not something to write home about. That’s not a big deal for me, but I do wish that Hanger would of spent more time on the revenge aspect and less on being gross for the sake of being gross. Case in point is the Asian guy who spends his time trying to add to his collection of heavily bled on tampons. He was funny for a while but became redundant as time went on.

This is one of those movies where you have to know what you are getting into before you watch it. This is a filmmaker who is pushing the envelope in term of graphic violence and does not care if you are offended. Ryan Nicholson makes films on his own terms in The Great White North, far from the glare of Hollywood, just trying his darnest to recapture that sticky 42nd St. era that saw the likes of Street Trash, Maniac, and Combat Shock.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Every Halloween season means essential viewing of iconic horror films for many horror fans, myself included.  Let me share five movies that penetrate my dvd player every October and why these movies are so well worn.  I’ll start with the obvious, John Carpenter’s all-time classic Halloween.  Horror movies do not get better than this.  Halloween not only invented a legendary screen villain introducing Michael Myers to accepting fans worldwide, it set the standard for stalk and slash style pictures, very rarely matched.  Some will balk at me for my next pick but I do enjoy following Halloween with it’s lessor sequel.  Light on scares but easy on the eyes with it’s gratuitous sex and violence.  Halloween II makes for a fun watch after the intense viewing of the original.  Coming out nearly 3 years later but sequentially taking place mere moments after Dr. Loomis shoots Myers multiple times, Halloween II goes for the shock factor rather than scares and I dig it.  Moving on, something about October brings out the anthology in me.  Scary story-telling in a narrative fashion with a kick-ass wrap-around.  George A. Romero and Stephen King gave us Creepshow and I thank them for it by repeated viewings.  The tales are so well done with such a stellar cast, this movie has staying power and will be with horror fans for a lifetime.  Tom Savini’s make-up effects were all encompassing.  With gore, drowned zombies, “Fluffy” the furry little bastard and vegetation man, famously played by King himself, Savini rocked out with his cock out, well, make-up brush at least and showed what creating monsters and killing people is all about.  Moving past such classics, I also watch more obscurities such as Jim Ban Bebbers’s cult-classic Deadbeat at Dawn, a movie that goes for the nutsack and doesn’t let up until the credits role.  JVB he did everything on this one. Played the leading man, created the FX and did some seriously bad-ass stunts and fight choreography. Not to mention write and direct it!  Finally, I will watch Jim Muro’s Street Trash every Halloween because it is also one movie that inspires me to this day.  It is one movie that is as depraved as it gets and isn’t afraid to fuck your eyeballs out while you endure the sadistic humour and uber-gore that splashes across your tv screen.  The movie is a success on many levels and is another one that has serious shelf-life simply due to it’s uncompromising nature.  It knows it’s as un-p.c. as it gets and it just runs with it like the dude running out of the building, cock-out and all, unashamed and amused.  Ah shit pal, there’s five for ya.  Enjoy!

“Ryan Nicholson of Plotdigger Films gave Fango the first look at the DVD cover art for his extreme gruefest HANGER (pictured), now set to hit disc November 17 from the new Breaking Glass company on their Vicious Circle genre label. He also informed us of his plans for an official release of his underground Internet flick TORCHED, and passed on the art for that one as well.”

“HANGER stars Nathan Dashwood, Dan Ellis and FANGORIA RADIO’s Debbie Rochon and centers on the revenge for a botched abortion meted out by the grown-up object of that operation; we previously revealed the specs for the DVD here. TORCHED, previously available only on bootleg or edited discs, is fully restored on Plotdigger’s DVD, which comes out Nov. 24. The bloody saga of a nurse giving fiery payback to those who raped her will be presented in 16×9-enhanced widescreen with Dolby 5.1 Surround and 2.0 stereo soundtracks, plus these extras”:

• Audio commentary by Nicholson
• “Behind the Flame: The Making of TORCHED” documentary
• Still gallery
• Trailer

It’s currently available for pre-order ($24.99, which includes shipping anywhere in the world) at the Plotdigger website here.

Source: Fangoria

Ryan has worked in the makeup department on many television shows including The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Stargate and Andromeda in which, in 2002, he won the Gemini Award for Best Achievement in Make-Up. He has also produced, directed many movies under the banner of his production company Plotdigger Films including Torched, Necrophagia: Nightmware Scenarios, Hell Hath No Fury, Gutterballs and the the critically acclaimed Live Feed.

BBK returns! Everyone’s favourite bowling-bagged butcher goes off the deep end, taking his trade from the bowling alley to an enormous outdoor waterslide park in pursuit of the tenacious survivors from the first film. Who’s behind the bag this time? Who’ll survive this day of chlorinated carnage? All we know for sure is, a whole lot of people are gonna slip, slide… and die!

Source: Horror-movies.ca