CategoryIndie
Independent horror: micro-budget features, short films and first-time filmmakers doing more with less — and often doing it better.
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Film FestivalsIndieMoviesNewsTrailers
Ahead of its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival this month, the first trailer has arrived for Ghost Light, the story of an unfortunate Shakespearean acting troupe that unleashes the infamous curse of Macbeth with horrifying results. Directed by John Stimpson, the paranormal thriller stars Roger Bart (“Episodes;” “Graves;” “Revenge”), Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride; Robin Hood Men in Tights; Saw), Tom Riley (“The Collection;” “Da Vinci’s Demons;” “Monroe”), Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight’s Tale; “Wayward Pines;” “Sleepy Hollow”), Scott Adsit (“30 Rock;” Big Hero 6; “Veep”), Danielle Campbell (“The Originals;” “Famous in Love;”), and Carol Kane (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt;” Scrooged; “Gotham”). “Nothing is more sacred to true Shakespearian actors than “The Scottish Play,” which demands a deep reverence to always be exhibited both onstage and off during a performance, except the reverence from ennui-engulfed Tom Riley is a bit lacking, to say the least. He’s in love with the beautiful Liz Beth, wife of pompous ham Alex Pankhurst.
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IndieMoviesReviews
A well-dressed Stranger (Robert ‘Bronzi’ Kovacs) wanders the mean streets, ventilating those that plague society with their evil ways. He also acts a modern day Robin Hood as he takes the ill-gotten gains of those he dispatches and provides for a young woman and her crippled child by anonymously leaving fat stacks of cash in their mail box to ease his troubled mind. Soon our dour hero has a run in with a real shit heel named Tyrell (Richard Tyson), the meanest son of a bitch to ever stride the Earth, which leaves a fire for revenge burning deep in his coal-black heart. Soon the Stranger is in for the fight of his life and the death toll will be rather large as vengeance has it’s day! I’m just going to lead off with this; Writer/Director Rene Perez is a mother fucking genius! What he has created with Death Kiss is simply the greatest Cannon film never made! Bullets fly,
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IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
After we have the hoary ol’ chestnut of “based on a true story” flashed before our eerie eyeballs we catch up with Bill and Ashely “Ash” DiAngelo (Biden Hall and Alyx Melone respectively), a married couple livin’ high on the hog in Singapore with a baby on the way…well, until it isn’t. So after that disturbing, crimson splashed miscarriage, Ash sinks into an understandable deep depression. So what is a femme in a funk to do? Why carry out the ancient East Asian practice of raising a “ghost child” as one does, much to the eternal chagrin of Ash’s maid Siti (Cynthia Lee MacQuarrie). Long story short, Ash contacts a witch doctor whom specializes in trapping unborn dead fetuses. Before you can say “monumentally shitty idea”, the couple (along with Siti) returns home to Minnesota where they discover they are pregnant..and let’s just say that ghost tyke ain’t taking a cotton to being the big sis to any flesh and
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IndieMoviesReviews
Coming up at eleven: Mutant frogs; will they spell the downfall of life as we know it? The real news clips that begin Strange Nature certainly make a case for it. After that we get down to the real meat and potatoes of the film; a mother, (and former teen pop sensation…random for sure; but the video they show of her hit song is priceless) named Kim (Lisa Sheridan) and her son Brody (Jonah Beres) return to the rural town she grew up in; the woods of which are lousy with those aforementioned frogs, plus a mutant kid…but not like crazy monster or anything; she goes to school and all, she just looks like she’s starring in the high school production of The Hills Have Eyes: The Musical (how is that not a thing?!!), and reports of folks going missing in the woods. Anyway, Kim and her father Chuck (Bruce Bohne) begin investigating local farms for clues as to what
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Red (Nicholas Cage) is a lumberjack who lives in a heavily windowed house deep in the wilderness with his artist/pulp paperback readin’/gas station attendant love Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). All is bucolic existence (minus a traumatic childhood story here or there), until the local evil religious cult, lead by the enigmatic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), sets their sights on Mandy and conjures up a demonic ATV riding gang seemingly straight from hell to subdue her and Red. Sand soon appears on the scene and lays bare his past as a failed rock star who was blessed by “God” to do as he will, and he has the unholy relics to prove it! Mandy, in a drug induced…well, giant monster wasp induced, stupor rebukes his advances, which sets Sand off on a murderous frenzy resulting in her immolation. One problem though…they leave Red alive, and he is a bit pissed to say the least! As you can surmise Red then walks revenge
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IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Last December I had the putrid pleasure of layin’ my eerie eyeballs on Paranormal Farm; a frightfully fantastic found footage flick done absolutely right (you can read my thoughts on that on right here). I was pleased as a preternatural pig wallowing in supernatural shit when I found out a second installment had been made, and without further ado, here’s my revoltin review of Paranormal Farm 2: Closer to the Truth! Filmmaker/Paranormal Investigator Carl Medland (in front of and behind the camera) is back again, and returns to the scene of the crime, such at is, to talk to the participants of the first endeavor about their opinions of the first film, and to check in on how life of the farm has carried on since his last visit…all to be included as special features on the impending DVD release of the first film. Once there, we learn that some of the events in the first film were a put
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
What appears to be a U.F.O. leaves behind some glowing goo which is found by a group of kids, one of which possesses a prize-winning dick of an older brother who just has to fuck around with the sticky shit which results in the creation of a dinosaur like creature. Before you can say “Stranger Things Season Two”, our pint-sized heroes decide to keep the thing as a pet; even as the military moves in to contain the seemingly otherworldly situation…which pits our heroes against some very dangerous dudes! You can definitely see where the filmmmkers were comin’ from with My Pet Dinosaur, but to paraphrase Maxwell Smart, they missed it by that much. This film is, if nothing else, a fascinating study in dichotomy…to expand; the film looks extremely polished visually (deserving special mention is the opening sequence; a fantastically well done Spielberg pastiche involving U.F.O.s and government agents), but some of the acting is off…especially in regards to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Bill (Jackson Davis), your normal, average everyday murderous psycho (we all know one, amirite?) kidnaps Craig (Cayleb Long) and begins to enact a really cray-cray scenario (while dressed as a clown as one does); namely Bill wants Craig to pretend he’s him, then he will play various people responsible for his imagined capture and torture…seriously Bill, what the actual fuck is your boggle bro? Anyway, these F’d up shenanigans continue on, increasing in intensity as they go as Craig’s gal pal Kelly (Mischa Barton) wonders why he seemingly fell off the face of the Earth. Soon she begins her own bit of detective work, but will she find Craig before Bill reaches the climax of his grizzly game? The greatest strength The Basement has going for it is the multi-faceted performance of Davis as ol’ Batshit Bill. This dude is a powerhouse of acting as he gleefully transitions from personality to personality (some male, some female…but all with appropriate costuming)
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IndieMoviesReviews
Johnny Grissom (Anthony De La Torre) is one put upon metal head; he gets static from the jocks, gets suspended from school, his father attempts to kick his ass, and his psychotic best friend murders him for driving too fast which puts all of Johnny’s friends in the hot seat since they were witnesses and all that. The gang definitely sweat that last one, so they try to cover-up the murder as an accident…which would go a lot smoother if Johnny didn’t return from the dead hungry for revenge! Now friendships are strained and no one is safe from Johnny’s vengeance from beyond the grave! Johnny Gruesome is one slick fright flick my creeps! Johnny is your classic teen rebel, and his quest for revenge is pure horror comic book cool (think Rebel Without a Cause adapted by EC Comics) ! De La Torre makes for an engaging lead, and the make-up used on his undead visage is truly superb…he’s
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DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews
Personal anecdote time (it’s relevant, trust me): I was always a Dungeons and Dragons type of guy (with some other tabletops thrown in), and never played Vampire:The Masquerade. The game seemed tailor made to my interests, and I had friends that played…hell, I even had some of the books (collected for the breathtaking Tim Bradstreet (who is interviewed in the doc) artwork, and avidly watched the TV show spun off from the game…but I never rolled a single die. Why? Who the fuck knows! Books could be written on the mind-boggling choices i made in my misspent youth…but this whole thing brings us to the review subject at hand… Comprised of interviews with the creators, players, and appreciators of Vampire:The Masquerade; World of Darkness is a deep dive into what made the game, and White Wolf, the company that created it, so special and influenced not only people to play the game but embrace the vampiric, Goth lifestyle as well.
Continue reading →
More from Indie
Film FestivalsIndieMoviesNewsTrailers
Ahead of its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival this month, the first trailer has arrived for Ghost Light, the story of an unfortunate Shakespearean acting troupe that unleashes the infamous curse of Macbeth with horrifying results. Directed by John Stimpson, the paranormal thriller stars Roger Bart (“Episodes;” “Graves;” “Revenge”), Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride; Robin Hood Men in Tights; Saw), Tom Riley (“The Collection;” “Da Vinci’s Demons;” “Monroe”), Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight’s Tale; “Wayward Pines;” “Sleepy Hollow”), Scott Adsit (“30 Rock;” Big Hero 6; “Veep”), Danielle Campbell (“The Originals;” “Famous in Love;”), and Carol Kane (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt;” Scrooged; “Gotham”). “Nothing is more sacred to true Shakespearian actors than “The Scottish Play,” which demands a deep reverence to always be exhibited both onstage and off during a performance, except the reverence from ennui-engulfed Tom Riley is a bit lacking, to say the least. He’s in love with the beautiful Liz Beth, wife of pompous ham Alex Pankhurst.
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A well-dressed Stranger (Robert ‘Bronzi’ Kovacs) wanders the mean streets, ventilating those that plague society with their evil ways. He also acts a modern day Robin Hood as he takes the ill-gotten gains of those he dispatches and provides for a young woman and her crippled child by anonymously leaving fat stacks of cash in their mail box to ease his troubled mind. Soon our dour hero has a run in with a real shit heel named Tyrell (Richard Tyson), the meanest son of a bitch to ever stride the Earth, which leaves a fire for revenge burning deep in his coal-black heart. Soon the Stranger is in for the fight of his life and the death toll will be rather large as vengeance has it’s day! I’m just going to lead off with this; Writer/Director Rene Perez is a mother fucking genius! What he has created with Death Kiss is simply the greatest Cannon film never made! Bullets fly,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
After we have the hoary ol’ chestnut of “based on a true story” flashed before our eerie eyeballs we catch up with Bill and Ashely “Ash” DiAngelo (Biden Hall and Alyx Melone respectively), a married couple livin’ high on the hog in Singapore with a baby on the way…well, until it isn’t. So after that disturbing, crimson splashed miscarriage, Ash sinks into an understandable deep depression. So what is a femme in a funk to do? Why carry out the ancient East Asian practice of raising a “ghost child” as one does, much to the eternal chagrin of Ash’s maid Siti (Cynthia Lee MacQuarrie). Long story short, Ash contacts a witch doctor whom specializes in trapping unborn dead fetuses. Before you can say “monumentally shitty idea”, the couple (along with Siti) returns home to Minnesota where they discover they are pregnant..and let’s just say that ghost tyke ain’t taking a cotton to being the big sis to any flesh and
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Coming up at eleven: Mutant frogs; will they spell the downfall of life as we know it? The real news clips that begin Strange Nature certainly make a case for it. After that we get down to the real meat and potatoes of the film; a mother, (and former teen pop sensation…random for sure; but the video they show of her hit song is priceless) named Kim (Lisa Sheridan) and her son Brody (Jonah Beres) return to the rural town she grew up in; the woods of which are lousy with those aforementioned frogs, plus a mutant kid…but not like crazy monster or anything; she goes to school and all, she just looks like she’s starring in the high school production of The Hills Have Eyes: The Musical (how is that not a thing?!!), and reports of folks going missing in the woods. Anyway, Kim and her father Chuck (Bruce Bohne) begin investigating local farms for clues as to what
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Red (Nicholas Cage) is a lumberjack who lives in a heavily windowed house deep in the wilderness with his artist/pulp paperback readin’/gas station attendant love Mandy (Andrea Riseborough). All is bucolic existence (minus a traumatic childhood story here or there), until the local evil religious cult, lead by the enigmatic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), sets their sights on Mandy and conjures up a demonic ATV riding gang seemingly straight from hell to subdue her and Red. Sand soon appears on the scene and lays bare his past as a failed rock star who was blessed by “God” to do as he will, and he has the unholy relics to prove it! Mandy, in a drug induced…well, giant monster wasp induced, stupor rebukes his advances, which sets Sand off on a murderous frenzy resulting in her immolation. One problem though…they leave Red alive, and he is a bit pissed to say the least! As you can surmise Red then walks revenge
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Last December I had the putrid pleasure of layin’ my eerie eyeballs on Paranormal Farm; a frightfully fantastic found footage flick done absolutely right (you can read my thoughts on that on right here). I was pleased as a preternatural pig wallowing in supernatural shit when I found out a second installment had been made, and without further ado, here’s my revoltin review of Paranormal Farm 2: Closer to the Truth! Filmmaker/Paranormal Investigator Carl Medland (in front of and behind the camera) is back again, and returns to the scene of the crime, such at is, to talk to the participants of the first endeavor about their opinions of the first film, and to check in on how life of the farm has carried on since his last visit…all to be included as special features on the impending DVD release of the first film. Once there, we learn that some of the events in the first film were a put
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
What appears to be a U.F.O. leaves behind some glowing goo which is found by a group of kids, one of which possesses a prize-winning dick of an older brother who just has to fuck around with the sticky shit which results in the creation of a dinosaur like creature. Before you can say “Stranger Things Season Two”, our pint-sized heroes decide to keep the thing as a pet; even as the military moves in to contain the seemingly otherworldly situation…which pits our heroes against some very dangerous dudes! You can definitely see where the filmmmkers were comin’ from with My Pet Dinosaur, but to paraphrase Maxwell Smart, they missed it by that much. This film is, if nothing else, a fascinating study in dichotomy…to expand; the film looks extremely polished visually (deserving special mention is the opening sequence; a fantastically well done Spielberg pastiche involving U.F.O.s and government agents), but some of the acting is off…especially in regards to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Bill (Jackson Davis), your normal, average everyday murderous psycho (we all know one, amirite?) kidnaps Craig (Cayleb Long) and begins to enact a really cray-cray scenario (while dressed as a clown as one does); namely Bill wants Craig to pretend he’s him, then he will play various people responsible for his imagined capture and torture…seriously Bill, what the actual fuck is your boggle bro? Anyway, these F’d up shenanigans continue on, increasing in intensity as they go as Craig’s gal pal Kelly (Mischa Barton) wonders why he seemingly fell off the face of the Earth. Soon she begins her own bit of detective work, but will she find Craig before Bill reaches the climax of his grizzly game? The greatest strength The Basement has going for it is the multi-faceted performance of Davis as ol’ Batshit Bill. This dude is a powerhouse of acting as he gleefully transitions from personality to personality (some male, some female…but all with appropriate costuming)
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Johnny Grissom (Anthony De La Torre) is one put upon metal head; he gets static from the jocks, gets suspended from school, his father attempts to kick his ass, and his psychotic best friend murders him for driving too fast which puts all of Johnny’s friends in the hot seat since they were witnesses and all that. The gang definitely sweat that last one, so they try to cover-up the murder as an accident…which would go a lot smoother if Johnny didn’t return from the dead hungry for revenge! Now friendships are strained and no one is safe from Johnny’s vengeance from beyond the grave! Johnny Gruesome is one slick fright flick my creeps! Johnny is your classic teen rebel, and his quest for revenge is pure horror comic book cool (think Rebel Without a Cause adapted by EC Comics) ! De La Torre makes for an engaging lead, and the make-up used on his undead visage is truly superb…he’s
Continue reading →
DocumentariesIndieMoviesReviews
Personal anecdote time (it’s relevant, trust me): I was always a Dungeons and Dragons type of guy (with some other tabletops thrown in), and never played Vampire:The Masquerade. The game seemed tailor made to my interests, and I had friends that played…hell, I even had some of the books (collected for the breathtaking Tim Bradstreet (who is interviewed in the doc) artwork, and avidly watched the TV show spun off from the game…but I never rolled a single die. Why? Who the fuck knows! Books could be written on the mind-boggling choices i made in my misspent youth…but this whole thing brings us to the review subject at hand… Comprised of interviews with the creators, players, and appreciators of Vampire:The Masquerade; World of Darkness is a deep dive into what made the game, and White Wolf, the company that created it, so special and influenced not only people to play the game but embrace the vampiric, Goth lifestyle as well.
Continue reading →
