The Initiation - UK DVD review

Obscure 80s slasher movie “The Initiation” hits UK DVD shelves today (Monday August 5^th) courtesy of Arrow films Arrowdrome label and they were kind enough to send me a copy to take a look at.

 

The film stars Daphne Zuniga (The Fly 2) as young college student Kelly Fairchild, who’s plagued with nightmares about a traumatic childhood event, which had something to do with her father being attacked by a stranger during a house fire.

 

The college psychologist is unsure of what to make of things, but as we are soon to discover, it seems that the person in her nightmares might be all too real.

 

As part of her college initiation, she has to steal the keys to her wealthy father’s department store, where she and the other new sorority sisters must spend the night as part of their initiation. But it seems that dodging the security guard is going to be the least of their worries, as someone has decided to join their fraternity initiation and is now stalking to corridors.

 

Meanwhile her psychologist has done a little digging into her family history and discovers that not everyone in her family is who they seem and he has a pretty good idea about who the killer might be…

 

Originally released back in 1984, the film is one of the more obscure 80s slashers, which might have passed you by first time round. Whilst the plot is rather run of the mill, it does boast an extremely interesting cast, which includes former screen siren Vera Miles (Psycho), horror B movie actor Clu Gulager (Return of the Living Dead) and of course Daphne Zuniga, who previously starred  in “The Dorm that Dripped Blood” (AKA Pranks), and who went on to star in “The Fly 2” (though most will probably remember her from “Spaceballs”).

 

It is interesting to note that the film has a number of co-incidental similarities with Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” which was released in the same year. Girl having nightmares, person with a badly burned face, people getting killed with a sharp claw like implement (except this is a gardening tool, not a razor glove), so not sure what to make of that. The film will no doubt appeal to fans of 80s slashers, though people who only like modern day horror films may not find it so appealing.

 

The DVD includes the theatrical trailer as an extra and the case includes a collectors booklet with linear notes on the film by Callum Waddel.

 

Buy the UK DVD from Amazon.co.uk

 

 

 

 

The Dead 2 : India - Offical Poster revealed

The Ford Brothers, the British director, writer and producer team behind the Indian-set zombie road movie 'The Dead 2: India', have released the official poster ahead of its sell-out opening night world premiere at Film4 FrightFest 2013.

 

The poster was designed by Luke Insect for FrightFest Originals and copies will be available to buy at FrightFest (see www.frightfestoriginals.com). Demand to see the first-ever screening, which is set for Thurs Aug 22, 6.30pm at the Empire, Leicester Sq, has led the organisers to put on an additional screening for Saturday Aug 24 at 11.00am.

 

Tickets are on sale now. THE DEAD 2: INDIA follows the story of American engineer Nicholas Burton (JOSEPH MILLSON) in a race against time to reach his pregnant girlfriend Ishani (MEENU). Burton enlists the help of an orphan street kid Javed (ANAND GOYAL) and together they make a perilous 300 mile journey across deadly landscapes as a zombie apocalypse threatens to engulf the entire nation.

 

Filmed in five weeks, in locations across India, including Rajasthan, Delhi and Mumbai, THE DEAD 2: INDIA is a Ford Brothers Film by Latitude Films, in association with Road Trip Pictures and stars Joseph Millson, Meenu, Anand Goyal, Sandip Datta Gupta & Poonam Mathur.

 

It is written and directed by Howard J Ford & Jon Ford and produced by Howard J Ford. Executive Producer is Amir Moallemi, Special & Visual Effects by Dan Rickard, Special Make-Up Effects by Stuart Browne & Max Van De Banks.

 

Director of Photography is Jon Ford and Music is by Imran Ahmad.

 

View the trailer on YouTube.

 

 

“Orphanage” producers offer unique Q&A opportunity with Horror Legend Michael Armstrong

Cult horror movie legend Michael Armstrong has been lured out of retirement by Paper Dragon Productions to direct his first major feature film in over forty years.

 

As Orphanage goes into development, Michael has agreed to film an in-depth series of Q&A clips about his life and work for Orphanage producers Paul Horsfield and Jonathan Jones.

 

Renowned for being both flamboyant and outspoken, it is anticipated that Michael's filmed responses will prove no exception. The interviews will be distributed across social networking sites.

 

At Michael's request, the filming will also offer his fans the opportunity to have their own questions answered as part of this exclusive series of interviews.

 

Fans should submit their questions via email to orphanage@paperdragonproductions.com or via Twitter @OrphanageMovie and include the hashtag #ArmstrongInterview. 

 

Each email or tweet must include the questioner's name (minimum of surname and first initial), their home town, and the genre magazine/website where they heard about the interviews.

 

The closing date for submissions is 30th September 2013. A limited selection of fans will have their questions put to Michael Armstrong, and the resulting film clips will include a caption with their name and question.

 

The interviews are scheduled to commence online serialisation from October.

 

Visit the official website at http://www.orphanage-themovie.com/

 

 

 

UK Horror Film “TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL” Gets Premiere Date!!!

Tales Of The Supernatural gets its premiere in the UK on Monday 23rd September at Empire Cinemas.

 

Writer/Director Steven M. Smith said, “The Demon is coming to collect your soul on 23rd September as we have teamed up with Empire Cinemas to host our premiere of Tales of The Supernatural,  starring Bruce Payne, who is in Getaway with Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez who we hope to have on the guest list.

 

It will be a hot ticket and we know this will be the start of a new next generation of indie horror films with a fresh take on the genre. We have created a character that is a cross between Doctor Who and Freddie Krueger from “A Nightmare On Elm Street” and sequels are in the pipeline.”

 

The film consists of six supernatural tales (Disturbance, The Hike, Bryan's Daughter, The Book, Naked and Paralysis) linked together by THE DEMON who is intent on collecting human souls (banished to Earth by The Devil) as he performs an unholy ritual that releases the souls of the damned from each story segment.

 

See an exclusive clip and trailer on You Tube at http://youtu.be/6DW6Y9qtntI

 

Greenway Entertainment has produced feature films for 8 years and has a track record of great indie films.

 

For more info checkout the official website at http://www.greenwayentertainment.com/ 

 

 

Stephen King's "Bag of Bones" - comes to UK DVD

Coming to UK DVD this month, based on the award-winning bestselling novel by Stephen King, "BAG OF BONES" is an unforgettable psychological thriller.

 

Pierce Brosnan ("James Bond - Die Another Day") stars as Mike Noonan, a novelist who suffers from writer's block after the death of his wife, Jo (Annabeth Gish, TV's "Pretty Little Liars"). A dream inspires him to return to the couple's lakeside retreat hoping to find answers about his wife's sudden death - but he is plagued by ever-escalating nightmares and mysterious ghostly visitations from Sara Tidwell (Anika Noni Rose, "Dreamgirls"), a blues singer whose spirit lingers in the house.

 

As the inhabitants of Dark Score Lake haunt him, Mike comes to realise that his late wife still has something to tell him. Jason Priestly (Day of the Triffids - 2009) Melissa George (30 Days Of Night) and William Schallert (TV's "True Blood") also star in this haunting thriller.

The film is released to UK DVD August 19th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and contains a Deleted Scenes feature as an extra.

Buy the UK DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Death Walks - Teaser Poster

Death Walks is keeping everyone on it's toes, this new zero budget zombie horror tale with a twist has been the topic on many an industry insiders minds since it was first announced several weeks ago.

 

It is currently, according to IMDB, the highest ranking British horror movie in production, and it's cast and crew, all of whom have given their time for nothing, are starting to see the benefits of their hard work.

 

This week they have released both a teaser trailer and now poster art, created by Mchelle Horne a production supervisor on the project.

 

Horne was given the brief "imagine you are being torn to shreds on an escalator, what do you think you would see?" By the movies director Spencer Hawken.

 

Death Walks is currently halfway through filming, it's makers hopes that they will be releasing it onto the festival circuit from December.

 

Visit the official Facebook Page.

Hate Crime - A review

James Cullen Bresseck recently shared a screener copy with me of his film “Hate Crime”, which is currently available on Video on Demand and will be released on US DVD shortly.

 

The film is basically, an extremely harrowing tale of an incident that befalls a Jewish family who are preparing to celebrate their youngest son’s birthday one evening. As they’re just about to settle down around the table, they’re subject to a home invasion by a group of drug fuelled neo-nazi thugs in ski-masks.

 

After tying them up, the intruders then subject them to a brutal ordeal of humiliation and torture, as one of the children is executed gangland style, the wife is brutally raped and the 2 other children beaten and humiliated in front of the father who’s forced to watch.

 

Shown entirely through the point of view of the family’s camcorder, which the thugs use to film the events for their own amusement, this is another one of those “found footage” style films. Which despite the low budget and virtual no-name cast, is still an extremely uncomfortable ordeal to sit through.

 

If you remember the scene in “Henry : Portrait of a Serial Killer” where Henry and Otis are videoing themselves beating a family to death, this is basically a feature length version of that. So if you found that difficult to sit through, imagine that one scene making up virtually an entire films running time.

 

Clocking in at just over an hour, its not an exceptionally long feature film and with it being a low budget production, not all the acting is up to the standards of the Royal Shakespeare Company (so to speak). Also, some of the more brutal scenes are perhaps more implied than shown (the wife and daughter get to keep their underwear on for the most part whilst being sexually assaulted). But then, many might argue that’s a good thing and in any case, does not detract from the extremely uncomfortable nature of it all.

The film is available to stream at http://www.psykikjunkypictures.com/

You can also pre-order the forthcoming US DVD from Amazon.com