Don't Kill The Messenger XXXIV

There a lot of stuff I want to cover today, so I'll get right to it.

Muchacho Del Globo!

I love a good mashup, especially the ones playing with horror movie trailers. The latest, from early this week, remixes the upcoming [REC] 2 with a certain story that left CNN blowing a lot of hot air.



He's An Old Broken Down Piece Of Meat!

Also this week in mashups, is this Grindhouse-inspired trailer for Aronofsky's Oscar nominated film The Wrestler. Thanks be to DirtyRobot for the heads up.



A New Teaser.

A few months ago, I mentioned that my friend Serena Whitney had gone to Louisiana to film a short. Well, a teaser is now up and you can watch it below. Based On Actual Events will hopefully be coming early next year. Stay tuned to Killerfilm for more updates.



Sieg Heil.

Wow, Nazis sure are popular these days. First, we had the crowd pleasing Dead Snow and then Quentin Tarantino gave us his long awaited reimagining of the last days of WWII with Inglourious Basterds. Now, it looks like we have a Nazi-centric slasher on the way from Denmark. Check out the new trailer for Final Solution below.



More Fear.

My buddy Rob Mitchell finally uploaded more of his footage from the Festival Of Fear. Check out the vids below.







For more vids, check out Rob & Sheleigh's YouTube channel here.

Climbin' That Mountain.

Let me introduce you to ‘the pile’.

It exists on my coffee table. It’s where I stack my movies-to-watch. This ever-shifting mess of loaners, freebies, screeners and Zip.ca envelopes sits there mocking me every time I sit down on my couch. Until now. I’ve decided I’m going to make an concerted effort to chip away at it. First up, is Michael J. Bassett’s 2006 film Wilderness.

Now, I had originally planned to watch this before the Toronto Film Fest because Bassett’s newest film Solomon Kane was premiering there. Though I had seen his debut Deathwatch several years ago, I wanted to reacquaint myself with his style. Obviously, I didn’t get around to it. After seeing Kane – which as far as swashbuckling sword & sorcery movies go was a fairly entertaining effort – the completist in me felt obligated to take in Wilderness, if only to get my Zip queue moving again.

A group of incarcerated juvenile delinquents and their handlers are set upon by a maniacal survivalist, while on an island character-building excursion.

Wilderness is definitely my favourite of the three projects Bassett has made so far. There’s a lot to like about this movie. The setup is simple and things get moving quickly. The cast is great and stacked with recognizable British talent. Sean Pertwee, who always elevates the quality of anything he’s in and Alex Reid (The Descent) appear as the authority figures and Toby Kebbell – who I first saw in the fantastic Shane Meadows film Dead Man’s Shoes – excels here as the alpha male juvenile Callum. What put this movie over the top for me were the interesting dynamics. In addition to the perils of having a trained killer and his attack dogs (which are a force by themselves) on their tail, these kids also have deal with each other. With their supervising element removed, some of these delinquents are as dangerous as the person hunting them and things fall into chaos quickly. It is unsettling and not beyond the realm of possibility. I mean there’s still a helping of characters doing stuff they clearly shouldn’t like when Jo (Karly Greene) unnecessarily provokes her own undoing, but for the most part the script is fairly tight.

Pertwee put it best in the accompanying featurette, when he described Wilderness as a cross between Battle Royale and Lord Of The Flies. That’s some nice fucking company! Wilderness is also similar thematically to a lesser-known Canadian film from the seventies called Rituals. Unlike Kane and Deathwatch, Wilderness is devoid of of any supernatural elements, which maybe why it resonated with me more. There is also some well placed gore in this movie. It is rarely excessive and is used only to accentuate the brutality of the circumstances.

After watching Wilderness, Bassett has cemented himself in my eyes as a competent filmmaker. As I said, Solomon Kane was decent enough, but it’s the kind of thing that could become a franchise if it does well enough and I'd hate to see him get locked into one thing for an extended period of time. I find his ensemble character pieces like Wilderness – and Deathwatch to a lesser extent – much more appealing, so that’s where I hope his career leads him.

Another Round?

Welcome back for week three of Boxtober. Thanks for all the emails you have been sending in. It makes this little horror section all that much more fulfilling.

Another Trip To The Palace.

I took another trip to Trash Palace last Friday night, this time for an old Canadian ditty called The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane, which was another gem out of J.C.'s collection. Since it had been over twenty years since I saw it last, I figured it was worth a revisit.


Rynn (Jodie Foster) is an intelligent thirteen-year-old in lives in an old and secluded house. She says she lives with her father, yet no one in town has ever seen him. When the landlord comes snooping, Rynn goes to extreme lengths to keep her secret hidden.

Little Girl is a great little movie of a sort that are rarely made anymore. It is a tightly knit thriller that is basically just a sequence of dialogues between Rynn and those who attempt to invade the sanctuary she has built for herself. So much time has passed, it is sometimes easy to forget how young Foster was when she started acting. 1976 was a big year for her as she appeared in three other notable releases, the family films Freaky Friday and Bugsy Malone and Marty Scorsese's Taxi Driver - the film that cemented her status as one to watch. In Little Girl, Foster is front and center and delivers an admirable performance with an eloquence far beyond her years. And she is not the only fine performer here. Martin Sheen oozes sleaze as pervert Frank Hallet, who endlessly tries to get some alone time with Rynn. Also appearing as Rynn's love interest – yes, you read that right – Mario, is Scott Jacoby, who had coincidentally played a similar role to Foster's two years before in a lesser TV movie called Bad Ronald. The few exchanges between Rynn and her landlord Mrs. Hallet (Alexis Smith) are also deliciously venomous. It really is true that North American films seemed to get away with a lot more in the seventies. There are elements to this film that just wouldn't fly these days, like the sex scene – tame as it may be – between Mario and Rynn, and the more creepy advances by Frank upon Rynn.

Like reaaallllly creepy.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane is a solid little film. It may not be as extreme or genre specific as some of the other Canadian horrors of that time period, like Black Christmas, The Changeling and Cronenberg's early work, but it is certainly no less engaging. If you can find this on DVD, I suggest you give it a whirl.

Oh, Marty.

Slaughter High is one of those titles that slipped through the cracks when I was devouring horror movies in the eighties. It's actually surprising I'd never seen it, considering that slashers were my bread and butter back then. When Final Girl announced it was October's Film Club selection, it seemed like the perfect time to fill in that blank.

Many years after science geek Marty Rantzen (Simon Scuddamore) was maimed in a April Fools prank gone wrong, his tormentors are called back to their old high school for a reunion. Only, Marty is there waiting for them and looking for revenge.

Holy shit, where do I start with this movie? It can't possibly be taken seriously, but it's not full on camp like what you would get from, say Troma. Slaughter High is just one of those movies that you have to laugh at and hope the filmmakers were in on the joke. I think at some point, they must have just decided to throw reality out the window. I mean, the setup is absurd. Carol (Caroline Munro) is supposed to be Marty's classmate, but looks old enough to be his teacher.

I failed a grade. Or twenty.

After all the tragic shenanigans, when they come back to the school for their reunion, they of course all look exactly the same. Slaughter High does have some creative kills, even if they are at times implausible. The character's actions are also hilarious. Two characters decide to knock boots in a conveniently placed bed and another decides to wash off her friend's blood by going off by herself, stripping naked and soaking in a disused bathtub. This is just after a few of their number have been brutally murdered before their eyes, I might add.

I'm gonna wash that blood right outta my hair!

So, every slasher must have a costume, right? Well, Marty's is a court jester mask that has bells that jingle loudly. But, only when it's convenient, like when he's not sneaking up on someone. Or is it just when the foley forgot to add in the sound effect? Speaking of sound, they did manage to snag Harry Manfredini, but the score sounds like stuff swept up from Friday The 13th's cutting room floor. And the sound cues might just be lifted straight from said series. It seems like something he may have done on a Sunday afternoon after losing a bet the night before.

They were out of hockey masks.

On the other hand, I did get to hear someone use the phrase “the pits”. That took me back. That along with the killer beer, acid baths and open drainage pits, but maybe I've said too much about my misspent youth. I digress. It is cool that it ends during daylight hours, but perplexes when the remaining heads think that they'll be safe past noon because that's when April Fools Day ends. That's a new one. Try that time limit bullshit on Jason or Michael and see how well that ends for you.

You can sort of pinpoint where Slaughter High lies on the scale of slashers. It is right in the group that came AFTER the ones that were cashing in on Friday The 13th, which itself was cashing in on Halloween. Basically, what I'm saying is it's low on the totem pole and it shows. It's a copy of a copy of a copy. However, try not to take it too seriously – and why would you really? - and it is at least a watchable curiosity.

Don't Kill The Messenger XXXIII

Hello all. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Here's the latest batch of items from this week.

On Composition.

A piece of music that has always stayed with me since childhood, is Jonathan Elias' score for the Stephen King movie adaptation of Children Of The Corn. It was why I was instantly reminded of it, when Mark Morton of Examiner.com emailed me a link to a recent interview with Elias. In it, Morton asks him about working on the score for the recent television remake.

Morton: How was it to go back to the well to revisit the music? Did you want to start fresh or just freshen up what you had previously done?

Elias: I was hired with the understanding that they wanted to freshen it up – to use the old themes but in a fresh light. The producer/director Donald [Borchers] is an old friend of mine. He was actually the producer of the first one. So it was understood what I was walking in to. And part of the fun was that I got to have my daughter involved, singing on the score. She is one of the Children of the Corn choir singers.

For the rest of the interview, click here.

Forbes Does Argento.

The Argento staple Suspiria played the Alamo Ritz last Sunday, and renowned artist Alan Forbes created an original 18 x 24" for the occasion. Check it out below. Only 115 were printed, so if this strikes your fancy, start searching now.

Man Goes Into Water...

If there is anything on this planet that immediately puts fear into my heart, it is sharks. Watching the film Open Water in 2004 was one of my most terrifying experiences in a theatre. Well, it looks director Andrew Traucki of the 2007 killer croc flick Black Water is back with a similar venture entitled The Reef. Oh boy, why do people go out there when they KNOW there are these death machines just lying in wait? Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against sharks. I find them incredibly fascinating, but I'm quite content to let them have the oceans. Anyone who wants to go out there, you're on your own. Anyhoo, for more info on The Reef, go to the website, here.

So Close...

Dave Parker’s new film The Hills Run Red recently dropped on DVD after a successful festival run and is the subject of this installment of On The Shelf.


A small film crew head into the Virginian backwoods to film a documentary about a lost horror film called The Hills Run Red. Fantasy quickly turns into reality when they run across Babyface, the brutal killer of the film in question.

Now, I knew going in that The Hills Run Red was by the guys behind 2000’s The Dead Hate The Living, so I was expecting a large helping of self-reference. And while this is a great deal more skillful than his previous effort, there’s still a lot of eye rolling to be had. There was so much potential here and at times, it was fresh and unique. Unfortunately, for every clever subversion, there was something absurd. The opening credits were engaging enough, recalling the cringe-inducing scene from Doug Buck’s short Cutting Moments. I also really liked the look the hulking killer Babyface with his doll facemask and bright red coat.


Fans of actress Sophie Monk will be glad to hear that we see a LOT of her in this movie and Bill Sadler shows up as the reclusive auteur behind the lost film, basically chews up every scene he’s in. The Hills Run Red runs out of steam in its third act though, falling into a ridiculousness that I just couldn’t abide as a viewer. I thought the ending was also literally laughable, well the pre-credits finale anyway, as the end-end was a trifle more disturbing. The setup is a lot like the excellent Carpenter Masters Of Horror episode Cigarette Burns. Both stories involve searching for a lost film that has become legend for the effect it had on its small number of people who saw it. This is the part that really resonates with me as an esoteric film fan. With modern technology having everything at your fingertips, the thrill of the hunt is all but gone. There was nothing like tracking down hard-to-find VHS titles like Cannibal Holocaust or Microwave Massacre back in the golden age of home video. Every horror fan of that era had a The Hills Run Red/Le Fin Absolue du Monde equivalent they were endlessly seeking out.


You know what I think my problem with The Hills Run Red was? Instead of all this film-about-a-film meandering, I wish that Parker had gone the House Of The Devil route and just MADE the lost seventies horror flick in the movie, as the trailer and the bits that you see were when I was most interested.

As far as slashers go, you could do a lot worse, but just be aware that this movie swings back and forth from good to not-so-good like a metronome set to Presto.