Tag Archives: Horror

Official Release: Hank vs Ninjas, Nazis and a Chupacabra

The following is my short film, Hank vs Ninjas, Nazis and a Chupacabra.  This was put together from the Fall of 2008 to the Spring of 2009.  I waited to release it online to try to make some money from the DVD sales to cover various costs.  All profits were split equally among the 20+ cast and crew.

So now I offer this to you, online, free.  However, I have also included a Paypal “Donate” button.

This is what I ask: If you like what you saw, please donate $2.

If you really liked what you saw, you can by this on ebay for $3, which includes my first short, Neighborhood Watch.  Both films run about 20 minutes. Buy it here.

All donations will go towards the cost of my current slate of films:

Dawn of the Living (post-production): my first real foray into the dramatic aspects of horror

How Do We Die? (pre-production): five minute documentary on gravediggers and how they think of death

So here it is: Hank vs Ninjas, Nazis and a Chupacabra


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Thanks for all your support.

Daybreakers: I Am Legend II, Even Lengendarier (I mean that in a good way)

Daybreakers teaser poster.

When my friend Jesse and I saw the initial ads for Daybreakers, he commented, “This looks like a sequel to I Am Legend [the book, not the movie].”  There are plenty of reasons for this:  I Am Legend left us with a world of vampire-like beings and a minority of humans–and that’s where Daybreakers picks up.  Society has adapted to serve the needs of the new vampire majority, as cars warn drivers of UV light, coffee/blood stands are in the subways, humans are “farmed” for their blood, and there is even a vampire army. Continue reading

Carriers: One of the Best Apocalypse Films You Didn’t See

Thanks to a random trailer hanging out on the right hand side of a Yahoo News article, I found out about a little film called Carriers.  This is another post-apocalypse scenario, whereby a tuberculosis type virus has destroyed a majority of the population.  Fortunately for me, it received a small release here in Edinburgh and I had a chance to see it (I was geeking out with enthusiasm that the theater was using an old slide projector and that the film was actually projected on 35mm).

If you only watched the trailer, you’d mark it for another dumb zombie film.  However, this little gem is a solid film, with great acting, story, and of course, the fine details that make the apocalypse setting feel real (I will not spoil it).  This isn’t a zombie movie and it isn’t just a Horror film.  Like all greats, it’s really a drama with a horror backdrop.  The film’s pathos is remarkably palpable as characters make tough choices in order to survive.

(POSSIBLE SPOILER, SKIP OVER PARAGRAPH)

This, plus the people we meet on this roadtrip to “safety” make the film immensely believable; we’re just as haunted by what happens to those left behind as those in the film.  Plus, who knew Chris Pine, the new Captain Kirk, could swing from asshole leader, to crying mess, to menacing monster so well?

(SPOILER ALERT OVER, RESUME READING)

Sure, it’s a bunch of attractive young white kids running around, but my wife Bethany and I spent the hour walk home discussing the film’s characters.  These weren’t the teenagers from Friday the 13th you wished death upon via machetes.  This isn’t the best post-apocalyptic film, but I firmly give it a good, which is why it deserves a lot more attention.

This officially came out before Zombieland, so try not to be too harsh when it mentions “the rules” for survival.

Now that I’ve prepped you, go out and see this thing!  Carriers is out on DVD in the U.S.*

*evidently the distributor for Carriers, Paramount Vantage, closed shop which is why this only received a limited release in the U.S. in September and then sent to the DVD house.


Other recommendations:

Blindness, Children of Men, The Mist, The Descent, 28 Days Later, Mad Max, The Thing, Pontypool (see my review)

Pontypool Review

Teaser poster for <em>Pontypool</em>.

Teaser poster for Pontypool.

Since George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, all of the great zombie films have provided us an undead lens through which a facet of human civilization is focused upon: Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead tackled race and conspicuous consumption, respectively; Danny Boyle used our fear of disease to look into the heart of man in 28 Days Later, only to find the “Rage Virus” within all of us. Pontypool continues in this vein as the best zombie* film since Boyle’s resurrection of the genre, utilizing the fear of the unknown to look at the power of language. Continue reading