Notes From The Boston Underground: JOHN DIES AT THE END

Your enjoyment of Don Coscarelli's adaptation of the novel John Dies At End hinges in the joy you take in seeing eight foot tall monsters comprised of beef and pork products brought to life on the big screen. My guess is if you're reading this site, you've got a high threshold for this stuff.

It's a classic case of the perfect project falling in the right creator's hands. Only someone who brought the surreal, nightmarish landscape of Phantasm to life could do this trippy, whacked out story any sort of justice. It's difficult to describe John Dies in the traditional sense of plot, story arc, etc etc as it's the type of tale that grabs one by the shirt collar and hurls them in all sorts of directions at whatever whim catches its fancy at that particular moment.

That said:

Told in flashback to Arnie, a rumpled, smalltime features writer in a wrinkled tweed coat and ill-fitting polyester shirt (an inspired Paul Giamatti cutting lose with the role), John is really David Wong's story. At the outset he's your standard adrift twenty-something cynic that just wants to party with his free spirited buddy John and catch a little residual tail along the way. That is until one night at a local kegger when he has a run in with a mysterious Rastafarian and gets woken up by John's panicked three am phone call to come to his apartment immediately.

The Soy Sauce chose John, and now it was about to choose David.

See, the Soy Sauce is a super addictive hallucinogenic drug that makes LSD look as healthy as Flintstones Kids vitamins. The Sauce opens up the mind to the realities of parallel universes, alternative realities, time travel and makes one aware of a host of alien super baddies hellbent on taking over the human race as hosts for their intergalactic bodies. The only thing standing between extinction and another Law & Order marathon on the telly are a pair slacking underachievers and Bark Lee, a cute kind of half terrier breed that doesn't do to badly handling a stick shift.

John Dies the novel runs off in so many tangents, always taking the road less travelled to get to one of its hundred destinations that it seemed impossible to film. Coscarelli makes the wise choice to film the near self contained first third of the book along with its climax in order to come up with a cohesive feature, rather than what would have been a four hour ramshackle debacle of a film. While what was left on the cutting room floor might puzzle some fans of the source material and surely pained Coscarelli to leave out, it makes for a much stronger feature.

The limited budget of the film acts a double edged sword. On the one hand, the ambitious visuals of the story sometimes fall prey to average at best CGI. As much as we all love the tangible qualities the “man in rubber suit” practical effects bring to the table, the scope of this film would be impossible to pull off without CGI, but the funds weren't quite there to give it the full monty. However, Coscarelli and crew make some smart choices to work around limitations. One ambitious sequence heavy on gargantuan alien monsters making mincemeat on a gaggle of human sacrifices goes the animated sequence route. The film's trippy, nightmarish nature ensures the tactic doesn't come off as a cheat and lends it the scope it deserves.

What doesn't require a budget is good dialogue and JDATE has it in spades. The ridiculous circumstances the crew find themselves in lends itself to some terrific, dry one lines delivered in totally deadpan. It is one of the funniest film's I'ver seen in a long time.

On the other hand the limited funding means unrecognized actors score the lead roles of David and John, a circumstance that makes for the best aspect of the film. If a studio had unlimited dollars to toss at the production, we'd probably be talking about Tobey Maguire as David and Ryan Reynolds as John, and while I mean no disrespect to either of them, the thought of writing a phrase along the lines of “Van Wilder totally fights alien baddies in this film” isn enough to make my bowels turn to ice water. Instead Chase Williamson as the sardonic David and Rob Mayes as the hyperactive John perfectly voice the characters anyone who has read the novel have come to know and love. Mayes gets the chance to bring the spastic antics of an ADD riddled man child to life on screen and he is more than up to the task. The film also makes an effort to somewhat limit John's participation in the events, knowing that too much of a good thing runs the risk of going bad-light eating four jumbo bags of Sour Patch Kids in one sitting then feeling like someone has scrubbed sandpaper on your tongue for the next week. The heavy lifting goes to Williamson, and surround by Giamatti and a strong supporting cast that includes Clancy Brown, Doug Jones and Glynn Turman (The Wire) the newcomer more than holds up his end of the bargain. Whether making with the funny or delivering the sweaty wild eyed panic of an accidental Soy Sauce overdose, he is the perfect fit for one half of this modern day Ghostbusting team.

Genre lovers are in for a wicked treat when the film maneuvers its way into eventual release. John Dies is the best blend of horror, gross out visuals and gut busting comedy since souls were swallowed un Evil Dead 2. It's destined to be a late night weekend staple for stoners, freaks, geeks, gore hounds, and anyone else crashing down from a mind altering trip for years to come. this film, along with the promise that is Cabin In The Woods show that there's a light at the end of the tunnel for fans hoping to put shaky cams and torture porn in the review mirror in lieu of something sharper, smarter and goddamn wicked and hilarious. 

Trent Haaga's CHOP: Atonement and Stump Sex

Chop (2011)
Directed by Trent Haaga
Written by Adam Minarovich
Bloody Disgusting Selects
Trent Haaga Online

Note: I could have SWORN Mike reviewed this film at some point, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Anyway, lemme know, Mike, and I'll link it!

Troma's all purpose man and indie stalwart Trent Haaga is responsible for penning 2008's grim and polarizing film Deadgirl. Both Mike and I are staunchly divided on that film. Our debates and spats over its merits often culminate in feats of strength, demolished furniture, and crying. We're about as far apart on the spectrum as two pals can possibly be. Luckily for our friendship, Haaga returns with his directing debut Chop, a darkly funny and grisly film sure to mend our wounded hearts.

To say I'm a fan of horror comedy is a long shot. At best, I'm skeptical. Most of the time they overshoot, relying too much on half-baked jokes, and shoddy execution that lives or dies by flimsy wisecracks or sight gags. All too often, the forced comedy waters down what might have been a decent film. With a few expections, I'm almost always turned off by them. Self-awareness done poorly can break a film, and comedy in horror tends to poke more fun at itself than any number of better suited targets. However, when comedy in horror is done right, it's ooooh-so-good. Take Return of the Living Dead for example: That film is funny as shit, but it earns its laughs in a way that refrains from mockery, and is respectful to its audience. It incites laughter in the over-the-top reactions of its characters to some pretty grim material. I don't think a funnier movie exists that makes its viewer so thoroughly confront mortality. If you weren't laughing, you'd surely be crying.

The same might be said of Chop, a film that is very funny, but still respectful of the horror genre. Haaga's film, too, forces the viewer to confront a number of horrible circumstances. The audience must endure torture, dismemberment, gunshot blasts to the head, all delivered with a tongue planted firmly in cheek. The story follows Lance Reed, a painfully average but seemingly ok guy. He's got a pretty wife, a decent home, a semblance of a life. Although things seem good for him, it's clear that he doesn't quite appreciate it. When his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, he's kidnapped by what is thought to be a good samaritan, but turns out to be a stranger with sights set on revenge.

It seems the Stranger knows Lance, and he's guilty of a past grievance for which Lance is expected to pay. In a series of elaborate (and hilarious) schemes, the Stranger (Timothy Muskatell) exacts his revenge methodically, each encounter taking something from Lance. The stranger raises the bar each time he visits Lance, and won't stop in his quest for retribution until Lance confesses his sin. Lance soon finds himself losing body parts. The whole thing escalates to gruesome (and again, hilarious) proportions as Lance loses more and more parts in atonement for a past indescretion he can't even remember. Add a few people from Lance's past into the mix, and Chop twists and turns more than anyone would expect from a misleadingly simple satire on torture porn. To give away more would ruin all the icky surprises Haaga and screenwriter Adam Minarovich have in store.

Haaga's film doesn't knock your socks off with aesthetics, but it is a solid, well-paced film, expertly crafted by somone who cut his teeth on many independent film shoots. Chop is damn funny, and quite freshingly unpredictable. The performances are clever, each character delivering with a straight face that never teeters too far over the edge into outright comedy. In fact, you may, like me, feel a bit of pathos for the characters. Will Keenan in particular is stellar as Lance, his expressions and reactions so tragically comic and robust you'll swear the screenplay started out as a silent film at some point. Muskatell is up to the task as the revenge-bent Stranger, a man whose increasing frustration with Lance leads to some seriously savage acts.

Chop can be summed up in this way: Think back to a shared funny moment with a friend while both of you were drinking something. There's that briefest of moments where you're both holding a serious face just before losing it and spitting a mouthful of liquid all over the place. That's exactly the mindset of Chop. It resides right there in that brief window just before everything is doused in spit and legal beverage. Only here, it might also contain a stray finger or some brain matter.

Chop Trailer


     

The Buffy Project: Witch

Witch

Our first episode outside of the two part pilot sees us leaving behind the overarching storyline of The Master in favor of our first “Monster of the Week” episode. Witch sees the friendship between Buffy, Willow and Xander deepening while the latter still wrestles with getting his tendency to get tongue tied around the object of his newfound affection. We're introduced to Amy, and while she seems as just another one of the anonymous Sunnydale students viewers meet for a single episode before being cast aside once their relevance to the week's plot has been wrapped up, she'll become more important in the coming seasons. While she's never a driving force of the show, she's definitely one of the more interesting peripheral characters. Given the way Witch unfolds, it could be argued that aside from the brief segment in the episode's final minutes we don't really get to know Amy until season three's Gingerbread.

It's a commonly held belief that the monsters on Buffy serve as standing metaphors for the real trials and tribulations teens face while fumbling towards adulthood. While this certainly holds true throughout the show's long run, watching Witch for the first time in a few year's it struck me how much it preys on a common adulthood fear as well. Amy's mom Catherine wants nothing more than to relive the glory years of her high school experience. She's the embodiment of what bad comedies and great Springsteen songs want us to believe: that high school represents the so-called “best years of our lives”.

While I'm not above the occasional wistful look back at a time my life seemed much less complicated and burdened by responsibility, I'm also quick to remember how ever verbal jab and rejection led to nights of insomnia and paralyzing self doubt. Besides, even one manages to sail through those four years with a teflon coated badge of coolness, what does it mean when you look back a couple of decades later and realize you peaked at eighteen? That's the question Catherine struggles with, and the answer she arrives at fills her with a seething rage directed at her daughter, leading her to cast a spell that switches their bodies. It a chance for Catherine to relive the glory days she believes Amy is squandering.

Even without a Hellmouth around to give a nudge towards evil, we've all experienced the overbearing parent that tries to live through their kids. Their the ones suing school systems if they believe the curriculum will keep their precious out of the Ivy League or shouts obscenities at referees and teenagers from the sidelines. Contrast Catherine with Joyce Summers and it's easy to understand why the latter is such an endearing character. While Joyce might be a harried single mom that's not entirely sure what Buffy's wrapped up in at school (she knows Buffy tried out for “something” but can't pinpoint that it's cheerleading) and might a bit too enthusiastic about trying to steer her daughter towards the Yearbook Club, she also knows when to back off. More important, she can empathize with her daughter and have a real conversation rather than try to brush Buffy off. She may have fond memories of the Yearbook Club, but right alongside those memories are the ones of self doubt and anxiety that plagues everyone at that time in their life.

Of course the main theme that runs through Witch is Buffy's continued desire to fit in and enjoy a normal high school experience. Witch finds her trading her stakes for pom poms, if only for a couple hours a day. While she's resigned herself to her fate as the “Chosen One”, she still doesn't believe it has to be a full time gig. It's a theme the show revisits often in the first season, right up until Prophecy Girl. Yet despite how much she longs to get back to her carefree pre-Slayer days, danger seeks her out, this time in the guise of cheerleaders that spontaneously combust or have their lips magically sewn shut. Whedon might not strip characters of their free will, but he has no problem hurtling them towards their fate then reveling in the choices they make along the way of getting there.

Random thoughts:

• Now that the cast has shaken off the pilot jitters, you get the sense they are much more comfortable with the quirky dialog. Nicholas Brendon in particular is off and running with the quipster Xander and has one of the best lines of the episode: “I laugh in the face of danger. (beat) Then I hide until it goes away. ”

• I'm not sure it moved the plot forward, so can anyone tell me why Buffy can execute pinpoint accurate spin kicks to a vampire's trachea and do a backwards standing leap over an eight foot high wrought iron fence yet still lacks the coordination to make the Cheer team's first squad? An alternate? Really?

• More signs that Buffy isn't going to cotton to the standard Slayer/Watcher dynamic: in the pre-credits sequence when Giles forbids her from trying out for the squad, there's just a smidgen of menace when she asks him how exactly he plans on stopping her. Being the consummate Brit and quite possibly having skipped over the ages between four and forty Giles appeals to her sense of responsibility and propriety. Witch does over Giles the chance to do more than tsk-tsk at modern teenagers while cramming his face nostril deep in musty research tomes. We get our first hint that Giles has a more intimate relationship with magic above and beyond being book smart.

• Another hint that despite being on the WB Buffy wasn't kid's stuff: that closing shot of a panic stricken Catherine imprisoned in her own statue. Creepy stuff you probably weren't going to see on Dawson's Creek. 

Was Anyone Else Surprised Or Disappointed That The Hunger Games...

...isn't the story about a group of fat kids engaged in an epic eating battle?

I do  my best to avoid spoilers and prerelease film clips when there's a hotly anticipated project on the horizon, and as such I didn't quite know what I was getting myself in to. While like many adults I enjoy the sight of unruly teenagers dwindling their numbers by shooting one another in the throat with arrows of sending a pack of trained killers wasps after enemies, I was expecting lighter fare. OK, lighter fare involving pseudo sumos that used their gnashes as deadly weapons around waist deep piles of blueberry pies, but you catch my drift.

About midway through the film I nudged my wife and whispered "When the hell does John Goodman show up?" and was met with a look of puzzlement.

I'm pretty sure that the kid who played "Lardass" in Stand By Me could have gotten time off his shift at Footlocker to play the Woody Harrelson role. How awesome would it have been to seen him training a crew of chubby kids how to suck all the meat of a fried chicken leg in one pull (my uncle could do that)?

With the advanced state of digital FX being what they are today, I at least expected a reanimated John Candy inserted into the climax and for the action to go down as follows:



Why do they even call it the "Hunger" Games? These kids ate plants and squirrels.

Friday April 13th All Things Horror Presents Double Barreled Exploitation Badassness

It's been a while, but the All Things Horror Presents independent film series resumes in just three short weeks and we're coming back in a big time way. Our double feature lineup is a double barreled night of modern day exploitation madness.

We're kicking things off with James Bickert's ode to seventies sleaze fests, the blood, breasts and guts biker rampage Dear God No! It's the film our friends at Brutal As Hell hail as the “genuine and total real deal” and Guts and Grod say has “More Badassery than you can put on paper”. To describe the film in a few mere sentences is an exercise in futility, but if you love your films brimming with scuzzy longhairs that skull fuck clergy for fun, topless go-go dancers toting tommy guns and Nixon masks and mad scientists psychically linked to Bigfoot, then you owe it to yourself to check this film out. If you look at films like Machete and think “what a fucking shoddy excuse to make a shitty film” and want the real deal, plant your ass in a seat for this special screening.

You'd think we'd quit while we're ahead, but we're doubling down with Richard Marr Griffin's (The Disco Exorcist, Exhumed, Splatter Disco) take on nunspolitation Nun of That. Starring Sarah Nicklin ( whose inevitable pinup poster is destined to reside above this generation's teenaged boys headboards much like their father's faded Farah's once did) as a woman of the cloth callously gunned down in an alley, she's resurrected and trained in the art of ass kicking by notorious leg breakers Jesus H. Christ and Gandhi in order to come back make sure criminal blood overflows the communion chalice. Cheap hoods, petty thugs and coked-up pimps take note: the only holy Sacrament this pissed off Nun knows how to deliver is the Last Rites!

Due to the over the top carnage , gratuitous , intense sexual situations and sensitive nature of these films we strongly encourage you to bring the kids. In fact, children under five will get in FREE.

Our first film screens at 8pm, we may have a short film or two to add to the mix and both films are a measly ten bucks. You can barely get a horny grandpa to give you an under the table handy at a Denny's for that kind of scratch, so why not turn out for this night of cinematic fun times? If you're a real cheap bastard, you can even save two bucks by preordering tickets online from our link on the right hand side AND save me my typical pre-screening “woe is me no one is going to turn up for this” hysterics that are going to one day cause Chris to stab me right in the fucking trachea.

Patrons who bring a canned good donation ensure we have something to eat after the show.

All Things Horror Presents...Double Barreled Exploitation Badassness

Friday April 13^th 8pm

The Somerville Theater Digital Microcinema

$10 (cash only at the door)/ $8 online preorder

Dear God No!

Nun of That




trailers!

Prometheus Trailer Is A Giant Nerdgasm

Can June 8th just get here already?

Confirming what's been hinted at in press junkets and still photos, Ridley Scott's upcoming Prometheus looks like a near full blown return to the world he helped create in Alien. 


From the space jockey preparing for lift off, to the face huggers to the overhead shot of the Xenomorph lurking overhead, it looks like we're in full blown prequel territory. And do you know what? I'm totally down for that. If Ridley Scott wants to go back and tell more stories in a setting that he's responsible for, and from the looks of it, is artistically invested in, then tell me how this is a negative? While other films have garnered more hype, this trailer puts you on notice that Prometheus is going to be the film to beat this season. Everything about this film is screaming out that it's a high concept, big budget blockbuster that's spent it's money wisely. The trailer evokes a feeling of utter panic and despair without revealing too much. While the end result might not quite match the level of horror of the original, this looks like a smart blend of terror and science fiction.


After a lackluster 2011, this year's crop of films signals the best summer season in years. Maybe it's a sign from above that Thursday's temperature is slated to hit 85˚ in Boston, since it's the same day the highly anticipated Hunger Games makes its midnight debut. On top of that the superhero genre returns to epic form with Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spiderman and film that caps off Marvel's years' long plan, Joss Whedon's The Avengers. Unlike last summer, horror fans are invited to the party this time around with the Whedon/Goddard jam Cabin in the Woods. The film is drawing RAVE reviews online right now, and the three remaining weeks before it hits can't go by fast enough.

The Buffy Project: "Welcome To The Hellmouth/The Harvest"

As hard as it is to believe, Buffy the Vampire Slayer turns fifteen years old this spring. In honor of one of television’s all time best genre shows marking the anniversary, I’ve decided to break out the box set and give it another watch. Each week I’ll post thoughts on an episode, beginning with the two part pilot and steamrolling all the way through the bloody end. A word of warning, this retrospective assumes you’ve seen the show and is heavy on spoilers. If you’ve never watched BtVS, well one)for shame good sir or madam and two) do yourself a favor and queue it up in Netflix right now, then come back and read along.

Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2 "Welcome To The Hellmouth/The Harvest"

And we’re off. We’ll look at the first two episodes here in one go as it’s a two part kickoff extravaganza. Whether you were a fan of the show from the outset or not, you have to love the way it kicks off by tweaking the horror genre right on the nose. We have our sweet, chaste school girl being led around the halls of the empty high school hallways by your prototypical “bad boy”. Everything we’ve learned from watching horror films lets us know she’s toast. Future Mrs. Dexter jumps at every noise while Romeo plays it cool and brooding.  When he convinces her that no one else is out there, our erstwhile victim…pounces on him with fangs bared. It’s a great start, and we haven’t even been introduced to our title character.

After our credits (I’ll never get tired of Nerf Herder’s theme) we get an extended “Coming Soon on Buffy” montage via a dream sequence. All twelve episodes were in the can before the Hellmouth even aired, giving this scene a heck of a lot of material to choose from. After waking, we meet Buffy as she moves from one nightmare to another: high school. We get a pair of brief bits of exposition first between Buffy and her mom, then Principal Flutie that lays out her back story: She’s been kicked out of a few schools for delinquent behavior, and Sunnydale represents her last gasp at normalcy.

We also meet the future members of the Scooby Gang and get a brief look at the personalities we’re going to come to love. There’s the sarcastic quipster Xander and sweet, nerdy bookworm Willow.  Queen bitch Cordelia doesn’t suffer the nerds kindly and knows the few Sunnydale hotspots. Then there’s dear sweet Giles, who suffers from the social disease known as being British. Symptoms include an affinity for tweed and general stuffiness. Of course, one of the best bits of character introduction comes in the way of Angel. While he’s stalking the slayer, we get a terrific overhead shot of Buffy balancing herself upside down on a lamppost, taking him down with a pair of well placed heels to his backside.

Really though, it’s a fairly pedestrian start to what will eventually become a beloved cult show. While the trademark Whedon snark is on display but it the characters still seem to be wrapping their mouths around the words and nuances. There are a few moments in the climactic Bronze showdown which hints at the signature humor we’ll get to love. First we have the standoff between Xander and best-bud-turned vamp Jessie. While the latter taunts the former’s inability to drive the stake home, his bravado becomes his undoing when a fleeing clubgoer bumps the vamp right into the pointy end of the stake, dusting him for all eternity (this does make one wonder if biological condition of being a vampire is one’s ribcage develops the spongy consistency of Jell-o as it didn’t take much of a nudge to drive Mr. Pointy home).  The second occurs when Buffy tricks the brawny-not-brainy vamp Luke  by tossing a drum cymbal stand through a window and reminding him about sunrise…which she moments after she stakes the distracted vamp reminds him is in about nine hours.

The plot sets in motion the first Big Bad with Mark Metcalf’s equal parts menacing and comic genius evil vampire The Master (note to self: if you ever come up with a fantastic idea for an evil vampire story, make sure to give him a badass moniker and not something pedestrian like “Jim”). Trapped underneath the town by dark magic, The Master doesn’t have a hell of a lot to do aside from the season finale, but Metcalf takes a real pleasure in delivering some of the camp based humor (and Seinfeld fans should not he does it all while wearing pants). The plot is fairly standard horror film fare: Buffy and gang need to stop a new group of vamps from completing a ritual that will free The Master and unleash Hell on Earth ’97 (as opposed to the types of unleashing we’ll see in future years, usually around May sweeps period). Standard as it may be, there’s one shot that raises Harvest over typical for its time TV fodder. While a bouncer outside the Bronze watches the door in near pitch blackness, a skipping Darla and her gang of vamps come into view (in slow motion no less) under one lone street lamp, ready to make mince meat out of the unaware revelers.  

 “Hellmouth/Harvest” also introduces a central theme of Buffy: being the slayer can be hard, lonely and underappreciated business, and if Buffy is going to last long, she’s going to need to rely on her friends to get her through the tough times. Joyce Summers sums up a central theme of the show when she stands up to Buffy and tells her that everything feels like it’s the end of the world at age sixteen, which shows both how much and how little she understands what her daughter’s going through. In the early goings of the show Buffy is quick to complain how the life she’s chosen to live conflicts with the one she wants, one filled with dates, cheerleading and conveniently located Neiman Marcus stores. Yet despite her protestations that she doesn’t want the responsibility nor the assumed shortened lifespan being a slayer entails, Buffy is quick to put her life on the line for people she just met and barely knows.  We also see early on that Buffy’s going to do things her way with little regards for tradition on the standard Watcher/Slayer hierarchy. She may lean on Giles for consul, research and occasional reassurance, but it’s clear that it’s Buffy’s ass on the line in the field, and she’s going to make the final call.

Some random thoughts:

• I like the fact that Whedon eschewed the standard origin story and decided that the film, giant, bulbous puss filled warts and all, would stand as canon. Instead we get a Buffy Summers that’s been at the game for a while and already knows the pros and cons of the life of a Slayer. Aside from some short bits of exposition for Xander and Willows sake (from Giles “A slayer hunts vampires; Buffy is a slayer. Don’t tell anyone”) we’re dropped right in on the action.

• Perhaps it’s a sign as to how much Buffy kick started horror fare for television, but it’s obvious the ideas Whedon had play much bigger on the page than the budget allowed for. The fighting scenes, particularly the graveyard sequence, look laughably amateurish in 2012, but to be fair that’s a bit of revisionist history as horror fans have been treated to The Walking Dead, Supernatural and Lost in the intervening years. I know the WB was ore an outlet than major net, and that cable networks were still a few years away from becoming a force in original content, but what plays put on screen feels much smaller than the big concepts Whedon's pushing forward. 

• Another staple in the Whedon bag of tricks shows itself early: his tendency to kill off seemingly important characters without little notice. We're led to believe Jessie is going to be part of the gang, and when The Master used him as bait it was meant in the truest sense of the phrase. We soon find out that Jessie's been vamped. While this this concept will be better demonstrated in later seasons, it puts the audience on notice early on that no one is safe. Of course, it would have been nice if Jessie's lifelong friends, especially Willow ("well at least you two made it out ok"), met his demise with more than shrugged shoulders.   

Come back next week when we look at Witch and the flaming cheerleading hands of doom. Plus, fudge brownies help crack a case!

Watch "Night of The Punks" Free Online

A couple years ago we reviewed Dan Reiser's terrific short "Night of the Punks". It's a throwback to all the things we loved about mid eighties over the top comedic horror far like Return of the Living Dead or Street Trash. Aside from some great gore gags, what the film REALLY captures is the excitement of being in a DIY band heading to an out of town gig, only to have that enthusiasm quashed due to no one turning out to see you play/giving  shit about your crappy band. Been there, done that, bought the tee shirt.

For your viewing pleasure:


NIGHT OF THE PUNKS (2010) from DAN RIESSER / IRRATIONAL FILMS on Vimeo.

Boston Underground Film Festival Unveils Its Lineup PLUS Only Three Days Left To Help BUFF Reach Goal!

The Boston Underground Film Festival posted their preliminary line up for this year's event (March 29th-April 1^st Brattle Theater in Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA) Head over to their site right now and check out some of the trailers. Full descriptions of each and trailers for each title will be up in the near future.

As of this morning there are only three days left to get BUFF to their Kickstarter goal of $5500. As of this moment, 78 backers have contributed $4100. The goal is in tantalizing view, and I'm imploring anyone reading the site right now to head over to their official Kickstarter campaign page and contribute what you can. Remember, $25 gets you a pair of tickets to any single film and a paltry $75 gets you an all film pass.

While this is by no means a complete list of films, here's a quick peek at some of the program's highlights.

Thursday night kicks off with Don Coscarelli's (Phantasm, Bubba Ho Temp) adaptation of the comical paranormal gore fest buddy novel John Dies At The End. Boston area genre fans have the chance to see one of the most anticipated films of the year many months before its wide release. If the trailer is any indication, Coscarelli captured the comic weirdness of a novel that's a drug induced tale of time travel and alien invasion doomsday that can only be stopped by a pair of unwitting paranormal slackers.

I'm not quite sure what's going on with Japanese import Smuggler. It could be their answer to Kick-Ass or it could be a Rom Com in the vein of 27 Dress and I'm just completely reading the whole trailer wrong. And while there's no trailer posted yet for the Richard Bates Jr jam Excision, it's promise of a sexually frustrated teen girl that gets her kicks ripping off scabs, roadkill and dalliances into experimental surgery have all the makings of a bleak comedy classic. The photo on the site teases it's going to be a blood spattered ride packed with body horror allusions that would make David Cronenberg tip his cap in approval. It played this year's Sundance festival where it looks like it garner some positive reviews.

The trailer for Happily Never After looks like it takes the traditional Hollywood tale of a father reuniting with the son he never knew he had and wrings it by its ear, giving it a sharp and painful twist. The trailer looks rife with innuendos about its main character harboring a deep seated urge for underage ladies and this looks like it might send some shocked audiences out of the theater and in search of a long hot shower once the credits come up. In other words, it's just the kind of film that makes BUFF one of the premier film festivals in the country. 

HAPPILY NEVER AFTER TRAILER from Jamie Heinrich on Vimeo.

About a month ago I received a link to the comedic slasher Some Guy Who Kills People. Bandwidth issue and bad timing means I've only gotten midway through it, but I'm loving what I've seen. I'm stunned that the guy behind Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus could put out such a moving picture. Kevin Corrigan ives an outstanding performance (so far at least) about a guy whose life took a few bad turns before bullies finally pushed him over the edge. Brian Bostwick is hilarious as the deceptively competent small town sheriff and the film is packed with way more heart than your typical slasher fare. 

Review: THE DEAD

Written & Directed by Howard and Jonathan Foster

In 1968 George Romero single handedly created a horror genre with Night of the Living Dead. In the more than forty years since its release zombies have become the go-to monster for filmmakers of all stripes and skill level. The past decade has seen a resurgence in the zombie's popularity, from big budget remakes, critically acclaimed television programs and no-frills nor budget filmmaking. Yet few works come close to recreating the prevailing sense of man's inevitable doom against an unstoppable onslaught of undead. That's changed with the Foster Brothers African zombie entry, The Dead. It's the type of film Romero would have made at one point but now lacks the ability to pull off.

The Dead follows two men. Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman)is the sole survivor of a plane that crashed in a futile escape attempt. Sgt. Daniel (Prince David Osela) is a local soldier that desperate to reunite with his young son after returning to his village only to find it in tatters. Their stories converge about a third of the way in, and the two team up with the hope of improving their chance to make it through the desert to an air base and possible safety. There's not much more to the story-it's as simple as two men hoping to reunite with family with no idea how far the epidemic has spread. It doesn't need more than that as the constant threat of attack and beautiful cinematography kept me engaged.

Shooting on location in Ghana allows The Dead to remove its characters from the zombie genre's typical holed up location and uses the vast, gorgeous African landscape to its tremendous advantage. It also adds a sense of hopelessness. There's nowhere for its characters to hide from the undead. The natural beauty of the African landscape make for one of the most gorgeous horror movies ever shot. It's a far cry above the standard independent zombie fare that takes places in drab warehouses or unassuming apartment houses.

Indeed, The Dead is the first zombie film in a long while where the titular undead provide a greater threat than the living. There's rarely a moment of film where the the dead aren't lurking in the background and pressing forward in their constant search for food. These are the slow, lurching zombies Romero popularized and they are simply unavoidable in the film. The open desert and its lack of shelter offers no hiding place from them. Even the simplest of tasks transform in to a race against the inevitable swarm of grasping limbs. An early scene demonstrates how soldiers tasked to protect a village prove no match for overwhelming numbers of Undead unencumbered by the burden of human emotions. Their only urge is to find and consume food at all times.

If there's a problem with The Dead, it's the inability to establish any credible threat outside of the zombies. The Fosters throw interesting challenges at the pair only to resolve them in the next scene. It robs the film of any tension aside from the dead. There's an exchange between Murphy and Daniel whether their last canister of water should be saved for drinking or used to cool their jeeps radiator. Murphy argues they need the jeep if they're to have any chance of reaching safety while Daniel argues there's no guarantee the radiator can be fixed and that the next watering hole is too far away by foot to survive without drinking in between. Murphy wins out, the pair drive off and before either of them so much as develop chaffed lips they come across a water pump. This is one of a few similar incidents.

The other problem is Freeman. When he's not asked to speak he's perfectly serviceable. Unfortunately his line delivery leaves much to be desired. While I'm not expecting an Academy worthy performance, he comes off as stilted and unnatural throughout.

The real draw of The Dead stems from the practical effects and makeup. There's limited CGI in the film and the makeup is stunning. Of special note is a limping zombie with a protruding bone in his leg. The scenes of the zombies casually eating and slurping bits of viscera down their gullets are stomach turning. While they don't resemble the rotting look of The Walking Dead, their dead eyes give them an unsettling experience. 

"Silent House": Tense and Terrifying Until It Isn't

Written by: Laura Lau

Directed by: Laura Lau & Chris Kentis

Attention Hollywood: There have been two solid horror films with wide releases this year, and both feature long stretches where the central character wanders around an empty house armed only with a lantern.

Let’s get the gimmick out of the way. The husband wife team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau filmed Silent house to appear as one continuous eighty eight minute take (if we’re the one thousandth site to say “a la Hitchcock with Rope” do we get a prize?). Undoubtedly the film used clever editing to make it seem that way, but what’s more important is whether or not the leading lady is ready for her close up, as nearly every frame of film centers on her. The film borrows both its name and central premise from the 2010 Uruguayan film. Perhaps the marketing focused on the single shot technique in order to distract from a clumsy, ham fisted third act reveal that derails the previous hour’s tense, nail biting suspense and terror.

Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) returns to the family lakeside home with her father (Adam Trese) and Uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) in order to restore the property and sell it off. Years of neglect haven taken a toll: every window is now boarded after vandals smashed them, there’s no power and the home is in need of serious cleaning and remodeling as boxes and garbage are strewn throughout every room. When an invader breaks in and takes out her father, Sarah finds herself engaged in a frightening game of hide and seek.  The claustrophobic location is used to great effect with the minimal lighting coming from a lantern or rare shaft of natural light peeking through the boards keeping characters and the audience in the dark. The tensest moments of Silent House prey on the childhood fear of not knowing what lurks in the dark even in the supposed safety of one’s home. Much like the home invasion thrillers Them or The Strangers, the film’s intruders are at their most dangerous when just off the screen and the possibility of them is far scarier than anything they can cook up.

Lau and Kentis should be praised for the sound design of the film as well. The film is at its most terrifying when focusing on Olsen’s reaction to the various bumps, crashes and heavy footfalls echoing throughout the home.  

Kentis and Lau fill their film with suspects and red herrings meant to keep the viewer guessing. There’s mention of an ex-boyfriend turned Facebook stalker. There’s the childhood girl friend that turns up unannounced on front porch. There’s talk of local vandals that have broken every window and squatted in the basement. There’s the uncomfortable way dad and uncle address Sarah like a little girl at times, and seem to leer at her at others. With a full list of possibilities the ultimate reveal is a big swing and a miss.

Fresh off her lauded turn in Martha Marcy May Marlene Elizabeth Olsen continues to impress. Her rising panic as she tries to hide and escape her pursuers comes off as one of the most authentic portrayals of fear I’ve seen in a horror film. Whether gnawing her forearm to stifle ragged breathing or shooting wide eyed glances in a desperate attempt to find an exit route, she plays Sarah as a young woman in possession of just enough moxie to allow her to push on despite teetering on the fine line of a meltdown. Olsen needs to be good as the entire film either puts her up front and center on frame or shoots the action from her perspective, putting the viewer in shoes for long pauses.  Olsen has the rare ability to wear expressions of fear, grief and confusion on her face with equal ability, and her body language when alone onscreen tell the story better thousands of words of exposition ever could.

The fact that the first hour of Silent House make for such compelling viewing makes the boneheaded narrative choices of the last fifteen or so minutes all the more frustrating. I don’t wish to spoil much here, so I’ll keep my comments brief. Rather than let the simple home invasion story play out to its end game, the film takes a hard turn towards pop psycho babble. The shift completely eschews the stark and realistic nature of the previous hour and instead heads down moustache twirling villain territory that contradicts everything that came before it. There are maybe three clues that point towards the end game, but they are inserted with bluntness as if Lau and Kentis needed something to point to so as to cover their asses when explaining their storytelling choices. It’s too bad few people believe audiences will fall for a simple, well executed story, instead feeling the need to insert a gimmick whenever possible.

Olsen’s stunning performance and the first hour’s ability to hold the audience’s attention in a vice grip make Silent House worth seeking out.  Your enjoyment will vary depending on how much you can stomach the final minutes, but there’s a terrific thriller found in everything that precedes the crushing disappointment.  

Hey Kids It's The ALL THINGS HORROR Podcast! This Week: KILL LIST

The first episode of the All Things Horror podcast is now up and running and available for your listening pleasure. While we wait for the iTunes store to post the episode, you can listen to it in the embedded clip below. 

For our first go round Mike talks with fellow champion of indie horror James Cortez from the stellar site Planet of Terror about Ben Wheately British Thriller Kill List. Two viewings in and Mike is still trying to wrap his head around what the hell he just devoted three hours of his life to. While he's not too sure what to make of it all, he at least knows he likes it. Theories are thrown against the wall like cupcakes,so take a listen and see what sticks. 

The All Things Horror podcast has high hopes of regularly talking horror with our fellow bloggers that we've come to know, read and love these past few years. We'll keep our focus on the indies and limited run films but that's not to say we won't wax rhapsodic when the tentpole films  that excite us make their way across a few thousand screens. We're also hoping to sit down with the directors, writers, festival directors and artists we've come to know these past few years as well.

(Having a little trouble with the embed player that will link to the iTunes store, but this should do for now)

Trippin': Playing Head Games In The Woods

Review by Dede Crimmins

I often have a negative, knee jerk reaction to kids-in-a-cabin horror films. As a horror fan, I have seen far too many bad ones in that sub-genre, so I feel the need to proceed with caution. You know the drill: a bunch of horny teens are in a secluded cabin for the weekend/ spring break, when they start getting killed one-by-one by demons/ ghosts/ rednecks. However you can’t completely write off all the kids-in-a-cabin movies, because so many horror classics come from that field. Evil Dead, Friday the 13^th, and more recently Hatchet and Cabin Fever have all given us very good reasons not to stay away from the woods. And I’m sure happy I didn’t totally write off the kids-in-a-cabin movies, because I would have missed enjoying Devi Snively’s Trippin’.

Trippin’ is a fun send-up of the kids-in-a-cabin model. It tilts more heavily toward comedy than towards horror, but there is still a solid dose of gore for the horror fan. Snively definitely knows the genre she is using as a playground well, and has fun playing with our expectations of these cabin films.

The film starts with a typical stoner guy, Zed, at a bar, telling the story of how he told the story about his scar. Zed has an enormous scar on his calf, which just has to have a great story behind it. After telling his tale the previous year in exchange for 12 beers, he and his audience decided that it would make a great movie. Which begins the flashback to the story of the scar, or at least the version of the story that will make a good movie.

From there we meet our cast of characters who will meet their demise on this fateful trip to the woods. We have Holly (the scantily clad girlfriend of Zed), Mickey and Joe (the drinking and driving navigator and his hot wife), and Jizz and Jeremy (the uptight prude and her horny boyfriend). All of them are piled in a van to head to the cabin for the weekend. Their trip starts like any other: with Mickey taking pictures of road kill as they pass by, Joe driving and slamming down beers, and the other four playing truth or dare in the back of the van. Jizz (which is apparently short for Giselle, though they never call her that) does her best to show everyone how privileged and what a killjoy she is spends the entire trip loudly voicing how much she looks down upon the rest of the group. They all have a similar attitude toward her, and voice their corresponding opinions right back at her. Not quite the bonding, fun-loving trip they were all hoping for. After a run-in with a potentially homicidal local, their journey takes a turn for the worse and doesn’t stop getting worse until the very end.

Though this all sounds like typical kids-in-a-cabin movie so far, Snively actually does a good job of saving Trippin’ from falling into the crevice of cliché. The most notable savior is the fact that the characters in Trippin’ aren’t teenagers! Mickey and Joe are married. All of them are grown-ups, and have jobs. Sure, they like to go into the woods and get stoned for days at a time, but they aren’t kids. When Jizz talks to them as if she is the lone adult in a sea of children, your sympathies lie squarely with the rest of the crew, even when they are acting irresponsibly.

Which brings us to the discussion of drugs. With a title like Trippin’ it should be no surprise that copious amounts of drugs are involved in the film. Marijuana, Quaaludes, and alcohol (almost exclusively while driving) are all heavily featured. Because everyone here seems live like a responsible adult (well… at least during their day-to-day lives), it is framed by Snively as a bunch of friends letting loose for a short vacation, rather than a pathetic group of people with addiction problems. The drugs are simply a fun way to move along the plot, and a good excuse to have a fantastic animated tripping sequence with puppets (puppets!).

These drugs do cause the group to get into all sorts of hijinks, with gore and death galore! By the end of the film the woods are strewn with entrails and the cabin is filled with errant carcasses. Here is another way that Snively keeps Trippin’ from becoming formulaic. As things start to go sour for our group I kept trying to guess what was going to happen next. I can usually do a pretty good job of prognosticating which person will die next, and where the frightened fleeing couple will happen up on the next severed hand in the woods, but you can’t quite do that with Trippin’. The plot turns definitely keep you on your toes throughout the whole climactic sequence.

The moral of the story is to not avoid all kids-in-a-cabin movie, no matter how clichéd some of them are. If you do, you might miss the joy of watching Trippin’!

Trippin' comes out on DVD on April 10th

(Deirdre Crimmins lives in Boston with her husband and two black cats. She wrote her Master's thesis on George Romero and works too much.)

A Memo To Folks On Twitter: You're Doing It Wrong

When you're posting about your favorite show mere minutes after the latest episode ends, please try to bear in mind the following:

• There's this thing called "DVRs" and there's a pretty good chance that, whether it be through the vagaries of a sick kid vomiting apple juice or the fact that commercials are for suckers or...
• There's this thing called "The West Coast" and "Time Zones"
• Some of us decided that paying $100 for 800 channels when we watch six was also for suckers, and cut the cord so to speak. As such, we have to wait a day before Amazon/iTunes/Vudu posts the episode for (legal) download   

Please try to bear these simple facts in mind before you POST MAJOR FUCKING EPISODE SPOILERS IN YOUR TIMELINE YOU FUCKING TWATWAFFLES.

Seriously, I haven't wanted to punch a stranger in the face so hard since I went to pick up the Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince a day after it came out and some gangly pizza faced virgin leaned over the second floor railing at the Burlington MA Barnes & Noble and shouted "Dumbledore Dies In This One". 


While I don't want to go overboard here, let me end by saying I hope cancer eats your eyes and everything you've ever loved dies before you, and you end up coughing out your final days penniless and alone in a one room efficiency at your local Y.

Setting KILL LIST In The Crosshairs

Written by Ben Wheately & Amy Jump

Directed by Ben Wheately

Official Site on IFC Films

While it's not uncommon for a film to mix genres, I've never experienced a film like Kill List which divides its three acts into three separate and distinct works. Equal parts domestic drama, crime thriller and head scratching horror it's not until the final few convoluted minutes that Kill List loses its balance on the genre defying high wire act. It's a very good film that could have been great but for it's maddening ambiguity and refusal to tie seemingly relevant threads together to the work as a whole. As a warning, there are mild spoilers below the jump, and I'd recommend seeing this film cold. Feel free to bookmark us and come back once you've seen the film.

The film opens midway through a domestic dispute between Jay (Neil Maskell) and Shel (MyAnna Buring) . It's a common source of strife in this economy: the savings has dried up since Jay's been out of work. In between red faced screaming at one another, the couple pause just long enough to assure their young son they love him before Shel continues her verbal evisceration of her husband. While Jay's line of work is unclear at first, the evening's dinner party with old friend Gal (Michael Smiley) and his new girlfriend Fiona (Emma Fryer) peel back layers of the past one at a time. We learn that Jay and Gal served together in Iraq as part of a British special ops team, only to return home and setup a kill-for-hire operation. A botched job in Kiev led to Jay's self-imposed hiatus, only now Gal has an offer and Shel is eager for her husband to accept.

One bizarre meeting meeting with a mysterious stranger later leaves Jay with a pile of cash, three contracted kills and a massive knife wound on his palm. While Jay and Gal set out to take care of business, it becomes clear that despite recruiting his friend back in to the fold, Gal no longer possess the temperament for this line of work, while Jay enjoys it too much. The first hit on a Priest goes off without a hitch, but the second contract, involving a child pornographer, is where things start to go hinkey. Left alone with Jay for a moment, the bloodied and battered “librarian” thanks Jay for his service, and that he “knows who he really is”. Angered and confused, this sets Jay off on a grim violent path. It's clear that Jay's past-the wartime traumas, the previous kills for hire and the unspoken events in Kiev-have turned him in to a little ball of hate that destroys anything it bounces off of. It's not hard to see the connection between the verbal abuse Jay suffers (and doles out) at home and the savagery he tears into his victims with.

While Kill List may not be an all out gore fest, there are moments that serve to remind man is but a lumpy meat sack housed with inadequate protection for the violence and dangers the world throws our way. A scene around a kitchen table that involves creative use of a hammer is especially not for the weak of heart or stomach.

The third act takes a sharp turn towards pure horror territory, though it's difficult to discuss it without spoiling the film. I'll briefly say that Jay's unwitting journey into madness draws parallels to one of the pillars of British horror cinema and that a sequence that finds the hitmen trapped and hunted in the claustrophobic confines of a tunnel is harrowing and an example of terror at its best. The film's color palette, mired in dull grays to begin with, further darkens, and many of the closing minutes take place on a near pitch black screen, adding to the confusion and tension.

The problem with the final act of its film stems from Wheatley's stubborn refusal to shed any light as to why events unfold as they do. Again, I'm all for a film keeping its audience guessing throughout, but there needs to be a payoff. The conclusion to the film leads me to believe Wheatley had the closing moments in mind but couldn't quite make the puzzle pieces fit to get us there. Kill List is littered with small moments that are puzzling as they happen, yet you take it on faith it will snap together in the last reel. Unfortunately this doesn't happen and you're left with far too many questions: Why does Fiona carve that symbol behind the bathroom mirror and what is she doing later on having rinks with Shel and waving outside Jay's hotel? Why are the people on Jay's list so grateful to die at his hands? What was the ultimate purpose the illuminati pulling the strings had for Jay? The easy answer is Jay's past crimes have caught up to bite him in the ass, but that seems too pat.

Up to the closing moments there's a lot to admire about Kill List, in particular the strong performances from its four leads. Maskell and Smiley enjoy an easygoing chemistry that make for some much needed lighthearted moments in between the madness. Maskell also enjoys a sweet relationship with his young son Sam (Harry Simpson) which allows his sharp edges to soften just enough to allow for an air of sympathy for the hardened killer. Buring is equally fascinating to watch and the casual discussions between her and Jay regarding him getting back into the killing business occur with the sense of normalcy my wife and I might discuss our dinner plans.

Kill List may handle the concept of the waking nightmare better than any film of this past decade . Wheatley leaves the audience in every bit as much of the dark as its two leads. When it becomes obvious the two are in way over their heads Gal wants out but Jay insists pressing on. yet its clear each kill, contracted or not, only serves to further severe the link between his mind and reality. As for the audience, we're left clutching to the his shirt sleeve while he drags us further down his spiral, with no idea how things are going to turn out. The film's score culls scraping and discordant industrial noises, low frequency thrums and animal wails and adds to the surreal, nightmarish power of the film. Harsh editing cuts serve to keep the audience off balance and never allow one to get ahead of the story. The thickened pudding Yorkshire accents of every character that rendered dialogue half decipherable also adds to the dreamlike quality of the film, those this might be a natural byproduct rather than creative choice.

The ending leaves tremendous room for debate. Wheatley is on record saying his personal nightmares influenced the script, which warrants the question how much of the film takes place in Jay's fevered head? While I'm not one hundred percent on board with this theory, moments in the early goings, particularly a backyard romp with Jay and family, are eerily mirrored by its end. Combined with the booze and painkillers Jay uses to treat an infection, and at least two occasions where a someone snaps him awake, it's at least worth examining. Perhaps the film serves as nothing but a simple allegory for soldiers returning from conflict suffering from PTSD. Ultimately, the films mixture of horror, mystery, drama and gallows humor lift Kill List above standard genre fare. It's a film that has stuck with me, and I find myself turning theories and interpretations over and over in my head, discarding each one before latching on to something new. For those who look to the cinema to offer a change and a chance to broaden one's perspective, Kill List proves more than up to the challenge. 

Kill List is now playing select markets, including the Brattle Cinema in Harvard Square, and is also available via VOD, iTunes, Amazon and Vudu

Time To KIckStart These Horror Projects

The great thing about Kickstarter is its democratic nature. If there's a project that really and truly deserves funding, it'll get done as long as the word is spread. From time to time we like to spotlight genre related projects that warrant your attention and a donation if you can spare it. Here's three current funding drives you should help out:

The Boston Underground Film Festival (Kickstarter link) Simply put, there's not another festival in our city as dedicated to bringing the cinema of the weird and the horrific to the teeming masses of genre fans scattered throughout the Commonwealth. Now in its fourteenth year, BUFF needs a hand in order to make this year's festrun without a hitch. This year the festival moves back to the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square. This single screen theater has long been one of my favorite places to see classic cinema and cult films, but the down economy means the readily available corporate and local business sponsorship of years past is much scarcer this time around.

This year will be the third BUFF I've attended (thanks to a super generous birthday gift of a full festival pass from my wife) and it is one of the things I love so much about living in Boston. Last year Hobo With A Shotgun made its debut, followed by a spirited Q&A with director Jason Eisener. The festival introduced me to the films of Richard Marr Griffin (The Atomic Brain Invasion, Exhumed, The Disco Exorcist) and I'm proud to say we've been able to screen his diabolically twisted films since. I never would have heard of the wonderfully bizarre black comedy Love On The Rocks without BUFF, nor have gotten the opportunity to experience the glorious train wreck that is Pieces with a packed theater of miscreants. Lucky Mckee was on hand to discuss his brilliant film The Woman last year. BUFF is an institution that would leave our area poorer if it were ever to go away.

Donations $25 or over get you at least a pair of tickets to a screening of your choice, and a full festival pass is only $75 for four full days of independent film (you'll also get a thank you in the program and website-if you're a horror blogger with a little extra cash that's 5000+ eyeballs looking at your URL). With two weeks to go the fundraiser is coming up on halfway to goal. It'd be great to see it coast there with time to spare.

Haunted (Kickstarter link) While I'm a fan of the found footage subgenre, I can't deny it needs a creative shot in the arm. Written by Bloody Disgusting & Mile High Cinema's Brad McHargue, Haunted could be that project. Here's the synopsis from their Kickstarter page:

HAUNTED tells the story of what happens when a group of paranormal investigators finally find what they've been searching for. Andrew, a film student at the University of Michigan, is tagging along with a team of paranormal investigators to document their process for a school project. At first things go according to plan, but as the night progresses, it's clear something in the house doesn't want them there. Taking a unique approach to the concept of "found footage" HAUNTED is presented in a quad-screen/real-time format, showing the audience everything that is occurring inside the house all at once. This bold premise will give the audience, for the first time, the complete experience of what goes on during a paranormal investigation while encouraging repeat viewings, as viewers will be excited to fully see everything they only glimpsed the first time!

Aside from the premise, I'm intrigued by this project for a couple of reasons. First, I've been a fan of McHargue's writing since the time before I started my own site. On top of being a smart writer, he's not one to sugarcoat how he feels in order to protect feelings. It's not uncommon to read a Twitter message board post where he'll declare “fuck everything about this film” before going on to tear it three new orifices for it to shit out of. I'm interested to see if his script can succeed where he believes so many other fail and fail miserably.

Summertime Sonata (Kickstarter link) We've sung the praises for Matthew Garrett's feature Morris County and his amazing short Bleeding Hearts-which remains to this day one of the most gut wrenching and traumatic short films I've watched in the nearly three years of doing this site. His next short promises to be a surreal, nightmarish silent film heavy on the Grand Guignol. Garrett promises to leave nothing on the table when it comes to creating a gory good time in this one. Rather than espouse on the virtues of this film myself, I'm going to step aside and allow my good friend Mr. Dead Guy tell you why you should contribute