MatrixStream has announced that its streaming technology will be delivering a full 1080p high-definition horror movie to subscribers of MyTVpal’s online video service instantly, reflecting a more “green” approach than traditional movie rentals and mailed rentals.

The MyTVpal service will be delivering horror action flick “Shadow: Dead Riot”, released in 2006 and starring Tony Todd (“Candy Man”), in 1080p instant streaming VOD to MatrixStream MX-1 set-top boxes. A 6Mbps broadband connection will also be required for full 1080p resolution – the title will also be available in 720p HD, requiring a 3Mbps connection, and 480p, requiring a 1.5Mbps connection.

Aaron Keogh, Director of Business Development for MatrixStream, commented that in addition to offering a “greener” method of film delivery, its video streaming platform is also friendly to VoIP calls being made via the same connection. “What is also attractive about a service such as ours is that whether you’re in the US, UK or the Philippines, you can stream high-definition titles instantly,” he added.

Shadow: Dead Riot will be released on the MyTVpal service by February 8th, and Mr. Keogh added that over 100 1080p high-definition titles will be released over the next few months. The MyTVpal service also offers over 1,000 free live TV channels.

http://www.connected-home-news.com/content/view/645/47/

Very, very rarely do I not make it through a movie. We all have a tolerance for certain aspects of movies lacking in one regard or another–its part of the mixed bag that comes with independent horror films.  Dream Home, however, a 2006 release by Maverick Entertainment, takes the cake on what i’ll never watch again and everyone’s favorite movie comment two hours of my life i’ll never get back.  i didn’t past the first 45 minutes even, and i’m still a little peeved about that…

All right, maybe I should’ve finished it to give it a proper review–but let me be quick and frank about what made me turn it off:

1.  the dialogue seemed to take forever. less is more sometimes–even the black and white images at the intro and title screen of the movie took entirely too long.  seems the director doesn’t have much faith in his audience in terms of how long it takes a viewer to understand what is going on.
2.  the premise of this movie has been dones multiple times, is tried and true, and in some ways is fail-proof given the right parameters–but Dream Home had a hard time with any of the established narrative ideas of previous haunted house movies.  If anyone’s interested, there’s a step-by-step guide of sorts in a book called Dark Thoughts.  The essay is by Aaron Smuts and called "Haunting the House from Within".
3.  the characteres are simplified, stereotyped, and unnacceptably dull.  notice i say characters and not actors–i’d like not to make comments on the actors’ ability without seeing them in something else, so i suppose the writing, again, takes this hit. 
4.  a cat that dissappears and reappears?  give me a break. 
5.  as a guest in someone’s house, if you find a strange man in the bathroom calling you honey and saying he hasn’t seen you in a while, tell the owners of the house.  its common courtesy. 

I’d have to say that the previews at the beginning of the disc where far more enticing than the move itself. 

Oh, and the house in the movie is not the same as the one on the cover, not by a long shot.  The house in the movie looks to be about fifteen years old. 

Awful!  Don’t bother.  Happy watching,

Omie

It’s the middle of the night I can’t sleep and I know why. My repeated flash backs to this film I have just watched… no experienced. Just earlier that day I had come home from vacationing in Florida, now that I am back in Michigan I have a few movies waiting for me that I had ordered from an online store. I flipped through the normal movies that I have just wanted to see and the classics I’ve seen but never bothered to buy and came upon a movie… this movie was Cannibal Holocaust. I have heard many things of this movie how it is the most horrific movie to come out in ages, ever in a few instances. Ruggero Deodato directed this movie filmed on location in the "Green Inferno" (AKA Africa). I have now found that you don’t watch this movie, you experience it.

I go to my work and show a co-worker whom also really likes just those gritty, horrific just gore and blood movies. I bring my portal DVD player and put on a few of the scenes, he is in total shock and horror as I flip through the movie. As he asks to borrow it to actually see the movie I hesitate, something shocking hits me and I realize that I enjoyed this movie tremendously and want to watch it again… this scares me. I find I don’t need the movie, it keeps playing over in my mind.

I put in the movie for the first time and am greeted with a "Grind House" title sequence I’ve seen somewhere else but I can’t put my finger on it. I am prepared for everything. The clock hits 11:00 PM and I press play. The movie begins in some sort of documentary introduction, my expectations and hopes die slightly here, though this lasts only for a few minutes. Before I know it I’m shifted into the jungle with a few explorers trying to find another expedition that has gone missing. (Alright before I continue I just want to say if you are going to a new country and people go missing, get the fuck out! This isn’t Saving Private Ryan this is man for himself)… okay back to the review. So these decent guys go into the "Green Inferno" looking for scientific crap we don’t care about but they mention it just to make it seem more realistic. We are met more and more with graphic scenes of an animal death that is actually real. I can deal with a lot but something like that is pretty bad, I wince for a moment then I’m back in the game, after all I guess they did eat it. After a couple of scenes of meeting the locals and finding a few things from the previous expedition we are shot into the last expedition’s point of view and the stories their camera’s film. This is a whole new level. I have drawn lines and these walks over, jogs up and down and squats on this line of sanity. I feel ill and I want to turn it off, I’m looking for the remote to shut off the DVD Player/ Surround Sound system. I desperately grab at anything, but am distracted from the fear and regret and enjoyment of this movie. I can’t give away anything else but this is a movie that will confront you with rape, sex, violence, and just plain cruelty. This movie uses no cheap scares or ideas that "The Boogey Man is coming to get you" kind of thing, nor does it imply any spiritual reasoning or ghost explanation, this gives you the cold facts. I think everyone draws a line in their mind and says where you should just close your eyes and black it out, this movie is verging on this line… but I can’t shut it off. I’m mesmerized by the reality of the horror and brute force, castrations with rocks and impaled women. I finally grab a hold of the remote control and my finger draws near the off button but I stop. This movie with no moral values and no point to the blood shed has taken a hold of my mind and dragged me into the swampy, jungle, cannibal infested forest that is the Green Inferno.

After only ten days after the premier the movie was met with an obstacle that no other mainstream movie I can recall faced, the courts. Ruggero Deodato was put in trial and facing the murder of the four expedition’ers and the murder of the impaled woman. After the contract the producers and director forged with the actors to stay off the Hollywood scene had to be broken in order to get out of a life sentence in prison, the courts began their attack from a different angle. They banned the movie from audiences, yet Ruggero Deodato and others from the production of the movie fought this for 3 years before allowing the movie to receive a VM18 rating.

When considering to rent or buy this movie keep in mind that the director was put on trial for this movie, that it has been banned in countries all over the world. This is not by any means a movie for the light hearted or ‘easy stomached’. I have been watching horror movies all my life and have follow the likes of Tom Savini yet this is something in itself. Italians are the only ones making the true horror movies anymore, this is a wonderful and remarkable piece of art that shouldn’t and won’t be forgotten for many, many years to come. A definite buy, I purchased my copy from Deepdiscount.com, it’s something like 18 or 19 dollars for this film. Do not delay, if you can stomach the horror then you are obligated to watch this movie.

The only complaint I would have is that most of the special features are in Italian with English Subtitles but this still doesn’t detract from the movie itself. A true classic of the horror scene:

Film: 5 Dismembered Arms of out 5

Special Features: 4 Beating hearts out of 5

Packaging: 5 Headless Zombies out of 5

It’s 1950-something and it looks like it. Interior. A smoky club, where a never-quite-made-it starlet sips on a dirty martini. A tall stranger flatters his way into her trust. Next step - an empty sound stage for a late night screen test. It’s the last picture for Scarlett May (ALEXANDRA HOLDEN) and this time she’s the star. Too bad it’s a role to die for.

Flash forward some half-century later. Same town. Same world. Though mere blocks from the star-studded sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard, it is light years from the Big Time.

Meet recent arrival, Adam Waltz (ED FURLONG), a lovelorn Virginia transplant. Before today, the horror movie fan boy could only dream of rubbing elbows with his idols - those obscure actors who populate the posters on the walls within his dingy bachelor pad.

When studio head Connor Pritchett (LANCE HENRIKSEN) handpicks him for a walk-on role in his latest B-movie PIRATE WENCH, starring reigning Scream Queen Cassie Blue (TIFFANY SHEPIS), Adam is convinced he’s on the fast track to "industry" success.

That dream begins to unravel when Adam finds himself a suspect in the bloody murder of one of the film’s stars.

Is it true there’s no such thing as bad publicity? Or is it a case of belated bad karma for Spotlight National Films? Will the ‘reel’ killer be nabbed?

http://www.darkreel.com

A “tense tale of terror down under” (All Movie Guide), Storm Warning lands with a fury in an Unrated DVD. February 5, 2008 from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Extreme label. From the director of Urban Legend, Storm Warning won two L.A. Screamfest awards – Best Special Effects and Best Score – when it premiered at the festival in October of 2007.

Caught in a massive storm that throws them off course, a young couple is stranded on a remote island where they seek refuge in an abandoned farmhouse. Once there, they soon realize they are not alone and are being held hostage by a group of deranged killers. The film features bloodcurdling performances from Robert Taylor (Rogue, Ned Kelly), Mathew Wilkinson (Ghost Rider) and Nadia Fares (War). Directed by Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend, Valentine), Storm Warning was written by Everett De Roche and was produced by Gary Hamilton (Wolf Creek).

The Storm Warning unrated DVD features an extended version of the film with feature commentary by director Jamie Blanks, writer Everett DeRoche, actor Robert Taylor, cinematographer Karl Von Moller and special FX artist Justin Dix. Storm Warning will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.95.

Synopsis
A weekend boating excursion takes a very bad turn when a severe storm strands a married couple on a remote island. They stumble upon what appears to be a vacant house only to learn that the sadistic inhabitants are indeed home and have heinous plans for the unexpected houseguests.

Price: $19.95
Street Date: February 5, 2008
Order Due Date: December 26, 2007
Rating: Unrated
Run Time: 84 minutes

The Haunting of Morella. 1990. Concorde - New Horizons. Reviewed by Brian Kirst

1990’s The Haunting of Morella stands proud as both a silly Gothic horror gem and as a time capsule to a bygone era. Created during the VHS market invasion and the reign of the B-Movie Goddess, The Haunting of Morella is a true product of its time with plentiful nudity and a modest budget stretched to magnificent limits. Morella was created during that era when being a video starlet was considered by some to be the height of celebrity - with actresses like Brinke Stevens catered to with limousine services and first class flights across the country to judge films festivals. This deliciously seductive aura permeates this Jim Wynorski spectacle.

Of course, having Roger Corman as producer doesn’t hurt. Corman, harkening back to his days with Vincent Price and his own Poe adaptations such as Masque of the Red Death, allows Morella a richness of texture and polish that other direct to video films of late 80’s and early 90’s lack.

While containing a significant amount of possession ritual, crucifixion scenarios, slaughter and bloodshed, this Morella is more about the casting than anything else. And this particular cast works Wynorski’s frequent combination of faded superstars, accomplished character actors, wooden GQ studs and beautiful women to delirious heights.

Former Man of Uncle star David McCallum plays a rich nobleman Gideon who marries the blood hungry witch Lenora. Blinded by love - to extreme degrees - McCallum locks himself and his daughter away after Lenora is condemned to death by an angry mob. Of course, on the eve of the daughter Morella’s eighteenth birthday - Lenora begins to possess her, trying to revive herself bodily again. Aided by the evil governess Coel, Lenora almost succeeds.

McCallum delivers a faithfully committed - yet slightly over-the-top performance. This is perhaps expected considering the material and he is calmed some by the steadiness of working horse actor Jonathon Farwell, his sympathetic film compadre and frequent scene partner. As Lorena/Morella, future Baywatch star Nicole Eggert gives a semi-successful performance. She is truly able to give a distinct difference to both roles, a true accomplishment considering the probable lack of time to make this film, but her Morella is too often contemporarily annoying and not as distinguished and old fashioned as is necessary. Still, she is a lot of fun to watch and her body double truly gets a generously naked workout.

Speaking of flesh - Maria Ford as the doomed Diane has never looked lovelier and frequent B-movie companion Gail Harris (Hard to Die) brings some nice lower class spite to her lusty servant-lass. Debbie Dutch (famed from many films including recent entries Kill the Scream Queen and Vampira The Movie) also appears, beautifully, in a hauntingly bloody flashback. But it is the late Lana Clarkson (Barbarian Queen) as the devilish Coel who truly shines here. Evil intent flashes in her eyes and tightlipped smile. She brings a twisted grace to the screen and watching her now makes the tragedy of her speculated murder by record producer Phil Spector in 2003 all the more apparent.

As the director, Wynorski truly keeps things clipping along ( Morella’s "haunted" dream of sexuality and death is a definite outrageous highlight) and the 82 minute running time passes by quickly enough - particularly for those who fondly remember the days when Linnea Quigley, Monique Gabrielle, Debra Lamb, Michelle Bauer and their like were truly beloved household names.

Vampira The Movie. 2007. Alpha Video. Reviewed by Brian Kirst

With the recent passing of Maila Nurmi there probably isn’t a better time to seek out Kevin Sean Michaels’ fascinating and insightful documentary, Vampira The Movie.

Looking frail yet proud Nurmi recounts her life and times for Michaels’ loving camera. Nurmi tells of her impoverished childhood and of her days on the stages of theaters in New York. Her love of Charles Addams’ comics led her to create a costume variation on one of his characters (the future Morticia). This eventually led to her one year television hosting gig as Vampira. Intensely creative and magnificently proud, Nurmi soon found herself at odds with the traditional demands of television executives and by the time Ed Wood approached her for Plan 9 From Outer Space, she was financially desperate and willing to take on his poverty row project. Her silent, outstretched space vampire in that feature only added to her cult notoriety, though, and it is delightful to hear Nurmi talk of Wood and this project - especially as she expresses her regret that upon finding the dialogue so ridiculous, she bargained to make her character a silent one.

Even more informative is the appearance of the one and only Elvira - Cassandra Peterson. Nurmi famously sued Peterson, claiming that Peterson’s Elvira was too close in appearance and attitude to her Vampira. Peterson’s exclamation that when playing a vamp-like female your options are somewhat limited is well found. Even more interesting is Peterson’s revelation that Nurmi never showed for any of the court dates - hence forfeiting her claims. This reveals as much about Nurmi’s capricious nature and total enthrall to her own muse as anything she could say herself.

Others, though, say plenty about Nurmi and it is a particular joy to listen to horror actress Debbie Rochon’s intelligent analysis of Nurmi’s character. The enthusiastic and highly enjoyable Debbie Dutch and Debbie D (aka The Double D’s) also pipe in with admiring statements about Nurmi’s accomplishments and other genre veterans such as Sid Haig and Bill Moseley are also interviewed. Most fascinating are the revelations of punk rocker Jerry Only from the Misfits and guitar maker Jonny Coffin (in a bonus feature interview) whom both met and spent creatively enhanced time with Nurmi.

Nurmi eventually reveals herself, as many industriously imaginative types, as both highly modest and overly indulgent about her accomplishments. The fact that Michaels was able to get such a well rounded portrait of this magical idol just before her passing is a wonderful gift not only to the horror community but to history and society as a whole.

A reform school girl attempting to turn her life around is drawn hopelessly back to the streets in this “Pinky Violence” classic starring Reiko Oshida. Rika (Oshida) is out on her own after an extended stint in reform school, but life on the streets isn’t easy for a struggling young girl, and it’s easy to fall back into old habits.

These days the psychedelic movement has taken hold, and the hippies are singing songs about revolution. When Rika and some of her former reform school friends are brutalized by a group of notorious gangsters with a taste for hard cash and young women, the young girls use their female charm and their fierce fighting skills to take violent revenge.

Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

On DVD Jan. 29

Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) continued its leadership among independent studios at the Academy Awards (R) yesterday, garnering five Oscar (R) nominations spanning three films. Lionsgate has now earned 32 Academy Award (R) nominations in the past nine years, more than any other independent studio.

Best Actress Nomination For Julie Christie (AWAY FROM HER),
Best Adapted Screenplay Nod For Sarah Polley (AWAY FROM HER)
And Best Documentary Feature (SICKO)

The kudos included: Julie Christie, who was nominated for Best Actress for the critically-acclaimed Away From Her; Sarah Polley, who earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, also for Away From Her; Marco Beltrami, nominated for Best Original Score for 3:10 To Yuma; Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe, who received a nod for best achievement in sound mixing, also for 3:10 To Yuma; and Sicko, Michael Moore’s
critically-acclaimed indictment of the U.S. health care system, which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature.

“Critical acclaim and commercial success are not an either/or proposition,” said Lionsgate co-Chief Operating Officer and Motion Picture Group President Joe Drake. “Even as our North American box office for this fiscal year continues to roll toward a Lionsgate record $400 million, these
awards show that Lionsgate also remains a critical leader and our creative talent continues to generate some of the most original, exciting and
prestigious product in the business.”

In addition to Lionsgate’s five Oscar (R) nominations, Mandate Pictures, which was acquired by Lionsgate in August 2007, earned four Academy Award (R) nods for the sleeper hit Juno, released by Fox Searchlight. The nominations included Best Picture, Best Actress (Ellen Page), Best Director (Jason Reitman) and Best Original Screenplay (Diablo Cody).

The Academy Award (R) nominations cap a week of critical acclaim for Lionsgate. Last week the Company won Golden Globe (R) awards for Julie Christie, Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture - Drama (Away From Her), Best Television Series - Drama (Mad Men) and Best Performance By An Actor In A Television Series - Drama (Jon Hamm, Mad Men), underscoring the breadth and quality of Lionsgate’s filmed entertainment product.

Lionsgate also currently has the #1 DVD in North America (3:10 To Yuma) and opens the eagerly-anticipated action film Rambo, starring Sylvester Stallone, nationwide this Friday.

Lionsgate is the leading independent filmed entertainment studio and is a premier producer and distributor of motion picture, television
programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. Its prestigious and prolific library of nearly 12,000 motion picture titles and television episodes is a stable source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the globe.

http://www.Lionsgate.com

Horror film “DEADLY END“, aka “Neighborhood Watch”, is being released unrated and uncut January 29th by Full Moon’s Lunatic Releasing. The movie stars Pell James, Jack Huston, and Nick Searcy, and was written and directed by Graeme Whifler. States the director, “This is one horror film that must be seen to be believed! It’s not lightheartedly humorous, it’s not forgiving, and it’s a hell of a challenge to watch certain scenes because of their repulsive contents, but these are the perfect ingredients for what is essentially a perfect horror film.”

THE HORROR REVIEW
Audience causality saves DEADLY END. Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal, Canada, the movie DEADLY END was being screened. In the audience sat director Stuart Gordon of Re-Animator fame. As the movie grids to its climax, commotion breaks out in the packed theater as somebody goes into convulsions. It is none other than Stuart Gordon who rushes to the rescue and helps get the stricken man medical attention at a hospital. Witnessing first hand DEADLY END’S visceral impact, Stuart vows to find the movie a distributor.

As it screened at dozens of festivals across theUS andEurope, DEADLY END built up a cadre of fans as well as a list of causalities. While most laughed with delight, a few vulnerable audience members were passing out, or breaking out in hives, or suffering psychological breakdowns. The last reported incidence was at the Utopiales Festival International of Fantastic Film, France, where a young woman in the audience required hospitalization, but is ok now. Yet with all these fantastic audience reactions, not one distributor would agree to take on this film… unless the movie underwent massive cuts and reediting to make it… nicer.

Stuart Gordon rides to the rescue again. He screens the movie for long time associate Charles Band who loves what he sees. Charles Band agrees to distribute the movie under his new label, Lunatic Releasing with two conditions, not a frame will cut, the film will have to go out unrated, and for reasons legal and technical, the new title is, DEADLY END. In stores and everywhere, 1/29/08.

Thnaks: http://www.rushprnews.com

After making Turkey’s first and most-watched horror film, “D@bbe,” director Hasan Karacadag( has achieved another first in Turkey by making the country’s first alien movie. Shot with a bigger budget compared to his previous horror flick, “Semum” will hit theaters on Feb. 8 at 150 locations across Turkey.

Karacadag( argues that he tried to create a model of a Turco-Islamic horror film and that he would make the world recognize this model, of which he sees “Semum” as the first example. “Semum” stars Ayça I.nci, Burak Hakk? and Cem Kurtog(lu in the lead roles and recounts the true story of a woman who lives in I.zmir. “Semum” will be compared with “The Exorcist” and I.nci will be compared with Linda Blair, the director says, noting that the Turkish horror films made so far have been far from satisfactory.

Hollywood’s Justin R. Durban composed the film’s soundtrack; its poster was designed by a Japanese group called K2 and the credit for all the visual effects goes to the Turkish effects company BDR Digital. Abdullah Aymaz was consulted on the religious subject matter in the film. Today’s Zaman spoke with Karacadag( about the criticism directed at his debut film “D@bbe” and his newest production “Semum.”

Read More Here

Lockheart Filmes, in association with V2 Cinema, is set to begin principal photography of the Brazilian horror-fantasy feature BEYOND THE GRAVE this February 14. Writer/director Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro (who’s also producing with Isidoro B. Guggiana) and crew are ready to shoot in the city of Porto Alegre. BEYOND THE GRAVE (aka PORTO DOS MORTOS) stars Rafael Tombini as the vengeful cop Lockheart who pursues Adam, a possessed serial killer in the wastelands of a dystopic Brazil. Among the highways of a violent world populated by the living dead, the unstoppable policeman will face his demoniac nemesis.

“BEYOND THE GRAVE is very close to an art-house horror film. There is a very personal and mythological universe behind this”, says director Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro. “This is not only a Brazilian take on the zombie genre, this is shaping into something really unexpected, even to us”. The Brazilian filmmaker claims influence from the works of Sergio Leone, François Truffaut, William Friedkin, George A. Romero, Richard Stanley, Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft, among others. “The script is a mix of everything I love about cinema and fantasy”, explains Davi. “It’s a movie made with passion, heart and, a la Alejandro Jodorowsky, balls”.

The genesis of the project came from early 2005 when Davi started its development. “Since then the film has grown in scale and ambition in order to create a much more challenging experience into the horror genre”, says producer Isidoro B. Guggiana. On June 2007, the first teaser trailer was released on the Internet and the crew started the pre-production. “We assembled an enthusiastic and very talented crew in a place where genre cinema almost does not exist, says Isidoro. “The best of both worlds is at hand: a strong screenplay and creative artists that can bring those sights, sounds and words to life”. Among the talents behind the production is the artist/technician André Kapel (“Embodiment of Evil”), head of the makeup and FX department.

Photo by Luciano Amaro Valério. Movie producers Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro and Isidoro B. Guggiana.

5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas. Cinema Image Productions. 1997/2004. Reviewed by Brian Kirst

With the imminent release of their 2007 giallo Darkness Surrounds Roberta (featuring Razor Blade Smile’s Eileen Daly and recent horror film veteran Raine Brown), now seems the appropriate time to reexamine Cinema Image Productions crown jewel, 1997’s highly enjoyable 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas. This film, which was given the deluxe DVD treatment by Cinema Image in 2004, was the recipient of many festival and periodical awards upon its release and contains a deliriously stylistic attitude.

Director and writer Joseph Parda’s tale revolves around errant Bill Streeb’s attempts to locate his brother, famous painter Richard Streeb, after he bloodily disappears one night. Richard’s wife, Gloria, is sure Richard has been murdered after she witnesses his savage attack. Probing (but fairly useless) Inspector Andez is sure that former lovers, Gloria and Bill, have something to do with Richard’s disappearance, though. Of course, nothing is as it seems in Parda’s fluid, nightmare-like imaginings.

Parda takes the best of the giallo and Argento films and rolls them into one friskily bloody batter. There are traces of Opera (visionary death by eyeball), Bird with the Crystal Plumage (witnessing a killer through enclosed glass), Seven Dead in the Cat’s Eye (comically useless detective) and many others of that genre. Parda also references the delusional humor of Roger Corman’s original Bucket of Blood. At the film’s midway point, a modern day Beat poet spells out the film’s catchy title in his infectious rhyme and winds up signaling the truly surrealistic beginning of Bill’s journey. There is a hallucinogenic operation sequence in which a grue strewn painting is retrieved from Bill’s stomach and a humorous childhood flashback which pictures lengthy actor Joseph Zaso as his character as a young child. Just like many Italian horror pictures, Parda also throws out multiple red herrings and introduces characters that have little to do with the actual plot - marking 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas as both a loving homage and a bizarrely enjoyable journey in its own right.

The VHS to DVD transfer contains some jarring features that actually enhance the film’s otherworldly qualities. While the dialogue is perfectly synced, it is so heavenly bombastic that it appears to be happening above the proceedings as opposed to being entwined with them. The soundtrack is also attack mode loud. Both these irregularities work in this project’s favor, though, helping produce a mysterious dreamlike quality. In fact, this unevenness eventually seems like a directing choice when all is said and done.

As Gloria, Liz Haverty gives a completely smoky, sexually alluring performance. She eventually winds up giving giallo queens such as Edwige Fenech and Susan Scott a run for their money. Zaso is also appropriately mysterious and committed (in more ways than one) as Bill. Both are aided by Mony Daevsky’s clinical Richard and Xavier Domingo’s analyzing, differential Andez.

Other perks include a very bloody penultimate gallery slaying and a preponderance of dominating prostitute characters and heroines - a feminine foot in a male’s face is a common, artful occurrence here.

As a final note, Cinema Images’ 2004 outing And Then They Were Dead also takes Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians to 5 Dead’s delirious, dreamlike heights. It isn’t quite as successful, but it does feature an artistically bloody opening with a beautifully fatal femme and a truly delirious and enjoyable performance from Zaso. Lynn Macri also delivers a tart, anguished performance as Zaso’s wife Rebecca (she, alone, may be well worth checking Dead out for) and B movie goddesses Tina Krause and Darian Caine also make appearances here. A twisted, murderous ending also adds to the fun.

www.cinemaimages.net

Six twenty-something characters are invited for a party by their elementary school classmate Mi-ja (Seo Young-hee, the neurotic landlady from “Jealousy is My Middle Name”), who has been caring for her former teacher Ms. Park (Oh Mi-hee), now infirm and wheelchair-bound. The guests turn out to be a motley crew of losers and basket cases, however.

Worse, each of them bears a serious grudge against Ms. Park. Sun-hee (Lee Ji-hyun, Yeo Gyun-dong’s “La Belle”), traumatized by the teacher’s public taunting of her baby fat, has become addicted to plastic surgery and suffers from bulimia. Park Hyo-jun (”A Dirty Carnival”) ruined his leg while being punished by Ms. Park and had to fold his childhood dream of becoming an ace baseball player. Se-ho (Yeo Hyun-soo, “Holiday”) and Eun-young (Yoo Seor-ah), now a couple, is still struggling against the memories of insults and put-downs regarding their childhood poverty.

More Here

Eerie Horror Film Festival announces Call for Entries for independent horror, science fiction & suspense themed movies, screenplays and video games. Annual event features celebrity guests, an Expo and workshops. Special categories for young filmmakers, screenwriters and video game developers ages 10 - 17.

Erie, PA, January 20, 2008 –(PR.com)– The 5th Annual Eerie Horror Film Festival has officially opened its call for entries and is currently seeking submissions from all over the world.

Submission categories for the 2008 competition includes Horror Feature, Horror Short, Science Fiction Feature, Science Fiction Short, Suspense Feature, Suspense Short, Student (10 - 17 yrs of age) Horror Feature; Student (10 - 17 yrs of age) Horror Short; Short Length Screenplay; Feature Length Screenplay; Student (10 - 17 yrs of age) Feature Length Screenplay; Student (10 - 17 yrs of age) Short Length Screenplay, Video Game Concept, Video Game in Production and Completed Video Game.

Since 2004 the Eerie Horror Film Festival has screened over 200 films and has featured appearances by Jason Mewes (Clerks), Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog), Dee Wallace Stone (Cujo), Tony Todd (Candyman), Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn), PJ Soles (Halloween), Gunnar Hansen (Texas Chainsaw Massacre ‘74), Lloyd Kaufman (Troma), Eugene Clark (Land of the Dead), Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead), Lynn Lowry (The Crazies), Tom Atkins (Halloween III), Charles Cyphers (Halloween), Nancy Loomis(Halloween), Alex Vincent (Child’s Play), Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (The Omen ‘06), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), and many, many more.

The internationally recognized event also features an Expo area featuring dozens of vendors and workshops for visiting filmmakers and screenwriters.

“The 2008 Eerie Horror Film Festival will feature even more special guests and vendors”, promises Festival President, Greg Ropp, “expect a lot of surprises this season.”

The Annual Festival and Expo will take place in October of 2008, in Erie, Pa.

For information on how to enter a film, screenplay or video game project, visit their official website: www.eeriehorrorfilmfestival.com