Teddy 2011 (Short Film) - REVIEW

When we were young we all had a Teddy Bear. Although I don’t think any of my Teddy’s had their mouths sown shut like a scarecrow. Reason for that is, well, it is just a little creepy. If anyone out there did that as a child or in their 20’s well I would like to know so I can make sure not to make friends with you!

Set in the winter of 1996, Teddy begins with an old man stopping to fix his broken down truck. His son (Keegan Bergan) gets out of the truck clutching onto his Teddy Bear, obviously not playing with a full deck as he is well into his 20’s. Seeing a truck coming down the road the old man jumps out in the middle of the road to wave them down. He jumped rather late for a group of people who were drinking and did not see him. He was hit by the truck, splattered blood on the windshield and he was dead. The group jump out of the truck to see what they have done. Clay (Mike Golz) is the first to speak up since he was the one driving and also still holding a beer. He insists he is not taking the fall since they were all drinking. Aaron (Kevin Sommerfield) speaks up to call the police but is sharply shot down my Clay and Aaron conforms because he is kind of a wuss. On Clays command they all roll the old man in the woods so they can get on with their vacation and set up their camping gear down the road. All this is happening while the old man’s son watches still hold his Teddy Bear. Later on that night while Clay is still drinking profusely, they are all sitting around a campfire. Clay and his girlfriend Dana (Dana Terpinas), who is pregnant (with the assholes baby), retreat to their tent to have some hot sex in the woods. I mean what would a short film be without a sex scene. This leaves Aaron and his sister Jenny (Nikita Vora) by the fire. Jenny trails off to go get blankets from the truck leaving her wimp brother by the fire. A man appears behind him with a ski mask and the mouth of it sown like his Teddy Bear and you will never believe what happens next.

As a throwback to the 80’s slasher craze, the movie was directed to the “T” for a slasher movie. I am a huge slasher fan myself it was a fun movie to watch. The acting is mediocre. The characters were very well defined though. Clay was the tough, beer drinker that was really hard to like and you were just thrilled that he died. Aaron was a wimpy, weak willed adult who still hung out with his sister instead of a girlfriend which you can assume he has never had. Dana is the slut who likes jerks like Clay to boss her around and give her some “Pourage”. If you don’t know what that means, after you watch this you will know what that means. Jenny, however, is really not defined.

I wish more slasher throwbacks were out there. I don’t even know why the slasher genre died. It was great, how the hell could a horror fan get bored of a maniac wondering around killing people? Teddy did incorporate what is essential in a slasher, a scary looking crazy man with a mask of some sort on. There is a simple formula and this movie followed it on the dot. Predictable at times, still a bundle of fun. Watch out when you watch it…. it is “beary” scary!

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Reviewed by: J.R. Watkins

Kodie 2010 - REVIEW

Kodie was the final film shown on opening night at the 2nd annual DOA Blood Bath Film Festival so there was a lot of build up. As we were walking around we overheard most of the crowd saying this was the film they were anticipating the most. Of course with all the buzz, we began to get more and more jazzed about it. It's a hard thing being a reviewer sometimes. Especially when it comes to Indie films because you know that these people are probably the hardest working filmmakers out there. They literally dump their heart and soul into each and every project.

David (Jayson Champion) a paranormal investigator, has come to a point in his life where everything he cares about is being ripped away in domestic turmoil. He soon finds himself and his team caught in a world of an enraged murderous little girl named Kodie (Jennifer Stone), in the form of a Teddy bear. Set forth by a witches curse, she rips, eats, dismembers and lays waste to the abusive hearts of the town, leaving them in a pool of red chaos and mangled corpses. Now they must free themselves from the torment of Kodie's ruthless brutal Hell. (Written by Abel Berry)

And this is where it gets hard, on one hand I know that each one of these films were made with little to no funding. On the other hand, I also feel that it doesn't always take an ass load of money to make a great film. I don't want to condemn this film or the filmmaker. I'm not here to make anyone feel like shit. But I'm also not going to adjust my opinion based on the fact that I had a conversation with someone in it. It wouldn't be fair to them or to my readers (yes, I have readers :p).

I would've liked to have seen some further exploration on David's struggle to keep his life from falling apart. That would've connected me more to his character. Instead what we got was a shot of him drowning his sorrows in a bottle while holding a picture of his kid. Then a brief but heated phone conversation with his ex. Digging into that a little deeper would've made his character seem more real.

Another thing that bothered me is that I wasn't sure if they were really going for a comedic feel or not. It was hard to distinguish between what was intentionally funny and what wasn't. Any funny line or scene that came along seemed forced and awkward. For example when David's character was having a beer with Jasper (Abel Berry) there was a good 30 seconds where they just uncomfortably stared at each other. I guess it's entirely possible that it was done on purpose but I felt uneasy just watching it.

In a nut shell, I didn't think the film was great but I do think that Abel Berry is a very talented filmmaker and given the right tools, could really go places. I applaud anyone who has the skill and ambition to bring their vision to life. I wish him luck and look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.