11 May 2013

The First Poster is released for the Horror Thriller "A House is Not a Home" - PRESS RELEASE




                                                         A House Is Not A Home

                                                       “Leaving is Not an Option!”



DeInstitutionalized LLC has released the first poster for their horror thriller A House is Not a Home. This horror title was shot in Simi Valley, California during December of 2012. The film notably stars Gerald Webb (Layover, “True Blood”) Bill Cobbs (Night at the Museum), Eddie Steeples (“My Name is Earl”) and Richard Grieco (“21 Jump Street”). And, A House is Not a Home will complete post-production in June of this year.

The first graphic for the feature warns of an entity inside this new home. The Williams’ Family have recently moved into their residence, but something is not right. Shapes and shadows move in the home, late at night and a presence is stalking this family. That presence is hinted at, if viewers look closely at the movie poster for A House is Not a Home.

Horror fans will not have to wait long to see the film. Once production is complete, A House is Not a Home will seek distribution across multiple formats. Specific release details will be announced shortly through production houses DeInstitutionalized LLC, Transformation Films and Tiki Terrors LLC.

Director: Christopher Ray.

Cast: Gerald Webb, Bill Cobbs, Eddie Steeples, Diahnna Nicole Baxter, Aurora Perrineau, Melvin Gregg and Richard Grieco.

Producers: Gerald Webb and Christopher Ray

Co-producer: Richard Grieco.


The trailer for A House is Not a Home is available here on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dE9o6CpnMY&feature=youtu.be



10 May 2013

Indie Feature Competes with Hollywood for Crowdfunding Dollars

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

You’ve seen the headlines this week about Zack Braff’s crowdfunding campaign that was launched on April 24 and has already surpassed its $2 million goal. You’ve heard about Kristen Bell and her successful crowdfunding campaign that raised almost 3 times it’s $2 million goal for a movie version of her CW TV show Veronica Mars.

But have you heard of Silent Retreat, the $50,000 independent horror movie that’s trying to raise $30,000 to finish the post-production for their indie film on the crowd funding site indiegogo.com?

Silent Retreat’s crowdfunding campaign was launched on the same day as Braff’s campaign, which has sparked a passionate debate on social media sites such as Twitter. Fueled by anger about big Hollywood names who have access and money that the average independent artist doesn’t, crowdfunding proponents seem to feel that Braff’s campaign goes against what crowdfunding was created to accomplish. 

 
At its heart crowdfunding was created to support big ideas and big visions from companies who only have a little bit of money. It's about the global community banding together to support projects that would never have the chance to succeed without the help of an invested group of supporters. Crowdfunded projects have given independent artists a chance to have their voice heard in a world where the louder and popular voices seem to always win. It's about putting the indie back into film to create movies that stem from passion and inspiration, movies like Silent Retreat. 


Silent Retreat is director Tricia Lee's second genre feature film. In December 2011, she attended a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Her writing partner Corey Brown told her "think of a thriller while you're there". And when the kernel from Tricia's experience was fertilized with the creative juices from Corey's mind, so Silent Retreat was born.

Logline:

In this quiet horror film, Janey is sent to a silent meditation retreat in the middle of the woods for rehabilitation, only to discover that the men who run it are brainwashing women to be quiet and submissive, and if she breaks the rules, she'll discover what lurks beyond the trees ... 


The indie film company A Film Monkey Production is producing this small feature film with the bare bones investment that was raised from Tricia’s family. The dedicated cast and crew came out and worked crazy long hours, overnight, in the cold, for free to get the movie in the can. Now, they are seeking $30,000 to finish post-production through a crowdfunding campaign at indiegogo.com/projects/silent-retreat to send the film to distributors and film festivals and find its audience. 



Your contribution will help them share the theme of this movie with audiences around the world. This isn't just a bloody, scary creature feature. It's about women letting their voices be heard and standing up because they matter in this world.

“If making this movie has taught me anything, it's that everyone needs to do whatever they can to let their voice be heard. That's why we're doing everything we can to finish Silent Retreat. It's time to give the voices back to indie films. Hollywood may have the loudest crowdfunding campaigns, but we've got the most passionate.” Lee says.

Producer / Director: Tricia Lee
Co-Producer: Chris Agoston
Writer: Corey Brown
Line Producer: Chris Luckhardt
Director of Photography: Christian Bielz
Production Designer: Jennifer Morden
SPFX Designer: Shaun Hunter
Editor: Mike Reisacher
Cast: Chelsea Jenish, Sofia Banzhaf, Robert Nolan

The Garden of Sin Launches Kickstarter Campaign


Like reading, you say?? Like reading horror even more?? Well then The Garden of Sin is a book for you!!

From the press release:

The Garden of Sin is a brand new Horror themed book that just launched this week on Kickstarter! Its a Fully Illustrated, poetic, story book, inspired by the seven deadly sins, very dark, and very scary! It is as elegant as it is grotesque! And could be veiwed as a re-telling of Dante's Inferno.

Heres a direct link to the video Teaser Trailer below, Its pretty darn creepy!!!! Definitely worth watching!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUzTRs7A20U

And here is a direct link to the Kickstarter campaign, where you will find all the information/photos/anything you may want to know in regards to "The Garden of Sin"

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/98793838/the-garden-of-sin?ref=live

Over 3 years of hard work has gone into making this project happen so check it out and give them hand!!

Dose of Reality 2013 - REVIEW

I've closed a few bars down in my day but never worked in one, but I can imagine the kind of weird shit that goes down in the wee hours of the morning. Drunk people offering up all kinds of stuff for one more drink. People stumbling over each other to get out the door. Stalkers following hot chicks/dudes out to the parking lot hoping for a little something, something. I would assume, finding a drunk chick passed out in the bathroom stall is par for the course in that business.

It's closing time when a cocky bar manager Tony (Rick Ravanello) and his bartender Matt (Ryan Merriman) find Rose (Fairuza Balk) bloodied and unconscious in the bathroom of a bar. When she awakens, they are plunged into a stirring evening of dangerous role playing in an ever-escalating game of cat and mouse that forces them to face the dark shadows of themselves. As we begin to piece together the elaborate puzzle, nothing is what it seems. However, one thing is for certain: this Rose is full of thorns.

Let me go ahead and make a disclaimer here, this is not by any means a horror film. I'm not even sure it can be classified as a thriller. It's more of a slow paced mystery, in my opinion. The acting, as you can imagine is done rather well. You have a main cast that consists of people who have a strong foot hold in the horror genre. Balk (The Craft) plays the seriously damaged rape victim very well. Aside from the obvious damage inflicted this night, she most assuredly has some demons in her closet that would make any man run away in fear. Ravanello (The Cave) seems almost too good as the womanizing coke head... kinda makes one wonder. Just a little. Merriman (Final Destination 3) is all grown up and mature, well sort of, in this one. He puts on a great performance as well. That's about where it ends for me. Proof, once again, that great acting still can't save a film.

The slow pace of the film and it's ending is what kills it for me. There are so many things that could've been done to make it more interesting but it seemed like every time it was almost there, it all came crashing in on itself. The twist ending, while not one I saw coming, seemed lazily done and honestly a bit disappointing. Writer/director Christopher Glatis puts forth a valiant effort for someone still new to the game but I just don't feel he stretched far enough. I'd say if you're a fan of the cast, give it a go but don't say I didn't warn you about that ending. Hard core horror/thriller fans should probably stay far far away from this one.

07 May 2013

Desperate Dolls: Horror Hollywood 1968 to Start Filming in August - PRESS RELEASE


If you click every single link in one email this year, please let it be this one! Lots of fantastic stuff going on and -- absolutely -- we want you involved!

DESPERATE DOLLS, THE MOVIE!
That's correct -- Darren Callahan is in pre-production on a new feature length horror film, Desperate Dolls. Scheduled to shoot in August 2013, Desperate Dolls is a female-led story of Hollywood doom set in 1968. Full of wit, violence, and sex, it is sure to entertain.

A portion of the film's budget is to come from crowd-funding via Indiegogo. And you can help! You can be a part of this! In the next several weeks, look for an official campaign launch, special rewards, teaser videos, behind-the-scenes documentaries, posters, and production photos!

Please visit http://desperatedollsmovie.com for more information, including links to the production's Facebook and Twitter accounts!

If you'd like to know more about crowd-funding, Darren Callahan actually wrote an article about it for this cool magazine:

http://omnibucket.com/news/crowdsourcing-horror-darren-callahan


WITNESS TO AN ACCIDENT, THE PLAY!
Darren Callahan's Witness to an Accident will have two performances as part of the high-profile Dionysos Cup Festival of New Play, sponsored by Polarity Ensemble Theatre of Chicago. Shows are Saturday May 18th and Thursday May 23rd. Both shows at 7:30 PM. For tickets, please use this link:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/361444

Great cast on this one and one scary play. If you missed the short run last autumn (or even if you saw it!), this will be a fun, entertaining night of Hollywood self-destruction and horror.

If you'd like to read about the play, the festival, and other details, please check out this nice article on Darren Callahan.

http://blog.petheatre.com/?p=1548

Aurelio Voltaire to Direct Film Version of His Comic Book OH MY GOTH!

(May 7th, 2013 – NYC, New York) - On behalf of musician and filmmaker Aurelio Voltaire, we’re excited to announce his upcoming full-length film as director: an adaptation of his comic book OH MY GOTH! featuring his musical talents.

Synopsis:

When the reanimated skeletons of Necronus, a cemetery planet across the dark expanse of space, decide they need Earth paved into a landing strip, they send, possibly the worst of their agents to undertake the task. Arrogant, pompous and not the brightest laser in the arsenal, Heironymous Poshe , takes on human form and travels to Earth aboard his Black Spire, a space ship that could easily pass for a giant, black cathedral. However, Poshe has plans of his own, namely to avoid a desk job on the Necrid home world and live a life of leisure in a fixed orbit above Earth. For centuries, Poshe (along with his robot slave and an imprisoned midget) has avoided his prime directive. Instead he has spent his time abducting Earth women, celebrities and bands for a non-stop, nightly party above the Black Spire.

But Poshe’s days of care-free, hot-babe abduction are coming to an end. Tired of Poshe’s lack or results, Lord Krom Wrath, supreme ruler of the Necrus, launches a full scale invasion of Earth. Poshe bands with the only people on Earth who understand his cause (a group of Goth kids, a cadre of ninja priests and a small army of Hasidic Rabbis- ironically, all of them people who wear all black!) to repel the oncoming armada of Necrid ships. The final space battle is the “Jews in Space” Mel Brooks promised us and never delivered!

After performing worldwide onstage, directing commercially, and following the film festival circuit with his stop-motion animated films, Voltaire will now direct a feature film based on his own comic work. The feature version of OH MY GOTH! will have that strange brand of dark comedy and music that he has been performing at Goth clubs and sci-fi and horror conventions across the land.
“It was time to finally unite my storytelling, my music, my twisted humor and filmmaking sensibilities all into one project,” says Voltaire. “It has all the things I love: monsters, rock and roll, comedy and sex mashed into a giant ball of awesome.”

Producer Keryn Thompson is very excited about the content: “There's loud music. There's scantily clad girls. There's Satan,” she says.

James Morgart, also producing, says that he joined the project because “Voltaire’s material stretches across so many genres that he sort of encompasses every bastardized sub-genre to be associated with the Gothic tradition since Walpole's Castle of Otranto. His plans for this film are to give his fans all of their favorite aspects of his work: music, animation, and subversively witty humor.”

OH MY GOTH! the film is currently in pre-production and will shoot in the New York City metro area.

Genre: Horror/Musical
Directed by: Aurelio Voltaire
Screenplay by: Aurelio Voltaire, Based on his comic book OH MY GOTH!
Produced by: James Morgart, Keryn Thompson

About Voltaire

Aurelio Voltaire is a media personality and respected authority on all things Gothic, Horror, Sci-fi, Steampunk and involving “geek” culture. He is often referred to as a modern day renaissance man having achieved success in the fields of animation, music, comics, books and toys.

Voltaire’s career began in the 1980s as a stop-motion animator and director, creating some of the award-winning, classic MTV and SyFy channel station IDs. He worked in television, animating and directing commercials for nearly twenty years when he realized it was time for him to tell his own stories. Finding comic books to be a vastly more economical tool than feature films Voltaire told his first epic tale, “Chi-chian” in comic book form. This dark, Cinderella story set in Manhattan’s future, was published and led to a 14-episode animated web series directed by Voltaire for the SyFy channel’s website. His success in comic books also led to several underground hits including the comic book seriesOh My Goth!, Human Suck! and most recently Deady. The latter featured collaborations with some of the biggest names in horror and comics including Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, James O'Barr, Roman Dirge, Gris Grimly and many others. It also spawned a long list of toys including plush toys for Six Flags, Hot Wheels cars for the Japanese market and over a dozen vinyl toy releases including collaborations with Disney and Skelanimals.

In yet another career swerve, 1995 saw Voltaire took the stage at a New York City club where he launched his music career. His songs are a strange brew of murder ballads, tongue-in-cheek exercises in the macabre with just enough bawdy Star Trek and Star Wars songs to keep convention audiences rolling in the aisles. Many in the mainstream know Voltaire as the writer and performer of the songs Brains! and Land of the Dead from the Cartoon Network show, The Grim Adventures of Billy And Mandy. Almost constantly on tour, he has played his music around the world and released eleven full length CDs to date.

Voltaire also wrote the popular books What is Goth? and Paint it Black: a Guide to Gothic Homemaking (Weiser Books) and has appeared on numerous television shows and documentaries as an authority on Goth, Horror and Steampunk. Appearances include Fox News, Biography, MTV News, Fearnet, IFC, PBS and others.

When not touring, writing books or designing toys, Voltaire teaches stop-motion animation at the School of Visual arts and continues to make short films. His “Chimerascope” series of stop-motion shorts are perennial film festival favorites. The five shorts have won a combined 31 awards and feature the voice talents of Deborah Harry, Richard Butler, Gerard Way, Gary Numan and Danny Elfman.

More on Aurelio Voltaire can be found on his official website: www.voltaire.net

Simple Mind 2012 - REVIEW

This is probably gonna be my one and only chance to write the synopsis this way so here goes... Bob (Timothy J. Cox) is not happy. Bob has fantasies of traumatizing and murdering women. Bob goes to see a therapist. Bob tells his therapist about a woman named Samantha (Kristi McCarson). Bob wants to kill Samantha. Bob is one sick fucker. Okay, okay... even I'm annoyed now.

Director Phil Newsom managed to pull quite a few rabbits out of his hat with this one. He plays off the tired story of a depraved individual talking things out with his therapist but is able to add a little something something to it that makes you sit up and pay attention. A nice little twist at the end puts a giant bow on this little gem.

Cox did a fantastic job with his role as the sadistic Bob who I'm still not sure knows quite where he's at in life. The sound was bit echoey for me... maybe not echoey but hollow and since the film is mostly "told" to the audience that's kind of a major part. However, it wasn't distracting enough to take away from the rest of the film. Newsom definitely knows how to tell a complete story which is not easy to do in 7:23. Check it out and you'll see what I mean.