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Shadow Fish Pictures Presents A Camping Horror Movie

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An Australian Independent Horror Feature titled “Ashburn Waters” Is In Production!

BACKGROUND: Ashburn Waters was born on a rainy Easter Weekend in 2011 when David Pether and Damian Hussey were camping out in northern New South Wales. Left alone in the tent for a brief period, David witnessed a strong wind shake the tent, causing a lantern that was hanging from the ceiling to sway violently, casting creepy shadows all over the interior. That’s when the idea came to David to make a camping horror film. Inspired by the likes of Jason Voorhees’ Friday the 13th series and Paranormal Activity the team shot a teaser, which was well received, and will now set the scene for the feature.

PLOT: When a string of unexplained deaths occur at Ashburn Waters Campgrounds, the facility is forced to close its gates for the safety of the public. Months later, authorities still have no leads, and the campgrounds lay dormant. Until Easter weekend, when a group of campers sneak in, as they failed to book a site anywhere else on Australia’s busiest camping weekend. Among them is Brett, a young man going through a hard time in his life. The source of which is his now ex-girlfriend Scout, who brought along her new love interest just to rub it in his face. And to make matters worse, something is killing off his friends, one by one. What is killing the campers at Ashburn Waters?

STUDIO: Shadow Fish Pictures is an independent Australian film production company created in 2007 by David (Fish) Pether. Originally starting out with short films, some of which have been recognized for originality and awarded for their Direction, the company has transformed and comprised itself of a dedicated team with the common dream of making feature films for a living. We want to tell stories that people can relate to and remember. We want the film industry to happily open their arms to good Australian films, ones that the entire world can enjoy. We have a great team of passionate individuals, who are always giving their all to help a project come to life. We are a family, we work hard, and we always deliver. We love movies, and we just want to share our stories with the world for as long as we possibly can.

IN NEED: Please help make Ashburn Waters a reality by contributing to the campaign!

A Vampire Feature “The Ecstasy Of Isabel Mann” Needs Your Help

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The Ecstasy Of Isabel Mann is slated to be a violent teen vampire feature film from the award winning production company October Eleven Pictures out of Dublin, Ireland.

Jason Figgis (Director) has worked on projects such as;  Sky One, Sky Arts, the Discovery Channel amongst others, and has distributed Hollywood Studio, Lionsgate films.

The Ecstasy Of Isabel Mann is campaigning for donations and is very important at succeeding in the goal to get this incredible vampire tale made. Everyone involved in this feature film project has worked hard over several months preparing the film in drama workshops with the teenagers involved in the cast as well as a huge amount of time and effort on set from all involved to realize this exciting feature film.

DONATIONS and INFORMATION LINK.

Anyone who contributes to this project will help them realize the end result of this film to the highest standard possible. They believe they have a very exciting take on the Vampire genre…with no holds barred in terms of the performances from the teen and adult cast alike. This is like a Socio-realist vampire film but with plenty of gore!!!

The House Of Evil From Veteran Filmmaker Max Cerchi

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The House Of Evil is looking for funding to get the project off the ground. Visit IndieGoGo and contribute what you can to get this unbelievably freaky horror movie underway.

SUMMARY: To be directed by director/producer Massimiliano Cerchi (Hellinger, Holy Terror, Carnage Road & many others).

Dark Mountain Pictures flagship production THE HOUSE OF EVIL will be a gore combination of Haunted House movie and a Demonic Slasher film.

Shot in 3D on location in Colombia, South America with Practical SFX provided by Steve at GutRot Effects & Matt Valentine (SyFy’s Face/Off).

Featuring Camden Toy (Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel) as Zoltar & Starring Elske McCain (Jessika Rabid, Gimme Skelter, Killer Biker Chicks) as the voluptuous female lead! Introducing a talented newcomer, Brik Baker.

Original soundtrack will be created by the well known veteran horror composer, Mars Homeworld.

NOT a remake, NOT an English version of a foreign film, NOT a short film & in spectacular 3D!

SYNOPSIS: What do you do when your dream home becomes an absolute nightmare? Behind every window lies a shadow, behind every door lies a secret. Between reality and the paranormal, deep within the foundations of the most seemingly placid facade lies the intermediate gates to Hell…. Meet Brik and Melanie, a couple in love, out to build a bright future for themselves. Their newly bought villa where their affections should bloom…. now becomes… their tomb…. From day one since they entered the house, the doomed sweethearts notice something terribly wrong; within their diabolical domicile, within each other. Seeking desperate aid from a renowned occultist, they hope to free themselves from the damnation evolving and surrounding, seeking to devour them like a ravenous, bloodlusting beast. How do you escape from something you’ve already become a part of since the day you moved in? Behind every corner lies a shattering truth, down every staircase exists an evil so shocking your blood will run cold as you witness one of the most shocking films ever to grace the screen…. Horror Master Massimiliano Cerchi (Hellinger, Carnage Road, Holy Terror,Hellbilly,etc..), Scream Empress Elske McCain (Jessicka Rabid, Splatter Movie, Incest Death Squad), Veteran Horror Nemesis Camden Toy (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Chromeskull: Laid To Rest 2, The Vortex) and newcomer Brik Baker have designed the definitive Gothic horror masterpiece of 2013 and it turns the tables on every haunted house film you have ever witnessed up til now. You will hear floorboards and walls creak around you. You will feel a demonic presence surround you, and rise from within yourself. You will wake up screaming! This film is best not to be watched… in the dark… because you don’t just watch this film… this film… watches you. House Of Evil 3D… Going to Hell never became so terrifying as going home.

LINKS:

V/H/S Review

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Plot: Hired to steal a rare VHS tape from a secluded house, a group of petty crooks breaks in and discovers a corpse surrounded by TVs and stacks of tapes. Now they must watch each horrific and bizarre video as they search for the correct one.

Review: Is it possible to be immediately turned off of a horror movie you may ask, the answer is yes! And then you know you have to suffer through 2 more hours of atrocious handheld camerawork that looks like it was filmed by a 5-year old. V/H/S is an utter mess from start to finish.

A touch on the story; there are 6 different shorts with an anthology scenario that ties together in one basic theme. The overall concept has a group of annoying, bratty, loud and dorky teens breaking into an apparent abandon home to track down a VHS tape for an unknown perpetrator. While they’re there, they find an abundance of tapes and start to play them when the film breaks away to an approximately 20-minute short which has some strange occurrences and killings.

I must say V/H/S was extremely hard to get through; the camerawork is some of the worst that I have seen in a found footage movie. You have gobs of shakiness, twirliness, out-of-frame shots, dizzying in-and-out focus, and speedily jumbled shots and moreover it never stops! There may be a total of 10 minutes of still footage, and that is only one of the shorts where they are video conferencing via a computer, all the rest is unbearable.

The sound is as pathetic as with the video. Squeals, scratches, tininess, thumps, hollowness are the norm in V/H/S. The filmmakers tried to keep it authentic by having it sound like the dialog was coming from the crappy mikes that are on low-grade video cameras. They nailed that for the most part, but I did notice in several situations they added a touch of background and mood music which blew the whole concept up in smoke.

The thing that ticks me off the most is that some of the shorts in V/H/S had a great story arc and could have been amazing if filmed conventionally. For example; after a night of young male adults partying, this leads them to bringing a strange-looking chick back to their motel room for some gang sex-capades, but this girl turns out to be a sort-of vampire-like beast with super-human powers. There were some excellent practical’s, a throat-slit scene was one of the best I have ever seen shot. Suffice it to say a few highlights don’t make up for the poor choices made to keep this in the stupid cam shots.

Before the ratings and recommendations, I have to point out that the editor did a mind-boggling array of work, not his fault I assume, as the filmmakers wanted it this way, but the VCR tracking lines, fuzziness and constant blinks like a videotape in the uttermost poorest quality, which was NEVER like that in the day as I grew up on VCR’s, both, Betamax and VHS, was, and is, a total bummer.

On concluding V/H/S; it is one to dismiss as if you never heard about it. You can get it on VOD or Streaming if you so desire for $9.99 with a DVD date coming out later this year. Believe you me, if this is the way horror movies continue to be filmed, I just might be throwing up petitions and sending them out to studios to stop making films in this style. It does not make it feel more real, PERIOD! Get off the Paranormal Activity bandwagon and make HD movies, who the hell wants to watch the poorest of video, balls-low VHS quality in these days of time when we have 1080p High-Def, and 4k right around the corner!

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Hate Crime Review

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Hate Crime Cover PosterMovie: Hate Crime
Year: 2012
Studio: Psykik Junky Pictures
Director: James Cullen Bressack
Stars: Jody Barton, Nicholas Clark, Debbie Diesel
Language: English
Length: 73 Minutes
Sub-Genre: Found Footage, Torture, Thriller

 

Plot: A family is held hostage by sadistic home intruders.

Review: I want to elaborate somewhat on the story as very little is stated on the wide range of horror websites that have summaries. So here goes;  A Jewish middle class family of 5 is celebrating a birthday and Dad always films these special occasions. At the point they were about to sing Happy Birthday there was a loud noise. The father ran to see what it was and 4 masked, swastika tattooed men had gotten into the house, proceeded to gather all the family members, tie them up, degrade and do unimaginable acts of violence. This turns out to be a terrorizing brutal night, a families worst nightmare.

The movie  has a very simple concept, a middle class family is held against there will in their home by 4 masked men and brutally tortured by these Hitler loving racist lunatics. Which is where the movie gets it title Hate Crime.

For starters the film is entirely handheld shaky camerawork which was a turn off immediately! Someone, anyone please tell me why so many directors and film writers are going in this direction????? I absolutely hate the shaky cam. Maybe they think that it adds a sort of realism or makes you feel as though you are in the moment with the actual events that are taking place….hmm….NO I DON’T THINK SO!!

It seems as though most of the movies that go in this direction the characters end up doing some brainless and moronic actions! Picture this "your filming a family gathering to celebrate your son’s birthday when all at once 4 masked men barge into your home wielding guns and knives, I would think that your first instinct would be to drop the fucking camera and try to protect your family, not run and hide under the bed while still filming." It’s actions such as this that really irritates me and alienates me from the story right from the get go.

Some other weak aspects of this movie would be the physical violence, like some scuffles with punches that were clearly obvious misses and if you’re going to commit an act of violent sexual nature then make sure the underwear is off or at least down on the person being violated. Plus, there is no soundtrack!! If this would of had some chilling, eerie music playing in the background in parts it would of boosted my rating for sure!

The gore in this movie is very minimal and the actual acts producing this were shied away from. There are gun shot wounds but no blood. The acting is split across the board in my opinion. Some were convincing in there character roles and others were just blatantly substandard. The men who played the intruders were actually pretty good and they had some hot bodies….lol, as far as the family goes, I was not convinced they feared for their life.

Some good points, oh that’s right there aren’t any……just joking. There is actually a scene that takes place in the opening of the movie in which I was totally shocked, it is something that rarely happens. My jaw dropped and my eyes were bugged out of my head, but they didn’t show it…….oh wow would of loved to see some blood splatter all over there! There also was another potentially gore fest scene in which I would of loved to see what happened but was let down again and only the aftermath was shown. Mr. Bressack had some very good ideas, to me they just fell a little short.

Boy I think this is one movie that could of been a pretty decent horror torture flick if it wasn’t for the handheld shaky camera, have a little more gore, actually show what is taking place and get some actors that are a little more prominent or skilled, who could pull of a convincing part.

I want to thank James Cullen Bressack for giving me the opportunity of watching and reviewing Hate Crime. I think he is a very talented man that has greater things to come.

 

Reviewer: ChrisiFix
Date: 08/29/2012
Rating: 3/10
Recommendation: Avoid		 Trailer: N/A
DVD: N/A
BluRay: N/A
Social Media: Twitter