People say the 1990s was the worst decade for horror films. I wouldn’t use the word “worst,” but I will say out of all the recent decades it wasn’t the strongest. Calling it the worst just makes it sound like all the films from that decade are terrible, but ‘90s horror is special to me. I love it and I always will.
If you’ve seen The Road or Season Four of The Walking Dead, you’ve seen more artfully realized versions of the film Refuge. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth.
Andrew Robertson’s film peeks into the lives of some of the survivors of a bacterial plague that has wiped out much of humanity. Unfortunately, we find this out in a post-credits montage that is reminiscent of 28 Days Later or The Bay but not as clever. In fact, we’ve all seen so many zombie/post-apocalypse movies at this point it would have been more compelling to just show that kind of footage without explaining what actually happened. It would have given the movie a much-needed bit of creepy mystery.
Why Horror? is for every person who’s been mocked for loving everything encompassed within horror film fandom. Horror writer and hardcore fan Tal Zimerman is the subject of this documentary from Nicholas Kleiman and Rob Lindsay that explores why people are drawn to one of the more maligned, misunderstood genres in popular culture.
Our very own Brad Henderson has been unusually busy these last few months. When he’s not writing reviews for Popshifter, he’s also working on movie scripts, and producing a podcast called The ScreamCast, along with Sean Duregger and Brian Saur (a.k.a. Bob Freelander and Rupert Pupkin).
Although The Screamcast was initially created to review horror and other genre releases from Shout Factory, they have expanded the scope to cover releases from labels like Synapse, Vinegar Syndrome, Cult Epics, and others. The podcast also includes special guests, celebrity interviews, top ten lists, and more.
Now on Episode 36, The ScreamCast is something you really should be listening to. We’ll be updating you every time they put up a new podcast, so stay tuned!
Here are the most recent episodes:
Episode 36 – Soultangler (1987): Podcast includes Joe and Zach from Bleeding Skull Video who brought the movie back from VHS hell.
Episode 35 – Nekromantik (1987): Podcast includes Nico B. founder of Cult Epics.
(Check out Brad’s Popshifter review of Nekromantik, too.)
If you were lucky enough to catch After when it screened at Toronto After Dark Film Festival in 2012 (review), you will be excited about this news. Director Ryan Smith has new short film he’s working on called Reverse. It stars Mike Vogel (Cloverfield, Bates Motel, Under the Dome) and the pair has started a Kickstarter to help fund it. The executive producers on Reverse are Chad and Carey Hayes, who recently brought us The Conjuring and are currently working on San Andreas with Dwayne “The Rock” Johsnson.
So what is Reverse about?
Ambitious. That is the word that constantly comes to mind when trying to describe President Wolfman.
What do you say when a film doesn’t have any redeeming qualities at all? Ugh.
I first discovered Brian Trenchard-Smith when I saw Night Of The Demons 2. I didn’t know it was him at that time but I later recognized his name when I saw a film called Turkey Shoot (a.k.a. Escape 2000) and since then his name has been imbedded into my mind.
Autumn Blood is another film that suffers from a silly looking cover and not enough publicity. I probably wouldn’t have heard of Autumn Blood if I didn’t receive a review copy and an email stating what it was. The plot sounded OK and it does have Peter Stormare who is great even in bad movies. I knew I would be entertained at least.
Holy crap.
Most of the movies screened at the Knoxville Horror Film Fest are now available for either VOD rental or disc purchase. They weren’t at the time, though; technology moves quickly, and so does consumable product. Here’s a quick rundown of what was shown, with a humbly presented opinion on each.