Indie Spotlight

2014/08/17 18:24:00 +00:00 | Tamika Jones

We're back with another edition of the Indie Spotlight, highlighting recent independent horror news sent our way. Today's feature includes a trailer and release details for Sledge, Cam2Cam, and Night Guards, a review of Hungerford, plus more below:

Sledge Trailer and Release Date Announced: "He didn’t drown. He didn’t burn. He’s just a psychopath with a sledgehammer.

Sledge, a ‘bloody’ good horror-comedy in the tradition of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and Shaun of the Dead, premieres on VOD September 2nd and DVD on October 7th.

A spoof of the horror genre, and littered with nods and references to fright flicks of yesteryear, the film fixes on a psychopath who not only believes he’s in a movie and video game but that he’s the hero of this story.

“Sledge is a horror comedy that takes a loving poke to the horror classics we all grew up with”, says writer and co-director Kristian Hanson. “Adam Lynch is an original slasher who loves to talk and make jokes as he viciously mutilates the dumb campers who always return to a site of mass murders for no apparent reason.”

Hanson says Sledge is a movie made for the horror fan like himself.

“The overall idea of Sledge was to make a horror film that I would want to see. I love horror comedy and instead of having the typical brooding giant mute, I went for the funny and psychotic killer who always seems to be shorter than his victims. I wanted to pay homage to the greats like Jason, Freddy, Leatherface and Pinhead but put my own personal spin on it with my type of inappropriate humor. Adam Lynch is a slasher that brings the funny and the body count.”

Sledge is directed by John B Sovie II and Kristian Hanson, and stars Dustin Bowman, Stephanie Tupper, Rachel Cornell and Hanson as Adam Lynch."

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First Details for 3:15am: "Found footage is all the rage in Europe right now! The genre has proved so popular that French film production company Fright House Pictures and producer/director Fabien Delage are releasing the very first French Found Footage Anthology. 8 independent French film makers directed 7 15-minutes films for an hour and 45 minutes of pure fear in the style of "Blair Witch" and V/H/S! 3:15am, inspired by the Devil's Hour, reinvents the Horror Anthology Movie à la française.

Has evil ever crossed your path at 3:15 in the morning? That infamous hour when the Devil comes to life and the doorway to the supernatural world opens. This brand new anthology explores this eerie time of night feared by most horror film fans. Whereas 3:15 is often associated with demonic possession in films and popular culture, those 8 directors have decided to explore different kinds of genres so as to offer a fresh look on a type of cinema supposedly on the decline. But one thing is for sure, 3:15am does not only bring back the Found Footage genre! Time has come to die.

3:15am introduces a new generation of talented indie French film makers.

The Abomination Ring
Directed by Nicolas Delage
Teenagers decide to shoot a film in a forbidden place. During the shooting, they will witness unsettling events. At night, the power goes out and they realize they have brought something into the house.

Beyond Darkness
Directed by Guillaume Creis
As they are visiting a ghost town at night, a group of people unearth something that will change their lives forever.

The Grove
Directed by Fabien Delage
In the USA, two French hikers capture on video their trip through the mountains on the trail of Bigfoot. Flabbergasted by the scariest encounter, the pair gets lost in the forest.

Invasion
Directed by Vincent Lecrocq
A couple is making a sextape in their bedroom. Suddenly, the power goes out. What if they were not alone in their home anymore?

Take Shelter
Directed by David Thillaud
As they are exploring a supposedly haunted orphanage, a ghost hunter crew picks up a signal. When they realize what it is, it's already too late.

The Wandering Soul
Directed by Frédéric Gros & Sabrina Kerrar
A man goes in search of the spirit of his wife, stuck between two worlds, as she was taken by the devil at 3 :15am. For his daughter, he shots in real time a testimony-video which plunges us into his terrible course.

The Woman in the Attic
Directed by Evelyne Phan
A young woman of Chinese descent comes back to meet her family in France for New Year's Eve. It seems that a terrible family secret is tormenting her relatives. She captures their testimonies on tape before being confronted with a living nightmare.

The teams have already started shooting and Fright House Pictures is planning on a DTV release in France and North America in 2015. For French horror cinema, the future looks awesomely grim!"

To stay up to date on 3:15am (3H15), go to the film's Facebook page at: www.frighthousepictures.com

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Cam2Cam Trailer and Release Details: "In this dark and haunting thriller, five Bangkok tourists have gone missing after making online contact with an unknown party. Newly-arrived Allie Westbrook (Tammin Sursok) meets a pair of ex-pats, Michael and Marit, who perform on a provocative interactive website. The dark menace beneath Michael's easy charm and the strange magnetism of the group's leader, Marit, drive Allie to the brink of madness. In a city where foreigners come to re-invent themselves, Allie learns, too late that nothing is what it seems.

In theaters and on VOD nationwide August 22nd.

Experience the daring new film from director Joel Soisson, starring Tammin Sursock ("Pretty Little Liars"), Ben Wiggins, Sarah Bonrepaux, and Jade Tailor."

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President Wolfman DVD Release Details: "Wild Eye Releasing has announced that Mike Davis' President Wolfman will be available to own on DVD August 26 following a wildly successful festival run. Since its premiere at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, President Wolfman has been a favorite of audiences and critics alike, with the Huffington Post applauding the filmmakers for delivering "a candidate both parties can get behind." President Wolfman has won awards around the country, taking home Best Script at the New Orleans Horror Film Festival and Best Feature at both the Aliens to Zombies Film Festival and Atlanta Horror Film Festival.

Meet John Wolfman: politician, single parent and werewolf, a man whose (hairy) hands are definitely full. Not only is he trying to stop his opponents from selling the US to China, he also has to solve a series of grizzly murders in the capitol. Add a crazed mad scientist, Smokey the Bear, a Miss Teen beauty pageant and a race against time to save his eight-year-old son Bobby from a murderous Vice President, and you have a movie that will keep you howling from start to finish.

The DVD release of President Wolfman will exclusively include several short films from director Mike Davis, outtakes, a music video and a highlight reel of the production."

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Varsity Blood Teaser and Release Details: "This football season, Hogeye High’s Warriors and cheerleaders are out for blood. Unfortunately, someone is out for theirs, and they’ll be forced to take one for the team. After the big Halloween football match, the students are joined by an uninvited guest dressed as their high school mascot armed with a bow and arrow, a battle-axe, and an insatiable appetite for butchery. Soon, they find themselves fighting for more than the winning score as terror becomes the name of the game. Featuring “enough inventive kills to keep even the most rabid gorehound happy,” Varsity Blood is “a supremely entertaining slasher rollercoaster” (Hysteria Lives!).

Varsity Blood is directed and written by Jake Helgren (Finding Mr. Wright, Bloody Homecoming) and stars Lexi Giovagnoli (1 Chance 2 Dance, 3 Times a Charm), Wesley Scott (Deep in the Heart), Debbie Rochon (Tromeo and Juliet), Natalie Peyton, Blair Jackson, and Elyse Bigler.

RLJ / Image Entertainment will be releasing Varsity Blood on DVD on August 19th."

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Night Guards Casting Details and Trailer: "Two night guards, belonging to different generations and different epochs, this, as every other night are repeating what they did while they were alive. Generation gap in the other world becomes evident, too. And everything would be so endless if, this night, two live people didn't enter that world of theirs.

Cast list:
Starring: Dragan Marinkovic, Stevan Matic, Viktorija Arsic, Marko Vuckovic
Directed and written by: Marko Marinkovic
Camera/VFX: Andrija and Mladen Tomasevic
Music by: Midnight Beatz."

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Revelation Trail Trailer Released: "In the late nineteenth-century, a holy man known only as the Preacher (Daniel Van Thomas) confronts unspeakable evil as a gruesome power consumes the frontier. Standing between ruin and salvation, he joins forces with the town Marshal (Daniel Britt), a man with his own set of demons, in a savage fight against the undead.

Revelation Trail on DVD from Entertainment One on August 26th.

Bonus Features: Commentary with Daniel Van Thomas, Daniel Britt and Director John Gibson
Life on the Trail: The Story of the Film, Four Behind-the-Scenes and On Location Featurettes
“My Beloved” Revelation Trail Music Video by Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, and Revelation Fail: Bloopers & Outtakes."

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Rose: Time Apart First Details and Trailer: ""Rose: Time Apart" tells the story of the titular Rose, who along with two friends and her brother unwittingly enter the abandoned house at the edge of their street. Once inside, Rose will have to unravel the 30-year-old mystery surrounding the death of Gilda Gudjohnsen and the disappearance of her husband, Dr. Henry Gudjohnsen, in order to get out.

Cellar Door Interactive today announced "Rose: Time Apart", a 3D point and click adventure game that pays homage to 1980s “kids in danger” movies, such as “The Gate”, “Monster Squad” and more.

A demo of the game can already be found on Ouya, but the team behind it wants to give it an extensive overhaul. “We are turning to Kickstarter because we want to release Rose’s full potential,” said Kanaan. “We are extremely dedicated to creating the best possible experience, and for that we need the community’s help.”

Additionally, Cellar Door Interactive teamed up with Corbomite Games to collaborate on the game’s distribution and assist with crowdfunding efforts."

For more information, visit the game’s Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/RoseAdventureGame

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Indie Spotlight Impressions: Hungerford
by Tamika Jones

Movie audiences have been inundated with alien invasion stories documented in a found footage style for what seems like forever at this point, so it is understandable that a touch of fatigue has set. You can only beat a dead horse so many times before it becomes painfully clear that you should move on to the next horse, but Hungerford's director, Drew Casson, managed to find a pulse and run with it.

In Hungerford, a group of friends live in a flat in a small English town. Their nights are spent getting boozy and then trying to recall what happened the next morning. Most of this is recorded by the film's main protaginst, Cowen, who must film his life for the next seven days for a college course project. A lot of the everyday activities of the friends is pretty dull that is until the town is attacked by an alien species.

There are only a handful of key set pieces featured in the film, yet filmmaker Drew Casson, 19, and Jess Cleverly through solid writing managed to find a way to broaden the scope of the alien invasion beyond the group of friends. In order to find and save their kidnapped friends, Cowen and Kipper decided to leave their semi safe flat and venture out. Once in the heart of the city, the survivors take in the carnage the aliens have caused, conveyed through sweeping shots of the city landscape which easily matched what you would see in a film with a bigger budget. The special effects were impressive as well, with the bug-like alien creatures blending in perfectly with each backdrop. Despite Hungerford being an enjoyable film, no film is perfect, and the ending just wasn't very original at all. It felt like too many of the endings of other films in the genre, and not nearly as fresh and creative as the rest of the movie had been.

Take the alien creatures from Attack the Block (who also invaded an English city) and couple it with some of the spider creatures from The Mist, and you can see where Casson possibly got inspiration for this film. Solid writing, strong believable characters, seamless special effects, and nearly non stop action are what made Hungerford so much fun to watch.

  • Tamika Jones
    About the Author - Tamika Jones

    Tamika hails from North Beach, Maryland, a tiny town inches from the Chesapeake Bay.She knew she wanted to be an actor after reciting a soliloquy by Sojourner Truth in front of her entire fifth grade class. Since then, she's appeared in over 20 film and television projects. In addition to acting, Tamika is the Indie Spotlight manager for Daily Dead, where she brings readers news on independent horror projects every weekend.

    The first horror film Tamika watched was Child's Play. Being eight years old at the time, she remembers being so scared when Chucky came to life that she projectile vomited. It's tough for her to choose only one movie as her favorite horror film, so she picked two: Nosferatu and The Stepford Wives (1975).