Black Mountain Side - A slow burn that's worth the wait

SPOILER FREE as usual.

The other day, I got another "blind Twitter follow" from a man named Nick Szostakiwskyj. I get these a lot. An unspoken, "Oh! You like movies?! I make movies! Check one out, please!" I actually appreciate this. It means folks are making an effort.

So, I checked out his Twitter page and website and they both looked really professional. One of the images on the site drove me to look up the film Black Mountain Side.

Intrigued, I checked out the trailer ( ...which I do not recommend that you do!! Seriously ) and immediately went to Amazon and added it to my watch list for that very night.

Now, let me get the small negatives out of the way right off the bat. There are not many, but they will make some people run around screaming. ::grin::: 

This is a slow, SLOW burn. It's like Carpenter's THE THING with several of the action, pulse pounding scenes removed from the first and second acts. Folks sit and talk and you soak in their conversations as the wonderfully shot film spins along crafting it's story. There were a few moments where I wished they went to the "show, don't tell" mode of film making - it might have helped the pacing a bit. Actually seeing some of the things that are talked about after they happen when the characters regroup here and there might have boosted the energy of the film a bit. 

Based on what I've seen from horror fans, this will make many people crazy. They'll bark at their screens yelping, "THERE'S NOTHING HAAAAAAPPENING!!!!" and will start tearing at their skin like wild animals.
To them I say, "Do us all a favor and don't watch this film. I can't take hearing your commentary on it, honestly. Go watch SAW XXI and be happy."  There IS stuff happening, you just need to listen and work it out without seeing jump scares, things popping out at you, and blood spraying 20 feet in the air.


The only other caveat I have about the film is that things are NOT spelled out for you. If you want that, you won't find it here. There are expanses as wide open as the films bleak and beautiful landscape - again, superbly shot  - in the film. If that makes you crazy, skip it. 



And, that's the end of the negatives. Let's move on to why I really loved this film. 


This is a very THE THING like tale. But, more along the lines of the original book WHO GOES THERE? by John W. Campbell, Jr.. It's a character and story based movie that has moments of shock and horror, not the other way around.


Archaeologists uncover a massive underground structure in Northern, "REALLY OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE" Canada that dates back ten thousand years. The team brings in an expert to bless the find and get them much needed funds to continue their research.  As the find is verified and debated, things start to slowly and steadily break down.


This is another film where it feels like you are reading a book. (In a good way) You're allowed to really sink into the story and character development washes over you as the tale unfolds. There were several moments where I ended up saying things like, "Well...this is bad," out loud to my wife who was next to me on her phone. THAT is another check in the PLUS column for this film.

My wife is NOT a horror fan. She can stand them at times, but more often than not, she stands up and says, "Enjoy your movie - I'm off to bed," and is gone by ten minutes in. However, BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE had her completely invested by the midway point. She was positing theories and wondering what was happening right along with me. Wen the movie ended, we had a very interesting series of conversations about the plot, scenes, and what we thought happened at the films climax. All around the midnight out, two hours after her usual bedtime. She really enjoyed the movie which is saying A LOT. 

Nick Szostakiwskyj nails both the Direction and script. The film looks fantastic and the script is riveting, really. It's one of those film stories that doesn't lay it all out for you, but that you find yourself thinking about long after the film is over. Theories spun through my mind all last night and this morning about the movie.

The cast was fantastic as well. In some of these smaller budget films, the cast stumbles through dialogue as they make an effort to play out an emotional range they are not capable of hitting while choking out lines of memorized dialogue. However, these folks do it effortlessly. They are not only believable as who they are playing, but they manage to deliver some very intricate dialogue to the point where I found myself wondering if they found actual archaeologists that happened to do acting as well. :::grin::: 

 If you're a fan of remote chillers, story, and tales of madness and the supernatural, you really owe it to yourself to fire up BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE, settle in with a whiskey or cup of tea, and let this grand tale wash over you like a warm blanket of creepy! :)  I plan to revisit this film again in the winder months...when it's cold...and dark...

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

Short. Sweet. To the point.

I LOVED WYRMWOOD!!!!!!!   What a fun little film!!! 

 Kiah Roache-Turner (screenplay), Tristan Roache-Turner (screenplay)  mixed the zombie genre up a bit and introducd some fun elements. 

Kiah Roache-Turner's Direction was fantastic. Echos of old Peter Jackson styling came through expertly. 

Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey and the rest of the cast executed perfectly. 

I was super happy with the resulting efforts! Man...nice to walk away from a movie and loving it for a change! Good show! 

Grand work, Team! 

Details. 

It's a zombie film. Plain and simple. However, it goes above and beyond in many aspects. It's not just zombies. It's sci fi. It's not just WILD ZERO meets UNDEAD meets BRAIN DEAD.  It's something that reminds you of all of that, but a film that also brings it's own spin to the party.

CHECK IT OUT!

It's on NETFLIX as of the time of this posting!

Do you like horror movies?

"Do you like 

                            horror movies too?"

Antiviral

From one of my new favorite blogs DOLLS OF DESPAIR 
(Check them out - great stuff with a podcast component!)


http://dollsofdespair.blogspot.com/2013/03/antiviral-screening-at-horrorhound.html?zx=a430e85f1368f74d

"Brandon Cronenberg's award winning, horror, sci-fi ANTIVIRAL, starring Caleb Landy Jones (X-MEN: FIRST CLASS), Malcolm McDowell (CLOCKWORK ORANGE), Lisa Berry (SAW V), and Sarah Gadon (COSMOPOLIS), will be released by IFC on April 12, but if you've not seen it yet, it's screening at HorrorHound Weekend at 6:45pm Friday night, March 22nd. As advertised, expect limited seating, so get in line early if you want to catch ANTIVIRAL on the silver screen! ANTIVIRAL has a limited theatrical release and hits VOD on April 12, 2013."

______




Yes, old Brandon is a chip off the old block. Body horror, secret societies and hidden horrors are all in here and it looks like it will be a scream. There's a grand style here as well. Slick and clean - this is a strange new world that's been created and it all seems to work together really well. I love sci fi horror. There's so much to pull from that straight horror doesn't have. Things like EVENT HORIZON come to mind. Like a Reece's candy, the blend of chocolate and peanut butter...or in this case mad science and disgusting body horror...look like they'll be a delicious combination I can't wait to devour!

As with THE ABC's of DEATH, old Daddy Malco will be checking this out via download come April 12th. (Right on the heels of seeing EVIL DEAD on April 5th!) Review to follow.

[REC]3

Ok...firstly, just stop. Take a minute.

Let's just call this film WEDDING DEAD or Til DEATH DO US PART right off the bat. If you go into it like this, you'll be happy and will have so much fun in this silly, action packed romp.

The MAIL ORDER ZOMBIE folks were expecting another [REC] film and were really disappointed in [REC]3  . (Great podcast, by the way) But, if you go into this film with the mindset that you're just going to see a fun zombie film, you're golden. Because, [REC]3 is just that - a big mess 'o' fun!

Paco Plaza delivers up something a bit new here. If you've seen the first two [REC] films, you know the drill. We're dealing with "special zombies" here and it's grand. Watching them back to back late at night is BRILLIANT! But, [REC]3 steers away from those films and the biggest problem with him doing this now is exactly what happened with the MAIL ORDER ZOMBIE podcast folks - people expected something else.

When you have something as cool as  the [REC] films, you face the issue of people just wanting more of the same. He would have been better off calling it something else and doing a bit of a re-write to separate the tales.

That said, this is just a fun (and at times, silly) film with lots of great scenes and some great gimmicks.

Leticia Dolera is delicious in this film. So cute. So adorable. And so wicked cool. And cute. :)

We run into the same sort of plot with this film - there are zombies of a special origin and they are eating people. The fact that it takes place during a wedding adds some dimension as well. You have two people's closest family members there...and being killed. The bride and groom get seperated and spend a lot of the film looking for each other. There are chases. There's a chainsaw. It's all brilliant and fun and light and well worth a watch.

That's really it.

WELL worth a viddy. Just keep it light and calm and fun and you'll love it. :)

The Horror Show Promo - Tale

The Horror Show Promo - A Tale of Two Sisters

http://youtu.be/24BtLu5h2XE

"Keep America Strong - watch horror movies!" Bob Wilkins

ZONE 261

Back in 2010, I started to hear about ZONE 261 and sometime earlier this year is the first time I saw the video below. Well, the video popped up again when I was doing a little research on THE WALKING DEAD and I felt like the film was in some sort of film limbo. I needed to find out more.

To sum up:

Landskrona, Sweden, 2013. Strong ethnical hatred between immigrants and native Swedes. A ship crashes into the harbor dock. Police enter the wreck - and are attacked by the infected crew. Bitten policemen fall in a coma - and wake up as rabid monsters.

The disease spreads like a wildfire. Everyone tries to escape.

But the city is quarantined - the military erects a concrete wall around the city. The few non-infected - Swedes and immigrants alike - take shelter in the citadel.

As the infected try to claw their way into their sanctuary, the non-infected have to decide who the worst monsters are: their former enemies inside - or the infected on the outside.

As the tension inside the citadel escalate to boiling point, the non-infected, in order to survive, have to decide if they view their former enemies as monsters - or as brothers and sisters; if they see each other as immigrants and Swedes - or as fellow humans.



Pretty straight forward overall. A little politics tossed in - sure. Weapon slinging zoms? Ok. Make it interesting. Most of this film will rely on execution and directorial style. We'll see...if and when it gets made.

I think this was a sort of viral effort to get funding. I love the look of it, though there are a few things I'd like to see changed, of course.





According to the films FACEBOOK page posted 9 hours before I wrote this article:

Dear Zone 261 fans. Our monster project is alive and kicking. If everything goes according to plan we will start shooting the film next year!

We've just updated our homepage where we now have a crowd funding tab. Check it out at www.zon261.com

We will be making most of our announcements from our other facebook fan page ZON 261. We would very much appreciate it if you'd like this page as well.

/ZONE 261 team

I guess we'll see where things head in 2013. It seems that pre-production was originally slated for 2011, but that might have been held up a bit by funding. Understandable. You need cash to make a film.

I've also been reading some of what is being said about the film and there are some interesting bits out there. The things I thought were rather funny were what people were upset about.

"The zombies looked bad."

"They used weapons - I didn't like that at all."

"That roar was off-putting."

"I hated when the gas station zombie in LAND OF THE DEAD picked up a weapon and learned how to use it. Dumb."

(Culled from an article found at QUIET EARTH )

I can't agree, personally. Films are about taking concepts and applying a spin that either the writer or Director sees for the production. Woody Allen has made mysteries and Francis Ford Coppola has made a horror film. Holding their films up to other works will show some major differences in style and content.

Why do zombies all need to do the same thing? Look the same way?

By that reasoning, The Almighty Romero's "zombies" (called the dead or undead) are not "true zombies" by the old old school term. There were no real references to flesh eating or brain eating or anything like that. They were basically slaves to do the bidding of someone who knew voodoo.

THANK GOODNESS (Badness?) people took the legend and lore and changed it! Romero and his dead coming back to life for no reason and their trying to eat people. Dan O'Bannon, Rudy Ricci, John A. Russo, and Russell Streinerfor coming up with the awesome "BRaaaains!" and undead antics in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. Hell, TONS of new takes and new ways to show zombies done in film over the past three decades and more. Why not try zombies with weapons and add more to the mix? Make things even more dangerous and frucking scary!

Kudos to thinking out of the box and trying something new! I wish more people did. I anxiously await ZONE261!