Have you ever looked at the careers of directors such as Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) Peter Jackson (Bad Taste), or perhaps more recently the success story of Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and thought, rather jealously, I could / should / would have done that if someone had taken my seed of an idea and turned it into an actual goddamn movie?!!!! Well it turns out that someone is here and ready to change your life. So before I get your juices going with this month’s film premieres on offer, I need to tell you about this amazing short film competition. Last year we launched the short film comp Shortcuts to Hell and this year it’s back and on a serious manhunt to find new directing talent. Horror Channel has teamed up with FrightFest and Movie Mogul again, along with new partner Wildseed Studios, to create Shortcuts to Hell II, a nationwide search for new filmmaking talent who are primed and ready to make their first horror feature film.
The very basics are: A short film no more than 3 minutes in length shot on a budget of no more than £666 that somehow represents your full feature film idea. The winner will have their film developed and produced by Movie Mogul and Wildseed Studios for them to direct on a guaranteed minimum production budget of £20.000. Amazing. It’s interesting how many brilliant innovative horror films turn out to be a director’s low budget debut film driven by passion, originality and drive, Spielberg’s Duel for example. We are looking for that driven talented individual who wants to get his or her feature film off the ground. Seriously, if this sounds like it could be you, we need to hear from you. Great exposure on Horror channel and at FrightFest is also on offer as well as that career changing opportunity. But you need to get your asses in gear as the deadline for short film entries is JULY 22nd. Everything you need to know is but a click away! http://www.horrorchannel.co.uk/articles.php?feature=9810&category=4&archive=
Good luck!
OK now on to more passive entertainment. Watching amazing horror from behind a cushion. Lovely.
June has some killer titles premiering on the channel, and my personal favourite is French film LIVID from the same directors as the disturbing INSIDE, Julien Mauray and Alexandre Bustillo. This ‘delicious to look at’ twisted gothic nightmare makes a refreshing change from the onslaught of zombies and found footage flicks, and follows Lucie on her first day as a carer for the elderly. However, nothing can prepare her for the sinister weirdness of Madame Jessel, a former ballet school owner now bedridden, comatose and rotting away in her dilapidated Victorian mansion. Curiosity and a touch of greed is about to kill the cat when Lucie hears a rumour that some kind of treasure is buried within the house, and once her boyfriend catches wind, they plan to break in, find the treasure and run away. Of course things don’t go to plan and get incredibly nasty when the walls of logic come crumbling down, the house revealing all manner of sinister secrets. The film becomes very surreal and dreamlike, especially when creepy child ballerinas come in for the kill and Madame Jessel’s taxidermy daughter is found amongst a horrific stuffed animal tea party!
LIVID gets its UK TV premiere Sat 14 June 22:50
Next up, described as a ‘Road Trip of the Living Dead’ comes a Zom Rom Com that blends the 80’s comedy adventure style of Back to the Future and gives it a zombie make over. Imagine waking up, with total amnesia from a car crash only to discover the world has succumbed to a zombie outbreak, and you are officially one of the walking dead. However, unlike your brain munching mates, you still have your faculties and senses wired. Frustrating, to say the least. Such is the remaining life of Mike who teams up with another undead slacker Brent to find his girlfriend, pop the question and try to avoid the mysterious government organization who wants them zapped once and for all.
Marking the debut film of the Pierce brothers you can catch the UK TV premiere of DEADHEADS on Sat 21st June at 22:50
Saturday, June 28th sees the highly tense UK TV premiere of Rogue River which saw its big premiere at FrightFest back in 2011. A young girl starts the day by spreading her father’s ashes in Rogue River, but ends it in a horrific fight for survival when she breaks rule number one when entering backwoods country: ‘Never trust the seemingly friendly locals’ Bill Mosely is his usual nasty self as he and onscreen wife imprison, torture and do dirty things with their new ‘pet.’
ROGUE RIVER a UK TV premiere Saturday 28th June at 22.50
My last Horror Bite for this month takes an old urban legend and updates it for the social networking generation! Remember Chain Letters when you were a kid? Actual chain letters, I mean. Well now the ‘chain’ is simply spread through scary emails the premise being that if you delete the letter then you die! Yup, it seems murderers and monsters have gone high tech leaving little trace for the police to find them. Although the fact that the killer has a penchant for killing his victims with a ‘chain’ might just give him away?
The network premiere of CHAIN LETTER is Sat 7 June at 22:55.
That’s all folks – till next time, calling all budding film makers get your short films in to the Shortcuts to Hell competition by July 22nd and you could be on stage at Frightfest with your winning short, then given a £20 000 budget for your feature. Damn that’s good.
