2013 Wrap Up: Year End Awards And 20 More Great Films From Last Year

2013 was a damn good year for horror, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.  Sure there as some real crap out in theaters, but this was probably the best year for major theatrical release horror we’ve had since I started the blog.  Of course, the indie scene gave us more than enough killer flicks to make 2013 a cause to celebrate.   I think it's only fair to recognize a few of those that brought me so much enjoyment.  Now, on to the first annual Son of Celluloid Year End Awards.

Best Non-Horror Flick – The World’s End 
The end of the Cornetto Trilogy has taken on horror and action, so they decided to go out on a sci-fi note  The flick definitely delivered the laughs albeit in a more mature way than Shaun or Fuzz.  This one hit a little close to home, but it was a blast.  The World’s End is everything you hoped it would be.

Runner Up: The Wolf Of Wall Street

 

Best Actor – Mike Nall as Charles Lake in I Am No One 
Director Jason Hoover tells me that Mike isn’t an actor by trade.  "He's just a dude that was willing to go to the edge with me.”  This character immersion technique worked like a charm though, ‘cause he’s genuinely scary.  He’s perfected that chilling “is he really calm or is he just coiled to strike?” delivery.  The finale of I Am No One is the best single scene from any indie flick this year.

Runners up: Lance Henriksen (It’s In The Blood), Sean Pertwee (The Seasoning House)

Best Actress – Rosie Day as Angel in The Seasoning House 
At only 19, Rosie shows the acting chops of a seasoned professional. See what I did there? Anyway, she burst onto the horror scene this year with an incredible pantomime performance as a deaf/mute girl forced to work in a sex-slave whorehouse.  She might just have the most expressive eyes I’ve ever seen.  Rosie has everything it takes to be a horror star.

Runners Up: Katherine Isabelle (American Mary), Ambyr Childers (We Are What We Are)

Hottest Actress – Hannah Hughes (V/H/S/2
 A pale, gothy redhead with sexy lips, pretty eyes, a nice rack, and a dirty mouth?  Yeah, that’s my type.  She’s totally worth dealing with those homicidal ghosts following her around.

Runners Up : Miriam Giovanelli in Dracula 3D, Jennifer Tilly (Curse of Chucky)

 Best Monster Design – Frankenstein’s Army 
Whether or not you dug this flick (and I can’t see how you couldn’t), you can’t deny that those mechanical zombie bastards are some cool ass monsters.  Finally someone found a way to incorporate steampunk into horror and it not suck.

Runners Up: Beatress (American Mary), Bad Milo (Bad Milo) 

Funniest Scene – “Put ‘em on the glass” – The Battery 

Poor Mickey is trapped in the car during a zombie attack, but as the busty zombie presses against the window, he can’t help but do what comes natural.  

Runner Up: “Wire catches arrow” (You’re Next) 

Best Quote – “I want you to f**k me on this bed next to your dead mother.” –  Wendy Glenn in You’re Next 

Kinky.  I like it.  

 Runner Up: “Can I stab her anywhere?” – Sasha Gray in Would You Rather

Best Kiss – Kiss of the Damned 
As a child of the MTV era, I believe that this has to be a category in any movie awards.  Anyway, I seem to be the only person who was highly disappointed with this flick, but there were a couple of cool shots and a kiss through the space of a chain locked door was my favorite.

Runner Up: “Wait ‘til Dad finds out” – We Are What We Are, Various girl on gorl makeouts – Embrace of the Vampire 

Best Sex Scene – Here Comes The Devil 

Felix lets his fingers do the walking as he and Sol breathily discuss their early sexual experiences in the car.  I ain’t gonna lie, that scene is hot as hell.

Runner Up: Emasculating a douchebag (Alyce)

Best Nude Scene – Riki Lindhome in Hell Baby 

There was some great onscreen nudity this year that went for the sexy, but my favorite scene went for the laughs.  Riki stands there naked for a good 3 minutes chit chatting and making her brother in law very uncomfortable in a hilarious scene.  I’d commend her for having the balls to do it, but, well…

Runners Up: Hannah Hughes (V/H/S/2), Asia Argento (Dracula 3D), Strip Club Scene in Cool As Hell

 

Best Performance By A Madagascar Hissing Cockroach – All Hallow’s Eve
 You should know that when a clown hands you flowers, there’s gonna be a surprise inside.  In this case, it was one of these little guys.  It’s always nice to see maddies in a flick.  Hopefully some of my babies will make it to the silver screen.

Runner Up: Dracula 3D

Best DVD/Blu-ray release – The Vincent Price Collection (Shout Factory) 
It’s nice to have the master’s work in hi-def, but the real selling point here is the extras.  Vintage intros and interviews team up with copious commentaries to make this the definitive versions of six Price classics.

Runner Up: Crystal Lake Memories (1428 Films)

Potential Icon Award – Art the Clown (All Hallow’s Eve) 
Coulrophobia is common, so this creepy clown could absolutely bring nightmares to the masses.  Whether it's more anthologies or a feature, he needs to come back.  I can see him on tshirts and being cosplayed (I hate that word) at horror cons.

Runner Up – Bad Milo (Bad Milo), Animal Mask Killers (You’re Next)

Best Soundtrack – Cool As Hell 
I think it’s safe to say that a James Balsamo movie is going to win in this category every year he makes one.  The theme song by the almighty Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space would clinch the win by itself, but the movie also features tunes by The Other, Nightmare Sonata, Order of the Fly, and Calabrese to name just a few.  The man has great taste in music.

Runners Up: Lords Of Salem, The Battery

And the big one, the most important award of the year…

Best Kill/Death Scene – Chainsaw Facef**k – Evil Dead 
If that isn’t already a Cannibal Corpse song title, they need to get right on that.  Evil Dead was a divisive movie among horror fans.  In fact, it seemed to split them right down the middle, just like a chainsaw would a deadite’s head.  The glorious splatterfest had a bevy of great kills, but this long, loving bisection (complete with a nod to Ash and a roaring fire in the background) got the theater cheering and applauding more than any other at the screening I went to.  Rarely have I seen my favorite power tool put to such good, and messy, use.  The saw is family. 

Runners Up: Knife through the cheek – The Seasoning House, Herschel’s Last Grin – The Walking Dead, Eyeball and Genital Mutilation – Play Me, Face Off – Maniac, Family Dinner – We Are What We Are, Nut Cracker – I Spit On Your Grave 2 

Ok, one more thing before we lay 2013 to rest.  Recently I read a couple of reviewers (the kind that get off on ripping stuff to shreds) say that they had a hard time even finding 10 good horror flicks from the last year to make a “best of” list.  I‘m calling bullshit.  On facebook I said that I could easily name 20 flicks I would recommend.  Well, I’ve decided that I can go one better.  You’ve already read my top 10 (HERE and HERE if you’ve been slacking), so here’s a list of 20 on top of that.  That’s 30 flicks from 2013 that I wholeheartedly recommend.  Take that you “I hate everything” jackasses.  Here we go… 

Frankenstein’s Army – A found footage WWII flick?  Yep, and it’s fun as hell.  The last half is like running through a haunted attraction. 

Evil Dead – Put your remake hate away for a minute and just enjoy the gory fun.  Blood, blood, and more blood! 

Lords of Salem – Rob Zombie’s hallucinatory nightmare divided viewers, but if you just give in and go for the ride, I think you’ll dig it.  It even gets better with repeated viewings. 

I Am No One – If you mixed the mechanics of Man Bites Dog with the atmosphere of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the result would be I Am No One. 

Hidden in the Woods – Sleazy exploitation fun from Chile.  Blood, boobs, cannibalism, drugs, and chainsaws. 

Curse of Chucky – I know it’s heresy, but this just might be my favorite non-comedy Chucky flick.  Why this one didn’t hit theaters is beyond me. 

American Mary -  The Soska Sisters come out swinging with their sophomore effort.  It’s visually stunning and features a great performance from Katherine Isabelle.  

100 Bloody Acres – Keeping Australia on the genre film map with a great horror comedy. 

Gut – Killer indie flick with a great creep factor.  A man is getting snuff films in the mail… and starts recognizing the victims. 

Sightseers – Well written and well acted pitch black comedy from England.  When she agreed to go on a holiday with him, she didn’t know he was a killer. 

Contracted – A sexual encounter at a party leaves a young woman with a bizarre disease.  Nasty infection horror.  Good stuff… just ignore the last two minutes. 

Alyce – What would you do if your victim turned out to not be dead after all?  A nice descent into madness.  Most of my horror chick friends really dug this one. 

You’re Next – A lot of people touted the suspense.  Personally, I think it was one of the best comedies of the year. 

Dead Woman’s Hollow – Atmospheric backwoods/small town horror with some great performances and a killer finale. 

Cool As Hell – The prolific James Balsamo brings his usual gory, irreverent, cameo packed madness to this horror comedy.  Troma-esque in a good way.

The Collective Vol. 6 – Another great collection of themed shorts from Jabb Pictures featuring a short version of “I Am No One” and Brian Williams’ fantastic ‘Play Me.”  What scares the people who scare us? 

Stoker – Creepy thriller from the director who brought you Oldboy and Thirst.  Need I say more? 

Grabbers – Giant octopus monsters are attacking an Irish island and the only way to survive is to get wasted.  Hilarity ensues. 

Hell Baby - Comedy from the minds behind Reno 911 about the birth of the Antichrist.  Way better than it had any right to be. 

No One Lives – Refreshingly old school.  Dumb dialogue, but very little shaky cam, plenty of blood, a couple of nice twists, some creative violence, and even a little gratuitous nudity.

See?  A whole bunch of goodness for you to check out.  Now, on to 2014...

Review: Cool As Hell

Yeah, yeah, I know. I was supposed to have this review up last week.  I’ve been busy on SOC’s current pet project though, so me getting a little behind will be worth it in time.  I promise.  Anyway, if you’ve been a Cellmate for a while, you know that James Balsamo and Acid Bath Productions have been associated with Son of Celluloid since damn near the beginning, and vice versa.  Hell, Hack Job was the third screener I ever received.  Earlier this month at Days of the Dead, I finally got to meet James Balsamo in person, and he hooked me up with a hot off the presses copy of his new flick Cool As Hell.  He also gave me an I Spill Your Guts shirt (which – spoiler alert – is still my favorite Acid Bath flick).  Admit it, you’re jealous.  The question is, does Cool As Hell live up to its name? 

Synopsis: “Rich wasn’t always a samurai sword wielding zombie slayer! He was your average comic book store employee, until he met a demon named Az. When Az came from Hell, he left the portal open and a soul hungry beast escaped. Rich and his roommate Benny used to have girl troubles, but that’s the least of their worries now. They have to stop the creature and the living dead that have crawled out of Hell. Who would have thought Rich would have to save the world just to get laid?”

The number one thing that struck me as I watched Cool As Hell was the acting.  It is leaps and bounds above his previous two flicks.  It’s got a lot of the same actors too.  I don’t know if they just found the right roles this time around or they grew as artists or what, but the leads are great.  Balsamo and Dan E. Danger, as Rich and Benny, are a damn good comic duo.  Balsamo, in particular, shows some spot on comic timing in his delivery.  Billy Walsh, who you might remember as Joe Bava in I Spill Your Guts, pulls off the perfect attitude and presence as Az.  Lauren Adamkiewicz shows off the chops to carry off a leading lady role.  Frank Mullen, who is also the lead singer for legendary death metal band Suffocation, is hilarious.  Every time he opens his mouth, the (seemingly improvised) string of profane rage that spews forth will have you rolling.  As good as the leads are, there is a time-honored tradition in comedies of someone in a small character role stealing the whole f’n show.  In Cool As Hell, that was Jackie Wolozin.  She’s only on screen for a little over four minutes, but for those four minutes she is supreme lord and commander of your eyeballs, ‘cause they ain’t going anywhere.  Here’s hoping she has a role in Acid Bath’s future flicks.

As with HJ and ISYG, the soundtrack is great.  Not only do The Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space contribute another theme song, but their music is used throughout the flick, which I personally loved.   Some of the best bands the metal and punk scenes have to offer are featured as well.  One of the criticisms that HJ and I Spill Your Guts sometimes drew was that the music, while great, sometimes didn’t mesh well with what was on screen, and sometimes actually worked against the scene.  That’s been remedied in this flick.  I was really impressed with how the music always set the appropriate mood and worked in tandem with the action this time,.  The music just bludgeoned it’s way through before.  Now it’s more of a surgical strike, making these great soundtracks, which have always been a major draw for these flicks, an even more potent weapon in Acid Bath’s cinematic arsenal.

The cinematography deserves special mention as well.  A couple of moments (what in the green hell was up with that first seizure inducing scene in the comic shop?) not withstanding, overall the film looks great.  Where the camera work really shines is in the actual camera movement.  Director of Photography Guy Marchais deserves a round of applause, because those tracking shots were fluid, visually engaging, and showed a pretty unique style.  It’s hard to put my finger on precisely what it was, but these shots were just plain cool looking. 

All of the usual Acid Bath touches that we’ve come to know and love are here.  As I mentioned, the soundtrack kicks ass.  The flick is full of Balsamo’s trademark “blink and you missed it” cameos from Tom Savini, Laurence Harvey, Andrew W.K., Tim Dax, Raven, Tommy Dreamer, David Naughton,  Carmine Capobianco, Tim Ritter, and the list goes on and on.  There are also a lot of musician cameos, including members of The Meatmen, God Forbid, Cannabis Corpse, Municipal Waste (who are hilarious), Black Tusk, etc.  There’s some fun low budget style gore.  And it wouldn’t be a Balsamo flick without the tits.  Bountiful tits.  Lots and lots of bare breasts.  I think one of the things I most like about the nudity in this flick is that it’s non discriminatory.  There are big boobs, smaller boobs, skinny girls, thick chicks, and everything in between.  I dig that.  Variety is the spice of life.

Along with those integral Acid Bath hallmarks, a couple of their same old issues rear their ugly heads too.  Part of Balsamo’s storytelling style is for the film to go off on sub-plot tangents, which is not a problem…unless those tangents go on too long.  There was one scene in particular involving Sal collecting money at a bar that seemed interminable. A little more liberal snipping in scenes like that would really help maintain the flick’s momentum.  Also, the sound needed help.  While the leveling issue isn’t even remotely as bad as in I Spill Your Guts, there are times when the conversation is too quiet or the music is too loud.  There were some outdoor scenes where the wind was obviously beating the living shit out of the mic.  A quick overdub would have done a world of good.  I’ve called both of this film’s predecessors on their sound issues too, but don’t think I’m picking on you James.  In my always humble but never wrong opinion, sound is currently the single most neglected piece of the filmmaking puzzle amongst indie horror filmmakers.

I’m not entirely sure what to say about the comedy aspects of the film.  I’ve said before that I’m extremely picky about my comedies.  Some of the stuff here was just too silly to work for me.  That’s a matter of personal taste though.  I think that fans of all kinds of comedy will find something here to dig.  I’m definitely more into dialogue and character driven comedy, and thankfully there’s some of that in here too.  Comedy is such a subjective thing that you really can’t judge it.  Not all of the gags were my cup of tea, but I’m sue they will be a lot of people’s.  The one thing that I can say for sure is that I would have liked to see some more horror in this horror-comedy.  All of the horrific stuff is in the very beginning and last 20 minutes.  What lies betwixt the samurai sword zombie slicing is more or less just a straight up comedy with a demon as a character.  If that counted, then Bedazzled and Oh God would be horror comedies too.  That’s not to say that it doesn’t work as a comedy, and the horror elements are well done, but I wish the macabre goodness was dispersed a little more evenly throughout the flick.

Random Thought 1: I mentioned that great theme song earlier.  Well, here it is.  Go listen to it.  Then go to facebook and tell the Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space that they need to play in America.  Don’t leave me as the voice crying out in the wilderness here.  Damn I love this band. 

Random Thought 2: You know that beautiful moment where you’re laughing so hard that you can barely choke out “what the unholy f**k was that?”  Tim Dax’s cameo got that reaction from me.

Random Thought 3: The drinking game from Hack Job still applies.  Drink any time an actor (particularly the bands) looks like they’re barely maintaining a straight face.

Random Thought 4:  I just misspelled Hack Job, and spellcheck asked me if I meant Hand Job.  Interesting.

I’ve talked before about how Balsamo’s flicks exist on the video fringe and might not resonate with more mainstream oriented audiences.  Cool As Hell, however, is his most accessible flick.  Well, as accessible as a flick with demon sex and talking loogie named Boo-Gar (get it?) can be.  The flick definitely works as a comedy, there’s some nice splattery touches, and all of the things that make an Acid Bath flick fun are in full effect.

Balsamo takes a step towards more traditional filmmaking here, while keeping the other foot firmly stuck in the bizarro world of trash cinema.  So, invite your weirdo friends and your normal buddies too; chances are they’ll both think it’s Cool As Hell.  Seven Superbong tokes out of 10.  Nathan says check it out.

Giveaway: Hack Job and I Spill Your Guts

It's time for another giveaway.  I do so love spreading the horror wealth to you Cellmates.  I feel like a blood soaked demented Santa Claus or a mutant cannibalistic Bob Barker or something.  Anyway, this one comes to us courtesy of Wild Eye Releasing (get both of these flicks and check out all of the other indie horror goodness they've got to offer HERE), Acid Bath Productions, and James Balsamo.  Balsamo's new flick, Cool As Hell, hit store shelves everywhere yesterday, and I'll be reviewing it on Friday, but before you go pick up your copy you've got the chance to win DVD copies of his first two movies, Hack Job (REVIEW) and I Spill Your Guts (REVIEW).  That's more low budget gore, laughs, chills, monsters, wacky horror and metal cameos, great music, and gratuitous tits than you can shake a stick at.  So here's what you have to do...

This is a video of my chat with James at Days of the Dead Atlanta.  In this clip, we give you a secret password.  Watch the video, then come back.  Oh come on, it's only, like, 3 and a half minutes.  These are good flicks.  I gotta make you work for it a little bit.  Fun Fact - This was at the tail end of four days of heavy partying and no sleep, so I barely even remember doing this interview. 

Now that you've got the password, follow these 3 easy steps to enter...

1. If you haven't already, go like the Son of Celluloid facebook page HERE. 

2. If you haven't already, go like the Acid Bath Productions facebook page HERE.

3. Send an email to fromhell13@aol.com with "Cool As Hell" as the subject.  Make sure it contains your name, your address, and the secret password.

The deadline is March 6th, so get cracking and win some cool flicks.  And always remember the Son of Celluloid battle cry...Support Independent Horror!

Interview: James Balsamo of Acid Bath Productions

In my mind, it almost feels like James Balsamo's Acid Bath Productions and Son of Celluloid have grown up together.  His filmmaking career started around the same time the blog did, and he was one of the first filmmakers to contact me about reviewing his flicks.  He's a good friend of the blog, and I look forward to meeting him in person at Days of the Dead Atlanta, where he's gonna be a guest.  See, there's yet another reason to go HERE and enter the contest for passes to the convention.  He's gonna be a guest at Texas Frightmare Weekend in May (details HERE) too.  I got in on James's work at the ground floor with Hack Job, then watched his progression in I Spill Your Guts, and now, as the release of his third feature Cool As Hell approaches, I invited James to talk to the Cellmates about nudity, old school movie novelizations, filmmaking, Troma, and Oderus Urungus's Ed Wood moment.  Check it out...

SOC:  When was the first time you remember watching a horror movie and thinking “THAT’S what I wanna do with my life!”

 JB: I was eight years old and watching Friday the 13th Part III with my father – I was loving every minute of it (until they showed Jason's mother's severed rotting head...that scared the crap out of me). Soon after, my own mother (with a head on her shoulders) asked me if I wanted to join an acting school. That's when it hit me! I could be that guy behind the mask. I'm not a sports fan or a horticulture enthusiast; I eat sleep and breathe horror films, so it was clear from a young age I wanted to live and work among the monsters and madmen of cinema universe.

SOC:  You were an intern at Troma for a while. What did you learn about filmmaking and the film business during your time there?

JB: Troma was a great learning experience. I missed working on set for Poultrygeist. I started working there after they had wrapped Night of the Chicken Dead, and left Troma way before they started their new venture, Return to Nuke ‘Em High. So, I ended up learning the ropes of the business side of film making, and it is a business. Becoming CEO of my own company was no easy task. Troma helped me lay the ground work by teaching me the ropes and making me take out the trash and sweep. I recently returned to Troma to tell Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz that my films were sold all over the world. Lloyd and Michael shook my hand and said that I went from errand boy to respected film maker. I couldn't have done it without the help of Troma, but now Acid Bath Productions is making a name for itself.

SOC:  Your movies are always packed with cameos (Dave Brockie, Lynn Lowry, Tim Ritter, Joel Reed, Andrew W.K., Debbie Rochon, Carmine Capobianco). How do you go about getting all of these great people involved?

 JB: Acid Bath Productions is a growing company. Now that we have worked with so many major artists, people contact us left and right to work together. It's really an amazing thing - while making "Hack Job,” we reached out to so many people in the horror community that we really made some strong roots that have helped us branch out to so many new notables.

SOC:  If you could pick anyone you haven’t worked with yet to be in one of your flicks, who would it be?

 JB: Dick Miller. I'm a big fan of his work. One of my favorite Miller films is "Demon Knight". I was honored to recently be asked to be a guest with Dick Miller at Days of the Dead convention in Atlanta. So, I’m looking forward to meeting him in person.

SOC:  Considering some of the real life characters you’ve worked with, I bet you have some pretty funny on-set stories. Care to share one with us?

JB: Filming is always an adventure. Working with some of the industry's top notables is really the icing on the cake. There are really some great stories on set, like when filming "Hack Job," Dave Brockie dressed as Oderus kept screaming that this was his Bela Lugosi moment, as if I was Ed Wood making "Plan 9". We filmed with Lynn Lowry at her house and she has cats...I'm allergic to cats. She starts rubbing my face out of nowhere in the scene, so I had to take a break to have an allergic reaction coughing fit on her front lawn. There are so many stories on set I think one day I'll write a book about my adventures so I don't want to give too much away.

SOC:  Your films also feature lots of gratuitous nudity, which is becoming a rarity. Why do you think horror movies these days generally shy away from nudity?

 JB: I really don't know why horror movies shy away from gratuitous nudity now, but Acid Bath Productions is picking up the slack. We are jam packing our films with all the bare skin you can shake a fist up and down to. Nudity is a primal desire, and we’ve picked up a motto that anyone that tells you they don't enjoy nudity is too afraid to admit it. We don't make porn; we just know how to make our audience happy. Filming it isn't a bad perk either, but it is always a professional atmosphere for the cast and crew on set when we have nude shoots.

SOC:  There seems to have been a big resurgence in anthologies on the indie horror scene lately, with Hack Job being near the beginning of the wave. What made you decide on an anthology for your first flick as opposed to a regular feature?

JB: "Hack Job" really spear headed the comeback of anthologies. In fact I had self-distributed "Hack Job" months before "Chillerama" hit stores. I had always wanted my first film to be an anthology. I started out making short films, and an anthology is essentially short films sewn together with one overlying story. Needless to say, this is a great format for starting film makers. I grew up on films like "CreepShow", and "Tales From The Darkside.” It was a great starting point to pay homage to those films.

SOC:  The Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space, who did the theme song from Hack Job, are one of my favorite bands of all time. How did that collaboration come about?

JB: I was a big fan of BZFOS myself, before we worked together. I told them about "Hack Job" and they loved the concept of collaboration. I sent them the lyrics I had in my mind and they wrote an amazing song around it. We have become such good friends since "Hack Job," we decided to work together again and they did the theme song for my new film "Cool As Hell".

SOC:  With the war veteran motif of I Spill Your Guts, were you going for social commentary or was it just a good backdrop for the blood and tits?

JB: The military was a great backdrop for revenge and mutilation. I'm not a preachy filmmaker and I don't use my films as a soap box to stand on. I have my own views on the world and I just try to play devil's advocate and show both sides of the bayonet, so to speak.

SOC:  A novelization of I Spill Your Guts is a cool idea. Very old school. Did you always envision ISYG as a book and movie, or did the book idea come later?

JB: The novel idea was not something originally planned from the start, but now that the film has been adapted I couldn't be happier with it. Nick Kisella did an amazing job and he really makes the blood run right off the pages. You should go get a copy!  

SOC:  A lot of the time, the book and movie will have plot differences. How closely does the book follow the flick?

 JB: More or less, the plot is the same, but some of the kills have been modified. There is also a ton of character development. The novel really portrays Dennis (the killer) as the victim and you take his side of the story. As most horror movie fans know the killer is star of the show, and the novel really keeps The American Executioner burning bright as he hacks and slashes his way into our hearts.

SOC: Speaking of Old School ideas, I Spill Your Guts just got a limited edition VHS release. What are your thoughts on the whole collector’s VHS market that has sprung up all of a sudden?

JB: Let’s just say there is a VCR in my soul and when Matt from Horror Boobs Video contacted me about doing a release on VHS, I had to "tape" him up on his offer. Is that enough with the VHS puns or do I have to be kind and rewind?  Zinger!

SOC: What has it been like working with Wild Eye Releasing? They seem to have been on a roll lately, putting out some great indie horror flicks, including Hack Job and I Spill Your Guts.

 JB: Working with Wild Eye has been great. "Hack Job" really sparked the wave of awesome titles they released. Wild Eye and Acid Bath Productions will be working together again to release "Cool As Hell".

SOC:  Your next flick, Cool as Hell, is coming out in February. Tell us about it.

 JB: Rich wasn't always a samurai sword wielding zombie slayer! He was your average comic book store employee, until he met a demon named Az. When Az came from Hell, he left the portal open and a soul hungry beast escaped. Rich and his roommate Benny used to have girl troubles, but that's the least of their worries now. They have to stop the creature and the living dead that have crawled out of Hell. Who would have thought Rich would have to save the world just to get laid?

SOC:  After Cool as Hell, what’s next from you and Acid Bath?

 JB: Acid Bath Productions has yet to officially announce its next project, but I can tell you that you will see the American Executioner kill again.

SOC:  What quality is more important for an indie horror filmmaker to possess, technical skill or passion for the genre?

JB: As an indie filmmaker I believe it's important to have both. Technical skill is essential because as an indie filmmaker, you are competing with the best and you have to hold some ground in the industry. Horror fans have something most other genre viewers don’t - suspension of disbelief - they accept the fact that a monster could roam the streets or that a hockey masked zombie could come back again and again after "dying" at the end of sequel after sequel. That takes passion and I think that is what really makes a great indie filmmaker.

SOC:  Any last words for the Cellmates (readers)?

 JB: Be sure to follow us on Twitter @acidbathproduct and don't forget to pick up your copy of "Hack Job" at hackjobmovie.com and "I Spill Your Guts" at ispillyourguts.com. Don’t forget that "Cool As Hell" hits stores worldwide February 19, 2013. Also be sure to check out the "I Spill Your Guts" the novel HERE. 

Cool As Hell Trailer: