Review: The Collective Vol. 6

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know all about The Collective by now.  For you late comers, allow me to introduce you to horror cinema’s best kept secret and the most innovative concept in independent fright fare today.  The Collective is the brainchild of Jason Hoover of Jabb Pictures.  Take 10 indie horror filmmakers and give them a theme.  They each make a 10 minute short based on that theme.  Put them all together and voila; you get the indie horror sampler platter.  We’re five installments in, and all five have delivered.  In addition to being entertained by the collections themselves, they’ve served as an introduction to filmmakers whose other work I’ve enjoyed.  You can’t go wrong with these.  If you call yourself an independent horror fan and you haven’t been keeping up with The Collective, you’re doing it wrong.

Which brings us to the recently released Volume 6.  This time, it’s personal.  Yeah, I couldn’t help throwing that line in.  Whereas previous themes have involved things like each short being based on an emotion or having to use a cardboard box as the centerpiece, this time the horror comes from within.  Each filmmaker based their segment on what scares them the most.  What scares the people that scare us?  It’s a hell of a question, and it has the potential to produce some intense cinematic experiences.  It actually turned out to be one of the strongest, and definitely the darkest, of the Collective series.  Let’s break these down one by one…

1.Consequence Pictures – Speeches

We kick this collection off with the story of a man wrestling with guilt over the death of his girlfriend while being forced into his own personal hell of making speeches about drunk driving.  This one has some really cool eerie imagery and interesting editing.  One character’s creatively foul-mouthed verbiage adds a little levity to the proceedings; my favorite line being “You better put your big boy ballsack on this time.”  Great line.  I’m gonna start using that one.  I’ve said very often that it’s the little details that can ruin a good film or push it over the edge from good to great.  In this case, I was mightily impressed by one small detail; their blood.  I mean, that was great blood!  Good color, it flowed beautifully, the whole nine yards.  Good quality blood is, sadly, not something you see often in these DIY flicks.  I don’t know if they made it or bought it, but it was a thing of beauty.  The only thing I question is  watching the whole thing again in fast-forward again at the end.  I get what they were going for, but I don’t think it worked as well as they'd hoped.  Overall, a strong way to start.

2.Jarrett Furst – Edible Love

A woman’s horrific past leads her to drastic places in the quest to feel loved.  This one is pretty intense.  ***SPOILER ALERT*** It’s psychosexual take on cannibalism is actually believable, and it treats the theme seriously and thoughtfully.  I’m a sucker for a good thinking man’s cannibal flick.  ***END SPOILER ALERT*** The rape scene is perfect.  Yeah, I know, that sounds sick, but hear me out.  It’s one of the grittiest rape scenes I’ve ever seen, and it has the appropriate impact on the audience.  It feels dirty and degrading.  If you want your audience to actually be affected, that’s the way you do it.  The only problem is the audio.  The main actress spends a lot of time talking to the camera.  She’s giving a good performance and saying some pretty interesting stuff… I think.  She’s impossible to understand most of the time.  Her voice is way too low and garbled.  It’s a damn shame too, because what I could hear seemed well written.  It does get a little better as the film progresses, but this short is WAY too good to sound this damn bad.  Unfortunately, the audio problems kick Edible Love down from “That was amazing,” to “That was good, but…”

3.Mostly Harmless Pictures – Play Me

A woman receives a mysterious DVD shortly before being attacked.  This one straight up rocked.  Most of it is an extended kill scene, and you need a great victim to make that work.  Ellie Church is a great victim.  She pulls off “terrified eyes” well.  “Ironic pretty song over scenes of violence” is getting a little played out, but it works here.  There’s some inventive camera work. One little touch at the end (which I’m not gonna give away) literally had me applauding right there on the couch.  I’m not sure how to review this any further without spoiling everything, so I think I’m just gonna do my best Joe Bob Briggs impression and give you those drive-in totals…"One dead body. Two almost visible breasts. One tattoo I wanted a better look at.  Gun gagging.  Subliminal creepy dude.  Genital mutilation.  Pistol whipping.  Bondage fu.  Cheese grater fu.  Eyeballs roll.  Director Brian Williams gets the “Rob Zombie Award” for achievement in long, loving close-ups of his lead actress’ ass.  A 90 on the vomit meter. Four stars. Check it out."

4.Jerami Cruise – Insomniac

An insomniac roams the city at night, giving in to the urges that plague her sleep-deprived mind.  I could tell right away that this had to be made by someone who was intimately familiar with the subject matter, because this is as authentic as it gets.  As an insomniac who used to roam the streets of Atlanta in the wee hours, this short felt like a flashback.  Everything from the way the camera moves to the filters he used mimics the way you view the world on the 4^th or 5^th day without sleep.  Leah and I had different ideas about what the filmmaker’s driving fear was, and I like how that ambiguity allows for different levels of interpretation based on the viewer’s experience with the subject.  This one went deep in a lot of ways.  Toetag’s resident goremeister has crafted something special here.

5.Jabb Pictures – I Am No One

A filmmaker documents the life of a serial killer, but is he getting too close?  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. I don’t know who the actor that plays Charles is (we’re never told since it’s documentary style), but damn he’s good in this. His monologues are well written, and his delivery is natural and sometimes rather chilling.  There’s a well-played tension to the final moments.  One of, if not the, high point of this volume.  Jason Hoover, the director, informed me that a feature length version of I Am No One is coming soon.  I, for one, can’t wait to see it.

6.Quattro Venti Scott – Security Violation

A man is killed by a masked duo.  This one is another extended death sequence.  The masks that the killers wear are phenomenal.  I want to know where I can get those.  Cameron Scott, the director, plays the victim and does a damn fine job.  Playing dead is one of those arts that most people don’t notice when it’s done well.  That’s how you know it’s being done well, and Cameron kills it.  His dead eyed look is dead on.  Ok, I’ll stop.  Anyway, the plastic over his face doesn’t even flutter.  Directing from onscreen is difficult, but when you have to do it as a corpse, it can be murder.  Kudos.  There are some satisfying gory touches.  I like a lot of the angles used, but a few of them showed a little too much air between the blows and the victim.  That wouldn’t have been a problem, however, had the male killer been more aggressive.  Those half swings just weren’t convincing me. Beat him like you mean it, dude!

7.Spiral Filmworks – Devotion

A sermon… and a sacrifice.  Two actors, a static camera, and the most screwed-up rendition of Amazing Grace I’ve ever heard.  I like how the scene is allowed to play out organically while the audience plays the role of both congregation and voyeur.  The way one character menaces the other, as well as the real time single set/no cuts/no camera movement format, made this one remind me a lot of some haunted house scenes I’ve performed over the years. I hear you Jason, religious zealotry kinda freaks me out too.

8.Well Hung Pictures – Trepidation

I like that it was made to look like a SOV flick.  I have a soft spot for those. There are a couple of good lines too. Unfortunately, however, this short is Vol. 6’s weak link.  Look, I dig a slow burn, but a slow burn only works on the premise that there will be a payoff.  Aside from a one second shot in the middle that gives this a somewhat implied ending, nothing scary happened.  Nothing creepy happened.  Nothing unsettling happened.  Nothing happened at all.  I’m sure there is a statement here about the banality of little fears or “nothing to fear but fear itself,” or maybe something is supposed to be read into that one shot that I’m not getting, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

9.Liberty or Death Productions – Mercy

A filmmaker is abducted and held underground for ransom.  I really dug the creative use of split-screen in the opening moments.  I don’t think I’ve seen it done exactly that way before.  Justin Forbes does a great job as the thug.  I’m not claustrophobic at all, but that hole freaked me out a little.  It’s completely plausible as something a small time criminal might plan and build.  That’s just plain old good production design. This is LOD’s best short since Fertility 2.0 in Volume 2. I refer to this one by an alternate title; “Buried Alive By Fred Durst.”  You’ll get it when you see it.

10.Graphik 13 – Skeleton

An avenging skeleton is a girl’s best friend.  I kinda took Graphik 13 to task for what I thought was a weak entry in the last Collective, and they came back with a vengeance.  This is by far the best stuff we’ve seen from them, and that’s coming from someone who loved Snapcase.  The moody black and white photography emphasizes the creepiness.  I like the way the victim/villain dichotomy plays out.  Two minutes in you know where the story is going.  That could either be a good or bad thing.  Familiar can be fun, but predictable sucks.  There’s a very subtle difference between the two, and G13 deftly manages to keep the viewer invested.  The design of the skeleton itself, a classic Grim Reaper style hooded skull look, works perfectly with the dark fairy tale elements of the story.  Interestingly, it’s also the only one that took a supernatural approach to the theme.  I would have liked to see less digital filters and transitions, but that’s just a personal taste thing.  Good stuff.

I find it very interesting that almost every single one of these revolves around interpersonal violence, neglect, or abuse in some way.  It seems that when you ask people who spend their lives scaring you what scares them, the answer is almost always the same; mankind.  Whether the fear is of yourself or other people, the darkness inherent in humanity is what freaks them out.  There’s some kind of profound statement to be made there, but I’ll save the philosophical discussions for another time. 

What I will say is that Volume Six is Jabb and the Collective crew at their finest.  Volume 4 is still my favorite, but this is a very close second.  If I had to pick a favorite from this crop, it would be a tough call between I Am No One, Insomniac, and Play Me.  Besides Trepidation, which I’m sure some of you would dig (especially the VHSphiles), everything here is firing on all cylinders.  It goes without saying that pretty much every horror fan with a brain is sick of the gutless, soulless, brainless, heartless, nutless drivel  Hollywood is trying to pass off to us these days.  There is a remedy, folks.  There is good stuff out there. If you wanna see it, and peek into what I sincerely hope is the  future of the genre, you’re gonna have to dig a little deeper.  Look to the indies.  Look to the underground.  Look to The Collective.  9 hammer smashed heads out of 10.  Nathan says check it out.

All volumes of The Collective are available HERE.

Review: The Collective Vol. 1

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I think Jabb Pictures had one of the best DVD ideas of all time with The Collective. The Collective is a collection (it’s not an anthology since there’s no wraparound story) of 10 short films, each running 10 minutes, each made by a different independent filmmaker. Each collection will have a phrase or object that the films all have to center around, and it’s up to the filmmaker to interpret that theme however they want. Why is this such a great idea? Well, first of all, it’s showcasing indie horror, which is always a good thing. If you read this blog, you know that I’m all about some independent horror, and this is true indie filmmaking. We’re not talking “but it only cost 2 million, so it’s low budget” independent here. This is homemade horror. Some of these look like they were made for the cost of some fake blood and a couple of pizzas to feed everyone who was working for free. I love that. When you don’t have the gloss bought by a big budget, you have to get creative. You have to improvise. You have to rely on your talent and imagination to make your film effective rather than just making it slick looking, and that’s when the real magic happens. Films like this sadly often don’t get a big chance to be showcased outside of a few festival screenings. That’s why I love the fact that these collections are available.

Secondly, it’s fascinating to see how they all explore the central theme in a different way. The theme for this one was “The Meat Eater.” It’s a theme that lends itself well to horror, but there are nearly infinite ways you can go with that. It’s like in high school when you were doing creative writing and the teacher would give you an opening sentence and tell you to run with it. Seeing so many different variations of the theme makes for interesting viewing and each film already has that “which way are they gonna go with it?” intrigue before it even begins.

Third, it has what I call the “three ring circus” effect. It’s an old show business idea meaning that if you don’t dig the clowns in ring 1, you’ll like the lion tamer in ring 3 or the acrobats in ring 2. With 10 different interpretations and 10 different styles, there’s something here that people of all tastes will enjoy. Plus, if you’re not into one of ‘em, you only have to wait 9 more minutes and there will be something completely different. That’s pure brilliance right there Cellmates.

Please remember a couple of things while reading this review. First of all, I gave the name of the production company and the title only. That’s just too many casts and crews to discuss individually. Second, some of this may sound pretty vague, but you kinda have to be to avoid spoilers for a 10-minute movie. With that said, on with the flicks…

1. The Cult of Moi and Vous - Sascratch vs. Afrodesius: The Giant Rubber Monster Movie.

The same filmmakers behind The Italian Zombie Movie 1&2 bring us this tale of time travel, giant monsters, serial killers, dino-men, luchadors, vegetarianism, and military intrigue. It’s outlandish, silly, cheesy, and pretty damn funny. It’s one of those intentionally bad genre parodies. It features horror host cameos, a couple of good actors including one 10 year old kid, horrible special effects, and enough weird goofiness that you can’t help but crack up. The “we all have our demons” scene is worth the price of the DVD all by itself. I literally laughed at that ‘til I cried.

2. Darkrider Studios – Meateater

This one also took the comedic approach. This time we get a found footage style flick about rednecks hunting down a monster that’s been eating the townsfolk. The rednecks are played very over the top, and it’s good for a few laughs. Some of the jokes fall a little flat, but a really cool ending makes up for it.

3. Graphic 13 Films – Whistling Past the Graveyard

Two men discuss superstition after a funeral, while the maniac behind The Meateater Murders prowls the streets for victims. In a couple of spots, the acting kept this one from being as good as it could have been. Twice someone finds a body, and they react like they found a dead squirrel. More energy folks! Let’s hear a real scream! Go nuts with it! On the other hand, the scenes involving the killer had a nice sense of malice to them. The makeup on his lips was very good, and the “thing in the back seat” really added an extra wicked dimension to the ending. Aside from people who just can’t bring themselves to freak out, I dug it.

4. Liberty or Death Productions – Zracne Vile

Two men at a bar are discussing a recent dis-“member”-ment, when an old man (who looks a hell of a lot like Billy Connolly as Il Duce) tells them a tale that may have a connection to the murder. It has a fun EC Comics like feel to it, it had much better use of a green screen than you usually see in films at this budget level, and some scenes have a storybook/dreamlike quality that I appreciated. It has a good twist, but I’m not sure it’s fully realized. It needed a little more fleshing out in the middle. I think this would have worked better at 15 or maybe 20 minutes. It seems like they just tried to do too much within the time allotted, which you can’t fault them for. Trying to do too much is a hell of a lot better than not doing enough though. Speaking of which…

5. So-So Pix – Snow Angels

This is the only one out of this collection that I really didn’t dig. It seems to me that they got too wrapped up in trying to do something different and “artsy” that they forgot to, well, be entertaining or tell a story. That will be a running theme throughout the Collective series by the way; the more “arthouse” entries tend to be the weakest. The first two minutes are the credits and a shot out the windshield of a car as it drives snowy streets. Then we get a static shot of a winding country road with a girl slowly walking towards the camera. This shot is 6 minutes long! Then something happens (I won’t say what it is since it’s the only thing that happens, but I didn’t find it worth the wait), and she spends 2 more minutes walking away. How do you make 10 minutes feel way too long? Like this. Then again, I read a review where the reviewer said that this was the best one of the bunch. Snow Angel just didn’t do it for me though.

6. Quatro Vento Scott – Graveyard Blues

Now THAT’s more like it. This is what’s known as playing to your strengths and hiding your weaknesses. It’s obvious that they didn’t have shit for a budget, but it didn’t matter because it had atmosphere. Loads of atmosphere. Shit loads of atmosphere! It’s the story of a pact made between an other worldly being and a village ages ago and a girl who wants to see the truth about what lies at the heart of the town’s grisly traditions for herself. It has a Lovecraftian vibe to it, which I love. I had a feeling they were going where they were going with the ending, but it was still a good reveal. I think they probably should have ended it 21 seconds earlier, as it would have been a stronger ending, but that’s just my opinion. The only problem is with the sound editing. There are times when the music completely drowns out the central monologue. Minor technical problem notwithstanding, this is what micro-budget filmmaking is all about.

7. Jabb Pictures – The Meat Eater

You can tell that most of these filmmakers are from colder areas, because there sure is a hell of a lot of snow in these flicks. It’s enough to make a Georgia boy jealous. Anyway, Jabb, who put this collection together, turn in probably the best short in the collection. A man is trapped in his house. A large figure has hunted and eaten the rest of the town. Is he a man? Is he a monster? Is he a zombie? We’re not sure, but we do know this…it wants to eat our final survivor. This one was a good old-fashioned monster siege story. I think the “Meateater” was supposed to be a zombie, but I’m not sure. It’s never really stated. He kinda reminded me of George Eastman’s cannibal character from Anthropophagus. I like that what he is is left ambiguous. The basement set is cool, the outdoor lighting looks great, it’s well acted and shot, and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

8. Over Analyzed Productions – Um, I don’t see a title, so…

After being dumped by his cheating girlfriend, Matt calls up Revenge Radio and, well, I’ll leave it at that. I wanted more intensity from Matt at the beginning. He was too sedate to sell me on his heart breaking. I absolutely loved the Revenge Radio concept. I’d love to see a feature film based around it. It’s a plot device with a lot of potential. There was some cool camera work going on here. The texting trick was a good idea. It allowed them to compress a lot of exposition into just a few seconds. Smart filmmaking. Brad Scaggs as the DJ, who was only shown in Warriors style extreme close-up, positively owned the screen. That voice was perfect. Actually, scratch that feature idea. I wanna see a Revenge Radio anthology series with Brad Scaggs (as Mike “The Meat” Eader) hosting.

9. So-So Pix – Cornfed

So-So comes back with a winner. This was directed by 13 year old Dakota Meyer. I’m gonna repeat that for emphasis; this one was directed by a 13 year old! It’s a straightforward story of a cannibal and a little girl. There’s some really good camera work here, Dakota has obviously been studying. Sound issues rear their ugly head when you can’t hear what the girl says on the porch at all, but that’s a small quibble. Did I mention that a 13 year old did this? I’m very interested to see what Dakota is capable of as he gets older, because he displays a lot of raw talent here. Once he gets more experienced and polished, this kid is really gonna “wow” us all.

10. Jason Hoover – not sure if it’s the actual title, but A Mark of Wholesome Meat is the first title card we see, so I’m going with that.

This is basically slaughterhouse footage cut into old documentaries about the meat industry with bizarre audio juxtapositions. It’s pretty unsettling. We hear pig squeals as pork carcasses go down the “disassembly” line. A pig slowly dies hanging from a forklift as “Rump Shaker” by Wreckx-N-Effect plays. The atmosphere swings back and forth wildly from comical to unnerving. This was a very different take on the theme, and it gets under your skin very well. I really want to show this to a vegetarian and watch their face.

There’s something for everyone here. Horror comedy? Got it. Serial Killers? Got it. Arthouse? Got it. Monsters? It’s here. Gore? Yep. This is a great concept, and I applaud Jason Hoover, Jabb Pictures, and all of the filmmakers involved for executing it so well. If you’re a fan of indie horror, you can’t go wrong with this one. The Meat Eater’s got bite. Two severed thumbs up. Nathan says check it out. It’s available HERE.

Review: Bottles

Remember that interview I posted yesterday with Taaffe O’Connell? Of course you do. Just in case you’re late to the party and need to catch up, you can see that HERE. Anyway, in part 2 she talked about releasing short films under the Taaffe’s Twisted Picts banner, and Bottles is the first one. She gave me a copy to review, so without further ado…

When it comes to short films, I guess I’m kinda like Goldilocks. The stories seem to be kinda hard to nail down perfectly for the length. Sometimes they’re too short, meaning they have a feature’s worth of ideas, but they only have time to skim across them superficially, and you end up with that “that’s all?’ feeling. Sometimes they have a little kernel of an idea, like a scene or a gag that would be really good as a scene in a feature but just can’t stand on its own, so they try to stretch it into a short. Then it’s too long. Then you get a flick like Bottles where it’s just right.

Here’s the synopsis: Mira is a hard working divorced mother with a dark secret; when she gets angry, objects move and people get hurt. One day, coming home from a patient who has slipped into a mysterious coma, she notices disturbing items in her twelve-year-old daughter’s antique bottle collection. Her daughter, Cheyenne, is hiding her own frightening capabilities. As Mira copes with her daughter’s budding talents, Cheyenne draws Mira, her Father – and his new wife – into a shadowy set of life or death choices.

The story here works perfectly. We never find out where the ladies’ powers come from, and we don’t need to. I like that everything isn’t explained. It leaves the world that the movie takes place in a bit of a mystery. The central idea is well realized, and it all ends with the type of surprising conclusion that doesn’t leave the audience gasping so much as with an evil, conspiratorial grin. It has an almost Twilight Zone-ish vibe to it. I want to avoid saying too much, as if I say pretty much anything beyond that synopsis I’ll give too much away. I will say this, I knew that the film was 20 minutes, but when the credits started rolling, I had to look at the running time again to be sure, because it flew by.

Where this short really shines is in the acting. There are only six members of the cast, so a weak link would have been glaring. Luckily, everyone turns in performances that are far superior to what you see in a lot of horror short films, or indie horror films at all for that matter. The standout is Teressa Byrne as Mira. She delivers a complex performance that is simultaneously sympathetic and sinister. It’s no wonder that she’s been wining awards at the festivals the film is screened at, and she could easily be a star on the rise. I also really dug Gwendolyn Oliver’s performance as nursing home nurse Cecilia. My grandparents spent some time in nursing homes near the end of their lives, and Gwendolyn captures the demeanor of the nurses there that I actually liked with pinpoint accuracy. Like I said, everyone did a great job, but those two were particularly noteworthy to me.

The visual style is where I had a bit of an issue with the flick. A lot of the time the camera is moving for no reason at all. It’s not shaky cam, it’s just wobbly cam. There is a lot of good, motivated camera movement, but there are also times when the camera is just bobbing slightly in shots that should be static. I’m not sure if this was an artistic choice or if it was just shot handheld and the wobble was left in, but I found myself a couple of times being taken out of the story because I was too busy asking “why is the camera doing that?” That being said, I did dig a lot of the visuals in the flick. Some of the shots are set up beautifully, with some unique angles. The lighting is used quite strikingly. The effects on the bottles themselves were creative and actually really cool looking. I loved the look of the film aside from that wobble.

Overall filmmaker Jon Stout brings us a great little creepy tale in Bottles. The acting is phenomenal. It’s based on a short story, but it was adapted perfectly. Like I said, aside from the one visual issue of the wobbly frame, everything is spot on. It’s no wonder it’s, as Taaffe said, tearing up the festival circuit. Rumor has it that it will be included as part of an upcoming anthology. Keep your eyes peeled for that, and I’ll let you know if I find out any more details. Two severed thumbs up. Nathan says check it out. To find out where you can see it, go to www.facebook.com/bottlesfilm.