Cult actor Bill Oberst Jr. plays a deranged struggling writer with insomniac. Bill’s lack of sleep drives him to extremely hallucinate to the point of being dangerous to not only himself but to others. His derangement wields a bowie knife, a rust colored hammer, and a sporting bow and arrow as the hallucinations get weirder, stranger, and more violent and everyone that Bill comes into contact with becomes a target of his severe breakdown into insanity.
Who doesn’t love Bill Oberst Jr? The veteran actor has a unique look about him and his acting method brings stage and screen acting together into one great performance in Trevor Juenger’s “Coyote.” Without saying much through the entirety of the film, Oberst interpretation of one man’s sleepless delusions sports no talking head explanation. Rigorously and physically involved in the role, “Coyote” could not have been possible if it wasn’t for Oberst serious role indulgence.
The film is described as a blend between “Taxi Driver” and “Videodrome.” That description is entirely accurate. Full of body horror and plenty of schizo to go around, the surrealism in the editing by Juenger is remarkable pitted against budgetary restraints. Hard to follow, lost in translation, yet somehow by the end of the movie you get it, you just get it. You might even feel lost for the first hour and by the time the last half hour comes around, you’re just as angry, confused, and disturbed as Bill. You might even want to take out a person or two with a bowie knife.
“Coyote” won’t break much cinematic ground like “Taxi Driver” or “Videodrome,” but “Coyote” will be a great embarkment to a honorable homage and a surreal look into fresh art-house horror. If you like this type of material full of masochistic mutilation, visceral carnage, and a visual look into the mind of lunacy, then Wild Eye Releasing’s “Coyote” is for you.
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Skipping School Only to be Trapped by Evil! “Playing Hooky” review!
Skipping school and playing hooky is a rite of passage for any under 18 student. Almost everybody and their mother have ditched class to go to the mall or smoke pot or drink or even probably something more naturally and hormonally scandalous between two teenagers. Usually the only worst thing that could happen from playing hooky is being caught and punished – grounded, detention, or suspension. Now if you were to skip school to go to a potentially demon possessed and satanic sacrificial abandoned insane asylum to get your kicks, then you might have something other than the prospect of getting pregnant or suspended from school to be worried about…
Five high school students decide to play hooky and set up a smoke and drink shop in an abandoned Psychiatric facility where rumors of spirits and demons inhabit. The creepy, spiderweb infested asylum delivers to be the perfect isolated spot for their fun day away. That’s until they meet Buddy. Buddy unleashes a playfully rough and violent game of hide and seek. When the five students realize that Buddy isn’t all right in the head, the jig is up and playing hooky has become a fateful and frightful game for their very lives.
“Playing Hook” is the first film under the Chad Clinton Freeman created Pollygrind, a Las Vegas Film Festival, title. Shot in only seven days, Frank S. Petrilli’s found footage film inspires us all to invest a cheap camera, a decent script, fair actors, and to produce solid entertainment for a hour and half. Petrilli’s film has a lot of heart; more than most well-funded and fully production glazed films today. Every scene involving an effect is based off slight of hand or implying techniques. The first act of the film bares the only fault where too much exposition on backstories and too much wandering around to find a hang out spot creates a loss of excitement. These scenes seem too much like script filler than important notations.
Not until the second act are we greeted with a compelling escape and the maniacal Buddy. Buddy, a childlike grown man with a schizo mentality, has a violent and perverted nature about him. Tom Petrone makes good on Buddy’s character. I wish I could say the same amongst the five students. If you’re playing hooky and doing what raging hormonal teenagers like to do, there needs to be sinful activities. Most of their activities are implied. The bag of weed is shown, but nobody is seen smoking it. The bottle of whiskey is stolen from one of the student’s home, yet nobody drinks it. Sexy dances are given, but no sex was given. The intentions are there, but the execution was a bit lacking because in most slasher-survival films, sinful acts get you killed. There was one scene in particular where Rosie and Megan made out, but the camera was behind Rosie and the kissing was blocked intentionally I’m sure. A sure sign of being on the edge and then you’re pulled right back to safety and safe is what I feel “Playing Hooky” was made out to be.
“Playing Hooky” stars Kim Kleemichen as the tough girl Rosie, Becky Byers as the sexy Catholic girl, Vincent Kulish as the slick as shit driver, J. Wright Chester as the mouthy hidden camera guy, and Theresa Davis as the ugly Catholic girl. Every actor and actress has their role and plays it well, but there characters lack depth and that isn’t their fault except for maybe Vincent Kulish who co-wrote the movie. However, “Playing Hooky” is a good first release film for Pollygrind and Derelict Films and a good edition release for Wild Eye Releasing on October 27th.
Nudity Report
Not a damn thing…
Based On Real Life Evil? “My Name is ‘A’ By Anonymous” review!
Based on the real life teenage ‘thrill killer’ Alyssa Bustamente, Shame Ryan (“Amateur Porn Star Killer”) directs “My Name is ‘A’ By Anonymous” to tell what may or may not have happened to murdered Elizabeth Olten by her neighbor Alyssa Bustamente. The story tells the story of a group of teenagers left to their own emotional devices and left to their own parentless neglect manifesting a dark world that sparks angst leading to murder.
Shane Ryan mixes real life with an art film and the result doesn’t and won’t translate to most audiences. The non-linear story creates more confusion than clarity and being that this is one possible scenario on the murder of Elizabeth Olten, the scenario leaves more questions that perhaps vivid answers. One quality the film does do is color Alyssa Bustamente to be a thrill killer with self cutting tendencies, a dry attitude toward life, and the possibility of having a multiple personality disorder. Does this revolution around Alyssa paint a portrait that the film is more about a killer than about the victim?
The expectation bar was set high for director/writer Shane Ryan. With the exploitations of his earlier work such as “Amateur Porn Star Killer” movies and “Warning!!! Pedophile Released,” there were hopes that this film would be more intense and graphic. Since Ryan decided to take a cheap and artistic route, the outcome will confuse, bore, and shred any bit of entertaining qualities to itty-bitty pieces.
Marketed as being in the same vein of more infamous teen angst films such as “Kids” and “Ken Park” is very deceiving. Besides the killing, which was mostly described in sub context art form, and the implied incest-rape, also in sub context, there is really no comparison to “Kids” or “Ken Park.” Very few moments in the movie where the scene feels powerful and telling but these scenes are overpowered by lack of story telling and more of just teenage girls scenes of them brutalizing themselves and dealing with parental issue.
I’m not a fan of this Wild Eye Release. I’m encouraging you, however, to try to have an open mind and give it a whirl. Ryan’s film is not for everybody and won’t be a stellar hit. “My Name Is ‘A’ By Anonymous” teases mostly in the same likes as “The Life: What’s Your Please?” teases the possibility of Denise Richards and Daryl Hannah, a pair of escorts, getting their freak on but leave the view limp all the way to the end. This film harks on that same flaws. Don’t get your hopes maxed out, but instead go into the movie, being released this Tuesday September 23rd, with a backup plan just in case of severe boredom.
Re-Edited Lycanthrope Evil! President Wolfman review!
The world should recycle more. Every single plastic bottle, every single piece of cardboard, every single scrap paper, and every piece of jagged edge metal should be recycled and reincarnated for another purpose. The world would be cleaner and less money would be spent on brand new material when perfectly good, slightly used material already exists. This little rant brings me to a film that hits DVD shelves today! “President Wolfman” – a fairly catchy title and my second in a row werewolf review (see Werewolf Rising) – uses and re-edited public domain footage to give birth to an entirely new movie about President John Wolfman, who in the midst of trying to veto a bill that would involve China buying out America and make the land of the free one of China’s colonies, becomes bit by a mystical Native American wolf that transforms him into werewolf. Not just any werewolf, but the Commander-n-Chielf werewolf that will do anything to stop this bill no matter who he has to slaughter.
One hundred and twelve pieces of stock footage and public domain film was re-edited to create this masterpiece. Most familiar piece of film is “The Werewolf of Washington” from 1973 starring “Quantum Leap” star (no, not Scott Bakula) Dean Stockwell. Stockwell is an actually a White House press reporter, but in Preside Wolfman portrays the President of the United States with the voiceover provided by Marc Evan Jackson. John Wolfman is also portrayed from other various public domain films, none of which I’ve ever seen before nor do I probably care to. If The Werewolf of Washington wasn’t already campy in 1973, then surely, most definitely, absolutely camp-a-licious in this re-edited masterpiece.
The script written by director Mike Davis (“Sex Galaxy”) can be quite witty and colorful making scenes have life, but there are times when the voiceover is overdone and burnt to a dull, tasteless crisp. However, that is the whole point of this film isn’t it? To turn a mediocre film into something more ridiculous? If so, then Mike Davis went beyond that goal without a shadow of a doubt.
“President Wolfman” can lose focus at times with non-cohesive splice in scenes that only work to the film’s charm. Even though this film was released in 2012 and won various festival awards from Atlanta Horror, New Orleans Horror, and Alien to Zombies Los Angeles film festivals respectively, “President Wolfman” is finally, about damn time, getting a DVD release from WildEye releasing, a great, great company who know what rare and campy are all about. The DVD, which drops in stores today, also includes commentary, funny short films, out takes, trailers, highlight reel, and a great music video! Lets also not forget that a certain scene of public domain film includes stock footage of a woman giving birth in a backseat of a car! Placenta and all!
One Hell of an Evil Ride! Scream Park review!
I’ve never been big on a budget film, or any other film, riding the coattails of famous actors by name alone. The style of marketing seems like a scam, a racket, a trick, or a scheme since most of the time the actors or the actresses are in the film for a whole five minutes, if that. Scream Park pulls the same kind of marketing headlining the film with Hellraiser’s Pinhead himself Doug Bradley at the top of the DVD cover. Like any and all movies in que for a review, a chance is given and so I continue with my viewing of Cary Hill’s Scream Park with Doug Bradley. Bradley’s presence is a quick snapshot, but the entire film is worth a long take when a good slasher is considered.
THe horror inspired amusement Fright Land is shutting it’s rundown doors for good and the handful of workers are looking to have one last after hours hurrah with booze and a little sexual mischief. Park owner (played by Doug Bradley) has another idea to spark more life into Fright Land that will have ride goers remember Fright Land forever. Hired killers lurk through the darkness of the park and one by one the teen workers are hunted down.
Scream Park starts right from the get go with the last few minutes of park operations and right into where our killers enter the park. There is no time to digest the cast of characters, but writer-director Cary Hill pens just enough information about each character to establish credibility of being. In fact, the killers don much personality as well. Former Skinny Puppy band member Nivek Ogre is a psychotic and deranged hillbilly with no real background other than those traits, but is there a real reason for murder? Ogre’s brute force, unspoken “Ogre” has the strength and measurability of a Michael Myers like killer.
The practical effects are a nice touch in a computer generated effects world and the amounts of blood spilled warrants recognition. The death scenes are nothing out of the ordinary – a cut throat, a snapped neck, a strangulation – but there are a few that stand out and are nicely done with all the dramatic bells and whistles – see the axe to the head scene! Basically, the killers resemble English invaders of Scotland and commit all but pilferage the rickety old park.
The acting could use some work as the delivers come off as robot-like and scenes seem obviously rehearsed. Unnatural is the term that comes to mind. Kailey Marie Harris gives a jaw dropping performance when she takes off her top and exposes her mammoth melons – goodness gracious. Speaking of maturity, the cast will mature as I see potential in leading lady Wendy Wygant as the fear in her eyes is convincing. You can tell experience from inexperience in the five minute scene with Doug Bradley and leading man Steve Rudzinkski as the park Manager. Bradley has not lost his touch since Hellraiser and continues to be powerful and compelling even for only a short time.
Scream Park is a good edition to any slasher collection. More low budget horrors should look to Cary Hill’s film as inspiration and as an example. Though the film was made back in 2012, I’m finally treated to a DVD copy by MVD and Wild Eye Releasing that is set to hit the streets April 22, 2014.
It's Bloggin Evil! 