This type of event should have been expected.. It is one thing to make a series of films decades after real events–when most of those who suffered the consequences of the reality of horror in life are either expired or too old to fight, or even know about the pop culture incarnation of realistic bloody scenes.. But this film by Shaun Hart hits hard, and soon after events it is based off of played out..
Hart’s horror flick DEL PLAYA focuses on a troubled college male who murders after being rejected by a woman.
Then came a firestorm of controversy.. Then a petition to stop the release.. Then 20,000 + signatures.
And then this statement, in full, from Shaun Hart:
First and foremost, I would like to publicly apologize to everyone who has been offended in any way by our making of this film,” he wrote. “It was never our intent to monopolize on the tragic shootings in Isla Vista that took place last year. While I do admit there is the connection of Santa Barbara, this film is not about Elliot Rodger. The fictional character in the film is not meant to portray anyone in particular. It is meant to portray incidents that take place, not only in Santa Barbara, but across the country on a daily basis. Our intentions were not to make light of such a serious issue, but to engage our audience in an active discussion about bullying and violence. “As a graduate of UCSB and a former resident of Del Playa, that day was a knife to my heart. For me, the actions of one individual tainted a lot of good memories of an innocent time and brought darkness to a place that should only be home to the hopes and dreams of the young. For all touched by the tragedy at DP, know this: I stand right there with you.
This is a short horror film named CYNTHIA from kpictures
.“Cynthia,” is the story about a man in purgatory who’s soul is being condemned to hell by his murdered girlfriend under the gaze of the devil who eagerly awaits.
It’s a well-spent 10 minutes of time.
“Cynthia” is an Official Selection of the Winter Film Awards 2015 and played there this year in New York City.
A Kaleidoscope Pictures Inc. Production
Written and Directed by: Christopher Wells
I don’t consider JAWS the classic others do, but I see the point of the article. Horror has fallen steadily since then in the eyes of some… however there are amazing films the mainstream media often chooses to ignore. This year they could not ignore IT FOLLOWS
There are worthwhile films out there.. but you have to look to find them.
I still believe that professional wrestling and horror movies best show the pop culture of the time they are from.. Regardless of what reviewers or ‘experts’ in the entertainment field say..
Miller may be right when about the fall of the American horror film. But we still have the Japanese and Iranians.. Creativity still abounds.
The already overdone and failed concept of endless Halloween movies is going to get another run. And just in case there are any people still looking forward to it, read the exclusive MOVIE HOLE infornation they obtained:
Titled “Halloween Returns”, the new project will be a standalone film set to reintroduce audiences to Michael Myers years after his initial rampage.
“Halloween Returns” will pit a new group of Haddonfield youngsters against Myers. The now 18-year-old child of one of Myers’ victims plays a central role along with the child of a cop whose long been obsessed with Myers’ case, even putting it before his own daughter.
Myers is now on death row and the two kids with their own personal vendettas against the killer sneak in to watch his execution. But when things go awry and Myers escapes, the pair, along with their friends, find themselves in the firing line.
This just sounds all wrong. Plain wrong..
I have become weary of Michael Myers, but this death row concept for someone who has already been killed 8 times plus is plain ludicrous.
I actually wish someone would remake Halloween 3—as a horror fan, I have always been outnumbered in my appreciation of the Season Of Thr Witch..
Instead though Hollywood will return to the tried and true method of pointless slasher trasher with a storyline to match. ..
Nelson Greaves is getting some positive press about this week’s horror release: UNFRIENDED.. the movie is a twist on the safety net of the internet–a net that isn’t safe at all, as we know.
“It was so emotionally troubling for me,” says Greaves. “It’s such a simple thing but it made me stop and say, ‘This is like something out of a scary movie.’”
After that, Greaves started thinking about how the Internet is in many ways a secondhand cemetery, housing millions of social media profiles created by people who have passed off this mortal coil but left their Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr accounts active. That dovetailed with discomfiting memories of being a kid in the early ’90s and seeing his older sister spend hours in AOL chat rooms without ever knowing what what her chatmates looked like—for all she knew, she could have been chatting with, as Greaves puts it, “dirty 40-year-old men.” The inherent creepiness of anonymity, its potential for malevolence, always stuck with him.
The idea of monsters and FREDDY KREUGER type characters in horror movies is so cliche at this point.. the generation who is budding today with youthful vigor doesn’t get freaked by Michael Myers or Jason. They are simply laughing stocks of the 20 century, relics of a time when movies were just slashing and dashing their way to cheap quick cash at box offices..
But the internet? Now that can be scary.
I think TUMBLR can often be scary.. I recall vividly the moment on my personal TUMBLR page–one I don’t update much anymore because I just quite frankly thought about it too much–when I posted a family photo of me with my wife and son.. And then the photo got reblogged on another page.. But then it got reblogged on a really not so good page. I asked for the photo to be removed, the person complied, but I was sort of amazed and yet appalled with how easy it was for my personal items to be taken from me. Until it dawned on me, or hit me like a freight train: I put it out there. I was the problem. Me. I didn’t realize the power of a clunky social network. How can I possibly blame someone else.
This is off the path of the movie UNFRIENDED. The actual film looks, well.. a little clunky itself. The reviews are mixed. I don’t doubt it will have a successful quick fortune at the box office, even if it’s not in the number 1 or even 2 place. It will also have a longer lifespan when it eventually gets to NETFLIX and others.
However the idea of the movie is what fascinates me more than the movie itself.
I remember when HALLOWEEN 8 tried an online angle way back in 2002. The movie, HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION, followed the cast of characters as they live-broadcasted a show from the Michael Myers house. Of course we know how that ends. The movie wasn’t received very well. It was a disaster. It failed miserably. I don’t think the concept was a failure, but perhaps the use of the internet in horror was too soon. Or maybe it is because the premise was just wrong. Instead of showcasing the internet as horror, Akkad (RIP) thought Michael would be more frightening. He wasn’t.
What UNFRIENDED may be getting right: The chills and spills of the NET and how often it can give you a little bit of hair raising moments. UNFRIENDED is speaking to bigger issues … social issues.. pop culture issues. Real issues. The fact that the monster isn’t some supernatural being, but instead the vast information superhighway, now that’s scary. Because we are so connected, and we are so often at the mercy of the anonymous creature or villain on the other end of the road.
When I read Greaves anecdote about getting an email from a dead friend, it reminded me iof something I wrote on February 2014, I wrote an article on the HORROR REPORT about how, if ghosts and EVPs are real, they should be starting to appear on Facebook and the internet any time now. Then, I wondered what it would be like to suddenly get a live message on Facebook from a friend you know is dead. I spoke personally about a friend I knew who did in fact die and leave a beautiful family behind. And I was as much struck then as I am now about how Facebook pages become milestone memorial sites, with profile pictures frozen in time of the person who passes, and constant updates are thrown on the wall by friend who wish happy birthdays or Christmases, or just pop in to say they miss the person. Maybe eventually, so as long as EVPs and contact from the dead is real, they will also learn how to use Facebook and update their page from beyond the grave.
In UNFRIENDED, the bullied soul, someone who committed suicide, enacts revenge on the cyber bullies who caused it.
Now that is scary for this generation.
This new article is just a continuation of mainstream and alternative sources giving this movie some of the best ratings and best press that any horror movie has received since HALLOWEEN in the 1970s or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS at the end of the 20th century..
It’s amazing to see so many different publications giving both street cred and real cred to a horror film–a genre normally avoided with ten foot poles by most reviewers and news agencies.
This movie has cut across cultural boundaries and has redefined what may be scary–along with it giving people commentary on teen sex and the economic collapse in Detroit..
2014 reviews of BABADOOK were kind. But the IT FOLLOWS reviews were overly generous regardless of the site or source writing them..
And it’s translating to an ever-expanding amount of theaters and change in the dynamics for horror itself..
The movie is being released in a limited capacity today.. but that doesn’t matter to reviewers and fans of horror. The film has attracted untold amounts of attention through intelligent social media buzz and positive reviews–the film is boasting a near 100% rating on ROTTEN TOMATOES. Those types of things don’t happen too often..
Here’s a wrap of some of the reviews for the film that seem readable:
SALON: An instant horror classic about the dark side of teen sex: “There are distorted but obvious images of several real-world issues in “It Follows,” including acquaintance rape, teen suicide and mental illness, but you can’t boil the movie down to any of those things any more than to a metaphorical treatment of Detroit’s social and racial divide.”
i09: Proof that horror movies don’t have to be dumb to scare you: ” It offers an unpredictability that’s become increasingly rare in horror. For that alone (and for not being a sequel, a remake, a found-footage extravaganza, or gratuitously gory) It Follows deserves high praise. This movie is absolutely one of the year’s must-see horror films.”
Entertainment WEEKLY praises: “Even with its flaws, though, It Follows is a dizzyingly tense and creepy workout. Oh, and I almost forgot… Hey kids, don’t have sex!”
There aren’t currently too many theaters showing it. I have a feeling word of mouth will create demand.. and create a sensation. It will be the sleeper hit of 2015.
The IT FOLLOWS heat is on..
The upcoming horror movie, much anticipated, is being heralded by some reviews as not only the best of 2015 but also the best in a long while..
How they converge is, brilliantly, in this aforementioned post-coital curse, one which carries the everlasting anxieties over where your lover’s been before, but pushes farther into all of life’s stresses. Where am I? Where will I go? Who will I become? There’s a deliberate dread in “It’s” rules. Once you’ve got “it,” there it is, walking slowly, assuredly your way. This is where Mitchell has fun composing wide, confident frames— your eyes engaged, always under attack, searching for “It.” At more reprieving moments, he acknowledges the absurdity of the accursed characters and elicits huge laughs. When more explicitly a threat, the director and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis still employ symmetrical, centered stunning visuals. This time, they’re less paranoid and more confrontational, immediately assaulting. Sometimes, “It” is in your face. Others, it’s throwing electrical appliances at it.
As the review goes on–in my humble opinion–it shares too much of the premise and gives a little too much away of the ending, you may want to shield yourself from the final paragraph that spoils without warning. But the essence of the Zimmerman story yields the result that this film is going to be a bit different. There is a message here.. one that may need to be explored with a deep mental journey.
The plot would be laughable in a movie that doesn’t script it very well, but it seems that IT FOLLOWS makes it work. A entity, paranormal and foreboding in nature, is spread through teenage lust and sex. There is something similar when compared to 80s slasher flicks–such as JASON and FREDDY ruining the lives of the sinning children who act out teenage passion in pre-marital sex. But IT FOLLOWS brings a new darker presence to it: The shadow is cast on the woman by this sexual entity, this curse which is handed down through the false love that happens when you’re a tender teen tot not yet experienced with what love really means..
This strange affliction can only be picked up and passed on through sex, which throws up some fascinating dilemmas. Digital Spy caught up with the movie’s writer-director David Robert Mitchell to find out what inspired the tale, whether a franchise is on the cards and how tricky some of the key plot twists were to pull off…
DIGITAL SPY goes on to interview Mitchell, who says some interesting things about his horror flick that could, including the fact he had a nightmare since youth of entity following him .. the sexual allegory was added to IT FOLLOWS. Mitchell also downplays the idea of a sequel, joking that “IT’S STILL FOLLOWING” just doesn’t sound right..
Monroe is already being called the 21st century scream queen–a champion role that many stars of the 20th century still hold dear to their hearts, even after their careers moved on from horror..
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for Mitchell and Murphy..
The ideas presented in the film seem to force questions over sexual morality and the often false safety of suburbia–and even, some say, a certain GATSY like vision of the collapse of the American dream.
This movie has a lot to offer.. a deep meaning, jumps and scares, and perhaps, just perhaps, a brand new scream queen for a new generation that needs horror movies to make a difference again.
Substitute teacher Sheila Kearns did a very stupid thing when she showed a horror movie to a Columbus, Ohio high school class. But she doesn’t deserve to go to jail.
And this:
Kearns showed abysmal judgment—although she maintained throughout her trial she was unaware of the film’s content. She should never be allowed near a classroom again. But jail? These were high schoolers. Not kindergarteners.
I am in full agreement and have written countless stories on my website concerning this case, and the bizarre chastisement of this woman as some sort of modern day witch. I wonder if her race had something to do with it..
There is a point of ridiculousness too. Chances are most of the students in the class already saw the ABCS OF DEATH–and if they did they would realize it wasn’t even that great of a movie, even the lower forms of people who live and breathe snuff films were not overly excited about this or even the sequel..
Rockoff writes more,
More disturbing than the draconian sentence is the law under which Kearns was prosecuted. Her crime falls under an umbrella of moral codes known colloquially as “obscenity laws.” And while they might seem like a relic from a time when rock and roll was the devil’s music, they’re still on the books in almost every state in the Union.
I am glad, truly glad, that someone besides me is 1) paying attention to this story and 2) upset by the insanity of putting a woman in prison for something that, under all scenarios, isn’t a crime..
