Top Horror Flicks of 2011... sort of

Since it's February, I thought now would be the perfect time to post my year-end best of list.  You know, to beat out all the competition from the rest of those other bloggers and get my list out first to show how smart I am and stuff.

Oops.

Truth be told, it's just too dang difficult to get my arse out to the theaters and see new flicks as they premiere.  With two young kids in my house, I'm lucky if I can get to the movies once a month to see the latest singing chipmunk flick.

And so, I'm left with waiting around until Netflix or On Demand can provide me with the movie that everyone was buzzing about.

Five months ago.

So, since I'm finally sort of caught up with what the cool crowd was into, I can now present you with my definitive list of the

BEST HORROR FILMS OF 2011

Wow.. ok... Well, I'd love to to that, but just between you and me, here's the deal.

This year kinda sucked for horror.  I mean, really.  There was not one single horror movie that really blew me away this year - no Let the Right One In, no The Ring, no The Devil's Backbone.  There was some kinda good stuff and lots of not so good stuff. And as usual, the best stuff wasn't even produced by Hollywood.

So, I've had to expand my horizons a bit and open up the list to thrillers, sci-fi and grindhouse movies as well to be able to field a proper team.  So here we go:

BEST HORROR/THRILLER/SCI-FI/GRINDHOUSE FILMS OF 2011

- I Saw The Devil  Ji-woon Kim's masterful ultimate revenge flick.  I don't know what it is about the South Koreans, but they love themselves some revenge!  Please tell me you've seen OldBoy.

- 13 Assassins  ok, I know this isn't even a horror/thriller/sci-fi/grindhouse film, it's a samurai action flick, but it was still better than most anything I watched last year, so it makes the list.  It's my list dammit! 

- Troll Hunter  A hilarious mockumentary that brings storybook trolls to life.  What's cooler than hunting a 200 foot mountain troll with a UV gun to try to turn it into stone?  Nothing.

 - Stake Land  Yes, I know, technically this came out in 2010, but I've had stuff to do you know - so gimmie a break.  A great post-apocalyptic zomie-ish vampire western road movie.  With tremendous attention to character development and tone.

- Super 8   The first big ol' Hollywood film on this list.  A great premise and it absolutely nailed the late 70's early 80's vibe of running around with your buds with a Super 8 camera.  I was there.  I was that kid running around. I should know.
I loved the first 2/3rds of this movie but then it kinda fell apart at the end.  Too bad.
Do I really need to mention all the gratuitous lens flares that J.J. Abrams has fallen in love with?

- Grave Encounters  I almost saw this low-budget indie film in Chicago in 2010 when Enter the Dark premiered there.  But then the festival was running way late and we had to bail.  This is one of the better found-footage horror flicks out there.  A predictable setup of a tv ghost hunting team spending the night in a spooky location is handled well with some nasty twists and turns. 

 - Tucker & Dale vs Evil  A very funny entry in the now well-established horror/comedy genre.  Best one since Shawn of the Dead and Slither.

- Rise of the Planet of the Apes  For a big tent-pole summer blockbuster, I thought it was very entertaining.

- Black Death  Well-done medieval-witch-hunting flick.  'nuf said.

- The Woman  Lucky McKee, the deranged director of cult favorite, May, brings you this very sick and twisted tale of a family man and the feral woman pet he keeps in his basement.  And shares with his family. Pretty standard setup... right?

- The Rite  Well-crafted, serious take on demonic possession and one man's faith.  Oh yeah, and Anthony Hopkins is his usual awesome self.  A lot of people didn't seem to like this film.  I think they've burned out their retinas and brains with too many episodes of The Kardashians and Jersey Shore.  Settle in and watch a mature and thoughtful movie every once in a while, willya?

- YellowBrickRoad  Another cool indie film that leads a team of investigators into the woods to research the mysterious deaths of an entire small town.  Another great setup that slowly builds its tale of madness gets under your skin.  It may take a wrong turn here or there and you may not like the ending, but it sure sticks with you days afterwards.

 - Attack the Block  The darling of last year's SXSW festival is a hyperactive tale of British street kids duking it out with space monsters.  Think Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels meets, oh I don't know, any alien invasion flick. 

- Dead Hooker in a Trunk  Yes, yes, once again this little gem actually came out in 2009, but it didn't get its wide release until this year.  If you haven't heard of this film yet - where the hell have you been??  The Soska sisters' loving tribute to all that is grindhouse-y, Dead Hooker makes up for its no-budget shortcomings by being relentlessly entertaining.

- Hobo With a Shotgun  Speaking of grindhouse... With a little more budget, a pissed-off Rutger Hauer and lots of colorful lighting, Hobo more than delivers on it's exploitation promise.

- Paranormal Activity 3  The problem with these PA flicks is they all fit the same pattern - slowly establish weird goings-on, give the doofus guy a reason to relentlessly videotape everything, ramp up the thrills and then give us a little twist at the end.  This installment works because of the clever use of the oscillating fan-o-cam and it's Wicker Man-esque finish.
  

- Insidious  I know I ripped on this film when it first came out, but I've changed my mind.  No... not really.  After seeing it again however, I really like the film up until the stupid ghost busters show up.  So I'm recommending the first half of the film. Then turn it off and go do something useful with your life.

What I learned from the festival circuit

After more than a year and almost 40 festival screenings, Enter the Dark's World Tour 2010 - 2011 is finally at an end.  It's been a great experience and I've learned quite a few things that will help me as I move forward with new projects.  I figured I might as well pass along some of these hard-earned nuggets to anyone who dares venture forth into the world of indie filmmaking.

First, in order to keep track of all the festivals I submitted to, I created a big-ole spreadsheet, including festival name, date of upcoming deadline, cost of entry, dates of the festival, location of festival, date when they would notify filmmakers of their decisions, whether I got in or not, and if we won any awards.

From these magic columns I can extrude the following data:

TOTAL SUBMISSIONS:  88
YES:  40
NO:    42
TO BE DETERMINED:  6

Almost a 50% batting average - not too bad.  I can tell you this - in the future I would not submit to as many festivals.  Since this was my first time, my main goal was getting as much exposure as possible and finding out which festivals were worth the entry fee.  Having submitted to that many festivals, I now have a pretty good idea which are the good ones, and which are the shady ones.

Rhinos' Flight

When I'm not scaring myself silly with new story ideas or ranting about media wackiness, I actually have a real job (sort of) as video editor.

Outside magazine recently posted a short film "Rhinos' Flight" I edited for the series "The New Environmentalists." Check out the story of Raoul du Toit, working to save the last of Africa's black rhinos. To see the whole six-part series, narrated by Robert Redford, check your local PBS listings.

Halloween treats for all!

Happy Halloween! To celebrate the day when the dead walk amongst the living, I've posted my award-winning horror short film, Enter the Dark on YouTube and Vimeo for all to enjoy absolutely free.

Just make sure to watch it fullscreen. At night. With the lights off!

Then, if you liked what you saw, you could help me out tremendously by heading over to our facebook page and "liking" us (I know, that sounds so 8th grade pathetic and needy).  And also bop on over to out IMDB page and give us a great rating (somehow I don't think 6.2 stars quite does the film justice).

...and remember please, please, take out all batteries from children's toys when not in use.  They really can be quite a nuisance when taken over by evil spirits.  You'll thank be later.

Trust me.

Enter the Dark's FREE Online Halloween Premiere

It's been a great run.

My little horror film which started out originally as a simple exercise in micro-budget filmmaking has now played in over 30 film festivals worldwide, garnered 6 awards, and introduced me to a whole new family of horror and indie film enthusiasts.

Along the way, I've traveled with the film from it's premiere in Chicago last year, to screenings in Sacramento and San Francisco.  I've made connections with fellow filmmakers and fans that I hope to nurture into collaborators and evangelists for my future work.

As I look back on the past year, it has been much more than I would have hoped.  I am deeply grateful for all the help I received along the way - mostly from my tremendous group of friends that just happened to be my cast and crew, and also from the numerous horror fans, bloggers and festival directors that championed our cause.

Heartfelt thanks to all!

And now, as the festivals wind down, in recognition of the great year we've just had, I'd like to offer you something for free...

Yes, that's right kiddos, Enter the Dark will be going live on the big bad worldwide web this Halloween!

See what all the fuss has been about.  See why folks much smarter than me have been saying things like:

…Enter the Dark, ladies and gentlemen, is what independent film making is all about.
The suspense was built up so finely that it almost started making me have a claustrophobic reaction in my room.  HORROR SOCIETY

Miro's story works like a good horror tale should, suckering us in with one hand while it's preparing to pop up and scare us with the other.  There's a command here that can't be taught, and Miro shows a natural gift for creating tension.  FROM MIDNIGHT, WITH LOVE

…a very surreal, scary and realistic depiction of a universal fear that all of us have…
...a sonic achievement of style and horror, but in a very psychological way.  SCARY FILM REVIEW

…Enter the Dark proves once again a good ghost story simply needs to put emphasis on the story and not flashy effects or big budgets in order to provide some fun and scares … delivers everything I look for in a horror short.   ALL THINGS HORROR

Halloween - Monday night, Oct. 31, 2011 at 5PM Pacific Time, Enter the Dark will me made available for free for the first time ever on YouTube and Vimeo.   And there it shall live - for all to see whenever you dang well please, in the comfort of your very own home.  Copy it - send the link around worldwide - make fun of it - argue about it - I don't care, the more the merrier!

So now there's no excuses - you cheappos who won't pony up $1.95 to watch a 30-day stream from IndieFlix.  Or you lazy types who couldn't bother to travel to one of the more than 30 festivals worldwide where it has already screened. No, that's fine - just stay right there.  Yeah, don't move hardly a muscle - just click your little mousy-thingy and flood your computer with 17 minutes of spooky good times.
Be my guest.

Really.

Did I mention that it will now be FREEEEE!??!?!?

(good - just checking...)

My gift to you.

Enjoy!

Where are the voices of anger?

We are living in turbulent times my friends.  Most of us live under a cloud of uncertainty - an omnipresent gloom that permeates every waking moment.  How will I pay my rent?  Keep my house? Find a job?  What happens if I get sick?  What kind of a world will my kids live in?  How will our country move forward into these uncertain times without fracturing into a million splinter groups of special interests, each with voices raised in hyperbole and hysteria.

And throughout all this upheaval, what has the medium of cinema had to say about all this?

I'm waiting...

In the 60's and 70's, the turmoil of society was reflected in its cinema.

Movies like Easy Rider, Woodstock, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate, Dr Strangelove, Straw Dogs, Taxi Driver, Midnight Cowboy, and Night of the Living Dead represented their times with bold, revolutionary statements, new directions, and a cold hard look at societies' issues.

Vietnam had fractured the country, but starting with MASH in 1970, filmmakers were already attempting to deal with the horrors of war and its effects on our country. 

Then came Coppola's brilliant love letter to chaos and darkness, Apocalypse Now, and eventually, more mainstream efforts like The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Platoon and Born Under the Fourth of July.


In 1976, Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet seemed to speak for a whole nation with their brilliant satire, Network:

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" 

In the 80's and 90's a new wave if independent cinema burst in the scene.

Movies like Sex, Lies & Videotape, Do The Right Thing, Slackers, Clerks, Drugstore Cowboy, Stranger Than Paradise all reflected the new attitudes of their era.

In 1999 two films, American Beauty and Fight Club presented very different, but uniquely bold, amazing and heartfelt visions of modern-day existential malaise.

They challenged their viewers to take a closer look at their materialistic priorities.


And then, it all seemed to stop.

Since Sept 11, 2001 this country has gone through multiple ongoing traumas, yet through it all, the filmmakers of today have been incredibly absent from engaging in an intelligent discourse with society that should be helping us all process an unprecedented amount of conflict, upheaval and crisis:

- coping in a post 9/11 world: terrorism; 2 wars waging for a decade; the loss of basic rights under the Patriot Act.

- economic collapse: massive unemployment; foreclosures.

- environmental calamity: global climate change; industrial pollution and devastating oil spills.

- major shifts in the workplace: outsourcing; longer hours; lower wages; increased productivity at the cost of leisure time; 24/7 intrusion of work into our private lives.

- runaway development of advancing technology that outpaces our ability to understand its effects.

- non-stop consumption of images, data and trivial information, with little to no time to actually process any of it.

- a completely dysfunctional government.

- inequal wealth distribution and a vanishing middle class.

- corruption by wall street and corporate interests.

- a major national shift away from being the world's superpower to just another player.

- a nation of repeated violence and tragedy - mass killings - rampage killings, murder/suicides.

- a mass media that fans the flames of ignorance and hatred.

- an oppressive, permeating undercurrent of paranoia that a nightmare apocalypse is just around the corner - 2012, Doomsday, The End of Times.

What have our current filmmakers had to say about these unprecedented turbulent times?  Art can be a crucially important vehicle by which society processes confusing, disruptive and complex new ideas and situations.

While there have been many very good documentaries that have addressed some of these complex issues, I believe that narrative films can do even more to help a society work through its traumas, as cinema works at the subconscious level of myth and archetype. 

I can honestly think of only a couple narrative movies that have attempted to deal with any of these issues: the academy award winning The Hurt Locker and the excellent Up in the Air.

There may be more, but even with these two fine films, neither was really a rallying cry for a generation - neither became a national speaking point, or a prism by which society could direct and clarify its arguments.

I'm still waiting...

I don't necessarily expect Hollywood to be making these kinds of films.  It's just not in their nature (or economic interests) to do so.  But where the hell are the indie voices of indignation, frustration and revolution?

Television seems to have done somewhat better in this regard.  There have been a number of excellent series that have dealt with many of today's pressing issues.

Shows like Rescue Me, Boardwalk Empire, Treme, The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Louie and Generation Kill represent the times we are living in and the turmoil we all face.

yes, I know Boardwalk Empire is set in the 20's - it is clearly an allegory for today's corrupt political system and economic disparity

But Cinema, that great medium of dream and drama, where are you when we need you the most?  Please prove me wrong - please present me with challenging, revolutionary ideas and visions that reflect our troubled times.  Please shock me with outrageous dramatic representations of war, political corruption, economic upheaval and personal tragedy.

And then please give me stories of hope, compassion and humanities' capacity to do good.

Please tell me it's going to be okay.

So I can sleep at night.

Enter the Dark summer updates

So, it's been a while since I posted about my little bundle of cinematic chills - or about anything for that matter.  Seems like "real life" has been taking most of my time lately. My day job as freelance video editor has finally picked up again and since I've been quite slow the past two years, it's been time to simply bear down and bank some coin.

This is good since it means I can continue to do the little things like pay my mortgage and keep our house.  But it's also quite draining so there's been little time for much else.

However, the 2011 Enter the Dark World Tour continues with or without me!  It's been doing tremendously, making the rounds and picking up awards along the way.  Here's some spots our short film has screened since last we met:

- Seattle True Independent Film Festival
- Fright Night Film Fest - Louisville, KY
- Pittsburgh Horror Film Fest
- Motor City Nightmares - Michigan
- Tumbleweed Film Festival - Washington
- Action On Film International Film Festival - Pasadena

In addition, we will be screening at a number of upcoming festivals:

New York City International Film Festival

Tuesday, Aug 23, 4pm - Abington Theater, NYC

Dragon*Con Independent Short Film Festival

Friday, Sept 2,  10pm - Atlanta, Georgia

Toronto Independent Film Festival

Sept. 8 -17 - Toronto, Ontario

Atlanta Horror Film Festival

Thursday, Sept 15, 10:30pm  - Atlanta Georgia

Tulsa International Film Festival

Friday, Sept 23, 11pm - Tulsa, Oklahoma

Fear Fete Horror Film Festival

Saturday, Oct 29 - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

If you're within spittin' distance of any of these events, please come on out and show your support!

We were also fortunate to have won a few awards, so I now have a growing collection of sharp-edged acrylic monoliths and other cool momentos:

Best Horror Short - Indie Spirit Film Festival:

Best Short Thriller - Bare Bones Film Festival:

Best Scare - Famous Monsters of Filmland Imagi-Movies:

Now that's really cool - I got a BANNER for that baby!

Best Paranormal Short - Fear Fete Horror Film Festival:

Now I haven't actually received this lil' shirt-ripping dude yet, but I hope they'll send me one.  How sweet is that!

In June we also screened in my neck of the woods at Another Hole in the Head Film Fest at the Roxie in San Francisco.  This was especially rewarding as I attended film school at S.F. State, so it felt like a homecoming celebration for film finals.  Most of the cast and crew (as well as many friends and family) were able to attend the screenings, and actor Charles Yoakum and I were able to do a Q&A session afterwards.  All in all, a tremendous time and one of those moments that makes it all worthwhile.

Outside the Roxie with Alaina Yoakum (Charles' wife) and hey, there's my dad too on the right!

Yep, that's me with Kristin Nelder - Assistant Camera, Gaffer, and all-around great person.

Charles and I gabbin' it up.

As Enter the Dark nears the end of it's festival run, I am starting to gather the inspiration for the next short film.  Once I get a little downtime, I'll jump on that baby and hopefully start shooting spring of 2012.  Can't talk much about that one yet, but I'll leave you with this little visual nugget to chew on: