MicroCinema Scene

A mock documentary film is one that uses the cinematic audio and visual styles of documentary filmmaking to present a fictional subject, usually in the form of a satire or parody of the original real-life issue. The intent may be to make you think or re-evaluate the subject, but with Make A Killing the intent is to make you laugh. It is a mock documentary about a corporation, Assisted Killing Amalgamated (AKA), whose mission is to assist serial killers in the business of killing. The company’s motto is: “Your full-service carnage solution.”

The entire AKA corporate staff is dedicated to serving the customer, from the executive management of John (Brian Colonna) and Sylvia (Hannah Duggan) to the flamboyant art department of Fran (Jeni Rinner) and Joshua (Gregory Webster). In this case, the customers are serial killers. For them, “murder is a serious business.”

Business for AKA is going well until they take on Randall, a rookie who has six million dollars to spend but otherwise seems to be a few cards short of a full deck. The film chronicles the AKA team taking Randall through the steps to prepare for his first killing spree. It ends with a clever twist that will leave you chuckling.

Everything in the film is played for laughs…Fran overcoming her fear of feces, customers getting shocked with stun guns, killings going wrong, interns being abused and so on. Hannah Duggan (as Sylvia) is particularly good as the operations manager of AKA and just about every interview with her left me laughing. The other actors with major parts, Brian Colonna, Jeni Rinner, and Gregory Webster, also perform quite well. The interplay between Jeni and Gregory makes for some entertaining scenes as the art department tries to prepare the proper image for Randall’s debut. Also, the viewer has to listen closely to the characters’ comments as there are numerous clever one-liners that can be easily missed.

Technically the film has a few rough edges, but that is in keeping with the documetary style of filmmaking so it is not a problem. The music for the soundtrack is by Esovae and has just the right touch.

If the subject matter doesn’t offend you, get a copy of the movie. Make A Killing can make you laugh.

Three and a half stars

The movie opens with a flashback to a home-invasion incident that leaves Deputy J.T. Williams beaten, emotionally scarred and his newlywed wife dead. Don Fisher, a veteran of numerous small roles in films such as Roswell, Species and Forrest Gump, takes the lead role as Deputy Williams. The film then flashes forward to the present day and Deputy Williams is back on the job but still under stress from the incident.

How many movies have you seen where a lawman is under duress and cops a bad attitude towards authority and his fellow officers? That tired cliché is played here yet again, and the Deputy snubs a partner when assigned to transport a petty criminal to another jurisdiction. Filmmakers should give up using the “lone wolf” lawman bit since it is unrealistic and has become almost a parody, especially when overacted, as in this film.

The transportation of the prisoner, Eddie (Nicolas Greene), to jail proves not to be as uneventful as planned. Williams and his prisoner have a close encounter with an alien craft that leaves them stranded on a lonely road through the forest. Lost and on foot, Eddie and the Deputy are soon on the run from the aliens who have landed nearby.

There are three campers in the same woods, and they are so irritating that you end up wanting the aliens to take them away. One of the campers, the “older woman” Karen, is played by Grammy award winner Shandra Sinnamon—remember the song “He’s A Dream” from the Flashdance soundtrack? (http://www.shandi.org/) Shandi manages her part rather handily and doesn’t look out of place among this more experienced cast.

Later, another young woman, played by the curvaceous Delaina Mitchell, is driving down the lonely backroad and crashes her car trying to avoid Deputy Mitchell who is jaywalking along the roadside. Once she is left on foot, it doesn’t take long before the aliens capture her and she is strung up nude on an alien apparatus displaying all of her curves.

The aliens have the humans on the run through most of the middle part of the film. Deputy Williams has a strange encounter with a group of hillbilly rednecks, and of course, he battles the aliens in the final reel. A final twist at the end is predictable by the time it comes to pass.

The acting is uneven in this sci-fi flick, even though many of the actors have experience in TV or bigger films. Fisher is just a bit over the top as the brusque lawman, Delaina Mitchell is better as the damsel-in-distress, and the remainder of the cast is more than adequate and certainly better than 99% of micro-budget casts.

This is a low low budget film by Hollywood standards but not a micro-budget feature. This shows in the production values that are put up on the screen, which gives it a boost above the amateur competition. The bottom line for me is: “Was the film enjoyable to watch?” Yes, it proved to be more entertaining than I expected from looking at the DVD cover.

Flesh Hunters has also been distributed under the title The Human Quality, which can be seen on the clapboard in several parts of the “Behind the Scenes” featurette on the disk.

Dead Alive Productions distributed this film but when I checked their web site, it was more dead than alive.  A quick search on Amazon.com turned up several copies of the DVD available at discount prices.

Three stars.

I hate having to review movies like this. The filmwork is professional. The acting is first rate. The music is quite good. What could be so difficult about it? The editing and method of telling the story leave the viewer confused on first viewing. You end up having seen the movie, knowing what happened and still feeling a little let down. It had the potential to be much more.

Without giving away the entire storyline, the movie is about a man who goes to a hunting camp to relax for a weekend and then is joined by a friend. How their lives are intertwined and the deceit behind it is the meat of the tale.

The 38 minute story is told out of sequence with numerous flashbacks, a la Tarantino. But unlike Quentin’s films, this one gets off to a fairly slow start and frankly, I was about halfway into the picture and still wondering when it was going to get interesting. Some sequences were edited so short or tight that you’re not exactly sure what happened. This only adds to the confusion generated by the disjointed cinematic technique.

An example of how the movie misses the target is the opening sequence that takes place one year prior to the men going to the hunting camp. I’ve watched this movie several times and though I know what the intention of the filmmaker was in ending the sequence with the college girl coming back home, it just doesn’t make good sense the way it was put together. This gets the film off to a rocky start from which it never quite recovers.

Another example is the second murder. It happens too quickly and not enough detail is shown to firmly plant the finality of the act into the mind of the audience as a setup for the conclusion.

The editing and writing that tie together the story lines are just not developed as well as they should be. On first viewing, I missed the connection between the anonymous caller and the subsequent meeting with Jake in the restaurant—it just wasn’t well positioned to drive the point home with the audience. Although it is not always necessary to hit the viewer over the head with the message, sometimes the devil is in the details.

There are good things about Hunting Camp to be admired. The camera work is solid. The original music score is one of the best I’ve heard on a micro-budget film. Karen Jefferys, as the femme fatale, does an excellent acting job, and so do Trevor Huster and George Petrus as the men at the camp. The film also has a lot of quality production value… you can tell that plenty of work went into it, that it was carefully crafted and not just quickly thrown together. I recommend that you check it out for these reasons.

The best thing about Hunting Camp is the potential it demonstrates for John Lyons and company. I expect they will be back with another project, hopefully feature length, and with the experience gathered from this movie, a top-notch effort could be in their future.

This short was filmed with a Panasonic DVX100A in widescreen format on a budget of about $4000 (mostly for equipment).

Three stars

Fangoria magazine’s DVD highlights seven winning entries from their “Blood Drive” short film contest. Hosted by musician and horror fan/filmmaker Rob Zombie, this collection covers a wide range of horror film genres. There is a slasher film, a comedy, psychological thrillers and more.

The quality of production ranges from good to excellent for these low budget offerings, many of them exhibiting an amateurish “film school feel,” but all showing that a lot of work and effort went into producing them. Since these are short films, I won’t go into too much detail to avoid spoiling the effect for anyone that decides to view this collection.

Mr. Eryams created by B.C. Furtney of Los Angeles was winner of the Best Film Award. It is a spooky story with a twisted ending.

The Hitch from director Drew Rist (Dallas TX) was the only traditional slasher flim in the collection. Its premise is that there is a maniac on the loose and who do you trust on a rainy night along a deserted road. Well done by director Rist and cast.

The short comedy A Man and His Finger from Patrick Rea and Ryan Jones (Lawrence KS) was worth a chuckle or two. Although not the most technically accomplished film of the collection, it nonetheless has a few charming moments.

If you like scary doll films, Disturbances also from Patrick Rea is the film for you. The story line is reminicent of real life news that we see all to often.

Christopher P. Garetano’s film Inside is an experimental type of psychological horror story about a mysterious mass suicide by a group of young people. Even after repeated viewing, I’m still not 100% sure about the full theme behind on this one. You have to pay close attention to the soundtrack to get much out of it.

Shadows of the Dead submitted by Joel Robertson (Lakeland FL) is a zombie-fest full of gritty atmosphere and gore. This is how the world ends.

Song of the Dead is the shortest of the contest winners and was created by Chip Gubera. It is more like a music video, though I laughed a couple of times while watching it.

Rob Zombie only appears in the title sequences of the film and probably for less than a minute of total screen time.

Fangoria’s Blood Drive is available at DVD rental stores and some retail outlets.

Two stars

This is exactly the type of film that ends up being a roaring success on Mystery Science Theater 3000. When I first put it on, I immediately thought that it had a very 80’s flavor, which was confirmed at the end by the 1987 copyright date. The DVD is a reissue of an early microbudget splatter film. Shot on 16mm, it was director Tim Ritter’s second film.

The plot is very simple and uncomplicated. Newlywed Tom Russo played by Asbestos Felt (can that be his real name?) is suspicious that his bride Leeza is cheating on him. His paranoia kicks into full swing once he finds a diary in which Leeza has kept detailed records of her romantic encounters with every man who has come to their house, including the lawn boy, TV repairman, delivery man and more. Tom goes over the edge and decides to exact revenge on Leeza’s lovers.

The revenge is murder, complete with blood, guts and gore typical of the genre. His methods of execution are innovative to say the least, including a lawnmower, machete blades on a ceiling fan and a screwdriver through the cranium. The special effects are well done for the time period and have to carry the last half of the movie. The acting is more than adequate, but the writing and directing are lackluster. There is no explicit nudity though there is a bit of a tease in several scenes. The wash of synthesiser melodies on the soundtrack will bring back memories of many low budget films of the era.

There are bits of humor sprinkled throughout the film, such as the dream sequences, and the entire film has a tongue-in-cheek quality to it. Writer/director Ritter shot this film in the mid-1980s at a time when splatter films were at the height of popularity and before the introduction of inexpensive video moviemaking gear. Like it or hate it, Killing Spree deserves a special place as one of the pioneering films of ultra-low budget horror.

Sub Rosa Studios has rereleased a special DVD version of this film with two commentary tracks and a documentary on the making of Killing Spree hosted by Debbie Rochon. The screener that I viewed did not have these extras though it would have been nice to have been able to watch them for more background and history of this title.

Two stars.

The basic plot of Camp Slaughter revolves around a group of young people who go for a weekend at a house in the woods that happens to be next to a castle occupied by a degenerate family with a history of mental illness. Murder ensues. Sound familiar?

As a basic horror film, the movie succeeds on most levels. There is some gore but it is not overdone. There is brief nudity but not gratuitous. There are several nice looking video effects and some blue screen work that are revealed in the DVD extras.

The plotline is a bit thin when it comes to explaining who the odd family is and why they are behaving in such a strange fashion and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions about them. Without the documentary on the disc, which reveals much of the story background, I would have been left in the dark about the basic premise of the story.

Even so, the movie is quite enjoyable since the acting is excellent, the photography is creative and the editing is well done. Particularly good were Annika Marklund as Karen, Christian Magdu as Adrian, Karin Bertling as Constance, and Fred Anderson as the overweight, long-suffering Fluffy. This is a most impressive effort by Martin Munthe and company, and probably belongs on the Microcinema list of best films.

Besides the lack of story background, my only other complaint about this film is that the set lighting and post-processing leave many scenes so dark that some of the action cannot be clearly seen. I ran a video configuration program on my LCD television to make sure it was set up properly and even put the DVD in my computer to watch it there - same results everywhere I tried it. Also, the documentary extras on the disc are plenty bright so I could only conclude that the scenes were made intentionally dark to create a moody atmosphere. The movie has a lot of production values that are obscured by the low light conditions. This is disappointing since the movie is otherwise one of the best micro-cinema efforts I have had the pleasure to watch.

The film was shot using a Sony PD150P and an Optex 16×9 converter. It was post-processed using Magic Bullet, Digital Film Lab and a few After Effects adjustments. The entire dialog track was post-synched and they did a very good job. If you get a chance to see this film (which is in English), note that the cast are speaking Swedish in many of the behind-the-scenes extras on the disc but there are English sub-titles available.

This film needs to be reprocessed to increase the luminance (brightness) to make it viewable on the average television set, and I’m sure the producer would then find a distributor eager to take it on!

No rabbits were harmed during the production of this film… I hope.

Three and a half stars.

In Screaming Dead, famous art photographer Roger Neale (Joseph Farrell) lures three young models (Misty Mundae, Heidi Kristoffer, C.J. DiMarsico) to an abandoned insane asylum that he has rented for a photographic session - a “study in terror.” The rental company sends along their agent Sam Rogan (Ron Monkiewicz) to keep an eye on the property, and from the beginning he does not have a friendly relationship with the photographer… though the agent would certainly like to get friendly with the photographer’s attractive assistant Maura (Rachael Robbins).

The old derelict hospital is haunted by the former caretaker who tortured and murdered the inmates in a hidden basement room that was a chamber of horrors. Although the asylum has been abandoned for many years, it isn’t long before the supernatural forces begin to extract revenge on the new residents.

This is the best movie I have seen that has come out of the E.I. Cinema/Seduction Cinema group. It was shot using 24p Mini-DV and has a very professional look to it. The location used was the Marlboro State Psychiatric Hospital in Marlboro, New Jersey, that has been closed for many years, which was a perfect setting for the film.

The cast of Screaming Dead do a good job of portraying their characters - even Misty Mundae, who is better known for her looks than acting ability. Rachael Robbins in particular has a difficult role. Her character Maura is having to tread a fine line between being her own person yet satisfying the demands of her egotistical boss. Rachael pulls it off convincingly.

However, the movie suffers because the two lead characters, Roger Neale and Sam Rogan, are too one-dimensional. Neale, the photographer, is an egotisical sadist who is using his art as an excuse for brutal treatment of beautiful young women. He is portrayed as completely ruthless without a sympathetic side to his persona. The rental agent Sam Rogan is a macho thug who instantly develops an antagonistic relationship with Neale. Rogan would be fired from his job and probably in jail if he behaved in real-life as he does in the film. It would have been better if the friction between the men developed slowly through the film instead of instantly polarizing when they first meet. The actors are not to blame for this since the script and direction are setting the tone rather than the potrayals of the characters.

The best horror films have an unstoppable villian who is stalking the characters of the film producing just as many scares as actual scenes of violence, and this movie came up short in that aspect. Not only that but the quirky ending just left it flat.

Screaming Dead has carefully crafted lighting and nice visual effects. The models are beautiful and there is nudity but it’s not gratuitous. Even with a few minor flaws, it is a movie worth seeing. I rented this film at Blockbuster so it should be readily accessible.

Most people either like mock documentary films or they don’t. Dancing with Gaia is a mockumentary on the swing dance scene. In this film, Zoe Hendrix (Evin Galang) is a modern dance choreographer putting together a dance troupe to “bring the spirit of the earth-goddess to the people.” She is New-Age hippie girl with some rather odd affectations. Not only that, but her judgment on who to add to the dance roster also seems to be a bit flawed. She ends up with a motley collection of diverse personalities that are not always in harmony. The film chronicles the struggle to keep the troupe together long enough to make it to their debut performance.

Much of this film is improvisation by the actors with the best segments selected for the final cut. Evin Galang is totally believable as the spacey Zoe who is trying to mold the dancers into a cohesive unit, with little success. Dallas Trinkle, one of the screenwriters, gives a solid performance as an Eminem wannabe who is frequently at odds with the more mainstream members of the group.

Most of the characters are quirky enough for a few laughs but not so odd as to be irritating. The humor is low-key and like most pseudo-documentaries, is probably best appreciated by those who are themselves involved with the film’s subject either as participants or devotees. Dancing with Gaia doesn’t have any big belly laughs but its understated humor is entertaining.

Shot with a Canon GL-1 and edited with Avid Media Composer, the filmmakers trimmed 18 hours of raw footage down to 57 minutes for the final film.

Two and a half stars.

Dr. Horror’s Erotic House of Idiots is a satire on the low budget horror genre. The hint of ‘erotic’ and ‘horror’ in the title are actually meant to poke fun at a segment of the current filmmaking community that specializes in combining scary elements with lesbian nude scenes. Ironically, there are numerous people in Dr. Horror who have been featured in the films it is lampooning!

The basic premise of Dr. Horror’s Erotic House of Idiots is that a couple of old friends (Michael R. Thomas and Conrad Brooks) need to raise money and decide to impersonate a famous sex counselor by holding a seminar at his home, where Brooks’ character is staying. Trent Haaga, Debbie Rochon and Nathan Sears play the people who are attending the seminar, and all three do a very good job of acting. Michael R. Thomas is the fake psychiatrist, which he does with a Bela Lugosi accent. He is probably an excellent stage actor but his exaggerated style is over-the-top for film work, though not entirely out of place in this satire.

John Zacherle, the “Cool Ghoul,” is also featured and in places acts as a host to the proceedings. The 86-year-old TV horror show pioneer even does a little dance routine at one point. Conrad Brooks is a classic sci-fi film alumnus who has been in low budget films since the 1950s. His filmography includes such features as Plan 9 from Outer Space, Deathrow Gameshow and Bikini Drive-In. Conrad gives a one-dimensional performance that seemed out of place even in this comedy.

Dr. Horror’s Erotic House of Idiots is more erratic than erotic (there is no nudity), with characters popping in and out, and dance routines suddenly starting up out of nowhere. It is only for fans of classic horror, with lots of obscure allusions and in-jokes. I watched it several times just to catch more of the references.

As a comedy, it just barely misses the mark many times with its jokes. Even the ones that hit (like a sequence with Rochon and a cell phone) are drawn out a little too much. The movie is overly long at 135 minutes and could have been tightened up considerably with some judicious editing. For example, there is an ‘Intermission’ that is 3 or 4 minutes long with nothing but a title graphic and music playing behind it… cut that down to 10 seconds!

Technically the film is well done, with only the slightly harsh lighting in the indoor scenes to complain about. This micro-budget feature was shot on Mini DV with a Sony PDR-150, and also on BetacamSP.

Comedy is a difficult genre to tackle but Scrabo and his cast have put out an admirable effort. Again, if you’re a fan of low budget horror films… check it out!

Two stars

Losers Lounge is set in 1948, with a cast of characters including a seedy private eye, crooked cops and other down-on-their-luck inhabitants of the fictitious town of Passionville, Illinois. It is a film noir style murder mystery in which a troubled young woman arrives in town, finds work at Losers Lounge (the centerpiece of the film) and ends up being murdered. An ex-cop with a shady past is suspected of the crime and has to find the real killer to prove his innocence.

The actors in this movie give very good performances and the script is well done without being clichéd, as is often the case with other films in this genre. The location used for Losers Lounge is a real restaurant that is more of a diner than a lounge but it has the character and feel of the period and serves as a hub around which the story revolves. It adds an air of authenticity to this micro-budget film that would cost many thousands of dollars to recreate on a movie set.

The director’s commentary track on the DVD reveals that this movie was made for about $1000 and that three Canon DV cameras were used to record it. The video was converted to black-and-white for more of a “noir” look.

It is good that the story and performances are so strong in this movie because they help to counter the many technical difficulties. The audio is uneven and the voices can be difficult to understand. There is very little background music which makes the audio problems stand out even more. The exposure of the three cameras was not equalized so a scene will change exposure level as it cuts from camera to camera. Furthermore, one of the cameras seems to have had the edge enhancement setting at maximum because when it is used there is a distracting line at any edge where there is a light and dark contrast.

Many shots are not well framed and often there is half a frame of headroom above the actor’s heads. Some of the locations were tight so the cameras were run up on booms to look down on the actors, resulting in awkwardly composed shots. Also, much of the movie is blocked in a manner that looks like a stage play. People walk on to a set, deliver lines and walk off, with the camera fixed on a tripod looking on. There could be more closeups and intimacy in the direction. The night shots are too dark, whether from low exposure in the filming or during conversion to mpeg, and the most crucial scene in the film, the murder, is too dark to see anything happening!

In spite of the technical difficulties, I recommend the movie on its story and performances. I’m sure the next film from the artists at DL Sites will be even better and I look forward to future releases from them.

Losers Lounge won the 2004 Best Narrative Film Noir at the 5th Bare Bones International Film Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Congratulations to Don Boner, his cast and crew!

Two and a half stars