Treevenge Unleashed!

At last year's Toronto After Dark festival, the best short (and one of the best things period) I saw was a little piece called Treevenge. It was a Canadian effort - done by the guys who brought us the grindhouse flavoured faux-trailer Hobo With A Shotgun in 2007. Well now, thanks to Twitch, it is now viewable online. Click on the picture below and enjoy!

Don't Kill The Messenger XXV.

It's time for another weekly round-up.

Tasty Trailer.

A short little teaser dropped online for the upcoming French zombie horror-actioner The Horde this week. Sign me up.


Shake Your Moneymaker.

Here's the new one-sheet for Jennifer's Body. I LIIIKKKE IT!!! Good to see the marketing people are on the same page as the film's audience for once.

Colour Me Intrigued.

I saw a rumour on Kotaku this weekend that the popular video game franchise Tomb Raider will be soon undergoing a reboot, transforming it into an open world survival horror game.

While I'm sure the knee-jerk reaction by most to this news will be negative, I can't really NOT get excited about one of my most beloved video game characters merging with my favourite gaming subgenre. I am super interested to see whether this rumour becomes reality. Click here for the original article.

The Archive Project Continues.

I'm deep into getting my poster collection sorted out now. I was hoping to finish the bulk of it today, but I actually ran out of cardboard if you can believe it. I thought one-hundred-plus sheets would be enough, but obviously not. Take a look at this ridiculousness!

There's a poster wedged in between each one of those things. It's time consuming, but I'm certainly getting a kick out of going through them. I've discovered that I must have a poster for almost every Full Moon release between 1989 and 1994. It's pretty crazy. Then there are those I don't even remember acquiring. Movies I haven't even HEARD OF, let alone saw when they came out. I mean, what the hell is Invader? There's also ones that faded into obscurity, but I have clear memories of checking them out in the theatre. Anyone remember Man's Best Friend with Ally Sheedy and Lance Henriksen? Speaking of Henriksen, I've got a shit-ton of one-sheets for movies he's done too. The list goes on and on. Oh, and best tagline so far? "Some things are better left undead!" Any guesses as to what movie it's from?

I'm getting more cardboard next week - a hundred more pieces should definitely do it - so hopefully I'll have the remainder laid out by Saturday.

Alphabet Soup.

This week's Coverbox Wednesday theme is fairly simple. It features horror from A to Z.

Coincidentally, I'm catchin' a screening of Q next week. Glorious!

AKA "You Better Watch Out" ;)

First Eight TAD Films Announced!

The initial batch of titles for this year's Toronto After Dark Film Festival were announced today. This year's line-up is shaping up quite nicely if I do say myself. The first three I've been looking forward to for quite some time, and the others I've seen covered on Twitch and am willing to look in on. Check out the first eight titles below and click on the poster to see its trailer.

The rest of the Toronto After Dark line-up should be announced at the end of July. If you'd like more info on the festival, including how to get tickets, click here.

FGFC: Burial Ground

This month's Final Girl Film Club selection is a movie that I wasn't familiar with, though probably should have been. With the zombie sub genre being one of my fortés, you'd think I'd have already seen Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror. That's the thing about Italian horror cinema from that era though; the well goes deep. Having mildly enjoyed one of Bianchi's other films – Strip Nude For Your Killer, chiefly due to star Edwige Fenech – and being a notorious sucker for any zombie flick, I gladly said bring it on.

Professor dude with mad beard-growing skills awakens a zombie horde while on a dig of some sort. Oops, he dies before he can tell his associates who then show up at the nearby villa. The usual flesh eating shenanigans ensue.

The usual terrible dialogue and overacting are on full display here, but are nicely countered by some T&A and gruesome set pieces. I wouldn't except anything less from an Italian horror production from this era. The characters in this movie are of the massively stupid variety and seem to go out of their way to make the wrong decisions. However, after a while I guess that becomes part of the fun, doesn't it?

“Let's get the car! Oh no, there's one or two slow-moving zombies next to it, the five of us couldn't possibly put our heads together and come up with a plan. Quick! Back to the villa (aka death trap)!”

I also have to take this opportunity to point out Peter Bark, who plays Mariangela Giordano's son. I've seen creepy man-children (with hilariously dubbed man voices) in Italian films before, but this guy takes the cake.

I have to admit I'm a little torn about whether the zombies suddenly transforming from brain-dead shamblers to highly skilled ninjas halfway through the film makes Burial Ground more ridiculous or more awesome. While the meandering camera shots of the zombie masses don't seem as tedious as other offerings like Shock Waves and Oasis Of The Zombies, it can be a little frustrating at times. To its credit, Burial Ground shares a lot in common with Lucio Fulci's Zombie (Zombi 2). Most important of these is they both feature the gruesome stylings of legendary effects man Gino De Rossi. His fingerprints are recognizable almost immediately, and working with Rosario Prestopino they craft some great stuff.

Ultimately, I don't think Burial Ground is as memorable and iconic as Zombie. I mean let's face it, its zombie vs. shark sequence is hard to beat, as well as the ocular mutilation scene... wait a minute!

Déjà vu?

Overall, this is a pretty fun watch, but I do wish they could have made it tighter somehow. It's less than ninety minutes, but it does tend to drag in parts. Nevertheless, Burial Ground does spike enough to understand why the film has acquired the following that it has.

I Wonder If Its Death Proof.

I was driving yesterday afternoon and I could have sworn I saw a large black car blow by me with some very familiar markings on it. I thought about turning around to persue, but didn't. Tonight after hockey, I pulled into my local Tim Hortons for some milk (because every gas station, grocer and convenience store around my house decided to close early apparently) and what do I spy parked out front?

When I went inside and inquired, I found out it actually belongs to an employee. I was told it's a 1976 Pontiac Le Mans (Stuntman Mike's car was a 1970 Chevy Nova) and I was one of only a few people that have recognized the Death Proof markings. I sometimes forget just how poorly Grindhouse did at the box office. Sorry for the picture quality. Not only did I have to snap the pic on my shitty phone camera, but I was also hurried because it was just starting to rain.