8 is Great?!

Finally set in stone, the 8th and final film has been announced for the 4th annual After Dark Films Horrorfest 8 Films to Die For line-up. Written by Kelly Palmer and directed by Chris Moore, Kill Theory is about a group of seven college friends that celebrate their upcoming graduation at a secluded vacation home. Things take an ugly turn when the group encounter a sadistic unknown madman who forces them to kill one another in order to survive. Whomever is left standing at 6 am the next morning, is the one that is allowed to walk away with his or her life.

Sounds interesting enough to me and Kill Theory seems to have elements of Saw and even a bit of Cabin Fever and Battle Royal in a way. All of the After Dark Films acquired for the upcoming festival (which begins January 29th) have a lot of promise and I have already heard positive things about Lake Mungo, which is one that I really wanted to check out even before reading a few solid reviews.   

Now that the movies are all in place, there is a tight little trailer for the festival and to be completely honest, it gets me pumped for this line-up and I have pretty high hopes for it. There have been some real gems in the previous three installments, but those gems were hidden in piles of mediocre-to-bad. I would love to see After Dark come out with a strong set of movies, if not for the fact that they are spotlighting independent horror cinema and giving films a chance that might not have gotten one any other way. And while I will more than likely not have any chance to see any of them ‘round these parts, at least I know there will be a DVD release soon enough. 

When a non-foreign language trailer for Kill Theory is available, I will be sure to post it, but for now, here is the trailer for the festival itself. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the line-up’s potential and what you think looks good!

Lake Mungo

After Dark Films has just announced the third film in their already very strong looking 2010 After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For lineup (Jan 29th - Feb 5th). Clive Barkers Dread, and a movie that I recently posted about, The Graves will be joined by the Australian thriller/ghost story, Lake Mungo. Lake Mungo is written and helmed by first time director, Joel Anderson and stars Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger and Martin Sharpe. The story follows a family dealing with the drowning death of their sixteen-year-old daughter, Alice Palmer. After her body is buried, the family experiences a series of strange and eerie events that give them no choice but to seek the help of a psychic/parapsychologist named, Ray Kemeny. His investigation leads to Lake Mungo where a secret past and double life once lived by Alice comes to fruition.

Sounds interesting - right? You may be even more interested after watching the trailer for the film. And that trailer is provided for your viewing pleasure right here - ya know, just in case you didn't already notice it sitting there, all lonely, waiting for you to accept it with your mouse. Click that shit, son!


Bleh...so creepy!! I love that entire goose bump promoting paranormal stuff, and I almost thought that Lake Mungo was a documentary at first, because it looks so convincing as one. It is of course, a mockumentary style film that looks like it will be very effective in the scare department, and some of those background apparition shots are just downright frightening. I was already excited for both Dread and The Graves, but this is a nice surprise to have a very scary looking movie like Lake Mungo added to a lineup that is certainly shaping up very nicely.

Apparently, Paramount is developing a remake of Lake Mungo with writer David Leslie Johnson, whose previous effort, Orphan was released to solid reviews and was a movie that I personally quite enjoyed. This being put out by After Dark Films though is a very good thing, because this film very much reminds me of another low-budget ghost mockumentary film, Paranormal Activity. Paranormal Activity had gotten rave reviews, and the trailer was scary as shit, but when the remake (also Paramount) started to make way, the original film had, like a ghost, been left in limbo with no release after what is a few years now (though there have been rumblings of a small theatrical release forthcoming). Wicked annoying if you ask me. So thankfully this will not be the case with Lake Mungo, as we now know that it will be in theaters, and eventually on DVD, without having to wait two or three years for a remake to come out and suck balls.

Here is a link to the films official site for more info!