Salute Your Shorts Double Feature: Dollface(2011)/Girl At the Door (2013)

I got me a tasty double dose of horror shorts courtesy of director Colin Campbell to share with all you lovely ladies and gallant gents, so take yourself a moment to settle in for a quick night of pure terror starting with...

Dollface (2011)

It’s Halloween night, and Nick and Emily (Nick Holmes and Jen Dede) are spending their evening playing a game of chess as they wait for trick or treaters to knock on their door. It isn’t long before they get their first trick or treater of the night: a strange woman whose face is painted like a doll (Shelley Wenk). What ensues is something that neither Nick nor Emily would or could have ever expected, as their lovely evening quickly becomes a nightmare of madness and murder.

No reason for me to dwell upon plot details when you can watch the short for yourself below, but I will say that Dollface is a solid horror short filled with some fun twists and turns that should satisfy your horror hungry appetite. It’s quick, to the point, and the setting for the shorts’ second half is very appealing, so take 7 minutes out of your day to give Dollface a watch:

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Girl at the Door (2013)

Taking a slightly more psychological approach to its horror, Girl at the Door focuses on a one-night stand that grows more and more sexually aggressive as their evening of passion passes. The next morning, the man (Jeffrey Vincent Parise) wakes up alone, as the woman (Kristen Renton) has seemingly left during the night. He doesn’t think much of the situation, that is, however, until a few nights later when the woman shows back up at his door and seems to be reliving the evening exactly as they had already spent it.

Though slightly predictable, Girl at the Door is a nicely crafted short film with touches of impressive camerawork and a high production value, all of which plays for a nice backdrop to the great performances. While I slightly prefer Dollface, Girl at the Door is a very good short film that should please those who have a taste for a quick tale of terror, so take a looksie for yourself, and please feel free to share your thoughts on both shorts in the ol’ comments section below!

 

A Gentlemanly Kickboxing Match

Guys, I have some terrible news... my brother, Eric, was injured in a kickboxing match against a vicious, braided ponytail wearing jerk face named Tong Po. Why he would do something as vile as crippling such a handsome young man is beyond me, but I have vowed to avenge my brother’s crippled state by staying in Thailand and training in the fine art of Muay Thai so I can take out Tong Po! And I don’t mean to dinner, either.

While I am confident that my soul-searching absence is already difficult for you to deal with, I do have a special gift for you, and it comes in the form of the latest episode of The Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnite Cinema, where yours truly joined two masters of podcasting, Big Willy and the Samurai, in an epic review of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Kickboxer! In what is a reach around filled episode, we tackle Kickboxer, bad coffee creamer, menstruation, and Van Damme’s perfect ass, and that’s only the half of it!

If you don’t already listen to The Gentlemen's Guide to Midnite Cinema, then believe you me, you are absolutely missing out on what is the finest film podcasts on the market. If you even remotely enjoy what you see here of CNAMB, you will LOVE what you get with this fantastic podcast. These guys are not only great people, they are great friends, and to finally be able to join them for some on-air film discussion is certainly an honor, so please take some time to check out the episode for yourself!

• Listen to the Episode
• Direct Download
• The Gentlemen’s Guide to Midnite Cinema on iTunes
• The Gentlemen’s Blog to Midnite Cinema
• The Gentlemen’s Facebook Page

Tenement (1985): Survival of the Cruelest

After the landlord of a rundown apartment building has a nefarious street gang arrested for squatting in the basement and harassing the tenants, the gang returns to take back what they believe is theirs, and they won’t be going about it nicely. In fact, they utilize unspeakably violent tactics, including rape and murder, as they push the tenants to the point where they have no choice other than to fight back.  

Directed by prominent cult/porn filmmaker, Roberta Findlay, Tenement Is a true cinematic stain of a film that does exactly what a good exploitation film should do: it entertains as much as it offends. Tenement is dirty; it’s scuzzy; it’s grimy in a fashion that bleach backs away from it in frustration. The South Bronx setting gives a front row view of New York at its absolute trashiest, with areas that are so rundown, so broken down and so beat down that it makes the post apocalypse seem livable in comparison. Even the apartment complex is a complete and total shithole, barely being worthy of the rats and roaches that infest its crumbling, graffiti ridden walls.   

The location is the perfect setting for a sleazy street gang, and the gang in Tenement is as sleazy and fun as it gets. Led by the imposingly silent leader Chaco (Enrique Sandino), the gang members are nothing short of crude to anyone unlucky enough to cross their leather-clad path. Amongst the group are a number of recognizable genre faces, including Dan Snow, who would be most familiar to people as ‘Cigar Face’ from the Toxic Avenger movies. B-Movie actress Karen Russell plays Chula, the gangs’ only female member, who isn’t even as much a member as she’s there to be constantly ridiculed, groped and abused at the whim of the other gang members.

If there is any one actor who stands out in Tenement, however, it is Paul Calderon as Hector. While Chaco is the gang’s leader (and he’s certainly a better leader than he is a speaker), it is Hector who is easily the most vicious and frightening member of the group. He’s just a notch or two under Last House on the Left’s Krug in terms of the impact he makes when he’s on screen, and I will credit that to Calderon, who gives a fantastic performance. Hector has an absolutely terrifying look about him, spending much of the film with his skin stained with the glistening blood of his numerous victims, never once bothering to take a moment to wipe any of it away. Instead, he opts to let it dry on his flesh like it’s his uniform; a uniform made of plasma and death.

Tenement is the type of film that’s not at all afraid to “go there.” It quickly becomes very apparent that no one person is safe. The elderly, the handicapped, children, animals, and even a pregnant woman are potential victims of their brutality. The interesting thing about Tenement to me, though, is the fact that these tenants are trapped in this hell hole as a result of the cards they've been dealt in life. Many of them are too poor or simply too old to escape this prison where the guards are made up of ferocious, mean spirited gang members. And really, that's about as raw a deal as one person can get. Being trapped in the rundown, unsanitary conditions of the tenement is bad enough, but having to deal with a bunch of punks who have taken what little they do have and destroyed it is simply too much for any one person to deal with. They aren't just fighting back because they have no choice; they're fighting back because it's the only thing they have left. It's the last stand for the tenants who have been plagued by an affliction that has nearly depleted them.

Seeing as Tenement is a low-budget exploitation film, it does have a nice helping of unavoidable cheese layered throughout, which certainly adds to the flavor of this slice of ‘80s trash. However, cheese or not, I’m not at all surprised that Tenement received a very legitimate X rating when it was released. The film is nearly as offensive and brutal as some of the most well-known exploitation films, and I could argue that it deserves the notoriety and attention of those films, too. Tenement is much like wallowing in that small space behind a toilet in the restroom of a metal club, and as awful and grotesque as that all sounds, it certainly makes for a solid, true exploitation movie.

Salute Your Shorts: Thrill Kill

With a budget of $130 and a four hour shooting schedule, Zach Shildwachter’s debut short film, Thrill Kill, made its bloody online debut today.

The short focuses on a man (played by J. Buckner) who is living out a movie inspired fantasy that involves a bank heist gone wrong, necrophilia and a gorgeous woman (Agata Stasiak) on the verge of death, and it all takes place in a speeding '77 Mustang.

Sound exciting?! Well, it is, so take a moment to check out Thrill Kill for yourself, which I have conveniently embedded below:

If you’d like to learn more about Thrill Kill as well as keep up with Zach’s upcoming projects, please take a moment to check out The Studio On Mars at www.thestudioonmars.com. Zach’s a good friend of the CNAMB crew (of one), so show him some love and support!

Youngblood (1978): True Tales from the ‘Hood

Opening with a mean slo-mo basketball sequence filled with short shorts, knee high socks and other questionable, yet eye appealing, 70s fashion, we are introduced to an afro clad young man named Youngblood. It’s immediately clear that Youngblood (Bryan O’Dell) is one cool cat who’s brimming with style and swagger, but as a young man living beneath the weight and pressures of South-Central Los Angeles, he begins to make some bad decisions, including dropping out of school to join a local street gang called The Kingsmen. The Kingsmen are your typical low-level street gang, but as the film unfolds, they begin to get into heavier and certainly more dangerous shit as they aim to take out a major drug cartel, resulting in an all out war.

Written by Paul Carter Harrison and directed by Noel Nosseck, Youngblood is a fairly standard, urban set morality tale with enough depth to give the characters and the world they live in some weight. While he has turned to a life of crime, Youngblood (as well as his counterparts) is very much a victim; a victim of the pressures of being a young black man growing up in a neighborhood where life is nothing short of a daily struggle. Youngblood is forced, largely in part due to peer pressure, to live up to the negative perceptions of what a black man should be, something that has been thrust upon him by society, his friends and even himself.

Of course, bad decisions also come with being a dumb kid; a dumb kid too egotistical and immature to know better, and most bad decisions stem from ego and/or immaturity. Furthermore, Youngblood has no male role model to teach him what it takes to be a “man.” In fact, the closest thing he has to a father figure is his brother, Reggie (David Pendleton); however, Reggie isn’t on the straight and narrow himself, essentially being a high level version of Youngblood. Though, it should be said that, to no avail, he does try to keep Youngblood in line. The only truly positive influence on Youngblood would come from his mother, but unfortunately, however, her influence and strength is yet to be seen let alone understood by Youngblood at this point in his life. Her sacrifice as a hardworking single mother is commendable, even if it goes unnoticed by Youngblood, but there is little she can do to block his unfolding path.

One character who does play a major part in Youngblood’s life as both a role model and, in a way, a father figure, is the leader of The Kingsmen, Rommel (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs). Rommel is nearly as prominent as that of the titular character, and in many ways, is going through life in a fashion that is parallel to Youngblood, just from a very different angle. Rommel is living with his own issues as a man, being a Vietnam vet who feels as if he’s been left behind, despite the fact that he sacrificed his life for our country.

As is the case with so many veterans, Rommel HAS been left behind to a certain extent; however, there is also a part of Rommel that uses this as an excuse to not do better for himself and his wife. And again, this likely comes from pride. It should be said that Rommel’s wife is, in theory, very similar to Youngblood’s mother, in that she is the strong female backbone holding up the fort, while her husband is out acting like an immature child. The women in Youngblood are certainly the only grounded characters, holding together a weakened structure without the help of no one.

As you’d expect from a film such as Youngblood, there are lessons to be learned and consequences to be paid, and they are certainly paid in full, making Youngblood fit in perfectly with your typical morality tale driven film. And that’s not a bad thing. The unfortunate aspect about the tale of Youngblood is that it’s a story that could be told about any number of nameless youths living in America right now, something that makes the film as relevant today as it was when it was released in 1978.

‘The Purge’ Prize Pack Winner!

After an epic battle for the ages, a winner has been declared and crowned king of The Purge. Who will it be?! You’ll have to watch the video to find out!

Win A ‘The Purge’ Prize Pack!

I believe that most of you are aware of The Purge, but allow me to enlighten you anyway: The Purge is a horror film set during a time when all crime has been nearly eradicated due to a yearly “purge” where, from sundown to sunrise, all crime is completely legal.

During this purge, one family comes under attack by a group of criminals, forcing the family to do what they must to survive the night. And this is where the contest comes in: if you lived in a world where a yearly purge occurred, what measures would you go to in order to “survive the night?”

To find out how you would fare, take the quick quiz below, then share your results as well as your email address in the comments section, and you will be entered to win an exclusive The Purge prize pack that includes a t-shirt and mask. The deadline to enter is Sunday, June 9th, so act quickly so you can get your hands on this nifty little prize pack!