Tag: Independent Film

Gale, Stay Away From Oz Offers More Than The Stuff Nightmares are Made Of!

Prepare to be creeped out in Gale, Stay Away from Oz which is no doubt influenced by Disney’s Return to Oz (for those who haven’t read the books).

Gale Movie PosterAvailable on Chilling Streaming Service

Frank Baum’s books about the fantasy world of Oz have never been cause for concern amongst those familiar with the entire series. After watching the horror film, simply titled Gale, Stay Away From Oz, I have to watch Return to Oz (1985) again to refresh my memory. It seems this short is clearly influenced by it along with the books. The story here concerns how insanity has affected the Gale family.

Just when fans of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s film Wizard of Oz thought that film was the end all be all, there’s been attempts to continue the story with Journey Back to Oz, produced by Filmation, but it largely lays forgotten when compared to other attempts by the House of Mouse, which includes Oz, The Great and Powerful, along with other studios’s interpretation. The original tale is in the public domain, and filmmakers and playwrights can do whatever they want with this fond classical piece of children’s literature.

With the novels, I like to see if it ever alluded to Dorothy Gale going insane after returning to Earth. Fans of the books know the author also included scarier elements later on in the series. As for which work made Daniel Alexander reimagine this world to a product of true nightmares, I’m glad he’s taking a chance and releasing it early, before Spooktober.

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The Man Behind the Madness of Site 13. Nathan Faudree on Finishing This Found Footage Film 20 Years Later.

Sometimes, a movie must be finished despite all odds, and Nathan Faudree talks about why Site 13 had to be made and why H.P. Lovecraft’s vision matters.

Nathan Faudree HeadshotSite 13 is now available on VOD.

Nathan Faudree is a man who wears many hats in the entertainment industry, and his work isn’t limited to genre films. He started in theatre and appeared in many performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, like Hamlet. And from there, worked his way into appearing in films to eventually became Fangoria Radio’s Scream King of 2006! From there, he’s had a blast playing cult heroes, terrifying monsters and even did monster noises for Troma’s Poultrygeist. This New York based actor has done a lot.

But to know him also means getting to talk to him, and chatting with him about why he wanted to revisit Site 13, a movie that was filmed two decades ago which never got finished. What he did to make it contemporary is a good thriller, which is Blair Witch meets H.P. Lovecraft.

For our readers who haven’t seen your past work, what can you recommend?

I’m a co-writer of A Wounded Fawn, which came out last year on Shutter, and we were nominated for Fangoria’s Chainsaw Award and made the top 20 list. Prior to that, I was in Kottontail, where I played a killer Easter Bunny.

About your theatre days, did you leave it all behind to work on film?

Actually, I knew that if I didn’t have something lined up to do after playing Macbeth that, I would be catastrophically depressed because that’s the role everyone wants to play. That’s when Site 13 came in. It’s been a few years now, and I miss that world. I’ve appeared in Hamlet, Alls Well, etc., Here, you have this automatic response with the audience and whether that night’s show went off well. You don’t get that with making movies. It’s only just now I’m seeing what people are thinking about my latest.

Continue reading “The Man Behind the Madness of Site 13. Nathan Faudree on Finishing This Found Footage Film 20 Years Later.”

Starring Jerry as Himself Delivers One Part Documentary, Another Part True Crime Thriller!

Perhaps its best not to pursue the American Dream in Starring Jerry as Himself because not immigrants are taken advantage of.

Starring Jerry as Himself PosterPlaying May 11th at the Chicago Critics Film Festival at 5pm (CST, tickets) and Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on the same date, 7pm (PST, tickets)

The movie Starring Jerry as Himself is a very cautionary tale which defies conventions since we’re not sure where fact and fiction are mixed. I suspect it was made following what happened to Jerry C. Hsu after getting conned out of a lot of money. He’s a Florida retiree, and as the surname implies, he’s a Taiwanese immigrant whose life gets turned upside down!

One day, someone calls from China and says they’re the law. This person accused him of laundering cash. He’s afraid and to avoid extradition, they offer him a proposal to expose the crime ring involved. But that means him transferring money, and that’s when this story gets dangerous. He’s dealing with forces mostly heard, than always seen. The lines of reality are blurred because the nightmare is frightfully real!

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Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar. It’s All or Nothing in a Desperate Search….

What’s presented in Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar makes for a great drive-in movie too.

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar Movie PosterUncork’d Entertainment
Available on VOD

The 70s and 80s were an interesting time for fans of episodic science fiction. Whether that’d be on the big screen or small, what Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar offers is a lot of nostalgia because it brings all that ethos into a fairly entertaining SyFy Channel style movie of the week.

Filmmaker Garo Setian most likely had a limited budget, and to cast Michael Paré as the lead only brought fond memories of when he was Dante Montana in Starhunter. Here, he’s Kip Corman, a space scavenger, and his co-pilot is his daughter Taylor (Sarah French). Together, they are looking for a big score. They’re wanting to make enough money to pay for bringing back the wife / mother from the dead.

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Layma’s Poem Prepares Us for a Magic Carpet Ride

The pen is mightier than the sword, and in Layma’s Poem care more than your standard mystical meaning as a world in chaos tries to wreck one poor girl’s soul.

Layma’s PoemFreestyle Digital Media
On Demand (Apple TV+) and Digital, Feb 21st

In Syria, a young girl (voiced by Millie Davis) is getting ready to embark on a magic carpet ride while a civil war breaks out in Aleppo. And what we witness in Layma’s Poem is a tale that delicately balances between the reality of her life and another fantasy that’s not too different from Pan’s Labyrinth. Thankfully, it’s not totally scary. But to help her during this trying time is a book of wisdom by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī. This author is more commonly known as Jalaluddin Rumi.

It helps her understand everything that’s going on not only from his time (800 years ago) but also now. What we hear can also teach us something too about patience and virtue. Although the younger version of this poet hasn’t earned his recognition as a person of wisdom yet, what he learns from his peer and later imparts to the girl is very inspiring.

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