Zombie Girl Diary is a phenomenal film in the making. It is a story about a mother and daughter fighting to survive throughout a zombie apocalypse. Along the way they encounter other survivors and come together to make their way through the crazy world, now turned upside down. Watch the film and see who makes it out alive.

Here’s the teaser:

Keep up with them on Facebook: Zombie Girl Diary

]]> http://hellnotes.com/zombie-girl-diary-teaser/feed 0 http://hellnotes.com/chronicle-blu-ray-review?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chronicle-blu-ray-review http://hellnotes.com/chronicle-blu-ray-review#comments Mon, 21 May 2012 19:43:30 +0000 Dave http://hellnotes.com/?p=9681

Chronicle
Director: Josh Trank
Cast: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan
Review by Brian M. Sammons

First, yes this is not a horror movie, but it is a found footage flick (you know; first person POV shot with a shaky cam) which has up until now been practically the sole domain of horror movies. Second, while not horror, it is sci-fi, the kissing cousin to our favorite genre. Third, not only is this one of the best and most realistic superhero flicks ever (yes I’m aware I just used “realistic” and “superhero” in the same sentence), it is also a great example of how good found footage films can be if the person making the movie has passion and skill, and first time director Josh Trank has both of those in spades. So while not scary, it is damn good and besides; a horrorhead cannot exist on fright films alone. So grab your video camera, we’re going to soar through the air and move things with our minds. It’s superhero time!

This film chronicles (ah, see what they did there) how three average high school boys get near God-like powers of telekinetics that allow them to fly through the air, lift huge objects with their mind, and even wrap themselves in impervious fields of force. How this is accomplished, I shall not spoil here, but I will say that it remains tantalizingly mysterious even until the end of the movie. I really liked that, as I often feel that too many movies suffer from over-explanation-itus when the characters in the film would really have no way of knowing what the filmmakers desperately want to shove down the audience’s throat. And before you ask, no that’s not the realistic part if this movie I mentioned earlier. That comes from how the three kids act once they become super powered.

At first the trio behave like almost anyone (young or not) would when given strange new powers that at first begin small and only grow in power the more the kids use them. By that I mean they mess around with them. They chase little girls around stores with floating teddy bears, move people’s cars in parking lots, blow up ladies’ skirts (something I’ve always wanted to do ever since seeing 1982′s Zapped!) and even soar through the clouds for a little mile high football. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have fun if they got superpowers?

But soon all the good natured hijinks take a very dark turn.

In what I thought was a very good move, Chronicle asks the question; what would happen if you took a very sad boy, someone mercilessly picked on at school by bullies and at home by a drunken father, and suddenly gave them unlimited power? Would they do the Spider-man thing and become a hero? Or in this world where bullied kids go to school one day packing guns and pipe bombs, would they want revenge and the respect they’ve always been denied, no matter how they had to get it? That’s where Chronicle really shines as it shows not only the birth of a possible superhero, but also the genesis of a sympathetic, but still selfish and deadly villain. Few films have approached the realm of comic books so seriously (M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable being the only other one I can think of) and it was a nice departure from guys running around in brightly colored spandex.

Lastly, special mention must be made for the movie’s great looking special visual effects. Now if you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you’ll know that every third or fourth one I do I complain about CGI and how much I hate it. Well this is what CGI should be used for: to realize the otherwise impossible, not just to do things quick and cheap like simulating blood spurts and bullet hits. Also this movie doesn’t go for the bargain basement, “just barely good enough for TV” CGI production house like so many films do. That’s always my main complaint with computer effects; how horribly fake and cartoonish they look and how they all but smack you out of the movie watching experience. In Chronicle, every CGI effect is well done and also adds to the story. They’re not just explosions and eye candy a la Michael Bay for the sake masking a ho-hum story with lots of computer generated pretty. I only wish all moviemakers had such restraint.

Now as cool as the movie is, the Blu-ray from 20th Century Fox has only a smattering of extras. Honestly, things are a bit thin here. For one, there are no commentary tracks of any kind. For two, there are no behind the scenes, making of, or any real featurettes either. There is something called “Pre-Viz” which is a seven minute collection of very rough drafts of some of the CGI effect used in the movie that look as graphically compelling as PlayStation One visuals. To round things off there’s a camera tests of the dinner scene, a single deleted scene that adds nothing to the movie, and a theatrical trailer. This release isn’t exactly bare bones, but it’s very nearly that. The only “extras” worth noting is that both the theatrical release and the director’s cut are on the BD disc and that it is a combo disc release, meaning that it has the DVD, Blu-ray, and digital copy of the movie in one package. So there’s that I guess.

Chronicle is a surprisingly serious, enjoyable, and well-made movie that takes off the mask, ditches the cape, and leaves the tights at home when it comes to being about superheroes. Both comic book fans and those who have never cracked open a comic in their life will enjoy this sci-fi cautionary tale about empowerment, revenge, and the end of innocence. If you’re looking for a very different take on people who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, this is the movie for you.

Brain Damage Films is now carrying the DVD of the horror/comedy Rise of The Animals.

Description: After infiltrating an all girl’s slumber party in a remote cabin, Wolf, an awkward pizza delivery driver spends a passionate evening with a beautiful teen named Samantha. The next morning Samantha is gone, and the cabin in the woods is attacked by a family of deer. After a brutal massacre the cabin is bathed in the blood and gruesome remains of deer and teenage girl. Wolf, his best friend Jake, and Jake’s sister Rachel are the only one’s left standing.

Wolf finds Samantha’s cell phone amidst the blood bath, and the trio set out on an epic, cross-country journey to return the lost phone to the girl of Wolf’s dreams. As animals across the globe turn on humanity and society quickly collapses into chaos, Wolf’s determined spirit pushes him forward against all odds. But is she worth it?

Here’s the teaser:

Directed by: Chris Wojcik
Starring: Greg Hoople, Steph Motta, Adam Schonberg

Special Features:

• Behind-the-scenes Featurette
• Teaser/test scene
• Visual FX Featurette

Check it out: Rise of The Animals

The House By The Cemetery
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni
Review by Brian M. Sammons

This lesser known (and admittedly, lesser loved) Lucio Fulci flick was released on this side of “The Pond” late last year by Blue Underground and it. Was. Good! Now it’s the Brits’ turn at bat. How does the always capable Arrow Video bring this very strange slice of Italian shock cinema our on Blu-ray? Well let’s find out.

The story behind this movie is deceptively easy to explain, but such a synopsis does very little to describe just how bizarre it is. But hey, got to start somewhere, so here we get a small family moving into a big house in New England with a sordid, bloody history. The young son, Bob, played by cherubic blond haired, blue eyed Giovanni Frezza, has a friend in a little girl only he can see named Mae who keeps warning him to stay away from the house. Not only does this bring up shades of Stephen King’s The Shining, but it’s also my biggest gripe about this movie: that damn kid. No, not the little Italian boy, Giovanni, who’s neither better nor worse than any other child actor, but the screeching, fingernails-on-chalkboard-bad voice they dubbed in for him for the English version of the film. Oh my dear God is it annoying! It’s obviously an adult doing a horrible “little kid” impersonation but the end result is every time little Bob opens his mouth I want to hit him in the face with a brick.

The second thing about this film that keeps it from being really great is the pacing. Once the family moves into the titular house the events proceed at a leisurely, strolling pace at best. The mystery behind the house’s horror (not to mention why a crazed maniac is living in the basement, popping out occasionally to behead, slice up, and rip the throats out of people) is slowly doled out a drip and drab at a time … that is until the end when there a big exposition dump. There are random bits of weirdness sprinkled throughout the film, like an unintentionally hilarious bat attack, and a few gruesome murder scenes, but sadly these seem like a far cry from the glorious gory gags in previous Fulci flicks. There’s a nice knife through the back of a woman’s head that comes out of her mouth bit, but that’s one of the few memorable kills to be found here. There is a neat rotting thing in the basement, a few genuinely creepy moments, but the film’s plot is a bit muddled and illogical, to say the least. How much so? Well when the film was first released on VHS many years ago some of the reels were played out of order and no one seemed to notice! Combine that with a lackluster ending that makes little, if any, sense and you get a movie that is long on mood and atmosphere, but short on logic. If you’re one of those people who need their films to make absolute sense, you might hate this movie. However if you can just go with it and enjoy the ride, you might dig this uneven, yet still mostly competent shocker.

Now this new Blu-ray release from Arrow Video looks pretty good in HD. No it’s not great, but it is very watchable and if you’ve only ever seen this on DVD (or lord forbid: VHS) then you’ll notice a world of improvement here. However where Arrow Video always shines is the shear amount of extras they do for their releases and once again they do not disappoint here. There are two audio commentaries to listen to, for interviews with the actors and makers of this movie, and a very cool 24 minute documentary called “Ladies of Italian Horror” that interviews a bunch of the European scream queens from all sorts of Italian fright flicks, not just those in House By The Cemetery. That special feature is easily the highlight here and is the cherry on the awesome cake that is this new Blu-ray.

The House By The Cemetery is both a bit longer and slower than it should be, and it has that damn screeching voice actor dubbing little Giovanni Frezza in it that drives me up a wall, but it’s still a good, creepy film at its rotting heart. If you’re new to Fulci films then perhaps Cemetery isn’t the best place to start. For that I would suggest Zombie, The Beyond, and/or City Of The Living Dead. But if you want to see something different, weird, creepy, and fun, or if you’re already familiar with some of Fulci’s other flicks, then The House By The Cemetery is for you. And like most of Arrow Video’s releases, this one is region free. I cannot tell you how happy that always makes me.

Episode 3 of Midnight Horror Show titled “The Uninvited Visitor” is up and running. Midnight Horror Show is a horror YouTube channel releasing 1-2 episodes a month. As of the moment, they are a two man team, which consists of Rudy Gold, the creator of Midnight Horror Show and Christian Guzman.

“The Uninvited Visitor” is directed by Christian Guzman.

Description: When you have a midnight visitor knocking at your door would you answer? Does curiousity always kill the cat?

Here’s the episode:

Executive Producer Rudy Gold
Produced by Gold Standard, DIY Productions, and J Martin Films

Starring Katelin Peterson
Guest Starring Christian Guzman
Edited by Cristian Guzman, Rudy Gold
Sound design by Christian Guzman
Original Score by Erin Powell