Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I don’t know much about this festival or this film, but we got in two different reports from it, so check this out:
Harry - I try not to write to you directly too often. I am guessing you have plenty of stuff come through, and I am guessing you sort through it pretty quickly for the fun stuff.
Fun stuff I have. :) As a huge AICN fan (and a lucky attendee of BNAT 3 and 5) I do feel that when I do see something outstanding that I should at least give it a try to get through to tell you about it.
I am attending the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham, Alabama this weekend. The festival opens full borg tomorrow night with John Sayles' SILVER CITY. I'm also looking forward to something on Saturday night called ALICE'S MISADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.
However, there have been some pre-opening night screenings, and tonight was the world premier for a hilarious Southern Zombie flick called HIDE AND CREEP. It's all native Alabama filmmakers and actors, but it's really a remarkable piece of work.
There's a trailer right here along with a plot synopis and a Zombie Threat guide.
Here's the review. If you like, feel free to use it. If not, as always, thanks for the great web site and keep it up. You guys are great.
As Southern Zombie flicks go, this is the shit. At the end of the movie Jenn (my wife) said, “That reminded me a lot of Blood Feast 2.” Funny enough, while watching the movie I was thinking the same thing and was really reminded of exactly how hilarious a fantastic labor of love can end up being.
Synopsis? It’s a zombie movie, old school: “Holy shit! Zombies! Get ‘Em!” pretty much sums it up as far as the story goes. Ok, for the picky, basically zombies just mysteriously start showing up in the town of Thorsby, Alabama. Thorsby is small, and there is a sheriff and a deputy. The sheriff is out of town and the deputy is “on call” (read: “I got drunk and now I’m in Panama City Beach.”). However, the sheriff department does have someone on the phones, Barbara. Thorsby also has a particular Southern mainstay, the video store.
The movie starts us off with the familiar: the video store. Chuck is the video store guy, and we start with a conversation he is having on the phone. Someone has called to ask about renting zombie movies, and he rattles off some of our cult favorites (“Evil Dead really isn’t a zombie movie. Well, there’s Brain Dead. It’s called Dead Alive in the states. American? There aren’t any good American zombie movies. Wait, what? So right wing radio is right and there’s a conspiracy to create undead zombies and people are renting movies to learn how to deal with the threat? I’m sorry, I can’t rent to you anymore.”)
There’s some switching over to a little porno viewing by some redneck pals out in the woods, and the power goes dead and one of them is sent out to check the generator (it’s far away because “It interferes with the video viewing.” (grins and huyucks all around). Our fearless redneck generator investigator finds the cable cut, and cut to white screen.
Back to Chuck the video clerk is mysteriously set upon by a zombie, which he kills (with a classic VHS VCR and out pops, oh come now you know it, Night of the Living Dead), and tries hard to report it to the sheriff, which as we know is out of town. Barbara answers the phone at the sheriff’s office, and dispatches the phone call with all the grace of someone getting rid of a call from the telemarketer. Chuck has the right idea, though, and drags the body over and leaves it in the sheriff’s office with a post-it note on the forehead with his name and number.
Eventually, the movie devolves into our standard, beloved formula. Here comes the zombies, and our video clerk, red necks, sheriff’s phone gal, and a former deputy figure out (with the help of a short-lived government agent) that you shoot them in the head. “Shoot ‘em in the head!” “Hey, he says shoot them in the head.” (shots are fired) “It’s workin’!”
The funny thing about this movie is that what it really ends up being about is a hilarious bit of heartfelt, nostalgic homage to zombie flicks with the same exact heartfelt affection for all the things that (at least in Alabama) anyone growing up in the South will recognize immediately. In particular a great deal of the jokes that come up are clearly Alabama specific. While there may be better Southern Zombie movies, I have not seen them. It is without question the best Alabama Zombie movie ever made (ok, it’s probably the first). If you are from Alabama and you’re a horror movie fan, HIDE AND CREEP is absolutely not to be missed.
As a movie, it shows some first time feature lack of polish. Camera placements are pretty static and cinematography has a few bits here and there that show over and underexposure. However, the editing is really pretty astounding for this level of film. The pacing is downright amazing for a first feature film of its length (about 90 minutes). The acting comes and goes, but for the most part everyone pulls off some pretty good stuff. The writing is really the key. In my own review of BLOOD FEAST 2 I said that it was about blood, boobies and banter. HIDE AND CREEP is primarily blood and banter, but they successfully get some (quite nice) boobies worked into the story.
I have no idea how likely it is that this movie will make it to any sort of release, but I truly hope it makes it at least to a few more festivals. Southern horror fans will reel with laughter at it. Movie fans that are also zombie fans will certainly find a lot to love in this flick. Admittedly, if you’re from Alabama, though, this is a downright love letter to some of the more hilarious parts of growing up and living in Alabama. Here's a hearty (and heartfelt) recommendation for HIDE AND CREEP.
You can call me smallerdemon
Thanks, man. Here’s another take on the film:
Hey guys. I don't know that you've covered or posted anything from our local Birmingham, AL film festival but I thought I'd give you a shout since it's a pretty big deal to us.
Tonight we kicked off the festival at historic Sloss Furnaces, by far the coolest place to attend any event in the metro area. Provided there aren't any trains coming through. But I digress.
We were treated to the world premier of Hide and Creep, an Alabama born and breed movie and quite possibly one of the best movies I've seen all year. I first read about this in a Gunn Shot and have eagerly anticipated it ever since. It didn't disappoint.
We start with a scene of a man waking up in the woods completely naked and missing his most beloved possession, his 1964 and a half Ford Mustang which has just recently been fully restored. Oh, and his girlfriend is missing, too. From here, we're introduced to the main characters in turn, each going about their daily life in their own way. We come to realize that the town of Thorsby, Alabama has been invaded by zombies. To make matters worse, the sheriff is on vacation and the deputy is unavailable due to some heavy drinking and the siren call of foxy women.
What follows is an archtypal zombie movie complete with graphic nudity, lesbian zombies, and people proud to exercise their second amendment rights. There are buckets of blood, little girls wielding machetes, and a heartwarming scene with a father instructing his aloof teenage daughter in the proper way to request someone leave their private property.
The pacing of the film is excellent. I think it clocked in around an hour and thirty minutes. I have the program around here somewhere but it's taking all my drunken concentration to write this missive so I apologize for not fact checking here. The acting was excellent, as was exhibited by the dead on comedic timing of line deliveries. This is an incredibly funny movie, guys. If I was in more of a spoiler frame of mind I'd ruin some of the best jokes but as I'm not I'll leave you with only the following:
"The R.C. problem? We had a Pepsi problem this morning."
"Thorsby, Alabama. Lots of dead people. Zombies. Can you put the game back on?"
"I ask them to leave. If they come in I shoot them in the chest. Then in the head, just to make sure."
A couple of the guys who made the film stuck around after the show to answer questions from the audience. Nothing spectacular came from it although we did learn that they filmed it over several months on weekends, extras were incredibly hard to find, the huge spliff was really only oregano (wink, wink), and that the sequel will contain proof that one of the main characters really was covered in barbeque sauce after all.
If you use this I am...
The Magic Ninja
PS - I'm hoping you'll get several good reviews of this movie and the festival itself. The organizers of the Sidewalk Film Festival deserve mad props for putting this together and their other cool events like the Sidewalk Scramble (Go, Bugs!) and the monthly Sidewalk Salon they host for indy filmmakers and enthusiasts in the Birmingham area.
I love it when people get excited about regional filmmaking and support their local filmmakers. Thanks, guys.
"Moriarty" out.
