
Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. This week we have some retro-goodness with Fred Ward, three ultra-independent low, low, low budgeters, and a pair of creepy atmospheric chillers, plus a look ahead at some crazy Asian schoolgirl horror. But before we do that…there’s this!
First up, I’ve got news of a cool Kickstarter for EVIL JESTER PRESENTS that’s got a cast of talent that’d have any self respecting horror fan reaching for their wallets to chip in. The book features work from Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Jonathan Maberry, Gary Braunbeck, William F. Nolan, and Joe McKinney. If interested, shoot over to their Kickstarter page to donate and check out the trailer below!
Billy The Kid premiered this trailer for AMERICAN ECSTASY, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to run it again as it looks to be quite a mash up of adult thrillers like BODY DOUBLE and straight up 80’s horror like VIDEODROME. Whatever it is, it’s definitely weird and something I’m dying to check out. Find out more information about the film here and below, once again, is the trailer for AMERICAN ECSTASY with a little intro by star Brattany Nola. Enjoy, but be warned, this trailer AIN’T SAFE FOR WORK!
Last week, I let you all know about how Patrick Shea’s NAILBITER (reviewed here) is going to be released by Lionsgate on DVD, Digital Download and Video on Demand May 28. Well, now, there’s a trailer for the film!
Here’s a clip from an upcoming Midnight Releasing film called ANIMUS which I’ll be reviewing next week on AICN HORROR. The film is released on DVD on March 26. Enjoy this creepy little clip and tune in next week for a full review!
Next is a trailer for the new film REVELATION TRAIL, a western horror film with a nice indie feel to it. Find out more about this film here, you can also check out the original webseries of the same name here, and be sure to keep watching this column for more on this undead spaghetti western mashup! This one looks like a lot of fun. Personally, I can’t wait to check it out!
Want another trailer? I got another trailer. This one’s for the upcoming horror film THE LOST TREE starring AMERICAN PIE’s Thomas Ian Nicholas, Lacey Chabert, Scott Grimes, and Michael Madsen. Find out more about this film by clicking here and enjoy the teaser trailer below!
I’ve got one more trailer for you. This one’s called GINGERCLOWN 3D and it looks to be something special. It’s got clowns, puppets, and amusement parks it’s set in the 80’s, and it’s got the voice work of Lance Henricksen, Brad Dourif, Sean Young, Michael Winslow, and mother-flippin Tim Curry! Interested now? Thought so. Find out more about this one here.
And now, on with the horror reviews!
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
Retro-Review: TIMERIDER: THE ADVENTURE OF LYLE SWAN (1982)
DEADLY DARES: TRUTH OR DARE IV (2011)
THE G-STRING HORROR (2012)
Advance Review: THE HOSPITAL (2012)
DARK FEED (2013)
HELLGATE (2011)
THALE (2011)
And finally…51 Deep’s POOR ASTRONAUT!

TIMERIDER: THE ADVENTURE OF LYLE SWAN (1982)
Directed by William DearWritten by William Dear, Michael Nesmith
Starring Fred Ward, Belinda Bauer, Peter Coyote, Richard Masur, Tracey Walter, Ed Lauter, L.Q. Jones, Chris Mulkey
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
Though I would never consider this hokey sci fi yarn horror, per se, I would say it falls in the realm of genre film and I don’t mind opening the doors to sci fi here on AICN HORROR every once and a while.

A lot of Western movie standbys starred in this film, like Peter Coyote going waaaay over the top as the lead bad guy who wants Swan’s motorized horse and his gang which includes THE THING’s Richard Masur and Bob the Goon himself Tracey Walter. Also look for appearances by 70’s go-to bad guy Ed Lauter as a priest, THE WILD BUNCH’s L.Q. Jones as a noble cowboy, and another cowpoke played by FIRST BLOOD’s Chris Mulkey.

Though there’s little horror going on, one guy is blown straight out of his shoes leaving bloody stumps and another gets his nose shot off and lives with a bandage across the hole where his nose used to be, so those with a thirst for the red stuff might be somewhat satisfied. With a bitchin’ synth and electric guitar score and low fi effects, this film is the epitome of the kind of hokey sci fi that overcrowded the film market during the early eighties after the success of STAR WARS. But with a rock solid cast of classic cow-dudes, a hottie leading lady in Belinda Bauer whose eyes are gorgeously piercing, and of course the incomparable Fred Ward in the leading role, there’s a whole hell of a lot of retro-fun to be had with TIMERIDER!

DEADLY DARES: TRUTH OR DARE IV (2011)
Directed by Tim RitterWritten by Tim Ritter
Starring Casey Miracle, Jessica Cameron, Billy W. Blackwell, Heather Price, Claude Miles, Roni Jonah, Thomas Kindler, Mike Holman, Jerry Williams, Shawn C. Phillips
Find out more about on Tim Ritter’s website here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Looking at DEADLY DARES, the fourth installment of Tim Ritter’s TRUTH OR DARE series about a homicidal maniac addicted to the game of Truth or Dare, one might not think much of it. The production looks like it was shot on video, the directing and editing are not the crispiest and crunchiest, and the acting is nothing to shout about. But if one looks past all of that, you’ll find a pretty interesting and somewhat complex story going on.

The first TRUTH OR DARE was a balls-out crazy yarn about a madman on a killing spree killing anyone who crosses his path. Heads were ‘sploded. Chainsaws mowed down innocent pedestrians. Much blood was spilled. And it was a hell of a lot of laughs in a gross out sort of way. In many ways DEADLY DARES is the same thing with a whole bunch of violent shit going on set to the budget of nil.

By the end of the film, TRUTH OR DARE 4: DEADLY DARES kind of turns in on itself and flip flops so much it sort of stops making a whole lot of sense, but just when Ritter’s attempts at narrative trickery start to sputter, he treats us to a montage of violence of epic proportions showing how the website has effected other users across the world in spreading the deadly game to world wide proportions. Ritter seems to be a hard working man, churning out one of these films after another. Though it might not be up to everyone’s standards of good cinema, I have to admire the man’s drive and dedication to this TRUTH OR DARE series.

THE G-STRING HORROR (2012)
Directed by Charles WebbWritten by Ed Bowers, Genna Darling, Mike Gleason, Debra Lamb, Trevor O'Donnell, Natasha Talonz
Starring
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Indie horror number two this week is another one full of folks who will most likely never win an Academy Award, but still in the execution and idea department, THE G-STRING HORROR has a lot of positive qualities.

Filmmaker Charles Webb is certainly ambitious here, and not above William Castle levels of gimmicky promotion as the DVD cover and the warning before the film provides this disclaimer: “This motion picture is, itself, a conjuration and a talisman designed with the help of a shaman and a priest for the purpose of allowing a particular spirit stuck on this plane of existence to move on. Parts of the film may be disturbing to some audience members and may induce unpredictable paranormal states.” That warning alone is something pretty fun, and throughout the film warnings and alerts scroll across the bottom of the screen alerting us of paranormal things about to happen on the tape. The film becomes somewhat of a fun production of spooky shit actually happening (something you rarely see on the regular ghost hunting shows).

So while the last half falls completely apart, the first half makes up for it in mood and creepy stories. There are quite a few scenes mixing horror with strippers which might work some folks up, but didn’t do much for me. As is, THE G-STRING HORROR starts out teasing as a nice homage to ghost hunter shows, but ends like that “what did I just waste my time and money” feeling one often gets when leaving a strip club.

THE HOSPITAL (2012)
Directed by Tommy Golden, Daniel Emery TaylorWritten by Jim O'Rear, Daniel Emery Taylor
Starring Jim O'Rear, Daniel Emery Taylor, John Dugan, April Monique Burril, Jason Crowe, Robyn Shute, Alicia M. Clark, Lauryn MacGregor, Megan Hunt
Find out more about this film on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Our third and last indie horror flick of the week is THE HOSPITAL, a sick and twisted ordeal which, like THE G-STRING HORROR, centers around a paranormal investigation show. This time around, a group of guys lure a handful of women into a supposedly haunted hospital telling them that they will be a part of a paranormal investigation show which will be seen by millions of viewers. In actuality, this is a trap and GHOST HUNTERS soon morphs into an especially tasteless installment of HOSTEL pretty hastily.

On the other hand, this is an especially diabolical film with no woman in its large cast getting out without being stripped, raped, and killed—and sometimes not in that order. There are scenes of torture, abuse, rape, and murder a-plenty here, and though there is attention to story, it is clear the focus of the film is to show different girls in peril over and over and over again.

But I like a point to my violence, and THE HOSPITAL doesn’t seem to have a lot of it besides racking up a kill count with some of the most depraved kills enacted upon anyone in cinematic history. If you have an iron stomach, you might be able to withstand this perverse little indie, but though there is some kind of retribution to the rapist killers in the end, it is definitely not what the camera seems to linger on.

DARK FEED (2013)
Directed by Michael Rasmussen, Shawn RasmussenWritten by Michael Rasmussen, Shawn Rasmussen
Starring Evalena Marie, Michael Reed, Michael Scott Allen, Hardy Winburn, Jason Beaubien, Dayna Cousins, Andy Rudick, Bree Elrod, Rebecca Whitehurst, Jonathan Thomson, Victoria Nugent, Evan Sanderson, Jonathan Popp
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Climbing the ladder up a ways in terms of production value and budget, we reach DARK FEED, a moody little film within a film that is smartly written and creatively directed, though the acting proved to be hit or miss.

While the cast and crew go through the normal motions of making a low budget film, there is something much more sinister going on than just the sleazy producer and even sleazier special effects guy. The hospital proves to be haunted, but the film smartly avoids the obvious by never really explaining what exactly this haunting actually is. Instead, much like the excellent SESSION 9, it focuses on slowly turning up the volume on the weird until it reaches deafening levels during the climax. This is a darkly shot movie. As the film goes on, scenes become dimmer and dimmer while CG blackness blobbing and creeping around the corners make up for the rest. As the cast and crew start to disappear and become overcome by this blackness, the film actually continues to dim. This was a nice way of communicating this cast and crew’s wide descent into madness tale.

On the downside, not all of the actors in this film are great and some of the performances are hard to sit through. Had a greater amount of the budget gone into the cast, this would have been a damn fine film, but I found myself distracted by some of the more wooden performances, especially that of the actor playing the director of the false film.
That said, DARK FEED showed me that the Rasmussens definitely show promise, and I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing what this team has in store to scare us with next.

HELLGATE (2012)
Directed by John PenneyWritten by John Penney
Starring Cary Elwes, William Hurt, Ploy Jindachote, Paula Taylor, Viyada Umarin
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
While on a family trip to Thailand, Jeff (played by Cary Elwes) and his loving family are in a car accident resulting in Jeff being the only survivor. After waking up from a coma, Jeff begins seeing visions of ghosts haunting him. Seeking out help from his personal nurse (the gorgeous Ploy Jindachote), she guides him into a realm of mysticism as he comes to terms with his family’s death.

While the ghosts aren’t particularly scary, once Elwes takes his river boat into his own personal heart of darkness, the scares do go on the rise. Haunting the jungles surrounding the river they are travelling down are charred and scarred forms of razor-toothed and clawed demons just itching for Elwes to step into the shadows to tear him apart. These demons are pretty damn awful to look at and do make things much scarier. There are some moments toward the end that really got to me as the red thin arms kept reaching out to grab our hero.

On top of the strong acting, you do get to go on a slow boat ride through Thailand in HELLGATE. Writer/director John Penney takes his time to absorb in the scenery of the gorgeous jungles, so if anything, this is a fun little travelogue of a place I’ve never been.

But if you do hang in there you get to see a fun performance by William Hurt and some cool demons, so there’s that. Worth a rent, HELLGATE doesn’t offer up too much by way of new material, but it does have its moments of awesome.

THALE (2011)
Directed by Aleksander NordaasWritten by Aleksander Nordaas
Starring Silje Reinåmo, Erlend Nervold, Jon Sigve Skard, Morten Andresen, Roland Astrand
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
My favorite film of the week is THALE, a modern fable with bite, is finally available for the mass consumption and showing up on Video On Demand this week!

There’s a feeling of awe and whimsy in the air of this film. Though grounded in reality, there’s a real soul—an outwardly positive sense of heart. Don’t get me wrong, horror fans, things get dire and bloody by the end of the film, but there are some scenes on genuine connection between the most unlikeliest of souls in THALE. The reason I compare this to SPLASH is mainly because of the way these two men react to this naked feral woman when they first see it. In an American film, I think the reaction may be more sexual and possibly go to a more dastardly route as two men are basically stuck in a bunker with a naked woman, but THALE never goes there. Neither men show any sexual desire for the woman, at least it’s not outright in stating or suggesting so. They are two good souls looking to help this woman who is obviously lost and confused, offering her food, clothing, and shelter until the proper authorities arrive. What occurs are some nice meetings of minds, quite literally, as Thale (pronounces Tal-luh, as the audio cassettes scattered around the bunker refer to the woman as) seems to have the ability to share her experiences and touch minds, among other powers. But the authorities aren’t the only group ascending on the bunker, the discovery of Thale has alerted those she was taken from, and this is where things get dire, as this group is less than civilized.

As I said, things get dire, dangerous, and quite bloody towards the end of this one as forces natural and unnatural close in on the bunker. The discovery of what exactly Thale really is is something I haven’t seen in film in a long time. The use of CG later in the film is decently done, but occasionally a bit too animated, but that’s my only complaint in this wholly entertaining film and that’s not really what this film is about anyway. Filled with gorgeous Norwegian landscapes and iconic imagery such as a severed tail in a refrigerator, THALE is an unearthed treasure and should not be missed.
And finally…here’s one portrait of a sad, sad astronaut from John Keefer and the madmen at 51Deep. Enjoy the goofiness of POOR ASTRONAUT!
See ya next week, folks!




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