HORRORVILLE PRODUCTIONS

2011 - The year of bullshit happenings (a personal blog)

2011-12-31T10:02:00.000-08:00

Glad to see the end of such a shit year. Very little good or productive actually came out of this year. It is very easy to notice how many things went wrong however. Some people say that it's easy to be negative. What I usually find is that those people:
a) Like their job b) Are or have achieved most of their goals and c) Generally have much better luck and lastly seem to have everything going for them in life. Being around these positive people, I've always wondered why this happens. I can only conclude there's a bunch of different factors which they are lucky enough to have. imagine if these same positive people were placed in a country like Japan, specifically the south, where your home was destroyed by a flood, many people you know die from drowning and then you have to worry about the nuclear radiation from the tsunami damaged nuclear power plant. Would you have a positive outlook then? Could you simply ignore the bullshit life threw at you and simply ignore the negatives? I just think people are extremely naive to suggest that thinking positively will give you a truly positive life. As proven in the example above, you can have a tragic event happen out of your control completely, you could be in a car accident that cripples you and causes numerous health issues later because your friend is drink driving, or you could catch a virus or disease that remains for years...

I guess this is why I like horror movies. Horror movies are quite honest, in that they accept that negativity is a part of life. Shit happens. People don't want to admit that shit happens to anyone at anytime. Some are luckier than others but in the end something bad will happen to them as well.

I don't expect 2012 to be a great year. I can only hope this year that I don't have the health problems, the major problems at work, the friendship issues, the dealing with asshole behaviour and the general depression all of this causes.. I'm bound to have one or all of these things happen. I've somehow got to change my environment. I think this is truly the only way I can give life a better chance of being good again.

Once my health is back together I will finally film the short I've been on about since September. I dunno I suspect this film will show my current state of mind.

November Update

2011-11-27T08:12:00.001-08:00

Hi guys and girls, just thought I'd update you on the staus of my new short film project.

The original halloween release date for the short on youtube has obviously been missed, this was due to a lot of busy happenings at work and in my personal life during September and October. The Halloween period particularly did not go down well for personal reasons. November has not been that busy, however I have struggled to get a crew together with only 1 person committed to helping me film, as long time filmmaking partner Jag has got his own commitments. 2 crew members that were originally going to help out also have their own committments so can't be involved. Additionally the original actor I really wanted for the lead role is not interested. This means casting will only begin after I've got a crew of more than 2 people together, so far only have 1. I apologise to anyone who thought this film may be out on halloween. I've removed the video blog which said this and will maybe only put it up when the next vlog is there..

The good news is the story has expanded into something much cooler and creepier, and there's even potential for another film related to this one. I've also given the film the title 'Pure Evil'.. Which fits the tone of the antagonist and is quite easy remember.

My main goal is to get one more crew member committed to film on saturday nights, then casting will be done along with other stages in pre-production.

Hopefully my next update I'll have more to say...

-John

RIP David Hess - Death of a horror icon

2011-10-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not have heard, David Alexander Hess, famous for his roles in Last House on the left (1972), (and the amazing accompanying soundtrack he scored), along with House on the Edge of the Park, Hitch Hike, Swamp Thing, has died peacefully at the age of 69. His acting in playing a realistic villain has always been extremely strong, there's something about the characters he plays which is extremely scary, the sort of person you would never like to meet.

Having said that my brother and I met him at Frightfest in 2009 when he was waiting a while to get some coffee, and in real life, he is very opposite to the characters he has played. He was a welcoming, down to earth guy who advised me to never to see filmmaking in stages or levels, in other words it doesn't matter how much money you make or how successful/famous you are or are not with your films, you are still a horror filmmaker. Nobody can take that away from you. I think this is smart advice, at the end of the day everyone is equal, art is subjective, a lot of people tend to jump on bandwagons rather than form their own opinion on a film. I have seen many films people consider classics only to think they are pieces of shit and vice versa. Another thing that comes to mind is that if you are making films to be rich or to be successful, you are focusing on the ends rather than the means, and in my opinion you are not a real filmmaker. Real filmmakers make films because they want to. It's as simple as that. David Hess made music because he wanted to, and he acted when he wanted to. He will always be an inspiration to Jag and I and always has been, such as when Jag chose to use Hess' music in our short film 'mUrder' in 06.

Another great horror icon has passed, but will never be forgotten.

September update and beyond

2011-09-06T14:31:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time to give an update on the status of Freddy vs Jason vs Leatherface: The Final Chapter:

The animated film is on hold due to both technical and personal health issues. The health issue I don't want to go into, but it is distracting me from focusing on anything at the moment because of the worry and the physical pain. I apologize for this delay, and for the trailer saying it was coming soon. The project I originally set out on was ambitious for an inexperienced animator like myself, as I was going to great lengths to make every shot look perfect, which is hard to sustain when problems arise. My skills are not in this field, I know much more about filming people in real time. I am not sure if the animation will get completed any time soon. Audience demand for this has also been incredibly weak, for the teaser trailer, it's taken over 2 months to only reach 137 views... Which is why I'm beginning to think people don't want to see this happen. I cannot promise this will be finished, my heart is not in it right now, and what is the point on working so hard on something (along with the problems I have) on a film which nobody really cares to see! If there's no joy in making it, I won't make it. I'm not gonna make money off it, and if I'm not having fun doing it anymore there is no point. My passions were elsewhere as you'll read below..

Before my health went downhill, August was a great month, not only for brainless partying in the usual clubs and gigs, but also for watching great horror films. My main passion between May and July has been with 16mm film editing and projection, after my dad gave me his old projector.

After a lot of time, money and technical problem solving, the real joy was editing the old fashioned way. In mid August I held a 16mm screening of Night of the living dead 1968 in my back garden with my friends. It was an atmospheric night, we had pizza, a bonfire to keep us warm, popcorn as well as intermission trailers and old cinema adverts..My main duties were as a projectionist and a host.

It was a very successful night and only wish you guys could have been there to experience it.. This is why I will eventually post a video of it on youtube once I get the time. If everything goes well I will hold another 16mm screening next year. There's a certain charm and pride in projecting films which you've edited together linearly, even if the audience is made up of 5 people!

Additionally, I watched 3 movies in Frightfest, a horror film festival in the heart of London.

I saw screenings of movies yet to be released, such as: The Inkeepers, The Wicker Tree and Tucker and Dale vs Evil 'The Inkeepers' was directed by Ti West, it was a pretty decent film in his style of slow build up and was scary when it needed to be however it didn't really match up to The House of the Devil!... 'The Wicker Tree' which is sort of like an indirect sequel to the Wicker Man, is a very strange movie and it would be a stretch to even call it a horror movie, but had the same religious cult themes as The Wicker Man.. It's still worth checking out as it also reminded me of a 70s movie in it's style. Regarding Tucker and Dale vs Evil.... just watch the trailer on youtube it explains it all...

So... What's in store for the future of Horrorville?

At the moment there is a cool short film I had written which I will try to get off the ground if my health comes back to normal, other than that the future of Horrorville is a complete mystery even to me. There are reasons why things have seemed dead with Horrorville since September last year... Reasons I shouldn't say as it could effect a future comeback...

My reaction to the news that The Human Centipede: Full Sequence has been banned in my country

2011-06-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

(Contains comical images throughout that don't fit the tone of the blog lol)

If you are not aware and have been living under a rock recently, the sequel to the shocking Human Centipede has been outright banned in the United Kingdom by the BBFC (ratings board) from release on DVD, Download or in theaters for being "sexually violent and potentially obscene". This means EVEN ADULTS cannot see this film.

Firstly, let me point out that whether you hate these type of movies or not, we are supposed to be living in a democracy (so they say), but it's apparent that we are now in a society where an unjustified authority board is banning a person's artistic expression, -(no matter what you call it extreme horror it is still an art form). -The BBFC are no different than the censorship culture in the Nazi regime, omitting what they don't want the public to see. Ironicall the Nazi's were the very skum who actually did sexually abuse, torture and do mad experiments on innocents just like in the movie. Now I thought we were past banning films, I thought that it was an outdated over-reaction buried in the past when the Conservative party was in power in the 1980s/90s, but I guess I was completely wrong. We haven't moved on. Maybe it's a coincidence that A Serbian Film got banned from frightfest last August, and now this movie gets banned outright not long after the Conservatives are back in power... this theory is not the issue though, although I do suspect a snobbish Eton-twat style influence in the BBFC.

Secondly, it's ONLY A MOVIE, there is NO EVIDENCE that horror films have ever turned anyone into a psychopath, there is no evidence disney films have made psychos normal either! On a sidenot, there is evidence however that the establishments stupid one sided propaganda news (ITV, BBC, SKY NEWS, CNN, FOX NEWS, ABC NEWS etc.) influences 1000s upon 1000s of citizens to join up to risk their lives to foolishly fight wars to kill others brutally, and by the way, ALL WARS ARE UNJUSTIFIED, and are all based on lies by Politicians (the same class of people who like banning films in there little censorship boards). The main reasons war happens is because of profit, power and religion. Very rarely is it self defense, and never should it be supported in any way. Nobody seems to care about how damaging the news can be in influencing negative decisions. Some people would rather blame movies for the horrors of the world.. If people listened and tolerated everyone's different view/religions/ideologies, then war wouldn't exist. "War is over!...... if you want it" -John Lennon. No one on this planet has a natural right to control you! So how can it be justified for a small group of people to CONTROL what the majority can or cannot see?

Thirdly the horror genre, like many other genres needs to transcend or push the boundaries in order for the genre to survive, otherwise it will go the way of the dinosaurs or the Western, in filmic terms. The Human Centipede film series is an example of the bar being raised, expanding the genre a little bit further. Therefore I have always been open to films which offer something new or different from current trends that end up transforming the genre, be it the the Blair Witch Project, Last House on the Left, or Psycho. These films massively shaped the modern and postmodern horror genre. Without these films which pushed the boundaries in their own way, the genre wouldn't look the same. Imagine if Hitchcock never made Psycho, you know, the film which has transgressive scenes such as a cross dressing murderer, voyeurism, a thieving protagonist who unexpectedly gets killed half way in the movie, a twist ending, an unsubtle music score. Without Psycho, there would be no Black Christmas (1974) which inspired Halloween (1978), which in turn inspired Friday the 13th and the entire slasher genre. Additionally filmmakers whose careers are outside the horror genre were also inspired by Hitchcock's work in Psycho. Without Psycho, the horror genre could have possibly died back in the late 60s, sticking to the old Universal horror style formula and got boring to people, dying like the Western genre has. We would have been stuck with Hammer horror, (the Universal studios formula but with colour), which pretty much died in the late 60s.. Colour didn't save the Western genre either. And if you think the western genre is still alive, name another movie other than True Grit that came out in the past 3 years. It's no longer an existant genre. It is a one off thing now. Anyways going back to the horror genre, without Last House on the left, we wouldn't have extreme exploitation horror movies such as I Spit on your grave, Cannibal Holocaust, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre etc.. Without Cannibal Holocaust, we wouldn't have the plot for the Blair Witch Project, and without Blair Witch Project, we wouldn't have REC, Cloverfield, Paranormal Actiity, and The Last Exorcism. Without the post-modern Scream, there wouldn't be I Know What you did last summer, Urban Legend, Halloween H20, Cherry falls etc.. And without Saw you wouldn't have Hostel, the torture genre, and the Human Centipede.

Now you may be thinking, how can he compare the masterpiece that is Psycho, to a piece of trash like the Human Centipede 2? If you are still asking this question, you obviously haven't understood the last extensive paragraph... Horror is meant to be transgressive and at times original. Horror is meant to scare the viewer, not just be entertaining. You know films have muliple purposes and the unique thing about one spectrum of the horror genre is that it has a different purpose from the other 85% of genre cinema. In that sense and i've always thought this, original groundbreaking horror is close to art films, as art films are an expression of an idea that is not necessarily meant to entertain the viewer, but to express something through a medium. Art is also challenging at times at what it puts accross. So are Horror films. which are not necessarily meant to entertain the viewer. Horror films CAN (but not always) have the sole purpose of scaring the viewer in one way or the other, deliberately making them feel uneasy for 90 minutes. There are 3 different modes which define the horror genre, that scare the audience:

-Creeping them out (the feeling of goosebumps you get in presence of the unknown)
-Digust - feeling sick and uneasy from something gory or implied gore through editing and sound
-Shocking your audience - putting something on screen that society hides away from - a graphic rape for instance.

A pure horror film will include 1, 2 or all of these 3 elements. Human Centipede mostly falls into the shock mode of horror. However, if you are lucky you come accross a film which does the following:

-An Original Ideology or idea/or subplot running in the background that is in itself scary (e.g. 'Martyrs', 'The Human Centipede')
-Raw ingredients the filmmaker skillfully places within the film that the audience uses their imaginations to create fear within themselves without much effort

There are more techniques that can be listed, (not including the multiple subgenres with horror, or the crossing of different genres) but to list all of this and it's intended purpose would sidetrack my main argument too much.

What I am saying is the horror genre has multiple purposes for it's audience, and needs to transcend itself into something new every once in a while for it to survive as a filmic genre for the coming years. For this reason alone, the Human Centipede franchise needs to be embraced by horror fans, at least given a watch. It should not be banned. We are responsible adults. Your not gonna let your kid watch something that extreme because it will frighten them way too much. It doesn't make sense why you should you be treated like your kid by the BBFC, them acting as father/mother figure dictating and teaching you that this film is too bad for you to watch.

Do you like being treated as a child? Do you like being asked to have your chewing gum taken out your mouth?

I haven't seen this movie yet, and thanks to the BBFC, it will be a bit of an inconvenience now to watch it. I predict some other countries will also ban the film as humans like to jump on a bandwagon. If you truly want to see this film, you will find a way: either by a torrent download or a foreign import..

In the meantime, keep an open mind and don't believe everything you read, see, or hear

-John Mitchison

May update

2011-05-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

Once again it's been a while since our last update.

Because of technical issues, the animated film has been delayed for months up until recently. We are now completely able to shoot and edit in 1920 X1080i HD.

However everyone knows May is a busy month full of activities from every direction, and the same applies to my life and the people around me whether I choose it or not. As a result filming will most likely take place in June and/or July. But I will make it my goal to release this animated film before the end of the summer.

In the meantime, we currently have 2 new videos of re-edited and improved versions of our 2 biggest short films:

Red Handed followed by Grave Danger. Recently, original rushes for both movies were discovered to be completely intact, and since I was never 100% happy with both films, I thought they needed touching up in different ways. They are the same movies, but with some needed improvements.

With Red Handed, I deliberately made it look older than it already feels- in the vein of an intense 70s exploitation movie. This includes scratches, burnt frames and film distortions, some older sounding music tracks, and a re-design of the titles. Additionally, we surrounded the movie with these cool old theater adverts, and previews of coming attractions, 2 are for films yet to come out..

Regarding Grave Danger, this re-edit was much more straight forward and involved creative touch up work mainly on the 3rd act of the movie which I had been dying to do since it's rushed release back in 2008. The subliminal "color code" meaning in the movie is now complete. Additionally the ratio will be 16x9 full screen, with no black bars or stretching of any kind. However, the best imptrovement to this re-release will actually be the upload quality. Youtube users will be able to select the quality they want to watch it in at rates which are 10 times higher than the pixelated version that was released in 2008.

So all of this news may raise the question.. Will Horrorville Productions actually film a short or feature length movie with humans, rather than animated shorts and re-releases??

Yes. This year. Not sure when exactly though!

February update - the return

2011-02-04T06:43:00.000-08:00

-The Sony PMW EX1 camera arrived in late December, the necessary accessories that we needed for it arrived by mid January, spurring me on to write a new short film.

-I am currently filming our next project: the third entry to our animated VS series and the follow up to Freddy vs Jason vs Leatherface 70s style.. This short will be different in the way it looks visually but will be just as fun to watch and have some unexpected twists like the last short, but should be in the same vein as the others with more work put into it than the last two. I'm looking forward to filming the rest of it and finally uploading it on youtube after almost a year of absence on there.

Hopefully this short will mark the return of Slashville Entertainment, as I plan to produce, write and direct new films to be released this year onwards..

As far as Jag goes, he told me he is too busy at the moment to make films, we shall see what we shall see..

-John

Winter Update - bad news

2010-12-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since the last post but we figured that because the blog has no followers, then it's unlikely that anyone is reading. A lot of set backs have happened since the last post, most of it not great.

In late September after our break, Jag and I came to terms with reality and decided the film had to be cancelled until further notice because of financial issues. It was impossible for us to go ahead with the movie that was written because at or current budget, we could only afford a decent camera, when to complete the movie decently, we also need lights, advanced make-up, special effects, food and other expenses we can't afford. Now since we have no experience or clue with raising money via investment, the only other way to get money is from the work savings... which is not enough quite frankly..

We may or may not go back to the project in 2011, if we don't we are likely to make a short film or something similar to test any new equipment we acquire.

If you have read this then thanks, you may be the only one.

More updates shortly...

Mid -August update

2010-08-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

We apologize for the delay in updating the blog, but we have been doing a lot these past few months Yes the film is still happening we even have a rough schedule for the first bunch of days of shooting -the last 2 weeks of september. We have our two lead characters cast and are about to do auditions for all the other roles. Things seem to be happening pretty fast.

We will keep you updated with more blogs and photos, meanwhile keep it gory and hope you had a happy Friday the 13th

John Mitchison -Producer

Mid - April Update

2010-04-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

Things have been moving slowly but surely since the last update, Jag and I have just finished the 4th draft of the script and we've come up with a possible title, also our budget is looking better than expected. We've yet to start casting for crew, actors or extras but we have a very rough schedule based from the 4th draft. I am personally pleased with what Jag and I have accomplished in the script, it expresses our fears, our anger, our imaginations and our knowledge and in my opinion is the best script we've ever written, because not only is it personal it's both a scary , shocking and violent film which deals with the extremes of human emotion. We will try our very best to put what we write on screen and maybe even make it better.

The downside is there have been a few issues with finding 2 of the locations but I'm sure we will figure this out before the shoot.

Also we have deliberately been doing less horror shows simply because it was getting too difficult to do that, work and also plan the film at the same time especially when we had a lot of negative feedback from viewers on our last review of the Nightmare on elm street 2010 trailer, but that wasn't the sole reason we stopped, it was more of a discouragement because I realized what's the point in spending time doing this if most people don't like it?? I realize it's good for us as horror fans to have an opinion, however it got to a point where our opinion was completely disrespected and patronized over the past 4 weeks, so why should i waste my time on editing and filming something which only a few people would slightly appreciate, when Jag and I are working on an original film?? So yeah this and a few other things have knocked us a bit, but we will prevail only to prove to people that personal films can be made from people frustrated about the current state of the horror genre.

A bit of a rant there. We probably will do another show at some point but we don't know when. I still think the most important thing is to focus on making this film a reality, and if the horror show prevents this then this then we'll have to leave it to written blogs and small random vlogs..

If you've read this... then thanks

Until next time,

Rot slowly

-John

March Update

2010-03-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

A quick update on the upcoming horror film from me and John.
Still in the script stage but i'm working now on it and have just finished doing half a 3rd draft, its starting to take shape but still along way to go, oooo its getting fun and im getting happy that we are gonna make another film.

peace

Jag

Jag’s Opinion on Horror Movie Remakes

2010-02-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

Horror remakes are one of the quickest ways to cash in and make some quick money, for the greedy fat cats that sit behind the scenes and push and pull there weight against directors who have a vision. The fat cats I am on about are the studio executives and producers; the people who hand out as little cash as they can in order to make as much cash back.

These greedy bastards keep pumping money into horror remakes, and the worse thing is that they keep making money off them, I think its unfair just to blame just these greedy pigs because its also our fault, because we keep running to the cinemas or going out buying these remakes, we help fund and build up their egos who in turn give money to make these projects happen for desperate directors. This bloody circle is never ending.

What pisses me off more is that we say we hate these remakes, and want them to stop, well I tell you then- stop watching them, and just go out buy the originals and enjoy these bad-boys of horror. They are the true horror movies you want to have and many many horror fans hold them dear to their hearts and so should you. If we all stop going out and spending our cash on these god awful remakes, then the fat cats in Hollywood will stop making them as there’s no profit to make out of them and maybe then they will pump their cash into the slightly more original horror scripts that are floating around in the world.

Sorry peeps about that outburst but I just could no longer hold it in and well it all just had to explode out of me.

I was thinking I would review some remakes. The good, the bad and the o.k, but screw that I feel what’s the point maybe a later date I will get to it but for now I feel I should just take my time and talk more about remakes in general.

I would at this point like to state yes I was at one point helping to fund these remakes, and fell for the remake craze and for this peeps I am sorry, I was young and just wanting to support horror the best I could, but what I found out from this support for the remake was that Hollywood just won’t stop, these dicks just kept on, and made more and more remakes.

Since then I have stopped watching remakes at the cinema and buying them on DVD/ Blu Ray, since this is only going to help fund more horror remakes. If I want to check out a remake which is rare I can go on the good o’ tinternet and watch it for free, yes I would be giving up my time which I could have spent watching a great original horror movie but hey, we all have to make some sacrifices.

I personally feel that only roughly about 2-4% of horror remakes are good, and sometimes even outdoing the original, but not all, some just make it fun to watch and let us the fans, see a different side of what the movie could do.

Maybe a lot of you peeps out there are thinking its unfair saying all the ‘bad stuff’ about horror remakes since you have not seem them all and so my judgement is not all true or even half true and what I say to this is that having watched the original, 97-99% of all remakes don’t hold a touch to them, because what the original offered were scares, real physical effects, even a rather great story can not be seen in the remakes which seem to be flat on story, taken over by CGI and well it's just violent and nothing else.

Don’t get me wrong I love violence but hell I want it to feel real and maybe even scary, remakes seem to do violence for the sake of violence.

I think I know why this could be, what I’m about to say is not a fact and I have not researched it but rather personally what I think remakes just have violence for the sake of violence and no scares. Well that’s unfair they do have some scares and when I mean some I mean some like roughly 1% of the film is made up with scares, yes you could say there’s more scares, but the scares I’m on about are the ones no one see coming, the ones that hide and out of nowhere pop out and grab us by our necks. Sorry peeps seem to have gone off the topic, ok, lets get back to the main point violence.

I believe we have this over- the- top amount of violence due to the things that are happening around us and also the change of audience.

Let’s start with world events effecting horror violence. The news can now be seen 24/7, seven days a week, not just on western television, but now news channels all over the world have there own T.V channels, we have always had them appear on our radios, and even now we have them on the tinternets. We have been over exposed to the news from what we hear to most importantly to what we see, the images of dead people, or dying people and even people in war torn countries are powerful. I mean these images are so strong because they are real that they overrule horror movie scares because we are no longer as scared of bumps in the dark but rather by images of death.

Let me put this another way, we have become used to seeing images of death that we perhaps want more, but we cant tell others we want people to be ripped apart and have insane amount of blood flying everywhere so as a result we want to see this in films more than feeling the need to be scared in the traditional sense.

Now my other point is that these horror remakes seem to be targeting the younger audience, the studios see them as an easy way to make money, they also now have more media to showcase their films (well trailers for there remakes) unlike before and well when you enter the realm of the tinternet you can target all major age groups, from 10 year olds-late 30s maybe even the early 40s, because everyone nowadays lives off the tinternet it has become part of our lives it is like another friend, a child or even secret lover, and the great think is the tinternet will never say your wrong, your dirty it will never judge you.

This amazing tool lets everyone explore the new remakes, by seeing behind the scenes, photos on set, the cast we all love on the small screen to the big screen (I mean this in a general way).

So to wrap up, what I am saying is that the audience have changed now and remakes have become weak in sense of scares but strong in bloody violence and the ratings have lowered for the new generations of horror ‘fans’ and so what was a R rating for the original is now a PG13 for its remake.

Well I’m going to stop here because there’s a lot there to read and take in, and yet again I’m sorry peeps for my outburst but hey the true horror fans do have to let the feelings out about the new crap being showcased to us.

-Jagman-

John's Opinions and reviews on Horror Remakes

2010-02-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

I find it hard to enjoy any remake, especially if the original movie was a mediocre or a crap film. It's equally as painful if a great film like Halloween is remade into something a crap film school student would put together. These movies are usually made by music video directors or first timers that don't have a clue about pacing a horror film correctly. Not a single horror remake has been as scary to the modern audience as much as it's original was to it's audience. Hollywood are cashing in on the name for financial security, this is the sole reason remakes are made.

The second most painful thing about remakes for me is that the modern audience don't even know they are watching a remake. In the space of one week I experienced this as one of my work colleagues asked me if I'd seen the Crazies trailer and I said to him “you mean the remake?” And he didn't know it was a remake. Even more shocking was my own brother wasn't aware he'd just walked out of a remake of 'The Wolfman'... All that has to be done to prevent rubbing salt into the wounds of original fans is to say in the trailer or posters “Based on an original film by Wes Craven” or “A rein-visioning of a horror classic” for instance. Problem is a lot of the films they are now remaking were horrible original films that nobody can call a classic such as 'The Blob', 'Troll', 'The Crazies' (sorry Romero) and 'Sorority Row'. I've read recently that there may be another Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake for 2011 and another Spiderman movie set in high school for 2012 with a possible Robert Pattinson (Twilight) as the hero... it will seem the movie world at least will truly end on that year. So if Hollywood are increasingly scraping the bottom of the barrel for material to recycle with horrible cast, and now RECYCLING what has recently been RECYCLED as well as the increasing acceleration in other forms of technological entertainment it's looking pretty grim for Hollywood.

Below are our reviews on remakes: the good and the bad

A review of bad remakes – Reviews by John:

'Rob Zombie's Halloween' (2007) Rating: -3 out of10
Also known as 'Zombieween' amongst disgruntled fans, this is possibly the single worst remake of all time, from an extremely hypocritical artist who had publicly stated that remakes are the worst thing a director should do. This film doesn't know what it's doing. The first half is sort of a prequel to the story of Michael Myers the iconic serial killer, as it gradually explains how young Michael became psychotic. The second half adapts the original film's story but pointlessly has additional scenes in particular, scenes that are a waste of screen time, such as a scene showing us how Michael got his overalls. Every character including Laurie Strode had been written as obnoxious and verbally abusive which makes it impossible for the audience to actually care for them when Michael is in for the kill. Another thing which got under my skin was Malcolm McDowell's and William Forsythe's horrendous acting which was akin to a bad student film or an episode of Emerdale. Any half-assed director with sense would either ask for a retake or a recast!! I could go on and on about how bad this movie is in detail but it would fill the whole page and probably leave you wanting to kill yourself. What was worse is that Rob Zombie had shown great potential with The Devil's Rejects which I still enjoy to this day because it is so different from anything else today, whereas Zombieween was a mimic of all the serial killer bio-pics with a shooting and lighting style no different from everything else today.

'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (2003) Rating: 3 ½ out of 10
Not nearly as bad as “Zombieween”, this film is most likely responsible for the remake trend, the use of green colour correction, this slick film is a completely different approach to the original version. However just like “Zombieween” it too fails in sparking fear into the imagination of the audience as the original had achieved. There's barely any blood in both the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, however the audience were still terrified or disgusted because of the clever film trickery that was presented to them. On a positive note, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre did have some disturbing moments such as the suicide in the car as well as a new way of portraying a grimy environment, albeit an artificial grittiness via the now overused green look and overdone production design. Going back to a negative point I think is worth mentioning, it never once seemed the protagonists were from the 70s which is the time the film is set, this is due to the casting which deliberately chose good looks over unique performance. In hindsight this film could have been a whole lot worse, but having said that, we did not need this film at all.

'My Bloody Valentine 3D' (2009) Rating: 2 out of 10
I must confess, I never watched this movie in 3D, or in theatres, I didn't even buy or rent the DVD/Blu Ray. Instead I ended up watching a pirate copy my friend owned. So I cannot right a complete review on if the 3D worked or not, not can I comment on lighting or production design. That leaves me with the story. A story which is somewhat similar to the original with the 3 main characters, but with a twist on it. Written by Todd Farmer, the same guy who had written Jason X, the story could have been that bad but thankfully it wasn't. Once again I have to complain about the casting; which consists of two famous TV actors, Kerr Smith (Dawson's Creek) and Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, Smallville) who could not support the film from falling apart unfortunately. If decent actors were chosen to portray these main characters rather than obnoxious ones with ego then this movie would be in my 'Good remake' pile below. Instead this movie is in the pile of sh*t because I found it quite boring and it didn't even touch the original, which is amazing since the original didn't have famous people in the roles, a 3D gag or even half the money of this film, but it managed to execute the story more perfectly and is considered a slasher classic. Thus we can all dread the execution of Patrick Lussier's next project, Halloween 3D.

'Dawn of the Dead' (2004) Rating: 3 out of 10
The remake of George Romero's masterpiece, this remake is surprisingly favourable amongst even the Romero fans, and is probably the most liked remake just behind John Carpenter's remake The Thing. However I on the other hand, think this remake doesn't deserve all the hype and praise it's been undeservedly given for quite a few reasons. Firstly I hated this movie, and this was when I actually used to give remakes a chance back in the day, I forced myself to re-watch the film for this review and I still hated it 6 years later. I still dislike the running zombies, and THEY ARE ZOMBIES because there are scenes where people die for minutes (after being bitten) and then get back up. You don't get back up if you have died unless you are a zombie, or were incredibly lucky your doctor struggled to revived you. Problem is that this movie tries to sit on both sides of the fence: the infected persons with rage and the undead. The zombies run like the hyper raged (but still alive) humans in 28 Days later. This doesn't make any sense. It's understandable for infected people who are ALIVE to run extremely fast to attack, but not someone who has just died, especially IF THEY HAVE BEEN DEAD FOR A MONTH... 28 Days later at least had the logic and showed that after a month or so the infected persons ran out of energy from lack of food, and lay on the ground like any malnourished human or animal would. But no this movie has no common sense and has it's zombies more energetic than the starving character Andy across the street! This major flaw in logic I and certain other horror fans could not get past.

The second biggest flaw is the writer's choice of deliberately making sure 80% of the main characters are selfish assholes. And just when you think you can start liking them, they do something obnoxious, selfish or psychotic in the following scene. For instance we are unexpectedly let down by Michael, who all of a sudden thinks he should kill a father (they had just rescued I might add )who has been bitten but Michael is fully aware that his dad's daughter wants to spend her last hours with him. It takes the female protagonist to remind him and the police officer BASIC MORALITY. I could go on.

The third biggest flaw is that it completely lacks any metaphor whatsoever, which by the way is extremely easy to do in a zombie film and is required if you are remaking a film which did so. The original was an obvious reflection on the increasing consumer mindset that was forced in the faces of the American people in the late 70s, one such tool of this was the shopping mall. The original film said to us that materialism, the need to buy more is a sign of mindless emptiness within oneself, exactly mirroring a mindless zombie feeling the need to consume human beings. But I guess James Gunn, the writer of this movie thinks that we are all too mindless to understand any metaphors, so he just won't bother and will instead sprinkle the movie with explosions, forced cameos, cgi effects and a thin plot with one dimensional annoying characters that a high school student would write. Or maybe it is just him being stupid, mindlessly copying every other movie that came before.

'House of Wax' (2005) Rating: 1 out of 10:
A boring, generic and not scary film which has a completely different story to the original and takes the House of Wax idea a bit too literally as the building bizarrely melts like a candle at the end. Perhaps more bizarre is that it has a protagonist who looks exactly like Justin Timberlake, but with a bad attitude problem and somehow this bad attitude scarier than the evil villains themselves. The film also stars Paris Hilton, could this be any worse?

'The Omen 666' (2006) 2 out of 10:
Again, not scary, just boring. This remake tries to have a political edge to it at the start showing footage of the burning Twin Towers etc. but this is probably the most interesting scene as the rest of the film is not only boring, but technically disabled. In many scenes, whilst watching Jag and myself spotted the boom microphone above the actors!! The CGI was also piss poor and the protagonist's voice and character is so one dimensional and monotone that he sends you to sleep. It didn't help that I had seen the original, because the movie pretty much copied most of the scenes. So I guess I knew what was coming, another major flaw with remakes!!

'The Amityville Horror' (2005) Rating: 3 out of 10:
Admittedly has better scares than the other remakes mentioned above, however the bad CGI lets it down a lot, that and the overused blue look to all the night scenes. I actually preferred this to the original which I thought was overrated, but nevertheless it's a very forgetful and superficial film, from the same year that brought us the very memorable and distinctive Devil's Rejects

'The Grudge' (2004) Rating: 3 ½ out of 10
The Unsubtle Hollywoodized version of an original asian horror film, shamefully and unexpectedly produced by Sam Raimi with the same director as the original. This movie is extremely 1 dimensional; in characterization and story. It has some good scares to it, unlike it's extremely predictable and unscary sequel. I guess the film has set out what it wanted to do: a dumbed down version of a tangled story into a popcorn horror for the teenagers on the back row

Now that I've let off an unexpected 2000 word outburst of frustration I will now review the remakes I actually enjoyed.:

Good Remakes – reviews by John:

'John Carpenter's 'The Thing' (1982) Rating: 10 out of 10
I haven't seen the original film so I am not sure if I'm just being one of those people who are ignorant and think the remake is the better or what. Nevertheless this film is visually impressive through it's photography of the Antarctic location as well as the creative and sophisticated special effects used in the gore sequences. Not a shred of cgi was used, and to this day nothing has looked so real as we witness people and animals being ripped apart from the inside as a shape shifting alien comes out of them in all kinds of creative and imaginatively gory ways. The acting is superb and the humour is just right, but kept to a minimal as the atmosphere of isolation and doom is being crafted around us as we watch. It plays on the fear of physical invasion, like an infection that will inevitably eat it's victims alive and this is enhanced by the fact that they become pretty much trapped in the Antarctic. This film is much more advanced at creating the feeling of a grim fate within the audience than the Dawn of the Dead remake tries but fails to achieve 22 years later. What makes the film even more isolated is the clever technique of having an all male cast, depriving the audience of femininity and purity and this adds a certain grimy psychological aspect to the film.

'Night of the living Dead' (1990)
A surprisingly well executed remake directed by the special make-up effects artist Tom Savini, this film does not lack anything, which is unexpected because the last time a make-up effects person went into the directors chair we had 1 dimensional films like Troll and Friday the 13th part 7 where it seemed the director didn't care about performance or story. This film on the other hand not only doesn't suffer from this but it also enhances the characters particularly that of Barbara's who has a character arc from once being a meek young woman in distress and hopelessness at the start, to a heroine that surpasses the others in strength and wisdom. The practical special effects were unsurprisingly amazing, and the stunts, zombie make-up and direction made the walking zombies an incredible threat as they can sneak up on you or trick the characters and the audience into underestimating them, so that they do suddenly appear for the attack, its is much more frightening than the predictable running zombie in the Dawn of the Dead remake. Additionally the musical score is both original and very chilling, and once again as in The Thing remake, we the audience feel the same dread and doom the characters experience, making it more of a memorable and frightening horror film than 'Zombieween' or Dawn of the dead 2004 will ever be.. The only thing I ever remember from those 2 films is feeling angry, disappointed at how superficial and predictable those remakes were.

Mediocre remakes that were bearable – review by John:

'Friday the 13th' (2009) 7 out of 10:
Also predictable and superficial, this film doesn't try to be something it wasn't meant to be. It adheres to the formula of the original Friday the 13th franchise with a setting and situation similar to F13 parts 1 to 4. The writers new exactly what the fans wanted, the only let down in terms of expectation was the lack of the talented Harry Manfredini for the music score. Instead they opted for a very generic industrial sounding music. Probably the most annoying thing about this movie is the shaky camerawork and deliberately poor interior lighting, rendering the audience clueless to the action taking place in front of them. I personally dislike this style as it does not reflect reality in any way, damaging the suspension of disbelief which s a vital technique needed to make a film good. However since fans of the franchise don't go for a great story or filmmaking craftsmanship but more so to see Jason and his ultra violent creative kills, the fan audience will leave satisfied, just as I was the first time I had watched it opening night. Having said that the film was more suspenseful than actually scary, and also relied more on violence just like the majority of the original franchise. The second major problem i had with it was once again, they mostly cast people for their looks and stardom rather than their acting ability, but nevertheless these films were never meant to have great acting in them in the first place so who cares right! Admittedly, being a big fan of the franchise as well as the character of Jason Voorhees, may have clouded my thoughts from properly reviewing this film from an objective start point.

There are many, many more remakes that I have not bothered to watch in these recent years, as what's the point if I know I will come out of the film with £7.00 less and feeling angry about them.

In conclusion:

From my own personal experience in watching horror remakes I conclude that there has been only ONE decent remake per 5 to 10 YEARS, that's probably 5% of horror remakes that are good in the last decade. So my advice if you don't want to see anymore of them, is stop wasting your money seeing them for a start, watch original content instead then perhaps Hollywood will realise that remakes are not as profitable as they were and as a result they will stop making them..

Thanks for reading this lengthy rant, John

Location scout

2010-02-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

by John Mitchison

Last week Jag and myself went on an 6 or 7 mile grueling location scout in the cold weather, the end result wasn't too pretty as Jag fell ill on the way back and the next day I phoned him at 3pm and he was still in bed!!! But we got a lot of things done which is why we were so exhausted...

The lane

It will appear somewhere in the beginning of the film, hopefully it will be this exact lane, but if not we know another lane we could use which is more quiet but somewhat private which is another issue in itself. The reason we chose a lane, without actually knowing in detail exactly what will happen in the scene is because the perspective of the lane itself kind of visually mirrors some of the other scenes around it and relates to something else I'm not allowed to mention, third reason we're using it is because there's something about it which looks visually stunning. That's about all i can say on that for now.

The lane in Friday the 13th: Jason's Rage

The reason we were going to use this lane in our fan film we've yet to make: 'Friday the 13th: Jason's Rage' because it looks like a small country lane that would be in New Jersey.. More on that: i am still up for making that film and I think it is good to put it on hold for now because if we leave it for the future, we will not only have better experience but will also have more film equipment we would have bought by then. That's not to say that the upcoming film we are currently making now won't be as good. But to tackle a franchise well brings along fan expectations that we would have to meet which is tricky believe it or not as we don't have a budget that would even meet the original F13. So we want to tread carefully with any films we will make from now on, this make take a lot of time and money but we will hopefully make films that will be an improvement upon our last efforts. Anyway along the way we saw another potential location, this time for the fan film:

Regarding Friday the 13th 2009, i think it was a good attempt at bringing in both the original fans of the franchise as well as attracting new ones because it used the original formula but added the style of post 2000 horror of fast cutting, dark lighting and jerky camera movement.. Despite the fact that I myself DID NOT LIKE THIS SHOOTING AND EDITING STYLE, I respected the writers because they respected the fans ad i am a hardcore fan of the franchise so there will probably be a lot of future discussion to come on Jason Voorhees..

Anyways back to our Location Scout

The location we thought was a bike ramp area was most likely a paintball gun range we discovered later on -coincidently relating back to Friday the 13th again (only true fans of the franchise will get what i mean)

Basically this location serves good for the scene we want because as you can see there would be many places to run and hide, and it generally has something creepy and other worldly about it if treated in the right way. It may seem a bit of a random location but we have good reasons for choosing an area like this as you'll hopefully understand when you see the film at the end of this year.

Later on the scout we unintentionally came across some more locations that were scripted which we may or may not use, depending on creative grounds or simply if we can get permission:

in addition to scouting, we also filmed some of the new opening title shots which should include in the next horror show episode if all goes to plan, this was pretty easy as we have done the same thing a year ago but the footage was recorded on the dead Hi8 format, the camera broke shortly afterward which stopped us from even transferring it onto a computer! We still have more crazy shots to film on that as we pretty much half assed it because we were focusing on the location scout more than anything. I think next weekend we should be filming the rest of the intro

Thanks for reading even though I doubt many people bothered to....

The Next written blog will be up next week, in the meantime STAY DEAD

-John Mitchison

Update 09/02/10

2010-02-08T12:36:00.001-08:00

Hey all,

Just wanted to give a quick update, on what's currently going on in the world of Horrorville.

We went on a location scout on the Saturday, and came across a wonderful place, it has everything that i wanted and more, it was creepy to find something so good in our backyard (in a manner of speaking).
It crazy peeps it seems everything is falling into place, we have a solid idea of the way the film is going to move, we have some nice locations and also me and John are working as a team, ideas are flowing and feelings for this project are getting higher.

I guess that's all for now, hopefully we can put a couple of photos up for our next update, so peeps know what's going on.

But for now, I say peace and enjoy the night.

-Jag

2010-02-04T17:02:00.001-08:00

Horrorville is back, or maybe i should say the Horror show is back, its bigger and better, and it gonna be the best way to stay in touch with what Horrorville Productions is currently up to, and also what we think of horror.

Before I go on further I want say that we are sorry that we have not been on Youtube much or uploaded any new horror shorts, well I should personally say sorry me Jag, as I don’t go on Youtube a lot, due to personal problems, but that’s in the past now. I and John plan to make horror films and stay in contact with all our fans.

Well I guess I should move on with what this blog is all about, in its simplist form it’s a way of talking about horror films in general and also about Horrorville.

I'll begin by talking about Horrorville and its past work and the new stuff we are working on and what are, as well as our future plans.

One of the biggest disappointments was ‘Don’t Deny It’ which was going to be one of are biggest projects to date, it had started of as a Uni project but had become so personal for me that I started to fall in love with it, and John felt the same, the project was a loose storyline based on two Asian films I had seen, I took from both and turned it into something true to me. The story was about two brothers and the oldest brother girlfriend. It was about love but played so much on the psychological side or horror but did have its fair share of bloody violence.

The film had started production but was cut short due to myself travelling abroad and when I had come back the tapes had got ruined, and the deadline was drawing so near that I could not go back to restarting the film again. So, I had to quickly work out a new film which most of you may know as ‘Run’.

We at Horrorville Productions are now working on a new project, many who have seen the Horror show will know we have talked about it in its most basic way, but I can revel more now, it is about two brothers and the theme is wanting to escape. I am sorry but that’s all that can be revealed for now.
So basically what we're telling you so far is that it’s a sci-fi horror movie, its about two brothers and will take a year to film and edit, hoping to be shot in the summer.

Before I leave, I would once again say thanks to everyone who watches our films (Marcus, Nick, Nate, Tamerick, Dwayne Miller to name a few) and thank you for supporting us over the years and because of this if any of you peeps have any questions or thoughts, well anything to talk about do message us on our youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/slashville and also www.youtube.com/user/HorrorVillePictures Or you can also add comments on this blog (not sure if it can be done but if it can go for it). Me and John will get back to you all and do our best to stay in touch with you all.

Peace for now and do watch out for new blog entries and web shows

-Jagbir Dhillon