Bill Oberst Jr. Stars in Short film After Hours

Bill Oberst Jr. is a known fixture in the horror community. With a large and rabid fanbase and credits ranging from fan favorite "Take this Lollipop" to Criminal Minds and Honest Abe himself in Abraham Lincoln VS Zombies, Oberst is one of my favorite genre actors by far and when I saw this trailer popping on my news feed it definitely caught my attention.

Then, after a quick trip to IMDB, the directing credits show Michael Aguiar, director of The Laughing Mask, a movie I personally loved and had the opportunity to screen, so I was Definitely interested.

IMDB also notes the script by Adam Weber. I dont know much about him but the prospect of a Michael Aguiar directed film starring Bill Oberst Jr. was enough to get me interested..

Here is the official trailer description from Bravestar Pictures Youtube page:

  "Starring Bill Oberst Jr, Directed by Michael Aguiar and written by Adam Weber, after Hours tells the story of Lauren Deacon (Dana Mauro) , a store clerk being harassed at work by an unknown assailant while Detective Harris (Bill Oberst Jr.) looks for clues as to who is the killer. After Hours also stars Gabriel Lee as Alejandro Cordova, making this the second film (after The Laughing Mask) he plays the character"


It seems that Aguiar is going for the "joined universe" deal by using Alejandro Cordova (Gabriel Lee) as  LT. I wonder if any other references to "The Laughing Mask" are made and what kind of timeline it establishes from that movie.

Wish it was a feature though, as lord knows what those two combined would do..

As always, Ill keep covering Hollywood, one piece at the time

Jack

The Death of Hollywood Visionaries

As I mull over turning this blog from straight Horror movie reviews to more of all entertainment, something odd happened, Steven Spielber's BFG flopped miserably at the Box Office.

With a production budget of $140 million dollars plus advertising costs, BFG had everything to make a huge box office splash. It had a name like Steven Spielberg, a beloved children's book story and a gimmick! The first ever Spielberg/Disney production, on top of that Tarzan fizzled so it was the PERFECT time for a movie to come in an sweep it out, but it didn't happen.

The public quite literally stayed at home that weekend and Finding Dory took the Box office reigns for a 3rd week in a row.

That made me start thinking. AS a child born in the late 70's and growing up in the 1980's, Spielberg was God. The man had critical AND financial success in a way that we haven't seen since. Hell, in the list of all time domestic grosses (adjusted), Spielberg has 2 of the 10 top spots with E.T and Jaws. Indiana Jones, The Purple, Empire of the Sun, Schindler's List, Jurassic Park, the man's IMDB reads like your dream list of best movies you ever seen. THAT was the time of the directors, when they were given creative control and reign to do what a director is supposed to do. Put their vision on screen, and we all loved it.

Fast Forward to 2016, we have a new beast in Comic Book/Fantasy films. Huge colossal budget films that need to make 2 or 3 times the amount of their budget to be considered successful, and this is the same era that will always be remembered as the death of the Hollywood visionaries.

Directors these days are picked by the brand in question to be a soldier. His task is to yell "action" then "cut", collect his paycheck and go home. You will never see a household named director in a Marvel movie for example. As enjoyable as they are, Marvel is serving the equivalent to fast food movies and their directors are pretty much as interchangeable as if they were made out of Lego Bricks. You are there to make THEIR movie, your vision is of no interest to them, and for that purpose, Marvel will keep a heavy hand.

I did a small personal test. In a gathering, with about 20 friends I asked who watched Ant man, Captain America and Thor 2. They all raised their hands, when I asked who directed those movies, I got blank stares, then someone said the Watchoswky brothers for Captain America. Edgar Writght had a vision for Ant Man, he wrote and worked on the movie for years, but refused to follow the cookie cutter "fast food" mold Marvel is putting out ,as a result he was fired and in his place came (I literally had to go to IMDB to look it up) Peyton Reed.

No disrespect to Mr Reed, his career highlights are Bring it On, Yes Man and The Breakup.  Marvel has taken the reigns of their movie universe and can basically make a movie without a director. All of them with the exception of Kenneth Brannagh had very small experience with tent-pole movies and havent done anything since. We all love Joss Whedon, but before Avengers he had a failed TV series in  Firefly (bring it back already dammit), another failed venture in Serenity, yet another cancelled series in Dollhouse. For me at least, he was "the guy from Buffy".

Everyone else on Marve's hit list either has very limited experience or haven't done anything in a long time. Marvel does that for a reason, so they can control and basically tell the directors" You are making my movie, this is how I want it"

And they of course do it (who wouldn't) , James Gunn IMDB as a director was a ghost town before Guardians of the Universe and all of a sudden, he is a household name. But that only further illustrates my point. We are not watching director and vision driven films anymore, we are watching what a corporation or Brand decides.

I'm a huge part of the problem. Marvel can package "The Stingray" movie at this point and I'll gladly buy my ticket weeks and advanced then go wait 2 hours in line to watch it, they sucessfully created a brand that is trusted and generates revenue. But if you try to inject your vision you're out the door.

DC tried a somewhat different approach. By hiring Nolan, they tapped someone with a very old school approach to film-making and tried to redefine their universe. Unfortunately Zach Snyder was their choice to pick up after that and the general public didn't like it. As a result, DC now reincorporated, giving the Warner's movie reigns to Geoff Johns and will start using Marvel's formula, where we'll end up with the "Coke and Pepsi" of the movie industry.

If you stop right now, the average movie goer and think of a director, under 50 years old, that is as revolutionary and visionary as Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, or even a young George Lucas?

You cant think it. The time of the rock star movie directors is all gone, now we will get to watch what big corporations and brands want us to watch. We watch Disney movies, Marvel Films, Warners and Sony, we dont watch the Spielberg Movie, that new Clint Eastwood film or Alfred Hitchcock even.. Those were days were you went to the theater and wanted to watch what the director's vision was, what he wanted us to see. Now we go to be visually entertained, big budget and effects took over for character development and vision.

You noticed I keep using the word "vision" and "visionary" because that is it, that's what Hollywood has lost, and Im afraid we will never get that back.

You hear stories from people like Edgar Wright, Jose Padilha and others, where they will tell you, its the Studio's movie, you have NO control over what you want to show. Josh Trank was also steamrolled and never allowed to make whatever  Fantastic 4 film he wanted, the studios want to control every aspect of the movie making experience, but THEY are not filmmakers, they are pencil pushers and are there to sell meat, not to make art. The studios are the McDonalds, wanting to keep serving us with one Big Mac after the other, not worrying about quality as much as quantity. The more explosions in Civil War the less you will notice, its just a video game you can't control.

So what can we do?? We can look towards independent film, with today's technology there are folks out there working themselves to the bone to make movies, to bring THEIR vision to you, but a good majority of them will never get to. There are full movies on Youtube with less then 200 views, GOOD movies with SOLID story but we, the public are so used to Mcdonalds, we no longer want anything else, so when the jewel comes along, like BFG is utterly ignored and passed by.

As always, I'll keep reviewing Hollywood, one piece  the time

Jack

Dead Snow 2 - Dead Vs Red

Dead Snow 2 follows in the tradition of Evil Dead 2 and other horror/humor type films that dont take themselves too serious, and for what it was, I was entertained.

Once you take a deep breath and in the first few minutes of the movie, is introduced to our hero ,(in a very helpful flashback, since I hadn't seen the original) Martin, the only one left alive from the previous film, is introduced exactly where the flashback left off, with him fighting off an army of zombie Nazis.

The fight lands Martin in the hospital, where Martin is outfitted with a replacement arm that just happens to belong to Nazi Zombie Colonel Herzog, the movie's main bad guy.

His arm, in a very much Evil Dead fashion, has a life of its own and grants Martin powers, but also is bloodthirsty, making for most of the movie's funny scenes.

Also comedic relief is found in the form of "Zombie Squad", a group of Americans that basically supposed to represent everyone watching the movie, they are funny and provide the comedic relief while kicking major ass without really having any sort of experience in the zombie killing field.

Plot was surprisingly for me, very well put together. Honestly I went into this waiting for a catastrophe and can tell you folks, I was entertained the entire time. The lead actors are solid (as solid as you get for a horror flick) and with a pretty decent budget (about 5 mil or so in dollars) they were able to pull off most of the gore effects and still have tanks, and all manners of crazy locations.

 One thing about this director, he doesnt shy away from what he wants to do. The gore is over the top, so is the story and the effects and it all, again to my surprised works.

When our heroes enlist the help of a group of "good zombies" to fight the Nazis you cant help but to cheer and enjoy the violent carnage that ensues.

Again I very much enjoyed Dead Snow 2 and will make a point to watch the first one now..

if you havent had the chance to see it, do it!

The Laughing Mask Movie Review

I've wrote a few pieces about this feature, mostly because I largely support independent features and I've been following the movie's progress since 2012 when the first short was released on Youtube.

I had the chance to see the film last year when I was sent a screener by the Director Michael Aguiar,and I enjoyed it for what it was. A low budget independent film with a very different take on the horror genre.

So I was surprised when after nearly a year, I received an invitation to go to the Wolf's Museum of Mysteries in St Augustine to review the film.

I arrived for the 6pm showing and was already impressed by the amount of people there, the courtyard was full and I had to sit on the side as there were no seats available. After awhile the movie didnt start as they were waiting for it to get darker so the projector could be used, so I left my seat and went on to look around the museum.
Upstairs they have a ton of the props and even a torture machine I didnt recognize from the first movie screning, so I assumed reshoots had been done.

This will have spoilers about the some of the parts so if you dont want to know, just stop reading here.

The movie finally started at 7:30 or so, just the very beginning of the film was already completely different, there was a scene involving cartoons that was a little jarring but very cool to look at, then we went into another new scene at a police station and we get some more information about the plot involving Kate and Cordova, then all was about the same except for the fight scene, and what a DIFFERENCE that made, I honestly hated the actor they had playing the pimp in the original, he was bad as they get, huge it didnt make for a good scene, but the new scene was very well done and improved in every way. That was what I noticed about the film the most, it seemed like everything was just bumped up a notch, the blood, effects and production value. It was as if I was watching an entirely different movie and I loved it.

The Laughing Mask character was given more depth and screen time, we now have a place he lives in, a "lair" if you will where The Laughing Mask keeps his most prized possessions, the guilty ones who didn't deserve a quick kill, but are kept as pets for his amusement. You couldn't help to feel sad for the Pig Man or nauseated at the mermaid made with pieces of human skin and force fed a fish. We also had a very interesting scene involving a made up puppet machine and I have to say that new sequence was my favorite in the film.

That's where the spoilers will end because come the end of the film you need to really see it. The beginning with its odd sequence ties up completely to the end showing a mental breakdown in a way I haven't seen in a horror movie, also kudos for the homage to the original "The Iron Claw" silent film that had (we were told during the Q&A) a mysterious character also called The Laughing Mask and he makes a cameo appearance in the film.

The acting was solid in most parts, the day players were weak and Kate's ex made me want to groan. Instead of feeling bad for him you actually feel for Kate, who is probably going for worst mother of the year award by doing exactly the opposite of everything to keep herself safe.

Im definitely interested to see how this movie does and if there is a sequel. A good part of the cast was there signing autographs and taking pictures, there was also a small impromptu Q&A session where they discussed the making of the film and how much has been added to it, also in a very smart move close to Halloween, we had The Laughing Mask "masks" on sale, I bought one myself, couldn't resist..

For the people who enjoy gore and mindless horror films, this is not for you. I cant even classify The Laughing Mask correctly as its very gory at parts but a police thriller at heart.

I took some pictures from the showing out of the Wolf's Musum of Mystery Facebook account and as well as the Laughing Mask FB.

The Babadook

The Babadook is one of those films that either people will love it or hate it.

I for one love it, and one of my favorite things about it is how it's duality leaves the fans not knowing exactly what to think in the end.

The movie starts with an overly tired and grieving widow(played magnificently by Essie Davis) who takers care of their son Sam, after her husband died in a car accident while driving her to the hospital.
There we are introduced to Sam. A child who in the first part of the movie I wanted the Babadook to eat it and take it away. The kid actor is fantastic and the idea behind it was to show what kind of stress level his mother was dealing with, as well as Sam's inability to deal with his father's death, causing him to have all kinds of behavior issues and ends up being kicked out of school.

That's when the movie really begins, Amelia finds an odd book in the shelf and reads it to Sam, The book is called "The Babadook" and once the book is read, the creature apparently come to life.

In a very "childs play" fashion, Sam starts being involved in odd acts and attributes them to The Babadook, causing Amelia to rip the book into shreds and burn it. Next day, during a birthay party with the worst family members ever, the worst cousin on earth makes fun of Sam for not having a father and gets a well deserved punch in the nose, (she deserved it.. babadook or not), on the way out of the party, Sam has some sort of  seizure and Amelia asks the doctor to prescribe Sam some medications to allow him to rest.

The very next day, the damned book is sitting in front of her door and for me at least that's when the story takes place. Not until that moment, when she walks into the police station and says out loud everything that has happened to her, we realize how crazy it all sounds. And that night, Amelia is finally visited by the Babadook who "possesses" her.

Then we go straight Shining, as Amelia kills their dog as predicted by the book, then proceeds to try to Kill Sam who stabs his mom in the leg, causing her to "fight the creature" and throw up black goo.

They win in the end after Amelia yells at the Babadook that they are no longer scared and in the end, at Sams birthday party, we see that Amelia kept the Babadook as a pet and feeds him worms.

A lot of people see this as a monster movie, but I saw it as a film about a woman dealing with depression. There was never a Babadook, Amelia always resented her son for being the "cause" of his father's death, her hallucinations came from lack of sleep and in the end, she created the storybook to cope with her own dark thoughts of murdering her child, but when confronted with the reality of she was about to do Amelia fought against her illness and kept that dark side of her locked away, but in control 

I thought it was a masterfully done movie, the use of the cartoons and practical effects were very well done. They had a sizable budget for a low budget feature with a 2 million dollar price tag, and part of that was crowdfunded. Then they won the grail of independent features at Sundance and the rest is history.

I recommend it for anyone to give it a shot

The Laughing Mask movie review

This has been a long time coming...

When I first heard about "The Laughing Mask" was through AINT IT COOL NEWS  AmbushBug horror movie column, I watched the youtube video at that point at around 150k views and was amazed by the story. It was in the heels of the "Casey Anthony" trials and the filmmakers used a very similar person, and definitely capitalized on the hate every American had for Anthony and the views skyrocketed.. 

Suddenly that video was gone and more news came about the short being turned into a full length feature, then the movie dropped from sight for a year. 

This happens quite often specially with indie flicks, but apparently Director Michael Aguiar spent quite a large amount of time actually raising funds and the film was fully funded by the Brazilian Community. 

With Funding in place,  Michael Aguiar went on to find Director of Photography William Schweikert and shooting started.  29 days of a grueling shoot took place ending in The "Wolf's Museum of History " in St Augustine, FL

Both teasers released raked in over 100k views total and were very well received on the internet, so we were very happy to get the screener and the opportunity to review this movie. 

"It was a great opportunity to work with fantastic people" Aguiar says. 

Casting was also a big part of this feature, John Hardy's performance as Jake Johnson is flawless, he is haunted by the death of his wife and disappearance of his child, not caring about anything else except bringing The Laughing Mask to justice. 

Sheyenne Rivers is great as Kate O'malley, and Gabriel Lee steals every scene he is in as Officer Cordova. The scenes with the three of them are the high point of the film and the acting was definitely there. 

But the greatest character in the film was for me The Laughing Mask himself played by Jeff Jenkins. 

Jenkins shows you don't need to speak to act, as The Laughing Mask doesn't talk but his snakelike movement and mannerisms speak for themselves. Every time you see him on screen you have the idea something bad is about to happen.. 

This is still a low budget film and although it looks spectacular you can see where some things had to be sacrificed in order to tell a story and that is ok with me. It's inventive "Grassroots" filmmaking at its best and in a world where everything is CGI this is very much a movie driven by storytelling rather then Gore.. 

This might be a turnoff to some fans of Gore Horror, but Laughing Mask is more of a crime thriller starring a serial killer then Horror, this is definitely no slasher flick.. 

I won't spoil the ending but it has a pretty decent twist. Even if you get the main twist the second will get you spinning, and that's where this production sets itself apart from other independent films, it carves a piece of the market for itself and does so very well.. 

Laughing Mask is a well shot thriller with a lot to give and I recommend everyone to take a look at it.

The Laughing Mask drops new Teaser Trailer

Ok folks, this time The Laughing Mask is playing with dolls! And it couldn't look more twisted..

Director Michael Aguiar released a preview for this October's The Laughing Mask, starring Sheyenne Rivers, Fran Rafferty, John Hardy and Gabriel Lee.

This was a very twisted trailer, in it we get a small glimpse and the fractured psyche of The Laughing Mask, as he gives his victims an idea of whats coming for them, complete with sound effects and blood.

A Terrifying look to say the least as the bound victims are forced to watch and only wonder whats in store for them.


For those following this project, this is a longtime coming. Back in 2012 Michael Aguiar released a short on youtube and the original The Laughing Mask caught the attention of the public with over 300k views, prompting the director to expand his idea into a feature and shoot it.

According the the Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/TheLaughingMask, a grueling shoot of 29 days finished in February and the movie went into Post production, finishing right on time for a Halloween Release.

No word yet on what format or where we will be able to see it but the latest video dropped on Dailymotion already gathered nearly 40k views, proving the staying power of the concept and showing that it already has a pretty good fan base.

The official Facebook page also has nearly 30k fans

Check out the trailer below and let me know what you think..

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25q0t8_new-the-laughing-masks-trailer_shortfilms