(Mild Spoilers)
Ivan and Javi stop by Pau’s work at the hospital morgue on their way to a party. Pau lets them in on a secret: actress Anna Fritz is lying in his morgue, dead. The trio decides to go see her; to see how she looks as Pay says she doesn’t even look dead. Once in the morgue, Ivan decides to touch her and from there gets it in his mind that a bit of necrophilia won’t hurt anyone. However, he soon finds out that is not the case.
A group of gay friends welcome one of the guys’ new boyfriend in their mist. Joe is just like them they think, except for the fact that he is a serial killer who doesn’t bother to hide it. In fact, he flat out tells his new man George who thinks it’s some hilarious long running joke. As people around them start to disappear and the random idle chatter never ceases, George may need to reassess his new adorable boyfriend. The story written by Jim Hansen and Jeffery Self has a fairly simple premise: What happens if a serial killer, after admitting it to himself, is completely open about what he’s doing but no one pays attention because we are all too busy talking about our lives and celebrities?
Q. First things first: What is Horrible Imaginings and why did you start it?
I started Horrible Imaginings Film Festival after moving to San Diego in 2009 to discover there was not a regular film festival in the city—or any film event really—that examined or celebrated the horror genre. I had to drive to Los Angeles for an opportunity to meet other people who loved horror or see new genre films.
So partially, I started Horrible Imaginings simply to give a life to horror in San Diego. More importantly to our mission statement, though, I wanted to expand what I have been seeing as a narrow definition people have for horror, and even to legitimize horror as a means for artistic expression.
In an effort to give the other side of the coin, something for those who may prefer their crushes to be male, I have compiled a list of my top 5 Childhood Celebrity Crushes. Having grown up outside of the US and in French, my top was originally an odd mix of French-speaking celebrities and English-speaking ones.
To make this easier for the readers here, I have decided to only give 5 of my English-speaking Celebrity Crushes.
Each year I tell myself I’ll make an end of year list of the Best and Worst movies I’ve seen during that year, but usually fail to make said list. This year, I’ve actually done it. Ok, I did it about a week late, but it still counts. In 2015, I saw a little over 200 movies, not all 2015 releases, but still a “respectable” number considering I was mostly out of the reviewing business until July when the bug caught me again. This means I’ve missed a ton of movies and am doing this list out of what I’ve seen. 2015 was as solid year for me with a lot of good to great films and very few bad ones which means this will not be a Top 10 Best and Bottom 10 Worst, but more of a collection of titles to check out or avoid.
Q. Please tell us a bit about the subject of The Shelter. What are some of the themes approached in the film and why?
The Shelter is about a widower named Thomas Jacob (Michael Pare) who returns to his hometown after 5 years of absence. He eventually gets trapped in a house that won’t let him leave. Self-loathing, faith (and lack of), guilt, regret, betrayal and forgiveness are all themes the film deals with. All universal themes in my opinion and they were close to my heart when I wrote the film.
Q. Guilt, forgiveness and redemption. It is clear they are themes that fascinate you from viewing other films you wrote (Deaden, American Muscle) as well as The Shelter. Can you elaborate on why?
They interest me because I lived them. I had difficult early years, carried a lot of demons with me for a long time, made lots of bad decisions and it’s only with time that I figured out how to conquer said demons, to take responsibility for my mistakes, to forgive myself and move forward while trying to be a good person. But not everybody manages to face themselves in an honest way or find “peaceful” redemption, and yes, that psychological/emotional purgatory fascinates me. I guess because it could have been me.
Bullying is horrible, we all agree on this, at times it can lead to terrible consequences. In #horror, a story based on true events, first time writer and director Tara Subkoff shows what happens when the bullying of one girl by her rich friends goes too far. Here we are shown teen girls mercilessly taunting and verbally abusing each other over and over again. But it’s ok, because you laughed…