Director Mike P. Nelson’s “The Retirement of Joe Corduroy” is a fantastic throwback to the revenge films of the seventies, mixing “Death Wish” with a dash of “Taxi Driver” for good measure. I didn’t think Director Nelson could really offer anything new for a plot about a middle aged avenger, but lo and behold I gazed in awe in the final minutes of the film that were immensely trippy in the grand tradition of the seventies.
The role of the grim reaper isn’t an easy one, and the Grim Reaper himself knows it all too well. He’s getting on his years, and is now looking to train his daughter to become the new Grim Reaper. She is a young girl who is obsessed with her own life, and isn’t looking forward to becoming a reaper. She just wants to be like the cool girls in school, the Banshees. But, being the daughter of the Reaper, she will eventually have to keep the scales of life and death balanced, and the Reaper is intent on making her uphold her duties, or endure a terrible grounding.
Director Patrick Rea has a great skill for misdirection, where you think you’re going somewhere in a story, but suddenly you’re in a completely different avenue, plot wise. Patrick Rea delivers another really fine short film called “I Do” that begins like every Patrick Rea movie to date. Something is amidst, and the minute we enter in to the scenario, we want to know what is happening. When we finally do, it’s outstanding.
Director Jared Skolnick’s “The Earth Rejects Him” is one of the most surreal horror films I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s not often I can watch a movie with a baffled expression and still recommend it as a great film. Not many indie directors know how to direct child actors, and director Skolnick brings out the best in his young cast. Ellis Gage gives a very memorable performance as this young boy who finds himself in an extraordinary predicament and has no idea how to handle it without becoming homicidal.
I dare you to hate this movie. Directors Brian Cunningham and Matt Niehoff create such an entertaining and raucous amalgam of movie genres, that “Overtime” ends up being a very easy and memorable ninety minutes. Often times when directors attempt comedy, they fail big time, but “Overtime” manages to be one of those movies where everything goes wrong, and I laughed through most of the mishaps. Raph and Max are two gangsters that are trying to live their lives by some form of morality, and are trying to see what it’s like to go about their everyday lives without beating or killing someone.
Director Christian Anderson’s short horror film is a short I hope turns in to a feature film. I intend to buy it. And re-watch it. Every time I think there can’t be any new material mined from the horror hero gamut, someone always surprises me. “Hell’s Belles” is a fantastic short horror film about two ghost fighting babes named Adria and Helena.
This is a side of director Shane Ryan that I’ve never seen before. Intended to be in competition for the winning slot in the highly publicized 2013 horror film “The ABCs of Death,” Shane Ryan gives us “T for Tag.” Now known as “Tag,” Ryan’s short film is a spooky, unnerving, and gruesome bit of revenge cinema that channels the likes of Takashi Shimizu for a short that’s based heavily on violence, murders, and the ever merciless demon of guilt that plagues our young protagonist.