“Planet Patrol” is yet another of Full Moon’s films that has its heart in the right place. At the right time with the right budget it could have been a decent B family film. As it stands it’s merely a mess of a picture that really doesn’t do much for the Full Moon banner. “Planet Patrol” is mercifully barely eighty minutes long, which is a plus. So thankfully the audience doesn’t have to endure the endless string of inconsistencies and messy editing that ensues. For one thing, around 1999, Full Moon found themselves losing money production wise. So to fill time and save money in “Planet Patrol” they re-use footage from their past films to work for this film.
Humans vs. Zombies (2011)
“Humans vs. Zombies” is at the end of the day a fan film for the hardcore fans of the hit live action role playing game and really no one else. I don’t chastise it for being a product solely for them, in fact I’m glad they have something to cling to when not engaging in the game. But that’s not to say “Humans vs. Zombies” isn’t for general movie audiences either. A meta-movie in many ways, “Humans vs. Zombies” is a fun and action packed zombie movie that packs a wallop of survival horror and really nothing else. Based on the hit LARPing game played around the world, this is a movie based on the premise of the game that brings it to the forefront of the apocalypse.
Project: S.E.R.A. (2012)
Project S.E.R.A. is yet another in a line of short films with feature length possibilities and Ben Howdeshell’s short action horror film has potential to be a small chapter in a larger story that invokes the likes of “Resident Evil” with a hint of “Mission Impossible.” Set in the beginning of a major zombie outbreak, a young girl struggles to face what has happened to her after investigating a top secret government toxin that they’re manufacturing. She’s caught along with her father who happens to be an agent himself, and both are tortured for information and leads. Of course none of them are aware what this enemy holds as they threaten to unleash this toxin on Jill’s father if she doesn’t speak.
Anna (2012)
The cast and crew really bring together what I can only describe as a short and sweet bit of sweet payback cinema that involves a woman who has just about had enough with her life. How many of us have the balls to go out there and take life by the cojones and risk it all to tell people what we really think about them? Once and for all Anna has decided to play by her own rules and after smashing her fist in to a mirror ventures out in to the world staring down a crude construction worker, telling off her boss and putting an end to a would be mugger that inevitably puts her in to the arms of her co-worker she’s infatuated with.
Gut (2012)
It’s very rare that independent horror movies manage to make me turn away from the screen and cringe. Not even Tom Six’s “Human Centipede” accomplished that and those movies were desperate to be considered disturbing. “Gut” and its beauty is in what is not completely put in front of the screen. Director Elias has every chance to be gratuitous, gory, and absolutely grotesque, but “Gut” isn’t for the grue fans, so much as it is for folks who appreciate delving in to the disturbing corners of the mind. The corners that elicit arousal that would be otherwise deemed taboo by civilized human beings. We all have that darkness within our mind that find something somewhat enticing, and the same can be said for character Tom, whose friend and consistent hanger on Dan, shows him a special kind of erotic film that not only embeds itself in to their minds, but haunts Tom until he begins to re-assess his feelings for the film in general.
Bully (2012)
The opening minutes of “Bully” are perhaps the best summary of the bullying dilemma you can imagine. It’s a moment so wrought with accuracy, victims of bullying will nod to themselves thinking “Happens to me all the time!” During one moment after school recess, the local school principal is trying to sort out a fight between two boys who had a fist fight. She demands they both shake hands. One boy sticks his hand out without hesitation and a blank expression, even leaning forward to shake. The other boy refuses, and has a stand off, angrily nodding his head near tears. The principal sends off the first boy, commending him for his kindness, and scolds the angry child for being defiant, chastising him for refusing to settle things. The boy explains that no matter how much he apologizes, he continues being tormented by the other child. The teacher refuses to allow any instance of continuing the conflict resolution and suggests “being friends.” Its small moments like this that continues furthering the idea that bullying as a whole, is a minor issue that really should be dealt with like any other child issue.
5 Choice Indies of 2011
Beating Hearts
Directed by: Matthew Garrett
Written by: Matthew Garrett
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Truly one of the most horrifying short films of the year, “Beating Hearts” is a disturbing and absolutely morbid look at a family ticking away to explode in to a hail of violence and carnage. That bombshell is incidentally the youngest daughter of a brood of middle class individuals who one day wakes up atop her mother’s heaving bosom only to mutilate her before her very eyes.
What follows is a suggestive and utterly unsettling look at cross generational love and disgusting symbolism that signals a horrific crime that was a long time coming and an erratic young girl who never quite figured out how to process her uneasy feelings.