Caedes: Forestglade of Death (2014) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Emilie Black

Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015

Forest, zombies, Germany, sounds like a match made in horror-comedy heaven. Caedes: Forestglade of Death, or Caedes – Die Lichtung des Todes, follows a group of friends as they go to Happy Camping for a weekend of relaxation and beer, lots of beer. Quickly a leader is established in Dan who approaches a blond babe named Leen only to be shot down. Everyone settles in, meets their camping neighbors, and parties all night. When morning comes, some awake with one hell of as hang over while others wake up as zombies, something clearly having happened overnight. Zombies go looking for food where they can, attacking the remaining campers who defend themselves as best they can. San and his friends Manesh, Jose, and Jorrun all survive along with Leen, Fritz, Tina, and a few others. This band of survivors then works together to live, finds the zombie source, and get out of there.

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Thanatos (2015) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Emilie Black

[Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015]

Thanatos is partially inspired by the personification of Death in ancient Greece. Hsin-Yen LU’s student film of the same name follows a young photographer who captures an image of Death as a young woman. He becomes captivated and enamored with her, his interest becoming obsession as he stages his own death multiple times to be able to see her again and again and to photograph her each time. He desperately wants to go with her but she cannot take him as it his time has not come yet.

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Mexico Barbaro (2014) [Horrible Imaginings 2015]

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Emilie Black

[Horrible Imaginings Film Festival San Diego 2015]

Mexico Barbaro is an anthology film containing 8 short films by Mexican filmmakers all based on traditions and legends. It is however more like a collection of shorts as the movies are not interwoven and there is no wrap around story. Each of the shorts here can stand on their own and the only thread connecting them is the theme. As with any anthology, some of the shorts are much stronger than the others. Here the best three are the opener Tzompantli, the second one Jaral de Berrios, and the closing short Dia de los Muertos.

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Bloodsucking Bastards (2015) [Film4 FrightFest 2015]

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Emilie Black

Film4 FrightFest 2015

Office work can be soul sucking, it can be deathly boring. Evan works in such an office where there is very low morale and sales are not going well. To help this situation, his boss Ted hires Max, Evan’s old nemesis. Shortly after this, odd things start happening and eventually Evan believes something is very, very wrong in the office. After the first dead body turns up, he tries to get help from the HR person, his ex-girlfriend who think he must have gone crazy. Eventually, a second incident gets Evan to reach out to his best friend Tim for help. They eventually round up their rag tag three musketeers with Frank, the office security guard who knows more than he lets on. Together, they take on Max and his vampire minions.

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Cosmodrama (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Emilie Black

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

A group of people wake up on a giant starship and wonder why they are there, what their purpose id, where they are going, and why. This group is composed of widely different people including an astronomer, a physiologist, a biologist, a reporter, etc. The film follows their activities and interactions as they question everything and as they wonder the meaning of everything. Not a lot happens besides conversations that do not go anywhere really. Even the apparition of a women on television screens who is not part of the crew on the ship or the multiplication of one character are not explored or taken anywhere, they only bring more questions and very few answers. This is a film about the meaning of live in a way, but it brings no information, just questions through a rather lackluster story.

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Børning (2014) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Emilie Black

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Roy is a racing enthusiast who takes it a step too far and crashes his car with his pregnant girlfriend on board. As his child makes her debut in the world, he is taken to jail for his illegal street racing. Fast forward about a decade and a half, Roy now run a car-part/repair shop called Stallion Parts and obsesses over his yellow Mustang. His daughter Nina comes to spend time with dad as her mother and family go on holiday. As Nina tries and tries to get to her father, to get to know him and build a relationship, he prepares for a big race and mostly ignores her, even forgetting she’s there at times. On race day, Nina tries one more time to get his attention, but to no avail. She then decides to mess with is car in revenge causing him to lose the race. TT, Roy’s car racing arch nemesis since the start of his passion, sees this as a perfect taunt opportunity and the two decide to race across the length of Norway to finally decide who the best driver is.

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Cash Only (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Emilie Black

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Elvis Martini owes money, a lot of money, to a dog-fighting ring running psychopath Dino who has kidnapped his daughter for ransom. Elvis does everything he can to save her as she is all he has following the loss of his wife, her mother. He must find an insanely high amount of money to pay Dino back for stealing the money the madman sees as his that was stashed in one of the tenants’ place in Elvis’ building. The father will stop at absolutely nothing to save his child.

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