Tag Archives: Horror

Interview with Scream Queen and Author Carrie Keagan

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carrie-keagan-1I first learned about Carrie Keagan during her stint on “Attack of the Show” in the mid-aughts. As one of the hundreds of men in America smitten with the bold, funny, quick as a whip, and daring journalist, I’ve been following her career and am pleased to see Ms. Keagan is now starring in two highly anticipated upcoming horror films. Carrie Keagan has an insatiable appetite for horror movies, and is a bonafide horror geek and self-professed “Gore Whore” who can be seen playing a Burlesque dancer/zombie fighter in Staci Layne Wilson’s “Fetish Factory,” and as a bride to be turned monster in “The Fiance.”

Thanks to talented director Staci Layne Wilson, I was lucky enough to grab an interview with the very busy Carrie Keagan, who is taking on more film projects, huge television projects, and even released a memoir.

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Green Room (2016)

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green-roomJeremy Saulnier has a habit for taking the characters he writes and literally throwing them in to the furnace to be scorched. With “Blue Ruin” he set his character down a path of destructive revenge, and in “Green Room” he takes absolutely zero prisoners. He doesn’t just build on four characters that end up in the wrong place in the wrong time, but he punishes them severely. “Green Room” is yet another superb dramatic thriller about innocence succumbing to evil that’s beyond pure emotion and impulse. Patrick Stewart’s character is a villain who works with a horrific sense of swiftness and cold instruction like a businessman trying to clean up an insignificant spill. The moment we meet him he’s a man unencumbered by emotion or anger, despite the fact every move he makes could mean the end of his lifestyle as he knows it.

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K-Shop (2016) [Ithaca Fantastik 2016]

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k-shopFollowing his father’s death and an accident with a client, Salah starts down a revenge path against racists and those who have wronged his father and himself. Written and directed by Dan Pringle, this vigilante-horror film delivers plenty of vengeance and bloody violence with some original ideas on how to get rid of the bodies.  It has themes that will hit close to home for some such as racism, familial duty, wanting for a better life, etc.  Of course, what makes the film interesting is the less than common (and advisable) path the lead takes towards his goals.  His vengeance is violent, bloody, and rather merciless.

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Winners Tape All: The Henderson Brothers Story (2016)

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winners-tape-allJustin Channell’s “Winners Tape All” is a very niche mock documentary about a pair of brothers that became low budget horror filmmakers who went on to direct schlock slashers like “Curse of Stabberman” and “Cannibal Swim Club.” It’s a difficult premise to explain, and sadly it’s not a movie that lends itself to a lot of laughs or even an interesting story. Director Channell and stars Zane Crosby and Josh Lively look like they had a great time making “Winners Tape All,” but even at an hour in length, their premise feels stretched pretty thin. It’s an interesting concept for Channell to evoke the video age and explore cheaply made horror movies that were filmed straight to video.

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Terror 5 (2016) [Ithaca Fantastik 2016]

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terror-5In this Argentinian horror film, multiple tales crisscross and overlap, creating a whole that shows chaos in a city.  Students torture teachers, party goers discuss snuff films, a couple is being spied on in a motel room, men standing watch have an interesting night, and mourners meet creatures in a cemetery.  Written by Sebastian Rotstein with collaborative writer Nicolas Gueilburt and co-directed by Sebastian and Federico Rotstein, Terror 5 works these 5 stories together and interconnects them in a way that makes the whole work.  The characters are varied but mostly young people, most likely to appeal to their demographic and for parts of the story to make more sense.

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Miruthan (2016) [Ithaca Fantastik 2016]

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miruthanIn the small town of Ooty, India, a toxic spill transforms people into blood-thirsty, fast running, wire-stunt performing zombies. Director Shakti Soundar Rajan takes a fairly typical zombie story, mixes in an unrequited love story, a dash of political observation, a Bollywood musical number, wire-stunts, and a good sense of humor about the whole thing to create a zombie film that doesn’t feel like it’s just hitting the tropes and its marks mechanically, it’s fast paced and fun while adding a special touch to its subject.  The idea of mixing Bollywood style film with zombies might not seem like an obvious choice but here it works of course, the humor being quite on point adds to this and to the enjoyment overall.

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Fetish Factory (2017)

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fetishfactory_2In a private burlesque parlor in Hollywood, performers and VIP clients face off with a zombie attack. Directed by Staci Layne Wilson from her own screenplay based on a story by Lony Ruhmann, Fetish Factory mixes burlesque dances and performers with end of the world and zombie tropes for a fun result.  Staci Layne Wilson takes the zombies sub-genre that is all over the place lately and focuses it by bringing her personal touch to it and adding a varied group of beauties to fight them off. Granted, this in and of itself is nothing new (we’ve seen hotties and strippers fight zombies before) but her usage of actual burlesque performers and actresses adds to this in a way that changes from the usual boobs and blood route these films take.

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