Caesar and Otto’s Summer Camp Massacre (2009)

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The best way to approach independent films looking to tap the comedy genre is to keep an open mind. Try a parking lot in the Grand Canyon type of open and you’ll be there. That’s the way I confronted Dave Campfield’s “Caesar and Otto” horror comedy. An apparent sequel to an earlier film of his, Dave Campfield enlists the horror genre to this installment and just goes all out wacky in every single instance he can muster up. Campfield doesn’t exactly follow a specific comedy formula here and it shows quite often with scenes that are just insanely nonsensical. From character Caesar’s inherent wackiness when indulging himself in a bit part as an extra in a television show (a scene that promised to be awful but was quite funny), to his implementing of “Where’s Waldo”-like glasses when reading a map, Campfield just seems to be using whatever he thinks will work no matter how nonsensical it may be and… It’s funny. It’s very funny.

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Breaking Her Will (2009)

bhwDirector Bill Zebub’s exploitation horror film “Breaking her Will” is an exercise in torture. On the audience. It’s tedious, boring, repetitive, redundant, and has no purpose other than to be as shocking as humanly possible with torture methods that are tame compared to what I’ve seen in films like “Hostel” and “Hard Candy.” Bill Zebub doesn’t even want to try to present a premise, he just wants to get to the torture. The movie opens with a young girl hitchhiking. Where is she headed? Why is she hitchhiking? Who knows? She has no bags and barely any clothing. She’s picked up a man on the road who drives through the woods (the girl doesn’t even seem disturbed by this) and he stops at a parking lot and gets out (as she sits in the car confused!), he pulls out a knife on her and in spite of the fact the door is wide open, she submits to being taken hostage instead of doing what normal people would do like fight, or run, or scream. And that’s only the first four minutes.

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It's Groundhog Day Chainsaw Sally! (2009)

sally_treeOn Groundhog day in Porterville Maryland, nine independent filmmakers went deep in to the woods to film a documentary about a string of disappearances and murders that became local folklore and… well, let’s just say they didn’t come across any stupid punk ass witches or giggling children. No, they happened across Chainsaw Sally and her brother Ruby. Stumbling across the group of inept filmmakers, the brother and sister slaughter team decide to bring down their investigation that could lead to their downfall if not stopped. So Chainsaw and Ruby decide to bring down the poor film students one after another cutting off their resources, and cutting off their limbs while having a gay old time.

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Frankenstein Unlimited (2009)

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The folks at Sinema Saliba manage to concoct an interesting indie experimental anthology film around the theme of Frankenstein and rebirth with a series of short films that dabble in narratives revolving around mortality and death all of whom vary in tones of artistic to the utterly absurd. Director Matthew Saliba pulls out all the stops for this anthology picture that deconstructs the tale of Frankenstein and sets the framework down in assorted set pieces and flavors that help this movie feel like a varied buffet of vignettes that will manage to perfectly entice the viewer’s imagination and rethink the concept of the mad doctor and the monster.

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Pixels (2010)

Pixels-movieI don’t know, there’s something great about apocalypse movies. Maybe it’s the stripping down of society, the chaos, or maybe just the destruction but I love apocalypse movies. Even more I love movies that show the end of the world with as much creativity as possible. Take “Pixels” a short film that works as a fan service for gamers and for people who will at first scoff at the notion of 8 bit characters taking over the world and suddenly gaze in surprise at the creepy notion of it all. Patrick Jean’s film is much more of an ode to the classic gamer and a visual experiment than a movie with a narrative.

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Bitch Slap (2009)

feature-bitchslapAfter watching “Bitch Slap” it’s pretty obvious that the only reason it received half the attention that it did was because of the energetic production and the gorgeous women who star in it. The women are absolutely stunning particularly Julia Voth who is just mind blowingly sexy and pulls off her airhead character Trixie quite well. She can bitch slap me any day of the week. But not really. It has its heart in the right place with homages to the likes of Russ Meyer and Quentin Tarantino but in the center of everything this is really nothing more than a soft core Cinemax porno painted to look like a grindhouse throwback.

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One Love (2009)

6262I’ve had this title in the pile of movies we’re supposed to review for almost a year now and we finally decided to review it after being contacted by the producer, and we’re glad we did. “One Love” is, to put it quite simply: incredible. Based around the themes of loss and tragedy, director DJ Matrundola composes a truly compelling and horribly heartbreaking short film around vignettes involving parents to be.

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