Tag Archives: Indie Film

Buckout Road (2017) [Blood In The Snow 2017]

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A road at the center of local urban legends, young people trying to debunk its mysteries, and a few surprises along the way…

Based on a story by Johnny Pascucci and written by Shahin Chandrasoma and Matthew Currie Holmes, with the latter directing as well, Buckout Road is an interesting take on urban legend movies in how it approaches the urban legends and how the characters are not just plain victims with no background. The characters are decently developed and have relationships between them that make sense and make them care about one another. The way the film develops its story through flashbacks that have their own style depending on the era they are set in, giving the film visual interest each of their own. The story evolves in a way that keeps the interest and has some mystery to it. The ending is interesting and offers not exactly a twist but not exactly the ending one might expect from an urban legend film.

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Cute Little Buggers (2017)

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There’s a reason why sometimes a one off joke is used just once. It’s because stretching it out destroys the momentum of the joke. Someone behind “Cute Little Buggers” loved the scene in “The Holy Grail” involving the man eating cute rabbit and decided to turn it in to a horrendous horror comedy. Not that I have anything against movies that take inspiration from Monty Python, but when they have a rhyme or reason, and an actual good idea, I’m all for it. But “Cute Little Buggers” seems centered on the premise of one joke that one joke that gets boring after being used repeatedly mainly since the joke just isn’t that funny in the beginning, anyway.

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Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End (2017) [Doc NYC 2017]

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The life of cartoonist Mr. Fish has seen through his eyes and those of his loved ones, co-workers, and a few other people.

From director Pablo Bryant, this documentary mixes interviews with a lot of visual material, giving a good idea of who Mr. Fish is, how he thinks, and how he creates. The film covers his life from childhood until now and shows not only how he works but also his home life which has an influence on his work and vice versa. This is done in a way that gives a good, unobstructed view of things and lets the viewer make their own mind as to if Mr. Fish is doing things right or not. Of course, the film does come at the subject from a specific angle and has its own agenda, but that does not keep it from having an openness about its subject.

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The Lake (2015)

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Michael Buie’s “The Lake” is a masterpiece of a short film. It’s a beautiful, somber, and heartbreaking look at how the inevitability of our death doesn’t mean we have to stop living life. I sat through the entirety of “The Lake” with a teary eye, mainly because director and writer Michael Buie manages to convey the terror and confusion of being told you’re about to die with pure brilliance. “The Lake” is never exploitative or over saccharine, it’s just about learning to make the most of the time we have in our life.

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Treaters (2017)

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From Treehouse Digital and director Peter Stanley-Ward, “Treaters” is a short film that I would love to become the basis for a horror anthology somewhere down the road. “Treaters” is a surefire Halloween treat that works with a sense of whimsy but also has an admirably demented sense of humor that I was sucked in to from minute one. One thing that’s always menacing about Halloween are trick or treaters, because you just never really know who, or what, are wearing those dreaded masks and whatnot.

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Hellbent (2006)

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I give director and writer Paul Etheredge-Ouzts a lot of credit for creating a traditional slasher film with a lot of the conventions turned around for an all gay cast. Every single character in the movie is gay, right down to the psychotic masked killer. Ironically, “Hellbent” does fall in to the traps of conventional slasher films, with people willingly walking in to danger, and a slasher whose origins is completely unexplained. I was disappointed in the latter, as I was expecting a big twist, or at least a link to protagonist Eddie’s past as an aspiring police officer.

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Nite Nite (2017)

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Chad Meisenheimer’s “Nite Nite” is an ambitious little horror tale that its heart in the right place. I like director Meisenheimer’s enthusiasm for horror, even if “Nite Nite” needs a bit more spit and polish here and there. There is only so much you can do in three minutes, and “Nite Nite” works toward a basic horror tale of babysitting gone awry we often see with independent features.

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