Tag Archives: Indie Film

A Father’s Day (2016) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A man meets a young girl as they both are zombies and shuffling through life. As they make new memories and make the day special, their father-daughter bond strengthens.

Written and directed by Mat Johns, A Father’s Day creates a relationship that shows how strong the bonds between a father and daughter can be in a gut-punch of a short film. He uses the zombie apocalypse as a backdrop to show family bonds and how people can relate to each other. It’s a simple set up, yet it contains so many layers and so much in terms of emotional baggage. The film shows different levels of zombies and different levels of human interactions and bonds.

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The Shorts of Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017 [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]

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The staff at Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival makes a great effort to bring all kinds of horrific, kooky, and fun shorts to their fest.  The films chosen are of a wide array and all different from each other.  Here are a few shorts reviews for a few of these short films:

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Bride of Frankie (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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While the Doctor is away, his assistant will play.  As the mad-scientist is out, his not-so-mad assistant works on getting his creation a friend.  As the friend comes to life, the assistant teaches her how to live and how to love.

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The Houses October Built 2 (2017)

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Bobby Roe’s “The Houses October Built” was a solid Halloween entry that mixed a documentary with a horror mystery quite well. The follow up years later, practices the very same formula but further explores the back story of its villains “Blue Skeleton” from the first film. Are they evil? Are they anti-heroes? Are they a cult? Are they Halloween fanatics that work to the extremes of Banksy? The first film was a surprise indie horror hit and the sequel seeks to touch on the same narrative ebbs and flows, while also packing in some refreshing twists and turns that I very much appreciated. Like the first film, “The Houses October Built 2” is partly a documentary and partly a mystery horror film that takes off directly from the first film.

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The Houses October Built (2014)

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I’d have a hard time calling “The Houses October Built” a masterpiece, but I do think it has potential to become an ambience builder for future Halloween parties. I can see people playing this on a constant loop during the really adult and sinister festivities. While that may seem like a jab at the movie, I actually think that’s a compliment, as where “The Houses October Built” lacks in engaging characters, it makes up for in the Halloween mood and an interesting commentary on modern America and the general sentiment toward Halloween.

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Terrifier (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]

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A crazed clown terrorizes a group of young women and the people trying to help them on Halloween night.

Written and directed by Damien Leone, Terrifier takes the scary clown idea and ups the violence from recent films such as IT and makes the kills bloodier and more brutal.  The film has some definitely good ideas and the clown’s design is interesting and creepy for sure, but for those without coulrophobia, the clown is only as scary as the performance for him.  This is something that will be touched on in a little bit.  The story here is the classic slasher on Halloween night story; a killer maims and hurts a group of people on Halloween night.  The difference is in the execution which is well done here but still feels a bit like more of the same at times.  The title, Terrifier, gives an expectation for the viewer that this will be terrifying and unless you are really scared of clowns, the film is only a little scary and not quite terrifying.

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