It is likely to be classy and visually eccentric, in typical Del Toro fashion.

Less classy, vastly cheaper and much more clichéd (no doubt) will be the Asylum’s inevitable exploitation version of the unreleased blockbuster, named with unsubtle cunning Pacific Rim.

Produced by Asylum alumni David Michael Latt (who will likely direct), David Rimawi, and the Asylum’s canny overseer Paul Bales, Atlantic Rim sounds not dissimilar to Legendary’s effort, though I’m sure the onscreen similarities will be superficial:

When giant monsters crawl out of the Atlantic Ocean and attack the Eastern Seaboard, the US Government is forced to trust A.I. robots to defend the country.

It starts shooting in December.

I haven’t been paying attention to what the Asylum is up to lately, but I notice that they’ve got American Warships (US-2012; dir. Thunder Levin) [Battleship], which looks at least credible in the trailer, though it will undoubtedly suffer at full length:

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Also Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies (US-2012; dir. Richard Schenkman) [Abraham Lincoln, Vampite Hunter], which is more feasible as zombies movies can be made much more cheaply than SFX spectaculars:

and the older Almighty Thor (US-2011; dir. Christopher Ray):

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No Avengers?

Source: via Avery Guerra

Secret government/military experimentation, whether based on genetic manipulation and chimaera creation or research into the use of alien creatures or cryptids for military purposes is a major theme in modern cinema and TV, post X-Files.

A new film, currently two weeks into its three-and-a-half week shoot in suitably traditional London, England (and later Wales), fits right into this category. The main creature has a touch of the werewolf about it, though the director, Keith R. Robinson, says it isn’t a werewolf, merely “werewolf-like”. At any rate, something has become the subject of a convert government operation and it’s not happy about it.

The film has the rather innocuous title Pounce, but the imagery is telling.

Something watched Marty and Laura’s small tent as it sat on the mountainside flapping in the wind, something that waited completely still in the shadows…

Pounce is a thriller/horror film about a group of conspiracy theorists bent on secretly watching a covert military base in the desolate Welsh mountains, looking for experimental and highly classified test aircraft to report to a Fortean-style magazine. In the midst of their vigil, they uncover evidence of a Top Secret and highly lethal creature (kept secret since its capture in the 1920s), which the military and Government are testing for its potential as a weapon: its fur has the ability to turn invisible in moonlight. The film follows the young group’s plight as they are hunted both by the creature (which the Army has nicknamed “The Silverhide”) and the military who will stop at nothing to keep their classified specimen a secret…

Below is the first teaser trailer, made before filming began as a demo:

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The Facebook page of Pounce has an interesting way of displaying images from the film, accompanying them by descriptive text:

She’d been sitting alone and in the dark with a loaded gun and now a team of equally scared companions. What more could go wrong on this cold and dark evening? As she sat there pondering this thought, the radio beside her suddenly buzzed into life and a familiar voice of her friend Laura burst through the static.

“Sinead? Sinead, can you hear me?” Sinead knew that Marty had gotten back to the tent and had by now told Laura about the gun and about the people following her. It was time to come clean to her friend who sitting isolated on the side of a dark and barren mountainside was not going to be very impressed with this new and dark twist to this evening’s proceedings. Sinead sighed and picked the radio up.

A cold wind blew through the bunker, chilling Sinead’s already cold body some more as she started to speak…

Laura had checked outside in the crescent moonlight and seen nothing but the two slaughtered sheep; the mountainside was empty and silent in the misty dark, except for the mysterious heavy footsteps she kept hearing over the wind. She could see nothing that made these sounds as she scanned the moors from the open flap of the tent, then a deep growl suddenly shattered the silence right behind her… Laura looked around petrified! How could she not see it..?

Marty heard Laura’s screams echo across the dark mountainside…

Go to the Facebook page for more of these “extended captions”, and while you’re there register your approval.

Then check out the latest teaser, made while filming is in progress:

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Pounce is the first feature film produced by Other Dimension Films Ltd, a production company formed in 2011 by Keith R. Robinson for the purpose of producing low budget features, as well as commercial product. The film was written and is being produced/directed by Robinson and stars Kelly Wines, Lucy Clarvis and Sean Hayes, with Jordan Murphy and John Hoye. The cinematography on Pounce will be the responsibility of Toby Wilson and the film is currently being shot in S.E. London/Essex in England, followed by some location work in the “rugged mountains of Wales”.

Above: Director Keith R. Robinson at work lining up a shot

The Silverhide

On the creation of the monster, Robinson had this to say:

Two separate artists are producing the Special make-up effects. Nicholas Thompson is creating all the splatter effects whilst Dave Fox (of Fox Zumba Dark Art FXs) is creating the animatronic creature, a creature we have deliberately been keeping shrouded in mystery and hidden from public view — with a strict NO PHOTOGRAPH policy imposed on the cast and crew of Pounce.

In fact, not even the cast have been shown the creature. As Robinson explains: “The decision to keep the creature hidden from the cast was to heighten their fear and anticipation as they filmed their scenes, preceding their encounters with it.” Method acting at its horror-film best!

So we have not clear pictures of the beastie, but here is a conceptual drawing to whet your appetites:

Looks like man-into-creature pseudo lycanthropy is going on here, though I suspect what we’re looking at is a facial guide for applying the make-up. Still, that’s a form of man-into-monster…

The Backbrain is definitely scratching to see more of this film.

• Source: Keith R. Robinson via Avery Guerra; Facebook page. Robinson will be posting more info via his Twitter account.

Addendum: A few more images from the film….

The film will have quite a nostalgic quality to it as it means that Hideaki Anno (famous as the director of Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Hayao Miyazaki (one of the world’s greatest animation auteurs and founding director of Studio Ghibli) will work together on the film, with Miyazaki doing design work on the titular kaiju. The pair once worked together on  Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind [aka Kaze no tani no Naushika], which Miyazaki wrote and directed from his own manga and on which Anno was the head animator.

Nausicaä had its own fair share of giant monsters, all of which were manifestations of the violated ecological system. This includes Giant God Warriors, which Anno apparently used as an inspiration for the “angels” of Evangelion.

Here’s two of the not-so-humanoid giants from Nausicaä:

Centred around the arrival of a nuclear-spawned monstrous God Warrior in the much kaiju-visited Japanese capital, Kyōshinhei Tokyo ni Arawaru will be directed by Shinji Higuchi, who was a storyboard artist on Evangelion.

It will not be using computer graphics, but is intended to celebrate traditional filmmaking techniques, especially the use of miniatures. The God Warrior is apparently an updated version of the God Warriors from Nausicaä. You can get some idea of what he looks like from the following teaser clip:

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In association with the film, figures makers Max Factory, Kaiyodo, and Good Smile have created a series of statues and figurines of the Mad God:

Beautiful!

Sources: Twitchfilm via Avery Guerra; AnimeNews Network; Crunchyroll.com. Text by Robert Hood.

Addendum:

Here’s a curiosity. I don’t know what this is, but there’s a certain similarity to the design of the creatures, though the animation leaves much to be desired. It appears on YouTube after you run the Anno clip, but clearly has nothing official to do with it.

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Schiavo runs a company called Strangewerks Films that specialises in producing independent horror films. The company’s been around for about three years. Previously, Schiavo was writing scripts on spec, mostly horror, mostly strange, “the kind of stuff you might watch with your buddies”, he says, “assuming they’re a bunch of wasted zombie Shriners who were a bit on the kinky side.” He likes to think of his work as “one part David Lynch to two parts Cronenberg, with a liberal dash of del Toro — add a twist of lime and shake violently”. So obviously he wasn’t getting produced in Hollywood and often felt his rejected scripts were being ripped off by even prominent creators. Becoming a tad disenchanted with the whole process, he decided to go out and make the kind of films he wanted to see for himself. Strangewerks’ first film, The Shriven (featuring Nina, a beautiful woman who can transform into a demonic killing machine and must survive by feeding on human flesh), came out about a year ago on the Shriek Show label.

‘The Shriven’ Trailer

Undead Backbrain’s news hellhound, Avery Guerra, tracked Schiavo down to get the inside story on Schiavo’s next effort — the messy way if necessary.

Avery Guerra: So what did you want to do after The Shriven?

Brian Schiavo: For our follow-up film, I wanted to “up the ante” in terms of effects, gore, nude people running around and screaming, that sort of thing — but I wanted to stay away from the sort of horror films everyone is tired of: “Guy runs around in a hockey mask/welding mask/William Shatner mask and severs peoples’ arteries for no good reason.” Horror fans are starved for original material — I know I am.

As to the exact origin of the film, entitled Lifeform, the idea came out of my fascination with genetic manipulation — it really is the evil genie waiting to leap out of its bottle and bite us on the ass. The real life horrors scientists are probably creating out of our DNA even as we speak will make anything Giger can come up with pale by comparison — and that scares the hell out of me. Then I read about a tiny species of jellyfish that is basically immortal — Turritopsis Nutricula. It can reverse its own aging process and return to a youthful polyp stage when living conditions become difficult, in order to survive — its cells are in flux. I thought: what if a person had this ability? Imagine where that could take us. With that as the basis, I came up with the concept of Lifeform — basically it’s about a scientist that creates transgenic human/animal stem cells that can become anything, in order to save his dying wife. He isolates the gene for transdifferentiation from jellyfish DNA, places it into a human stem cell and injects it into her. Of course she’s saved, but … she becomes a creature that can alter her shape to protect herself. She can grow spikes, tentacles, gills, claws, whatever the situation calls for. At the same time, her intellect becomes subsumed by the animal instinct to survive — and just a few errant cells from her body could doom the Human genome forever. The scary thing is that this will happen one day. They’ll wrest the genetic secrets from this creature and stick them in our bodies — so watch the film and catch a glimpse of our hideous future!

AG: What was your artistic inspiration for Lifeform?

BS: As far as inspirations go, I suppose the usual culprits: Altered States, Cronenberg’s The Fly, From Beyond, Eraserhead, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser and Nightbreed. Films that deal with the issues of transformation and bodily horror, which are essentially asking questions about identity. I love Japanese horror, too, especially the manga work by Junji Ito and his ability to distort the human figure. Another influence is the work Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch did with Alan Moore on Swamp Thing — the greatest run on a comic ever, if you ask me.

AG: Where was the movie filmed?

BS: The movie was shot in New York City as well as on Long Island, NY, with additional location work in New Jersey. We utilized a plethora of locations in the greater metro area: from street scenes, office settings, to warehouses and operating rooms and even brownstone apartments. There’s a wide diversity of looks, which I think provides an interesting aesthetic for the film.

AG: What type of budget are you working with?

BS: In the low six figures. We raised the money from a variety of sources — investors, deferred payments, donations — both in time, materials, equipment, services and a number of our locations. Making a movie is like being a ringmaster in a crazy three-ring circus and you have to be crazier than the clowns and hungrier than the tigers in order to survive it. (Wow, I just made that up!)

AG: It’s bound to be much quoted.

AG: How did you go about casting the film?

BS: We solicited actors over the internet, through one of the commercial casting sites, and then had several days worth of auditions at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. I was fortunate to have access to some of the most talented actors in the NYC area — including Virginia Logan (our female lead), Peter Alexandrou (our male lead) and Kate Britton. The other talented folks include Ken Driesslein, Joe Amato, Ree Merrill, Adam Cerny and Chad.

AG: Beyond the basic plot, what is the film about?

BS: It’s about a research scientist whose wife suffers a brain embolism. In order to save her, he has to create stem cells that will heal her brain. Her resurrection and ultimate transformation set the stage for new horrors in their lives.

AG: What types of FX were incorporated to bring the creature to life?

BS: I’m blessed with a wife, Christine, who is both a talented makeup and computer artist. I’m also an artist, primarily a sculptor. We were able to create the huge number of prosthetics the film required ourselves, with the help of an accomplished mold-maker and makeup artist named Anthony Jones. We had silicone stunt tentacles, a full creature suit, twisted neck appliances, face pieces, various diverse wounds, mutated tentacle hands and face pieces, several types of monster tongues and appendages and even scalpings we did. We also had old school monster legs we could puppeteer — you name it. We were sculpting, casting, molding and pouring for months before the shoot. We were covered in silicone for several months, which ain’t as much fun as it sounds, unfortunately. I could’ve used some diversion to break things up!

We also used computer effects to accentuate the on-set ones, using a tremendous amount of AfterEffects tricks to highlight Virginia’s bodily transformations and the agony she’s going through. We also did a lot of green screen work with tentacles, creature heads, that sort of thing. In addition, we’re using Blender to create some computer-generated creature transformations. We basically applied every discipline there is to bring this creature to life.

AG: What would you like viewers to take from the film?

BS: Well, aside from the usual titillation, I think it’s a film about the necessity of becoming what you’re really meant to be, whether its a mutated creature from hell or your own distinct individual.

AG: When and where might fans be able to see it?

BS: The film is currently in post production and should be wrapped by mid-2012. After that, we’ll do some horror festivals and roll it out here and internationally in early 2013.

AG: So, what next for you?

BS: Another film of course — the fever never relents! I’m haunted by night terrors I feel compelled to foist upon everybody else. The goal is to ramp up production and shoot two more films in the next year. One of my aims is to create the next horror screen icon — right up there with Frankenstein, The Creature and Pinhead.

Good luck with that one, Brian! Keep us informed!

Source: Brian Schiavo via Avery Guerra. Addition text by Robert Hood.

How did it come about? Here’s the news from Todd himself:

“Terry Rossio contacted me in regards to my American Godzilla ’94 graphic novel, and told me he was a fan (Terry is co-author with Ted Elliott of the 1994 rejected TriStar Godzilla screenplay, which you can actually read here. They also wrote the screenplays for Aladdin, Legend of Zorro, and the entire Pirates of the Caribbean series, among others). Now Terry has asked me to finish the G’94 graphic novel — and how could I refuse such an offer?

“Publication possibilities are being looked into, but job number one for me is getting it all finished.”

Todd has even sent the Backbrain some new artwork: three images of Godzilla rampant from page 80.

Great stuff!

For those who don’t know, Todd’s graphic novel adaptation has been running on his American Kaiju website for a long time, finally reaching as far as page 78. You can check it out here — and if you haven’t, you should. How can you resist reading 78 pages of a Godzilla graphic novel? Free!

More News from Todd: American Kaiju

In June 2011, Todd announced that he’d been contracted by Bluewater Productions to produce a series of American Kaiju comics — an ambition he’d been fostering for years. Some of his work toward it appeared in the subsequent articles American Kaiju: Aligon Attacks! and Gigante vs King Komodo, and The Big Eight.

This project continues apace — and you can follow developments on Todd’s blog. Meanwhile here are some images from this original — and awesome — comic series. This first one is PETT:

In this one, New York City prepares for the worst:

What is the worst? Something like this:

You can click on any of these to see them bigger.

Just so you know, Todd, I can’t wait for both these series to arrive!

• Source: Todd Tennant, to whom all images are copyrighted, by the way. No reproduction without consent!

His 1971 camp horror classic The Corpse Grinders tells the gruesome tale of pet food made from human corpses and the domestic pussies who by eating it develop a taste for human flesh. Number two in the franchise, to similar effect, hit the video shelves in 2000.

“Now The Corpse Grinders 3 is under way in Spain,” Mikels told the Backbrain. “A new spin on one of my older success stories. I am the executive producer of Corpse Grinders 3, with approval over the shoots and edits. I’m sure it will be as successful as my original and Corpse Grinders 2.”

Directed by Manolito Motosierra and written by Motosierra and Marc Gras, it will be filmed in English and released worldwide, full of cats, fresh corpses and a touch of the monstrous.

Gras, who is also producing along with Mikels, José M. Rodriguez, Sr. Guijarro, Kiko Underground and José Vicente Tomás for Tyrannosaurus Entertainment in association with TVM Global Entertainment, told us: “The film is the official third part of the Ted V. Mikels’ franchise and will be filmed in Spain over three weeks. We hope to have the movie finished and edited by September.”

Just like its predecessors it will be “a low budget camp horror-comedy” sporting a plot that is basically a re-interpretation of the original movie but “with a ‘monster’ touch”.

Synopsis:

An American entrepeneur comes to Spain to build a new Lotus Cat Food factory and establishes the company in a small Spanish town. The new Lotus doesn’t do too well until they accidentally add a special ingredient to the food — human flesh, ground up into a mash. Soon the cats that eat Lotus not only attack people, but also transform into hideous mutated cat-monsters.

As a Backbrain exclusive, Gras has sent some conceptual artwork — an early incarnation of the monster cats:

Cats are notoriously difficult to herd and films that feature them en masse — even the evil cat episode of The X-Files, “Teso dos Bichos” — resort to a lot of tossing of the indignant feline stars at hapless actors and close-ups of pussies that look like they’re more interested in the off-camera tuna supreme than in biting off the heads of their human victims. These days, CGI would allow for considerable advancement in the conviction department, even for low budget productions — so it will be interesting to see if this new one will come up to scratch — assuming, of course, that the monster cats will be digitally rendered. Who knows, maybe they’ll be cats in rubber cat-monster suits!

Source: Courtesy of Ted V. Mikels, Marc Grass and Manolito Motosierra via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.  Official website; Facebook page.

Bonus 1: A Lotus Cat Food factsheet (click to make bigger)

Bonus 2: In case you aren’t familiar with Mikels’ earlier work, here’s a classically 1970s trailer to The Corpse Grinders that will give you some idea as to what we’re in for:

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Returning to our shared office at work the other day, a colleague reached to open the door, shrieked and started back in horror. Why? There was a spider hanging by a single thread from the door-knob. The spider was about the size of a large dust mote but nevertheless the reaction was marked. Being a hero of epic proportions I gently palmed the arachnid menace and released it out the nearest window, apologising to the beastie for the inconvenience as it scurried up the wall.

That’s the thing with spiders: something about their alien appearance is enough to cause cries of terror and dismay, no matter how small and innocuous the spider might be. Obviously the bigger they are, the worse the reaction. I, too, though undaunted by the dust mote, baulked at the hand-sized huntsman that appeared on the wall of my study a week or so ago, opting to leave him in peace (he eventually left of his own accord). Sure, they get much bigger than that  — you know, in jungles and on banana plantations, where they trap and eat birds — and are very scary indeed, but should they grow to be the size of a house they would be objects of extreme horror. Ask Stephen King, who made a giant spider the climactic el supremo monster in his excellent novel It (following in the footsteps of Tolkien, perhaps, who made Frodo face the giant spider, Shelob, on his way into Mordor).

Cinema has exploited humanity’s essential arachnophobia for many decades, especially when it comes to spiders of the giant kind. Hanging from massive webs in prehistoric jungles or blocking the warrior’s path in dank tunnels beneath castles, giant spiders have made cameo appearances in various filmic variations on The Lost World and in fantasy epics like Ator, the Fighting Eagle [aka Ator l'invincibile] (Italy-1982; dir. Joe D’Amato). But mega arachnids really hit the big time with Jack Arnold’s 1955 film, Tarantula, a classic 1950s giant bugfest, the effectiveness of which remains undiminished today despite the dodgy super-imposed SFX. Arnold tried again with a normal-sized spider becoming monstrous relative to the diminishing protagonist of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Other entries in the subgenre followed, including Earth vs the Spider (US-1958; dir. Bert I. Gordon),  Son of Godzilla (1967) with a Godzilla-sized Spiga, The Giant Spider Invasion (US-1975; dir. Bill Rebane), right through to the big-budget Eight Legged Freaks (US-2002; dir. Ellory Elkayem), which featured not just one species of ultra-giant spider but many of them, all startlingly CGI-rendered. Even though it doesn’t include giant spiders as such, we really should mention Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia from 1990, which, like the earlier Kingdom of the Spiders (US-1977; dir.  John ‘Bud’ Cardos), has so many spiders in it they surely add up to a couple of Big Ones. Meanwhile, Jeff Leroy’s Creepies series managed to squeeze in an assortment of daikaiju tropes, including giant robots:

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Other more recent giant spider films include Spiders (US-2000; dir. Gary Jones), Spiders II: Breeding Ground (US-2001; dir. Sam Firstenberg), Arachnia (US-2003; dir. Brett Piper), Ice Spiders (US-2007; dir. Tibor Takács), and Spiders 3D (US-2010; dir. Tibor Takács).

Now, to prove that the appeal hasn’t disappeared, we have a new giant spider epic coming soon from director Mike Mendez — Mega Spider.

Mega Spider [a.k.a. Dino Spider] (US-2012; dir. Mike Mendez)

A 50-foot tall alien spider escapes from a military lab and rampages the city of Los Angeles. When a massive military strike fails, it is up to a team of scientists, soldiers, and one clever exterminator to kill the creature before the city is destroyed.

Mega Spider stars Greg Grunberg, Lombardo Boyar, Clare Kramer, Ray Wise, Patrick Bauchau, Lin Shaye and produced by Klaus von Sayn-Wittgenstein, Patrick Ewald, Shaked Berenson, Travis Stevens. The picture below is a wrap shot with cast and crew and eight-legged antagonist.

Director Mendez (previously known for some decent directorial work on the indie horror film The Gravedancers) describes Mega Spider as a “Tremors-style creature feature” (implying, one hopes, that it is good-humoured and intelligently crafted action-thriller, with appealing characters, a terrific script and lots of suspense).

“The script was hilarious, and as we got into the creature design and the casting, we had one objective in mind: fun! I love the tone of this movie and think audiences are going to have a wild time.”

Above: Patrick Bauchau and Ray Wise

Lead actor Greg Grunberg commented after filming was done: “They say never work with animals and babies; I want to add giant spiders to that list. Having such a blast, laughing every day, and yet the movie is scary as shit!”

Above: Greg Grunberg as Alexis Mathis and Clare Kramer as Lt. Karly Brant

By way of confirmation, co-producer Travis Stevens (pictured below in the thick of production) sums it up this way:

“This is a movie about killing a big-ass bug. There’s a lunacy to the concept that we’re really having fun with. You look at classics like Tremors or Starship Troopers, and the humor is just as important as the mayhem. I think we’re finding a great balance between the two.” (Source)

And just to prove that the spider gets down and dirty in the big city, we have this money shot to keep you interested:

Making the Monster:

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Mega Spider is currently in post-production, but I just know all you arachnophobes out there will be dying to see it!

Addendum:

I have no idea what it has to do with the movie, but here’s a video of director Mendez and Make-up artist Emma Jacobs singing “It’s No Good” by Depeche Mode while moving in to the location shoot!

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Just before Cowboys and Aliens (US-2011; dir. Jon Favreau) hit screens throughout the world, an independent alien invasion film set in the historical past was released in Austria and Germany: Tartarus (Austria-2011; dir. Stefan Müller).

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Synopsis:

Austria-Hungary 1813: Jacob and Veith return home from the Napoleonic war. Their road leads to the remote mountain village Pahlbach. The two newcomers encounter a frosty reception – and as the night has barely passed, they already understand why: In the woods around the village a strange evil is brewing mischief. Unknown creatures of extraordinary violence and cunning lure the men into the woods and make a silent demand: In order to further propagate, the beasts claim women’s bodies. While Jacob refuses immediately and calls out the fight, Veith is still uncertain: The enemy appears to overpowering. Maybe they should try to come to terms. Progressing events put the courage and humanity of the two men to the test and threaten to shatter their friendship. But Jacob Veith and are not the only ones to whom the demand was made. The battle lines are hardening – and in a single bloody night, the future of the whole world is at stake.

Tartarus, following Legende (2002) and Jenseits (2006), is the third feature film directed by Stefan Müller. Like its predecessors, Tartarus is a film of the fantastic — as Müller describes it, “basically a suspense-thriller that draws bridges between the horror, sci-fi, period and costume genres”.

Tartarus stars Moritz Thate, Martin Kroissenbrunner and Ines Gruber and is said to be the first alien invasion film to come from Austria. It was produced by an independent company called LOOM.

Director Müller explained:

Loom stands for a young group of Austrian Cineasts and Filmmakers, with the ambition to create genre movies especially for a young Austrian or German-speaking audience. You have to understand that the Austrian Film Industry does not have a great variety in terms of fantastic movies, so we are trying to mix it up a little. Tartarus, for example, was Austria’s first Alien Invasion movie ever and [another that is currently in production] is going to be Austria’s first creepy, gory Monster Movie.

By now, we are a nice little network of talented young people, who try to get the best out of everything, despite any low budget circumstances. Our pictures are state-funded and privately financed.

Of himself, Müller told the Backbrain:

Inside Loom, I am the Director and Editor of most of our produced movies. I am 27 years old and an autodidact filmmaker. I have the classic story actually: started out as a young kid, stealing the old VHSC camcorder from my parents and creating little movies with my pals in the backyard. I got better with every new movie, found a lot of great people during every new project and feel like we’ve just started. And in these times where great technology for a young filmmaker is finally available, it is just getting more and more fun to tell amazing stories even with a low budget.

The production took place in many exotic locations:

Among the illustrious locations, most of which were found in Styria, including: the open-air museum in Vorau, the Hebalpe and the nearby farming museum Herk, the smokehouse in Gündorf, the Lurgrotte Semriach, the Green Lake in Tragöß, numerous meadows and forests in and around Graz, as well as the open-air museum Gerersdorf, in Burgenland, which already constituted one of the main locations in Jenseits.

Here for the first time is the official trailer for Tartarus, complete with English subtitles.

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Tartarus has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.  It’s available on Amazon.de, a release that includes English subtitles. It is, however, Region 2 coded. “We have had no contact with any international distributor yet,” Müller explained. “I have to admit, we are not so experienced with international film festivals. Tartarus ran only at European Festivals, but with our upcoming film, Biest, we definitely want to try to send it to international genre festivals, too.”

See the Backbrain article In Production: Biest for what meagre information on this next genre film from Müller exists.

Source: Stefan Müller via Avery Guerra; Production Notes; IMDb; Official website.

How many horror films have been set against the background of the fashion industry? And does Showgirls count? I can think of a few that deal with cosmetics, such as The Wasp Woman (US-1959; dir. Roger Corman and Jack Hill) and its 1995 remake. But I doubt that there have been any with the look and credentials of Animal Charm, a satirical tragi-comedy horror thriller directed by Ben Charles Edwards and starring, among others, Boy George — not as a super-model as it happens, but as a policeman. The film has the look and feel of something made by John Waters in collaboration with David Lynch, maybe with Cronenberg in an advisory role.

Synopsis:

During her performance in a tasteless musical based on Animal Farm, ex-fashion designer and fur fanatic, Anne Thrope (Sadie Frost) is kidnapped by a group of animal activists led by her nemesis, Audrey Hoober (Sally Phillips). However, have the activists bitten off more than they can chew? With the help and hindrance of Thrope’s put-upon assistant, Verdell, the police close in on the kidnappers. But is too late? And is it Anne that needs salvation…?

Trailer:

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Animal rights can provide a good theme for horror. Hitchcock’s The Birds was about the wanton cruelty of keeping birds locked up in tiny, gilded cages, right? 28 Days Later… began with experimental animals being released into London and subsequently bringing about a devastating viral apocalypse. But the fashion industry — spiritual heart of the world of glamour — has another curious connection to the horror genre. Did you know that the word “glamour” originally referred to the veneer of magical illusion that sorcerers used to hide themselves and to change their appearance? Werewolves transformed from man to wolf through the use of a glamour. How appropriate this is, now that the word refers almost completely to the veneer of make-up and fashion consciousness behind which women (and men) hide their “ordinary” unadorned appearance.

Extended Synopsis:

Under the glare of stage lights and in the blue moonlight that falls through the windows of an isolated country farmhouse… and finally in the flashing police lights of a strange and horrifying climax, two fashion giants of yesteryear play out their rivalry and take a grudge to the bitter end.  This is a true bonfire of the vanities.

Anne Thrope (Sadie Frost) used to be the biggest in the business and with an ego to match.  Once a much feted and successful fashion designer, the lights of the catwalk have now faded and her glory days are behind her.  In a disastrous attempt to reignite her celebrity and reinvent herself as a West End star, and with the help of her trusty ass-kissing assistant Verdell (Neeraj Singh) she has produced and taken the central role in a new musical adaptation of Animal Farm, entitled “Animal Charm”, which is an unapologetic defence of her use of fur and a vulgar vanity project, and is sinking faster than the Titanic with critics and audiences alike.   But Anne captures the headlines once again when she is snatched from the stage during a musical number; abducted by masked animal rights activists led by Audrey Hoober (Sally Phillips), along with her right hand woman, model/animal rights terrorist Jezebel (Emily Beecham).

Audrey and Anne were friends and came up through the fashion ranks together, until their rivalry and the love of a man came between them.  Audrey’s own fashion career crashed and burned long ago after a particularly hideous fashion faux pas and over the years her mind has gone the way of the cuckoo bird and her resentment of Anne has turned into a vengeful obsession.  Now she has Anne where she wants her… or so she thinks.  Over the course of a single night, while Anne’s assistant Verdel tries to convince butch, non-nonsense policeman (Boy George) to take the disappearance seriously, this conflict reaches its horrible conclusion, and all concerned realise just how much fashion has changed.

Intrigued by the bizarre humour promised by the trailer for Animal Charm and the almost surreal imagery that must inevitably arise from the story’s background in fashion, the Backbrain’s news-robot, Avery Guerra, decided to track down the film’s director/co-writer and get the goss on it.

An Interview with Ben Charles Edwards

Undead Backbrain: Is this a short or feature? If so, is this your first feature film?

Ben Charles Edwards: A featurette, as I call it.  It has full narrative, cast list and an original score throughout, including a track especially written for the closing titles by The Puppini Sisters. However, this film is a miniature feature, coming in at around 30 minutes.

UB: What was the inspiration for Animal Charm? How exaggerated is its depiction of the fashion industry? Were you shooting for satire or a more-or-less accurate portrait?

BCE: Animal charm was written in collaboration with Dominic Wells (former timeout editor) whom I met when he interviewed me for The Times article on my first short film “The Town That Boars Me”, also starring Sadie Frost. We set to work on a peculiar story borne of both of our imaginations based around the central anti-hero, Anne Thrope. Animal Charm is a hyper-real satire.  It’s like a circus hall of mirrors — what you see is real, but exaggerated and distorted.

UB: Beyond the plot, what is Animal Charm about, at least from your perspective?

BCE: Animal Charm is partially auto-biographical in the sense that I drew on personal experience which I then amplified to the point of surrealism: my time working in the fashion industry as a photographer, witnessing the desperation of success and the need to be noticed. Success is a very slippery slope to climb in this industry, and managing to stay at the top is even harder. The humour and jealousy of sibling rivalry between the two leads is also similar to that which I experienced growing up in a large family. I drew from many different films which have stuck in my mind from childhood, and there are plenty of homages paid to these films throughout Animal Charm; films such as Sunset Boulevarde with its satire of the media, which when I saw as a child made me realise that film had no limitations and could be playful, sincere, timeless and brilliantly original all at the same time.  I have an early memory of my father taking me to see Death Becomes Her in our hometown. I couldn’t get my mind around these new special effects and I felt like I was watching magic on screen.  And Serial Mom, a film that I became obsessed with as a teenager — watching it time after time, picking every line, character, set, and marker spot apart until I understood the complete make up of the film’s production.

“Bob Dylan once said the entertainment industry had exploded in our faces. This film is an examination of the mess left behind after that explosion.”

Animal Charm is a regurgitation of all of these things; the experiences, characters and lives of myself and all the people involved. Bob Dylan once said the entertainment industry had exploded in our faces. This film is an examination of the mess left behind after that explosion. It is a parody of the lives of those in fashion or entertainment and the desperation that pushed them hard to shine and stay on top and the depths to which you will sink to get back up there if you fall.

AG: Is the film completed yet or at what stage is it?

BCE: Yes Animal Charm is complete and it is now being submitted to Film Festivals worldwide. All show dates will be listed on my website www.bencharlesedwards.com

AG: Has the film had its premiere?

BCE: Animal Charm had a private press and cast/crew screening in Leicester Square, London, at the W Hotel at the end of January. The response was brilliant, along with the turn out number of guests, the film was screened five times in one evening to allow everyone to see it. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I felt like I had been looking too closely at the film for too long — so the premiere was the first time I could reflect and watch others reactions to the film. There was a lot of laughter. I guess that’s the good side of making a dark comedy — you can measure the success of it based on the amount of laughs.

AG: Are there any other upcoming screenings planned?

BCE: Yes, visit www.bencharlesedwards.com  for screening updates.

AG: Does the film have distribution yet?

BCE: Talenthouse.com, an online artistic community who helped fund the film, have assisted me in distributing it out to all major film festivals worldwide. So I think I will keep this for the festival circuit for the time being.  I just want as many people to see the film as possible. I haven’t made this for profit (as I’m sure you can tell from its rather niché appeal!)

AG: The film is full of such great talent from Sadie Frost (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) to Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), and Sally Phillips (Bridget Jones’s Diary) among others. How did you go about casting the different eccentric characters in the film?

BCE: When I was a kid I watched Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula over and over again.  I just thought Sadie was so beautiful and charming in it, and I thought the animal imagery was fascinating. It really struck a chord with me.

Later in my life, feeling dissatisfied with fashion photography, I decided to make a film – a bit of a leap into the dark as I knew absolutely nothing about filmmaking. However, I went ahead with an outrageous musical, a social satire called “The Town that Boars Me”, about a man/pig hybrid that terrorises a town and attacks women for their high-heel shoes, all in song.  I knew from the beginning I wanted Sadie to play the Queen of the town who has the boy-pig killed and served as the main course at a banquet. And when we met I could see instantly she had the humour and the presence to be queen of that vicious little town, and I thought it appropriate, given her treatment at the hands of the press at the time.

We had so much fun making that film, and Sadie and I had developed a really creative professional relationship, that I knew I wanted Sadie to be in the next project I did, and that’s why I wrote the character of Anne Thrope in my new film Animal Charm specifically for her.

Sally Phillips and I met at the British Film Institute, I showed her the script, which she later said was “so mental that I was drawn to look into the role further” — and so we began on developing Anne Thrope’s Nemesis “Audrey Hoober”.

AG: Were any of the characters based on or inspired by real life?

BCE: Each character was written with the actor in mind. I have always admired Boy George, Sadie Frost and Sally Phillips. And I felt Sadie and Sally would make great nemeses, in the tradition of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis [in, for example, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?]. I felt the parallels between Sadie’s life in fashion, acting and being hounded by the press, and Anne Thrope’s character made her perfect for the role.

AG: The legendary pop icon Boy George plays a rather serious cop character in the film — a rather masculine and bearded one at that, when he is so well-known for being a flamboyant and androgynous celebrity. A bit of irony and a role switch, that is. Was this intentional and if so what was his initial reaction to playing this role? What was he like to work with on set?

BCE: The film was full of colourful pseudo characters as it was. However, in our real world Boy George is the real thing. It would have been lost in the film to cast him as himself, so I drew on Boy George’s personal legal history to cast him as a homophobic police officer instead. George was wonderful to work with.

AG: What would you like the audience/fans to take from Animal Charm?

BCE: I hope the experience of watching Animal Charm is the cinematic equivalent of being punched in the face with a whoopee cushion — a whoopee cushion full of shit. I hope it will leave everyone with something. Preferably a rash.

AG: What’s next for you? Any prospective film projects you care to share with us?

BCE: This year, Sadie Frost and I are going to do our first feature together. An adventurously ambitious story which Sadie has created herself. It’s brilliant!! It’s particularly funny and dark and full of dream worlds and bad haircuts.  We can’t wait.

AG: In closing, is there anything you’d like to add to address the fans?

BCE: Use your time and resources to create something of your own, be it a film or a short story. It doesn’t have to cost a thing to make a new idea reality…  If you make a painting or a film that you enjoy, you will enjoy giving it to other people, not selling it.

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• Source: Ben Charles Edwards via Avery Guerra. Lead-in and editorial work by Robert Hood. BCE’s website; Facebook page.

Addendum:

Animal Charm has “cult classic” written all over it. It has already inspired a gallery of amazing fan-made posters. Check them out.

Director Black also talked to Dread Central’s Doctor Gash on the subject of the film’s imminent release and his approach to making this “psychological/supernatural thriller”. Check it out. Though not wanting to go overboard in terms of FX and visceral impact, he describes one “confrontational” scene thus:

We had this demon girl just ripping guards apart. We’ve got a guy getting his eyes gouged out. We have the demon girl actually jamming her hand down somebody’s throat and ripping out the esophagus, and it’s really gritty and gruesome.

Shows restraint, eh? Nevertheless, this looks like a supernatural thriller that offers lots of suspenseful, creepy build-up, leading to a powerhouse climax — which is how I like ‘em.

Source: Dread Central via Avery Guerra. Text: Robert Hood.