Lots of men are sharks, especially in the vicinity of holiday resorts. Generally speaking referring to them as sharks is a metaphorical gesture, indicative of predatory sexual behaviour. But what if the phrase “shark man” wasn’t a metaphor?

A new Hawaiian film is currently in production dealing with just such a situation. It’s called Makua Charley, and is a modern-day horror story based on the legend of Nanaue, the Shark Man of O’ahu. Directed by Al and Jayne Cloutier, it is being produced by World Class Productions.

So far a few scenes have been shot for the trailer (you can see it further down the page), but principal photography will take place on location in Honolulu during Spring 2012, with an anticipated release for the final film of September 2013.

Synopsis:

Folks are disappearing from the Shark’s Cove youth hostel on the North Shore of O’ahu. When young Karen Palmer visits for a two week vacation, she meets a handsome and charming local boy named Charley. He promises to show her some sights “off the normal tourist path”. Karen finds herself irresistibly drawn to her mysterious tour guide. When her two new friends, Mona and Lester, warn her that there is something fishy about Charley, Karen ignores their advice. She falls deeply under the spell of Charley’s good looks and suave island charm.

Straight out of a romance movie, right?

Wrong!

Unfortunately, Charley is the embodiment of an ancient Polynesian curse, and he’s torn between his basic human nature and his predatory killer instincts. Makua Charley is a feeding frenzy of horror set amidst the gently swaying palm trees of idylic Hawaii. In this paradise turned to hell, the scent of fresh spilled blood is carried on a tropical breeze. (Source)

Check out the newly released trailer:

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On the genesis of the film, the filmmakers had this to say:

We live in Honolulu, Hawaii — coincidentally really close to where Makua Cave, the original lair of the shark man, is located. It’s really spooky inside there, let me tell you! We went inside to explore it and there’s a slimy stone at the back of the cave where Charley would drag his victims to eat them and you can just feel the creepy-ness. Gave us chicken-skin right away. Anyway, we just had to do this film, natch! We started by doing a ton of research on Hawaiian legends. Now we’re almost like living breathing experts on scary Hawaiian myths. Mega-awesome, I know, right?

If you don’t agree take it up with these guys!

Naturally, Makua Charley needs financial assistance and in common with many productions, the producers felt that a Kickstarter campaign would give interested “backers” a chance to help get the film made. The campaign began a few days ago and runs until 26 May. Albert Cloutier commented: “With the funds we raise from KickStarter we will intensify our shooting schedule, hoping to wrap in late July.” Go to Kickstarter to read more about the production and contribute.

• Sources: Albert Cloutier via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.
• Official website; Facebook page; Kickstarter campaign page.

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.

New approaches to storytelling are running rampant through the jungles of Skull Island, it seems. Though the film based on artist Joe DeVito and writer Brad Strickland’s illustrated novel Kong: King of Skull Island hasn’t materialised as yet (see this article from 2009 and this from July last year for information on the film), the book has been translated into a new, very-up-to-date format, specifically designed for the iPad. An interactive app of Kong: King of Skull Island is up and running in the iTunes App store.

“It is part 1 of three in a whole new medium that I hope Kong fans everywhere will enjoy,” DeVito commented. “Right now it’s iPad only, though other versions are in the works. It’s Kong as he has never been seen or heard before!”

The Opening:

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Here DeVito talks about the app:

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Produced by Copyright 157 LLC, with production design by Colin Fuchs and Peter Coyne, project management by Kelley O’Connnor, motion graphics by Christopher Griffin, music by Nick DeGregorio and app design by Chris Coddington, the Kong: King of Skull Island iPad app is a magnificent re-imagining of the story.

With an immersive use of text scroll and intelligent reveals of the underlying artwork, it is indeed like plunging into a new kind of interactive reading and I for one found it effective and engrossing. The music, too, adds greatly to the effect.  If DeVito and Strickland’s original book was a worthy addition to the Kong mythos, the new app version expands and enhances the experience even more, taking it in yet another direction. It’s probably fair enough to call it a “groundbreaking experience”. This app doesn’t represent a mere re-design job, but a re-imagining of the way in which pictures and words can work together to tell a story. Spectacular enough here, it nevertheless offers lots of potential for future development.

The original book is out (with abbreviated art) in iBook, Kindle and Nook form as well.

Part 2 of the app, The Wall, is coming soon:

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Source: Joe DeVito via Avery Guerra. Writing and review elements by Robert Hood.

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.

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Many have been possessed by one; only one has been possessed by many.

Supposedly more accurate than many other exorcism fantasies, The Devil Inside was produced by (among others) Steven Schneider of Paranormal Activity fame. Though we can take claims of authenticity with a grain or two of over-dramatized salt, this proclamation smears it with a veneer of artistic verisimilitude that’s totally in keeping with the roving, first-person cinematographic techniques used. Rev. Bob Larson, Exorcism Consultant, even gave an interview on the subject of its depiction of demon eviction and I’ve included it below.

Above: Suzan Crowley is not herself

Meanwhile check out both the trailer and a special clip of a nicely creepy scene from the film.

Synopsis:

In 1989, emergency responders received a 9-1-1 call from Maria Rossi confessing that she had brutally killed three people. 20 years later, her daughter Isabella seeks to understand the truth about what happened that night. She travels to the Centrino Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Italy where her mother has been locked away to determine if her mother is mentally ill or demonically possessed. When she recruits two young exorcists to cure her mom using unconventional methods combining both science and religion, they come face-to-face with pure evil in the form of four powerful demons possessing Maria.

Trailer:

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Extended Clip:

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Being something of a fan of demonic possession films — made such not by belief but by, I suspect, the dramatic, emotional and thematic potency of that grandfather of exorcism films (and novels), William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (US-1973; dir. William Friedkin) — I’m looking forward to this, as it seems to carry a bit more weight than some other Exorcist cash-ins of recent times.

Above: Bonnie Morgan gets twisted up by the whole experience

It’s rather interesting that though it has garnered negative reviews on IMDb, it has so far taken US$52,690,136 at the box-office in the US alone, which, based on an estimated budget of $1,000,000, represents quite a profit. The bad reviews don’t daunt me, of course. This looks like exactly the sort of film that tends to attract naysayers if it deviates from the expected path in any way at all — which I trust it does. We’ll see in March.

Above: The Exorcist, Simon Quarterman

Above: Look into my eyes: Simon Quarterman and Isabella Rossi

Meanwhile, here’s that interview with Exorcism Consultant Bob Larson that I mentioned:

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Source: Paramount Pictures; IMDb.

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Comment is pointless. Hit Google to get all the pointless speculation.

Mac (Jim Sweeney) gets up-close and personal with a rotten zombie (Leif Phelps) in Zombie Resurrection

With its British accents and hints of thematic delving into some of the religious implications of zombieism, British splatterfest Zombie Resurrection (written and directed by Andy Phelps and Jake Hawkins) seems to be offering the kind of original take on old tropes that fans of the zombie sub-genre are keen to get their hands on (well, I am anyway!): staying within the tradition and retaining the best of it, while exploring some fascinating tributaries branching off from the clichés — and doing it intelligently. The filmmakers describe the film as “ambitious, gory and sometimes very funny” and as “one of those rarest of beasts – a completely new slant on the zombie story”.

From the look of the trailer, they might be telling the truth!

Synopsis:

Fifteen months after the zombie apocalypse, a small band of survivors are forced to take refuge in an abandoned school, where they discover a mysterious zombie with the power to raise the undead back to life.

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Undead Backbrain’s low-budget cinema sleuth, Avery Guerra, asked some probing questions in order to ferret out the truth about this film, which is now in post-production and looking for funding to help get it done.

Above: The Messianic zombie (Rupert Phelps) gets ready to deliver his “Sermon on the Mount”

How did Zombie Resurrection come about?

Andy Phelps: Originally, it was a conversation that I had with my son one dinnertime – what would happen if Jesus came back as a zombie? What would he be able to do? A couple of weeks later Jake and I hooked up for a drink, and by the end of the night we’d riffed the concept around to the point where we were too excited by the idea to not write the screenplay.

Jake Hawkins: At first we were planning on putting the screenplay up for sale on InkTip, but the further we got into the writing the more it looked like we could actually do this ourselves. Both of us have a background in short films, and tackling a feature project is a completely different animal, but at the beginning of 2011 we threw caution to the wind, unshackled ourselves from our respective day-jobs, and we’ve been working full-time on the movie ever since.

The crew prepare to film the end of a long battle between Sykes (Eric Colvin) and
Mac (Jim Sweeney) and the first supercharged zombie in the film (Leon King)

Where was Zombie Resurrection filmed and at what stage is the production right now?

AP: We shot the movie over 24 days (and nights) in August 2011, in three locations in Hampshire (in the South of England). We knew we had to work fast to get it all in the can on such a quick shoot. Not helping was the fact that we had a large ensemble cast (nine principal actors) and about seventy zombies to worry about, as well as all the in-camera blood gags and action sequences.

In the end, we used a fairly small crew of 23 people, but it got hairy on our big horde nights, having to process so many people through our costume and make-up teams.

JH: The film is currently going through post-production – final edits, sound, foley, grading and all our digital FX. We have an IndieGoGo funding campaign running at the moment to try and raise the money to get us through to distribution, so if you ever fancied watching two men squirm on the wrong side of the camera, the link is here.

Andy and Jake in an uncomfortably close encounter with their horde

Beyond the plot, what is the film about?

AP: Faith, and specifically the boundaries between science and faith. When is it reasonable for a logical man to take a leap of faith when presented with something that science can’t explain? This is the benefit of having such a large ensemble cast, in that you can give each character a different angle on the same theme. Collectively they have the big picture, but you get to seed in a lot of conflict and drama looking at where their beliefs and values clash.

JH: We felt it was massively important when we were writing Zombie Resurrection not just to turn out a generic movie where a bunch of attractive survivors get picked off one by one, and to try and get some social commentary in there. That’s the difference between the original Dawn of the Dead and Zack Snyder’s remake; the first is a really intelligent study of consumerism, while the remake is a just a pretty good zombie movie.

Asher (Georgia Winters) is bitten

What are the primary inspirations/influences behind the film?

AP: Well, I grew up through the UK’s “video nasty” era, so that’s where my filmic roots lie. Very generously, the government put together a list of all the horror video titles that were most likely to cause a breakdown in public order, so to every fourteen-year-old boy in the country this became a must-see movie template. I am very much in this early-80′s exploitation cinema mind-set, before too much CGI came along and made everybody’s life safer.

JH: But specifically, movies like Romero’s early zombie outings, as well as Evil Dead, Braindead, Re-animator. Films where the humans are often much more dangerous to each other’s wellbeing than the monsters are. Movies with a sense of humour, even when the cast play it completely straight.

Zombie Bride (Mary Stone)

What are your plans for the film?

AP: Through post-production, and then out to the Cannes film market in May. The film was never intended for a theatrical release, but that’s not going to stop us blitzing as many horror film festivals across the planet as we can before the DVD and Blu-ray come out. It’s the thought of being sat at the back of a screening watching a horror-literate audience reacting to your movie that keeps us going through the long days and the vast amount of work it takes to pull a feature together.

So there you go. They sound rather convincing to me and are certainly able to talk intelligently about their inspirations and their intentions in creating this particular film. This augurs well for Zombie Resurrection and it will bring new life to the genre. Maybe the title will be prophetic!

Above: Beaumont (Danny Brown) makes a catastrophic wrong turn

Above: Sykes (Eric Colvin) carries the recently mauled Becca (Rachel Nottingham) to safety

Above: Some zombies get a final liberal coating in blood before shooting

Below is a video of the pair, spruiking the film’s IndieGoGo appeal and it includes some fascinating behind the scenes snippets — all of which makes me want to see this film get completed sooner rather than later.

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• Sources: Andy Phelps and Jake Hawkins via Avery Guerra; Official website; Facebook page; Andy and Jake’s Shameless Promotional Blog; Snakebite Horror article (includes lengthy plot summary).
• Remember the guys are looking for financial support to complete. If you’re interested in helping, go here.

Lost Island [aka L'île: les naufragés de la terre perdue; The Island: Castaways of the Lost Island] is a new French adventure fantasy film from writer/director Olivier Boillot, released in mid-2011 in France and hopefully heading for an English release in 2012 (though it is currently available in France on DVD/Blu-ray, with English subtitles).

Synopsis:

It’s 1942 and three men have just crashed into the ocean in the middle of nowhere. The stranded men find shelter on a nearby deserted island. As they slowly discover, they are not alone.

Lost Island looks to have been inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, L’Île mystérieuse (aka Mysterious Island), and/or any of the films based on it. As you’ll see from the trailer, it also carries suggestions of the TV series Lost and perhaps even Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot, the latter of which was most recently filmed by the Asylum and directed by C. Thomas Howell. Basically what all these have in common is a group of people stranded on an otherwise unknown island that is inhabited by big creatures (mostly dinosaurs). The monsters are often (at least in the case of Mysterious Island and Lost) the result of scientific experimentation or arcane knowledge of some kind.

What sort of monsters Boillot’s film has, and how they got there, are merely hinted at within the trailer (here presented with English subtitles), but it looks pretty intriguing. Certainly the hints not only of monstrosity but of arcane mystical/pseudo scientific artefacts (not to mention the huge hole in the ground — interdimensional portal?) give what might have been a very ordinary survival tale enough interest for me to want to seek it out.

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It fascinates me how much more effective these sort of tales always seem, on film at least, when their creators give them a period setting.

Lost Island stars Michel Béatrix, Cyrielle Debreuil, Paul Descombes, Kaddour Dorgham and Jérémy Duplot Jr. The Gallery below includes some location shots of Jérémy Duplot Jr. and Kaddour Dorgham during filming.

Gallery:

Addendum: Behind The Scenes/Making Of Videos

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[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Sources: Alexandre Simard and Olivier Chekroun for Highland Film Group and Emylia. Via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.

• Official Website
• IMDb entry

Life gets difficult enough when you’re a hitman just trying get the job done so you can make it to your kid’s birthday party on time. But things get worse after you stumble across an alien parasite that’s turning the extras into zombies.

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You can only hope you get Overtime (US-2011; dir. Matt Niehoff)…

Synopsis:

Raph (Al Snow) and Max (John Wells) only kill bad guys, and only after their boss Sam, a high-powered attorney, has cashed a nice paycheck for getting her sleazy clients off the hook.

When Sam sends our heroes on a routine hit, they find themselves caught up in a conspiracy they never imagined. But whatever trouble they’ve gotten themselves into is nothing compared to the wrath of Raph’s wife if he doesn’t make it home in time for his son’s birthday party.

Being a good hitman is tough; being a good dad is killer!

The Interview

To find out more about Overtime, the Backbrain’s News Hound, Avery Guerra, spoke to Brian Cunningham — the film’s Writer, Director of Photography and Producer:

Tell us a bit about yourself, Brian.

I’m a freelance director of Photography and producer working in Louisville Kentucky.  I’ve done work for clients such as GE, McDonalds and Papa John’s, but my real passion is filmmaking.  I ran a movie news and reviews blog for three years and have self-published two books about movies and pop-culture. The next project is a documentary about the Haunted House industry entitled “Monsters Wanted.”  (Check out MonstersWanted.com for more info).

Why this particular movie, Overtime?

The idea to make the movie came from my partner, Matt Niehoff.  We really wanted our first movie to be something fun and even a little bit silly. So many young filmmakers seem obsessed with creating work that is going to lead to awards and prestige, but when Matt and I talked about it we realized that the movies we loved as kids were the crazy comedies of the ’80s and the action films of the late ’90s (like Terminator 2 and Aliens).  We wanted to make those kinds of movies because we love escapist cinema, and we wanted the audience to be taken on a journey.  Plus it’s always more fun to blow things up than to shoot people talking.

Above: The movie stars WWE Superstar Al Snow, who gets bloodier than usual…

Any specific influences?

The movie draws heavily from ideas in movies like Aliens and From Dusk Til Dawn.  There’s a lot of Shaun of the Dead in there, tonally, and of course the Hit Man aspect will remind people of Boondock Saints and Pulp Fiction (mind you, I’m not comparing us to those movies … I’d never dream of going toe-to-toe with Tarantino).  What you might not think of, however, is the influence movies like Lethal Weapon had on Overtime.  When it gets down to it, this is a fun 1980s action comedy about two guys trying to balance work and family.  The zombie-alien side of things is almost incidental.

Above: Sebrina Siegel finds herself at the wrong end of a Shooter’s Party rally

Above: Stuck in a corner with blood and cake: John Wells, Sebrina Siegel, Erica Goldsmith and Al Snow

How did the project develop between you and Matt?

The idea for the movie came from Matt.  He wrote a rough draft of the script and asked me to take a look at it to see if I was interested in shooting it for him.  When I read it, I loved the whole conceit. I asked Matt if I could take a crack at changing some things, and he agreed. After that, it really became a 50-50 partnership. We went through a good twelve drafts together before shooting, and we worked together on casting, finding locations and testing out the makeup and effects. It was a really rewarding collaboration with each of us pushing each other every day.  We would rewrite entire scenes the night before the shoot, trying to make things a little more organic, a little funnier, and to take advantage of the talents of the awesome cast.

Above: Avri Ant’juan considers whether to shoot ‘em or… um… shoot ‘em

Check out this Behind-the-Scenes video:

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What are you plans for Overtime?

Our plans for Overtime are to get it in front of as many people as we can. We’ve started a pretty aggressive festival strategy (and it’s recently been announced that it will be  screening in Louisville on February 18 at the Derby City Film Festival), and we’re in the process of contacting distributors directly to try and make a deal.  We know from feedback from screenings and our website that there is a good market for this movie, and people who see it seem to have a really good time with it.

And if hitmen, alien parasites, blood and zombies aren’t enough, don’t forget there are tentacles as well!

Check out lots more pictures and a couple of alternative posters in the gallery below:

Sources: Brian Cunningham via Avery Guerra; Official website/blog; Facebook page; IMDb entry.

Addenda:

Earlier (slightly longer) Official Trailer:

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Outtakes:

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