28 September 2009

ShockerFest International Film Festival 2009



This is a photo of me with ShockerFest International Film Festival founders/directors, Louise Baker and George Baker. This dynamic duo, along with their distinguished judges, has yet again selected a group of entertaining horror, science fiction, and animation films from skillful filmmakers. Perhaps it is because the Bakers are also filmmakers (GREELEY’S FIELD http://www.greeleysfield.com/).

This weekend I enjoyed several of the films, but the comedy-horror feature SCARE ZONE, HURT starring Jackson Rathbone, CHILDHOOD FEARS (short), MANEATER starring Dean Cain, DARK ROOM THEATRE, and FIREMOUNT (short) stand out in my mind. Not surprising, three of these movies won awards.

SCARE ZONE (http://www.scarezonemovie.com/) is a fun movie! It starts out kind of silly, as it is a comedy-horror film, but then the horror elements “kick in” when the haunted maze (a.k.a. haunted house) opens for business, and the movie actually ends with a message stemming from a storyline with its goth character, “Claire,” played by the talented Arian Ash.

HURT (http://www.hurt-the-movie.com/) stars Jackson Rathbone as “Conrad.” “Conrad,” along with his mother and sister, must go to the desert to live with his uncle after his father dies. The family’s world becomes even more of a debacle when the mother decides to move a foster child into their home. I know this seems like ORPHAN, but I will admit I was on edge during some of the scenes, even though I saw where the story was going near the beginning of the film.

CHILDHOOD FEARS is a short film about something many of us may have feared growing up: “the closet monster.” The only difference here is this young man’s “monster” is an older cousin who terrorized him as a child. Director Cameron Roubique has promised a Web series based on childhood fears. Let me know if you find it.

MANEATER stars Dean Cain as a former FBI profiler who is now sheriff of a small town investigating inexplicable, gruesome murders that have been taking place. Also, he is raising his teenage daughter alone since his wife mysteriously disappeared, and that situation provides an intriguing storyline.

DARK ROOM THEATRE (http://www.darkroomtheater.com/) is a fun film. If you like The Twilight Zone television series, you will probably enjoy DARK ROOM THEATRE. The movie’s poster is accurate in stating, “2 tales of the macabre that will tickle your scary bone…” The acting is superb, especially in the first story, and the music is right on with the mood of the tales.

FIREMOUNT (http://www.firemountmovie.com/) is a short science fiction-fantasy film written and directed by Daniel Denegre, a film student who submitted this as his thesis. It is quite impressive, and many individuals at the ShockerFest International Film Festival seemed to agree that Denegre should make this a feature (I even told him to do it!). Fortunately, Denegre assures that is his intention, especially now that he won two awards at ShockerFest. FIREMOUNT is about a mysterious swordsman seeking a cure for a poison that is killing him. He discovers that the one with the answers is who he has been running from.

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