That night, Elizabeth (Sarah Habel), the sister of Sam’s murdered girlfriend Rebecca (Mia Serafino), arrives at Sam’s apartment. She believes that the man about to be executed for her sister’s murder, Lonnie Flennons (Richard Wilkinson), is innocent, and she offers to pay Sam to find the real murderer. Sam turns her down, but goes to speak with the man who tutored him on time travel, Goldburg (Kevin Yon), who reminds him of the cardinal rules: he’s not to alter his own personal past, nor travel in time with his body left unsupervised. We learn that when Sam was 15, a house fire claimed Jenna’s life, but Sam altered time so that Jenna survives. However, Sam’s interference with events resulted in the fire killing his parents instead. After Goldburg’s departure, their buxom bartender Vicki (Melissa Jones) seductively offers Sam a buttery nipple; he and Vicki have sex, but upon seeing Rebecca’s photo, he cannot continue.

Sam changes his mind and agrees to help Elizabeth out. He tries to help Lonnie without time-traveling, but Lonnie refuses the help, believing Sam to be the culprit. Frustrated, Sam travels back to June 1998. He first runs into a drunk Elizabeth, and tells her to stay in her locked car. He goes into Rebecca’s bedroom to find her already dead; while there, Elizabeth is attacked from behind and killed. Sam returns to the present, to learn he no longer owns a car, is renting his couch to a roommate named Paco (Ulysses Hernandez), and no longer works for the police, instead being a discarded suspect for Rebecca’s murder who has repeatedly asked for the case file. In 1998 Lonnie had seen Elizabeth and Sam talking, and did not stop this time: as he was not at the murder scene, in this new present he is a wheelchair-bound lawyer. Sam visits Goldburg, who suggests he go back to the scene of the third murder and this time only observe. Sam also visits Jenna, who is significantly better off and living more cleanly; she refuses to help him.

Sam travels back to September 2000 and witnesses the third victim, Anita Barnes (Chantel Giacalone), being attacked, only to learn it is her boyfriend attempting to cater to her rape fetish. He is discovered and her boyfriend’s punch sends him back to the present, where now Sam is renting a couch from Paco, who is about to evict him for non-payment. Goldburg is missing, and Lonnie is now the third victim, while Anita remains alive, pepper-spraying Sam in the face after he approaches her in the street. At her apartment, Jenna tells Sam that Goldburg was about to implicate him in the murders, and furthermore tells him she fears a future Sam is the murderer. Sam complains he is now “too stupid” to fix things; Jenna pinky-swears him to not time-travel anymore. Drunk at the bar, Sam propositions Vicki, who is engaged in this timeline. After Sam leaves, the killer shows up and murders Vicki; her body is found by the police near a car body plant. As Sam left his bar receipt behind, he is hauled in by the police. Jenna extricates him; the police put a tail on him as he leaves. As he leaves, he takes Det. Glenn’s (Lynch Travis) evidence notebook, which he uses to look at the scene of the crime and travel back to September 2004, before the bodies were found by the police.

He returns to the present to find himself on Jenna’s couch as she leaves for work, reminding him to clean up after himself and have dinner ready for her return; their positions now effectively reversed from the beginning of the film. Sam returns to the auto plant, where the police lie in wait to arrest him. Sam convinces Det. Glenn to release him by telling him how his wife (Andrea Foster) mistook Glenn for M.C. Hammer on their first meeting. Returning home, Sam accidentally inhales some burundanga flowers, sent from Goldburg’s greenhouse, and can barely haul himself into the bathtub, before time-traveling back to the abandoned auto plant, where he finds a severely injured Goldburg. Running for help, Sam is felled by a foothold trap.

The killer approaches the trapped Sam, removing his mask as he does so, to reveal that the killer is actually Sam’s sister Jenna, who can also time travel. She has an incestuous love for her brother, having killed the women, either because she perceived them as rivals for Sam’s affections, or because they were new witnesses, introduced by Sam’s rescue attempts. Sam travels back in time to the day of the fire that killed his parents; instead of saving Jenna, he traps her in her burning room. He awakes in a new timeline where he has married Elizabeth (not Rebecca), and he, Elizabeth and their daughter Jenna (named after his now-dead sister) (Alexis Sturr) are pulling up to a family barbecue, where he is greeted by his parents and a perfectly healthy Goldburg.

The film closes as Sam’s daughter Jenna puts her fashion doll on the grill and smiles as it begins to melt.

The movie was filmed in Michigan and concluded filming in October 2008. It debuted as part of the lineup for After Dark Horrorfest III, a horror film festival held in January 2009. The film was released on DVD on March 31, 2009.

There is plenty of gore in the movie to entertained those who are seeking a movie like that. Over all I enjoy it very much.

What’s that lurking beneath the surface? It’s a synopsis:

The story follows two groups of people — one, a group of students, the other, a group of criminals — who are shipwrecked on an island by a giant shark. The island was once used for illegal drilling, and the oil company inadvertently released the giant shark from its slumber.

Emanuelle Carriere, Celine Filion, Christine Emes, Kala Gray, Sara Mosher, Kyle Martellacci, Phil Dukarsky, Duncan Milloy, and Angela Parent lend their talents to the flick, which, I’m sure, will find its way onto one format or another later this year. The trailer for “Jurassic Shark” lies below.

Radcliffe stars as Arthur Kipps, a London solicitor who’s still not yet over his wife’s death in childbirth 4 years earlier.  Given one last chance to prove he can still be an asset to his firm, he gets sent out to the coast to finish disposing of the estate of one Alice Drablow.  Upon arriving, Arthur receives a curiously chilly welcome – the hotel has no reservation from him, the local solicitor insists that he return to London immediately, and everyone ushers their children indoors when he walks by.  In fact, there’s only two people not trying to get him out of town as soon as possible, the Dailys (Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer), a nice wealthy couple who still mourn the loss of their son several years earlier .  Undeterred by the locals’ inhospitable behavior, Arthur heads out to Mrs. Drablow’s home, Eel Marsh House, to sort through her papers.  His attempts to work are frequently interrupted by strange noises and fleeting glimpses of other people in the supposedly empty house, though.  Arthur soon discovers that Eel Marsh House is believed to be haunted by the titular ghost, whose every appearance foretells the death of another local child.  Although he doesn’t believe in ghosts, Arthur sets aside his duties to solve the mystery of the woman in black, and break the curse over the town.

For a long time, The Woman in Black gets by almost purely on atmosphere – the town is frequently covered in fog, and Eel Marsh House itself is a magnificently spooky place, with its many rooms, overgrown garden (complete with family burial plot), and the fact that it gets cut off from the mainland at high tide.  Any sane person, regardless of their feelings on the supernatural, would be reluctant to spend even a few minutes there.  There’s even a child’s room filled with windup toys that look just plain creepy in daylight, and downright nightmare-inducing in candlelight.

It’s a shame, then, that the movie starts resorting to cheaper scares, like having a ghost suddenly fill the empty space behind Radcliffe, accompanied by a ‘you’re supposed to be scared’ sound effect.  It gets a bit tiresome, and it really wastes such a nice setup.  More egregious is pretty much every character in the movie does dumb things for no reason: instead of gathering up all of Mrs. Drablow’s papers and working in town, Arthur insists on going back to the creepy house where he sees things that aren’t there every day.  This extends to the townspeople, too – there’s never any indication that anyone tried to escape the curse by moving out of town (or if it’s not possible), so we’re left with the impression that for over 30 years, every family simply stayed put and accepted that their children were doomed.

And speaking of the curse, it doesn’t make much sense: since the woman in black is angry at Mr. and Mrs. Drablow, she takes her revenge on all the families in town because…why?  The Drablows didn’t have any children for her to kill, so as far as we can see, she’s focusing her rage on all the people who did nothing to her.  The ghost is supposed to be a bit sympathetic, given what happened to her, but this makes her just seem like a vindictive bitch instead of a victim.  So, good job there, folks – your creepy, atmospheric, old-fashioned English ghost story is instead the much less-interesting tale of an angry ghost who drives children to suicide for something their parents didn’t do.  I like a back-to-basics haunted house movie as much as anyone, but it needs more than just a specter flying at you, screaming, to make a lasting impression.

Kashiwada’s intention is to create chaos in the world by bringing back Sadako and the power of her curse. Now Akane has to fight against Sadako and Kashiwada to save the lives of herself and Takanori.

RELEASE DATE
May 12, 2012 (Japan)

PROJECT DETAILS

I have to say, now that I got my Kindle I’m reading more often than before.  Since I got this wonderful device I have read 7 books.  This is my second (out of three) werewolf books.  My first one I haven’t finished reading it yet but this one caught my eye right away.

In a world overpopulated with sparkling vampire novels and teen supernatural books, this was fresh take on an old tale.  Absolutely compelling and gory.

Brandon was hated from the minute he arrived town.  He was called weirdo, queer, tonto, redskin among other names.  At first you’re feeling sorry for the central character who’s been abused, betrayed, and tormented, by life in general, classmates and worst of all his own family. Then when he’s turned by someone you won’t see coming is when the story really takes off rapidly down a dark and blood soaked path.  His best friend and mom along with a girl new in town that Brandon likes, are the center of the story.  There are other characters that populated the book but you can imaging what will happen to them.

For anyone who likes werewolf tales and doesn’t mind some bloody scenes, this one is sure to fascinate you.

Get the book today!

- By George

Blame Jaws for the influx of animal attack movies in the late-70s and early-80s. Of that particular sub-genre, no animal was more prolific than the killer snake. Venom (also starring Oliver Reed), Sssssss, Hydra-Monster from the Deep, and King Cobra were some typical snake flicks. Canada also had their hand in the genre, as the CFDC helped fund the William Fruet cheapie, Spasms. Notorious for running out of money before the finale was shot, this is a film that has nonetheless languished on dusty VHS shelves for years.

The film begins during a native tribal ceremony off the coast of New Guinea. The legend of the tribe goes that every time a human dies, their soul languishes trapped on the island. Every seven years a serpent from hell is conjured up by the tribe in order to bring the souls back to hell’s depths. Tonight is that night, and the serpent is angry. After it is summoned by the tribal rituals, it goes on a murderous attack, only to finally be captured by a few snake hunters. Jason Kincaid (Oliver Reed) gets wind of this, and immediately asks its shipment to his resident Toronto area.

Kincaid has a shady past with snakes. While on an expedition with his brother, both were bitten by the venomous serpent. His brother died instantly, while he miraculously survived the event. The death of his brother has haunted him ever since, and Kincaid now looks after his daughter, Suzanne (Kerrie Keane), to serve as a constant reminder. Kincaid feels more than animosity towards the serpent, however, as it is revealed that he shares a telepathic link with the venomous reptile. When the serpent kills, Kincaid can feel it, and he hopes that in studying the snake he will be able to understand this complex relationship between the two of them.

He enlists in Dr. Tom Brasilian (Peter Fonda), a university psychoanalyst, to study both himself and the snake. Since working with Kincaid will no doubt up his prestige, Brasilian agrees and has the serpent stored in the university animal laboratory. Before it is able to be studied, the snake escapes due to human negligence, and begins roaming the university campus. See, a snake-worshiping church cult also wanted the snake, and enlisted Warren Crowley (Al Waxman) to steal it.

With the snake out on the prowl, its psychological connection with Kincaid grows ever stronger. Kincaid becomes a shaking mess as his mind slowly becomes one with the serpent (where are psychoplasmics when you need them, ‘eh Ollie?). Determined to confront the snake once and for all, Kincaid heads out to the university to face the serpent of hell. The final questions remain: Will Kincaid prevail, and more importantly, will the film run out of money before the finale?

Spasms is an interesting snakesploitation movie hampered by a meager budget. Oliver Reed gives a strong performance (and just coming off the set of Venom he surely had practice), which is certainly more than the role deserves. He chews the scenery, and invests plenty of emotion in the role. There are times when he is so intense that his hands shake uncontrollably, though this may be due to his chronic alcohol addiction at the time. Far less effective are Peter Fonda and Canadian B-movie stalwart, Al Waxman. Both have only a few moments of screen time, and are basically on board only so their names can be exploited on the video boxes. Kerrie Keane (previously from the Canadian co-production The Incubus) makes for a good female lead, although her role is limited as well.

With little development of the characters around the periphery, the film ends up being a showdown between Kincaid and the snake, and it is on this level that the ending disappoints. The psychological connection between the two, however farfetched, had definite dramatic potential. Rather than addressing this telepathic connection at the film’s end, the movie instead sidesteps a conclusion altogether. William Fruet seems to think that death is the ultimate end in the picture, but in a movie that invests so much time into fleshing out psychological relationships, there needed to be more. A Scanners-esque battle of the minds finale would have been particularly fitting and amusing. Instead, the movie just ends without any particular insight to Reed’s character or even a decent confrontation with the snake.

Granted, the production ran out of money beforehand, which explains its lack of finality. In order to extend the ending, Reed experiences a number of flashbacks from the beginning in order to help pad the running time. One has to wonder where the $5 million dollar budget went however, considering how little the snake is actually seen. The viewer does not even get a glimpse of the scaly beast until 45 minutes in, and even then it is brief. The movie does contain one snake money shot at the end (courtesy of effects work by the legendary Dick Smith), but it is too little, too late. Instead of showing the snake, the film steals the first person technique from Jaws and instead shows almost all of the murders through the blue-tinted perspective of the serpent. At times the fisheye distortions of the snake’s perspective can be effective, but full-scale shots of the beast would have been much more satisfying.

Directed by Alberta-born William Fruet (Funeral Home, Bedroom Eyes), the film does show some aspects of his Canadian heritage. Filmed in Ontario, there are a few city shots that feature the Toronto skyline, with the CN Tower in full view. Fruet is not afraid to shoot the Canadian landscapes from afar, since most films attempt to look as distinctly generic as possible. Spasms does fall victim to the Anywhere, North America location curse however, as there are no explicit references to the film’s setting. It has always been hard spotting Canuck distinctions in the Canadian B-movie universe, but squint hard enough and they are always there in some form.

Budget constraints aside, Spasms is an entertaining enough Canadian obscurity. Reed gives it class, there are a few good gore effects and the underused Tangerine Dream theme song is one of the band’s best. It isn’t high art, but if seeing Oliver Reed telepathically communicate with a venomous snake sounds like a good time, then Spasms will undoubtedly entertain.

- Guest Review by Rhett Miller

What began in The Strain comes to a sublimely satisfying conclusion in The Night Eternal. Del Toro and Hogan have taken Dracula, the greatest vampire tale of them all, and deftly turned it inside out. In Stoker’s novel, Bloodsucker Zero arrives in England on a sailing ship called the Demeter. As with the Regis Air 777, the Demeter is a ghost ship when it reaches port, the eponymous Count having snacked his way across the ocean. The difference is that Dracula is confronted by a heroic band of vampire-hunters who eventually drive him from England by using modern technology—everything from diaries kept on wax recording cylinders to blood transfusions. In The Strain Trilogy, the body-hopping Master—who arrives at JFK in the person of Polish nobleman Jusef Sardu—uses the very technology that defeated his honorable forebear to destroy the civilized world. Big corporations are his tools; modern transportation serves to spread the vampire virus; nuclear weapons usher in a new era of pollution and atmospheric darkness.

Only jolly old England escapes; the wily Brits have blown up the Chunnel early on, and remain relatively vampire-free. At moments like this, the reader senses del Toro and Hogan tucking their tongues in their cheeks and having a gleeful blast.

When speaking of the New World Order in Henry the Sixth, Shakespeare has one of his characters say, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” As The Night Eternal opens, the Master (currently having traded the body of Sardu for that of rock star Gabriel Bolivar) doubles down on that, ordering his minions to kill not just those in the legal profession but all the CEOs, tycoons, intellectuals, rebels, and artists. “Their execution was swift, public and brutal. Out they marched, the damned, out of the River House, the Dakota, the Beresford and their ilk…in a horrific pageant of carnage, they were disposed of.”

With the exception of heroic pawnbroker/scholar Abraham Setrakian (who almost destroyed the Master in Volume Two, The Fall), the winning cast of human characters from the previous novels are all present and accounted for: Nora Martinez, who has traded in her scientist’s microscope for a silver sword; Vasily Fet, who now exterminates vampires instead of rats; Augustin “Gus” Elizade, once a gangbanger and now a hero of resistance. There’s also the less-than-admirable but fascinating (in a repulsive way, it’s true) Alfonso Creem, with his insatiable appetite and his vampire-repelling mouthful of silver teeth.

And there’s Eph Goodweather, the epidemiologist around whom all these others revolve. When The Night Eternal begins, two years after the Master has used nuclear weapons to create vampire-friendly darkness all over the planet, Eph has fallen on hard times. His undead ex-wife stalks him relentlessly (he is, after all, one of her “Dear Ones”), his son has become a rifle-toting, obsessive-compulsive acolyte of the Master, and Eph himself has started popping Vicodin and oxycodone. Nora has left him for Vasily Fet, and Eph is viewed with distrust by those who used to rally around him. Justifiable distrust; he keeps showing up late for meetings and vampire-killing gigs.

Fet has managed to purchase a rogue nuke (it’s wrapped in garbage bags and looks like a trashcan), and the resistance fighters have a sacred book that may—if deciphered—lead them to the Black Site where the Master’s earthly life began. If they can destroy that holy soil, they believe the vampire plague will end.

There’s a certain amount of perhaps dispensable hugger-mugger about vampires in Rome and archangels in Sodom, but the main attractions here are the resistance fighters’ fierce dedication to their cause, and Eph Goodweather’s slow and painful realization that if he destroys the Master, he may also destroy his son Zachary, the last person on earth he truly loves. Heroes of tragic dimension are rare in popular fiction, but Goodweather fills the bill nicely.

After a small (and perhaps unavoidable—see Tolkein’s The Two Towers) letdown in The Fall, The Strain Trilogy comes to a rip-roaring conclusion in The Night Eternal. The action is non-stop, and the fantasy element is anchored in enough satisfying detail to make it believable. All the New York landmarks, such as Central Park’s Belvedere Castle and The Cloisters, are real. And while you’re discovering such essential vampire facts as the undead’s inability to cross running water without human help, you’ll also find out that the stone lions outside the New York Public Library have names: Patience and Fortitude. Plus, come on, admit it—there’s something about seeing vampires massing for an attack in a Wendy’s parking lot that makes them more real. The devil’s in the details, and this is one devilishly good read full of satisfying scares. –Stephen King

The Fall picks up right on the edge of the precipice where The Strain left off, with the entire city of New York threatened by the vampire predators, an example that mirrors itself in other major cities across the world. The Fall focuses on the struggle between the circle of Ancient elitist vampires and the rebellious New World vampires led by an Ancient bent on seizing control.

The vampiric virus unleashed in The Strain has taken over New York City. It is spreading and soon will envelop the globe. Amid the chaos, Eph Goodweather—head of the Centers for Disease Control’s team—leads a band out to stop these bloodthirsty monsters. But it may be too late.

Ignited by the Master’s horrific plan, a war erupts between Old and New World vampires, each vying for control. At the center of the conflict lies a book, an ancient text that contains the vampires’ entire history . . . and their darkest secrets. Whoever finds the book can control the outcome of the war and, ultimately, the fate of us all. And it is between these warring forces that humans—powerless and vulnerable—find themselves no longer the consumers but the consumed. Though Eph understands the vampiric plague better than anyone, even he cannot protect those he loves. His ex-wife, Kelly, has been transformed into a bloodcrazed creature of the night, and now she stalks the city looking for her chance to reclaim her Dear One: Zack, Eph’s young son.

With the future of humankind in the balance, Eph and his team, guided by the brilliant former professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian and exterminator Vasiliy Fet and joined by a crew of gangsters, must combat a terror whose ultimate plan is more terrible than anyone has imagined—a fate worse than annihilation.

There are some new elements and new characters however, mainly involving the effects of the vampires in New York as they take hold – we see the battle expand as vigilante street gangs fight back and the battle is taken to the vampire nests underground.  Some of the scenes are quite vivid and rather visceral.

We also have some developments on what has gone before. We find out more about Setrakian’s previous encounters with the vampires in the twentieth century, and also the importance of an occult book, the Occido Lumen, which holds secrets to the vampires.

One of the more interesting aspects developed in this novel is the relationship between the Master and the other six Masters, called the Ancients.  As the new vampires reproduce, the older Ancients take action, not against the humans but against the new vampires, feeling that more new vampires will eventually impact on their food supply. The Master, in return, wishes to wreak revenge on the Ancients for actions taken by them in the past.

The ending leaves you on the cliff’s edge awaiting what can possibly happen next and wondering how or even if humanity can be saved or if vampires will now rule the earth?

Well, you better hold your breath, because this is a non stop high ride.

- By George

On my FIRST interview ever, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Mr. Hodder over the phone about his new book “Unmasked: The True Life Story of the World’s Most Prolific, Cinematic Killer”, which is on sale now, there is a link below if you want to buy it.

In our interview we talk about many things, from his earlier days, his accident, but also about things like “which horror movie is you favorite?” and to my surprise it was “The Exorcist” which is also my favorite movie of all times.  He also told me that he will reprise the role of Victor Crowley in Hatchet III, filming will start February in 2012 and director Adam Green will be, once again, behind the camera.

Below is part of the phone interview with Mr. Hodder:

HG&M: First of all, you are the number one icon in contemporary horror, a true living legend.  To many of us you ARE Jason Borhees.

K.H: “Thank you very much.”

HG&M: Let’s talk about your book “Unmask.”  After reading it I feel great admiration and respect for how much you have accomplished in your life.  The amount of obstacles you overcame is like trying to climb Everest without any training or proper gear!

K.H: “Hahahaha, well..I have to say this.  It was very difficult.”

HG&M: Why did you decided to write the book?

K.H: “Well, you know..I always thought I would eventually at some point write my story because there’s so much that I want people to know about the burning injury, first of all, and then not many people know about the bullying and stuff when I was little.  Then I thought I can tell some stories from the set, the horror stuff, being a stunt man for so long.  I thought it would be an interesting story. But I never really connected with an author until I met Mike (last name here), we seemed to really click and so I decide to let him go ahead and do it.  Because he guaranteed that I would have final approval of the finished product and that was important to me.  We just hit it off, and decided to do it. It took from start to finish right around a year.  Because he lives in Massachusetts and I live in Los Angeles and it’s kind of difficult getting together but did as much as possible.  I didn’t want to do the whole book over the phone or anything.  We got it finished and I’m very happy with the final outcome.”

HG&M: How hard it was for you to talk about some of the stories, like the bullies?  I have two kids of my own, eight and twelve, and honestly I had to stop a couple of times.

K.H: “You know it’s not easy when you recount some bad stuff, still gets to me to this day when I talk about certain things.  I just thought that maybe there is a possibility there might be a person who is struggling with that situation that will read my book and possibly get some inspiration from it knowing that you can overcome something like this and it doesn’t have to ruin your life.  Specially with the burn injury because there are so many people that are burned every year that I think, for me I know first hand, that seeing and talking to someone that has been burned was the best thing that could’ve happen to me as far as my recovery.  I know how much it can help, I’m hoping maybe at some point it can help somebody else knowing that there can be a life after the trauma.”

HG&M: Would you say that this book that you wrote is for you mostly or for the fans to know you better?

K.H: I think it’s probably both really.  I mean it was a way for me to tell the story in a way that people can read at their own pace.  Because there is no way I can sit and tell my whole life story to someone in one sitting so, it’s a way for people to learn things about me that they never knew or possibly they never wanna to know, I don’t know…some of the stuff…”oh boy!”..(laugh) so I don’t know, I think it’s for both.  I appreciate the fans so much and I understand that I’m in this position that I’m in because of the fans, I mean, without fans you have nothing as far as moving on like this.  I wrote the story for the fans and for myself.

HG&M: I know that you enjoy portraying famous killers like Jason, Letherface, you did a little bit of Freddy Krugger – K.H: “yeah, one shot”- is there any other famous killer or monster that you would like to play that you haven’t yet?

K.H: Well, I always wanted to play Frankenstein, and then I kinda did that in a comedy version of a movie called Chillerama, I did play Frankenstein in that one. It’s a different type of Frankenstein that you’ve ever seen.  That’s coming up in November 2011.

As far as other killers I think it will be quite a challenge to play somebody like John Wayne Gassy, he is one of the most fascinating bizarre serial killers ever. I think.  The fact that he buried people under his own house after he killed them.  Then he would entertain children at parties as a clown and stuff like that, I think that would be a pretty fascinating character to play since I played BTK – Dennis Lynn Rader (“BTK” stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill”) and Ed Gein and other real guys. Maybe at some point it would be cool to play the MUMMY.  Because I always feel that Jason was somewhat similar to the classic MUMMY character.

HG&M:  In your book you tell us that not getting the part on Freddy vs Jason was very frustrating for you.  From Jason to Victor Crowley, have many years passed from Jason to Hatchet I?

K.H: Let’s see, that would’ve been five years.  It really took a need it area of my life to play another character, similar, but still different that I can develop from the bottom up.  From originating the character, could all be me instead of taking what somebody has done previously and try to work on it.
So it pull a big boy for me that I wasn’t playing a character that I loved and all of a sudden Victor came along and it felt good again. Just so you know, we are about film the third Hatchet movie.

HG&M: How much did you shape the character of Victor Crowley until you were comfortable or did you follow what they put on the script?

K.H: Both, the director who wrote the script had had this character in his mind since he was eight years old.  He had a good idea how he wanted it to go and I respect that.  So I listened to his basic ideas and then just tried to expand on that.  Even though I’m originating the character on film, I didn’t come up with it.  You have to respect some of their ideas when they are the ones who dreamed up the characters themselves so I just add to it.

HG&M: Let’s talk about why you visit burn victims.

K.H:  The thing with burn it’s one of those situations were when you are in a hospital currently undergoing treatment for severe burns, your mind set is this, you won’t listen to anybody tell you anything about what you are going through unless they’ve been there themselves.  I don’t care if it’s a doctor who had been working with burns for 50 years, it he hasn’t been burned you really don’t know what you are talking about. Please  don’t tell me what I’m going to feel or how I’m feeling unless you’ve been there yourself. So when I’m able to go visit a kid or adult in a burn unit, currently healing from the burn and I can say “this is what to expect” and they are gonna listen to me, because they can look at me and see the scars and say “okay, there is a guy that knows what I’m going trough” and that is huge for your recovery.  It’s to be able to talk to somebody that knows what you are going through and I didn’t have that for a long, long time and finally I was able to see somebody like that and it helped so much that I know how much it can help.  That doesn’t mean I’m a miracle worker or anything. I know how much it can potentially help someone heal. I’m happy to do whatever I can because it helped me so much.

I also asked him that since he knows the Jason character so well if he would ever consider writing a script for a Jason movie.  Unfortunately he said he is only an actor and not a writer.  In any case, I still think it’s a good idea.  Wouldn’t you pay money for a movie if he wrote the script and was in it?  I know I would!  I think it’s money in the bank…. Come on Kane, just do it!

All in all folks, Kane its a tremendous human being, he was very, very nice on the phone.  More importantly, it gave this newbie movie critic 21 minutes that I will never forget.  Thank you Kane, you F~$#  rock!

Buy the book, it has tons of anecdotes that you will find interesting and a powerful message – in life if you really want something, you have to fight for it, no matter how impossible it might look.

-By George

One of the mercs gets shot in the arm making the mercenaries go underground to take shelter. Shortly after they find a sole survivor from a pile of dead bodies.  Little do they know, that they got pure evil on their hands.

Even though the budget of the movie was very small they were able to came up with a movie that it’s entertaining, fast pace, that will keep you at the edge of your couch all the time.

The cinematography it’s excellent, as well as the editing making the gruesome killing extremely scary.  The score of the movie sounded to me a lot like THE THING (1982).

Another aspect of this movie I like, is that the zombie-gost-nazi didn’t eat the protagonists but instead killed them with their knifes and bare hands.

I’ve yet to see another similar movie, called THE BUNKER (2001).  I also recommend another movie that follows the same theme of supernatural evil forces called DEADWATCH (2002) starring Jimmie Bell (Billy Elliot, King Kong, Jumper) and Andy Sarkis!!!(Lord of the Ring, Planet of the Apes).

NOTES:

The film was produced by Scottish couple Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker and their production company Black Camel Pictures. They mortgaged their Glasgow home in order to raise £200,000 to finance production. The script is by Rae Brunton, based on Parker’s original concept, which he described as “Platoon meets The Sixth Sense“.

Although set in Eastern Europe, filming was done in a munitions factory in Dalbeattie, in a forest near Castle Douglas, and in the Glasgow Film City studio complex in the Govan area of Glasgow.  Filming began in January 2007.

Sony Pictures bought distribution rights to the film for £1.2 million.  Sony released it directly to DVD in the USA on March 11, 2008. Following favourable reviews, the film was exhibited theatrically across Europe. The film’s European premiere was at a gala showing as part of the Dumfries Film Festival  on the 3rd of May 2008, followed by limited distribution to 130 UK cinemas.

The producers are planning a sequel: Outpost II: Black Sun.  The sequel has been granted £25,000 of funding from Dumfries and Galloway Council.

SEQUEL

A sequel, entitled Outpost: Black Sun, is currently in production. The film has been written by Steve Barker and Rae Brunton while Barker has returned as director.

Cast

• Ray Stevenson as DC (nicknamed John by Taktarov)- British Royal Marine Warrant Officer
• Julian Wadham as Hunt
• Richard Brake as Prior – United States Marine Corps
• Paul Blair as Jordan – Scottish French Foreign Legionnaire
• Brett Fancy as Taktarov – Russian Alpha Group
• Enoch Frost as Cotter – Belgian Peacekeeper
• Julian Rivett as Voyteche – Yugoslav military
• Michael Smiley as McKay/Mac – IRA Guerilla/British Paratrooper
• Johnny Meres as The Breather (Brigadeführer)

Directed by Steve Barker

- By George