The ABC's Soup of Death's Rejects 3

It's like they had two ideas for the title, 'The ABC's Soup of Death' and 'The ABC's of Death Rejects' then decided to go with both, but hell, you won't forget it any time soon.

So a little background on this one, I'm sure by now you all know what The ABC's of Death is, twenty-five directors are each given a random letter and have to make a short film with the title starting with that latter and involving a death. But Blond Baka you marvellous man, I hear you cry, there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet aren’t they? Right you are, the final letter, T from the first film and M from the second, made up a contest where anyone could submit a film and after a public vote the winning film would be put into the finished movie. Six directors who entered the contest for the second ABC's of Death say they were accused of cheating, so in response they pulled their entries from the contest, putting together their shorts along with some newly filmed ones they released their own film. So in other words it kinda happened like this...

Now I can't say for sure weather their story is accurate as I've found no information about it other than their accounts, but it really doesn’t matter as the film they made is some kind of wonderful.

Seven directors contribited to the final film, Ryan Meade, Rob Bedard, Sebrina Bedard, Erik Zijlstra, Tom Sullivan, Raoul Duke, Jr. and Beth Norwowski. The film follows the same formula as the series from which it is derived, twenty-six short film, each involving a death (mostly, one or two I wasn't sure if anyone died) and each titled with a different letter.  How it differs is in feel, with its smaller team of directors there is a consistent tone throughout, so rather that feeling like a series of individual shorts this feels like a single film, like twenty six little glances into a strange parallel world, a world that is campy grindhouse insanity, the kind you only seem to get from independent movies these days. The shorts length vary much more as well, an early one seemed to be no longer than thirty seconds while the last one (and in my opinion best) must have been close to ten minutes, and this is used to the films advantage as you can be caught off guard when you expect a short will run longer but instead it has an abrupt ending which often leaves you with a good laugh.

As you can tell I don't want to give too much away, but I will say this a a fun film to check out if you are a fan of low budget independent films like I am, this movie throws horror, comedy, blood, some tits and grindhouse into a blender, turns it on and serves the delicious smoothy to you in a soup can.

Now I must tell you the film is limited to 100 copies so if you fancy it better get in quick, I've linked the website where you can order it at the bottom as well as the short KIDS which I believe is the only short from the film they have released online, check it out and enjoy.

"KIDS" One Minute Short from "The ABCS soup of DEATHS Rejects 3" Feature 2014 from Ryan Meade on Vimeo.

You can buy the films here:

http://ryanmeadesmovies.wix.com/invaluablemovie

Slasher House

So I had an idea a while ago to do a Killer Clown week on here, and while I may still do that sometime in the future it isn't a priority right now, that been said todays film is one of the films that gave me the idea to do it. The green and red box of the DVD immediately stood out on the shelf as did the creepy meat cleaver wielding clown on the cover, I must say I love the detail of his red lips actually been a bloody hand print.

Slasher House is a 2012 British horror film from Mycho, an independent production studio in south east England specialising in music videos and horror, and directed by Mj Dixon (who after watching the film I found out is from my home town, very cool).

So right off the bat you'll notice the interesting colour choice for the film, baring flashbacks most the film has a green tint, with the only exception been the colour red, at first this can be a little odd and I thought I might get sick of it but I never did, as everyone knows green and red compliment each other and it adds to the strangeness of the situation our characters find themselves in. We start off with a character, known at this point only as Red (Eleanor James), waking up naked in a prison cell, the building seems deserted as no one replies when she calls out, clothes have been left for her in the room. She attempts to crowbar her cell door open with a pice of pipe to no avail, but soon a siren calls out and a red light flashes as her door opens.

Exploring the abandoned prison she finds a fridge with an ice pick and beer, taking the ice pick and drinking a beer she continues to explore before finding another locked cell and within a frighted young man named Nathan (Adam Dillon). After determining that neither knows what's really going on here she explored further and finds another prisoner, my personal favourite character in the film Charlie Corben (Wellington Grosvenor), who stands in his cell, never letting his full face be seen and hints that he might know what is going on but only offers Red half truths and riddles. Soon the siren goes off again and Cleaver, the creepy clown from the DVD cover shows up, armed with a meat cleaver he starts to chase Red through the prison until she hits a dead end in the medical wing. After a skirmish it becomes clear that Cleaver will not listen to any reason and is determined to kill her, and it looks like he just might but at the last second Nathan runs in and stabs him in the back killing him. Now Red and Nathan are together to try and find a way out and fight their way through the other prisoners as they are released and it becomes all too clear that this is a house of killers.

I don't want to give any more away as this film has some decent twists, one unwrapping after the other as the film builds to its climax.

The killers themselves fill different archetypes, the giant powerhouse, the crazy psychotic and the sophisticated intellectual, Charlie Corben fills the latter category and I must say the scenes where he is giving Red and Nathan half answers from behind the bars of his cell are great, reminding me somewhat of Hannibal Lecter playing his games with Clarice Starling. The film also hints at a larger world of crazy killers that are as much super villain as they are slasher villain, there are hints at supernatural powers and even technology you expect a mad scientist to have, all this just adds to the world the film is hinting lies beyond the walls of the prison.

I really enjoyed this film, was it perfect?  No, what film is but I certainly had a good time, Red is a very likeable lead and played wonderfully by Eleanor James, a young woman who has made quite a name for herself in independent horror films over the last ten years. The various killers are great two, following their archetypes while still feel uniques and interesting, each given a brief flashback that though short go a long way to flesh out the characters. Building on the films universe Cleaver and Thorn (played in this film by Alex Grimshaw) have their own spin off films, Legacy of Thorn is out now and Cleaver Rise of the Killer Clown is due for release October 2015, and a sequel to Slasher House is in the works. I will be checking out all these films as soon as I can.