Calling all Los Angeles Zombies, Werewolves, and Creeps – Screamfest LA is back and sporting a good slate of horror films starting this Friday!

What do you get when you combine Henry Rollins, inbred mutants, and a guy named Texas Battle? Wrong Turn 2, a film at this years Screamfest and recent DVD I also happened to get my mitts on, that’s what! This movie is available now on DVD and has been getting some pretty positive reviews in the genre community. Does it live up to the hype? Read on!

The good people at Screamfest LA this year saw fit to have us in for a screening of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror which came out on DVD this week. Lucky for us my quick hands and the strong arm of a Screamfest presenter lead to me catching a copy of this half of Grindhouse.

The cornerstone of this year’s Screamfest film festival in lovely Los Angeles was the much anticipated 30 Days of Night from ever present comic scribe Steve Niles and brought to the screen by David Slade, who is riding his last film Hard Candy straight to the top.

Release Date: TBD Hey hey. This was the last movie I saw at Screamfest 06 and again had heard a lot of positive buzz about it. It was even featured in one of the premiere genre magazines, Rue Morgue. So I was excited. It had a cast of mostly unknowns, save for Robert Englund who played against type as a heroic figure. This movie has an interesting premise in that we’re watching “tapes” from a documentary crew who are making a film on the newest up and comer serial killer, Leslie Vernon. Now, here is one part I loved. In this world, supernatural serial killers are the real deal. Jason Vorhees – Real. Freddy Krueger – Real. They reported on in the news and what’s more, have followings and what not. It’s a cool idea. Did they work it well? More on that soon. So we get about 50 minutes or so of this documentary footage. We follow Leslie Vernon, played well by Nathan Baesel, a mid-twenties type who is preparing to become a new serial killer. He has a mentor, an old pro who teaches him tricks. He does lots of cardio because, as he puts it [paraphrased] “It’s hard work, always looking like I’m walking while these kids are running their asses off.” So Leslie breaks down the scenario for our crew. He talks about planting evidence, assuming a new identity and back story, finding the proper location and securing it for the nights activities, planning, planning, planning, [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

So did the movie pleasantly surprise me? No, afraid not. The story follows David, a youth troubled by the suicide of his “rock-star” older brother who is sent off to Driftwood, a youth rehabilitation facility. Or as most people call it, a prison. There he’s haunted by images of a dead boy who turns out to have died mysteriously (duh) and just happened to be the nephew of DDP’s character, the delightfully nasty Captain Doug Kennedy. Weird stuff happens, secrets are revealed, justice is done.

Release Date: TBA (tentative March 2007) Ahh Hatchet. You’re a tricky one. I’d heard much about it from it’s limited screenings thus far, so expectations were high. It had a promising tag line that really got to me. “It’s not a sequel, it’s not a remake, and it’s not based on a Japanese one. Old School American horror.” Plus, starring Kane Hodder (of Jason Vorhees fame), Joel Moore (Dodgeball) a bunch of hotties and favorites like Joel Murray (Dharma and Greg), Robert Englund, Tony Todd, and Richard Riele, we’re looking like a winner. But did it deliver? Yeah. Not like OH HELL YEAH. But yeah. I liked it. It was a good throwback and I’m excited it’s getting rave reviews. I’ll buy the DVD. It’s not perfect, but it was good and it’s funny and well written, well directed and well acted. There are few parts that didn’t seem fully thought out, but overall it was sweet. The story follows a group of people on a tour of a swamp in the Louisanna Bayou around Mardi Gras time. We see a lot of boobies. (Score!) Ben has just broken up with his long term girlfriend about a year ago. Yeah. He’s one of those guys. So his friend agrees to hang with him as they do the haunted swamp tour. He’s joined by some hotties filming a “Bayou Beavers” episode with the help of “director” Shapiro, a married couple, the boat driver, and a mysterious hottie looking for her dad [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: October 28, 2006 (television) Hey all. Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes is a made for TV Sci-Fi original directed by Jake West. Screamfest was tossing around free tickets to this badboy so I went; I probably would have dodged it otherwise. But I found myself in a large theater with very few people around, although in attendance was director Jake West, a likeable guy and Lance Henrickson, genre superstar. The film itself follows up on the story of Pumpkinhead, a demon that does your dirty work for you at the cost of your soul. The original is a decent flick that a lot of people hold dear, though the sequel was wildly regarded as trash. This version has a sort of evil Doctor who steals the organs of recently deceased townspeople and then tosses them into the woods instead of cremating them, and on occassion, killing a person or two. When the bodies are discovered, the townspeople are enraged, none more so than Lisa, who’s small child was found tossed into the swamp. She remembers talk of an old legend and a crazed witch who can grant her the power to take vengance. She and several others do so, summoning Pumpkinhead, a tall, grotesque monster that goes about killing those responsible, and anyone who gets in the way. The evil Doctor is smart though and figures out how to stop Pumpkinhead. He has to kill those who summoned the demon to stop the demon. Now it’s on. Pumpkinhead is [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Hey all. Long time no talk. I’m going to hip you up to Screamfest just in time for Halloween. Wait what? Just in time for Thanksgiving? Oh no, really? Just in time for the start of December? Well ok. My bad. I’ve been a little overwhelmed lately and haven’t been reviewing like I should, but hopefully we’re in the clear. So here comes Screamfest! Opening night was awesome. It was without a doubt the most star-studded event I have ever attended, although what is that saying, really? The festival took place at Mann’s Chinese theater this year, in Auditorium 1 mostly, a nice big area, though not the main theater. The movie kicking off this joint was the world premiere of The Tripper, a horror-comedy written and directed by David Arquette. Yes, that Arquette. It stars Tom Jane, Jaime King, Jason Mewes, and a slew of other faces you’ll recognize, including Paul Reubens. David and Courtney Arquette both have sweet cameos. The story follows a group of drug loving teenagers heading into the woods for a weekend long concert. What they don’t know is that years ago, a young boy was severly traumatized in these woods after an incident involving hippies, his dad, and a chainsaw. It’s sweet. Our protagonist is Jaime King playing “Samantha.” She’s just got out of a scary/abusive relationship with her boyfriend, who stalks her by phone and is played by Balthazar Getty. Tom Jane plays the Sheriff who isn’t happy about the thousand hippies and [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In the words of Screamfest themselves, here’s what they say: Screamfest was formed in August 2001 by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in order to give filmmakers and writers in the horror/sci-fi genres a venue to have their work showcased to people in the industry. We are very proud that the majority of the films showcased now have distribution. (from Screamfestla.com) Now more importantly, here’s what I say. Screamfest is a rocking sweet deal for horror fans. You may remember me covering Shriekfest awhile back and I liked it, but was underwhelmed with the quality of submissions. Well at Screamfest, they take this stuff seriously and we get some awesome movies that deal with decent budgets and name actors. The festival ran from October 13th until the 22nd and even the lowest key movies had stars turn out. The festival featured movies directed by or starring many notables including David Arquette (The Tripper), Snoop Dogg (Hood of Horror), Tim Sullivan (Hood of Horror and Driftwood), Tom Jane (The Tripper) and crowd favorites Robert Englund (Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon) and Kane Hodder (Hatchet and cameo in Behind the Mask). Ticket prices were about $13 bucks a pop, although Feast, Slither, and Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes were all shown for free, that’s damn right, for free. You can’t beat that. All in all it was a great time. Good theater with mostly good movies. Check back to get a taste of everything I managed to see. [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]