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Under the Scares
Canada 2010
produced by Hugo Bissonnet, Steve Villeneuve, Simon Gerathgy, David Aubin (executive), William Dio (executive) for DiggerFilms, CV Films, Monochrome Pictures
directed by Steve Villeneuve
starring Robert Kurtzman, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Lloyd Kaufman, Anbthony Timpone, Debbie Rochon, Gary Jones, Sv Bell, Amy Lynn Best, Raine Brown, Jimmyo Burril, 42nd Street Pete, Maurice Devereaux, Edward Douglas, Michael Gingold, Trent Haaga, Brett Kelly, Suzi Lorraine, Rachael Robbins, Courtney Solomon, Brian Spears, Brinke Stevens, Christian Viel, Mike Watt, Frank Henenlotter, Rodrigo Gudino, George A. Romero
written by Steve Villeneuve, William Dio, music by Othentic
documentary
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Movie making - it might be a world of unbelievable wealth and glamour,
consisting mostly of champagne-sipping, tanning next to some heart-shaped
pool with a view of the Hollywood-sign, and mostly playing with your
handbag-trained chihuahua in your trailer during shoots. Well, too many
people only know this side of filmmaking, but the actual passion for
making a movie and putting it out there despite all the risks involved is
of course found primarly in the independent sector, where people still bet
their livelyhoods on the films they are making, then gladly let the
distributors screw them twice over just to know their movie gets a
release, go to conventions not so much to make a buck or two but to
network with honest, hardworking industry people ... who can help them
make the next movie they'll lose money on. Basically, Under the Scares
features interviews with these filmmakers talking about the trials and
tribulations of making indie movies - exclusively of the horror variety,
mind you, but you have to limit yourself somewhere. These interviews are
accompanied by (even more) interviews with the crème of indie horror
actresses like Debbie Rochon, Brinke Stevens, Suzi Lorraine, Rachael
Robbins, Raine Brown and Amy Lynn Best, and even genre critics like 42nd
Street Pete and Fangoria's Anthony Timpone, and covers areas as
diverse as getting the sound of your film right (something neglected all
too often in indie horror), getting good actors, figuring the right amount
of blood and boobs to get your message across, creating a proper business
plan and marketing your movie properly, and developing a resistance
against being screwed over and over again. The other aspect of the indie
horror scene this movie covers is of course the development of the
"indie" of actually being a $300,000 movie shot on 16mm to beind
something pretty much everyone "can" shoot with a cheap camera
from your local electronics story thanks to the democtatization thanks to
the internet and the progress in (affordable) technology - for better or
worse. And the cool thing is that the interviewees in this movie are not
only current directors and stars, but also undisputed genre legends like
George A. Romero, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Frank Henenlotter, and of course
the ubiquitous Troma-head
Lloyd Kaufman. Under the Scares is a movie every avid
reader of (re)Search my Trash simply has to watch - and I hate
myself for saying so because I'm not getting paid for it ;) and wasn't
even (online-)friends with the movie's director Steve Villeneuve until
yesterday ... but that aside, the movie does cover so much common ground with
this here website and features quite a few good friends/favourite
filmmakers of the site ... but much more than all of that, it does cover
its ground in a very insightful and interesting fashion, without ever
crossing the line of being preachy - quite the contrary, it presents
conflicting views more than once -, and the fact that the filmmakers
decide to listen to their interviewees (even when they contradict each
other) rather than make this a know-it-all
piece of fluff sure helps (very probably thanks to the fact that these
filmmakers are indie horror filmmakers themselves, too, of course). And
besides everything else of course, you do get fun snippets from some good,
bad and ugly indie horrors, so that alone is worth quite a bit. Recommended
(if you haven't caught that already)!
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