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The Slayer (1982) comes to Slasher Movie Saturday!

In honor of this weekend’s screening at Scarecrow at Midnight at the Killuride film festival at Myrtle Beach we’ve decided to feature a rare slasher gem from the golden age of slashers – the 80′s. This week it’s the little known The Slayer (1982) featuring a killer that would give Freddy Krueger a run for his money. I mention Craven’s creation for a reason because during the time period that Craven’s script for A Nightmare On Elm Street made the rounds through every studio in Hollywood – it was rejected by a certain studio which then promptly turned around and commissioned a script with elements lifted directly from Craven’s script. The tale would eventually be told as A Nightmare On Elm Street finally made it to the screen in 1984 thanks to New Line Cinema and The Slayer faded into little known obscurity.

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Nevermore Film Festival February 17th – 19th, 2012 Primer on Mutantville Mondays!

Durham, NC, the time is upon us!  Get out your seat cushion, load up on a pack of tums and turn off your iphone!  This weekend, the Carolina Theatre in Durham will unleash a three day phantasmagoria of genre film during their thirteenth annual Nevermore Film Festival that is guaranteed to astound, shock and amaze you.

MVP attends the Nevermore Film Festival year after year in the hopes of discovering new hidden gems such as Bubba Ho-Tep, Rubber and The Black Death to name a few.  Jim Carl, the senior director, and his committee never cease to amaze with their prescient selection of genre films.  The festival always pleases those hoping to discover a new voice in the genre as well as those looking to enjoy the great films of the past.  The diverse lineup at Nevermore – dare I say – never disappoints and this year’s selection looks to be no different.

Get the rest after the leap!

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Get Groovy with B-Movie Monsters this Weekend at the Carolina Theatre!

November 26 – 28, the Carolina Theatre in Durham is bringing you the “Groovy B-Movie” Weekend Marathon!  You will be treated to a selection of B-movie gems shown in glorious 35mm ranging from The Amazing Spider-Man to Frogs to Gargoyles to Inframan to The Incredible Melting Man and Grizzly!  They’re all coming to you for the low price of $5 per movie or $20 for an amazing all access pass!

Here’s a glimpse of some of the B-Movie madness coming your way:

The Amazing Spider-Man

TV Series Finale Review

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/the-amazing-spider-man/

Frogs trailer

Movie Deaths Database Review

http://www.moviedeaths.com/frogs/jason_crockett/

Grizzly

New York Times Review
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9906E7DC1F3CE334BC4B52DFB366838D669EDE

The Incredible Melting Man

New York Times Movie Review
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E07EFDD1230E632A25757C0A9639C946990D6CF

Inframan

BADMOVIES.ORG Review

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/inframan/

Retrofantasma Reviews

http://mutantville.com/blog/1679/retrofantasma-celebrates-twelfth-anniversary-with-slasher-double-feature/

Retrofantasma Celebrates 12th Annivesary with Slasher Double Feature.

http://mutantville.com/blog/1239/devil-comes-down-to-a-happy-ending-with-retrofantasma/

Devil Comes Down to a Happy Ending with Retrofantasma.

For more information check out the official website for the Carolina Theatre here.

Blockbuster and Netflix Film School

Hello Mutantville! I want to discuss something that helped us out immensely when embarking on our first feature film “C for Chaos.” A few of us had gone to art school to develop our eyes, since of composition, etc… But we hadn’t gone to “Official” film school. We were lucky that Streebo had been studying storytelling since he was young and I had been behind a camera since I was young. Brento had been making and editing movies since he was young. So now that we’ve established that at one point we were all young, we’re ready to move on.

When preparing for “C for Chaos,” we all studied feverishly. We read all the books we could find but another thing was watching movies. I know this sounds like a “Duh” type thing but…we watched them from as if we were making them. Streebo and I would get together and point out camera movement, lighting, pacing, screen directions, composition, coverage, etc… If you really watch and dissect films in this way you can see how different directors can cover similar situations. Some may use more wide angles, some may go in for close ups, etc… Commentary tracks are another great resource. Of course not all commentary tracks are created equal. If you’re a low budget filmmaker then I recommend lower budget movies. Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks. Some of his you need a note book and the pause button to keep up. Be sure you keep an open mind when listening to the commentary. You may only get one or two gems, But if it saves you a night of shooting or makes something easier, I’d say that was worth 2 hours of your time. For example, on the commentary for Ronin, he talks about the scene when they’re buying the weapons. They purposefully wet the entire area since they were filming outside, that way if it rained, it wouldn’t mess up their shooting schedule. Either write this stuff down in a journal or file it away in your brain somewhere.

Streebo is a big believer in only watching what you’re filming. So when we shot “C for Chaos” for about 3 years, that’s pretty much all Streebo watched. Thanks to places like Netflix he showed me horror films from all over the world. This can give you a lot of insight into the genre.

So before, while and after making your film, study as many films as possible. Notice I said study and Not watch. Watch is passive. Study is active.

Below Please leave comments about films with good commentaries for other filmmakers to go and study! Thanks!