The Worlds of Speculative Fiction Through the Eyes of Independent Filmmakers.
Dark Tales Chronicles presents In The Dark (2006) from Godbout Entertainment.
Over the past few years, Mutantville.com and Scary Movie Saturdays have become a horror fan’s number one source for discovering the latest and greatest horror films being made by independent filmmakers today. The Patrick Rheas, Scott Goldbergs and Jaysen Buterins today’s indie film scene are tomorrow’s John Carpenter, George A. Romero and Robert Rodriguez. Now you can add Gerald Godbout III to that list.
Mutantville.com and Scary Movie Saturday are proud to present another horror diamond in the rough independent wasteland waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. This week, Godbout Entertainment’s Dark Tales Chronicles presents In The Dark (2006). From the Dark Tales Chronicles comes the first story in the series about a boy and his imagination and his babysitter who learns what it means to fear the dark.
(Watch the full short film after the leap – you dare!)
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Posted 2 months, 1 week ago at 6:15 pm. Add a comment
Streeborama loves you.
Well it’s not exactly twenty questions but it’s the closest we’ve seen in a while. Here at long last is Grant Dean’s interview with the man the myth the internet sensation they call Streebo. J.T.McRoberts is one third of the men behind Mutantville Productions and Mutantville.com along with Geo Swanko and S. Brent Bowers. Here’s everything you wanted to know about MVP but were afraid to ask.
GD:Why the ‘’mutant’’ reference in your company moniker? A big Scifi fan?
JTM: When we first formed what would become Mutantville Productions in 2003, I came up with a long list of potential names for the studio. I wrote out probably fifty different names – almost all of them having something to do with mysticism or martial arts or the samurai or something like that. Almost as an afterthought the very last name I wrote was “Mutantville.” Of course, when we’re going over the names – the one we gravitated towards was Mutantville. My partner in crime Brento (S.Brent Bowers) suggested “Mutantville Studios” but I knew right away that it had to be Mutantville Productions because then we could build the company taglines and myths around the initials “MVP” although that makes no sense because it should really be “M.P.”
Streebo duels Uncanny X-Men & Iron Fist scribe Matt Fraction at Heroes Con.
I am a big sci-fi, fantasy and horror fan but the root of the mutant obsession came straight from the X-Men. Chris Clairmont’s Uncanny X-Men was one of my favorite comics as a kid and doing homage to Marvel’s merry mutants made perfect sense to me. I always envisioned Mutantville as a company dedicated to all works of speculative fiction (as Harlan Ellison would say) – not just horror. Horror is simply the easiest genre to work with when working on a limited budget – or no budget as in our case. I do have scripts in the works for a superhero movie and also a sci-fi horror flick. Despite our tagline of “changing the face of independent horror,” we are dedicated to all the sub-genres of speculative fiction.
Get the rest of this red hot interview after the leap.
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Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago at 4:09 am. Add a comment
Welcome back to another Mutantville Mondays oh dear mutants. We had another productive weekend as MVP moved several projects through various stages of production. In addition to testing the HD plugins for G.H.O.S.T., we completed all of the Muticia’s Movie Morgue segments for the Tales From Mutantville DVD and finished the first draft of The Metatron Files.
(Get your Monday Morning Feed, Movie Clips and More Behind the Glory Hole of Love Leap Ahead!)
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Posted 8 months, 4 weeks ago at 5:05 am. Add a comment
As you have probably noticed, there is a new version of Fright Night being released now. I thought it’d be cool to do a post on the 1985 version.
Fright Night was directed by Tom Holland and released in 1985. It stars Chris Saradon, William Ragsdale and Amanda Bearse. Fright Night is about Charlie Brewster. Charlie has two men move next door. All of his horror movie experience tells him that one man is a vampire and one is his undead day guardian. He finds a has-been actor, Peter Vincent to help him.
So…What do you think about the remake? Have you seen it? Did it need a remake? Let us know in the comments below! Continue Reading…
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 7:01 pm. Add a comment
The Mutantville Players are off at the Fright Night Film Fest in Kentucky so we thought that we would share the fun by watching one of John Carpenter’s recent directorial releases – Cigarette Burns. Unfortunately this wasn’t a theatrical release but it was a part of the Masters of Horror experiment on Showtime. The good news is that John Carpenter was given free reign to create whatever he wanted.
What he came up with was a tale of a man on the brink of madness searching for a movie that contained the secrets to life and death. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Well it is.
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Posted 10 months ago at 5:06 am. Add a comment
It’s one week until MVP meets John Carpenter at this year’s Fright Night Film Fest in Kentucky. We thought we would honor the occasion by focusing on the man, the myth, the auteur John Carpenter this week on Classics Corner. We’re going to take a look at his movies, his musical scores and even his recent ventures into video game territory with the F.E.A.R. series.
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Posted 10 months, 1 week ago at 6:44 pm. Add a comment
This week on the Collector’s Corner, we’re watching a rare and wild poster from Turkey! It doesn’t get any wierder and wilder than the original video nasty. That’s right – we’re talking about the Evil Dead!!! So listen up you primitive screwheads! If you’re a crazy collector like me – and I know you are – then pop on over to eBay and put this bad boy on your watch list before it’s gone. Nothing says “horror fan” like Evil Dead and nothing is cooler than having a bizarro alternative print from another country and that includes this Turkish delight. Check it out at the link below:
http://cgi.ebay.com/EVIL-DEAD-TURKISH-MOVIE-POSTER-HORROR-GORE-CULT-RAIMI-/140500177587?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20b67692b3
EDIT: My good friend Jon Kitley at Kitley’s Krypt notified me that this is not even a Turkish poster – it’s actually Thai! That makes this poster even wilder. Check out Kitley’s Krypt here.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:17 pm. 1 comment
Happy Birthday Retrofantasma!
In today’s tough economy, it’s hard to get the value out of one’s dollar. It’s equally difficult to find a local theater that offers programming of films from outside the Hollywood mainstream. The Carolina Theatre in Durham and it’s monthly Retrofantasma shows are the solution to both of those problems.
This is part of what makes Retrofantasma at the Carolina Theatre so special. The crew at the Carolina Theatre work hard day in and day out to bring Retro audiences a wide array of classic horror films all year long. Audiences from the Durham area are treated to monthly double features of some of the rarest 35mm horror prints around.
Jim Carl, the program director, states that “Retro was born in November 1998 with a single showing of Friday the 13th Part 2. More than a decade later, we’re now one of the longest-running monthly genre film series in the United States!” The spectacular programing is no accident as anyone that talks to Jim can tell you. He is as big a fan of the genre as one will find.
Retro crowds make every show a treat.
This week marked Retrofantasma’s twelfth anniversary of bringing classic horror and cult movies to the Durham area. The reason for its continued success is simple, Retrofantasma is programmed for the fans by a fan. A quick glance at the list of titles that have played in 35mm at Retro over the past few years reveal just how much Jim and company love genre films: Alien, An American Werewolf in London, Black Christmas, Creepshow, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th part 4, Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell, The Thing, Monster Squad, Hellraiser, Spider Baby, The Shining, The Howling, Army of Darkness, Night of the Creeps, A Nightmare On Elm Street III: Dream Warriors, My Bloody Valentine, Lifeforce, The Story of Ricky, Jaws, The Road Warrior, Race with the Devil, Prince of Darkness, Pieces, and Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
To celebrate their twelfth anniversary, the Retro team hosted a double feature of slasher classics from the hey day of the genre. Fans may have plunked down their hard earned $8 for tickets to see Happy Birthday To Me and Alice Sweet Alice but what they were treated to was much more than a simple show – it was a party. Balloons, obscure lobby cards and rare one sheets lined the halls to the theater. The crowd was treated to bits of cake on skewers in honor of the infamous shish kebob kill featured on the one sheet for Happy Birthday To Me. On this night, no one was trying to ram the skewers down the crowd’s collective throat – although they were heavily encouraged to sign up for the door prizes which included DVDs, movie passes to the upcoming B-Movie Weekend Marathon and even a pair of tickets to the all but sold out John Waters Christmas show in December.
Congested traffic delayed a lot of the Retro Regulars from making it to the show on time – so Jim and Co. held the curtain for an extra half hour to give everyone time to make it to the show. That gave the crowd more time to fuel up on beer and cake prior to the start of the Retro Ring. For those that are unfamiliar, the Retro Ring is the video montage that opens every Retro show and is comprised of chase scenes, boo scares, and kill scenes from over one hundred movies. As soon as the Me First and the Gimme Gimme’s start their rendition of “Science Fiction Double Feature”, the fans know that they are in for a night filled with more thrills and chills than you can shake a boomstick at!
This weekend, Retro did not disappoint as they played Melissa Sue Anderson’s horror debut Happy Birthday To Me from the only surviving 35mm print and then closed it out with Brooke Shield’s horror and movie debut from 1976 with Alice Sweet Alice. As if these classic slasher films alone weren’t enough to satisfy the raucous crowd, they were also treated to trailers from the respective time periods and then during intermission a new In Memoriam played featuring clips of the celebrities that have passed away in the previous months.
Most moviegoers would be numb from the excitement of watching two classic horror films back to back but the Retro crowds are always energized at the end of the show. The crowd spills out into the night time plaza with a blissful white noise hum filling their heads from an evening that only Retrofantasma can provide. Most would feel fatigued at the prospect of now having to drive home after midnight – but the Retro crowds always leave with a pep in their step and a smile on their faces. They know that they just witnessed a rare event and look forward in great anticipation to next month’s show – or in even greater anticipation to one of the many fantastic weekend festivals coming soon from Carolina Theatre whether it be the Nevermore Film Fest, the Escapism Film Festival or The Groovy B-Movie Weekend Marathon.
Here's to twelve more great years at Retrofantasma!
For twelve years, Retrofantasma has been bringing North Carolina the best in genre entertainment. Through good economies or bad – Jim and the staff at the Carolina Theatre have worked hard to bring you your money’s worth and then some. You need only ask any of the Retro Regulars that make the show a part of their monthly routine and they’ll tel
l you that if you’re in the Durham area, nay if you’re in the Carolinas period, it is ALWAYS worth the drive to the historic Carolina Theatre in Durham for an evening at Retro! There’s only one way you’ll get to see the famous Retro Ring and that is by laying down $8 for a night at Retro that comes with a ticket for two movies but brings a priceless night to remember.
Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 10:16 pm. Add a comment
From Fangoria.com: After watching hundreds (or thousands?) of horror movies over the course of decades, how many horror fans still get scared after watching a horror movie? I’m not talking about merely feeling tension because a character is in danger, but actually feeling frightened by a film.
All too often, it seems that people complain that a horror film was “bad” because it wasn’t “scary”. Without any context, this is essentially meaningless. For example, when was the last time a movie scared them, and what was it?
I feel that this “problem” has less to do with the quality of a film than it does with someone’s having built up a tolerance. Besides being a horror fan, I’m also a fan of very spicy food, and I have an assortment of hot sauces made from habanero and scotch bonnet peppers in my refrigerator at all times. My tolerance of spicy food is significantly higher than average, but my fiancee would argue that just because I don’t feel a dish is spicy, this doesn’t necessarily make it so.
Curiously, when horror films aren’t being accused of being bad because they’re not scary, it’s because they’re “not fun”. This seems to be a by-product of the ’80s, when so many horror films were glutting the market that the genre largely descended from “fright films” into horror-comedies – intentional or not.
I’m not talking about films that use comic relief to briefly release tension, I’m talking about films where you’re laughing at the film more than you’re laughing with the film – or are scared of the film.
With that, if a horror film isn’t “fun” is it a bad horror film? I don’t remember Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre being a particularly fun film, but does this make it a bad horror film?
I also find it puzzling when people suggest that I’m “immature” when I don’t find a film that emphasizes shadows, noises and even action from off-camera “scary”. It may simply be a by-product of getting older, but I stopped being afraid of the dark – and creaky houses – decades ago, though I hardly feel that this is a sign of my immaturity.
So have at it – are horror films supposed to be scary or fun? Both? Neither?
via Are Horror Films Supposed To Be Scary Or Fun?.
Posted 2 years, 5 months ago at 9:14 pm. 2 comments
