Now, there are cult movies and then there are CULT movies. There are movies that gradually find exposure and a dedicated audience. There are movies that barely make a whimper initially and take years to catch on. And, there are movies so notorious and/or scarce they become the stuff of back alley legend.

Reflections of Evil (2002) may be the first modern, digital equivalent of the underground cult film. Its origins are the usual grassroots, one man show, cult story. With some inheritance money in hand, Damon Packard set out to make his own movie. Set out, in wild abandon, with a rough idea, some inspiration, 16 and 8 mm cameras, a library of his favorite sound sources and 70's television clips, and a Mac with Final Cut Pro. While it made the rounds to some festivals, what really set Packard apart from the pack of unknowns trying to get their indie feature seen was his approach to distributing...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The first thing you'll notice when you pick up a copy of Jeff Leroy's Charlie's Death Wish is a big ol' picture of Ron Jeremy on the front cover art. If you look a little closer, you'll also notice Lemmy of Motorhead on there too, standing on the left next to the hot chick who plays the lead. You'd think that the combination of Lemmy and the Hedgehog would be a winner, wouldn't you? They've both got their own kind of special charm and while neither have a reputation for delivering Oscar worth performances, they've been fun in the bit parts they've had in mainstream cinema every now and then, adding a little bit of class to films like Troma's finest moment, Citizen Toxie. Throw in Tracii Guns of L.A. glam rock band L.A. Guns and Dizzy Reed formerly of Guns N Roses and a couple of hot girls, and all of a sudden this starts to smell like a recipe ...Read the entire review

The Movie

Intended to be a tongue-in-cheek homage to the 1970's "horny mutated monster on the loose" subgenre (think Humanoids from the Deep without the deep and insightful social commentary), the stupidly named Frog-g-g! delivers about 77 minutes of broad and obvious cliches and stereotypes ... but does precisely nothing with them.

Director Cody Jarrett doesn't want to make a gory, scary horror movie, and clearly he doesn't have the skill to mount an Airplane!-type spoof, so his movie feels less like an homage and more life a low-rent ripoff. The fact that Frog-g-g! has a light tone and a silly approach simply indicates that everyone on-set probably had a pretty good time making the thing ... without really giving much thought to if the viewer's having any fun.

Here's the scoop, for the eleven of you who might not have heard this tune before: an evil chemical c...Read the entire review

If nothing else, writer/director Daniel Kraus hit a home run by casting indie actor Mark Mench in his sophomore DV effort, Ball Of Wax. A tale about the dark side of America's national pastime, Bret Packard (Mench) is MVP for the championship Carolina Devils. However, being the top player for the top team in the country leaves him bored, so he devises a series of challenges, for both himself and his team, that soon spiral out of control until mayhem, madness and murder loom large over the playing field.

Not so much a statement about professional sports or professional athletes, Ball Of Wax is more along the lines of American Psycho, where America's worship of public Idols and wealth corrupts ones very soul. Mench is reminiscent of America's one-time poster boy, Derek Jeter (the film was shot around 2003), only Packard is the anti-Jeter. Sure he's th...Read the entire review