The surprise 1999 hit The Blair Witch Project was an undeniable film-going phenomenon that scared up a fortune by attracting millions of moviegoers to a tiny independent movie filmed mostly with amateur video equipment. Although a growing number of $500 "reality" epics have followed, a general theatrical market has not opened up for fictional Dvcam thrillers with backyard production values.

The Last Broadcast is a similar no-budget horror film that predated Blair Witch by one year. Irate buzz on the web often argues that it is the far superior picture. There are plenty of video-based horror films made by young computer-savvy men in their 'twenties. Despite the fact that it never found a mass audience, this one does have an edge.

The Last Broadcast and Blair Witch indeed have striking similarities. Both ...Read the entire review

The Movie

"Wow, man. You sit through a whole lot of crappy horror movies. Why?"

Well, I'm glad you asked, because Lance Weiler's Head Trauma is a big part of the reason why I sit through so many potentially crappy horror movies. (The other reasons should be obvious: fake violence and frequent female nudity.)

Now, I'm not about to call Head Trauma the next big cult classic or a stunning little indie masterpiece -- but the flick IS a whole lot more intelligent and compelling than I expected it to be. And yes, creepy.

George Walker is a sad-sack drifter-type who returns to his late grandmother's old house in the hopes of refurbishing the place into an actual home. Aimless, friendless, and clearly hanging on by a few skinny threads, George is the sort of sympathetic loser we begin to feel for almost immediately. (It's a big help that the actor playing George is pretty excellent...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Battling post-college ennui (with sex!)

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Good indy films
Likes: Gratuitous nudity
Dislikes: Full-frontal male nudity
Hates: Boring movies

The Movie
When I graduated from college, I spent a few months dealing with a questionable relationship, instead of finding a job like anyone with a massive student loan ought to. When the relationship inevitably ended, I was no better off than I was before, and my bills remained. Eventually I straightened things out and got my life on track, but I'd wasted a few good months.

I see a good deal of the limited drifting I experienced in the lives depicted in Kissing on the Mouth, just with way more sex. Roommates Ellen (Kate Winte...Read the entire review

The Movie

The rather brief yet somehow languid Magdalena's Brain hails from a group of indie filmmakers out of Massachusetts, and if it's not the creepy little horror flick that the DVD case seems to promise, then it's at least a half-decent and admirably intelligent low-budgeter that feels more like a solid episode of The Twilight Zone than a full-blown movie movie.

Amy Shelton-White stars as the mobile half of a mega-brilliant husband-wife genius team. Maggie's unfortunate husband, despite being one of the planet's most brilliant scientists, is trapped inside a quadriplegic frame. Following a vague but tragic accident, the pair have lost their medical licenses -- but that won't stop Magdalena from experimenting her little heart out. She's actually very close to creating an artificial intelligence so powerful that it could make things like brain cancer and quadriplegia a dista...Read the entire review

The Movie

Filmed on a seriously small budget with a crew of about twelve people, Mitchell Altieri's Lurking in Suburbia is one of those "festival-type flicks" that you may catch on the Sundance channel one night and find yourself more than a little surprised at how engaging the thing is. Despite a plot synopsis that feels exceedingly familiar (and some DVD packaging that's more than a little misleading), Lurking is a sly, personal, and low-key indie comedy that manages to become more accessible and likable the longer it goes on.

Newcomer Joe Egender delivers a strong lead performance as the almost-30 Conrad (Connie) Stevens, a semi-shiftless and quietly fun-loving grown-up kid who's growing just a little bit tired of his extended battle with arrested development. Much of Lurking in Suburbia focuses on the conversations, preparations, and hijinks surrounding Connie's 30th...Read the entire review

The Product:
DVD, as a product, is reaching critical mass. Not because of the upcoming HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle, but over something far more subtle, and sinister. As movie companies raid their vaults for those last unreleased titles, and made for digital entries discover cheaper, downloadable ways to distribute their efforts, disc manufacturers will have to dig deeper into the indie/amateur scene to find viable, sellable movie merchandise. It gets even worse when working within specific genres -- namely horror and sci-fi. Unless you long for yet another example of the zombie planet retread or crave more post-apocalyptic social commentary, there is not a lot of originality in certain cinematic categories. A perfect example of this troubling trend is Heretic Films latest release. Entitled Shockheaded, this movie wants to be a dippy, trippy mindmeld of idiosyncratic and eccentric ideas. Inst...Read the entire review

Movie: While most of us take it for granted these days, the world wide web we refer to as the internet has only been around as a viable means of communication for the general public in any significant way for a bit over ten years. Previous advances in the technological advancement of communication (written language, the printing press, radio, television, etc.) took decades to advance to the point where the general public was included so it makes sense that we reflect back from time to time and see how far we've come. Some people will claim that the internet has been "dumbed down" in the process, a valid claim if you're a snob, since nowadays, just about anyone can jump online and use the net. Others have focused on the potential for disseminating information of all sorts, though the commercialization of the internet is currently debated too (the potential is still greatly untapped in both regard...Read the entire review

The Product:
Though it was bound to happen sometime, this critic hoped it would be later than sooner. Over the course of reviewing film and DVD, generational issues never really came close to crossing over into the criticism. While it was obvious that the demographic for many movies was skewing totally out of his middle-aged range, there was always a clear cinematic connection that made even the most target audience-aimed film seem somewhat universal. Until now, that is. With the release of KatieBird *Certifiable Crazy Person, writer/director/editor Jason Paul Ritter has made the first post-millennial terror tale meant exclusively for the web geek dynamic. Sick, stupid, and occasionally inspired, this desperately derivative slide into the skin of yet another serial killer - or in this case, killers - rehashes dozens of better films while it flings a DePalma-derived split screen style a...Read the entire review

The Product:
Proving that incredibly lame and pretentious independent filmmaking is international in nature, this made in Denmark dullness is desperate to be an innovative, hyper-stylized film noir. Instead, it's about as entertaining as a comatose crackhead and ten times less articulate. Writer/director David Noel Bourke obviously intended his film to be an introspective thriller with lots of nods to the gloomy gray atmosphere of its metropolitan setting. The question is, what made him think we wanted to come along for this depressing, derivative ride?

The Plot:
Nigel is a British ex-patriot laying low in Copenhagen. He is married to a closet heroin addict and there are hints that he left behind a major criminal past (and an untold price on his head) when he went into exile. Desperate for cash (wifey is in constant need of a secret fix) all this English twit seems capable of doin...Read the entire review

The Product:
Apparently writer/director Nigel Wingrove has some major issues with organized religion. Either that, or he just loves the idea of placing members of the Sappho sisterhood inside a real sacrosanct sorority. In either case, his movie, the overly talky softcore sleeping pill entitled Sacred Flesh, is about as enticing as a catechism, and makes about as much sense as the whole "intelligent design" theory of creation.

The Plot:
The Mother Superior of the Order of the Sacred Heart is having a crisis of faith. While transcribing the carnal confessions of her incredibly frisky charges, Momma #1 starts to get a little blasphemous tingle all her own. This leads to several ethereal debates between herself, a drama queen dressed Mary Magdalene, and a skeleton faced nun representing the committed core of the church's beliefs. One of the convent elders calls in a local pri...Read the entire review

What exactly does the phrase "missed opportunity" really mean? You've heard it a million times: that critical cliché that seems to excuse any and every bad or boring film made. Usually, it's just written shorthand for a good idea gone groan-inducing, an obvious work of potential pissing away it's possibilities on something or someone that just doesn't work. Other times, it's dragged out to act as a justification. Many a film fan will spend 90 minutes in middling enjoyment as a good-natured, but barely tolerable title does its strut and fret upon the screen. When they wonder why they weren't moved, or motivated to care by the filmmaking or the acting, they usually chalk it up to yet another chance squandered by the source.

The true definition of missed opportunity is far less forgiving. In reality, when a director or performer neglects their prospects, there is a reciprocal element at the crux of th...Read the entire review

Do you ever find yourself longing for the days of the psychological thriller? You know the kind of movie - tightly wound, built on a clockwork narrative that gives you edge of the seat suspense while systematically building to a heart stopping, adrenaline-pumping finale. This sort of entertainment usually revolves around an innocent man in unknown danger, or a group of people treading where they ought not to be, and even when done in a straightforward manner, the result is something like cinematic performance art. It offers a director purposefully manipulating emotions and expectations to provoke responses from individuals who wouldn't normally react in such a manner. It's fixed but fun, and if you can manage to make this kind of movie without resorting to gimmicks, gratuitousness, or gore, you really illustrate the extent of your cinematic stuff.

This is not a challenge to be taken lightly. Only s...Read the entire review

The Movie:
I'll Bury You Tomorrow is a nasty, gory, demented budget horror film that is going to score big with lovers of much darker, sadistic horror flicks.

The Story:
Wow. There's so much going on here, I don't know where to begin, and hope I don't forget anything. Okay, let me just start with the plot.

A mysterious, pretty blonde named Dolores (Zoe Daelman Chlanda, whose schizophrenic performance is quite impressive as the film progresses) comes to the small town of Port Oram, a mysterious trunk in tow that she's VERY protective of—and that seems to hold the root to a very deranged past we see in her mind every now and then. But when she's not snapping with visions of depraved sex and death, Dolores seems quite nice and normal. She's an experienced mortician, and lands a job at the Beech funeral home, partly because she looks just like the deceased daughter of Mr. ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
A warrior of the magical arts gets resurrected in your mild-mannered wife. London Voodoo proves that you can easily keep a good woman down when she's possessed by a nymphomaniac looking for a little lovin'.

The Story:
Lincoln (Doug Cockle), a workaholic, relocates his wife and child to London for his job. The first thing he does is set up his fax machine. His wife Sarah (Sara Stewart) is very good about it—until, during renovation of the basement in their new home, she digs up a voodoo grave, complete with an altar and bodies. Not long after, she begins to clash with Kelly (Vonda Barnes), the new au pair, who has the hots for Lincoln (I don't blame her), starts sporting some major nipple action in her tight tops which really turns on the carpenters, and becomes an animal in the bedroom—and upon Lincoln's rejection of her slutty advances, begins screaming bloo...Read the entire review