Author: Ben Gummery

The Chair (Kickstarter) ‘More Than Your Average Horror Thriller’

THE CHAIR is a new horror/thriller based on the successful comic book mini-series & graphic novel: adapted for screen by Erin Kohut. The film is directed by Chad Ferrin and stars Bill Oberst Jr., Timothy Muskatell, Noah Hathaway, Zach Galligan, Naomi Grossman, Roddy Piper, Ezra Buzzington, Derrick Damions, and Kyle Hester.

The story revolves around Richard Sullivan (Timothy Muskatell); an innocent man that is sentenced to die. But in this prison, there are fates worse than death as the Warden (Bill Oberst Jr.) and his guards have become thoroughly corrupted with their absolute power.

“THE CHAIR is, at first glance, your average prison horror/thriller. But just beneath the dark and gritty surface, there’s a story – and a film – about the struggle to survive, the abuse of power, and the isolation and despair that all human beings face in their final hour.”

My first impressions from the trailer – ‘this is like an R-rated version of Green Mile…a modern day Marat/Sade with the comic book sensibilities of Frank Millers ‘Sin City’

“There are no demons or zombies here – the only monster on death row is man“.

THE CHAIR is currently on Kickstarter raising funds for post-production https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petersimeti/the-chair-post-production-on-our-comic-book-horror

For more information on the graphic novel and film, please visit http://thechairhorror.com

Risks and challengesWe have editors, sound designers/editors, color correctors, and composers on stand-by waiting for us to fill our budget so we can get started. So there’s no risk in us not having that talent ready to create a great film.

The only risk we face, is time – of course. Barring any unforeseen emergencies or catastrophes, we should be able to have a completed film ready to be sent out by Christmas. Now – the only way we’ll have to delay this, is if the distributor that picks up the film decides to fulfill these orders instead. But that is unlikely and if it does happen, our backers (that’s you!) will be the first to know!

16th May 2015
Unfriended Review

Written by Lewis Mainwaring & Benjamin Gummery.

Unfriended (originally released in 2014 as Cyber-natural at the Fantasia Festival) is a ‘found footage’ supernatural horror film directed by Levan Gabriadze, written by Nelson Greaves, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Jason Blum, and Greaves. The film is a joint venture between Universal & Blumhouse Productions; although shot independently.

This film features an ensemble cast of young actors including Heather Sossaman, Matthew Bohrer and Courtney Halverson.

A updated variation on the found footage genre, the film is set in real-time and almost entirely viewed on a character’s computer screen. Finally getting its theatrical release this film sees a group of friends having an online video-chat session (via Skype) which then becomes targeted by an anonymous hacker.

The Facebook page and other social networks of a schoolmate who took their own life a year ago to the day seems to have been hacked posting messages that gradually implicate each of the group in a series of interpersonal deceptions and guilty online revelations. As the anonymous hacker demands that they “play a game” (throwback to Saw’s maniacal Jigsaw), the film starts to take a darker turn.

This film plot revolves around the one year anniversary of Laura Barns suicide. This plot aspect is a throwback to other horror movies which focus on the anniversary of a crime/terrible event – such as Halloween, Prom Night, Friday the 13th, Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. These films and many others like them see either the killer, the persecuted or a vigilante going on a murder spree avenging a wrong and punishing the unpunished.

This film can be seen as this generations Blair Witch Project but instead of a hand-held camera documenting the ‘ghost’ we have Skype, and the film makers even included buffering, freezing and the ever familiar spinning pinwheel. With a budget of $1 Million the film has already grossed over $27.5 Million.

In keeping with it’s cyber credentials the film’s soundtrack is only songs that are showing playing on the computer and the video used is made to look like web-cams and mobile phones. There is some traditional horror scoring as well though.

Ben
The realism of websites used such as Facebook and Skype places this film solidly in the real world and is something that younger generations will relate to however the concept of a film shot almost entirely within the realm of a computer screen is very new and will not be for everybody. It’s also hard to re-create the same type of tension as other horror films; much like a badly shot found footage film; we don’t see enough to truly horrify us. The film uses a very similar gimmick to Panic Button. 2.5/5

Lewis
This film is a very unique of the found footage genre; however due to the computer screen aspect of the film I personally couldn’t connect with the characters. I feel that this due lack of character development in the script not the performance. I would still recommend people to see it and I do believe that this film will eventually become a cult favourite like the Blair Witch project. 3/5

3rd May 2015
Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015) Review

Reviewed by Lewis Mainwaring & Benjamin Gummery

Avengers: Age of Ultron is the 11th installment in the Marvel Cinematic universe; following 2014’s hit Guardians of the Galaxy and is the follow-up to 2012’s The Avengers.

This film is written & directed by Joss Whedon (The Avengers) and stars Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Aaron Tyler-Johnson as Quicksilver, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and James Spader as Ultron.

This time the story sees the Avengers post-shield helmed by Tony Stark as they battle with Hydra (a nice tie-in to the story lines in Captain America and Agent’s of Shield). Things go awry when Stark and Bruce Banner (The Hulk) begin to experiment with artificial intelligence and an infinity stone (a tie-in to Guardians of the Galaxy which is hinted at numerous times including the mid credit scene). It is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.

This is more of a retrospective compared to the first film which took more time in introducing the main characters. Extra attention has been given in this film to those characters that have not benefited from stand-alone outings. Hawkeye is given more of a back story and we get to see some of his life outside the Avengers. This shows the completion of Whedon’s character development arc; an area in which he is extremely skilled.

The relationship between Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff is also explored further in this film. The sibling duo of Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch make their first full appearance (in Marvel Comics these characters are the children of X-Men villain Magneto but this is ignored in the franchise). James Spader gives a restrained performance as Ultron; seeming more anti-hero than villain and we also get a stunning reveal of Paul Bettany as The Vision.

The action and fight sequences here live up to those of the first film; albeit trading the cityscapes for a more rural location however this is made just as dramatic in a completely different and unexpected way. As with the previous films the 3D effect is not utilised fully and doesn’t add much to the film. There is a stirring cinematic score from Danny Elfman.

Whedon has announced this is the last film from the Marvel Cinematic universe he will be directly involved with.

Our final thoughts

Ben-
What I loved was the call-backs to films from through-out the Avengers cinematic universe. This was achieved through nods to the smaller characters in these films such as Heimdall from Thor, Falcon from Iron Man & Peggy Carter from Captain America. Maybe not as effective as the first but it has done a lot to bring some unity to the marvel cinematic universe. 4/5

Lewis-
Age of Ultron I personally preferred compared to the avengers however with the news of Whedon’s departure from behind the scenes it makes me wary that future installments will cast aside strong charecter development for more ‘crash bang wallop’. Being a fan of Whedon’s for many years going back to his Buffy days I feel he has brought a fresh approach to the marvel cinematic universe that will be greatly missed. Stan Lee’s cameo in this film is by far one of the greatest out of all the marvel movies. 4/5

23rd April 2015
Kevin Smith To Shoot Mallrats 2 Before Clerks III

There have been a lot of casting announcements recently following the news that Kevin Smith would be making a sequel to his second film; Mallrats 2.

We were also told that production had been brought forward to 2015, after filming on his other major project Clerks III.

However, Smith announced today that Mallrats 2 has been pushed forward to shoot before Clerks III due to the availability of a disused mall location he wants for the film which is soon to be demolished.

Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob. Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in Smith’s follow-up films Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which were set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films frequently featured crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon described by fans as the “View Askewniverse“, named after his production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.

Smith also directed and produced films such as the buddy cop action comedy Cop Out (2010), the horror film Red State (2011), and the horror comedy Tusk (2014), the first film in the True North trilogy.

Smith is the owner of Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey that is the subject of the reality-television show Comic Book Men. He also hosts the movie-review television show Spoilers. As a podcaster, Smith co-hosts several shows on his own SModcast Podcast Network, including SModcast, Fatman on Batman, and the live show Hollywood Babble-On. Smith is well known for participating in long, humorous Q&A sessions that are often filmed for DVDrelease, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Smith.

6th April 2015
‘Shooting Clerks’ (Kevin Smith Biopic) Teaser Released!

Scottish production company Auld Reekie Media has released the first teaser trailer for their much anticipated biopic of writer/director Kevin Smith titled ‘Shooting Clerks‘. The film will focus on the production of his 1994 debut hit film Clerks as well as looking into the events that preceded and followed it.

Director Christopher Downie and Producer Brett Murray have previously worked on several Kevin Smith themed projects; most notably the short ‘Get GREEDO!‘ which was posted on Smith’s own ‘Smodco Internet Television‘ YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCYSK0R-Sxw

The cast features actors portraying Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes & many other actors/others involved with the making of Clerks but interestingly also includes cameo and small-role appearances from many original Clerks cast members including Brian O’Hallaran, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Scott Schiaffo, Ernie O’Donnell and many others associated with Smith. Smith himself is expected to narrate the film.

Production was split between UK & US with principal photography taking place in Scotland while key locations were filmed by a 2nd Unit in and around New Jersey, USA. Funding for for film came from several crowd-funding campaigns as well as individual investors.

Please follow the film-makers Facebook & Twitter for updates on the release of this film.

This release is well timed following the release of Smith’s horror/thriller Tusk, the announcement that the second sequel to Clerks, Clerks III will shoot this year and also amidst the news that Smith is putting together a sequel to his 1995 follow-up film Mallrats.

27th March 2015