The new book The Gore Compendium is “a personal selection of gore, splatter and zombie-madness” movie reviews limited to 666 hand-numbered copies. I snagged copy #44, from which I’ll share their review of Flesh Freaks:
[...] Conall Pendergast – a young Canadian filmmaker – didn’t had the budget, nor a decent cast, but he did had the guts to create an ambitious movie that stands out of the zero-budget fright flicks. The story is entertaining, the acting is quite good [...] and sure, some of the fx work while others look pretty crappy, but at least this guy dared to work with full sized props instead of using grey-painted folks as cheap looking zombies. [...] The movie was shot on digital video in Canada and some parts at Central America where he filmed some wild animals to use as footage in true Mattei style. Now give this guy a budget, some good equipment, a decent cast, and let him do this one again! [sic]
Thanks, Z & M. The Gore Compendium is a great little read but unfortunately it’s currently available only in Europe. For more info check out the website and the myspace page.
Filed under: Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers, Movies, Reviews | Tags: hp lovecraft film festival, videoscope
The latest issue of Videoscope includes a write-up of the HP Lovecraft Film Festival by Joe Pettit. He said of Torturers:
Having more in common with Franz Kafka by way of Monty Python than Lovecraft, Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers presented a short but potent comedic sketch about a young clerk who notices an embarrassing discrepancy in the number of torturers present during his tour of the dungeon.
There was also a picture (above), so I snagged copy despite the fair degree of embarrassment I felt at buying a magazine with this cover:
Filed under: Kill Them and Eat Them, Movies, Reviews | Tags: ragnarok, tomb of anubis
Ragnarok over at The Tomb of Anubis gave Kill Them and Eat Them a review which I must say is pretty spot-on, in my opinion anyway. Here’s an excerpt:
[...] Funny how one good location, or one good actor (because while Sandy McDonald has only this one movie to his credit, he either does a lot of stage work or just knows what the hell he’s doing), or one talented dude in the FX department, can raise a movie above its station and make a seasoned veteran of crap-watching like me take notice. [...] Not only are the set pieces and the plot light-years ahead of KTaET’s super-independent movie brethren in terms of complexity; this flick gives us not only killer mutant cannibals ripping people’s faces off, it gives us not one, but two killer mutant cannibal vs. killer mutant cannibal slugfests. Granted, the monsters look like the retarded incest babies of the Creeper from Jeepers Creepers and one of the hotdog-mouthed fish beasts from Horror of Party Beach, but that’s still way more monster-on-monster action than the first Alien vs. Predator had, goddammit!
Read the whole review here.
Filed under: Legend of the Seven Bloody Torturers, Movies, Reviews, Screenings | Tags: new york city horror film festival, opening night party, quiet earth
… and calls it “A black comedic piece with some really good acting.” Read the full article here.
Filed under: Comics, Reviews | Tags: broken pencil, prisoner of the clockwork cannibals
Should have posted this awhile ago, but here’s Broken Pencil’s positive review of Prisoner of the Clockwork Cannibals, a short (and small) comic book originally made to publicize a play called The Boat Show (read the whole comic right here).
“On a whole, the tiny, string- bound comic is filled with more action and humour than it has little orange pages. It’d be interesting to see what the next chapter brings, for this zine is certainly worth the treasure hunt.”
I’d never actually planned to write a next chapter, as the comic served as something of a prelude to the play. But seeing as how it ends on a cliffhanger and, unfortunately, the play was only ever performed once, perhaps a follow up is in order.
From Go Metric Winter 2002-2003:
“Homicidal ghouls are just like the rest of us. They put their fuzzy slippers on one at a time. They iron their clothes. They get annoyed when they realize they don’t have enough milk for their breakfast cereal. And they have to clean their murder weapons when the work day’s done. But prior to Satan’s Psycho-Ghoul no one has ever depicted this part of a ghoul’s life.
Satan’s Psycho-Ghoul is a short, dialogue-less movie made by Conall Pendergast and a group of his friends. It’s hysterically funny and a perfect example of what a short comedy should be: set up, punch line, end. Or, to be more precise in this case: set up, gratuitous murder scene, punch line/end.”
- Mike Faloon
Filed under: Kill Them and Eat Them, Reviews, Screenings | Tags: baltimore sun
from The Baltimore Sun, Wednesday October 15, 2003:
“[...] the opening night of the [MicroCineFest] festival closes with Kill Them and Eat Them, Conall Pendergast’s merry little ode to a world of decaying zombie-types and the world of genetic mutation. With deadpan black humour and cheesy special effects – limbs tend to fall of at the slightest provocation – Pendergast has come up with a film that subverts just about everything traditional cinephiles hold dear.
What we have here is the story of science gone spasmodic, as the demented Dr. Gore (his real name is Williams, but Gore is certainly more appropriate) carries out his experiment. Once gainfully employed by an all-powerful company known as The Company, he bailed when his experiment started raising eyebrows, and is now out to gain his mad-scientist degree on his own. Aided by an assistant even madder than he is, Gore is busy transforming homeless people into decaying “skeletoids” who will do whatever he tells them (including grocery shopping).
Gore, however, has the misfortune of falling a little bit for his latest helpless victim, the lovely Kellin, and tries to reverse the process, slowly turning her into a walking mass of decay. Meanwhile, some folks from The Company are closing in.
The acting is calculatedly amateurish (the entire cast seems to have been fed a steady stream of grade-Z horror films) and the dialogue clunkier than a 1960 Dodge. But the film’s also got plenty of wit; when the evil assistant explains his nefarious plans, he hits one of the best reasons for using cannibalistic zombies to do one’s dirty work: “They’ll conveniently eat the evidence of any wrongdoing.”
Gross, sure. But the whole thing’s a hoot, and watching it with a crowd predisposed to liking this sort of thing – and that’s really what MicroCineFest is all about – is an experience not to be missed.”
- Chris Kaltenbach
From Uncut #12, 2002:
“[...] One of those low-budget cheapies that seem to be so popular in the States and the kind of title that you may just pass over no matter how grisly the sleeve is. However, FLESH FREAKS is not an average clinker and is an entertaining exercise in well-executed splatter! For blood-hounds we have skull impalements, scalpel slashings, ripped out organs, scissor stabbings, crowbars, machetes, eyes pushed out, etc., a hefty mix I’m sure you will agree. The zombies themselves are a mixture of makeup and rather cool puppetry which is quite effectively blended but a little too hidden for my eyes by overly dark videography. However, there is a cracking shot zombies staggering down a corridor that is very reminiscent of Fulci’s THE BEYOND and gives new meaning to the term “lights out”! I was also impressed by the closing shots of parasites bursting from zombiefied heads which was very atmospheric. Conall Pendergast not only directs but is also credited as the writer, editor, co-spfx artist and co-producer – a definite talent to watch as they say.”
- Paul J. Brown
From Micro-Film #5, Summer 2002:
“Flesh Freaks, a no-budget Canadian zombie romp, manages to twist genre expectations while ladling on the requisite blood-soaked body count. [...] While this basic concept has been done before, notably in Fred Dekker’s retro shocker NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986), talented director Conall Pendergast and his pals provide their take with just enough zip to make for some refreshing, old-school schlock. Clever use of existing locations, including actual footage from Belize, gives the film a bit more scope than most shot-on-video outings. Moreover, the ever-moving camerawork by G. Gillard Golen, combined with an editing scheme heavy on dramatic digital zoombs and Steve Kado’s creepy, minimalist score, add immensely to the film’s sense of dread. Minor faults do become apparent, such as inconsistent acting and stilted dialogue, while an abundance of travelogue scenery conveniently pads the running ime. As for the freaks themselves … well, realism apparently didn’t figure into the make-up design by Pendergast and Alex Perkins! I’m guessing, however, that the inspiration for their crumbly zombies comes not from the watershed effects of DAWN OF THE DEAD (1979), but the comically stylized pull-over masks used in Mexican monster potboilers like THE BRAINIAC (1961), briefly glimpsed here in a theater scene. They’re still fun creations, to be sure, and so is FLESH FREAKS, an amusing exercise in gusto and grue. Not to Mr. Kado – love the groovy theme music!”
- Jason Pankoke, Micro-Film #5 Summer 2002
Filed under: Miscellany, Reviews | Tags: dark realms, sf reader, tapestry of decay
Daniel E. Blackston, writing in SFReader.com, briefly reviews my story “Tapestry of Decay,” published in the magazine Dark Realms:
This lightning-quick read describes an interlude with a mysterious, world-weary artist, “The Old Man”, who leads the narrator to a privileged view of his “studio” and his magnum opus collage-sculpture. The story typifies the soul of Dark Realms: alienation and aesthetic sensitivity wreathed in black silk and candlelight, a gothic harbor for the lonely and misunderstood. “Tapestry of Decay” is a respectable mood-piece and stands as a primer to Dark Realms’ goth-aesthetic creed. An enjoyable piece.
Visit the Dark Realms website here.
