“The Purge” gives us a little insight into what might happen when that day comes.

The year is 2022 and under the guidance of the “New Founding Fathers,” America has undergone a dramatic change with the institution of “the Purge” – a 12 hour period where all laws and emergency services are suspended. Want to murder someone: no problem. Want to burn down a house: No problem. Using a Class 4 weapon: that could be a problem but it’s OK because we never know what a Class 4 weapon is.

After a brief montage of found footage violence (courtesy of the Purge Cam), we meet James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) home security salesman extraordinaire. Having secured the spot of number one salesman, he heads home to do his patriotic duty to hide in his reinforced home with his family while society tears itself apart around him for the next twelve hours. In the home are his wife (Lena Headey), the precocious young son (Max Burkholder) and the rebellious teenaged daughter (Adelaide Kane). Before the sirens starting the Purge sound, the son questions the need for the Purge and the daughter is illicitly making out with her older boyfriend that dad disapproves of. And thus, with the red flags raised, the Purge begins.

“The Purge” is nothing new or special. For the most part, it’s your by the number home invasion thriller. If anything sets it apart, it’s how relevant the topic is. These days, there seems to be an underlying current, a not so subliminal desire to punish those who violate whatever we think is right or appropriate or “the norm.” Social media had given us an almost immediate ability to punish through tweet or meme or status update. It’s not too far of a stretch that imagine that this virtual punishment could – within the next ten year – might lead to actual physical punishment. If nothing else, “The Purge” presents us with this interesting mental exercise – perhaps the only interesting thing about the movie.

Written and directed by James DeMonaco, it’s cliched and predictable, visually and plotwise. A remotely half-alert viewer should be able to piece together the movie within moments of each element that is introduced. Fortunately, the cast does a good job with their parts in this morality play and whoever cast Rhys Wakefield as the lead villain with his leering “the Joker without the makeup” looks deserves a cookie or a raise or both. He helps keep this movie just on the right side of the forgetability index.

“The Purge” introduces a complex, thought-provoking topic and wraps it in cliche and banality. It’s not a crime to make movies like this but who knows – maybe one day.

Eddie Murphy? Cillian Murphy? Murphy Brown? I’m not sure who it belongs to, but I know it’s a law that basically says anything that can go wrong, will. Truer words have never been spoken when it comes to filmmaking. I have never heard of a single film going the way it was planned, or a production that did not have a whole host of problems. Here we are, two weeks into production on Sacrament. Why should we be any different?

Day one is always stressful. You are trying to get into the right headspace, trying to get all of the cast and crew on the same page, and the paperwork…dear lord, the paperwork. No matter how much paperwork you took care of ahead of time, there is always more. Thankfully, we have some wonderful folks to help take care of that on set which leaves me free to unleash the full power of my control-freakish inner demons.

After we decided on where and how to best shoot a couple of scenes and what lighting would be best, we finally got down to the fun part – shooting the film. The first shots went off great, and everyone got to relax enough to get into their respective grooves. The cast really shined as we let them do their thing. After a few scenes were shot, we ran into our first medium-sized problem. More to the point, it ran into the script supervisor’s car.

To keep things consistent, and cut down on some costs, we decided to use my truck in the film for one of the characters. After showing one of the actors where I wanted the car to be, I handed them the keys and I walked back inside to help set up the shot. After a couple of minutes, I started hearing a commotion, and people were going outside. Wondering what’s going on,  I go outside, and I see my truck has backed up, but not moved in the forward direction. Apparently, my truck had been backed into the bumper of our script supervisor, leaving a dent big enough for two fists and then some. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Everyone was very cool about the whole thing, and the police were there pretty much immediately. Wait, did I mention our first shoot was at a police station?

The rest of that weekend went off, pretty much without a hitch. A few delays thanks to Mother Nature, but no more accidents. After a long day of shooting, we finally headed home for some well-earned rest. Of course, I was so amped by day one excitement, I couldn’t sleep. I was, and am, so proud of our cast and crew. They did a wonderful job, and I could not ask for a better group of people to work with.

Week two brought us a very different kind of problem. We worked for months on pre-production of the film, and had everything lined up right where we needed it. Literally two days before we were going to start shooting week two, I got an email from the owner of one of our locations telling me there was a problem. No big deal, I am a pretty smart guy (I think) and we can find a solution to the problem.

Apparently, a false alarm had gone off at the property, prompting the fire department to come out. It happens, but obviously it’s a waste of the fire department’s time. When they came out, however, they found problems with the property. Again, it happens, but it should not have really affected us. That is, until someone opened their mouth to an already angry fire marshal about a movie being shot on the location. After about 50 emails between the owner, the city, me and our location scouts it was really not looking good. We were going to have to find another location. Adding to this the damage tornadoes had done to the town, we had to hustle like mad to find another location.

It turns out that finding empty hospitals that will allow you to film is not an easy task. There are many, MANY empty hospitals in Dallas/Fort Worth, but trying to find the owner, and then trying to convince them to turn the electricity on for two days was tuning out to be a much harder prospect than we thought. Thankfully, one of our scouts knew someone that had a location that was not too far off from what we were looking for. Basing our decision on a few photos, and a desperate need of a location, we rescheduled everyone for the new joint.

As it turned out, the problems with the previous location could not have been more of a blessing. The new location ended up being better than I could have hoped. Not only was the location almost perfect for the scenes, the person running it was incredible. We had to start a little later than we wanted to, and we ran later than we had planned, but everyone pitched in and we got it done.

So here I sit, waiting for week three to get started. This will be our first week with our group of lead actors. Last minute problems be damned, this weekend will be amazing. We have a great crew working with us, and I could not be more proud of the work everyone is doing. When people come in and give it 150%, you cannot help but push yourself to the limits for them too.

In a nutshell, that’s “Aftershock”.

Produced by and starring Eli Roth, directed by Nicolás López and loosely based on the 8.8 magnitude quake that hit Chile in 2010, The first half hour of the movies plays like a small brochure for how awesome Chile is as we follow Gringo (Roth), the awkward American, Ariel (Ariel Levy), the love-lorn guide and Pollo (Nicolás Martínez), the spoiled rich local boy as they party and adventure in 80’s montage style. After watching Gringo flame out with women, Ariel wallow and Pollo be kind of douchey, they finally meet their opposite numbers in Irina (Natasha Yarovenko), Monica (Andrea Osvárt) and Kylie (Lorenza Izzo). After a day of partying together, they head to a “real” Chilean nightclub. However, instead of a night full of fun and frolic, the city is slammed by a massive earthquake and the battle for survival is joined.

“Aftershock” is an assault on the senses – and not in any positive sense of the word – from it’s seizure inducing opening and accompanying dance music soundtrack to its trailer spoiled ending. López and Roth (co-writers in this little affair) give us nothing new in the way of story or storytelling. Just like any recent Hollywood horror movie, we get a world populated with cardboard cutouts – caricatures at best – wobbling from disaster to disaster. One would think that with what seemed like an extended set up, we would have better realized characters. Instead, we get the more of the same old same old. Almost needless to say, the problems were script deep.

If I had to classify this film, I’d say it was a mashup between a Univision novella and one of Roth’s “Hostel” films – sans the commercial breaks. López, the majority writer, wraps the movie’s mayhem in a curious layer of television melodrama. Compounding that, there’s seemed to be a distinct “Murphy’s Law” sensibility to the plot that feels downright sadistic. The characters get out of one bad jam and stumble into something that’s even worse. Even when you think there can’t possibly be anywhere else for it to go, they find another level lower. It’s relentless.

Performance-wise, the cast does a good job with no real standouts one way or the other. As a horror movie, it’s not particularly scary and, while there’s some blood, it’s not particularly gory. And as a disaster movie – well, it’s a disaster.

“Aftershock” is another film that falls into that“ Saturday night SyFy movie that’s masquerading as a theatrical film” category. It’s not bad; it’s not good but it’s also probably not worth your ten dollars.

You can donate to his project at their IndieGoGo page: http://www.indiegogo.com/sacramentthefilm

I know I am not alone, but very few things stress me out more than money. When we started putting Sacrament together a couple of years ago, we had some pretty lofty goals. When you start adding up every little detail of a film, one thought just won’t go away – “Holy shit. I don’t know how we are ever going to afford all this.”

“You get what you pay for” ran through my head the entire time we were working on our budget. Can we get this person? How much can we afford to spend? Where – dear Lord, where – is all this money going to come from? It had been beaten into my head that if you were not paying people, you might as well not bother shooting the film because you would get nothing but dregs. People that work for nothing aren’t really professionals, and if you aren’t paying, neither are you. I wanted more than anything to be able to pay everyone as much as possible.

Of course you want to pay everyone that works on your film. They are showing up to set every day, doing their jobs to the best of their ability, and trying to make sure the film is something they can be proud to have their name on too. Trying to figure out how we could make sure we took care of everyone left me with a knot of nerves in my stomach. Everything just costs so damned much.

We started several crowd-funding campaigns, but after each great start the returns quickly fizzled. Maybe we were setting our goals too high? Maybe people really don’t want to see this film? You can really start to doubt yourself when you see campaigns that seem so silly rolling in cash. The thing I had to remind myself was that these were the exception, not the rule.

Most crowd-funding campaigns go nowhere. They will usually reach the family and friend believers, but rarely do they reach a mass audience. Still, we offered some perks that we thought would be fun. Everything from exclusive t-shirts to dinner with the cast and crew was on offer. I don’t know that the campaign sites are at fault, though they definitely do get their pound of flesh at the end. I think a lot of times it is simply a lack of exposure and a general uneasiness with the general public to put money into something that isn’t a sure thing.

Regardless, we kept at it. It took some expectation-lowering, and a lot of online panhandling, but we eventually came to a budget we could all live with. This was in no small thanks to a few credit cards, and an investor willing to take a risk on our film. Thankfully, they truly believe in what we are doing, and understand why we are working so hard to make this happen. We also employed the crafty side of our team. Sacrament-themed aprons, cutting boards, t-shirts, bottle openers, and wristbands – all ready to snag the attention of anyone we can get them in front of.

Gratefully, we have a cast and crew willing to take risks too. Being able to offer points on the back end of the film (editor’s note: this refers to the practice of giving a percentage of money from the film’s gross income) has been our saving grace. We have been able to land so many talented actors and crew that are working with us, and understand what we are trying to do, it makes me a little misty.

I don’t think you can judge the professionalism of a production, or of an actor/crew for that matter, strictly on the money question. It’s a big one, but not the only one. Should you be fully prepared to put the money on the table? Absolutely. Should you be prepared to lose people to other projects if you can’t? Of course. But there is something to be said for having people working with you towards something you all believe in. Those people understand that you are doing everything in your power to make sure they are taken care of before you are, and come together to be a part of something bigger.

However, once in a blue moon someone comes along and finds a way to breathe life into old tropes and we get something pretty fun. That was the case back in 2006 with director Adam Green’s “Hatchet”. Easily one of the best slashers in recent memory, he managed to take everything old and make it feel new again. He followed it up in 2010 with “Hatchet II”, a less focused effort that seemed more concerned with their stand on film distribution than actually improving on the good work they did in the first film.

And now we have a teaser for “Hatchet III. Danielle Harris (who took over the heroine’s role from Tamara Feldman) returns as Marybeth as another doomed group heads into the haunted swamp of Victor Crowley. Not much to go by in this one – though there is some nice cinematography – but one interesting bit in the teaser is that we may see a faceoff between Kane Hodder (Jason in many of the classic “Friday the 13th” movies) and Derek Mears (Jason in the “Friday the 13th” remake).

“Hatchet III” is due in theaters June 14.

Just like, “The Last Exorcism: Part 2”

“Part 2” refreshes us with a montage of the events of the first film. When we return to the present, we find Nell (once again played by Ashley Bell) has broken into a home following her trauma and then is turned over to the authorities. They clean her up and ship her off to a halfway house full of other girls… if you call four a full house. She quickly makes progress and things are looking up for her: she has friends, the cute guy at work is making goo-goo eyes at her and masked figures are stalking her during Mardi Gras precipitating the return of the demon, Abalam – wasn’t that a Genesis album?

Written and directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly (with some writing and story help from Damien Chazelle) and produced by Eli Roth (who also brought us the first one), “Part 2” is a sham and a charade. Everything that made the first story so fresh and so potent – most notably the attention they paid to developing characters – has been taken out and replaced it with generic horror tropes. Without that strong foundation, they could have easily renamed the characters, slapped a different name on this and it would still be the same movie. Nothing about it made this a uniquely “Last Exorcism” movie. Sure you had Ashley Bell reprise her role, but here, Nell is just another girl who’s run afoul of the forces of darkness. She’s generic and by extension, the whole movie is generic. You could almost say it was like being given baby food: I didn’t get a movie, I got formula.

So, what positives were there? The good news for the studio is that they made this movie for a song and they made their budget back in the first weekend. Aside from that, horror fans should feel insulted to be constantly being served up this ignorant, derivative fare. It’s doesn’t even fall into the beloved “so bad, it’s good” category. It’s just bad.

“The Last Exorcism: Part 2” feels like an impostor posing as a much better film. Disguised by the name of the much better first movie, it reveals itself to be a shallow, disjointed and depressingly ordinary film. Stick with the original.

For those not familiar with the story, in Fall of 1974, Ronald Defeo murdered his family while they slept. Circumstances – which I won’t recount here – were curious and, to this day, is still debated. Not long after, the house was sold to the George and Kathy Lutz who moved into the murder house on Ocean Avenue with their three kids. They fled the house twenty-eight days later claiming they were terrorized by supernatural and demonic activity.

The first documentary by writer/director Eric Walter, “My Amityville Horror” takes a look at the life of Daniel Lutz. The oldest son of the Lutzes, he was only ten when he lived at the Amityville house and the events very obviously have colored his development. Walter presents us with Lutz now, a forty-seven year old man with survivor eyes as he discusses his life now and life after leaving Amityville. He also assembles together a collection of news people, doctors and psychics to look back on the experience. Admittedly, it would be very easy to present Lutz’ experiences heavily slanted one way – total belief – or the other – absolute skepticism. Walter doesn’t so much take the middle path between them as he dives into either side and allows the audience to make it’s own decision. But regardless of which way he travels, Lutz is our guide. His pained, earnest deliver truly drives this movie. Without him, the movie would simply be another rehashing of old facts.

“My Amityville Horror” shines a new light on one of the most famous hauntings and give you a fresh look through the haunted eyes of a survivor.

You can donate to his project at their IndieGoGo page: http://www.indiegogo.com/sacramentthefilm

It’s a special kind of person that takes pleasure in entertaining people. Whether they be an actor, comedian, singer – what have you. I have done it a few times, and realized very quickly that there is a reason I prefer being behind the camera. Because of that, I have nothing but respect for those that are able to put themselves out there for the world to see. Maybe they are playing the fool, maybe the lover – whatever it is, they have enough self-confidence to get out there and bring it.

We recently finished the casting for our new film, Sacrament, and had an overwhelming response to our casting calls. It is incredibly exciting as a filmmaker to have people take an interest in your project. After all the scheduling, endless emails, and going through headshot after headshot – we had more people respond than we could ever possibly see.

That being the case, we had to be as selective as we could to bring in the people we thought were going to fit the roles in our film. This brings me to the first note for the actor going out for an audition.

1. Have a current headshot.

In terms of budget, our film is fairly small, and the number of people that submitted for our auditions with no picture was staggering. I cannot imagine going through this process on a big budget film, and having people submit without even a picture from their phone. Good or bad, casting for a film is like any other job. You have to grab the attention of the person doing the hiring as quickly as possible.

The fastest way for you to do that, is to have a picture for them to attach to your resume/email. On the first fifty or so emails with no picture, I emailed the person back to get a headshot. Some responded, some did not. After that, I stopped even bothering to look.

2. Don’t be Lazy

This goes hand-in-hand with number one. If you were going out for any other job, laziness will get you nowhere. It doesn’t help you in the film industry either. Come prepared to the audition. From the submissions that we received, the people that asked for sides, asked about the role, showed some serious interest – they are the people that we made sure were on the top of our list in scheduling.

I understand that a lot of people get hooked up with websites that blast filmmakers every time they post a casting call. Those sites have their place, and I am sure some people do find gigs that way. When I receive an email that is obviously not from a real person, or is a submission that makes no sense for the role, I move on. If you cannot be bothered to take the time to read the call to see if you’re a fit, why should I bother to take a look at what you might be able to bring to the table?

3. Make a Good Impression

This does not start at the audition, but rather in your initial communications. If you really want the role, make sure that you respond to emails, phone calls, etc. Do not just sit back and wait for the audition. I will bend over backwards to bring in an actor that has made a really good impression on me.

When it comes to the audition, be on time. Scheduling auditions is a bit like herding cats. Everyone has things to do, but if you get the audition and are on the schedule, being late screws things up for everyone – including you. If it is at all possible, be a little early. If for some reason the person scheduled before you finishes early, it gives the filmmaker a little bit of extra time that they can spend on your audition without feeling rushed.

4. Be Prepared

Being prepared – it’s not just for Boy Scouts anymore. When you arrive at the audition (on time or a little early), be ready. If you have received sides for the role, know them backwards and forwards. I know that seems like a lot to ask, but it shows the filmmaker that you are really interested in the role. It also gives them a little glimpse of what you will be like to work with on set.

Let the filmmaker know that they are dealing with someone that cares about their craft. You can act. Give them a chance to see it without the tarnish of fumbling through lines, or literally reading everything from the pages in front of you. If you are prepared, it shows them that you have a good work ethic.

5. Be Honest

Finally, be honest with the filmmaker, and yourself. Every person will not be a fit for every role. It’s just a fact. If you are fifty years old, you are not going to be picked to play the role of the twenty-something leading man. Conversely, if you are nineteen years old, going out for the role of a thirty-something father of two is not going to end well either.

At the audition, if you have questions, ask. Be honest if you are not sure about the motivation in a scene. If nothing else, it lets them know that you have thought about the role, and are genuinely interested in the film. If you have reservations about a scene, make sure that is voiced early. Telling the director on set that you don’t really know muay thai right before the big fight scene can set the film back considerably, and lose you the role. More than anything, be honest about your availability. If you have a vacation planned, or another project you are working on, make sure you tell them as soon as possible.

In the end, make sure you have done everything in your control to get the role. You still may not get it, but at least you can be assured that you did your part to the best of your abilities. If you do not get the role, try not to take it personally. Sometimes, it just comes down to a matter of one actor being a better fit with the other actors.

Thankfully, we landed a truly great cast for our film. It was a long process, and we saw a lot of really amazing people. I wish we could have brought in everyone that auditioned to be part of the film. In the end, we definitely got the right people for the job.

Provided they do it right.
Oh, and provided it gets released.

Well, I just found this little nugget from Dread Central (and I take back every mean and nasty thing I ever said about them temporarily) dated February 8 2013 stating that Shout! Factory has picked up North American distribution rights for it. There’s not a release date for it yet, but getting distro is just the first step.
What’s it about? Here’s the official synopsis.

DEAD SHADOWS, Cholewa’s first feature film, tells the terrifying story about a young man, Chris, whose parents were brutally killed 11 years ago on the same day that Halley’s comet could be seen from earth. Tonight a new comet is going to appear, and everyone in his building is getting ready for a party to celebrate the event. There’s even an apocalypse theory going around. As night falls, Chris starts to discover that people are acting strange – and it seems to somehow be connected to the comet. People are becoming disoriented and violent, and it doesn’t take long before they start mutating into something from beyond this world. In a fight for survival, Chris has to try to escape from his building with the help from some other tenants – but will they make it out alive?

DEAD SHADOWS – Official Trailer from CESAR DUCASSE on Vimeo.

All work, and no pay? Where do I sign up?

As a kid growing up in the 80′s, the idea of being part of making movies was always a dream of mine. The idea that it might ever happen though, seemed as impossible as walking on the moon. Sure, other people did it, but they had years of training, knew the right people, had tons of cash, and obviously had a special something that I did not have.

I have always loved telling stories, but for a long time I was just too afraid to let people read the things I wrote. Would they like it? Would they think I was a freak? Would they laugh at me? At some point the “nothing ventured, nothing gained” sentiment finally clicked off in my brain. After meeting the amazing Clive Barker, and some incredibly inspiring words from the up-and-coming Adam Green, I decided to finish my first script and made my first film.

Making an independent film, on no budget, is an incredibly humbling experience. Surrounding yourself with friends and like-minded people definitely makes the process easier, but trying to bring your vision to the screen can be a daunting process. With that in mind, we decided it was time to finally put together our first feature film.

Writing the script was the easiest part. All of my scripts come from nightmares that wake me up in the middle of the night. I learned a long time ago that a pen and paper or voice recorder are necessities on my nightstand. The idea that turned into the script for “Sacrament”, our new film, woke me up in a cold sweat.

Based on that nightmare, I put together a script about a group of friends heading down to the Texas coast for some relaxation. Of course, the story has to have its share of sex, drugs, and rock & roll, but I loathe a film with no punch. When I see a film that has no story, it just leaves me asking “why?” Why did the filmmaker bother to make a film with nothing to say? Why did anyone put up any money to back the film? Why, dear lord, why did people pay hard-earned money to see it?

With “Sacrament”, I have tried to bring pieces of myself to the table. I want this film to have some meaning, and I don’t think that can happen if the filmmaker doesn’t really care about the story. My family is fairly religious, and I grew up going to church (almost) every week. It has always struck me how horrific the body and blood could sound to an outsider and I decided a film that took that feeling to the extreme would be something fun to see.

In the film, we follow the friends on their trip through Texas as they land in the middle of the rhinestone buckle of the Bible belt. In the town of Middle Spring, religion is king. The town takes the body and the blood quite literally. It had me thinking “how would things go down in a town full of cannibals that believed what they were doing was ordained by the church?” As the story progressed, I could feel it taking a turn. I started taking notes from the religious culture clash that seems to rear its head constantly in the news, and eventually they came to play a pretty heavy role in what I wanted the film to be.

Ultimately, I don’t want to just make throwaway films. I want my films to have something to say. I want to make people think, but I also want them to have fun. I’m a horror fan through and through, and I love my blood and guts. Hopefully, we have combined all of that into this story, and we are making something we can be proud of.