If you are looking for a scary movie to watch All Hallows’ Eve, may I suggest The Dare? You may, however, want to look away during the inventive torture sequences that Director Giles Alderson and co-writer Jonny Grant have concocted! The Dare succeeds in shocking its audience with grisly, grotesque imagery.
The Dare succeeds in shocking its audience with grisly, grotesque imagery exploiting humanity’s most irrational fears; succeeding in its simplicity to leave you traumatised! Co-writing this blood-soaked horror, screenwriter Jonny Grant breathes new life into the art of splatter – The Dare is definitely not for the squeamish!
Directed and co-written by Giles Alderson, The Dare could easily be dismissed as a copycat of the movies that led to the mid-2000s resurgence of the splatter subgenre; unfortunately labelled “torture porn” by film critics and horror detractors. James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw (2004), and Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005) are both seen as the pinnacle of the subgenre; the first to be labelled “torture porn” due to their emphasis on extreme violence and sadism, and never surpassed by the countless thrillers that followed. But despite a certain familiarity, The Dare breathes new life into the art of splatter.
Clocking in at just over one minute twenty seconds (including credits), The Tattooist is the briefest of short films, but has enough visual flair to grab your attention. The story revolves around the murderous exploits of the titular character. Because the film is so brief and quick, it’s barely enough time to fully comprehend how the narrative flows. What we do witness is the kidnapping of multiple people and them being subjected to horrendous torture, that resembles something straight from the Saw or Hostel movies.
Fright-Rags welcomes the kickoff of autumn with merchandise from two seasonal favorites: a longtime staple with Saw and a new Halloween tradition with Candy Corn.
The Butcher is one of the many, many horror movies that seem to have been inspired directly by the murderous antics of one Mr Edward Gein. For those inexplicably unfamiliar with his work, Mr Gein was a serial murderer who haunted Plainfield, Wisconsin in the late 1940s and early 50s. Though he was from a small town and his “career” lasted barely half a decade, Gein made himself a name in the serial killer community for the – how shall we put it? – joie de travailler with which he went about his work. Almost all of the tropes beloved of the serial killer movie – the suit made of human skin, the mock-crucifixions, the skull crockery – have come from the details of Ed Gein’s trial.
The Film Noir Cinema in Brooklyn, New York is screening two Troma horror films that are guaranteed to shock anyone who watches! On Saturday, February 23rd at 7 PM, Jay Burleson’s The Nobodies will grace the big screen; whilst on Sunday, February 24th at 8:30 PM, the much revered Troma horror classic Bloodsucking Freaks makes its big, bloody comeback!
Star of David: Beautiful Girl Hunter is considered one of the best films in the Japanese sub-genre of roman-pinku films. The term roughly translates to romantic-sexploitation, as opposed to the pinku eiga films which focused on sex frequently combined with violence.
The film was made by one of the bigger studios in Japan, and it shows in the production values and acting. However, the term “romantic” is used in a far different manner than Western audiences will recognize.
Fright-Rags will help you maintain that Halloween spirit throughout the year with treats from John Carpenter’s Halloween, Michael and Peter Spierig’s Jigsaw and General Mills’ monster cereals.
Olaf Ittenbach is a German auteur who is a combination of Tom Savini and Takashi Miike. Originally a dental technician, Ittenbach then became a top notch SFX artist, his most notable credit being for BloodRayne by Uwe Boll.
Along with Boll, he is part of the German new wave bringing media attention to their underground films specializing in rape, necrophilia and extreme violence. Ittenbach’s films focus on pain, body destruction and gore, preferably as much that can be jammed into a two hour film.
Battle Royale (2000): Enforcing the terms of the new ‘Battle Royale Act’ one class of ninth-grade students is selected annually by lottery and relocated to an isolated island, fitted with explosive collars, given random weapons and forced to participate in a 3-day survival competition in which the last student left alive is the winner.
When a new era of Asian horror films entered mainstream Western cinema with Hideo Nakata’s ‘The Ring’, Asian horror movies were soon perceived to be chasing Hollywood’s more hackneyed horror efforts into the shadows.
