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I just saw the online virtual screening of Roommate Wanted (2020) at the Crimson Screen Horror Film Festival. This is an absolute must see.
A group of college students sublet a room in their rental house to "Dean", a man who on the surface appears to be the Richie Cunningham type, but who hides multiple dangerous alter-egos. It is in a similar vein to Single White Female, but in a less psychological thriller and more full throttle slasher kind of way.
If you get a chance to see it May 21 through 23, do so. If not, then look for it at other film festivals and add it to your horror film Blu Ray wish list.
I just saw Naughty (2019) as a virtual screening during the Crimson Screen Horror Film Festival. If you get a chance the weekend of May 21 to 23, 2021, see it as part of the WTF Shorts program. This film is delightfully disturbing in all the right ways.
A young girl walks in on a small time burglar dressed as Santa Claus to find him stealing presents. He plays it off as taking back defective presents to replace them, but things turn dark when she expresses concern that she might be on the naughty list.
If you miss it this weekend, look for it at future film festivals.
Maybe it's "beginner's luck" or maybe I hit on something good, but the screenplay I wrote for a short film, Zombiemaker has been selected as a Top 10 Finalist by the Crimson Screen Horror Film Festival in N. Charleston, SC. This is the first screenplay I have submitted and the first festival to announce its selections. I am truly honored.
Zombiemaker is a throwback to the 1930's and 1940's classic zombie films, but with modern fears. Let's face it, more people are scared of Islam than Voodoo these days. (Just to be clear, I'm not scared of either religion.) Zombiemaker replaces Voodoo as a source of fear with the fear many parents have of their teens engaging in dangerous activities and getting in trouble and the fear of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There are, of course, other fears that were part of the classic genre, such as the fear of death, fear of losing one's mind, and fear of being enslaved. The film's tag line: This is your great grandfather's zombie film — minus the racism.
I just backed Isolation on Kickstarter. It is a narrative short by Isabelle Pope about a woman, who along with her entire town, is kept in isolation for a year after a catastrophic event. When the town is released, she notices that people seem to not be themselves.
As we approach the one year mark of New York State residents being under damn near house arrest from the COVID-19 global pandemic, I have to wonder how anybody could possibly be their same selves their friends and family remember. I haven't had a vacation in over 16 months. It will be a full 17 months by the time the Kickstarter campaign is done. But, seriously, I had a hotel room booked for months for a couple nights, scheduled for just after the real world lock down began. Since then, I've only left the house for an hour a week to do my grocery shopping and the most recent estimate I've read (Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, Feb 5, 2021) is another 11 months for the US to reach, "herd immunity." I already know I'm not the same person I was before.