Indie Film
Joshua Sowden’s The Book of the Witch features gorgeous cinematography, a fantastic score, and a terrifying-looking witch (Ali Williams), but it’s the psychological horror that emotes from leads Krishna Smitha (as Victoria) and Danny Parker-Lopes (as August) that does the heavy-lifting.
Independent filmmaking is difficult no matter what kind of film that you’re making, but it seems like out of all of the genres, horror is the one that has the most hits made from small budgets. It makes sense since horror taps into our primal, deepest, darkest fears and oftentimes the imagination is scarier than any prop or CGI creation. Masters such as Alfred Hitchcock have shown this to be true.
Japanese animation was making its presence known in North America, the shows and films were rarely subtitled. More often than not, they were butchered by overseas distributors and given truly terrible dubs that are still ridiculed to this day. But that was the 1970s through the 1990s, as nowadays, most anime is given a more proper treatment. Enter Run Tiger Run, directed by Stanley Tsang and Joey Zou and written by six different people, which seems to want to pick up the mantle of poor dubbing. Can the magical-tinged action flick overcome the dub to still be entertaining?
Tiger (Hayley Nelson) was raised by the Four Seas Travelguard Agency, where his parents worked before dying on the job. The 11-year-old spins yarns about the noblest and bravest of the travelguards, Master Yang (Todd Kuhns), and how he vanquished all foes and kept the delivery items in perfect condition. Then, due to several accidents, thanks in part to Tiger’s supernatural running speed, a very wealthy man hires Tiger specifically for a long delivery trip.
The sickest screams available on streaming is the truly astounding indie bloodbath, A Halloween Feast, directed by Guile Branco from the script by Branco and Arthur McClen. Something’s wrong with loving mother and former dancer Angela Long (Lynn Lowry), and the rest of the family is noticing, with maybe the exception of Grandma (Mary O. Bremier), who doesn’t notice much of anything.
Maybe what tipped them off was when Angela found out at the dinner table that her poet husband, Richard (James Griggs), had been smoking reefer against her wishes. So she cuts his index finger off in front of their grown kids Karen (Julia Coulter) and Stuart (Jackson Leighton). Blood sprays all over the food, though Grandma just keeps eating.
A horror film born from South African apartheid? Gabriel Bologna’s feature film White Devils is not what you think it is, but it’s pretty mental nonetheless.
Our tale opens with a couple, Sussie (Chella Ferrow) and Frikkie (Damon Shalit), digging a giant hole at night in front of their dilapidated home on a South African farm. The two wake up in bed relatively late and are about to engage in morning coitus. Their black housekeeper, Alina (Connie Jackson), rushes in and warns the pair of an unknown car approaching.
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