Everyone is a Piranha.
Myself, your neighbour, that guy that pulls up beside you, then pulls his car forward an inch more, only to take a glance over, cause a brief stare down, then continues with this lame exit as his tires squeal. Man that pisses you off.
It’s not a right turn on a RED for you; you’re still stuck at GREEN. Your knuckles turn white as you grasp the steering wheel, wanting to drive aggressively forward; you press the gas pedal down, for a moment you feel a release, a small amount of tension surges through your leg, then foot. Your heart relaxes, your cheeks sage, your eyes drift but you’re using peripheral vision to spot a colour change. Suddenly, GREEN. You’re the first to hit the gas, as if it proves your ability to be an astute driver.
I bet all the other drivers right now are thinking the same thing as you. You’re insane, now go home and listen to Yanni.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Offend the audiences? Not on my watch.
Offend the audiences? Not on my watch.
For those filmmakers who only care about making money off a movie, the marketability and increasing revenue for their film “product”...HATE to break it to you, you aren’t filmmakers nor businessmen. If you’re businessmen, you’re in the wrong business; you chaps will get extremely disappointed with the results. You’ll have better luck making money by opening your pawn shop, cause in this industry you can get away with a lot of crap if it looks like it`s all you know how to do.
Hollywood is okay, if all you care about is fame, money, parties and regurgitated stories coming out of the meat grinder. (Sorry my Hollywood and L.A friends, I’m tired of acting something I am not). Perhaps you need a swift kick to the side of the head that’ll shift your brain out of the automated bullshit entitled “How can I make a movie that will sell”. Why don’t you stop buying Twinkies and begin teaching workshops on “contradictory filmmaking methods to impress strung out suits”, cause that’s exactly what you are, an over-drafted steaming pile of used film celluloid wearing a suit.
You go on and tell me your film is genre, genre my ass! You use that word again to describe the film and I’ll tear your asshole a new name. I call bullshit on everything your itching money trigger finger has to say about filmmaking. You respond “ya, but I have a yacht” and I’ll respond, “ya, go take a walk west of the 110 freeway, or east of Main Street in L.A and brag about your yacht”, then we’ll see what happens. Oh, I’m sorry, did I offend you?
It’s not okay for me to offend you but okay for you to offend audiences? I can’t help but pity the self perpetrating assholes hurling down the recycled genre, only to do it all over again with another film.
Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp. Get things done instead of talking about getting them done. Don`t go out and party. Don`t smoke dope, don’t drink that liquid poison or do drugs, you’ll be amazed what you can do when you start loving life, art and the cinema. Believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not listen to the jackals of the industry. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone. Don’t get me started on all you actors and all your MTV Jersey shore zombies. I'll see you all at the Transformers 3 premiere with my stale popcorn in one hand and the people's soda in the other.
For those filmmakers who only care about making money off a movie, the marketability and increasing revenue for their film “product”...HATE to break it to you, you aren’t filmmakers nor businessmen. If you’re businessmen, you’re in the wrong business; you chaps will get extremely disappointed with the results. You’ll have better luck making money by opening your pawn shop, cause in this industry you can get away with a lot of crap if it looks like it`s all you know how to do.
Hollywood is okay, if all you care about is fame, money, parties and regurgitated stories coming out of the meat grinder. (Sorry my Hollywood and L.A friends, I’m tired of acting something I am not). Perhaps you need a swift kick to the side of the head that’ll shift your brain out of the automated bullshit entitled “How can I make a movie that will sell”. Why don’t you stop buying Twinkies and begin teaching workshops on “contradictory filmmaking methods to impress strung out suits”, cause that’s exactly what you are, an over-drafted steaming pile of used film celluloid wearing a suit.
You go on and tell me your film is genre, genre my ass! You use that word again to describe the film and I’ll tear your asshole a new name. I call bullshit on everything your itching money trigger finger has to say about filmmaking. You respond “ya, but I have a yacht” and I’ll respond, “ya, go take a walk west of the 110 freeway, or east of Main Street in L.A and brag about your yacht”, then we’ll see what happens. Oh, I’m sorry, did I offend you?
It’s not okay for me to offend you but okay for you to offend audiences? I can’t help but pity the self perpetrating assholes hurling down the recycled genre, only to do it all over again with another film.
Keep your blood clean, your body lean, and your mind sharp. Get things done instead of talking about getting them done. Don`t go out and party. Don`t smoke dope, don’t drink that liquid poison or do drugs, you’ll be amazed what you can do when you start loving life, art and the cinema. Believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not listen to the jackals of the industry. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone. Don’t get me started on all you actors and all your MTV Jersey shore zombies. I'll see you all at the Transformers 3 premiere with my stale popcorn in one hand and the people's soda in the other.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
BLESS THIS NATION
I hope you enjoy these videos as much as I did. One is the original, the other is a remix.
LADYTRON - GHOSTS
BLESTENATION - GHOSTS (FEATURING LADYTRON)
LADYTRON - GHOSTS
BLESTENATION - GHOSTS (FEATURING LADYTRON)
Monday, November 1, 2010
Another IATF review +
Hello,
So the wonderful site DREADCENTRAL.COM posted a new review of our film IF A TREE FALLS. You can check it out at the link below.
A quick quote from it:
"It should also be mentioned that the violence is incredibly visceral and disturbing. ...Do you enjoy films like the French Ils or the previously referenced Strangers?...the artificially aged look of films like Grindhouse, The Devil's Rejects, and Machete, then you may very well enjoy it."
---Dreadcentral.com
LINK to the new IF A TREE FALLS review on DREADCENTRAL.COM
http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/if-tree-falls-2010
Onto another update, myself and Chad Archibald from Black Fawn Films are flying to Minneapolis to take on the new BLUE FELIX music video. A special guest will also be featured in the video, I think.....maybe.....a member from SLIPKNOT? Fingers crossed.
I'll do my best to keep posting updates on this blog, but things get busy quick. To keep things sweet and short, feel free to add me on facebook or twitter.
So the wonderful site DREADCENTRAL.COM posted a new review of our film IF A TREE FALLS. You can check it out at the link below.
A quick quote from it:
"It should also be mentioned that the violence is incredibly visceral and disturbing. ...Do you enjoy films like the French Ils or the previously referenced Strangers?...the artificially aged look of films like Grindhouse, The Devil's Rejects, and Machete, then you may very well enjoy it."
---Dreadcentral.com
LINK to the new IF A TREE FALLS review on DREADCENTRAL.COM
http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/if-tree-falls-2010
Onto another update, myself and Chad Archibald from Black Fawn Films are flying to Minneapolis to take on the new BLUE FELIX music video. A special guest will also be featured in the video, I think.....maybe.....a member from SLIPKNOT? Fingers crossed.
I'll do my best to keep posting updates on this blog, but things get busy quick. To keep things sweet and short, feel free to add me on facebook or twitter.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Rue Morgue: Horror in Culture and Entertainment
Director Philip Carrer’s suvivalist horror film If A Tree Falls plays the Festival of Fear this weekend, and we caught up with the budding director to talk about why the film is so identifiably Canadian, his villains and the importance of horror film festivals.
Link for the full interview:
Director Philip Carrer’s suvivalist horror film If A Tree Falls plays the Festival of Fear this weekend, and we caught up with the budding director to talk about why the film is so identifiably Canadian, his villains and the importance of horror film festivals.
Link for the full interview:
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
exclusive first review of "if a tree falls"
Check out the review KILLER.COM gave "If A Tree Falls". You can check it out at this link here or read below.
Recently I had the chance to witness If a Tree Falls, a Canadian slasher film helmed by promising director Philip Carrer and writer Ryan Barrett. Instead of capitalizing on the unauthentic “Grindhouse Redux” knock-offs that so many spurious and pompous filmgoers are eating up today, If a Tree Falls ventures back to a time when Grindhouse films were in their prime amongst true horror aficionados and when the word ‘cult’ wasn’t used to promote trendy mainstream cinema.
The film starts off with siblings Brad and Lisa Carpenter (played by Ryan Barrett and Jennifer De Lucia) and both of their good friends Vanessa and Will (played by Breannete Boekhorst and Daniel Zuccala) as they embark on a road trip across Canada to get to an annual family reunion. The fun road trip quickly takes a turn for the worse when the group decides to find a place in the woods to camp out for the night and they soon realize that they are not alone. When six masked assailants crash their camp site, the group endures torture and sadistic psychological games deep in the woods where nobody can hear a tree fall, let alone their blood-curdling screams.
Like last year’s surprise sleeper hit, House of the Devil, Carrer’s intention is to make a bonafide throwback to the late seventies grindhouse era and he proves this by providing many freeze-framing shots, a vintage title sequence and a gritty look distinctively different from the aesthetics of a mainstream film that will make the easily nostalgic grin from ear to ear.
Despite its seemingly redundant premise, If a Tree Falls manages to set itself apart from most films of this genre by boldly breaking the rules and avoiding use of gratuitous shots of gore-laden carnage and ample nudity. Although many fans would expect needless gore and nudity to be prerequisites in an ultra-low budget indie like this, it is the film’s slow-burning pace that skilfully compensates for the film’s lack of special effects, nipples and grue.
What also makes If a Tree Falls unlike most low-budget slashers is its ability to blend in stark realism with grindhouse terror. There are no token slut or jock characters or virgins with superhuman strength. The killers are not disfigured hill billy rapist cannibals or psychos equipped with five minute long monologues explaining their “motives” and the horror doesn’t stop when the sun rises. The filmmakers’ decision to steer clear of themes dealing with exploitative misogyny and racism also put a smile on this reviewer’s face, as it made it that much harder to determine who would survive or simply last the longest.
As far as the acting goes in the film, it was far better than one would expect to see in a low-budget slasher. Despite the fact that the lack of playful banter between the leads in the film’s first half makes it difficult to fall in love with any one of the protagonists, it was in the unsettling second half where the actors got to stand out. However, it’s Breannete Boekhorst that manages to steal the show as one of the terrified victims with her believably vulnerable performance.
Even though If a Tree Falls struggles at times to rise above its low-budget origins, it is evocative of the genre it successfully emulates for the film is able to exemplify many of the Grindhouse genre’s strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a fan of weathered rural slashers of the late seventies, be sure to catch this taut and savage thriller when it hits the festival circuit later this summer.
Recently I had the chance to witness If a Tree Falls, a Canadian slasher film helmed by promising director Philip Carrer and writer Ryan Barrett. Instead of capitalizing on the unauthentic “Grindhouse Redux” knock-offs that so many spurious and pompous filmgoers are eating up today, If a Tree Falls ventures back to a time when Grindhouse films were in their prime amongst true horror aficionados and when the word ‘cult’ wasn’t used to promote trendy mainstream cinema.
The film starts off with siblings Brad and Lisa Carpenter (played by Ryan Barrett and Jennifer De Lucia) and both of their good friends Vanessa and Will (played by Breannete Boekhorst and Daniel Zuccala) as they embark on a road trip across Canada to get to an annual family reunion. The fun road trip quickly takes a turn for the worse when the group decides to find a place in the woods to camp out for the night and they soon realize that they are not alone. When six masked assailants crash their camp site, the group endures torture and sadistic psychological games deep in the woods where nobody can hear a tree fall, let alone their blood-curdling screams.
Like last year’s surprise sleeper hit, House of the Devil, Carrer’s intention is to make a bonafide throwback to the late seventies grindhouse era and he proves this by providing many freeze-framing shots, a vintage title sequence and a gritty look distinctively different from the aesthetics of a mainstream film that will make the easily nostalgic grin from ear to ear.
Despite its seemingly redundant premise, If a Tree Falls manages to set itself apart from most films of this genre by boldly breaking the rules and avoiding use of gratuitous shots of gore-laden carnage and ample nudity. Although many fans would expect needless gore and nudity to be prerequisites in an ultra-low budget indie like this, it is the film’s slow-burning pace that skilfully compensates for the film’s lack of special effects, nipples and grue.
What also makes If a Tree Falls unlike most low-budget slashers is its ability to blend in stark realism with grindhouse terror. There are no token slut or jock characters or virgins with superhuman strength. The killers are not disfigured hill billy rapist cannibals or psychos equipped with five minute long monologues explaining their “motives” and the horror doesn’t stop when the sun rises. The filmmakers’ decision to steer clear of themes dealing with exploitative misogyny and racism also put a smile on this reviewer’s face, as it made it that much harder to determine who would survive or simply last the longest.
As far as the acting goes in the film, it was far better than one would expect to see in a low-budget slasher. Despite the fact that the lack of playful banter between the leads in the film’s first half makes it difficult to fall in love with any one of the protagonists, it was in the unsettling second half where the actors got to stand out. However, it’s Breannete Boekhorst that manages to steal the show as one of the terrified victims with her believably vulnerable performance.
Even though If a Tree Falls struggles at times to rise above its low-budget origins, it is evocative of the genre it successfully emulates for the film is able to exemplify many of the Grindhouse genre’s strengths and weaknesses. If you’re a fan of weathered rural slashers of the late seventies, be sure to catch this taut and savage thriller when it hits the festival circuit later this summer.
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