Most of these entries are based on the potential I see in each of the films. With Blackout, it’s not about potential because I can vouch for it myself. I was fortunate enough to catch Larry Fessenden’s small-town werewolf film at Fantasia last year and suffice it to say, it’s a lot of fun. Alex Hurt is pulling a lot of weight in this film as Charley, an artist in a town that finds itself victimized by a double murder. Charley is trying to get all of his affairs in order before he says farewell for good, all as the murder (and subsecquent ones) drive the town’s residents apart.
Fessenden is one of the kings of microbudgeted horror films, and he proves that again here thanks to a fantastic cast including Barbara Crampton, Marshall Bell and Addison Timlin. Fessenden’s script contains several small bits of referential humor while also playing on the topical notion of societal divisions. Blackout arrives on Digital later this month but it’s well worth catching in the theater if you have a chance to do so, and if you’re in New Orleans this would be a great opportunity to do so.
Collin Brazie, a Brooklyn-based cinematographer/director of photography who grew up in Vandalia, is excited to have his latest film “Blackout” screen at The Neon in downtown Dayton on Friday, April 5.
Written and directed by indie horror veteran Larry Fessenden, “Blackout” is a thriller set in the small town of Talbot Falls. The plot concerns Charley (Alex Hurt), a fine arts painter convinced he’s a werewolf. According to the synopsis, Charley “can’t remember the things he’s done but the papers report random acts of violence taking place at night in this small upstate hamlet. Now the whole town must rally to find out what is tearing it apart: mistrust, fear or a monster that comes out at night.”
“Instead of the traditional jump-scare or super dark and moody slasher film, this film is more about the characters and the small town in which it takes place,” said Brazie, 38. “Its (focus) is Charley who is facing moral dilemmas and other issues.”
“Blackout” was shot in October 2022 in New York’s picturesque Hudson Valley and premiered last July at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It continued to make its way through the festival circuit last year and was most recently screened in New York City with an upcoming engagement scheduled in Los Angeles. The film is also slated to arrive on digital platforms next week.
Brazie, a Chaminade Julienne High School graduate, received his MFA in film production and cinematography from the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange, California. He specializes in narrative, documentary and branded content. His previous projects include “Retake,” “Last Call,” “Empire” and “Foxhole,” which were all screened at The Neon.
As a fan of horror and having worked on previous short films and features in the genre, Brazie said he was eager to join “Blackout,” which was made for less than $1 million. But he also acknowledged the challenges of working within the rigors of independent filmmaking, particularly shooting quickly across multiple locations.
“We had a lot of locations and a lot of speaking parts,” he explained. “There were probably 30 speaking roles and it also felt like we had 30 locations. Obviously when you have a smaller budget and a smaller timeframe and small amount of shooting days, it makes the (project) a tall task. On some days we would have two or three location moves, which turns the day into a big time crunch. Having so many locations was very unique to this project, but we also wanted to tell the story as beautifully as possible through the photography and the performances by the actors.
In spite of aforementioned hurdles, Brazie’s love of independent film runs deep. His next indie horror film will open the Chattanooga Film Festival in June, and he has a profound respect for the inherent authenticity associated with independent films.
“There is an authenticity to independent film that I find more appealing than studio films,” Brazie said. “Studio films can also be authentic, but the creative freedom in independent film allows for authenticity to really bleed through. Independent film creators are able to tell the story they want to tell the way they want to tell it.”
He’s also pleased to be able to participate in a Q&A following Friday’s screening, specifically having grown up being inspired by so many films at The Neon.
“The Neon helped shaped the way I view films and storytelling,” Brazie said. “It’s always a real dream come true to be able to come back and show films and do Q&As at The Neon. I’m a big advocate of the theatre experience, going to see movies at the theatre. Streaming isn’t going away anytime soon, but I feel there’s a push to get back to theatres, to have a communal experience, and I hope that continues at The Neon.”
Who are we to disagree Danielle Harris? When looking for a Best Horror Movie You Never Saw, nothing in our completely mad up rules that say a movie can’t be well received at the time of release. It can win awards including one from the audiences that saw it at TIFF and the kind of go away. There are a ton of movies that are great and original films in a genre that is nearly as obsessed with sequels and movie universes as DC and Marvel are today. Stake Land (watch it HERE) is an original piece of media that is one part Walking Dead, one part The Road, and all together one of the Best Horror Movies you Never Saw.
Stake Land was destined to be a movie that few had seen as its theatrical run produced about 33 thousand in theaters but in an era of physical media and streaming services, even as early as 2010-2011. The movie, which was written by both star Nick Damici and director Jim Mickle was designed as a short web series that they could produce on weekends and release it on their own terms. They presented over 3 dozen 8-minute scripts to indie horror mega producer Larry Fessenden and his Glass Eye Pix who suggested it be turned into a feature. As a mentor to Mickle, he was able to help produce and give them notes as production went along. To that end, they did end up producing 7 prequel webisodes that would be released leading up to and alongside the movie to build both hype and a nice little world that feels very lived in.
Mickle got noticed for Mulberry Street, his entry in the “8 Films to Die for” series that was released in 2007 for the After Dark Horror Fest. These were also released at Blockbuster, and I remember running through them all. His flick, which he wrote with Damici and who stars in it again, is probably the best of that batch that came out. He also directed Cold in July, We Are What We Are, and episodes of Hap and Leonard as well as Sweet Tooth, mostly with Damici writing and or making an appearance on screen. The movie opens with one of our leads, Martin, telling us in flashback form about the end of both the world at large and his world on a micro level. I would love confirmation if this character is named after Romero’s underseen vampire movie of the same name. Somebody hit up Damici or Mickle for me, will ya?
Martin is played by Conor Paolo who first showed up as a young Sean in Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River. He has also showed up heavily in shows like Gossip Girl and Revenge as well as more than a few movies including Stake Land 2 which we will touch on a little later. We see why he is with Damici’s character Mister as both his parents and even baby sibling is murdered by what we learn is the reason for the apocalypse, Vampires. This movie is uncompromising in its violence and who it decides to kill. When a horror movie decides to kill a baby in the first seven minutes, you know they aren’t messing around. This world is also effectively over, and we are told of the busier cities being ravaged, cults taking shape across the country and the U.S. falling hard and fast.
The first 10 minutes of the movie tells you everything you need to know about the story. We see different kinds of vampires, how you need to protect yourself, and a warning about society as a whole, or, ya know, what’s left of it. Damici plays Mister with the attitude and hardened charisma that I have come to expect and love from him. I spoke about him in my most recent video about other underseen movie Late Phases and I am a fan of this guy. He takes Martin under his wing here and teaches him how to survive but also how to take out vampires which greatly outnumber humans. We watch them go through settlements and barter while Mister takes care of some of his base urges and watch them save stragglers. See, Mister doesn’t care if you are a vamp or a crazy cult human, he kills with the same efficiency and lack of remorse.
The first one of these people they save is played by Kelly McGillis. Yeah, that one. From Top Gun, The Witness, and a whole heap of other memorable roles. Like many of the apocalyptic movies of the time, including the aforementioned The Road, the movie focuses more heavily on how bad the survivors can be rather than the threat. The nice thing is, it still feels fresh here as it did when the movie came out. This was before EVERY SINGLE MOVIE of this type fell into that specific trope. Even The Walking Dead just had to keep coming back to it. Here, it works because of budgetary constraints where you can have battles with culty Dbags rather than have to show off special effects and make up laden vampires throughout. Again, this gives the movie a nice world building feel.
By the time we get to the damn near required Larry Fessenden cameo, here as the bartender who gives Martin his first drink, we have seen how life is. We have also seen some great scenes of tension like when Martin and Mister are stuck in their own car after escaping the Brotherhood cult. It has good direction and story telling and allows for a near budget less set piece that also gives us a fun action scene. Also, in the bar we get the appearance of the movie’s biggest fan. Danielle Harris plays Belle, a younger pregnant woman who wants to get somewhere safe to have her baby. She’s great here as we have come to expect her in everything that she shows up in. Her and her podcast partner and close friend Scout Taylor Compton are the best parts of the Rob Zombie Halloween remake duology. I also have a personal horror love for her as Halloween 5 was one of the first VHS tapes I bought with my own money from Blockbuster Music of all places. I fully forgive her for getting Corey to cheat on Topanga with her. If you know, you know.
The trio work their way towards the haven of New Eden, and we get introduced to things called scamps which are younger kid vampires because this movie has already set the precedent that age won’t protect you. This is an excellent example of just how they use their budget and keep things interesting while doing many of the things that movies of this type do. They pick up our final main character, a military man named Willie, who was also left as bait for vampires by the brotherhood. He gives us some more exposition and story building about the brotherhood using the vampires as weapons and expediting the process of ending the world. The group works its way to New Eden, and I’m amazed at how this movie was made for just over 600k. It isn’t acted that way, directed that way, shot that way, or even with special effects and make-up that would suggest that budget.
At just over an hour and a half, the movie moves at a brisk pace. The score which echoes The Road and is more contemplative than exciting by Jeff Grace is done wonderfully and fits the film to a T. It keeps surprises coming and even though you know not everyone is going to make it out alive, it’s still surprising how and when. While it may not have been a blockbuster like movies from the Saw or Final Destination franchises, it would be popular enough to warrant a sequel in Stake Land 2: The Stakelander, which, yeah, I know, that title, but its fun. While director and cowriter Jim Mickle didn’t want to or wasn’t able to come back, Syfy had the good sense to get Nick Damici back to write and show up again in some capacity. Between the prequel web series and the two movies, this property got life to it that few would have expected from a little indie movie that could.
Danielle said it was a tough shoot in the cold of upstate new york with very few lines but there was something that drew her to it and it was a very rewarding experience. Plus, who could resist zombie like vampire creatures and a title like Stake Land. That’s exactly what this movie does to you upon watching it. It has a very personal feel with all the characters involved and gets your buy in on them in very little time. A movie like this is special because of the people who worked on it fully buying in and believing in what it could be and that translates into how we as the audience view it. Stake Landtakes classic ideas such as vampires or the inherited evil of humanity and packages it into a very consumable 98 minutes.
What I truly love about the movie is that it truly is a Best Horror Movie You Never Saw. It gets to be handed down from those lucky enough to watch it and then those new viewers get to do the same. It’s like I tell my kids as each one finds out that Santa isn’t real. It’s their job now to become the jolly gift giver to their younger siblings. It’s shocking with how much legs the series had that it’s still not as widely talked about and even Damici, who apparently is a walking Best Horror You Never Saw factory, has other things that people recognize him for. If Danielle Harris, who isn’t even the star here and has a litany of other movies to think of and talk about with people, feels this is one of her least discussed but best films she has made, do yourself a favor and seek it out. You can find it often on Tubi or pick yourself up a copy on physical media. We here at JoBlo Horror completely agree that you should cross this off your list of Best Horror that you never saw and then hand it down to the next person.
It was the summer of 1816 and three friends—and possibly lovers—Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron decided to pass the time by competing amongst themselves to see who could write the best ghost story. Over 200 years later, our obsession with the story Mary Shelley wrote that summer remains as fervent as ever. She could have never guessed the stranglehold that her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheuswould have on the public imagination. Plus, she’d be shocked, to say the least, to see the hundreds of movies that have been made over the years reimagining her tale of reanimation and horror…
Depraved (2019)
While this 2019 feature remains largely under the radar when compared to the rest of the films on our list, there is a lot to love from this modern retelling of the Frankenstein story. Directed by Larry Fessenden, Depravedplaces the story in the present and makes Dr. Frankenstein stand-in (Henry) a former United States Army medic suffering from debilitating PTSD. Having watched so many of his friends and fellow soldiers succumb to their injuries despite his best efforts, he is now focused on reversing that process and bringing people back from the dead. As you might expect, things progress fine at first before devolving into a fair amount of chaos. What works best about this adaptation is how slowly they show the resurrected man’s progress from a patched-together corpse to a fully realized man.
Hot on the heels of Gateway Film Center’s frosty vampire series Winter Sucks comes a springtime celebration of women who make horror movies. Femme Fatalities kicks off Wednesday, April 3 with Mary Lambert’s original Pet Sematary from 1989. But Lambert and the undeceased will not be alone that Wednesday, because the GFC program includes a short film with every feature.
“We thought it would be a cool thing to do because short films are amazing and too few people get to see them,” says Hope Madden, who co-curated the program with filmmaker Jenn Wexler. “This gave us the chance to either show a short film from the same filmmaker or expand the number of directors in the program by pairing a feature with somebody else’s short film.”
Madden’s film Obstacle Corpse and Wexler’s Shudder smash hit The Sacrifice Gamewill both be featured during the program. Both filmmakers will bring their own short films as well as features. Madden will world premiere Basement Buddy, while Wexler will revisit an older gem.
“It’s called Bits & Pieces, and I made it in 2013,” she says.
The film stars genre favorite Larry Fessenden, for whom Wexler was then working.
“He taught me all about filmmaking and was a mentor.,” she says. “This was when I first started working at his company, Glass Eye Pix. I very shyly asked, ‘Will you be in my short film?’”
For Wexler, being a filmmaker has always meant making horror.
“I wanted to be a filmmaker since I was a kid,” Wexler says. “It was always horror. It was always my dream to be making horror movies. But growing up, I didn’t see women making horror in the same way that I knew Wes Craven and John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper. And I was kind of like, why don’t we have these names, these female names, in the same way that we have all these famous male names?”
It was the chance to celebrate those women who are now and who have long been making horror that appealed to Wexler.
“There are a lot of women who are making horror and who want to be making horror,” she says. “It used to be sort of a weird thing but it’s totally normal now. And this is my first time getting to curate anything. It’s been really cool getting to work with Hope to curate this program.”
Wexler is particularly excited to be showing Amy Holden Jones’s 1982 slasher Slumber Party Massacre, a “classic slasher,” as well as Tigers Are Not Afraid from Issa López. Madden is most eager to get to see The Babadook on the big screen again.
Wexler and Madden will both be on-hand for the screenings of their films.
LiLMoviePerp, a cinephile who identifies as a dinosaur, advocates for Fessenden’s role in paving the way to A24’s brand of horror before getting derailed midway through his presentation by fellow commentator seemingly indifferent to Fessenden’s oeuvre but awed by his forehead. Glass Eye Pix’s legacy status hangs in the balance!
Q: You’ve worked with Larry Fessenden previously, notably on his unique films BENEATH and DEPRAVED, and now with BLACKOUT. What does he look for in music for his movies?
Will Bates: I feel very fortunate that the first horror movie I ever scored was for Larry. He told me a lot about how to work with the genre, and we connected over this sense of elegy and pathos and almost tragedy with horror. I feel like that’s something the filmmaking is embracing with BLACKOUT. Scary things for Larry are more frightening and disturbing if a certain amount of tragedy is involved, and music has a compelling way of portraying that. We’d already developed a great shorthand and language when we worked on BENEATH and then DEPRAVED – this is my third film with him. I consider him a dear friend at this point. One of the great benefits of working with people repeatedly is that you start to trust each other, and he let me play with the tone of this movie and experiment. I adore him for that. He’s a very loved man, as I’m sure you know.
Q: BLACKOUT is a unique werewolf story based on Larry’s audio play of the same name. What was he looking for in the music for this film?
Will Bates: Whereas, with DEPRAVED, he talked a lot about the brain, synapses, and electricity. With BLACKOUT, we wanted to be more organic and more of an expression of the woods and memory. We talked a lot about memory. In the end, the subtext of this film is just that. What happens to a werewolf and the literal blackout of the transformation? So I think, in terms of the instrumentation, it was very organic – lots of horns, woodwinds, and guitars, which is a new thing for me with Larry. We’ve never really done guitars in his scores before. There are no synths, none of that; there’s hardly any electronics. Maybe towards the end, when things get a bit crazy, I’d start reaching for some of those tools, but overall, it’s very raw, Lots of strings – and when I use the strings they were recorded very close to the instrument. It’s a very dusty feeling, natural and scratchy. One thing I could do here that I hadn’t done too much before was… I recently reconnected with a double bass player named Gary Wicks [ https://www.garywicks.com/ ], a jazz musician. I’m a reformed jazz musician myself. Gary’s an excellent upright bass player, and he did a lot of great arco (bowed playing) with his instrument and used his instrument to create crazy crunches and sound effects. Larry always wanted churning, crunching bones – like “let’s get that feeling like the hair is coming out of the skin and all of that stuff, which is so visceral with werewolves. The double bass became a thing that I gravitated toward a lot, and I looked to Gary to work on almost every cue on this one.
Q: I want to ask you about a few particularly interesting cues. “Howl” is just that, a mix of sonic howls and roiling brass, followed by “Jail Break,” which added its own sonic confrontation of sounds…
Will Bates: Wow, that’s a great description! This movie was also interesting in that, while Larry was editing, he wanted a tool kit of stuff, which is a way that we’ve worked together in the past. We’d talk about themes for characters, like the significant tent-pole cues for the movie, and I’ll work on those. But alongside those, he always had stuff to play with, and I tend to write that way, anyway. I’ll throw lots of things at the page and lots of sketches, which tends to be my journey to find those big themes. The sketches always end up being useful, especially with a filmmaker like Larry, who likes to use music while he’s editing, and sometimes I’ll give him the stems for those sketches.
“Howl” was one such thing. I thought of finding recordings of wolves, sketching them, and pitching them to make this an even richer tapestry of layered notes. When you take a howl from a wolf and stretch it, you can identify individual notes and tones layered. I started to write around the shape of the howling melody, and that’s what that piece is. I isolated it into a fifteen-minute section, stretched-out wolf howl, and then orchestrated it. That’s what that piece is, and then added Gary’s bass and a few other things – and then, of course, the horns. Larry’s one of the only filmmakers who doesn’t make me take the saxes out, so I’m always reaching for the horns, knowing he’ll love it! That’s always reassuring!
Q: “Charley’s Theme” reprises the opening “Charley’s Leaving” with a more delicate sound…. along with “The Ballad Of Talbot Falls,” a kind of jazz interpretation of the previous melodic arrangements.
Will Bates: That’s right, yeah. Again, I’m sort of betraying my background a little bit with that one, I suppose. Larry isn’t afraid of that raw emotion. He’d say… “You’ve got this theme, just do it, man! Make it big and bold and as emotional as it can be. I love that; it’s a wonderful note for a composer to have.
Q: The concluding song nicely completes the film, with Charlie singing a personal ballad that sums up his experiences throughout the story. How would you interpret the movie yourself from this perspective?
Will Bates: I think, for me, there’s such a sadness about the werewolf. Having to leave that life behind and not even having an awareness in your waking state of what you have been enjoying as this creature. That’s the feeling I get – this sense of regret and longing. It’s deeply sad. I can’t think of a werewolf movie that’s not that way. It’s a certain kind of tragedy, and there’s a beautiful love story in this as well, and having to leave here behind. So, yeh, I think loss, and that was kind of the brief, too, this elegiac idea that we’re left with in the movie.
Larry Fessenden, indie horror auteur, is back — with a werewolf movie. But “Blackout” isn’t your typical lycanthrope flick. This is more like a quirky indie character drama that also happens to be about a werewolf. The wolfman in question is Charley Barrett (Alex Hurt), a working-class artist who lives in the small autumnal town of Talbot Falls. When we meet Charley, he appears to be getting his affairs in order. There’s a reason for that: he knows he’s a werewolf and he’d like to end his life before he turns back into a monster and kills more people.
While there’s werewolf action to be had here, complete with throats ripped out and limbs torn off, Fessenden is more interested in the characters who populate the town. Seemingly every person who shows up on screen is a quirky, memorable individual, and while some of the performances are shaky, Fessenden’s script has a way of making his players, no matter how minor, stand out. Occasionally funny (in a dark sort of way), “Blackout” has a melancholy vibe to match its autumn atmosphere, and best of all, the werewolf is just a guy wearing make-up. Sure, it’s not the most sophisticated make-up — but give me a practical werewolf over a CGI monstrosity any day. (Chris Evangelista)
Glass Eye Pix is the fierce independent NYC-based production outfit headed by award-winning art-horror auteur Larry Fessenden with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. Read more...
