IronStar Films Present Blood Loss - A Film from Four Arbroath Local Film Nerds, that has A LOT of Potential!

It is with great pleasure that I present the brand spanking new teaser trailer for my fellow Arbroathians new short film, Blood Loss.

IronStar films, an independent film company created by four local lads in order to produce a variety of short films from original scripts. The first of which is " Blood Loss", a tale of retribution and redemption among a group of friends who find themselves in too deep.

When three friends are forced by a local criminal to sort out a potential problem, their plans end in a horrific accident destroying their lives forever.

Months later the three men are confronted with the possibility that not everything was as it seems, and find themselves caught between a criminal who wants the job done, and a victim who wants revenge....no matter what side they choose, there's going to be ...Blood Loss.

Graeme Carr, Peter Birnie and Al Jennings have been making little short parodies for years now, however, it was only when they met up with the youngster of the group, Dean Pearson, that they decided to take their love of film to the next level.  :)

Now I've known Graeme since I was a kid, and he has always been one of the biggest film nerds I know.  Ever since we were in our early teens, all we've ever done was talk about films.  Well, that and his constant mocking of my love of Take That.  Haha.  Don't judge me! ;)  So with that being said, I know just how good a creative mind that boy has!  Put him together with the terrible twosome that are Pete and Jennings, add in Dean, (one of my little sister Kimberley's friends, pictured below with Graeme), and you have the perfect concoction.

I've been watching my boys for some time now, and seeing them grow....spying on them...just not as creepily as Norman Bates!  

It was when I met up with Jennings and Pete for lunch back in April, that they showed me not only what they had been working on, but also something that Dean had done himself.  Taking inspiration from James Wan's The Conjuring, and the story of the Annabelle doll; Dean did this whole little faux trailer himself...which is really quite tricky when you are trying to work a camera, shake a rocking chair, turn a creepy head around.  Silly boy...it was only afterwards he realised he could have just called on his Ghostbusters to come and help him.  I'm sure they would appeared, dress to kill and all. :)  It makes me so happy though seeing a younger generation of people taking inspiration from my beloved James Wan.  James and Leigh redefined the horror genre for a new generation, and so it's totally cool to see others learn, and become inspired by their work.  The circle of gore....muuuahahahaha.  Sounds so much cooler than the circle of life.  *hums song to self*

So yes...expect some interesting and muchos awesome things from these ladie.....I mean boys! ;) 

I'd also just like to throw out a big thank you to John Carswell as well, a good friend of mine since I was a teenager.  John gave the guys the PERFECT location to shoot this, an abandoned mill that his family are to convert into flats.  It looks fucking awesome, so major high five to you Mr Carswell...you'll be getting added to my location scout books!  :)  This is so cool because it's a local Arbroath business cutie, helping out local aspiring filmmakers too.  YAY!  Let us show the people of Arbroath just how creeeeeeeeeeepy it can be, muuuuahahahaha. :)

For more information on the project, drop by the Facebook pages for Blood Loss and their new film company, IronStar Films.  

And the charming boys that they are, they take me to the nicest of places.  Mmmmm.....a walk-in toilet, also known as the Arbroath subway/fornication ground/potty/tampon disposal unit!! ;)

Subways are rank!! Haha. Although I redecorated this tampon...just to make it more Morley rank!! ;) Five boys, a Morleysaurus and a bloody tampon. Just a regular Sunday night in the Jeniverse!! ;) #Jeniverse#instascotland #instagross #instatampon #tamponofday #tampon #gross #peoplearerank #bloodysex

A photo posted by Jennifer Cooper (@morleysaurus) on May 5, 2014 at 1:22am PDT

James Wan's The Conjuring Looks Super Creeptastic and is Scaring up a Fright at the MPAA!!

"Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville."

 James Wan is a director that I absolutely adore to bits.  The first Saw is one of my most favourite films ever.   Death Sentence is an absolute underrated cracker of a film!!   Dead Silence and Insidious are both wonderfully creepy flicks with a beautiful old school feel. Like Saw beforehand, Insidious did so well commercially that it has inspired a sequel, again written and directed by James and his partner in crime, Leigh Whannell.  The fact that Insidious 2 is still in the hands of James and Leigh, I am particularly looking forward to it!!  :) Before Insidious 2 is released however, we have another super creeptastic offering from Mr Wan, The Conjuring.

(Pictured above - James Wan with the real life ladies of The Conjuring - From Left to Right - Cindy Perron, Lorraine Warren and Andrea Perron

Based on a screenplay from twin brothers Chad and Carey Hayes, writers of the rather awesome House of Wax remake, The Conjuring is based on the case files of world renowned American paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (pictured below) after they were called upon to help a family terrorised by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse.

It's funny that I'm known as the torture-gore guy, SAW aside, I've been wanting to make PG13 horror films since my 2nd movie, Dead Silence!  Haha.  Scary PG13 movies that can scare the shit out of you without the reliance of blood/guts (like action films without explosions and car chases) are so much masterful and harder to pull of.  ~ James Wan

The first trailer that was released was a major tease, and definitely creepy as hell.  The second gave a bit more information about the film and the Warren's and gained extra kudos from me for having Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man playing at the start of it.  You can see both trailers below and join me in getting nerdy for the return of the Wan'ster in a film that would make Mulder and Scully proud!! :)

Alongside Pacific Rim, The Conjuring is definitely my most anticipated movie of the summer.  :)

You can keep up to date with the movie on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to support such an awesome flick when it comes to a cinema near you this July 19th!! 

Piracy - Robbing the Lives of Underground Film Makers!!

Okay, so once again my views on pirating movies seems to have hit a raw nerve with some people!!  This came about after I realised that indie horror V/H/S (pictured above and below) was making it's way around oil rigs.  

I live in an area where a large percentage of people work off shore, so this is obviously gonna be one of the most noticeable areas where pirated movies are shared.  Another would be the forces, they're terrible for it too!!  Getting off track though, seeing that a film that was made within a community of my some of my closest friends was getting passed around for free, it obviously got me on my soapbox!!  

I think when it comes to piracy, be it pirated DVD's, or downloading/streaming movies for free, the majority of people don't give a second thought for the film makers, the people that gave their blood, sweat and tears to make the movie.  I mean, could you imagine, giving your all to something and then getting pretty much nothing back from it...it wouldn't feel that great would it?!!  Getting movies funded in this day and age isn't as easy as what most seem to think, even the big studio's, they're wary to fund films unless they know that it's gonna make them a fortune right from the get go!!  It frequently baffles me why certain big Hollywood studios will put a shit ton of money into a film like Green Lantern, or Battleship, or god forbid any Michael Bay movie (that's a whole different rant though, haha), yet they won't fund smaller independent movies that would take a teensy tiny fraction of the cost to make...and then go on to make millions.  A perfect example of this would be Saw, or Insidious.  James Wan and Leigh Whannell (pictured below), you are both geniuses!! :)  

Because the big studios are usually unwilling to fund smart, intelligent and original films, the film makers often have to largely fund the film themselves, or to have fans help to raise funds for them.  This is something that is largely evident in the horror industry. The big studios will fund utter wank like the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, or The Omen remake...actually, pretty much any remake...yet they won't fund anything original as they usually don't have the balls too!!  Many film makers are using sites such as KickStarter and IndieGoGo to fund their projects with the help of fans.  So fans are helping to fund these movies, yet "casual movie watchers", like the people who watch stuff just for the sake of it and couldn't give a fuck about the people who made the film, they're stealing from the true fans as well.  Yet they don't seem to get why this grinds my fucking gears!!!

When it came to looking for the moohlah to fund their follow up to their grindhouse self funded Dead Hooker in a Trunk, American Mary...Jen and Sylvia Soska's parents Agnes and Marius Soska mortgaged their freakin' house to help finance it!!  This money then made other financier's feel more comfortable about getting on board this darkly twisted and fucked up little beauty!!  How cool is that, I mean, how many parents would be willing to do that for their twisted little children? :)  This was obviously a very risky move, but it turned out to be a great one!!  Now Universal Films have acquired distribution rights for many international territories including the UK and Germany, and are looking to acquire world rights.  

Dead Hooker in a Trunk however was funded entirely by the two of them working their arses off in their day jobs, and then totally maxing out their credit cards.  Again, a move that worked to their advantage but could have completely backfired, as so many other film makers have found out.  The success of Dead Hooker in a Trunk was largely due to the support from the underground film industry, and especially the Women in Horror Month movement...which I am proud to call myself a part of. :)  This backed with support from Eli Roth and things started really started to move forward for Jen and Sylvia...but it took a whole lot of clever networking and support from horror film nerds for them to get to the point where Eli Roth asked if they had any more scripts...the point from where American Mary was conceived. :D

We live in a society where it's deemed okay to pirate films, but what people seem to forget, is that this is these people's livelihood's that are being messed with.  The whole thought that "all film makers are loaded and don't need the money anyway", that's a heap of crap!!  Some of them work day jobs and then film in their evenings and weekends.  They basically have no life, and then for people to just download or pirate these films without a second thought, I said it before, and I will say it again, they're just raping the fucking film makers up the arse...and they couldn't give a fuck about it!!  

My thoughts and opinions have caused a lot of controversy among people close to me, but I don't fucking care.  And my graphic depiction...sometimes one needs to be so graphic to get a point across.  Rape is taking something without any regard for the other person, it is an action where you couldn't care less about the other person's feelings, or life.  And I'm sorry, but that is exactly what pirating these underground films does.  You could ruin a film makers career, and even life, just because you have no regard for what they do, or them as an actual person.  

I then got into an argument where the prices of cinema tickets came into it, yet, most of these underground films don't make it to the cinema....and why...because people fucking pirate them and then the film company doesn't see the point, I mean, where's the money to be made!?!!  A point that was made very clear when desperate to see Adam Green's Frozen, I had to go to Edinburgh to the Cameo Cinema, the only cinema in the whole of freakin' Scotland that was showing it!!!  (Pictured below - Me showing my support from indie horror at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgers)

At the end of the day, I know I'm never going to win this argument with everyone, but if people could at least think about what they're doing, and if they enjoy these the films at least then buy them on DVD/Blu-Ray, or watch them through LoveFilm or Netflix.  Just let the film makers know that you appreciate their work and support them in their journey to bring more great films to you.  All films suffer as a result of piracy, but it's the smaller budget independent films that suffer the worst, and that's just not cool!!  So don't be a dick and contribute to destroying a world of decent fucking movies!!  

And this was never aimed at any one person, it was aimed at society in general.  The End.  

30 Day Horror Movie Challenge - The Last Horror Movie You Saw in a Theater

Okay it sucks that I haven't seen another horror in the cinema since Insidious...that shows how lame cinema's here are for seeing horror...however, it is also with great  pleasure that I get to write about this film as my last cinema visit as this is what horror cinema is truly about!

From the very opening credit sequence I was hooked.  It was literally a thing of beauty and awe!  Now yes, I admit, I have openly geeked over my love of director James Wan and writer/actor Leigh Whannell from the very first time I watched Saw!  I fucking love these guys, they are amazing at what they do and I can happily say that James is one of the coolest guys I know and he is always a pleasure to speak too.  And a dork...can't forget the dork part! ;)  So yesss, much love already, haha.  Anyhoo....

From the moment that the title INSIDIOUS blares across the screen in all its glory, I literally wanted to be sucked into the film!  It is easily one of my all time favourite opening sequences of a movie...it's THAT good!!!

There is this beautiful creepiness about Insidious, the kind that is rare in horror today.  It exists but you have to dig beneath the surface...a favourite of recent times is definitely The House of the Devil...that film is fucking perfect and brilliant and creepy as fuck!!!!

The basic plot of course is that a couple and their family move into a new house, a beautiful house at that...damn you Heidi fucking Honeycutt and your review I read previous to seeing the film.  Heidi, as lovely as she is (man I want to go out drinking with her, haha!!!) did a review that kept running through my head "how can they afford to live in a house like that!?!"  I am clueless to American house prices so was able to put that aside but still had Heidi like the wicked devil, singing in the back of my head.  Haha.  Damn you Heidi!!!

Anyhoo back to the house...whilst exploring the oh so cool house, the young boy falls and bangs his head.  He goes to bed and the next morning when the dad goes to wake him up, he won't wake up leading the doctors to believe that he is in a coma.  Lots of totally freaktarded things start to happen and the family think that the house is haunted.  But lo and behold, it turns out that it's not the house that's haunted, but the child!  

I'm not going to give anymore away for those of you who haven't seen this brilliant film, one that is easily one of my favourite films of the past decade.  It's ace in every sense.  Whilst being a wonderful tribute to films such as Poltergeist...my first horror experience, it is also an amazing nod to the superbly creeptastic Carnival of Souls.

Whilst being a thowback to the films of old, it also had a very original feel to it and I absolutely LOVED it...it was the perfect horror in a world full of saturated bullshit!  It was also amazing to have James Wan and Leigh Whannell back...it seems like forever since the amazing and criminally underrated Death Sentence was released.  And ooh, FYI, it turns out that Death Sentence is actually my sister's boyfriend Brett...or Cockonomics, haha, favourite movie of all time...a fact that most definitely made me smile!  So yesss, Team Wan/Whannell all the way!  And whilst Leigh told James that he wasn't allowed to have creepy puppets in the movie, the creepiest puppet master still manages to sneak them in, bwahahaha.  I recommend watching this movie in a pitch black room with a glass of wine, and prepare to be freaked the hell out!!! :P

Fright Bytes Episode 3 - Some James Wan and Insidious Goodness from the Lovely Lianne Spiderbaby!

Okay so it is with geeky pleasure that I can share with you Episode 3 of Fright Bytes, the super awesome new mini-show from one of my most gorgeous and superfab friends, Miss Lianne Spiderbaby!

The 3rd episode in her new series sees both Lianne and guest host, her rather cool brother (wearing a wicked awesome tee as well!) discussing the absolutely downright fucking rad~core INSIDIOUS!  The latest film from one of my all time favourite writer/director duo, James Wan and Leigh Whannell.  I absolutely adored INSIDIOUS, seriously one of my favourite horrors in some time.  And to quote my scaredy cat friend Lauren - "Scariest Film Ever!"  I actually had to move away from her watching it as I kept getting punched in the arm every time she jumped, lol.  James and Leigh have created something within a subgenre that is still very original and extremely quirky!  If you've not seen it yet then I totally agree with Lianne...get your asses out there and see this movie NOW!!!

April 29th 2011 - Screw This Royal Wedding Shite...Go See INSIDIOUS!!!

Today is the day that the UK finally gets to see the latest movie from one of my all time favourite directors and writers, that would be James Wan and Leigh Whannel...and that movie would be INSIDIOUS!!!

Now I am not getting the chance to go see it today, however tomorrow, 2.45pm at Vue Cinema in Aberdeen, I shall be there.  And I CAN NOT wait! <3