Beneath

I love the fact that there are now full channels devoted to the Horror genre. With Channels such as Fearnet and Chiller the horror fans have channels that cater to them and Variety is the spice of life as Sgt. Noorwood used to say to me often.

Now these channels have their drawbacks in their programing but they are working it out Fearnet has recently had their first original series with Holliston and Chiller is showing improvement.  Chiller is still dominated with reruns which are sometimes a good thing.

Chiller has their 13 countdowns mirroring Bravo’s top 100 countdown that they used to do during Halloween before the Real Housewives took over.

The Chiller 13 has more subject manner including Horror Hookups and Creepy kids.

Like it’s older sister station Syfy Chiller is beginning with its reality programing and has now began premiering Chiller “Original” Films.

The first of these original films was Beneath which was an interesting flick to say the least.

Helmed by inde filmmaker Larry Fessenden who draws on his inde film roots deciding to keep the focus on the film in one location and on the characters in the story Beneath is a creature feature with an emphasis on some of the darker sides of human nature.

The flick is about a small group of High School Graduates that decide to have one last party together before going their own separate ways.

While going for a swim the group encounters a giant carnivorous fish which manages to destroy the boat oars and after knocking a hole in the boat the fish stalks the group while they argue on what to do deciding to begin sacrificing each other for the good of the group. When they are resorted to this all of their past issues come to the surface and the real monsters are revealed.  

The first point that I want to make is the fact that the killer fish is one of the cheasiest creations in movie history but honestly I have seen worse in these flicks and the fish was not CGI which is a rare treat for this day and age.

Like many a good zombie flick the monster is not the main story but is in fact the conflict that the characters must overcome however due to their own issues become nothing more than fodder for the monster as well as themselves.

Now for the issues with the characters is there is rarely a likeable character in the film and the only characters that have a slight moment of redemption are the first characters to be offed however the film has a nice twist at the end that I will not reveal here.

6 Dead Bodies

0 Breasts

8 Beasts

Bleeding out

Strangling

1 really smart fish

Go Pro Fu

Teenage Fu

2 ½ Stars

Check it out

The American Scream

It is no secret that I am a Haunt enthusiast.

I grew up and started my career in Dallas which many will consider to be the Ultimate Haunt Market. Every year my friends and I would drive to Forney to visit the Haunted Verdun Manor. We even encountered the late Lance Pope a couple of times when we were there.

 

I started working professionally in 1997. Before that I would occasionally work in some haunts intended to raise money for different groups that I was a member of.

Then in 1997 my friend Rick and I were approached by the late Jay Korn to work his Castle Dragon haunt on Halloween night and we were hired to work again one year later.

Sadly for me I aggravated a back injury which ended my acting career in the Haunt Industry.

 

The other place that I was often found around Halloween was the Phantom’s Haunted House in Lewisville. My friends and I would attend that haunt every year…ok twice to three times a year. When I was in college my assignment was to shoot a documentary and I decided to shoot the Phantom’s. That is where I met my good friend Scott Reese who would call me a couple of years later to shoot his haunt when they went to the State Fair of Texas.

That is when the HauntShooter was born.

Link to the HauntShooter Channel

I began shooting not just the Phantom’s Haunted House but also began shooting at other Haunts around the DFW area and I would release a compilation DVD titled   The Best Little Horror Houses in Texas featuring some of the best Haunted Attractions in not just the DFW area but across the State of Texas as well.

Well you know what they say that technology changes and that you have to roll with the punches or be left behind which is where I decided to discontinue the DVD and began releasing the videos that I shoot on my brand new YouTube Channel titled HauntShooter.

I admit that you can frequently find me at the Transworld Haunt show in St Louis, Mo.

 

I have to admit that I have mostly been shooting the pro haunts and the charity haunts for the past few years and I have not been really checking out the Home Haunts which I have been hearing about and some of them I have met at the tradeshows.

Now you are probably asking, what is a Home Haunt?

 

A Home Haunt is a Haunted Attraction that is made from someone’s neighborhood home. It can be the house next door that the owner makes it into a attraction mostly for the neighbors.

Some of them charge admission others don’t charge it is at the choice of the home owner.

Now I know that there are some people that will say that that is weird but then I have to ask what about the people that go All Out every year on the Christmas decorations?

There really is no difference.

 

So it should come as no surprise that when Fantastic Fest announced The American Scream on their line up I had to check out this flick.

The American Scream is a documentary that follows 3 Home Haunters in the months leading up to Halloween Night as they turn their homes into Haunted attractions.

This documentary is produced by the same people that produced Best Worst Movie. I have to say that they did their research especially when they shot Hauntcon.

The people that are being followed are also as interesting as the haunts that they build.

 

The first family is a family of Halloween enthusiasts, The father and daughter in particular. The documentary showcases both the support from the family as well as the strain that the home haunt causes them. I don’t want to reveal the end of the documentary for this family but there was talk about a Kickstarter campaign for this man so please look out for that.

The other Home Haunters featured is a man who still makes his haunt even after Doctors ruled against it due to his heart condition, and a Laurel and Hardy type father and son duo that were my personal favorites in this flick.

 

Also featured in the documentary is a brief trip to Hauntcon, The yearly Haunted Attraction convention that is featured in different cities every year. As well as a interview with Leonard Pickel the owner of both Hauntcon and HAuntrepreneurs, a highly recommended Haunt consultation company.

 

I Highly recomend both HAuntcon and Transworld.

The American Scream premieres Sunday October 28^th on Chiller

Check your local listings.