In honor of Alien Origin,
a found-footage film that marks The Asylum's next release - this Tuesday, June 12th -
I thought to put together a list of Asylum found-footage films to date,
just to make sure you've seen them all. Enjoy.
Monster
2008
"After a massive earthquake in Tokyo, two American filmmakers document the true cause of the destruction."
Paranormal Entity
2009
"Actual footage of the events leading to
the 2008 "murder" of Samantha Finley. This DVD, released against the
wishes of the authorities, proves that nothing human caused Samantha's
death."
8213: Gacy House
2010
"John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 young men and
boys between 1972 and 1978 in suburban Chicago. 26 bodies were found in a
crawl space beneath his house and 3 others were buried in the backyard.
Although the house was completely demolished during the exhumation of
the bodies, on May 15, 2004 a group of paranormal investigators wired
the home that was built in its place with paranormal detection and
surveillance equipment. The outcome of the investigation was grisly,
terrifying and disturbing. "
Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes
2011
"The shocking account of history's most
infamous case of demonic possession, compiled from the actual videotape
and film recordings from over 76 exorcisms.
"
The Amityville Haunting
2011
"Actual found footage that documents the horrifying experience of a family that moved into the infamous haunted house."
I know not all of my readers have been with me since the beginning, and I also know I'm a lousy tagger. The combination of these things means that there are a lost of posts that perhaps you haven't seen. That being the case, every now and again I like to post a megapost, if you will, that can catch you up with all the posts under a certain heading. This week's heading: inmate profiles; below, please find a complete listing of every published profile to date. Enjoy!
For the brave among my fellow faithfully-committed, there's good news (relatively speaking) at your local video store today: the latest Asylum release - and a surprise one at that - on DVD: Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes.
I've said enough at this point about this one, but if you need a refresher, or want some detailed backstory, click here, here, here or even here (link notes) for my insights up until now. But in my faux-professional opinion, if you have an interest in seeing this one, you're gonna want to see it as spoiler-free as possible.
Either way, beat it like a bat out of hell (sorry) to wherever you crazy kids procure your new releases these days (legitimately, of course) and grab this up toot suite.
New Asylum DVD!!!! Trailer up now at theasylum.cc
It's the film that a week ago, we didn't even know it existed, but now here it is, ready for its DVD release this coming Tuesday, the 1st of March: Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes.*
As I believe all such found-footage films - documentary or narrative - are pretty much entirely spoilers, I'm going to make these notes intentionally vague, resorting mainly to the backstory of the film and the tapes within the film, as well as my emotional responses. The biggest spoiler in all found-footage films is: "is it real?" I'm not touching that at this point. After we've all had a chance to view it and form our opinions, I'll be happy to share my stance. But for now, all I'm saying is, "watch the movie and judge for yourself." I will say that the movie begins with a disclaimer stating the footage contained therein is real, has not been doctored, and was gathered for medical purposes. So...there's that.
There are two options on the start-up menu, "Play Tapes" and "Play Documentary." I only mention this because it confused me a little bit, so I thought I'd save you similar turmoil: "tapes" is the film itself; "documentary" is the film about the film, and only runs 9 minutes.
What is not up for debate is the veracity of the story and the girl behind the film. As I've mentioned a few times, Anneliese Michel was a German teenager in the late 1960's, early 1970's who was purported to have been possessed by demons. After undergoing approximately 70 exorcisms (accounts vary from 66 to 72), Miss Michel died from exhaustion, dehydration and near-starvation. She was 34 years old. Her parents and the priests involved in her exorcisms were charged by the state with negligent homicide in her death, and at the trial, it is an acknowledged fact that tapes depicting the exorcisms of Anneliese Michel were shown.
No one in the general public had ever seen those tapes until, supposedly, now.
Discovered and compiled by Jude Gerard Prest, best known in these virtual pages as the Looney-award-winning supporting actor from Mega Piranha, but also an accomplished producer**, what we have here is a first -person filmed account of the poor girl's ordeal featuring Anneliese, her parents, the priests and a small American film crew. It's 90 minutes of visceral footage, emotional interviews, frightening sights and sounds and an on-going debate within the film to mirror the one no doubt most viewers will have: is this behavior real? is this girl possessed?
In short (and vaguely), this film is a disturbing, compelling, gut-wrenching experience, rife of images that won't soon leave your nightmares. And whether the girl on the tape is Anneliese Michel or not (whoever she is, man, does she scare the shit out of me, especially her eyes), that does not change the fact that Anneliese existed, she experienced horrible things in her short life, and this film, by all reports, is an accurate depiction of those experiences. Not for the faint of heart, or the wavering in faith; you're either all in or all out, there's no straddling the subject of this one. But whatever your stance, when you watch it, leave a light on, and if you're so inclined, a prayer or two probably wouldn't hurt.
* because of the rushed nature of this release, I feel compelled to explain for the first time how I get my hands on new releases, if only to assure my readers that I am not, nor do I condone, the illegal downloading or "pirating" of films. music, sure; films: no way. I work, as I've mentioned, in a video store, meaning we get next week's new releases several days early for preparation purposes. that's how I procure early peeks.
** including a pre-production supervising producer gig on "Deadliest Warrior," one of the most awesome shows in the history of visual media.
This one's gonna be a little weird, for a couple of reasons: one, Anneliese Michel is not a willing member of The Asylum. In fact, she isn't a willing member of anything, because she is deceased, and has been for thirty-five years. Secondly, she wasn't an actress, or a writer, or director, or in any way associated with the film industry. She was simply a German teenager in the 1970's who somehow became demonically possessed. In celebration of The Asylum's latest release, Anneliese: The Exorcism Tapes, available on DVD one week from today(!!!), I thought we'd take a closer look into the unfortunate life of a girl at the heart of the 20th Century's most shocking and notorious case of demonic possession.
Anneliese Michel was born to German Catholics in the fall of 1952. A religiously devout child, as a teenager Anneliese began to experience convulsions that evolved into what were believed to be epileptic fits in her seventeenth year. And this is where shit starts getting creepy, because the fits weren't the only abnormal experiences befalling young miss Michel. She began hallucinating during prayers, hearing voices hissing of her damnation, eating insects, sampling her own urine, that sort of crazy shit. Whatever people thought was wrong with Anneliese, it wasn't until she was 23 that the idea she might be demonically possessed was introduced to the canon of thought. It was all downhill from there.
Over the next ten months, Anneliese would suffer through no less than sixty-seven exorcisms, each lasting hours at a time. She died in her sleep, six weeks shy of her 35th birthday, from what officials declared was extensive malnutrition and dehydration. At the time of her death, Anneliese Michel weighed 68 pounds, and still claimed to be plagued by demons.
Following Anneliese's death, both her parents and the two priests involved were charged with negligent homicide. Tapes of the exorcisms were shown during the case. In the end, the priests were fined; Anneliese's parents were not sentenced.
It's the abovementioned tapes that The Asylum purports to have - though they've freely admitted they can't be certain the girl in their tapes is actually Anneliese Michel - and it is based on these that they, in association with Actor/Producer/Looney-Award-Winner Jude Prest, have built into a film documenting her ordeal. This will mark the fourth time Anneliese's story has been told in some fashion over the last decade: she is the basis for The Exorcism of Emily Rose starring Jennifer Carpenter and Laura Linney, the German film Requiem from 2008, The Asylum's own Emily Rose tie-in Possession: The Exorcism of Gail Bowers, and now Anneliese: The Exorcism Tapes.
Whether this latest incarnation is actual footage or devilishly intelligent marketing by The Asylum for another found-footage fauxcumentary, I don't really think it matters. This is a fascinating story, a fascinating character, and real or dramatized, my bet is it's gonna scare the shit out me either way.
We already knew The Asylum moves fast, but their latest release is taking the cake: announced only yesterday, the found-footage project centering around German girl Anneliese Michel now has an official title, a poster, and a page on The Asylum site!
The official title is: Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes, and the release date is less than two weeks away, March 1st.
As I mentioned yesterday, the film is based upon found-footage of the actual exorcisms of Anneliese Michel, the German teen who claimed to be possessed by demons and died as a result of her exorcisms. What we have here are purported to be the actual tapes - actual, not "actual" - of portions of these exorcisms, which if that's in fact what they are, would be an amazingly skin-crawling look into this riveting and terrifying bit of history. But of course, the skeptic in me is keeping on eye on the possibility that this is just a shrewdly marketed Gacy House Redux.
Either way, we're getting a new Asylum title, and sooner than we thought! Not this Tuesday but the Tuesday after, Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes will be in our greedy little hands. Praise the Lord! Oh...errr...yeah.
This is right creepy stuff here: Anneliese Michel - the young German girl who was the inspiration for The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which, in turn, was the inspiration for The Asylum's Possession: The Exorcism of Gail Bowers - was apparently filmed while undergoing the exorcisms that would in the end kill her.
While looking for these tapes, Asylum writer/director/partner Paul Bales discovered that they had already been sold to someone. Rats! right? Wrong: that someone was sometime Asylum actor and Looney-Award-Winner Jude Gerard Prest.
So, after some back room deals, everyone got together and decided the most prudent thing to do is team up and get this footage onto DVD as soon as possible: March freakin' 1st, 2011. That's right, less than two weeks from now this footage will be available thanks to Mr. Prest and The Asylum.
I saw Emily Rose in the theater, and afterwards became very transfixed on the story of young, unfortunate Miss Michel. This footage, if it's real, could be nothing short of amazing. No doubt there will be some who might assume this is another publicity stunt for an as-yet-unannounced found-footage horror film. Yes, it kind of ties in with the feel and production of The Last Exorcism, but that wave crashed months ago and besides, as Mr. Bales himself mentioned, they've already mockbusted this. Real or not, I think this is an interesting variation on found-footage filmmaking and another great possible direction for The Asylum to be focusing its production energies: supernatural/parapsychological/cryptozoological documentaries.
Whatever your thoughts, all will be settled in due time: less than two weeks stand between us and the next Asylum release, their first documentary, the as-yet unnamed exorcism tapes of Anneliese Michel. Check out the official lowdown here.
