inmate profile: Arielle Brachfeld

T-minus two weeks until The Haunting of Whaley House drops on DVD, Blu-Ray, and VOD, and given that the advance copies at Comic Con sold out fast, seems like there's a mighty fine film headed our way. So here at Committed we continue to educate and inform you about the creative talents behind this impending ghostly greatness; already we've profiled writer/director Jose Prendes and actors Stephanie Greco and Alex Arleo. Today we feature actress Arielle Brachfeld.

Ms. Brachfeld began acting professionally in 2005 with a couple of shorts that lead to a role in the indie comedic homage, Return of the Ghostbusters. From there the parts came rolling in, including The House That Jack Built alongside Joe Mantegna and Gail O'Grady, the horror anthology Evil Deeds 2, indie comedy/horror Blood Effects, and Love, Gloria, with Asylum-alum Heather McComb (2012: Supernova). 

In addition to her work in Whaley House - which from the picture below looks pretty pivotal, not to mention blood-curdling - Ms. Brachfeld has several other projects in various stages of development: InSpectres, a comedy; Live-In Fear, a supernatural adventure flick; The Obsession, a drama alongside yet another Asylum-alum, Dominique Swain (Nazis at the Center of the Earth); and Love: As You Like It, "a sexy, bold reimagining of Shakespeare's romantic comedy..." Can't got wrong with that, right?

Until then, check out Arielle Brachfeld's next performance in The Asylum's The Haunting on Whaley House, out July 31st.

My 5 Favorite (Single-Headed) Shark Movies

As we enter day two of what I'm dubbing "2 Headed Shark Week" - leading up to next Tuesday's DVD release - I thought I'd share something I've been asked about a lot lately: my 5 favorite shark movies (that I didn't write). Now, if you're a regular reader of Committed, or you read me yesterday, you know that I LOVE shark movies. I have seen every shark movie in existence multiple times, my favorite movie ever is a shark movie (see below), I haven't been in the ocean past my ankles since 1984, and the good lord willing, I never will be again. Bottom line, shark movies mean a lot to me, and these are the cream of the crop, in my book.

Jaws: Where else would you start? Not only do I consider Jaws to be the no-brainer best shark movie, and the best horror movie, it's also my favorite film of all time. I watch it purposely at least twice a year and stop what I'm doing every time I come across it on TV. I know every scene, every line by heart; this, to me, is cinematic perfection. There will never be another shark movie like Jaws, there can never be; like the beast it depicts, the film is top of the food chain, an apex predator that will always devour the competition.

 Shark Swarm: This 2008 TV miniseries from director James A. Contner and writers David Rosiak and Matthew Chernov is a staple of every SyFy shark marathon, and rightfully so. It's a shark movie lover's dream: a really long shark movie! This one hits all the high notes of a Saturday Afternoon Classic: greedy suit-type, toxic chemicals, scores of enraged, altered and organized sharks, not to mention a top-notch cast including Darryl Hannah, John Schneider, Heather McComb, Armand Assante and Academy Award Winner F. Murray Abraham. Put it all together and you get 167 minutes of bloody bliss. 

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus: Of course this was going to make my list. There are a lot of giant shark movies out there, but for those of us for whom this wasn't quite enough, The Asylum gave us a shark that was truly mega. Homeshark grabbed planes from the sky, ripped out a chunk of the golden gate bridge, and survived both a giant octopus and Lorenzo Lamas. It's a thrilling B-movie epic, the kills and effects are awesome, it made a household name of Debbie Gibson again and at the end of the day, it might just be the most fun shark movie ever made. (For now...)

Spring Break Shark Attack: I cannot believe it took so long for someone to come up with this concept. Spring Break. Shark Attack. They're like the peanut butter and chocolate of horror movie elements. And though this too was made for TV - CBS at that, go figure - so it can't be as gory as I'd like, it's another fun flick with lots of bikinis, lots of tanned bro's, and lots of sharks.

 

The Reef: Australians know sharks. Well. The Great Barrier Reef is Great White central. So it stands to reason a shark movie from an Australian would be pretty good. The Reef, by Australian Andrew Traucki, is that movie. Like Open Water with balls, the tension in this one never lets up. If you still dare to go in the water, this one just might shake that conviction once and for all.

Lovely Ladies of the Asylum vol. 2

I'm not a fool, gentlemen. I know what brings you here, what lures you in, coaxes your hits, some of you at least. It isn't the snarky commentary, or the breaking news, the hard-hitting interviews or deep-digging profiles, no, it's not me at all, is it? I see the keywords from my Google hits, and I know a picture of a pretty lady brings in more readers than the phrase "observation notes." 

Not that I can blame you: The Asylum employs a score of attractive and - more importantly - capable, intelligent and talented actresses well worthy of your search engine adoration. So, to gives my readers something I know they want and would never ask for, I tastefully present a pictorial tribute to some of The Asylum's beautiful leading ladies. Enjoy.

Eliza Swenson

actress
Transmorphers - Dragon - The 9/11 Commission Report - Dracula's Curse - King of the Lost World - The Beast of Bray Road - Frankenstein Reborn


composer (!!!)
Supercroc - Dragon - The 9/11 Commission Report - Dracula's Curse - Exorcism: The Possession of Gail Bowers

writer
Dragon - non-Asylum Witches of Oz

Jessica Bork

Invasion of the Pod People
Transmorphers
The Hitchhiker
Dragon

   

Erica Duke

#1 Cheerleader Camp
Titanic II
Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus

Deedee Pfeiffer

Journey to the Center of the Earth
Alien vs Hunter 

Heather McComb

2012: Supernova  

Jamie Bernadette

MILF  

observation notes: 2012 Supernova

So, it's been brought to my attention via comments, personal emails and Facebook posts that perhaps in these observation notes, in my zeal to communicate my enthusiasm for Asylum productions, I'm giving away a bit too much in regards to plot details, thus doing the opposite of my primary directive and spoiling a thing or two. As I've said before, the ultimate point of these notes, indeed this blog, is to spark your interest, whet your appetite, and make you want to see the daggum movies. As such, I will try to restrain myself a little more in the future, restrict my synopses from now on to no more than a mere paragraph of general description, focusing my efforts instead on praising the technical and creative aspects of the films. Funny, I think, maybe you won't, that I choose to start this with a film I didn't particularly care for. Either way, here we go:

This is the second of The Asylum's 2012-prefixed films - sandwiched between 2008's 2012: Doomsday and next year's 2012: Ice Age - and, as the title indicates, concerns impending oblivion courtesy of an astronomical anomalous catastrophe: seems a star in a neighboring galaxy goes ape-shit unstable and explodes, "supernova" as the kids call it, and unleashes a deadly burst of space-radiation hurtling towards Earth, where it will eradicate every living thing on the planet; it is up to a brilliant if rebellious astrophysicist (Brian Krause) to compose a radical plan that can save all of mankind from imminent extinction. That plan? Well, that's one of the things on which I'm censoring myself, but rest assured I didn't choose the adjective "radical" haphazardly. Add to this a subplot - one typical in Asylum films; see Mega Fault, Meteor Apocalypse, Titanic II - in which said astrophysicist's family is in constant peril from the first ripples of destruction, and the result is a moderately intense - if overly melodramatic - disaster flick roughly on par with other direct-to-DVD offerings in the genre.

I'm not known to be one who minces words, so I won't start here: this isn't the greatest story, and the dialog is even not-greater. This film, in fact, is a pretty good example of a stellar - pardon the pun - concept that crashed and burned upon execution. This story was too rote, the characters weren't near developed enough - despite admirable turns by the principle cast - and the conclusion kinda sucked. That said, the FX were pretty cool, startlingly cool, in fact, as though lifted from another movie and dropped into this one, a credit to both the visual effects department and director Anthony Fankhauser (8213 Gacy House), the latter of whom makes the best of a mediocre situation by depicting the chaos as sufficiently chaotic and peril palpable. My only critique of the direction would be the repetitive use of the same FX clips, but, given what the budget of such a film was bound to be, I suspect this isn't a short-coming of direction but rather an economic necessity, so, no harm no foul.

As for performances, I like Brian Krause. I can't put my finger on just why, I just always relate to him. Whether it's in this or other genre work - from the classic Sleepwalkers to the more-recent Beyond Loch Ness and Warbirds - there's just something really normal about this guy, in a good way, something we can all empathize with. Given that, I actually liked him in this: intense, focused, gruff, desperate but strong. The Asylum should have him back soon.

The lovely Heather McComb("The Event," "Prison Break," non-Asylum Shark Swarm) as the beleagured wife seeking protection against unimaginable perils, is appropriately frazzled without over-acting, and manages a grace under fire that is admirable and indeed noteworthy. Actress Najarra Townsend (hella shorts) rounds out the cast, showing a modicum of promise in her role, holding her own with the more accomplished actors.

This - global annihilation via extraterrestrial masses - isn't a new concept to either cinema in general (Armageddon, Deep Impact) or The Asylum (2012 Doomsday, Meteor Apocalypse) and while this is far and away not the finest entry in either category, it is a moderately entertaining 85 minutes, thanks to neat-o FX and plausible performances. But, truthfully, in a choice between this film and the actual apocalypse, it's kind of a toss up.

Sorry, they can't all be positive.