Asylum Found-Footage Checklist

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."         

observation notes: The Amityville Haunting

There's nothing like a good scare for Christmas, I always say, and this year The Asylum has given us just that with The Amityville Haunting, on DVD this coming Tuesday, the 27th.

The studio's fifth found-footage film (behind Monster, Paranormal Entity, 8213 Gacy House and Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes), this one is a collection of home movies from and featuring the Benson family, who early last year moved into a house where 20 years earlier, a man named Robert Defeo Jr. murdered his whole family by shooting them each in the head. You'd think your Realtor would be required to tell you stuff like that. Nope, not if it happened more than three years ago. This is why they make ghost detection apps for iPhone and Android; just sayin' people, you gotta learn to take some spectral responsibility...

Anywho, as I don't like to give away any spoilers in my notes, and as found-footage films are pretty much twist after twist after twist, anything specific you say is giving away something, so I will comment only generally. Think of the film like Anneliese meets Paranormal Entity, a family in conflict with a deeper, darker power than they could have conceived of. The footage is raw, gruesome in spots, and guaranteed to make you jump. Things move very quickly here - only a month after moving in was the Benson Footage discovered - and get real weird real fast; there's a lot of supernatural activity going on in this house - I'd tell you not to blink or you'll miss some of the subtler notes, but I don't think you'll be blinking much. My only advice is to remember to breathe, otherwise, you're gonna pass out like seven minutes in.

If I'm honest, found-footage films aren't necessarily my cup of tea, not because I think they're overdone or anything like that, I just like a little more story than most of them provide. But The Amityville Haunting has a tangible and engaging narrative running through it; the film does not feel like a patchwork of random yet similar events, but rather a skillfully sewn together storyline that mounts in intensity from the first frame to a gut-wrenching crescendo 90 minutes later. Whoever The Asylum got to arrange this one did a bang-up job.

So bottom line, if you enjoy found-footage films, or just horror in general, guaranteed The Amityville Haunting has something that will make you scream. It's a fast-paced, fright-filled story sure to generate some uncomfortable empathy with the afflicted Benson family. It will also teach you to bone up on the history of buildings you consider buying to store your family in, and to maybe not move to notoriously haunted towns. Again, just sayin'...

Bargain Alert! 6 DVDs for the Price of 1!

I was at my local shopping mall the other day, buying some belated Christmas presents for a belated trip home to North Carolina that was canceled at the last minute because of the winter storm that plowed through the Southeast this week, when, browsing among the selections at Suncoast Motion Picture Company, lo and behold I discovered the two precious things to the left there in the bargain bin...for only $5.97 apiece!!! That's only 99 cents per movie for half-a-dozen of The Asylum's finest: I Am Omega/Monster/Alien vs. Hunter and Countdown:Armageddon(Jerusalem)/Transmorphers: Fall of Man/The Day the Earth Stopped.  The DVD's are put out by Echo Bridge Entertainment, a secondary distributor The Asylum seems to use for certain titles, most recently Airline Disaster and 8213 Gacy House. This is a great deal on six great films, so if you've still got a Suncoast or F.Y.E. store in your vicinity, and you got $11.94 to drop on some quality home entertainment, I think you know what you have to do.

Observation Notes Catch-Up: Creature Features

I know not all my readers have been with me from the beginning, and I also know given the amount of postings I've made in such a short span of time, things can get lost in the shuffle. I also know that I'm not the best at tagging uniformly, so there might be a few things, specifically Observation Notes, that go unread. As such, periodically I like to remind you - with links! - of the films I've reviewed, and I think a good way of grouping these is by genre. So here, for your catching-up or even revisiting pleasure, are the Creature Features produced by The Asylum that I've reviewed thus far, along with links to the original posts. Enjoy!

Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus
written and directed by Ace Hannah

Monster 
written and directed by Erik Estenberg

 Supercroc  
story by David Michael Latt
screenplay by Steve Bevilacqua
directed by Scott Harper

The Beast of Bray Road
written and directed by Leigh Scott



  

King of the Lost World
written by David Michael Latt & Carlos de los Rios
directed by Leigh Scott

Mega Piranha
written and directed by Eric Forsberg

inmate profile: David Michael Latt

This is the first time COMMITTED has slung an inmate profile the partners' way (I wanted to hone myself a little), and I think the perfect partner to start with is producer/ director/writer/editor/Asylum co-founder David Michael Latt.

A California native, Latt's first job in Hollywood - or at least the first job that seems studio-oriented as reported by his IMDB bio - was as an Art Director for Absolute Production, which, if my googling skills are accurate, is an events management company. From there he moved on to a position as Vice President, Production, for Chimera Multimedia. But despite this success, it wasn't until 1997 that Latt found his true calling and, along with former Village Roadshow executives David Rimawi and Sherri Strain, he strode out down his own road and formed The Asylum. 

Latt's present role at The Asylum is to oversee production and marketing, placing him in charge of a small crew that produces 10-15 feature-length motion pictures a year, each with an average of three- to four-week shoots. In a nutshell, this means every single Asylum production is steered by the practiced hands of Mr. Latt; think of him as the James M. Nicholson to Rimawi's Samuel Z. Arkoff, or the other way around - one of 'em's one of 'em and the other's the other, I know that much. 

Furthermore, not only is Latt an ace behind the scenes, he's darn good at creating them as well, as he's an accomplished and award-winning filmmaker in his own right. For The Asylum, Mr. Latt has directed eight titles, three of which he wrote. Another 16 Asylum-scripts bear his name. 

A look at Latt's Asylum filmography:

WRITER: Jane White is Sick & Twisted, Scarecrow Slayer, War of the Worlds, King of the Lost World, Da Vinci Treasure, Pirates of Treasure Island, Halloween Night, Supercroc, The Apocalypse, Universal Soldiers, Alien vs. Hunter, Monster, War of the Worlds 2, Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls, Countdown: Jerusalem, The Terminators

DIRECTOR: Rock and Roll Fantasy, Killers, Jane White is Sick & Twisted, Killers 2, Scarecrow Slayer, War of the Worlds, MegaFault.

Also worth noting, Latt is married to Asylum staple Kim Little, and together the two have made seven films together.


And there you have it, a look at one of the founding partners of The Asylum, writer/director/filmmaker extraordinaire and the head of production, David Michael Latt. Call me a sycophant (and some have), but this guy's pretty much got the coolest job in the universe, and - like the other partners and indeed anyone working in the arts - he carved it out for himself. Where I from, that's worth saluting.


So, Mr. Latt, consider yourself saluted.
 

inmate profile: Eric Forsberg

Writer/Director Eric Forsberg has been a major productive force over at The Asylum for the last few years, with a seemingly-inexhaustible creativity that indicates he'll be churning out the hits for a while to come.

A native of Chicago, Forsberg started his writing and directing in the theater world, specifically in comedy, where one of his early successes was a noir-homage called Knatt Scatt Private Eye, starring a certain actor named Steve Carrell. This was in 1985. He also worked as an improv instructor for the famed Second City, teaching future notables such as - I shit you not - Stephen Colbert, Tim Meadows, Amy Sedaris and Rachel Dratch. So the guy knows talent, raw and honed. He's been in Hollywood going on 15 years and has carved a very comfortable - and well-deserved - spot at the big-kids table, Asylum-wise. Check his resume:

Writer or co-writer on:

Alien Abduction, Monster, Snakes on a Train, 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea, War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, Sex Pot and Mega Piranha.

Director of:

Alien Abduction, Sex Pot and Mega Piranha

Quickly becoming our next auteur, this inmate has a feeling Forsberg's on the verge of dropping a bomb on us, and not the bad kind, like, "wow, that movie bombed," but like, big explosions and cool fire and shit like that, you know, the "bomb." Lingo isn't a strong suit of mine. My point being, give this guy a treatment with vs. in the title, and I got a feeling the bar's going to be blown through the roof. Bar, as in a thing that's raised, not a place one drinks. Jeez.

Eric Forsberg, consider yourself saluted.

observation notes: 8213 Gacy House

This is how much I love you, "you" being The Asylum, and my faithful readers: I'm not the biggest fan of ghost stories, mostly because I'm a big believer in ghosts, and seeing that shit onscreen, especially when it's portrayed realistically, that just freaks my ass out. I'm also not a big fan of clowns, especially those who are actually evil. So then you can imagine something like 8213 Gacy House - the latest offering from the fine folks at The Asylum, available on DVD this Tuesday, September 28th - a film built around "crime scene footage" of a group of paranormal investigators that never escaped said house alive, you can imagine how much I did not want to watch this movie, if only for the sake of my own sleep. But watch it I did, for all our sakes, and it scared the shit out of me, for real; I had to drink copious, copious amounts of brown liquor to dull my imagination into unconsciousness. 

How much is that clowny in the window?

The concept, like those of most all quality, super -scary films, is simple enough: notorious American serial killer John Wayne Gacy - the fat one who dressed up like a clown - was convicted of killing 33 young boys, 26 of whom were found buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home, and another three planted out back in the yard. The original house was destroyed during the investigation, and Gacy himself followed a few years later by lethal injection, but you gotta figure - if you're the sort who believes in ghosts, and believes that on occasion they can cling to a place in this world if it is a place they have a great emotional connection to, like, say, it's where they did all their sweet, sweet killing - this place is as haunted as it gets. That's what the team of investigators in this "documentary" figure, at least, and so they go to the new house on the old site with the intention of spending one night inside and gathering all the evidence they can that the spirit of John Wayne Gacy still clings to this ground. Why? I don't know, seems like either way, find him or not, you lose. But as the poster tells you, they find the motherfucker. And how.

This one's pretty much all spoilers from the moment they get inside the house, so I'll be general: this is a truly frightening, spine-curling and nail-gnawing film. I was afraid to leave to go to the bathroom, and as a result almost had the piss scared out of me every three or four minutes. The found-footage effect was an absolute advantage, as I usually think it is, especially in this genre, and The Asylum's commitment to the footage's authenticity - that is, clinging to the ruse that this is real and not scripted, as they did in Monster and Paranormal Entity - is steadfast and does indeed lend a layer of discomfort. Inevitably there will be comparisons to Paranormal Activity, though as noted above, The Asylum has already tied-in to that film, and really, if you're going to slag them off for ripping on the found-footage craze, be prepared to do it a lot more in the coming year, and to names like J.J. Abrams. 

This film conjures scares all its own, thanks to crafty, well-paced direction by Anthony Fankhauser (2012 Supernova) and shall we say, compelling performances from all of the investigators, notably Asylum newcomers Jim Lewis, Matthew Temple, Sylvia Panacione and Brett A. Newton.

Blood, gore, zombies, vampires, wolves and witches, serial killers, stalkers, satanists, cults; these things (onscreen) don't scare me. Ghosts, however, scare the bejesus out of me, so long as it's done right. Therefore, if my level of fear when watching a ghost movie is any indication as to the quality of the movie in question, then 8213 Gacy House is the scariest ghost story I've seen since The Blair Witch Project, and that includes Paranormal Activity (which I thought was mostly just shocking, not scary).

As I said, this Tuesday, September 28th, run to your local, independent video store to rent your copy.

observation notes: Monster

Little heard of and rarely referenced in the Mockbuster conversations, The Asylum's take on Cloverfield is in many ways, if not every way, superior to the film it riffs on.

Set in Tokyo and seen through the eyes and lens of two American documentarians, sisters, Monster concerns a massive earthquake that is not at all an earthquake, but rather a massive tentacled thing rising from the tectonic depths beneath us. From there the story is pretty much the same as Cloverfield: the sisters try to survive while everything around them goes to shit. A bit of added fear and confusion in that they're foreigners, which works, and a bit of exposition meant to establish the sisters as idealistic, impassioned filmmakers devoted to their subject, global warming, which does not work.

This was my one problem with Monster, which is why I'm mentioning it up front, to get it out of the way, because the rest of what I have to say will be positively glowing. So here goes: there is zero believability in these women as filmmakers about such a serious subject. Little sis comprises the entire crew, for fuck's sake. Why travel all the way to Japan to shoot a movie and then take just one, non-professional, totally inexperienced woman-child? And who interviews a CEO in a tank top?

(The CEO isn't in the tank top, she is, the interviewer. Just in case there was confusion.)

But this petty grievance aside, where Monster succeeds most is in it's commitment and loyalty to the documentary style: crediting characters Sarah Lynch and Erin Sullivan as directors within the context of the film, and for camerawork in the actual credits (For sisters, they tend to shoot each others boobs a lot. I'm just saying.); maiming the film with splotchy sound, pixellated images and cut-outs, the requisite shaky camerawork. But that's where Monster and Cloverfield diverge. Wheras the latter put most all its style in the physical - that is, how the person holding the camera affected what it saw and how - Monster divides its style between the physical and the technical, making the camera more of a character, faulty in its own right, and the ultimate narrator. I'm not saying Cloverfield didn't play with the technical, they just didn't do it as well as Monster does.

As for the other performers, Ms. Lynch (Sarah Lieving) and Ms. Sullivan (Erin Evans, though she acts under the name Sullivan), aside from that bit of unpleasantness I mentioned above, they are superbly convincing as disaster-struck foreigners and concerned siblings, and it is here, in their relationship with one another, and the camera, that the true emotional power of the film arrives. As the danger mounts each sister responds differently to the camera's presence, the little sis caring fuck-all about it anymore and the big sis growing proportionally more devoted to her film, now a different film entirely.

I'm going to back-peddle a little here. It strikes me that perhaps the sisters' unbelievability in their professions was intentional, and the writer may have been looking to establish them as people with ambitions bigger than their talents, more passionate than capable, and thus at a total loss in this calamity; the least suitable in the most incredible. If that's the case, then I eat my above words and this pair of actresses is flawless. However it could just be that I'm reading too much into it. Either way, that's the point of a good film, right? To intrigue you, on whatever minute or random level.

Bottom line, Monster, to me at least, is the most realistic film in The Asylum's catalog, and one of the best, if not my favorite. The action is FX light, the emotional conflict takes precedent over the history, science or mythology of the creature and for the concept - that of a live-filmed, monster-related disaster - it is scarier, more engaging and more heart-wrenching than Cloverfield.

In this case, as far as I'm concerned, Mockbuster beats Blockbuster, hands down.