OK, so now we have your attention...I'm always a fan of how much controversy arises about Real vs. Fake viral videos. YouTube, the monster video distributor that graces us with the funny to the dumb, to well, this little charm.
Take 4 minutes and watch this video.
OK, so you watched the video and now you're thinking "Rob, you bastard!!" That poor girl!" Calm down, it's just make believe. The above video is a short film titled "Exhibit B-5" from Newborn Pictures in California. I was completely blown away by this film, the realism and the freak chance it could be real.
Let's look at the facts people...YouTube will NOT condone or post anything that is real in regards to "snuff" of anything involving real death. Sure, we see these horrendous accidents, but we never know if those involved, actually die. I've watched Tosh.0 and actually seen a video where someone died from the result.
Do you feel cheated now? Here is some background on the film makers and those involved. Newborn Pictures (http://www.newbornpix.com) is operated by two very talented film makers Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle. Regardless of anything posted about this...it's completely fake. My hat is tipped to these guys..seriously. They went above and beyond to make something seem so real that the Internet has written about this for nearly 2 years now, and here I am, still writing about it.
I think my love for this stems from being duped by the Blair Witch Project so many years ago. They elaborate set up by the film makers to fool us...you have to remember the internet wasn't anything like it is now. That was 1999 and the legend was out there, once I walked into the theater, they had me, hook line and sinker. I still classify the Blair Witch Project as one of the most inspirational films for me, it made "POV" film making (or Shaky Cam) a pivotal role in the Horror genre plus, even my favorite show "The Office" uses that filming style.
My advice for the day "Things aren't always as they seem".
I have been waiting to see this one for a while now, I felt it delivered. Being stuck in the unreleasable hell of Hollywood, I am really lost as to why they would fear the release of this film. It certainly is not a film that is too shocking or too brutal….it just adds another twist to the lost/found footage angle. I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of Faux-snuff films....after all, I have sat threw all of August Underground trilogy, watched The Murder Collection and countless others from the sub genre of Horror.
Plot Synopsis - In September 2001 the Poughkeepsie Police Dept. discovered over 800 video tapes that contained horrific and brutal images uncovering the story of one of America's most disturbing serial killers to date.
This film follows the before and after events of a sadistic, brutal killer who abducts children to adult females in the Poughkeepsie, NY area. Playing brutal, demoralizing games before ending each victim’s life, This madman increasing his toying with Police and see's how far he can push the envelope. Our killer has one particular victim that you see more of, her name is Cheryl Dempsey. I actually felt for this character, such a great role she plays. Even through the end of this film you really witness REAL affects of abduction and torture.
The mixture of Police, Doctors and Eye Witnesses footage are a great mix to add to this story. The found footage is very grainy and uneasy to watch at times, simply due to the mind games he plays. Preying on children is a touchy area, they do this perfect. The special effects are few and far between, but what they show…works. It comes across more real than many of the same simply because of how the family members describe the fear….to me this is what REAL horror really is. Imagine your 8 yr old daughter playing out front of your house and this guy takes her….simply because he can.
If anything, my opinion is that this film brings real life into the mix. More like something you would watch as a docu-drama or on an episode of Law and Order SVU. The killer is found out near the end as someone you would trust, which makes this subject even worse. I hope this film see’s a release sooner or later, as of now, still, it has no official date of release is scheduled.
In the modern world, a world where the news is the most terrifying thing on TV, the Poughkeepsie Tapes works. It works because we all have heard a story similar to this one, we have all witnessed the after effects…we all pray that this never happens to us. No one wants to have the last memories of their image left on a VHS tape, found in some scum bags closet.
After hearing a lot about JT Petty’s newest film, S&Man, I decided to get my hands on a copy and see it for myself. The film starts out in a narrative documentary style, exploring the culture of underground horror films. Petty travels to a horror convention where he meets up with a new young filmmaker who goes by Eric, and is the filmmaker behind the S&Man series of films.
Things start to get weird, as Eric grows more and more partial to Petty and his crew, but the more Petty pushes to get into Eric’s mind, the more defensive Eric gets. It becomes clear that something is wrong with Eric, and the film takes a turn away from fact and into fiction, while still providing a lot of insight into voyeurism and extreme filmmaking.
Petty interviews a few different doctors who specialize in voyeurism and sexual deviants. He also gets a lot of insight from cult filmmaker Fred Vogel and Toe Tag Pictures. Vogel is responsible for some of the most graphic films to date that are the closest you can legally get to snuff. He provides JT with a firsthand account of a snuff film he watched and the effect it had on his life. These real accounts are interlaced with insight from scream queens and filmmaker Bill Zebub along with fictionalized stories from Eric about his S&Man films.
My favorite part about this film is the way it makes you think. Petty does a great job at making you feel weird about watching extreme horror films. He drives deeply into your psyche and then rips it apart when things turn out for the worst. Are we all just voyeurs? Do we all have that little voice in the back of our heads urging us to look into the fire just to catch a glimpse of a burning corpse? Petty does a great job of convincing us that as humans each of us has a yearning to view violence, but he also reminds us that when you see so much violence and chaos on screen you become numb and eventually, for some people, the only way to feel the rush of horror films, is to act out in violence. Do we all secretly lust for blood?
A Special Interview with the Creators and Star from Long Pigs!
by: Heather Henshaw
A while back I came across a film by the name of Long Pigs not to be mixed up with a different film called Long Pig. I had befriended Chris and later Anthony we talked for some time before I actually got a copy of the film. Finally I got a copy and put it in. I fell in love with the film I mean I just dropped dead over how well it was done. So I got to chatting with the guys Director Chris Power and Anthony Alviano (both very great guys) here are some stuff we have chatted about. Sit back have a bowl of stew and read what these guys have to say:
LNHH: The name of your film is called Long Pigs can you tell us a little about that term and how you ended up naming you’re film that?
Chris Power: “Long Pig” is the culinary term for the human corpse, which depending on where you do your research has a couple different origins – but if you were cooking with human you wouldn’t say, “people stew” but rather “long pig stew”. Basically we’re all long pigs!
LNHH: How did you choose your cast? Anthony does an amazing job. He seems like he did not even have to really act; he just had to be himself. How did you ever get someone to play Lucy at that?
CP: Well Nathan and I knew we were writing the movie for Anthony, which was an artistic bonus – so we played to his characteristics. Finding the rest of the (non-union) cast was much more difficult. Elisa Moolecherry did our casting and spent literally months seeing thousands of actors – which is the boring secret to casting I think: You gotta keep seeing people until you find the right actor – don’t just hire your friends.
Anthony Alviano: Chris and Nathan told me they thought of me specifically in the role which was flattering, and I think I understood exactly what they where going for in terms of the character playing with the audience’s idea of reality. I always thought the most interesting thing about the idea was to make it as naturalistic as possible, so I thought I should just play the part like your next-door neighbor. I really did want people to question whether it was fictional movie or a real documentary.
CP: Finding someone to play Lucy (played by Barb Walsh) was a bit of a nightmare due to the demands of the character. Casting came down to two women each amazing in their own way – ultimately our first choice ended up dislocating her knee and Barb stepped in. After she was convinced we weren’t making a porno she was a real trooper.
LNHH: How did you guys meet each other and go from there on this film?
AA: I’ve known Chris (Power) since high school and was in one of his early shorts – later on they were going to do another short when the idea Long Pigs came up.
CP: Anthony was ahead of me in high school so we never really hung out that much, but he was clearly one of the “stars” of our high school drama department, which put on a major show each year. So when we met I was playing four one-minute parts while Anthony was in every scene getting huge laughs. When I ran my very first 16mm film through a bolex, I asked Anthony to appear and of course he did an awesome job.
LNHH: There was a scene in Long Pigs that was a fairly uncomfortable one for Anthony; how did you deal with the scene of Barbara Walsh (Lucy the Prostitute)? I know she had to hang upside down at least three times naked for it.
AA: I was far more concerned with Barb than anything else, A lot of my sweatyness and rapid breathing in that scene comes from me really wanting it to be over with as quickly as possible. It comes off like I’m excited.
CP: Yeah that was not a wonderful shooting experience, but Barb pulled us through and was the hero of that scene for sure. It’s tough asking someone to do something you’d never ever do yourself… like hand upside down bare-ass naked.
LNHH: Anthony being a role of a serial killer did you do any research and was there a specific killer you based McAlistar after?
AA: I did do research on numerous serial killers but the character wasn’t based on any one historical person.
CP: We had a giant binder of research but it certainly wasn’t our “bible” – all proper kudos for the creation of that character goes to Anthony.
LNHH: I know the budget was not all that big but how did you pull it off? The FX were simply amazing.
CP: I tell our sad but epic SFX tale a lot:
SFX part 1: We initially went with a SFX supervisor who was more inexperienced, but assured us he was up to the task of creating our “Lucy body”. After avoiding showing us the results until we were on set, we were horrified to be presented a wrinkled, totally unusable piece that looked more like a giant baked ham – total cost/waste $4000.
SFX part 2: After that fiasco we contacted a prominent female SFX supervisor in the city who took the script and agreed to a scheduled meeting. We showed up early for the meeting in the middle of the afternoon to find their SFX shop completely closed – nobody home - no answer from any phone number. We only found out by chance many months later that the owner of the shop had read the script for Long Pigs and deemed it “so horrible it should never be produced”.
SFX part 3: Finally we found Chris Bridges! (Cue the angel’s chorus!!!) Not only is he the most talented man we’ve ever met in the industry but also he’s also the nicest! Chris and Tony Labatt delivered in spades for this film under the worst physical and financial circumstances. We could speak forever about this genius - who literally saved our film.
LNHH: I do want to talk about the FX on your film for a moment. You had Chris Bridges who has done many big films such as 300, Silent Hill, saw 3 and many other great films, how did you guys get him to agree to Long Pigs?
CP: We begged and cried! Here’s the story from the man himself:
Chris Bridges (special effects): One day Tony came in and mentioned that one of his friends was on a small film and that they were having problems with some effects they had hired out and could we maybe talk with the Directors. We did meet with Chris and Nathan - they even brought us the body the other effects guy made in hopes that maybe it could be salvaged. They made it clear they did not have much money left over from the original build, and I think I felt a little sorry for them, I mean the body they brought in looked like a baked ham. And so Tony and I agreed to help and remake the body - as cheaply as we could. The thing I liked about these guys is they didn’t try to hustle me with promises of getting paid on their next five films or anything. They were desperate and honest.
LNHH: With such a small crew how well did the filming go? Was there any horror story’s per say or did things go smooth during the making?
CP: Oh yeah, it was totally smooth sailing – no bumps at all – every day was like a trip to the beach… and if you believe that I just got an email from a Nigerian Prince who needs your help to clear his trust fund.
AA: – actually I can’t really think of anything that bad…
CP: How about the rotten meat?
AA: Oh right…
CP: lol
AA: Well, all the meat that we used for the effects was actually stored in the same freezer you see in the scene... but somewhere along the line it stopped working, and we’d forgotten to take the meat out. Before long you could really smell the stench of death down there.
LNHH: The fact that this is a horror movie do you guys like to watch horror movies or just prefer to make them and act in them?
CP: I’ve always been a fan – I think we love horror movies the same way little kids scream with delight as they go down the slide - even though they might be scared the first time. Three movies that messed with my head as a kid in particular: “The Thing” (1982), “Poltergeist”, and the original “Nightmare on Elm Street”. My old sketchbooks from that age are filled with gory scenes from those movies – my poor mom must’ve been worried...
AA: I’m not specifically a horror fan but I’ve always enjoyed the genre. From an actor’s point of view it definitely “fun” to work in horror, and it’s not like I’m up for any Johnny Depp roles or anything. Horror embraces actors who don’t have “leading man” looks.
LNHH: You guys have had an amazing amount of success on this film how was the first showing for you guys?
CP: Well the success is still yet to come I hope – financially anyhow. How was our world premiere you ask? Well, we got off the plane for our “World Premiere” to find us incorrectly listed in the main festival program for 10:00 AM instead of PM! We rallied our spirits and the four of us hustled our asses off handing out postcards with the correct time for over a week, and when the night of the premiere finally came around we were delighted to see a huge line up at the theater! Our efforts paid off!!!
(Insert slo-mo high fives over “Rocky” music)
Unfortunately that theater was also premiering 300 on the same night. We played to about 53 people including our parents – I distinctly remember a fellow filmmaker from New York who fell asleep and snored like a chainsaw with his head back and mouth wide open – good times…
Another festival had a packed house full of people laughing and loving the movie – with 10 minutes to go the film suddenly stops and begins to rewind… The projectionist gets the film back to the same place – it stops again. Basically the guy who had transferred the festival’s program tape had fallen asleep and not seen that the tape ran out before Long Pigs finished, With no other playable format the lights just came up and the crowd was apologetically asked to leave.
LNHH: What is in store for Long Pigs and both you and Anthony?
CP: Hopefully Long Pigs 2! And of course, scores of wild groupies for Anthony!
AA: Yeah!
LNHH: Any last words for our readers?
AA: Thanks and keep sending in those recipes!
CP: I never thought in a million years we’d see Long Pigs being accepted by the horror community like it has been – so thank goodness for horror fans and thanks for the interest! Huge thanks to Late Night at the Horror Hotel for all their support!! Check these guys out!
To Read the Review of Long Pigs done by, both John cannon and Rob Dimension - Click Here!!!
About Heather Henshaw - I absolutely love, live and breathe horror. I talk what I love and back what I say. I also write for a site called Cinema Head Cheese http://cinemaheadcheese.blogspot.com/ if you want to check it out as well. I just want to say many thanks to everyone for backing horror and the people who bring us the films. If it was not for you guys we would not write or enjoy the genre. We have become a family that I am proud to be a part of. Keep on being spooky y'all…Contact me atteufelskind@ymail.com
