The folks out at Indican Pictures had just one more surprise for me–a special advance look at Dark Metropolis, and it’s actually really nice, except it’s kind of familiar.

Dark Metropolis follows the combination of humans and Ghen, in which the humans created the Ghen to serve as a slave race. Labor, product testing, all like that. And eventually, the Ghen, with their superior genetics, broke free of the humans’ control and decided turnabout was fair play. Somehow, while engaging in a three hundred year war with the humans, the Ghen built a series of underground cities and a whole civilization. Meanwhile, humanity’s civilization and cities fell apart, leaving them prime for Ghen conquest. Now humanity is the slave race, and the Ghen the masters. At least, that’s until the alien Kalendoah showed up and started channeling their pure energy through the humans, rather, one human in particular. Now the Ghen want this human, the Channeler, under their control–but will they get their way and doom humanity forever?

The visuals here are surprisingly impressive for low-budget science fiction, which is a pretty big surprise by most any standard, and the idea is certainly sweeping enough for three science fiction epics, which is something of a problem, even though it’s mostly a good thing. It’s almost a little too ambitious for its own good–they had a good thing going with the humans / Ghen thing. Adding on the Kalendoah, the bizarre energy beings who occasionally crop up, is a little on the unnecessary side. Still though, between the great look and the huge plot, this could easily be an entire series on, say, SyFy, rather than an eighty five minute movie.

But there are plenty of problems here–if it weren’t for the lack of giant armored exoskeletons, this would be almost the exact same plot as a Saturday morning cartoon from back in the mid 1990s called Exosquad. I’ll leave it to you to check up on the similarities, and you’ll find there are surprisingly many here. Some might make comparisons between this and the massive lump of godawful sludge known as Battlefield Earth, but at least that had some action in it.

No, it’s not the lack of originality or the overambitious nature of the plot that’s the big problem with Dark Metropolis, the problem is the script itself. It’s so thoroughly dependent on dialogue that it literally will not shut up. At any given point, someone is talking. Human, Ghen, Kalendoah through Human…someone somewhere will always be talking in Dark Metropolis, and they will not. Shut. UP. Ever.

The worst part is when they actually present weapons, but don’t use them for better than the first half of the movie. Why? Because they’re too busy throwing soliliquy at the audience like a Three Stooges short chucked cream pies. This may well be some of the blandest, dullest science fiction I’ve ever seen. Dystopia should not be this boring. And worse, when they actually do remember they have weapons, and fire them, the effect is almost laughably low-quality.

Of course, all of this does need to be viewed in the light that it’s the first part of three (at last report) and plenty of trilogies have started off badly and ended pretty well. I remember The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and how I actually fell asleep during The Fellowship of the Ring. Still though, this is pretty snoozeworthy material. It actually does manage to get a bit more interesting in the last ten minutes or so, but this is too little too late for this one.

The Screenhead Ten Scale wakes up from its brief catnap and hands Dark Metropolis a four out of ten for being almost painfully dull, but while still acknowledging that there’s hope for this thing yet. It’s better split over a larger time frame, but it’s still too much dialogue in too little space.

The folks out at Last Night sent a copy of The Absent out for us to review, and I’ll hand it to them, this is some low budget indie horror done RIGHT.  It’s been a while since I last had a taste of the sweet low budget indie, and this is some of the finest kind indeed.

The Absent takes us to a small town where a high school science teacher, Vincent Burton, is in the midst of an illicit affair with one of his Science Olympiad stars, who herself is having a few illicit affairs with some of the boys around. But what he doesn’t know is that his brother, Oscar, has recently been released from a prison term he served following the death of their parents. And Oscar knows what Vincent’s been up to. But Oscar’s a loving brother, and he doesn’t want to see Vincent go to prison for statutory rape, so he launches off on an orgy of homicides leading up to his final battle with his brother, where one of them won’t be getting out alive.

The Absent is a great little film–it has terrifically fast pacing, and watches almost like the parts of Misery where the sheriff is tracking down Paul Sheldon, only without all the crazy Annie Wilkes action. It moves so quickly and so carefully that you can’t help but be immersed. Considering that the movie only lasts an hour and twenty minutes, it’s really not surprising that it moves quickly. When I watched it, I found myself marveling at how quickly the first hour had gone by–I scarcely noticed, I was so busy keeping up with the plot, which moved at such a rapid clip it was impossible not to find yourself immersed in it.

It was also the first time, as far as I could remember, that the high school drama of who’s having sex with who would actually turn out to be a plot point.

But since The Absent moves along at a nice rapid clip and adds a few decent shocks, it’s well worth your time as a suspense / thriller with just a bit of horror. The ending is a bit on the predictable side, and throws some unpleasant unanswered questions out into the way, but overall, you’ll have a good time here.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Absent an eight out of ten for doing a great job up until the last few minutes, and even then, it hardly drops the ball that hard. You should enjoy this, especially if you’re a suspense / thriller buff.

Now there’s a combo you’d never expect to see. Director of offbeat indie comedies that tend to lean towards the darker elements of life (Sideways, About Schmidt), Alexander Payne is set to direct a film produced by the bombastic Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1 – 3, Drag Me To Hell, the Evil Dead trilogy). The pair are lined up to work together on an adaptation of the leftfield comic Wilson.

Okay, so it’s not entirely accurate. According to Deadline, Payne is interested in the project that will be produced by Raimi’s company Stars Road. But it’s still an exciting line-up, especially since Payne hasn’t released a feature film since 2004′s Sideways (his next film, The Descendants, should see a release late next year).

Wilson is a comic book following the eponymous character as he tries to find human connections despite being an overt misanthrope. There are similarities to the late Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor comics, which became the brilliant American Splendor movie in 2003. Wilson was written by Daniel Clowes, who is also adapting the script. Clowes also adapted his own Ghost World into a script which became the effective film in 2001, and also Art School Confidential.

Just think, if Ed Burns hadn’t of chosen to stay out of the big studio system with the film Nice Guy Johnny, shooting on a tight budget and forgoing a theatrical release; creating a better business model for independent filmmakers, Screenhead would never have held this giveaway!

Since we did hold the giveaway, we have our two winners: Marcy Strahan and Sara Heller!  Congratulations to our two lucky winners!

 The Nice Guy Johnny Prize Pack includes:

Signed Nice Guy Johnny poster by Ed Burns

Signed Nice Guy Johnny screenplay by Ed Burns

DVD of Nice Guy Johnny

Soundtrack from Nice Guy Johnny

Like I mentioned before, I would love to get my hands on the signed screenplay. What a treasure that would be!  But, I can’t participate in the giveaway because I am sponsoring it. Alas!

Probably one of the few remaining US directors with a truly distinct visual style, it’s always good news to hear that Wes Anderson is planning his next movie. His last film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, was indeed fantastic, and having broadened his film-making techniques to include animation, what will he taken on next? Well, his next film is titled Moon Rise Kingdom and has a hell of a cast attached.

According to Deadline, the film is set in the 1960′s where a New England couple disappear, and the local authorities are on the hunt to find them. Actors who are talks for major roles are Ed Norton (as a scout leader), Tilda Swinton, Bruce Willis (as a town sheriff), Frances McDormand (as the missing girl’s mother who is having an affair with the sheriff), and of course Anderson regular Bill Murray. Anderson is fast becoming the new Woody Allen: a respected director of actors who’ll do it for peanuts just to be part of his vision.

The film looks to have finance in place and will film next year. It’s being co-written by Roman Coppola (Francis Ford’s son), who also co-wrote The Darjeeling Ltd.

I’ve got to hand it to the folks at IFC, who sent me a screener copy of their upcoming (like twelve days away upcoming!) release of Heartless, a movie that lets British horror go to its full extent. And though that extent will often be confusing, it will also bring some good scares along for the ride.

Heartless follows Jamie Morgan, a man with something of an infirmity in the social circles–a big port-wine-stain birthmark on his face. Speaking as someone with a similar birthmark all along the entirety of his left arm (seriously, fingertip to shoulder!), I too know how this can work out.  Jamie goes out one day to indulge his love of photography and snaps pictures of abandoned yards when he finds a group of kids having their own kind of fun, starting fires and whooping uproariously. This begins a dark road for Jamie, as he finds it possible to get ride of his birthmark…if he’s willing to do a little work for the forces of chaos. But deals made with chaos don’t usually end well, and soon, Jamie finds himself trying desperately to get out from under.

The problem here is that Jamie’s deal with chaos–represented in the form of a strange character by the name of Papa B–ends up looking like nothing so much as the horror version of Snatch. Sure, it’s interesting in its way, and there are a few good shocks here, though it often gets a little unusual. We don’t know why Papa B’s amending his deal with Jamie, let alone where the Weapon Man showed up, or what the deal is with Papa B’s little faceless drone-minions. There’s quite a bit about this that isn’t exactly clear, but that’s actually all right, in retrospect. The movie is neck deep in chaos, so a few unfinished points of fact in here actually fits into the overall theme pretty well.

Still though, the narrative is a little on the weak side, but the whole thing is actually pretty good, all in all. Good scares, but a bit of weakness in the plot, contributes to a total package that’s a little cerebral in its scares but still has them. You’ll find scarier movies out there–plenty more adrenaline-pumping ones–but this one, flaws and all, will do well.

The Screenhead Ten Scale hands this periodically scary mind-boggler a six out of ten for not bringing the scares in the density a proper horror movie should, but still brings them, and thus makes it a decent if tame outing.

Breathing new life into the undead is the British horror phenomenon Colin, about the life of a zombie told through his own eyes is Screenhead’s next giveaway!

A surprise hit at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Colin enjoyed a limited U.S. theatrical run in September/October and played to acclaim at numerous film festivals and horror conventions across the country. Colin won “Best Micro-budget Feature Film” at the Raindance Film Festival, the “Indie Spirit Award” at the South Africa Horrorfest, “Best Director” at the Buenos Aires Blood Red Film Festival and the “Special Jury Award” at the Revenant Film Festival. 

In Colin, life bites (literally!) for Colin when, after becoming a zombie snack, he dies and returns as one of the undead. Wandering aimlessly through the streets of London, during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse, we learn about Colin (from his perspective) … who he was and, more pertinently, what he has become, through his encounters with objects, places and people. With a broad-daylight, zombie-versus-human street battle, an epic housebound siege and endless gore, Colin is a terror-ific zombiefest not to be missed!

The brainchild of British writer-director Marc Price, Colin breathes new life into a classic genre, offering an original, unique perspective—a story told through the zombie’s eyes. Made for just $75, mostly spent on tea and cookies for his “zombies,” Price relied on friends and Facebook to cast his legion of undead extras. 

Screenhead have five copies to give away!  Post your name and we will pick the winners November 8, 2010.

Tiny Furniture is a simple independent film with a lot of comic punch in regards to family, friendship and love.  The movie is written, directed and stars New York native Lena Dunham.

The comedy starts out with a college graduate (Dunham) who returns to live with her mom while figuring out what she’s supposed to do with her life now.  The story ventures through romance, through comedy and drama. The interplay with the mother and sisters is fabulous. 

The casting and dialogue create a movie that is quite good, according to reviewers and critics from various festivals.  The film will be released November 12, 2010 but very limited.

A few days ago we reported that Darren Aronofsky is probably weighing up offers on some major studio projects, namely Wolverine 2 and Tales from the Gangster Squad. But news of one of his other projects in development has arrived on our digital doorsteps.

A few months back it was announced that Aronofsky was to team up with Brad Pitt (showing that the pair still have a bond despite the latter dropping out of The Fountain, and almost killing it) for a film called ‘The Tiger’. It’s an adaptation of John Valliant’s true account of a Siberian village terrorised by an Amur tiger in the early 1990′s. Little else emerged beyond that, and most of us forgot about the project. But this week writer Guillermo Arriaga (who penned Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros), who adapted the book, revealed that location scouting was under way, and also that not only were Pitt and Aronofsky still attached, but so is Angelina Jolie.

There’s no confirmation yet of these details, and the project will have to navigate through three highly desired film-makers in order to happen. It’s also a strange choice for maverick film-maker Aronofsky, as the outline does remind one of the disposable The Ghost and the Darkness. But reviews of the book note its attention to social and political circumstances, which may make it more than just another man-vs-beast story.

Critics have said that we’ve yet to see a truly great film about the US’s “war on terror”, whether it’s Afghanistan or Iraq. Most, including Lions for Lambs, Green Zone, and Stop-Loss, have failed to make an impact financially or critically. Even Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker aimed to be indistinct, focussing on character instead of a particular war. So now that it seems we won’t have a Deer Hunter of the noughties, it’s time for pop to take over its place. Just like James Bond dealt with the Cold War, Buried feels like a popcorn thriller that takes a shot at an anti-war statement.

The film takes place entirely in a coffin. Truck driver Paul Conroy awakens to find himself trapped underground, with initially only a lighter, a pen, and his sanity to figure out what’s going on. He discovers a phone in the box and uses it to seek help. Only all he knows is that his convoy of aid was ambushed in Iraq. After several frustrating attempts to get the attention of various agencies, including the FBI and the private company he was hired by, he makes contact with hostage negotiator Dan Brenner who strives to calm him down and come up with a solution. But when the kidnapper calls Paul and makes demands that can’t be achieved, Paul starts to panic.

So what we essentially have is the kind of plot you would see on Alfred Hitchcock Presents stretched into 90 minutes with a large dose of criticism directed towards a US military which is portrayed as putting profit and propaganda before saving lives. The kidnapper demands money, but Paul’s US military contact confirms that it’s policy to never pay out, leaving Paul feeling hopeless. Paul wonders about his chances of coming out alive, and Brenner doesn’t sound optimistic when asked about previous situations. When Paul is ordered to make a hostage video, Brenner warns him not to, suggesting that his priority is to limit media exposure rather than save a trapped and innocent man. In ways, these are all well-thought criticisms that blend seamlessly with the plot. But at times the polemic goes so far beyond what is believable. The worst culprit is a scene in which the company that hired Paul calls him to make him swear a verbal affidavit so he can be fired, and thus the company doesn’t have to pay out insurance money. As self-preserving as corporations can get, this is perhaps too much to believe. READ ON »