February 2014 – DailyNightmare

Fangoria Magazine announced that Scott Schirmer’s award winning feature “Found” will receive distribution by The October People and that makes me smile a broad, toothy grin. Elsa and I watched “Found” at the IndieHorror.TV First Anniversary Party, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again.

Found presents the best qualities of independent horror, including a smart, self-aware storyline that examines real-life anxieties while ratcheting up the stakes with some well-motivated gore. Why aren’t there more horror movies that critically examine the effects of horror movies as insightfully as Found? Fans of the genre will appreciate the nod to VHS video nasties of yesteryear while civilians will appreciate a coming-of-age tale depicted at that tender moment when an overly curious boy learns the horror and the power of brutality in everyday life. I could quibble about, maybe, some over-exposed backgrounds in the print I saw but there was evidence of well-considered shot composition and cinematography throughout, qualities all too often over-looked in low budget cinema. Found isn’t dumbed-down to a test-market perfect blandness which means there are some sharp edges that will chaff some viewers. For instance, the film seems to thematize race in a way I didn’t quite understand — maybe it’ll be clear on a second viewing — but I appreciated seeing a couple non-white faces…even if their heads eventually appeared in the bowling ball bag. It’s a gutsy, nearly reckless choice to cast youngsters in important roles (Proof text: Anakin Skywalker) but the lead actors of Found pull off the challenge of making sometimes extreme interactions feel normal. I could totally believe these two young men were brothers.

The digital revolution has allowed nearly every bozo with a cellphone to make their own horror movie– including me. If you’ve seen a schlocky home-made slasher and think that represents independent horror, please track down a copy of “Found.” This new distribution deal with The October People makes that search just a bit easier.

Cold?

Good.

Snowing?

Even better.

Settle in for a creepy, literate ride through rural Michigan with “The River Through the Trees,” a novella by David Peak (Blood Bound Books, 2013) I’m a sucker for tales set in my home state and this one gets the little details right, like the chapter headings that set a time of day and the amount of snow that is falling. There are times of the year around here when that’s all that matters. The book also nails the acrid desperation of folks stuck in towns where nothing is going on, folks who lack the means or motivation to leave. In small towns, everyone knows everyone else’s business while simultaneously being blind to other, darker endeavors and mysteries. Peak’s book gets that sense right too. Ardor, Mi surely feels like a real place, but one made a bit truer than real, like Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, or more to the point, Lovecraft’s Arkham–other reviewers brood on the similarity to HP’s place-bound cosmic horror. Personally, I could stand to see a mythos spawned from “The River Through the Trees.” Certainly there’s a vibrant cast of weirdness set out… and I can’t say much more than that for risking spoilers. It’s a quick read, maybe 50,000 words perfect for a winter’s night when you unplug the cable, switch off your celphone and remember what rural Michigan felt like in 1993.