Movies
SDCC ’08: Halo-8 Entertainment’s Comic Con Happenings
Halo-8 Entertainment is heading to the sold-out San Diego Comic Con on Saturday July 26th with starlets Tiffany Shepis (“NIGHTMARE MAN”), Melissa Bacelar (“PINK EYE,” Lionsgate’s upcoming “SKINNED ALIVE”), Katie Nisa (“THREAT”), and Joanna Angel (TLC’s “L.A. INK,” “SICK & TWISTED HORROR”) to preview the studio’s most ambitious production yet: an interactive horror-comedy called “SLUMBER PARTY SLAUGHTERHOUSE: THE GAME,” created by award-winning filmmaker Matt Pizzolo (“THREAT,” upcoming graphic novel “GODKILLER”). Halo-8 has slated the film for a Halloween 2008 release. Read on for more info.
The innovative feature stars Shepis, Bacelar, Nisa, Angel, and Masuimi Max (“INLAND EMPIRE,” “THE DEVIL’S MUSE”) in a narrative, splatterpunk DVD-game with scenes written and directed by numerous filmmakers on the Halo-8 roster including Pizzolo, Angel, Doug Sakmann (“PUNK ROCK HOLOCAUST”), Joshua Nelson (“PINK EYE”), Ramzi Abed (“THE DEVIL’S MUSE”), Kurly Tlapoyawa (“GIMME SKELTER”), and Peter Hoare (“BEER THE MOVIE”).
“SLUMBER PARTY SLAUGHTERHOUSE: THE GAME is a unique and exciting Halloween treat developed especially for the rabid fans of Halo-8’s bold filmmakers and intriguing starlets,” said Todd Miller, Director of Operations for Halo-8. “Filmmaking has always been collaborative, but the interactive-movie Matt developed has taken that collaborative spirit to another level.”
“We wanted to put together a really fun and hare-brained Halloween treat for the fans,” said Matt Pizzolo. “The awesome thing about Halo-8 is that we’re all huge fans of one another… filming a game together gave all the directors and actors a chance to work together in a really cool and different way.”
In SLUMBER PARTY SLAUGHTERHOUSE: THE GAME, audiences get the chance to put their horror movie trivia skills to the test while also helping a recently deceased high school geek take revenge on his former friends. The story follows Paul Tard, a geek on the eve of his high school graduation. Paul’s friends are throwing a graduation party with hookers and drugs, but, when they come up one hooker short, Paul is uninvited to the party. Drowning his sorrows in wine stolen from a homeless man, Paul decides to take a bubble bath and bring along his laptop for some internet porn. Of course, the laptop falls in the bathtub and Paul electrocutes himself to death. None of this would have happened if he’d only been invited to the party, so Paul sells his soul to a demon in exchange for the power to take revenge on his former friends.
Structurally, SLUMBER PARTY SLAUGHTERHOUSE: THE GAME is a trivia challenge. Whenever Paul wants to kill one of his friends, the demon asks a horror movie trivia question and the film dissolves to a multiple choice menu. If the audience chooses the correct answer, Paul gets the power to kill his ex-friend (and the friend’s hooker, to tie up those pesky loose ends); but the wrong answer will send Paul to hell unavenged. Each “killscene” in the film is written and directed by a different Halo-8 filmmaker and stars actors from Halo-8 films.
Halo-8 Entertainment (www.halo8.tv) is devoted to supporting the unique visions of bold filmmakers by widely releasing daring films, alt-culture videos, and punk rock cinema. Recent releases include the controversial documentary YOUR MOMMY KILLS ANIMALS (which Variety called “a miraculously evenhanded treatment of a snarlingly divisive debate”), the award-winning hardcore-punk thriller THREAT (which Urb Magazine said “makes KIDS look like an after-school special”), and the legendary NY hardcore documentary N.Y.H.C. (which Cinematical called “smashing… a terrific, well-told, engaging story”). Upcoming releases include the Manson-inspired shocker GIMME SKELTER (which ScreamTV called “a low budget masterpiece”), the hard-edged slasher film PINK EYE (which Bloody Disgusting called “vicious and convincing… a lingering nightmare”), and the stylish & surreal horror film THE DEVIL’S MUSE (which Rue Morgue called “intoxicating and sensual”).
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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