Horror

Description

Product Description Director Dante Tomaselli merges two disturbing story lines into a visually arresting chiller. At the onset, a group of teens escapes from a drug rehab center, heading toward a supposed promise of salvation at the house of a psychopathic reverend Salo, Jr. Leader of the pack, Luck, fueled by major hallucinogens, transports the gang to the reverend's isolated house where a simultaneous second plot is evolving… Once there, a bizarre and disturbing series of events unfold as the teens discover that the reverend and his wife have enslaved their daughter through enforced drug addiction and psychic brainwashing. In this nightmarish universe, nothing is what it seems. The only salvation appears to be the guidance of her paternal grandfather Reverend Salo, Sr. But hope is quickly jeopardized when it is revealed that Salo, Sr's comforting visitations are from beyond the grave. Shortly after the arrival of the rehab escapees, Luck shoots and kills Salo, Jr. and his wife. This eruption of bloody violence is a catalyst for the unleashing of dark forces including torture, a chamber of horrors, and murderous attacks by a demonic satanic goat and an army of zombies. This is a nightmarish universe where nothing is what it seems. The ambiguous ending is left open for interpretation with a guarantee of being intriguing and darkly nihilistic. .com If disconnected glimpses of classic horror-movie visions were all it took, Horror would easily be counted a low-budget masterpiece. New Jersey-born filmmaker Dante Tomaselli (who certainly has a great name for a horror movie director) has obviously studied the imagery of the Bava-Argento line of Italian horror, and he's conjured some genuinely creepy sights: a black goat standing in the snow, a doll's head melting, a girl sliding silently from beneath a bed. This stuff gets under your skin, no doubt, but it would be nice if Tomaselli supplied some coherent reason to be watching all this. Girl-in-peril Lizzy Mahon is a cut above the generally awkward acting, but the top-lined performer is the Amazing Kreskin, whose kooky mentalism hugger-mugger is cleverly incorporated into his role as a faith-healing preacher. (Tomaselli has Kreskin, Ed Wood had Criswell…discuss.) It doesn't really make sense, but psychotronic viewers will want to see it. --Robert Horton Additional Features An audio commentary from director Dante Tomaselli gives hints about what is actually going on in the movie, a "making-of" short gives a whiff of a do-it-yourself horror production (à la American Movie), and backstage footage shows Kreskin using his amazing powers of mentalism on the cast (he also recounts a meeting with Orson Welles and disparages the idea of hypnotism). Plus, there's an 11-minute sequence cut from Tomaselli's maiden effort, Desecration. --Robert Horton Review "GOTHIC SURREALISM...HORROR CAN'T HELP BUT IMPRESS WITH ITS LUSH, UNSETTLING TEXTURAL CONFIDENCE...RICH IN ATMOSPHERE...DISTINCTLY OMINOUS..." -- Variety Magazine, March 23, 2003 From the Back Cover Director Dante Tomaselli merges two disturbing story lines into a visually arresting chiller. At the onset, a group of teens escapes from a drug rehab center, heading toward a supposed promise of salvation at the house of a psychopathic reverend Salo, Jr. Leader of the pack, Luck, fueled by major hallucinogens, transports the gang to the reverend's isolated house where a simultaneous second plot is evolving… Once there, a bizarre and disturbing series of events unfold as the teens discover that the reverend and his wife have enslaved their daughter through enforced drug addiction and psychic brainwashing. In this nightmarish universe, nothing is what it seems. The only salvation appears to be the guidance of her paternal grandfather Reverend Salo, Sr. But hope is quickly jeopardized when it is revealed that Salo, Sr's comforting visitations are from beyond the grave. Shortly after the arrival of the rehab escapees, Luck shoots and kills Salo, Jr. and his wife. This eruption of bloody violence is a catalyst for the unleashing of dark forces including torture, a chamber of horrors, and murderous attacks by a demonic satanic goat and an army of zombies. This is a nightmarish universe where nothing is what it seems. The ambiguous ending is left open for interpretation with a guarantee of being intriguing and darkly nihilistic.