KILLER DOUBLE FEATURE FOR CHICAGO FILMMAKER Native Chicago filmmaker screens his serial killer documentaries May 31 at the Portage Theater.

Chicago, IL – Award winning filmmaker John Borowski attends a double dose of his films: H.H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer and Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation. Chicago’s historic Portage Theatre will host the double feature on May 31 at 8:00pm (Holmes) and 9:30pm (Fish). Borowski will be present for Q&A and autographing DVD’s after the shows.

HH HOLMES is the story behind America’s first serial killer who terrorized Chicago during the turn-of-the- century World’s Fair. Borowski chronicles the details of Holmes’ grisly life, beginning with his childhood, through the emerging deceptions that brought him to Chicago, the construction of his notorious “death house,” the cross-country man-hunt to find him, and finally ending with his incarceration and execution. Holmes’ story also became the subject of the best-selling novel, Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. H.H. Holmes is screening at the Portage Theatre on May 31st at 8:00pm.

ALBERT FISH tells the horrific true story of a sadomasochistic cannibal and serial killer, who lured children to their deaths in Depression-era New York City. Elderly but still deadly, Fish distorted biblical tales by taking the stories of pain, punishment, atonement, and suffering literally as he preyed on victims to torture and sacrifice. The film has been called “The most disturbing film ever made.” Albert Fish is screening at the Portage Theatre on March 23rd at 9:30pm. It is the first docudrama and definitive chronicle of the life and times of this murderous figure.

Also appearing at the screening are artist/collector Matthew Aaron, owner of The Last Dime Museum, who will be displaying serial killer Joel Rifkin’s photo albums and framed art and Charles D. Moisant, comic book publisher and owner of Silver Phoenix Entertainment.

Borowski’s films have been distributed and screened worldwide. At Chicago’s Midwest Independent Film Festival, Borowski earned the Best Director award, and at Screamfest LA, he walked away with the award for Best Horror Documentary. By exclusive invitation, he screened H.H. Holmes and lectured numerous Universities and colleges including The Chicago Historical Society, Chicago International Documentary Film Festival, St. Xavier University, and Indiana State University. Borowski is currently wrapping up production on his third “historical horror” documentary film, Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance, which will be screened at the Portage Theater on August 12, 2012 and released on DVD and Netflix streaming in the fall of 2012.

May 31, 2012 – SERIAL KILLER DOUBLE FEATURE

8:00 pm – H.H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer (64 mins.)

9:30 pm – Albert Fish (86 mins.) WARNING! Contains graphic images and explicit language.

Tickets: $10.00 for the double feature.

Portage Theatre: 4050 North Milwaukee Avenue

Theatre Website: portagetheater.org

Theatre Phone: 773-736-4050

Official Film Site: johnborowski.com

Contact: John Borowski, filmmaker – john@johnborowski.com

SHOW’S DOWNLOAD LINK:
http://www.mediafire.com/?xl97uwcyli3ozsk

In the “Countess Perverse” aka “La comtesse perverse” (1973, France, 78 min.), a pair of decadent and debauched aristocrats turns their private island into a human hunting ground where they can stalk their naked prey.  As each victim is murdered, their carcass is then cooked and fed to their guests; simply delicious!  What the unsuspecting visitors don’t realize is that they will soon become the next evening’s “meal, “ eventually fighting for their lives in a shocking and flesh-baring cat-and-mouse game.  With suave actor Howard Vernon (“Seven Women for Satan”) and the stunningly sexy Alice Arno (“Justine de Sade”), the “Countess Perverse”  delivers Jess Franco-sized,  wicked entertainment packed with sex, sleaze and outrageous behavior.

COUNTESS PERVERSE
A film by Jess Franco
1973, France, 78 min., Color, Unrated
French with English Subtitles

Starring Alice Arno, Howard Vernon Kali Hansa,  Lina Romay, Tania Busselier and Robert Woods

Tech and Special Features include:
Brand new transfer from original negative , Anamorphic 16:9, (1.33:1)
Interview with actor Robert Woods
Extensive Production Notes and introduction by film critic Stephen Thrower
MONDO MACABRO previews
S.R.P: $24.99; Street date: June 12, 2012

Experience a world of weird at your fingertips and check out MONDO MACABRE’s Official website: www.MondoMacabroDVD.com

Pre-order your copy today at:
TLACult.com: http://bit.ly/Ir27Rm
Amazon.com:  http://amzn.to/ITT9yT

Watch trailers and movies, like “Suicide Club” online now at
www.YouTube.com/DangerAfterDark

TWINS OF EVIL (1971)

Two beautiful orphaned identical twins, Maria and Frieda Gellhorn (Playboy centerfold models Mary and Madeleine Collinson), move to the village of Karnstein to live with their uncle GustavWeil (played by Hammer horror favorite, Peter Cushing), a fanatical puritan and leader of the local witch-hunting “Brotherhood.” The village Count (Damien Thomas, Never Let Me Go), an evil man who secretly practices Satanism, uses black magic and transforms into a vampire. Unhappy with her new life, Frieda seeks escape and tragically falls under the spell of the Count. Now overcome with an insatiable hunger for human blood, Frieda has to hide her secret from her sister, and escape her uncle’s killing grasp! The wait is over! This Hammer horror classic is now available from Synapse Films in an all-new 1080p high-definition transfer and loaded with exciting exclusive special features. Also stars Kathleen Byron (Black Narcissus), David Warbeck (Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond) and Dennis Price (Jess Franco’s Vampyros Lesbos)!

Bonus Features:

-THE FLESH AND THE FURY: X
-POSING TWINS OF EVIL (84 min.), Feature length documentary on the making of TWINS OF EVIL!, THE PROPS THAT HAMMER BUILT: THE KINSEY COLLECTION Featurette (Blu-ray Exclusive),Motion Still Gallery (Blu-ray Exclusive), Original Theatrical Trailer & TV Spots (Blu-ray Exclusive), Motion Still Gallery (Blu-ray Exclusive), Deleted Scene (Blu-ray Exclusive), Isolated Music & Effects Track (Blu-ray Exclusive)

Twins Of Evil
Blu-ray / DVD Combo
Label: Synapse Films
Streets: 7/10/2012
SRP: 29.95 UPC#: 654930314098
Run Time: 87 Minutes English language
Color Widescreen 1.66:1
DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono Region 1 / A
Production year: 1971 (Hammer Films)
Director: John Hough
Stars: Peter Cushing, Dennis Price, David Warbeck, Madeleine Collinson, Mary Collinson
Genre: Horror
NOT RATED

SOURCE: SYNAPSE FILMS

Synopsis:

After the terror unleashed on Lake Victoria in PIRANHA 3D, the pre-historic school of blood thirsty piranhas are back. This time, no one is safe from the flesh eating fish as they sink their razor sharp teeth into the visitors of summer’s best attraction, The Big Wet Water Park. Christopher Lloyd (BACK TO THE FUTURE) reprises his role as the eccentric piranha expert with survivor Paul Scheer (THE LEAGUE) and a partially devoured Ving Rhames (PULP FICTION) back for more fish frenzy. David Hasselhoff trades in the sandy beaches of ‘Baywatch’ to be a celebrity lifeguard at the racy water park. Prepare for double the terror, double the action and double the Ds in this sequel also starring Gary Busey (LETHAL WEAPON), Katrina Bowden (30 ROCK), Danielle Panabaker (THE CRAZIES), Matt Bush (ADVENTURELAND), Chris Zylka (THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) and David Koechner (ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY).

Piranha 3DD opens in theaters on June 1st, 2012.

HIKE is a very short film with a running time of only 7:23, but the film was pretty well shot, had decent production values (the sound mix was in Dolby Digital and the original film’s format was shot in 1080p with an aspect ratio letterboxed 1:2:35), and was shot in color. The short film stars Tony Butler as the man in the film and Stefany Mathias (PATHFINDER, THE SEA) as the woman. The two both head into the woods on a hike together. Then something happens. That really is all I can safely say without spoiling the end of the film. After all, with a very brief run time of under 7 minutes, what the hell are you expecting?!

Here is the official film synopsis:
Hike is a horror short about what can happen when you go into the woods.  A man and woman embark on a day trip, hiking to a remote area in the woods. No one is around and they are alone. After awhile they stop to rest and relax. Things seem okay but something is not quite right. A gruesome discovery is made and grisly circumstances unfold as a result.

Anyhow, the film does have some good suspense, a bit of gore and blood and was a fun short film that I can safely recommend to all my readers. It also shows that the production company has some real promise in showing what they can do when they make a full-length feature film (FINAL WEEKEND is currently in pre-production and has a trailer posted up on the production company’s website).

<<<<<As one can see from the photo to the left, the film primarily takes place in the woods where are two lead characters decide to go on a hike. I highly recommend watching this short film right before one goes on a camping trip or decides to go on a blind-date and the location happens to be a Forest Preserve or a National State Park.

The director, Jennifer Campbell, is a writer/director based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada.  She’s completed her first short horror film, Hike, which is currently making the festival rounds (as I mentioned earlier in the post). Jennifer’s love of horror started early thanks to her mum and dad letting her watch anything she wanted. She was hooked on the genre once she saw THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE at age 7 and then THE SHINING at age 9. A love of nature and natural elements plays a large part in her directing style. She loves being outside, film, reading and photography. She’s also a songwriter and classically trained pianist.

The rest of the crew who worked on the film are Thomas Billingsley – Director of Photography, Edmond Burnett – Production Sound Mixer, Brian Minato – Original Music and Sound Mixer, and Patricia Laroque – Production Assistant.

HIKE’s tagline, “If You Fall In The Forest No One Will Hear You Die“, really sums up things well. I strongly recommend checking out this short film and give it the SHU-IZMZ seal of approval. Enjoy the short film’s trailer below and a couple of pics.

Tony, Stef, Thomas, and Jen at work

Remember to tune in to www.coreofdestructionradio.com every Sunday at 12pm/CST to hear the reviews and radio show.

Click here to listen and download: SHU-IZMZ RADIO Ep. 10!

Downloadable link: http://www.mediafire.com/?8fkagq59je8gelo

Now lets take a look at Steve McQueen’s SHAME, a film about a sex addict whose sister decides to show up at his apartment uninvited one day and live at his place indefinitely. Not as terrible as having a guilty conscience for killing two people (one a small child) and ruining a man’s life, SHAME just focuses on a man whose life is completely overtaken by his addiction for sex and porn. Sex can be an addiction just like alcohol and drugs or any other type of uncontrollable urge to have to do something no matter what else is going on at the moment. Hell, I may be addicted to collecting movies, or at least watching them. I think that any film buff could fairly be charged with this form of addiction. Hell, I guess the best part about having an addiction is having a total lack of self-control and not being able to control it.

With SHAME, Michael Fassbender’s character Brandon Sullivan is addicted to sex. I think that this statement may sound a little odd, at first. I personally, thinking enjoying and having fun during sex and the act of sex is natural…and normal. However, sex addiction, as portrayed in McQueen’s SHAME is somewhat over the top. The film, in basic terms, is a day in the life of a sex addict over the course of a week or two (the time-frame I am throwing out there is a guess)

Fassbender, playing sex addict Brandon Sullivan, has a successful career, makes seemingly good money, and fairs very well with the ladies. His apartment looks really nice and is in what appears to be hip part of New York City in Manhattan. He goes to work, has a relationship outside of work with his boss as his friend, and goes out in social settings with him. Then we see him going into the men’s bathroom at work and masturbating during the middle of the day. We see Sullivan having a conversation with his boss asking why his computer desktop was taken away by the computer tech guys who work for the company and how Sullivan reacted with a look of concern as his boss tells him they are installing some programs on it. Things start to slowly add up, building momentum and creating an ever growing bubble showing viewers how deep and intense this addiction to sex is.

Sullivan comes home from a hard day of work, acting “normal” and pleasant amongst his co-workers but we see him sitting at his work computer looking at porn sites when not actually working. Some folks play solitaire or read their personal emails or even go on Facebook and Twitter when not actually working, but Sullivan watches dirty, nasty, explicit porn and surfs those websites. I enjoy porn as much as the next guy or gal, but I NEVER risk losing a job over it by surfing the net on those types of sites while working. After all, there is a time and place for everything. Fassbender does an excellent job portraying a man whose life is controlled by his addiction for porn and sex.

Now one who is addicted to sex, as portrayed in SHAME, is incapable of having a healthy relationship with a nice woman. Sullivan goes on a date with a co-worker who was very flirtatious with him in the break room at work during one day and they meet up for dinner and seem to hit it off, but Marianne (Nicole Beharie) does not even offer him a kiss when they part ways after the date. The next time they meet, they ditch work together and get a room and starting tearing each others’ clothes off for some majorly lustful banging but Sullivan (Fassbender) can’t get a freaking hard-on. He can’t get it up. He has no problem getting an erection when staring at an attractive woman on the subway ride home, practically raping her with his gaze, but when he has a hot and willing young woman ready to bone the dude goes soft. This scene is probably the most miserable thing that could happen in a man’s life and permanently damage his ego and self-esteem. Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen did a great job of writing a story that really portrayed how awful and miserable having an uncontrollable addiction really is.

I thought the film excellently explored sex addiction and my only complaint is the amount of footage that Michael Fassbender was naked in and the full-frontal nudity that accompanied it. Fassbender’s penis was shown more times in the film than most stunt cocks in porn films (not really, but one gets the point!) and while we are on the topic of full-frontal nudity, let’s not forget the very sexy British actress Carrie Mulligan who gets to show off her goods early on in the film when she takes a shower in her brother’s (Fassbender) apartment without asking if she could come over and stay indefinitely beforehand. This scene only lightly begins to show just how damaged Brandon (Fassbender) and his sister Sissy (Mulligan) really are. After all, Brandon, thinking his sister was some intruder who just happens to break into apartments and take showers there, is about to bash the brains in of sees that it is his sister and just stands and stares at her (and we see that she is a brunette) while shouting at her.

If I walked in on my sister after seeing that it was my sister I would immediately leave and have a conversation with her after she wrapped herself in a towel or put some damn clothes on. The whole scene was a whole new level of creepy, even though I was happy to see Mulligan completely nude in a scene shot from a side view. Oddly enough, all of the nudity in the film really wasn’t all the sexy or shocking. It was filmed and presented in a “matter-of-fact” kind of way. It gave the film more of realistic tone and element to it.

As the film moves on, one sees just how much having an “outsider” in his sanctuary and place of living really disrupts his habits and lifestyle. Sissy is a huge train wreck herself and only adds to more complications and personality clashes. It really is true that people like watching tragedy unfold more often than they enjoy seeing things go right because things working out perfectly is really fucking boring.

SHAME had a slick visual style and superb cinematography, among possessing a story and part of life that was not well-known to this viewer. I guess this film is the true definition of misery porn, but it was a film well worth enduring a sitting through. I really recommend checking out the movie, especially if one is a fan of Fassbender, his penis, and Mulligan (who won me over after watching her act opposite Ryan Gosling in Refn’s DRIVE-–a film that was one of my favorites of the year and possibly of all-time). The end of SHAME is one that I had predicted and really was just icing on the cake of misery, but there were so many other aspects of the film I really enjoyed that the fairly predictable ending was trumped by the rest of the film.