Category Archives: Blog

Mr. Higgins and Adam

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Plot: In a world populated by humans and puppets, Adam is discovered on you tube by country sensation, Mr. Higgins and the two embark on adventures of life, love and music.

A WORD FROM AARON:

It’s no secret that this movie is way out of my typical genre. Not only a drama, but a movie that is set behind the folk / rock music scene. I took singing lessons for 4 years, it’s really my third passion (first being movies and second writing) After seeing “A Star is Born” I felt like I should somehow do something with music, but I had no story. I didn’t want to copy that movie as I think it’s amazing the way it is.

I then re-watched episodes of an old show no one seems to talk about, “Greg the Bunny.” Set in a universe of puppets and humans, it’s a show I really enjoy (along with the semi-sequel “Warren the Ape” and I thought merging my love of puppets would be the way to go.

So, merging these two genres together was something I had never seen, so I thought I should do it. My second challenge was singing, sure I could listen to myself-but I hate the sound of my voice, so I enlisted in my friend, Dan Barracuda. He was my vocal coach for a long time and helped me out with pointers, he was a crucial part of this movie.

Secondly was the green screen. I would have loved to film on a real stage with real lights, but I couldn’t get a location. So, my mom and I worked tirelessly to make those scenes as real as possible, I think they came out great. My mom has that perfectionist eye that I don’t have.

This movie is an odd one, but actually it deals in topics that are important, anxiety and self doubt, and I try to portray them in a real way. I really hope you enjoy this labor of love. 🙂


Hell Hound (1977) Review

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Written by: Aaron B.

I first heard of this book while watching reviews of obscure horror movies (thanks to spookyastronauts), someone made a review of a movie called “Baxter”. About a dog who basically has no remorse or guilt for the bad things he does. I knew I had to read this, animal books and horror books are two of my favorite genres.

The opening of the book details Baxter’s disdain for his owner, an old lady who he eventually pushes down the stairs. He enjoys watching her die, so kicks off the story. The chapters are partly written in an omnipresent fashion, while the other chapters (and my personal favorite ones) were written from the POV of Baxter himself. I sort of wish the entire book had been written in this way, but I also understand that character development happened in the other chapters.

They’re a few startling events in the book, but don’t go into this thinking it’s a bloodbath. This isn’t a slasher, it’s a dark and psychological story about what it means to be a sociopath and have violent tendencies. The story is about the build up to violent acts and the anticipation rather then the actual ‘kill.’ The book is intense because of the lack of emotion not only from the dog, but from one of his owners, a boy who’s obsessed with Hitler and Nazis.

To me, that boy was the most interesting character aside from the dog, every time he was in a scene I was tense, he had quite violent thoughts and very morbid motivations, his parents were at a loss of what to do with him almost the entire time.

There are some sections towards the end which get into animal abuse, which is something I expected from a story like this, but just be warned. I personally can handle it in a story, but it was tough to get threw one section in particular involving puppies.

Overall though, this is now one of my favorite ‘horror’ books, this is one I’ll recommend to other horror fans for sure. This is a rare time where I’d say I could’ve written this story, but I’m glad a very talented author did so already. We need more horror / animal books out there, and this is a great addition to that genre.

FROM THE SKY (Short Film)

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Inspired by the work of Dean Alioto and his 80’s horror movie “U.F.O. Abduction”, after his cousin is abducted, Mike goes out to look for her and discovers a horrifying and unearthly payoff to his endeavors, filmed part ‘vlog-style’ and part cinematically to fully capture the terror and isolation of being subjected to an alien encounter.

BLOG PORTION: This movie really came about after I really wanted to tackle aliens again. Of course I made the “Alien” fan film a while ago, but I wanted to do something ‘classic.’ I had seen a movie entitled “UFO Abduction” directed by Dean Alioto. Basically the movie tells the story of a girl having a birthday party, then it is interrupted by aliens. The movie came out BEFORE “The Blair Witch Project”, marking it maybe the first real ‘found footage’ horror movie.

Well, I was impressed by this movie (I had been tracking it for years and I finally saw it on you tube a few months back.) So, when I re-watched it I took notes as to what I wanted to use. The red light for example was Dean’s idea which I ran with, but I also wanted to add my own flare.

So, instead of the entire movie being found footage, I decided to do half and half. Much like “District 9” which showed part news footage and part traditional movie, switching between ‘vlog’ and ‘film’ was a challenge due to editing (converting files and such was a pain) but I’m glad with how that part came out.

The first part of the movie was filmed in February, when my two aunts and my second cousin, Maddie (who you’ve seen in more of my movies) were visiting. They didn’t know they’d be in a movie, so when I took the opportunity to film them, that was there first real reaction. It was very natural and flowed well. Those scenes were the easiest.

My next challenge was to find an awesome alien mask, so I bought one online for 40 dollars, and it was worth it. Took me a while to settle on a final design. The only other big thing to deal with was the set. I wanted to show what happened to my character after the abduction, my friend Cab (who is new to Equus21 Productions) helped me immensely by not only being a camera person, but she helped with continuity and wrapped my brother’s jogger all in tinfoil, which took a while but it came out great.

Over all, this movie was a blast to make-it was cool to go back to something I’ve always loved, aliens and UFOs.