Had a really good time Saturday at NE Comic Con. I met some really nice people including Gilbert Gottfried, he’s a very cool guy. I also met Guy Gilchrist, who worked with Jim Henson and he signed a picture of Wille E. Coyote for me. He also worked on Looney Tunes.
Category Archives: Blog
Hell Hound (1977) Review
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)
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.
EQUUS21 MERCH!
WHAT?! Check out my merch! I’m not making money off this, this is just for people who wanna wear / own Equus21 stuff.
From the Sky- Trailer
Anthro New England 2019
From the Sky- Screenshots
New short film currently in the works. Filmed the first half a few days ago.
FERAL
Kicking off the new year I feel is a very ‘Aaron-type’ movie, besides the fact I made it, it’s a plot device I wish was used more in movies. 🙂 I wanted this to be more than a ‘dog movie.’ I wanted people who also enjoyed dark plots and horror to enjoy it too.
Feral- Screenshots
Feral- Teaser Poster
