Grave Shivers Short Brings Back Old School Anthology Chills

brent sims grave shivers short posterThe found footage horror movie still has a tight grip on Hollywood, though we do get the occasional creature feature like Wolf Cop with the old school horror vibe. Plus zombie flicks (for better or worse) are still going strong, and the remakes aren’t disappearing any time soon. But a lot of movies today are still embracing the shaky-cam style. Not everyone is a fan of that style though, and directors like Brent Sims feel our pain and have taken it open themselves to harken back to the horror they remember growing up with.  Sims’ short anthology Grave Shivers (formally known as Dreadtime Stories) was funded on KickStarter last year, proving that this is the type of film many fans want to see.

This comes from the KickStarter:

So who in the hell is Brent Sims? I’m Emmy nominated and award-winning writer/director from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I got my start back in the late 90s doing indie films and playing film festivals around the world including Sundance, Cannes, Hamptons, Cinequest, Los Angeles and many others. I then moved into writing screenplays that landed at Tim Allen’s Boxing Cat Studios that has a deal with Disney, Mosaic Entertainment Group that has a deal with Sony and produced Batman Begins and Anchorman. I’ve also written and/or directed commercials for national brands like Plato’s Closet, John Deere, and many others.

From the first viewing it becomes apparent that this would make a great TV show, with its opening similar to the fantasy horror anthologies like Dead Time Stories or the Tales from the Crypt. It follows the more established three-story format, with each tale nicely linking into the next in some way. For example, the first story leads in from its teddy bear reveal, to the second story which has the song Teddy Bears Picnic on its opening credits. This all nicely leads into the final tale, a story very similar to one we previously saw at the start. A nicely constructed piece overall.

brent sims grave shivers short intro 1

The stories themselves are also a great amount of fun. Teddymare has a great fantastical element to it, reminding me of films like The NeverEnding Story or Labyrinth.  The soul eater creature in this short looks great, a bit like an alien grey, but more feral. There is a sense of wonder at work here, and the fact the director lets the father see the events ensures to the viewer it’s not just a part of the child’s imaginations.

brent sims grave shivers short intro 2

Shhhhh! You Will Wake the Dead gives us a reversal tale of predator becoming the prey. This is the most wince inducing part of the feature, with the paper cuts from a missing person poster used on the hands and eye lids, as well as a nail being ripped off a finger sending a shiver down your spine. Satanic girl scouts is certainly a new one on me, and who would have thought that Satan would be the hero in a warped kind of way!

brent sims grave shivers short intro 3

Teething Tiffany, the final tale in this piece of work, deliberately plays out like a retreading of the first story, thus keeping us off guard and making us think we know where the story is going. It then jumps in with a quite killer reveal which is both shocking, and in some ways satisfying, because there is nothing better than having the wool pulled over your eyes when watching a horror flick.

This felt very much like the old anthologies stories we grew with, and that’s exactly what was intended. It’s almost a shame they are so darn short, you really fancy getting your teeth into a much meatier story here, one with more depth and slightly more character based action. Overall it’s a fun watch and never outstays its welcome.  It will be interesting to see where Brent goes next with his directing work, but let’s hope he opens up his horrific book of ideas one more time and gives us creature feature fans something else to look forward to in 2015.


Images: Brent Sims

Penny Dreadful: Season Two Trailer – When Lucifer Fell

In the first season of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, horror fans were treated to familiar characters like Van Helsing, Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Gray, shown in the gothic settings of Victorian London. The melding of classic literary characters, and the strength of a cast that included Timothy Dalton (Hot Fuzz), Josh Hartnett (Sin City) and was headlined by Eva Green (Casino Royale), was enough to bring Showtime around 5 million viewers a week across all platforms. That’s rather respectable. Continue reading Penny Dreadful: Season Two Trailer – When Lucifer Fell

Avengers: Age of Ultron – 5 Unanswered Questions From The New Trailer

It wouldn’t be a new year without a new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. The titan studio released the new AoU trailer during ESPN’s College Football National Championship game. The trailer arrives in the wake of last week’s Ant Man trailer debut, which was aired during the premiere of new primetime TV show, Agent Carter. Right on schedule, the second trailer (while still withholding Vision) shows us several new clips, and as per usual we’re bursting with questions.

Continue reading Avengers: Age of Ultron – 5 Unanswered Questions From The New Trailer

The Witcher 3: Who The Hell Is Ciri?

Slipped in between news of a second delay and the cacophony of internet complaints about apparent graphical downgrades, one of the more recent stories about The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt that may have fallen through the cracks is the fact that Geralt of Rivia is not the only playable character in the upcoming open-world RPG. At The Game Awards just a few months ago, CD Projekt’s Senior Games Designer Damien Monnier teased the reveal by saying someone showcased in the Elder Blood trailer he was about to show off will be playable when the game hits store shelves, though he didn’t go so far as to come right out and say who it was.

Continue reading The Witcher 3: Who The Hell Is Ciri?

Science 2014: The Year In Review

The confetti has been swept up, the hangovers have receded and the new year has begun. But before we carry on marching forward into the unknown, let’s take a moment to appreciate the scientific achievements of 2014 that will carry us through 2015 and beyond. Continue reading Science 2014: The Year In Review

Critters: Bounty Hunter – Short Film Revives Classic ’80s Monsters

Hollywood does not seem ready to discard its obsession with remakes and re-imaginings quite yet. For every original concept or literary adaptation you can be sure, hot on its tail, is a modified version of someone’s cherished cinematic memory. When it comes to remakes it seems that the ’80s horror movie genre always takes a huge hit. The Hitcher, Stepfather, Day of the Dead and The Fog are just a handful of ’80s classics (well maybe classic is a bit strong) which have gotten a new coat of paint that they never really needed. If we are lucky these films will entertain, but more often they become another in a long line of soulless cash grabs.

People love nostalgia so the reasons behind these remakes are quite clear, people will pay to see them. But people will also pay to see these franchises resurrected in a slightly different way. Direct sequels can be hit and miss, but at least we recognize the characters and mythos involved. The other way to go is to structure the feature around a different format instead. Hannibal and Bates Motel (though originally novel adaptations) are two examples of films turned into TV shows. Warner Brothers seems to be going this route, with its digital production division Blue Ribbon announcing that one of the many projects it has under development is a new series based on those extraterrestrial flying fur balls, Critters.

critters return in fan film poster

Critters was a New Line Cinema franchise which started in 1986 and has four films in its cannon. It involved some rather nasty little alien creatures called Krites, who whizzed around the room like Sonic the Hedgehog and had a tendency to shoot their quills, as well as their teeth, into people. As well as having a slightly disturbing element to them, the Critters movies are most fondly remembered for the sense of humor that accompanied all the mayhem.

Now relatively little is known so far about Warner Bros Digital return of the Krites, but the news did spark off a reaction with the fans, like Jordan Downey (Thankskilling). Downey decided that he wanted in on this new Critters return and he left quite an inventive calling card to grab people’s attention A short movie called Critters: Bounty Hunter, which is a simple tale of hunter vs Krite, that you can watch below. This shows that you can continue a franchise successfully without reformatting it…

As you can see the short retains the spirit of the first two Critters movies with keeping the action contained in one small, recognizable location. The action is fast paced and quite tense in places, but the trademark dark humor remains (nothing better than hearing an alien swearing in his native tongue!). The attention to detail is superb, with the bounty hunter design looking very much like it did when it was first seen way back in 1986, and the Krite itself looking just as menacing as ever. Below is an extract from Jordan’s YouTube channel telling us a little about the production of the short.

Critters: Bounty Hunter was completed from start to finish in under two months with a small budget and an even smaller crew. All in, a total of six people worked on the movie: Myself, Kevin Stewart, Ricky Fosheim, Nick Soole, Troy Smith and Gina Luciani. We shot for two nights at a house in Mammoth Lakes, California. The Critter puppet was built by Troy Smith who worked with us on both ThanksKilling movies. Our crew handled everything from building the bounty hunter costume, learning the VFX required to pull off the glowing head, scoring, title cards, sound design, etc. We’re proud of what we pulled off with limited resources and can’t wait to share this with everyone. Turn up the volume and hit HD – We hope you enjoy our fun little take on Critters!

Sacha Feiner did a similar thing a few years ago with his great short movie – taking the cue from the reality break in Gremlins 2 – creating movie segments with Gremlins interference.

Sacha’s work was done as a fan project much like Jordan’s project. Now whether this plan works for Jordan and his crew with regards to getting him a job is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure. He has certainly gotten the respect of Critters fans worldwide, and even if nothing comes of it, we will always have this short.


Images: Jordan Downey, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros.