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Horror Short Film Review: Unwelcome (Starring Victor Miller)

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Unwelcome is a 2014 short film written and directed by Nathan Erdel, the guy who’s writing the script for Headless (based on the movie-within-a-movie in Found, which just got a DVD release date). The basic premise is this: “A young couple move into a new home, only to realize that they are not alone.”

Things start happening in the house that each character assumes the other is responsible for, and ultimately create tension in the couple’s relationship. At first, you might suspect that it’s going to be some kind of generic haunted house or Paranormal Activity-like story (don’t worry, it’s not presented as found footage), but as it progresses, it shoots down that notion entirely in a genuinely and refreshingly creepy way.

It’s a very small indie production, but the actors hold their own, making for a believable ordinary couple still trying to figure out if they really belong together.

Oh, and did I mention it has Victor Miller in it? Yes, the man who wrote the original Friday the 13th. He appears as Uncle Ghastly, a cheesy local TV horror host in the style of all those documented in American Scary.

 

Unwelcome also serves as a nice introduction (for me at least) to Chicago horror punk band The Necroholics, who provided a song called Unwelcome specifically for the project.

Erdel tells me he’s currently trying to get Unwelcome into some festivals.

His wife Kara Erdel produced the film, and is a producer on Headless as well (she also makes a brief on-screen appearance in Unwelcome). She tells me about how they scored the legendary Victor Miller for the film:

That was a really lucky coincidence. I’m a member of the steering committee for the Diabolique International Film Festival (formerly the Dark Carnival Film Festival). Last year – our last year as Dark Carnival – we showed a gorgeous 35mm print of the original Friday, and we had Victor in to do a Q&A, which Nathan moderated. In talking to Victor, Nate mentioned that he had a screenplay (Unwelcome), and Victor graciously offered to read it. The next day, we put him on a plane back to California, and that night, Nate had an email in his inbox from Victor, saying that he had really loved the script and that he would love to play Uncle Ghastly, which was a small but featured role. All of his work on Unwelcome was done through the magic of green screen, which was awesome, although it would have been cool to have him on set. Victor will be judging our screenplay competition this year at Diabolique, and we’re super stoked to have him back – he’s just a really cool cat.

I can attest to that. I met him briefly at a horror convention a couple of years ago. Really friendly guy.

Kara also recalled the help they got from the Forbidden Films crew – the folks behind Headless and Found – in making Unwelcome.

Leya Taylor [Found DP] was actually our Director of Photography, Shane Beasley [Headless killer] and Arthur Cullipher [Headless director] did our makeups – in fact, the bulk of that short was shot in Shane’s house. He basically re-modeled his apartment for us and let us tromp in and out of there for eight weeks – that dude is true blue. I would pretty much do anything those guys asked me to do – and it’s really cool to be a part of Bloomington’s little filmmaking community. We’re sort of a skeleton crew – which is really a pretty fitting descriptor, when you think about it – but we’re starting to make things happen! It’s really exciting.

There’s no question that Headless will be much darker than Unwelcome (Nathan recently talked about August Underground: Mordum in a video posted to the Headless Facebook page if that’s any indication – not to mention the footage that already exists). But Unwelcome is a nice introduction to the creative mind that’s been tapped to flesh out an entire story from the small sample that’s already in existence.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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