Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

dyl_gon "If you give a monkey a camera, it will go out there and shoot something" – Ron Atkins A fitting statement from one of the featured subjects in Horror Business, a documentary on the horror film industry that has a lot of monkeys with cameras, but very few filmmakers. One doesn't have to be part of mainstream Hollywood to be considered a director, but most of the no-talent hacks showcased within this movie are shooting stuff at the level and with the same amount of care as a high school student shooting their English Media project. There are a few small appearances from accomplished filmmakers involved in the horror business, such as H.G Lewis, Sid Haig and Lloyd Kaufman, but for the most part the featured "directors" don't stand the slightest chance of ever making it in the horror business this film professes to be about.The one exception is David Stagnari, an avid horror fanatic that is attempting to jump start a career as a director with his short film "Catharsis". Stagnari is a person a lot of horror fans could easily relate to; a fan since he was a small child, Stagnari intelligently discusses the state of the genre today, what he wants to accomplish as a director and reminisces of his past experiences watching double-features at a drive-in, which has now been paved over and replaced by a "Babies R' Us". The last is something that may strike a chord in many horror fans, as in today's day and age, repertory theaters and drive-ins, the last solace for audiences seeking independent cinema, are being driven out of business by major conglomerates like AMC and Regal. Although only a few clips of "Catharsis" are shown throughout Horror Business, you can tell that even though Stagnari will probably never break it big, due to the nature of the film industry, he is at least trying to create something of substance.On the other end of the spectrum, we have Ron Atkins, a pretentious d-bag (excuse my unprofessional terminology, but it's the most accurate description of the man) who doesn't even try to make anything remotely worth watching. Armed with a consumer camera, Atkins shoots his films without the aid of lighting, a crew, a tri-pod, a script or most importantly, a brain. Throughout the shooting of his cruddy exploitation flicks, he throws in random story lines, such as Dick Cheney taking a dog in the rear, and then begins to laugh profusely at his own terrible attempts at humor. His views that what moviegoers think of his films doesn't matter as long as he enjoys them are despicable and represent everything wrong with the film industry today, but his wife's reasoning that anyone who dislikes Atkins movies actually enjoys them, doesn't even make the least bit of sense. Atkinson even has the gall to begin trashing Hollywood films. Even the average J-horror remake has more talent, work and heart behind it. As well as absent film-making skills, Atkins also has anger issues (he cusses out a teenage Burger King employee) and a tendency to lie, one example being his claim that he's sold over 30,000 copies of his movies. Considering that none of his films have over 80 votes on IMDb, I find this hard to believe, although there is the small chance that his parents have purchased 29,900 copies of his films.The rest of the filmmakers fall somewhere in between the two: not entirely as terrible as Atkins, but none as likable as Stagnari. There's an alcoholic who chooses his cameraman a few minutes before his shoot, two full grown men still living at home and producing schlock on par with Atkins and an animator who specializes in cheap flash animation. It's about as far from the horror business as you can get. This doesn't mean that Horror Business had to be a complete failure: if the documentary had focused on the pitfalls of the various directors and what holds them back, it could've worked. As it stands, Horror Business seems unfocused. There's no message, no story arc, no apparent point behind the film; it consists of interviews and behind the scenes set footage, stuff that would make a great special feature on a DVD, but isn't sufficient or substantial enough for a film of its own. It's interesting, but it never feels like a movie. That's the real problem with Horror Business: not that it focuses on people so far outside of the horror business, but that it doesn't know what to do with them or how to create a compelling story revolving around them.dyl_gon (allhorrorfilms.com)

scrapmetal7 HORROR BUSINESS is a series of interviews with, and an advertisement for, some guys who call themselves "independent film-makers" when they're feeling mellow, otherwise they use terms like "guerilla", or "subversive". More than anything else, this is a documentary about lost souls, about people who rarely, if ever, understand how far it is that their reach exceeds their grasp.All of these guys are under the spell of a handful of horror classics from the '60's and 70's, and they seek to further develop these films and their concepts. But this is misguided thinking. Films like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD or DAWN OF THE DEAD make pretty complete statements all on their own. Making one or several imitative efforts, however flattering, adds nothing of value to the original, and does not make any meaningful contribution to the genre, or to film-making at all.Secondly, it seems that these unwashed youths, for all of their angry, bitter worshipfulness of these original films, don't really understand the films to begin with. For example, THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE is about far more than some maniacs and some lost teens; it is about the ability of limited, wrongheaded personalities to destroy more developed ones, and the tendency of the devouring mentality, as it appears in its many forms, to consume things of value while contributing nothing in return. For another example, it is only on the surface that NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is about shambling revenants; the soul of the film is far more about the how people react to widespread disaster and the destruction of their status quo by turning on each other. Both of these films ask the viewer to consider to what degree have predatory, merciless tendencies saturated human societies.All of this is apparently lost on the hapless, vaguely aggravated personalities that are the subject of HORROR BUSINESS. They imagine themselves as subversives preaching the gospel of grindhouse horror, when there's nothing subversive about that. Such films as they honor have already been acknowledged to be fine, worthy films by the movie critic community. There are no forces massing up to denounce or attack the original Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE. The fact that there ever were is simply a testament to the shocking nature of the films.It is really only these guys' own paranoia, and their natural status as superfluous, ineffectual people that causes them to frame their perspectives in such "us vs. them" terms. While they may like to think that they have made some dramatic choice and went down some dangerous, subversive path, they haven't turned away from mainstream film-making, because mainstream film-making never wanted them to begin with. They do not see that they have nothing to offer in terms of innovation, because their perspective lacks the stipulation that someone in entertainment, or any kind of story-telling capacity, should have to have anything to offer in the first place. They hold mainstream film-making and filmgoers in contempt for not embracing some horror classics from 30 years ago, and it is lost on them that if these films had been accepted outright and loved universally, they themselves would not be obsessing over them today.If they really wanted to be subversive, they would try to make the most intelligent films they could. They would study endlessly and mine the world for worthy material that would teach people things they didn't know. They would seek to make intellectual films about little known historical events, or scientific concepts. They wouldn't make an endless stream of bad zombie films, whose ultimate purpose is merely to fill out the empty spaces on the new release shelves at Hollywood Video.But these are men who hold to their illusions with a death-grip; one guy still wants to have long rock star hair though he's basically bald on top, which is a metaphor for how these guys avoid facing the truth; that they are not great filmmakers waiting to be discovered, but rather mere obsessives with eroded imaginations. Balding Guy even throws a hissy-fit like a prima donna rock star, except that it is directed at at some fast food guy in a drive-thru window. It is exactly like the Tenacious D. drive-thru skit, but he is actually serious.Warning: while Joe Bob Briggs and Sid Haig are featured in the credits, they are only in the film for a few seconds each.

carriehesse Written by Ilise S. Carter of NEWYORKCOOL.COM Not for the Faint of Heart! Horror has long been the unwanted mutant under the stairs of the film industry and, despite the occasional break out hit, has remained a largely marginalized genre since Nosferatu flickered across silent screens. As a result, horror films have long had a reputation for being cheap, low class and accessible to everyone with a home movie camera, a twisted dream and some prop blood – and oddly enough this is mostly true. Perhaps more than other type of film-making, horror is truly directed its fan's appetites.This fan phenomenon is lovingly documented in Christopher P. Garetano's Horror Business with interviews ranging from horror legends to homegrown visionaries and every sort of fan in between. Shot with hand-held cameras in the collectors' conventions, the backyard sets and the living rooms where fans and filmmakers gather, the film gives its subjects ample room to explain their personal connections to the world of violence, the occult and fantasy that make up the oeuvre.This mix of objectivity and affection are what makes Horror Business so much fun. Whether it's drive-in film critic, Joe Bob Briggs, explaining the three pitfalls of amateur filmmakers (i.e., too many zombies, don't cast your friends, and lesbian vampires); or Long Island filmmaker "Slave" lamenting the current vapid state of pop culture; or designer Andy Gore showing off his line of serial killer pillows, you can't help but share in their enthusiasm – even if you do feel a little cooler.

gsevenpsycho Writing for Rogue Cinema has been a bit of an eye opener for me. I have to admit that, in the past, I've always watched movies and either enjoyed them, or didn't, without much thought to what went into the making of the movie itself. Well, in the past year or two, I've had my eyes opened as to the time and effort it takes to make even the smallest of movies and there's a movie out now that will help everyone to understand the independent film maker and what it takes to make a movie on your own, it's called Horror Business.Horror Business is a documentary that follows three filmmakers as they make their latest projects. The first Mark Borchardt is filming a movie called Scare Me, a horror story about an author battling evil. Horror Business follows Mark as he gets started writing and filming the movie and it's a great glimpse into the world of independent film, as Mark tells his mother that because she's given him money, she's a defacto executive producer on his film, and the behind the scenes footage of the filming is informative too, when the person who was supposed to run the camera doesn't show up, Mark calls on an extra who's run a camera before to do the filming for the night, explaining that the more experience you have in the film industry the more likely it is that you'll get to work if you find yourself on a movie set, which seems to be true!Next is Ron Atkins, a Las Vegas filmmaker who's filming his latest movie, Sins Of Government, a story that revolves around our government really being run by alien reptiles that have taken human form. Ron is a complete commando filmmaker, taking adversity in stride. His philosophy seems to be, just keep filming! Last, but not least, is David Stagnari, a New York film maker, who's film Catharsis seems to be the most 'artsy' of the lot, if that's indeed a word.The word of the day in all of the productions seen in Horror Business is 'work'. As an average moviegoer, you really don't get an idea of what goes into the making even a low budget movie. There are no dressing rooms, there are no divas, there's just a lot of people with a common vision who are working hard to get that vision on film, working twelve hours a day or more with little or no pay, these movies are truly labors of love and you really get to see that in Horror Business.If you've ever wondered about a person who would spend his time and hard earned money just to make a movie, or if you're one of those people whose currently saving their money with a vision in mind, Horror Business is for you. Chris Garetano's movie is a truly honest look at the independent film making process and the people behind and in front of the cameras. After seeing this, you'll never watch another low budget movie in the same way again, and that's a good thing. Horror Business is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen and whether you love horror movies or just movies in general, this will give you an idea of how much work can go into a movie and the love that film makers feel for their projects. It's called Horror Business and it's worth the time and effort you'll spend in finding it! Head on over to Horror Business Movie.com to get it today! And so, until next time when I'll tell you about my documentary, I'm going behind the scenes of a bakery, not because I think it'll be a good movie, just because I like the donuts, remember that the best movies are bad movies. Posted on Monday, May 01