2012 August 08 « HORROR BOOM

Hey there! Now you don’t have to wait another week for another list of four of the best of the T entries for The ABCs of Death “26th Director” competition (plus one runner-up per list). Also, I have to blurt out that I confirmed the word/way to die for the final letter of the alphabet : Z is for Zymosis. I hope everyone will be done with their popcorn by the time that one rolls around!

Oh, and more good news confirmed about the rating! Here’s how and why : Rated NC-17: For Graphic Horror Violence, Strong Vulgar Language, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, and some drug use. DONE and DONE!

T is for Tiles, written and directed by Vincent Gárcia.

OK, here’s that disturbing content warning I promised in my introduction earlier! If I tell you how long the gory part is, or when it appears in the entry, you won’t ‘go in clean’. You know what, though? If you’ve been following Horror Boom for a while and the content (not to mention my habit to like a swear like a regular on The Sopranos) hasn’t driven you away, then you’ll wince (maybe not, though I sure did) but not have your day ruined. This one’s clever; a slow-burn with a great pay-off. I also discovered the director is a seasoned professional with several feature-length films under his belt so far, IMDB him and check out his résumé —not too shabby.

Next up, there’s the one other UK claymation entry called T is for Top Hat. I find it festive in a weird way, and there’s certainly some showmanship. This little gem (also quite possibly the shortest entry) was directed by Sarah Davison and Sarah Duffield-Harding.

Then there’s this stellar entry, T is for Tantrum (a T-word chosen to create entries that was used more than once, as were Tomato, Trash, Time, Tranny, Toy, and Teratophobia*, among others). This is one of the two entries to use a “name” actor, probably easily recognizable by their fans. The first time I saw it, I was distracted trying to decide if that was Paul F. Tompkins playing The Dad, or just strongly resembled the stand-up/actor (he doesn’t have a bad resume either).

Turned out it was indeed him, and without the distraction, a re-watch of Tantrum proved that this entry packs a wallop, and I couldn’t second-guess any of it. Check it out… but not if you’re having trouble sleeping right now.

The final pick of the best of the contest entries for tonight, T is for Trick (written and directed by Travis Betz), happens to be the other featuring a familiar face: Amber Benson, who (me being the Buffy TVS super-geek that I am) I recognized less than a minute in. I can see why she’d be happy to appear in this entry, because it’s by far one of the best and the director knows how to create the perfect blend of dark humor, surprises, and briskly paced story. I hope it gets seen as much as it deserves to be, since it’s a real treat for the viewer and any horror fan with a sense of humor. Hope I don’t jinx anything, but when I was arranging the lists to make sure there was a good mix of styles and scares, Trick was categorized by me under “Sure Things.”** This one is especially fun to watch.

Another runner-up: T is for Toy, Directed by Eli Dorsey, which I mostly included due to the intended Creepshow vibe, right down to the score. Drew Pierce & Eli Dorsey also deserve a mention for the fun props and art design.

Awesome additional poster art for the film.

By the way, the world première of the film itself (you know, the one with every letter of the alphabet in it) was recently announced! It’ll show at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival’s MIDNIGHT MADNESS. You can read more here, and in the “Related Articles” listed below. Man, am I sorry I’m missing this (not that I’ve ever been to TIFF before, or even been anywhere near Toronto itself in my entire life) because there’s a TON of additional Midnight Madness world premieres– I think 2012 sets a new record.

Oh, and more good news confirmed about the rating! Here’s how and why : Rated NC-17: For Graphic Horror Violence, Strong Vulgar Language, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, and some drug use. DONE and DONE!

* I am not making this up. There were two. It refers to the fear of giving birth to a deformed child, which you’d think could create some pretty impressive material, but I guess I had my expectations too high, because the finished entries all disappointed me.

** since I’m already flirting with a jinx here, the other four “sure things” I wrote down on my list were:, T is for Time, T is for Table, T is for Temptation, and T is for Top Hat.