HOUSE OF BEDLAM (2008 dir Paul Gorman)

GMD Films DVD

The year was 1808 when a group of prostitutes at a brothel in the town of Bedlam were chased from the place by religious fanatics from a fundamentalist church and brutally raped, tortured, and executed. Their children weren't spared either. 200 years later, a group of college kids who are on an outing in rural northwestern Pennsylvania as a part of a botony project they had to do for class stumble upon the old "House of Bedlam." The place is long rundown and deserted. What appears to be a harmless piece of land soon turns out to be extremely deadly as the students gradually disappear and the ghosts of the murdered prostitutes show up. People die in various gory ways and the remaining kids fighting to survive in the forest try to convince the town sheriff (Larry Laverty) that the place is evil but to no avail. It ends with them being forced to fend for themselves. Will anybody survive the madness that is the "House of Bedlam?"

HOUSE OF BEDLAM is by far the most accomplished effort from Paul Gorman and GMD Films in Erie, PA. Produced with the help of Marie Madison (THE AGENCY, SMOKE JUNKIES) and showcasing the acting talents of Katie Russell (from Len Kabasinski's CURSE OF THE WOLF and Jason Hull's CHASING DARKNESS), the film is a tense thriller with the just the right amount of blood and guts and enough suspense to keep things interesting. It's one of the best regional efforts to come along in recent years and it's almost on par with Eric Stanze's DEADWOOD PARK as far as storytelling goes.

GMD Films' current DVD release of HOUSE OF BEDLAM contains no significant extras except for a few trailers for other films in the GMD catalog, but a 3-disc special edition is in the works as we speak. Gorman hopes to have it ready by year's end and it will most likely contain extras like a commentary, behind-the-scenes documentary and more. This material will be very extensive as it was a film that took a couple of years to complete due to some problems Gorman and friends ran into. It will be interesting to hear those stories. The passion of the filmmakers to keep going forward is really what counts with a movie like this and their effort definitely shows in the way it turned out.

HOUSE OF BEDLAM is also available to download on GMD's website. The download process only takes an hour and it serves as a good alternative way for the filmmakers to make a little extra money. Getting your movie seen on the Internet is a good way to screen it to preview crowds and reviewers before it sees a wide DVD release or release in other countries. Go to www.gmdfilmsonline.com to download HOUSE and other titles like Marie Madison's THE AGENCY series and SMOKE JUNKIES. GMD movies have also been very popular at the Eerie Horror Film Festival in Erie and have sold out to large crowds. You can see footage from festival screenings of CHASING DARKNESS and Gorman's FURY as extras on their DVD releases. Show your support by ordering those today.