EDITOR'S NOTE: Tobias Piwek made the leap from being one of Fear Zone's biggest fans, posting comments as "Johnny Cool," to contributing numerous music reviews and looks at German horror films. I loved hosting his set visits to German film productions, and his contributions to our International Zone.


I first met the Rohnstock brothers at the set of the second-to-last Schnaas/Rose splatterfest UNRATED - THE MOVIE, where I spend one weekend to play a zombie and take a look behind the scenes of the (back then) latest effort of two of Germany's leading gore- and horror masters. Lars, the older of the two Rohnstocks, was one of the film's executive producers as well as the still photographer on ... (more…)

Only four months after their last collaboration UNRATED - THE MOVIE, which just had its premier in Saarbruecken on October 10th, German splatter masters Andreas Schnaas (DEMONIUM) and Timo ROSE (BARRICADE) have teamed up again for a new project called KARL THE BUTCHER VS AXE. As the title hints, the film will mark the triumphant return of the machete-swinging madman Karl The Butcher, whom underground splatter fans will surely know as the demented villain of Schnaas' legendary VIOLENT SHIT series.

After half an eternity in hell, Karl The Butcher (Andreas Schnaas) does finally get a second chance and is send back to Earth, where he's got to end the reign of terror of a masked, blade-wielding ... (more…)

Philippine cinema has always had a love-hate relationship with horror. The genre has always attracted some of the country's most popular talents, which has resulted in some remarkably affecting, at the same time spine tingling cinema. But for every good horror film, there are five more that did not deserve to see the light of day. I asked film critics Erwin Romulo and Noel Vera and film archivist Jo Atienza for some of their choice picks of horror movies from the last three decades.

The 80's was an interesting time for the genre. The SHAKE RATTLE AND ROLL franchise (there are now 10, most of them bad) was just beginning, the cinematic trilogy attracting veteran directors whose short films ... (more…)

1968 TUNNEL RATS
(Germany, 2009, 92 Minutes)

When controversial German director Uwe Boll (HOUSE OF THE DEAD) first announced that he wanted to shoot an absolutely uncompromising, blunt and brutal movie about the cruelties of the Vietnam War, not just a few critics shook their heads in disbelief and predicted a major failure on all levels as they just couldn't imagine that infamous filmmaker, who once knocked out four internet bashers in a boxing challenge, to tackle such a serious subject with the needed amount of tactfulness and sincerity. And I gotta admit that even though I'm quite a huge fan of Uwe Boll's work, I personally wasn't 100% sure either what to expect from a project like this...... (more…)

German splatter kings Andreas Schnaas and Timo Rose will turn your stomach upside down with their new gore-fest UNRATED - THE MOVIE

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Last month I went to Goslar near Hannover to spend two days at the set of UNRATED - THE MOVIE, a kick-ass lowbudget horror film co-directed by splatter legend Andreas Schnaas (VIOLENT SHIT I-III) and scare master Timo Rose (BARRICADE). The film combines EVIL DEAD-like haunted house horror with a TERROR FIRMER-styled film-inside-a-film theme and tells the story of a pansy b-movie director (played by Timo Rose himself), who accidentally sets free an army of bloodthirsty zombies and demons while filming his new shlockfest in an abandoned, ramshackle cabin in the ... (more…)

I've been casually following what I can only describe as a bit of a new trend lately with regards to European horror film imports and the level of visibility that they've been getting over and above standard Hollywood blockbuster films, specific to the horror genre.

Off the top of my head, EDEN LAKE, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, INSIDE, and MARTYRS are all recently released foreign films that seem to have garnered as much attention, if not more, than Western films like the remakes of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and FRIDAY THE 13th.

I've been watching this with interest for some time now, because these European films bring a level of seriousness to the subject matter that Western horror films have been ... (more…)

(Germany, 2008, 81 Minutes)

If your life means anything to you, you'd better stay away from the spooky Castle Grabau, which is located in the forgotten North of Germany. Cause at least when you've seen DON'T WAKE THE DEAD, the new film by Germany-based cult director Andreas Schnaas (VIOLENT SHIT I-III, NIKOS THE IMPALER), you should be aware of the fact that the rotten bodies of a bunch of age-old grailknights have been buried in there centuries ago. And thanks to an evil curse these undead templars rise from their graves for one hellish night every 66 years to bring fear, terror and death to every human being unfortunate enough to be near the castle during that fateful time.

And that you ... (more…)

In 1987, Andreas Schnaas raised 5000 marks (or about two thousand dollars) and filmed, independently and with this paltry sum, an extremely nasty movie he named VIOLENT SHIT. It's a fairly senseless movie - Schnaas plays the main lead as Karl, an unstable man who goes on a killing spree. That's it. That's the entire plot. The film unapologetically boils down to a series of grisly, and often sexual, murders with zero insight, characterization, or any of those other things we've come to expect from movies. Worse, Schnaas violated copyright law by including a song from 1980s heavy metal band W.A.S.P, without due credit or permission. Nobody could sue him, however, due to the fact that the film ... (more…)

Now here's a poster I can get behind: no Nazi helmets or swastikas, just cool possessed demon makeup.

Star Debbie Rochon has had very positive things to say about COlOUR FROM THE DARK, the latest version of H.P. Lovecraft's story, "The Colour Out of Space," previously filmed as DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (a title which has offended Lovecraft fans for decades, but which I think is pretty cool in a 1960's, exploitation kind of way) and the generic THE CURSE.

This version was directed by Italian filmmaker Ivan Zuccon (BAD BRAINS and NYMPHA). You can watch the kick ass teaser trailers here; no distribution is set yet. (more…)

Veteran author Mort Castle of Crete, Illinois, has gained fans in the USA in his four decades of writing, but has become even more popular in Poland. In December of last year, Newsweek Polska awarded Castle's thriller-suspense novel "Obcy" (the Polish translation of The Strangers), the ninth slot on its list of "Ten Best Horror Thrillers of 2008," with other rankings held by Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and Stephen King's "Duma Key." Then in the third issue of the new year, Newsweek Polska's "Kultura" critic Robert Ziebinski reviewed Castle's short story collection "Ksiyc na wodzie" ("Moon on the Water), calling it "One of the best books published in Poland in 2008." He explained that ... (more…)