Cult horror website 5 Minute Horror, maker of the short films "Tasty", "The Accomplice" and "Supersex," will broadcast outtakes from Erik Phairas' fan film "The Thing II" as part of its ongoing "Test Reel" feature, on December 4h, 2009.

Test Reel streams special effects test footage, submitted by horror filmmakers from around the world. Earlier Test Reel video includes "Man Hit by Car" and "Bari's Exploding Head."

Says Craig Sabin, co founder of 5 Minute Horror, "We want 'Test Reel' to be educational as well as entertaining. Not only do you see blood and guts taken completely out of context, which is funny, you also see how the filmmakers do what they do. "

Bari K. Willerford, fellow co-... (more…)

More than likely, this will be Mario's last installment of MARIO'S INDIE HORROR GALLERY for Fear ZSone. I have loved this column! No one alive possesses more knowledge about obscure, micro-budget horror fare than Mario, and I love running these reviews because they show that there is so much more to horror than whatever crap is showing at the multiplex. Fear not, like Nicholas Kaufmann, Lisa Morton, L.L. Soares and Michael Arruda, Mario will continue the good fight at another site, Horror Yearbook. The spirit of Fear Zone lives on!


WELCOME TO DEER CREEK (2009 dir Jim Roberts)

Blind Sight Productions DVD

On a sunny day in a small Ohio town, the town's mayor is out driving in his truck with ... (more…)

HILLBILLY-BOB ZOMBIE (2009 dir Ray Basham)

Ray Basham Productions DVD

Recently premiered horror comedy from Ohio filmmaker Ray Basham is a story that takes place in a backwoods hillbilly portion of rural Ohio. A bearded redneck father (Sal Lizard) and his retarded son (Chris Burdulis) come across a toxic waste barrel in their neck of the woods on what appears to be a normal, sunny day when they're out looking for something that might help them with selling their moonshine. The two argue, bicker, and curse at each other a lot. Being too dumb to see the barrel they emptied out contains hazardous chemicals, they take it back to their place to use it as a still. Their hillbilly friends come over ... (more…)

SCULPTURE (2009 dir Pete Jacelone)

Screamkings.com Pre-Release Festival Edition Review

Pete Jacelone and Screamkings/THR Productions, makers of BEEF: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT, bring us their latest creation which explores true psychotic madness spiraled out of control in SCULPTURE.

SCULPTURE stars Raine Brown as Ashley Steele, an artist with a troubled past who lives with her brother Adam (Dustin Kerns) who runs a local gym. Ashley's father (played by Marv Blauvelt of BEEF in flashbacks) dies and after the funeral, she and her brother return to their old home. Suddenly, horrific memories of Ashley's childhood begin to haunt her, most notably memories of her abusive father who would sexually molest ... (more…)

MANIAC ON THE LOOSE (2008 dir Steve Hudgins)

Big Biting Pig Productions DVD

A psychotic mental patient escapes from an institution. Fearing that this escape and breach of hospital security will threaten his reputation and career, a doctor orders one of his orderlies after the psycho. Soon afterwards a girl traveling through town to meet up with her date whom she met online shows up at the guy's house where she is soon greeted by somebody who may or may not be her date. The man slowly turns hostile towards her and his psychotic tendencies soon reveal themselves. Unsuccessfully fighting to escape his wrath, the girl ends up tied up to a bed with another man who in flashbacks is shown as the ... (more…)

Copp Films DVD (2009 dir Andrew Copp)

Ohio low budget horror filmmaker Andrew Copp has been an asset to the microcinema scene for well over a decade providing us with shoestring budget DIY motion pictures like the supremely original, dark, euphoric, and disturbing 8mm/16mm cult classic THE MUTILATION MAN (1998) and the raw, brutal, and vicious digital effort THE ATROCITY CIRCLE (2005). For his latest film, QUIET NIGHTS OF BLOOD AND PAIN, Andy takes the current political climate we live in and uses one of it's most controversial issues as the element that causes the main character to become a mad slasher.

An Iraq war veteran returns home. One night a couple is brutally murdered. It so turns ... (more…)

MURDER COLLECTION VOL. 1 (2009 dir Fred Vogel)

Toe Tag Pictures DVD

Toe Tag Pictures, the independent outfit from Pittsburgh responsible for the AUGUST UNDERGROUND series, the infamous faux snuff-murder-torture trilogy capturing the exploits of truly deranged psychopaths via home video camera, and the supernatural slasher THE REDSIN TOWER, bring us their latest creation MURDER COLLECTION VOL. 1, a take on the world of web shows that have become so popular on the internet these days.

MURDER COLLECTION starts with text on the screen telling us that in 1994, a web series called "Murder" hosted by an unknown figure who went by the name Balan emerged and quickly became a controversial sensation as ... (more…)

THE BLOODY APE Super Simian Special Edition & BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69 Special SS Edition (1997, 2008 dir Keith Crocker)

Wild Eye Releasing DVD

Filmmaker Keith Crocker of Cinefear Productions brings us his new take on 1970s Nazisploitation flicks as BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69 comes to DVD via Rob Hauschild's Wild Eye Releasing. Also from Wild Eye has come Keith's first feature film from 1997 THE BLOODY APE, an homage to Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and grindhouse classics from the 1960s and '70s like NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES.

A love letter to fans of movies like the ILSA films and SS HELL CAMP, BLITZKRIEG brings us the story about a former Nazi wanted for ... (more…)

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME (2009 dir Ryan Cavalline)

**DVD Screener Review**

The latest feature from Ryan Cavalline and 4th Floor Pictures is a story about human trafficking that is easily their best, most brutal, vicious, and intense movie to date.

A secret business being run in rural Northwestern Pennsylvania appears to be harboring something dark, sinister, ghastly, and horrific. A man and his pregnant wife show up in town and get a room at a motel. After having a creepy encounter with a couple of men discussing some kind of business plans, the two settle in not thinking anything of it. Soon it turns out these guys have something nasty up their sleeves as they kidnap the couple and take them to a ... (more…)

Aisthesis Productions *Screener Review* (2007 dir Tim Reaper)

It's "Less Bore... More Gore" as we follow the story of filmmaker Ryan Black (Wes Reid) and his screenwriter Steven Dydimus (J.C. Lira) as they try to pull off their latest horror project.

Ryan and Steven go through hours of auditions with actors. The actresses give them trouble and they all bicker and curse a lot. A bunch of other shortcomings on set occur and on the 666th day of production, the entire cast and crew is so fed up that they call it quits. Not being ones to give up so easily, Ryan and Steven are still bound determined to get their zombie masterpiece "The Music Box" finished. As a matter of fact, they are so ... (more…)