Indie Scene: "Kurt Cobain: About a Son," "Deaden," and "DemonsAmongUs"

Hey everyone, and welcome to the third edition of Indie Scene. For all of you guys that only visit the page on Thursdays to read my fantastic weekly-article, you should have been able to see the changes that we’ve added to the site. Hopefully in the near future, more will come. In the meantime, I’m asking if everyone can vote for FilmArcade.net (again) at Blogger’s Choice Awards 2008. If we win, this will not only help us attract more readers, but gain FilmArcade.net more interest from independent filmmakers also. Here is the URL: http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/43155. Now, let’s get onto the film reviews…


“Kurt Cobain: About a Son”
2006
*** out of ****
Director: AJ Schnack
Cast: Kurt Cobain


Dare I say that Kurt Cobain is one of the most overrated guitarists that lived on this planet. Nirvana fans will be banging on my doorstep and Courtney Love will be putting a gun to my head. Though I really don’t understand why the guy is considered the greatest guitarists alive, I have to admit that the interviews that AJ Schnack showed here showed that Kurt Cobain had a weird life. For the great part of the film, the guitarist brings up the word suicide every five minutes, and tells the viewer just how his life changed. It’s nothing more that Tony Farinella over at 411Mania.com can’t do, but if you can get Kurt Cobain to open up his heart to you and talk to you about suicide like you’re Dr. Fucking Phil, I guess you get bonus points in my book.

A year before Kurt Cobain was either A. killed in a suicide attempt, or B. killed by Courtney Love, journalist Michael Azerrad conducted interviews with the guitarist for his book “Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.” Here, Kurt Cobain goes into detail back from when he was a child to when he began hitting fame to when he started doing drugs. In one of the many scenes where he talks about suicide, he says something about putting a gun to his head whenever he gets a stomach ache. While this will make some Nirvana fans uneasy, this could be a sign that more than likely he killed himself in a suicide attempt. While it doesn’t explain any conspiracy theories, it leads us to believe that the guy who many considered the spokesman for Generation X had a lot more on his mind than what he was known for at his highest fame. “Kurt Cobain: About a Son” is on DVD now, and I recommend it to anyone who advocates suicide. For the ones that don’t, I urge you to stay away… stayyy… awayyy…


“Deaden”
2006
*** out of ****
Director: Christian Viel
Cast: John Fallon, Deke Richards, Claudia Jert


For those of you staring at your computer screens at the name John Fallon and saying how you recognize the name, there is a chance that you probably do know who John Fallon is. If you read ArrowInTheHead.com, a horror movie review website that is just as good as it sounds, that’s his site. Betcha you never knew he was an actor either. He is, and he’s a screenwriter also. His film, “Deaden,” arrived in my mail about a month ago before I even got chance to screen it… and it still isn’t out on DVD yet. While I don’t want to say that the film was totally bad in an essence that it was shot on a very low budget and was only shot for thirteen days, it’s the kind of film that makes revenge looks fun. Surprisingly, this came in the mail from the same exact guys that sent me “Bad Reputation,” another film that involves fun revenge and schoolgirls.

“Deaden” begins graphically and ugly. Rane (John Fallon) used to be an undercover cop before he joined a gang, but when his crew finds out about his past, they kill his wife by sticking a baseball bat up her va-ghina, cutting out her unborn baby, and doing a significant amount of damage to him. He declares revenge on the group leader (Marcello Bezina). With a little help of his druggy friend, (Deke Richards) they go out to fuck back. If you even get past the five minute mark of the film, you should receive a damn medal just for watching it. Like “Bad Reputation,” “Deaden” was made by a movie critic (or most of it was made by a movie critic, aside from directing). Automatically, writer John Fallon has an advantage to every other horror film because he knows the ins and outs to the independent film business. He knows how to solve a problem where there needs to be solving and he does it by tying up all of the loose ends. It has enough violence to last you three regular rated R horror flicks. The only negative aspect about the film that I really had is that sometimes it bored me to tears, but within its seventy-plus minute running time, “Deaden” is sure to be one of the most-looked-at independent films for a while. And where else can you find a girl with a baseball bat in the spot where the sun doesn’t shine unless if you open it wide?


“The DemonsAmongUs”
2006
***½ out of ****
Director: Stuart Simpson
Cast: Nathaniel Kiwi, Peter Roberts, Laura Hesse


I’ve had “The DemonsAmongUs” for the better part of three months now. It has been sitting on my printer since then until I went out and bought a region-free DVD player. I still haven’t bought one yet, but my dumbass didn’t know that my DVD player built into my computer is actually region-free. I have to admit, it is a stupid move on my part, not because it’s been sitting there for three months and the guys who run the MySpace are questioning why I don’t have a review up for the film, but why it took me so long to watch such a badass movie. “The DemonsAmongUs” is a different type of film than the other ones, mostly because most movies like these kinds are usually depressing and always seem to turn out just right. Not this film. “DemonsAmongUs” begins with energy and ends with a closing that I will never forget.

Joe (Nathaniel Kiwi) moves to the countryside around Christmas time, and discovers that demons are lurking the town and killing everyone in sight. When Joe witnesses one of the killings, he’s for the blame and he’s the man on the run. Throughout the film, director Stuart Simpson creates such a dark atmosphere, and at many times, he uses the dark atmosphere by turning it trippy. It’s like a bad LSD trip. I have to give a lot of credit to these guys. For the first time EVER, I can’t bitch how fake these demons looked. The bastards actually looked scary. They weren’t those Hollywood demons that drooled all over themselves. These are independent horror demons that don’t hold nothing back. Perfect for gore lovers and demon lovers, “DemonsAmongUs” is the perfect demon film.


That’s it for this week. Next week I take on “PJ,” “100 Tears,” and another film that should be coming to me tomorrow or Saturday. If you would like your film reviewed, feel free to e-mail me at TonyD@FilmArcade.net or Screeners@FilmArcade.net. Have a kickass weekend.