Written and Directed by Johannes Roberts.

One of the hardest things to do in this age of genre saturation, when any punk with a video camera can make a feature film and sell it via the web, is make something original and go that extra mile when it is easier to choose lack of budget as an excuse. There are countless Romero inspired Zombie imitators; some like recent THE STINK OF FLESH actually use the undead epidemic as the setting for a very deviant and hilariously unsettling gory romp. There are countless Vampire films that pale in comparison to the James Whale or Francis Ford Coppola classics, although Leif Jonker managed to hold his own with the inspirational Super 8 Gore fest - DARKNESS.

Thankfully there are a few filmmakers still working in the low budget arena, trying to come up with new variations on old themes and trying to step up their game to take on the normal hyper advertised big budget flicks on the shelves of Blockbuster video, rather than churn out half-arsed dreck as an excuse for not bothering to raise a budget or bother trying to put quality into their films like some I could mention. Johannes Roberts is one such filmmaker who aspires to stamping a name for himself on the steps of the hall of fame and is ready to give it his all, even if things do not always go his way. He’s not there yet, but if he keeps pushing hard and moving forward he might just surprise everyone with his next film.

His failed realisation of HELLBREEDER was a classic example of an attempt at fusing genre elements and packaging B-movie/TV Celeb name stars but then falling foul of the people holding the purse strings. It’s confused dreamlike narrative was a battle of attempted pseudo-expressionist style against a distributors idea of what audiences want to see, ultimately pleasing no one. I haven’t seen DARKHUNTERS, which preceded HELLBREEDER, but I have been lucky enough to view a screener for his latest film, soon to be released by American World Pictures, starring none other than legendary FX god and action film/genre star Tom Savini.

This film pits a band of twenty something holidaymakers (No way are these guys teens! as per the Sleeve info) against a family of naked nymphs with a taste for human flesh and a serial killer who lusts after them, when their second hand van breaks down, en-route to stay at a remote holiday cottage, leaving them stranded in the middle of the FOREST OF THE DAMNED.

The film begins with a great looking fiery credit sequence, atmospheric score and airborne camera shot of a benign-looking huge forest which is transformed into a remote and scary location as day becomes night. An amorous couple get it on in the middle of the road, leaning on the bonnet of their car, assumingly wrongly that no one else is around. As any good horror fan and any ‘Dogging’ practitioner would know, there are always people watching and not all of them are content to beat off whilst catching a glimpse of the action like a certain footballer I could mention. I must mention that the girl has a great butt and we’d like to see more of her, but before you can say ‘holy butt-naked babes!’ A tasty brunette shows up and bites off a piece of the action – quite literally – as she tears out the seemingly lucky guy's throat with some serious looking gnashers. Her other butt naked friends soon join in on the action, cawing loudly like birds of prey, hungry for a piece of the body under that red dress.

Just when it starts to get interesting, the film abruptly uses that old alarm clock sound cliché cutaway technique and we see cute couple Judd (Daniel Maclagan) and Molly (Nicole Petty) – the cast are all named after the stars of the BREAKFAST CLUB – as they wake up and go to check out their geeky over acting mate’s new van and look doubtful about its ability to get them to their holiday destination. The geek with the van is Emilio (Richard Cambridge). His hot but bitchy friend-challenged scene-stealing Sister Ally (Sophie Holland) soon starts arguing with young cocky laddish type Andrew (David Hood). They are off to the Hobbit township sounding ‘Merry Oak’, deep in the heart of the equally Tolkein/Fairytale sounding Miranda Forest, blissfully unaware that it is chock full of man-eating bimbettes.

On the way, lost and looking for directions, they run into a bald nut bag (German sounding!) gas station owner (Dan van Husen) who mumbles hysterically about demons, fallen angles infected by sexual desire and the like, this would be enough to cancel most horror fans vacation plans, but not this group of nymph-fodder. They ignore his please ‘Don’t look into their eyes!’, which could become as iconic as ‘Don’t stray from the path’ in AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

We get our first taste of MOST HAUNTED TV show style night vision camera shots, as the girl in the red dress is running hysterically through the woods in the night. As night becomes day, our sleepy travellers –unaware that they should have made it to Land’s End and back by now as the UK aint that big – accidentally run her over. This is a convincing stunt/gag and its impact is not lost on the others. Molly soon takes charge and stamps her mark as the tomboyish Ripley type as she administers first aid and then urges them to split up and look for help when their mobile phones can’t get a signal to call for an ambulance. Little does she realise this move puts them right into the hands of the Nymphs and the local nut (Tom Savini) who uses humans as bait so he can watch the creatures feed. Soon, Molly and Judd are held captive by the nut, and the others are picked off one by one.

The Nymphs are a great horror invention, based on fairy tale myths of old, like the Sirens who lure sailors to their death or Faeries that would lure lone travellers off the path for food or a drowning in swamp/marshland – depending on which story you choose – and they appeal to the Vampire mythos as well as being totally unique in their own right. The closest thing I can compare them to is the recent straight to video tale SHE CREATURE. These women don’t seem to feel the cold, look half starved and waif like, but pack a mean bite. They use their beauty and nakedness to catch the eye and hypnotise their prey before devouring them. It is a great excuse to get your TnA into a horror film but avoid the gratuitous exploitative stereotype. The only shame is that the one scene of real potential for demonstrating their allure – in the waterfall – is cut short.

The film manages to play with genre conventions and is a capable entertaining 80 minutes. But unfortunately falls afoul of a few too many clichés and it’s obvious budgetary limitations (Use of Day for night and occasional lapses of continuity as well as the subconscious disconnection as a result of looped dialogue constructed in post) with overuse of the night vision shots (which feel like padding), a few too many cutaways from gore shots at the most crucial moments when they would have the most impact. Stephen’s (Tom Savini) motivations are not suitably believable in my opinion. Derange exposition does not demonstrate with enough conviction that he should be doing what he is doing, but it is a fun role nonetheless. He obviously looks like he enjoys being given some great lines and a chance to show off his physical acting prowess, like ‘Sex Machine’ in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.

The acting is patchy, which is to be expected when hearing of the trials and tribulations this talented cast and crew went through to get the job done. Overall the cast perform well and there are no glaringly bad performances. Praise must be given for the nymphs for happily gallivanting through the woods with nary a Merkin to cover their modesty when many other actresses might have refused. I would be pushed to think of a more pleasing creature to have a nibble on your bits if you were able to choose how you would go.

This film is Roberts’ best film to date in my opinion and with suitable promotion could launch him stateside, which HELLBREEDER was never going to really do. I am eager to see what his new film titled ‘S13’ will be like.

The screener I watched was the full screen version soon to be released by American World Pictures, but had no extra material. As yet details of the material included on the DVD have not been confirmed. I hope it has a good ‘making of’ at least, as the tales that Roberts has relayed to me of the hardships that threatened the shoot would be instructive to other filmmakers.

The sound levels on this screener are all over the place. The scares and the tunes are mixed so high it will blow your neighbours mind. Hopefully the finalised release print won’t have these issues, as it means some of the Post recorded dialogue is a bit damp and muddy, but the tunes will blow your speakers if you like to crank it up as I do.

This film is a great rental title and hopefully will be a pleasing excuse to part with some of your wages too as it does get better with repeat viewings. I definitely recommend it for a fun night’s viewing with a couple of beers. Sit back, crack open a beer and enjoy the site of man-eating nymphs! It has some great scares, some convincing gore and plenty of flesh as well as an attempted Tractor escape – not many films can claim the same… I can see some real franchise potential in this film and think Jo is onto a winner when it is release in the US market. Let’s hope they give him more of a budget next time around. But please god! No more night vision cam shots!

Many thanks to Jo for this DVD Screener.

Special Features

None

Visit the official website at: www.gatlin-pictures.com

Visit the American World Pictures website to find out more about this release at: http://www.americanworldpictures.com

FOREST OF THE DAMNED will be released in the UK on DVD on the 26th of December through Mosaic and available to buy through Warner Brothers on the 23rd of January with a whole load of extras. http://www.choicesdirect.com/templates/product.asp?ProductGuid=676627

Reviewed by Lee Bailes