Addiction is Murder

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poonhead
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Addiction is Murder

Post by poonhead »

Hey folks, I'm here with my most recent movie Addiction is Murder. It is a violent, slasher, horror-comedy. Be warned.

PART 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7SWt98zRm0
PART 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GCUHFq2lm4
PART 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70DSIXU0k2I

It was shot on a cheap Mini DV, and edited with Adobe Premiere 6.5

More info on the movie + trailer:
http://www.adambrooks.net/aim.html
Hope you enjoy it,
Cheers.
rhys
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RE: Addiction is Murder

Post by rhys »

Good: Start was great but u should cut it to the eye in between him using the syringe. The blood looked good though.
Bad: Filming, its really shakey. The weapons/porn dude he talks to is not at all threatening and when he swears it just sounds like a simple normal word like 'the', it should be more harsh, or just forget about swearing all together. Also, try and use the same sound for the entire thing, cos u can tell when they change angles. You cant see half of whats happening, and the cuts are jumpy and badly done. When he stabs him, you should either see him take the knife and then get the sound of stabbing paper for when he stabs the guy. You should either have it in slow motion when he takes the guy or make it alot lot more visious.

Part 2:
Good: the amount of blood u used when the guy was being dragged. The whole acidy stuff was cruel, well done. The video store was really good. The AA meeting thing was good. The gore of the face shot was absolutely great. The guts were good, a little fake but still pretty good. The head in the freezer was cool. The vomit was funny, a little fake, but good. "i killed only animals for a few days" funny as hell.
Bad: The blade doesnt at all look like its actually stabs him in the neck. The kicks down were bad, you could see he held back the kicks. The drowning wasnt very realistic, he died way too quickly, should have been more of a struggle. Also the dead body continued to move. The video store guy was too mean, no one could pull that off to there customers. The part where it cuts to outside the video store was too quiet. The skeleton was bad, it was too fake to be real.

Part3:
Good: The gore, the acting, the torture. "i poisined ur coffee"
Bad: The color of the blood at the very end when he stakes that chick.

Over all it was really good. How did u do most of the gore?
Hide or fight for your life?
camiziodeltoro
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RE: Addiction is Murder

Post by camiziodeltoro »

intro was nice, but it took me too long all these titles and this awful hillbilly music. so i watched the trailer. It's really worse, homevideo srtyle. Man, film is a visual medium. You remember that the next time you plan a shot.
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RE: Addiction is Murder

Post by Jperson »

The sorta shaky cam works well here, almost like it is a homevideo, I think it works really well. That was great and quite sickening at times :). Good job and great gore.
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Post by poonhead »

First - thanks for the feedback.
The guy who gives him the gun is supposed to be a poser, laughable and pathetic. His swearing isn't supposed to be scary or strong. This should be obvious because he is "running his bath," he drops the gun-lock, he admits to never having fired the gun, he says "it's not the gun you had when you were five years old," etc.
The video store guy was played by a video store owner who didn't think his character was too rude. But yea, maybe he was kidding.
Those kicks were terribly fake, I agree, and the skelaton too. At no point does he stab anyone in the neck.
I think it's funny you call it "hillbilly music," camiziodeltoro. That is how I will describe it to people from now on.
As for all the shakey cam - I built one of those steadicams they show you how to build online, and got all excited about how well it worked. I started shooting with it, and suddenly didn't think it fit the project, so I stopped using it entirely and reshot the stuff I had done, but handheld this time. It may not have been the right decision but the shakey cam is on purpose.
The effects are all real simple and mostly done in editing. The face getting blown off was done by my friend Steve who animated it frame by frame, and built a gelatin prosthetic to go over his face. You can see some of his work here: http://www.myspace.com/stevenkostanski
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Post by Lawriejaffa »

Hmmmmm

Okay well I only had a wee min to watch about half the movie (so this makes me sound quite the hypocrite in this review!) But i'm sure you'll forgive that ;)

Well yeah the gore was good and realistic, and I think the shakey camera is appropriate for the kind of storytelling your attempting with this film. The issues are with video noise (which is grainy perhaps too much at times) and particularly the clarity of sound in scenes (most noticeable at times in the 'session' scenes.)

Um, the bad now! Well I wasn't convinced by a lot of the acting in particular for our psycho murderer (the girls were great tho, and god knows how u got the cute asian girl to tussle around the floor covered in ketchup with ya - if u can let me know tho id be grateful phwoar!)

Annnyway, the main character is not particularly convincing, he looks very much like the long red haired man-geek of every senior year of every american highschool. He is probably more convincing at crushing a pretzel in rage during a Dn'D gaming marathon (with fellow nerds) than he is as a serial killer.

The wit of his monologues really has to be more apt and to be honest more intellectual (be this in the direction of ironic comedy or semi drama.) At the moment, it seems very much like a camp woody allen (moaning) most of the time.

The issue with this film that is also pertinent is its so called 'mode of address', you make a film about a serial killer, but it more or less delights in its violence in a kind of fetishistic way (in particular with the women) that is more akin to a gonzo porn s&m website than instead to provide either a realistic or ironic perspective of the serial killer.

In this regard, i think it kinda fails to communicate across a very genuine main character, that makes the exploitation elements of the film take over, and really those qualities are more superficial (despite the bosoms they possess ;) than particularly artistic or dramatically effective, (or funny!)
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Post by angusware »

that opening music was awful.
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Post by poonhead »

Thanks for the very interesting review Lawriejaffa! It was a truly fun read.
The opening music is proving unpopular all around... Damn.
Yes the sound quality in the whole piece is poor, and only made poorer by youtube. I had no other means of sound recording than the omni-directional mic on the camcorder. I spent much time mixing it, and applying apropriate noise reducing filters in different spots, but these are not excuses... it is cr**. Dubbing was an alternative, but I made my choice and have to stand by the crapiness of it.
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Post by Lawriejaffa »

Ha good for you poonhead, thats a really manly attitude to be commended - that is guts for you!

I mean thing is you were working the medium (the camera limitations) and were applying it into a workable 'style' + your effects were nice!

Where your really letting yourself down i think with this particular film is just the stuff that doesnt cost a penny - the ideas! the quality of writing! The artistic merit (that even the most 'genre' films still need to be meritous) is whats missing.

I hope this is not too vulger, but heres an idea for a similar project! (ripping off Evil Dead Trap a japanese slasher movie.)

But if ur on a crappy cam, u can always explore snuff films, following a group of kids that find one, (and are horrified to uncover what it is when played) and shocked by the death (that convinces some and causes doubt in others) to whether its genuine BUT they all nonetheless recognise the location in which its filmed.

They all go there to find out more about the snuff tape but (to look for evidence) and alone they go, only to get munched one by one (with the whole film resemlbing a kind of snuff tape) i-e- violence and shaky docu style cam on grainy cheap camera.

Thats the kinda thing id recommend exploring but the classic and painful cliche of 'indy movie' american voice over narration in the style of woody allen and the gore of evil dead just doesnt really work! I think you should hit ur fav genre harder ;)
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Post by Darzeth »

Wwo that was good, I dont see why people are putting down the music at the beginning. Ya I don't like it(not my type of music) but it fits. Come on look at rob zombies films and a few others they had music just like this. Basicly im saying it fits and works. I would say more but everyone else beat me to the punch on all the goods and bads.
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