BOOK OF LORE/GRAVE MISTAKES

I had the privilege of meeting director Chris LaMartina last year at Cinema Wasteland. I bought this twofer from him and his feature AmeriKill from Warlock Video. AmeriKill was good, especially from a 14 year old kid who shot on VHS and made like three cuts to create what AmeriKill was.
Book Of Lore proves what a talent he really is.
I watched everything on the disc before watching the feature. Well, except for the making of, didn't want to ruin the flick. The film Grave Mistakes, the bonus movie, is an awesome throwback to anthology movies of yore. With vampires, ghosts and other things that go bump in the night with an ingenious wraparound of a grave robber and an antique dealer bartering for the grave robber's ill gotten goods, Grave Mistakes belongs with such classic anthology films as Creepshow and any of the Amicus anthologies.
But, Book Of Lore takes the cake. It literally takes the cake, eats the cake and then grins at you with frosting in its teeth and makes fun of you.
Book of Lore is what all micro budget films must aspire to.
The plot deals with the small town of Latonsville and twenty years ago where for eleven nights, eleven babies were taken from their cribs. It was blamed on a madman called The Devil's Left Hand and as mysteriously as it began, it stopped.
Now, Ricks Adams' (AJ Hyde) girlfriend, Rachel Matthews (Lindsay Hanson) has been brutally murdered.  His Buddy Jason (Dan Vidor) has a book called The Book Of Lore. The Book of Lore, scrawled in a dirty, old composition book tells of all the myths and legends that have occurred in Latonsville through the decades. It is in the book that Rick sees the death of his girlfriend predicted and more are on the way.
With the help of his friends he must solve the riddle of The Book of Lore, but what he finds along the way rips the lid off the legends of Latonsville and reveals the work of a madman.
Book of Lore is such a layered creepfest that it sucks you in and doesn't let go. You feel as if you have known these people their entire lives and must know what happens. Director LaMartina creates such suspense through the entire film that you find yourself on the edge of your seat. It reminded me of a Stephen King story in it's complexity and is one of the most original films I have seen in a while and is more deserving of an actual theatrical release than many films that get one.
The DVD double feature is worth every penny. You get two, well crafted films that hearken back to the day when it was about story not effects, although those are pretty gruesome, too.
THE BOOK OF LORE. GET IT!