BRUTE 1976 (2025)

 

So, we have people headed for the desert in 1976. They end up encountering a bizarre cult/family that lives for mayhem. And some of our new people might have alternative motives as things are brought to a boil.

BRUTE 1976 wants to combine the desert family from THE HILLS HAVE EYES with The Sawyer Family of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Director Marcel Walz along with writer Joe Knetter decide to bring back old school slasher by making this a period piece as evidenced by the title. 

That's always a brave move because you will get those nitpickers who will tear apart everything on screen to find inconsistencies with the era the film is supposed to be in.

I don't bother unless its a huge glaring error, you know like a gladiator movie having a guy with a watch on. Stuff like that.

Being a huge slasher fan I was excited until I realized there would be no Jason, no Freddy, Hell, no Michael. Instead we get the demented family sub genre. Not a huge fan of those.

But, I watch a lot of low budget movies and was so happy to see Sarah French, star of so many of them, in a really good role. She's not here to be the pretty face. They have a cast of unknowns for that. She gets to be a nutcase and she makes it work so well.

And then there's the reason to watch BRUTE 1976;

Jed Rowen.

Jed has been in sooo many David Sterling films. He always plays a bad guy, but in this he plays a part that could only be described as an articulate Leatherface. He chews up the screen and spits it in your face and laughs while he does it. This is the role Jed Rowen was meant to play. 

If you are a huge Leatherface or The Hills Have Eyes fan you will not want to miss BRUTE 1976.
For the rest of us it is good, old fashioned, blood soaked fun.

I SCREAM

 

SO, when I heard about Aleen Isley making a movie about monstrous, sentient ice cream I knew I was in for a treat. I bothered her for a quick interview about her upcoming project.

After the interview be sure to check out the press release for more info on how you can get involved.

Aleen Isley - It’s Aleen, how are you doing?

 

Douglas Waltz _ Good Aleen how are you today?

 

AL - Just lovely, I had the day off so I did some preproduction and casting just to get things moving.

 

DW – So, this is the first film you’ve directed?

 

AL – This will be my first film I’ve directed. I’ve done a couple stage musicals but not a film.

 

DW – Stage is fun. You’ll find that stage and film are two different things.

 

AL – They definitely are.

 

DW – SO, your new crowd funder is for the feature film I SCREAM. Have you shot any footage yet?

 

AL – No. We were supposed to shoot the drive in sequence shot and edited for the Kickstarter so people could see a small piece of the film and I had a hell of a time with the drive in. Communicating, getting everything booked. We were all set to go and then their water main broke where they had to dig up and replace 900 feet of water line and then weather and the owner is really hard to get a hold of. So, I’m talking with another drive in to talk about rescheduling there.

 

DW – So, what made you decide that I Scream was going to be your directorial debut?

 

AL – I’m kind of an idea with Steve Rudzinski at Silver Spotlight for the last several years and I’m currently serving as president of Women In Film And Media Pittsburg

And our whole goal is to elevate women in the field and the industry and get connected. I feel like as a woman they way that I can help provide that through our company is by leading up my own project to show that women are capable and can make whatever they want.

The ice cream idea can from a Halloween decoration that went viral this year of an ice cream cone that is a skull. It was at Target.

 

DW _ Oh yea! I saw that.

 

AL – I bought one because I thought it was silly and it inspired this whole what if it was this retro B Movie style film. I love The Blob what if ice cream was the blob?

I decided that this would be a small enough project that I could manage it. I didn’t want it to be a short. I wanted it to be a feature. I am very passionate about the concept so the decision was made.

 

DW – The ice cream creature Minty. Does he talk?

 

AL – At this moment in time he doesn’t have any lines in the script, but I am thinking of giving him some noises. But he doesn’t really have a face.

 

DW – Oh, so no facial features?

 

AL – Right more like The Blob less like an anthropomorphized ice cream

 

DW – The press release mentions practical effects so, in the movie, how big will Minty get?

 

AL – We are keeping this in the vein of puppeteering and physical effects. We aren’t going too hard into gore it’s mostly going to be the silliness of the large puppet. I have a plan for six different sizes of Minty puppets ranging from the scoop of ice cream in its original form to something that has to swallow a whole person. So, pretty large. Stockpiling crafting supplies from JoAnnes Fabrics as they go out of business. I’m hoping in his final form he will be man sized.

 

DW – So, he gets larger with the more people he eats?

 

AL – Yeah!

 

DW – So, what collectible card game CCG they will be playing in the movie?

 

AL – Oh yes its called Enchantment The Separation. It’s a riff on Magic The Gathering only the opposite.

DW – Ahhh! I get it! Very clever! And I don’t need to ask who is playing the part of Barry Griswold?

 

AI – Ah yes, Steve Rudzinski of The Meowy movies will be taking that part. And we will get to see a little more of what his daily life is like. But, I wrote the part in such a way that if you’re unfamiliar with the character you’ll still appreciate him as the grouchy town cop.

 

DW – I did catch your Phantasm reference in the press release.

 

AI – Oh yes! Reggie! I think Reggie is awesome.

 

DW – Well, I Scream sounds like it’s going to be amazing. Do you have a runtime estimate for the film?

 

AI – The way the script is written I am trying to hit the 70 minute mark to make it a technical feature film.

 

DW – So the movie has a cool theme song written by Mike whose last name I’m not going to try to pronounce

 

AI – Yes, he’s on board to score the entire film, but right now I just have him working on the theme song. It’s in the vein of 50s 60s DooWop kind of thing. I told him I wanted something between Little Shop of Horrors and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and he delivered.

 

DW – Do you have anything else you would like to tell people about your movie?

 

AI – I think we’ve covered the important stuff. The Kickstarter ends May 4^th hoping to hit our goal.

 

DW – Okay, well thank you for the interview and good luck on your Kickstarter.

 

AI – Thank you.

 

 Everybody loves ice cream so, follow the link below and help get this awesome movie made!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aleenisley/i-scream