Box Office Special - Film Festival Warm Fuzzies

The updated Horrors of 2008 spreadsheet went up a little while ago with almost no changes since last week. "The Film That Shall Not Be Named" dropped out of the top five to number six this week, and "The Ruins" officially went on death notice by falling all the way to 18. We may have as much as a month until our next wide release, so I might start digging into some of these limited releases, but today I want to talk briefly about getting your mojo back.

My review for a film called "Dying Breed" should be going up soon. I caught the film at the Tribeca Film Festival, which is where I saw the solid by ultimately disappointing "The Objective." Coming in the span of just two days, both of these screenings served to rejuvenate my enthusiasm for horror. Not that I was really lagging, but after a run of "The Eye," "Shutter," "The Ruins," and "The Film That Shall Not Be Named" anyone would start to dread taking in a theatrical horror showing.

Sadly, the horror films that get the widest releases aren't always those worthy of the largest audiences, in fact, as I tried to parse in my "Breed" review, popularity and quality often seem to be at odds. More often it's the films making the festival circuit, either in search of distribution or in an effort to gauge interest in a theatrical run, that offer hardcore horror fans something worth checking out in the theater.

For me anyway, "Dying Breed" was by far the superior of the two films. Possessing a polish that I didn't expect at a late-night festival showing, the film felt like a rare gulp of sustenance in the the fast food world of contemporary horror. At Bloody Good Horror, we take pride in tangling with even the most mediocre horror releases, but that doesn't mean we're immune to their blandness. "Dying Breed" was a nice reminder for me that we can also talk about those low profile gems that are deserving of more attention.