This is where I shamelessly promote my friend's found-footage horror-com "From Jennifer."

[Dead & Messed Up]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKrbEcgVAAEzBmj.jpg:small

You can buy it on Vudu or iTunes, and it's also available to rent on Google Play for $3.99 (https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/FROMJENNIFER?id=FqnU6A_cmRI).

The flick's about an ambitious actress named Jennifer desperate to get popular on social media, and after someone wrongs her, she thinks that a revenge plot against the guy (that she would post online) might be the answer. So she enlists a gentle giant who gets un-gentle in a hurry, and wouldn't you know, her plans to become a star come at an absurdly bloody cost.

The flick has Derek Mears of Friday the 13th and, in a cameo, Tony Todd! (He plays against type as a Hollywood agent.)

Okay, here's where this gets dicey. Can you trust me when I recommend this movie? Probably not. The director is a friend, there's a personal element.

But I do think it's good, for whatever you feel that's worth, thanks in large part to a surprising turn from Derek Mears, and with the slow acceleration into gruesome antics played as much for laughs as scares (it's more black comedy satire than horror). The flick also takes some final-act turns that genuinely surprised me.

Give it a shot!

[Skitch]

I'll peep it when I get a chance!

[Irish]

did you work on the project? or are you doing more of supportive friend thing? (just curious)

[Dead & Messed Up]

did you work on the project? or are you doing more of supportive friend thing? (just curious)

Supportive friend.

[Dukefrukem]

Tony Todd?? I'll check it out too.

[Irish]

Likewise, I'll give it a rent this weekend.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Tony Todd?? I'll check it out too.

Cameo! Cameo! And a comedic cameo too. He's good, but I don't want anyone thinking this is Jason vs Candyman or something.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Also, forgot to mention, the flick is found-footage, yes, but it's filmed almost entirely with stationary cameras and GoPros, so there's almost none of the herky-jerk motion of handheld (which is a dealbreaker for someone like me who can get motion sickness easily).

[Irish]

Wow, a Jason vs Candyman flick sounds cool. Maybe I'll rent this tonight.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Wow, a Jason vs Candyman flick sounds cool. Maybe I'll rent this tonight.

DAMN IT!

[Skitch]

XD.

[Irish]

I just watched! Not a fan of either DTV or found footage, and if this movie suffers at all it suffers for the usual reasons around those choices, BUT ---

Good writing all around. Solid structure. Extremely well paced. Real wit to some of the dialogue. (I laughed so hard during the "job interview" scene that I missed some of what was said.) I liked how far the script pushed the scenarios. The absurdity made this fun.

Either your pal got lucky and hired a great casting director or just got lucky period because the main cast was good. (I particularly enjoyed the dude who played Butch.)

Also, solid effects. Some of the shots and edits around the kills were clever, given the limitations.

I don't watch a lot of low-fi indie stuff but this was worlds more inventive than what I've seen recently. I turn most of that shit off in 20 minutes in because it's so fucking boring. I stuck with this one because the characters were weird and interesting and I really wanted to see what would happen in "Phase 3."

Pretty good ending, too.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I just watched! Not a fan of either DTV or found footage, and if this movie suffers at all it suffers for the usual reasons around those choices, BUT ---

Good writing all around. Solid structure. Extremely well paced. Real wit to some of the dialogue. (I laughed so hard during the "job interview" scene that I missed some of what was said.) I liked how far the script pushed the scenarios. The absurdity made this fun.

Either your pal got lucky and hired a great casting director or just got lucky period because the main cast was good. (I particularly enjoyed the dude who played Butch.)

Also, solid effects. Some of the shots and edits around the kills were clever, given the limitations.

I don't watch a lot of low-fi indie stuff but this was worlds more inventive than what I've seen recently. I turn most of that shit off in 20 minutes in because it's so fucking boring. I stuck with this one because the characters were weird and interesting and I really wanted to see what would happen in "Phase 3."

Pretty good ending, too.

Nice! Glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, Derek Mears as Butch was the standout to me. He goes for that Frankenstein's monster "I can't help hurting people" sort of thing and does a good job.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I have no idea if any of these sites are worth a damn, but some positive reviews:

PopHorror.com - This film is a a great freaking time. Do yourself a favor and see it. (https://www.pophorror.com/from-jennifer-2017-movie-review/)

HorrorSociety.com - Final Score: 7.25 out of 10 (https://www.horrorsociety.com/2017/06/09/review-frank-merles-fromjennifer/)

iHorror.com - If you're looking for a pitch-black horror comedy of fame in the internet age, you can get it #FromJennifer. (http://ihorror.com/review-fromjennifer/)

[TGM]

Yeah, I dug this quite a bit. I can echo a lot of the same sentiments as Irish, the casting was spot on, and a lot of the kills and the camera work around them were incredibly cleverly executed. I also really dug the premise, and thought the writing was just really great (made even all the better by the all around great delivery), and again, really creative and even charmingly disturbing stuff.

I similarly have my reservations going into these sorts of movies, but I'm always interested in seeing what other people are able to pull off on such a low budget, for better or worse, and I was honestly quite impressed with what they managed to put out here. Like, even small touches most people wouldn't even think about, such as the way they occupied the diner in those scenes, just gave this world a real natural and lived-in feel that helped elevate the otherwise obvious low-budget quality of the film.

If I had any complaints, they're mostly nitpicks, but I'd say that I personally felt the interview segment perhaps dragged on a tad too long, and the "Jenny" gag was perhaps used a handful too many times. (That said, I got more and more of a kick each time someone new came in and asked "What's with the cameras?" :p )

So yeah, despite the obvious low-budget limitations, I was highly impressed by this. Well worth the rental, and honestly way better than a fucking lot of horror films that I see getting wide major releases these days at that.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Nice! Okay, good, glad I didn't misread the film due to closeness. The casting really is good, and I liked how the film played its relationships, especially the central one between Danielle Taddei and Derek Mears, which is a fun mix of Beauty/Beast and Frankenstein/Igor.

[Irish]

I'm always interested in seeing what other people are able to pull off on such a low budget, for better or worse, and I was honestly quite impressed with what they managed to put out here

I thought about this aspect quite a bit for awhile after I'd seen the film. So many of these lo-fi movies are lazy and half written. This one wasn't. It kinda sorta remind me of Jeremy Saulnier's "Murder Party." Not in content, style, or approach, but in the level of writing. Somebody had something to say and something to express and they tried to do it in a sensible way. That's rarer than it should be.

[TGM]

Writing is hard, yo. :p