#arielle brachfeld

[movie-titlecards]

Dragon Soldiers (2020)

My rating: 7/10

"It's a goddamn dragon, bro!"

For one of those low-budget, straight to DVD/streaming dragon movies, this is actually really good. The plot is a bit stolen from Predator, but it works, the characters are likeable and played by competent actors, and the production values are solid as well - the CGI beast is a bit janky at times, but the use of location is excellent and easily makes up for that. This is fun.

[hannahwatcheshorror]

THE HAUNTING OF WHALEY HOUSE - SUNK COST FALLACY

10:42

Chipper as heck music for intro. Couldn't even make it through the first ten minutes, terrible acting and script. Camera has two characters in frame and both are somehow cut off, unreal.

(1)

Trigger Warning Mild Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Seizure (who knows what else)

32 seconds in and we already have the largest character pulling food out of his pocket so you know this is a high brow story. His pocket snack of choice is a wet pickle (wack). 36 seconds in and we get our first crack at the fellows weight. Poorly written, awkwardly acted, and the camera work leaves a lot to be desired. Stilted folks working at “the most haunted house in America” but I’ve never heard of it before. Ten minutes in and all I am is bored, the characters mean nothing to me, I’m more interested in what happened to the pickle.

[moviesandmania]

GLOWZIES Sci-fi comedy horror - review - free on Roku, Tubi, YouTube

‘Earth’s up, dude’ Glowzies is a 2023 sci-fi comedy horror film about a group of military vets and influencers battling glowing zombies. The movie was directed, co-edited and co-produced by Hank Braxtan (Jurassic Hunt; Dragon Soldiers; Snake Outta Compton; Unnatural; Chemical Peel; Blood Effects) from a screenplay co-written with Guy J. Jackson. It was produced by Arielle Brachfeld, Kevin Brooks,…

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have The Haunting of Whaley House 2012

[brokehorrorfan]

Dragon Soldiers will be released on DVD and Digital on December 15 via Lionsgate. Hank Braxtan (Snake Outta Compton) directs the 2020 film.

The action-fantasy is scripted by Dan Sinclair (Dead Ant). Antuone Torbert and Ruben Pla star with Heath C. Heine, Tarkan Dospil, Dan Sinclair, and Arielle Brachfeld.

No special features are included. Hell comes from above in the trailer below.

When locals start vanishing from a small Colorado town, the mayor hires a squad of elite mercenaries to fight off the menace — whoever or whatever it may be. Leader Cameron (Ruben Pla) and his team suspect a ruthless gang of mercenary survivalists…until they come face to face with a massive, airborne, fire-breathing reptile. Now, stopping the creature and surviving the attacks will take weapons, explosives, and gunfire, along with every ounce of courage they have left.

[moremoviesplease]

Chemical Peel (2014) Dir. Hank Braxtan ☆Natalie Victoria, Arielle Brachfeld, Stephanie Greco☆

[moviecriticseanpatrick-blog]

Newest episode of Everyone is a Critic Movie Review Podcast. Let me know what you think! 

[fantastica-daily]

Los Angeles Overnight – Interview with Screenwriter Guy J. Jackson

by Staci Layne Wilson

 Even though I’m born and bred in L.A., I still see the city as a magical place and its history absolutely fascinating. That’s why I was so interested in chatting with screenwriter and actor Guy J. Jackson about his new independent film LOS ANGELES OVERNIGHT, a neo-noir directed by Michael Chrisoulakis, and filmed on location. The movie stars Arielle Brachfeld, and features icons such s Lin Shaye, Sally Kirkland, and Peter Bogdanovich.

 “Arielle's apartment complex in LAO was once lived in by Leslie Howard of GONE WITH THE WIND,” Guy told me, when I asked him about some of the more under-the-radar locations of the film. “One of the noir movies I studied heavily for dialogue-style was THE PETRIFIED FOREST and then voila, there we were at poor ol' Leslie Howard's bungalow complex.”

 He also said that one of the locations has an especially dark past. “Aaron Kai's scene and a lot of audition scenes and the basement scene and the bar scene were all filmed at Harold Examiner Building, which has now been closed down for filming.” (The filmmakers consider themselves very lucky to be among the last allowed to shoot there.) “Anyway, I don't know all the details, but according to one of the building managers, William Hearst's pregnant mistress was last seen in the top floor office of that building, the room right next door to where we did the scene with Arielle in the acting class. Then she vanished because Hearst was married.

 “And the bar in the last scene where Arielle meets Junebug is of course in the basement of the American Legion on Highland, and its where Kubrick did pick up shots for The Shining. The stories from the American Legion are also legion, including the gross one about the theater where they showed girls to studio execs in the 20s, and if you go visit the building the enthusiastic veteran manager there is more than happy to show you around and give you the blow-by-blow of the history.”

 = = =

 Q: Neo-noir contains the stock elements of its’ predecessor; the femme fatale, the morally ambiguous hero, complex plots, the double-cross, hard boiled dialogue, and so on. But there is room to play within the genre – and you did that. How would you describe LAO to film buffs?

 ​A: Let's say it's a sun-drenched, crazy-from-the-heat thriller by way of a David Lynch vibe with dashes of early Tarantino (though by no means is this one of those PULP FICTION knockoffs from the '90s, we totally totally totally promise) gently souped with Hitchcock odes. But also we managed to tap the hyper-surreal side of L.A., and so in some weird ways I'd geekily-film-buff-ly reference Steve Martin's L.A. STORY.

 That's all just touchstones though, even as we call it "noir" or an "L.A. movie" or whatever else. I think and hope it's just something unto itself. I hope anyone can jam with this movie. Director Michael Chrisoulakis, in his calm, workmanlike way, unified the whole cast and crew and movie around a "we are all dreamers" campfire. Sure, dreams most often unfold in darkness, especially in this movie's case, but isn't it still kinda nice and charming that all of humanity dreams?

 So could we call LOS ANGELES OVERNIGHT "a dream about dreamers made by dreamers in one of the world's nexuses of dreams"? Would that sell a film buff, and everyone else?

 Yeeesh, I'm such a Logline Can Of Wormser.

= = =

Q: Have you always been a fan of noir? If so, what are some of the first ones you remember seeing and how did they affect you? If not, then what was the prompt to write a screenplay like this?

 ​A: I really always loved Film Noir without actually knowing what it was for quite some time, not knowing it was defined by The Great Depression and all that stuff, and I especially liked any movie written by Ben Hecht or featuring ​Edward G. Robinson. But then Michael Chrisoulakis kindly came along and was like: "You just write me this neo-noir about an actress who steals big, just do that and we can make it, you'll see." and I was like: "Um, well, I'm not Hitchcock or nuthin', sure you got the right writer...?" and he was like: "No, it'll be fine, you write good emails." and away it all went.

 So from there I dug into the lore of what Film Noir was and where it came from and Michael and me went to the Film Noir Festival and so on and this whole universe opened up. My very favorite Film Noirs became THE PETRIFIED FOREST and HEAT LIGHTNING. I especially dig how they go showy with dialogue from the days of being a theatre major. Lots of dense dialogue always turns my crank. And man oh man the Noirs were sharp about it when they were first invented. They were reacting to a specific melancholy in society, for really the first time that film got to do as much, and they were reacting sharply. And I guess SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS would be one of the bestest examples for anyone who wants to hear just how sharp the dialogue could get. But then maybe I was the only Noir Neophyte out there and everyone already knows this stuff.

 And finally I had the words of one of these screenwriting gurus, John Truby, ringing in my head, when weirdly, because it was years before I met Michael, I went up and asked Truby some dumb Noir-neophyte question at his seminar and he said (paraphrasing): "In Film Noir no one really changes. There is no "change" character. Life is rocky but somehow that's still an elegant thing. The best and most innocent people in the story might meet unfair ends...but somehow that's okay. The world is balanced by injustice in Noir. That's why it's a shadow facet of the human story." So yeah, I could dig that.

 = = =

Q: Since you read scripts for a living, how did you find that basis of knowledge helpful in writing yours? (It seems it could go either way; ignorance can be bliss, after all!)

 ​A: Yeah, that's my day job and I read for a couple contests. Generally, out of every 10 scripts, one will be awful, one will be great, and the other 8 will be in need of more drafts. Whereas Hollywood Cynicism would demand that 9 screenplays out of 10 are awful. But no, people are becoming better and better at telling their stories, and so from those 8 out of 10 almost-but-not-quite scripts you can still observe patterns of failure and success and learn and be better. It's always fascinating when perfectly decent scripts suddenly drop the ball on page 70 and can't stick the landing of their Act 3s. We've all been there as screenwriters, eh? So you'd think that "failed" screenplays (which are really only screenplays that haven't seen an insane amount of drafts) would drive you to "chameleon" them and you, too, would become a terrible writer. But no, if you read 500, or 1000 screenplays a year, the good, bad, and ugly, you get a sense of where blunders and pitfalls are, and you then start to avoid such missteps in your own work. A couple producers I read for have brilliant-yet-unmade scripts on hand, so of course I get my doses of others' perfections, too, but even when the occasion arrives to read complete garbage you still learn things. I reckon reading scripts by the ton can actually can make anyone, by teensy tiny increments, a better writer. All grist for the mill.

 = = =

Q: Los Angeles has such an incredibly and unparalleled film history, especially in regard to locations. You had so many wonderful ones at your fingertips – were they written into the script, or, as indie filmmakers, were you guys pretty fluid in your approach?

 ​A: Mostly fluid. We filmed over 9 months, dribs and drabs, here and there, scrabbling together shoots whenever we could. There were some locations that were picked in advance, like the diner, which is a stock location for movies (Lin Shaye, while on set there, said: "Oh, this is about the 8th time I've filmed a movie here.") Or there were some locations Michael was obsessed with getting from the get go. He was always after the 1st Avenue Bridge (the scene with the train) and palm trees (I guess they don't have them in Australia cuz Michael really really really really was into those palm trees), and he definitely had a Herzog-ian obsession with setting a scene in an oil field.

 ​But just as often Michael or me would say "Dude, I saw this great spot for filming such and such..." and away we went. We picked the beach location, the midnight bike path location, the "rabbit hole" location all like that.

 It worked because Michael had these wide open Australian eyes for seeing everything as stuff from a different country from the one he was from, of course. And I don't have a car and I bike or walk or public transport around everywhere so I was already deeply exploring L.A. in that fashion.

 I'm glad we were completely crazy and blind with ambition and seized by the movie gods because looking back I can't believe I was so innocent as to write a script with an impossible amount of locations and filming to do on our shoestring budget. But I'm glad for that innocence, it led to a great adventure. And for some reason the movie just kept getting made and getting made until it was made and distilled. A small miracle, considering its journey across the whole of the city.

 = = =

Q: The shady lady at the center of the story is always key in these mysteries; can you talk a bit about how Arielle Brachfeld, who is really anything but hardboiled (both in life and on camera, she has an innate sweetness), was cast and what she brought to the table?

 ​A: We so completely totally lucked out entirely to meet Arielle, and not just because we would call her randomly over a period of almost a year and be like: "Uh, oh, hey, can you film such-and-such this weekend?" and she kept showing up with a smile and remembering the placement of her bookmark in whatever part of the performance.

 But anyway Arielle's "inherent sweetness" is perfect in being so disarming to the purposes of the movie. Great ghoulish fun to watch this innocent person become arch and destructive and not mind giving away her conscience. But the question of whether her character is that way from the get-go, and the question of whether its cravenness or misguided hypnotherapy or plain boredom that drives her to wrecking everything around to get what she wants is a fun question (or so we hope) for the audience to chew over after the show.

  = = =

 Q: When you wrote the script, did you already plan on playing Smalls?

 ​A: Yeah, Smalls actually began as a cameo because I kinda sideline half-assedly in Acting. But then as the movie kept getting made and getting made and getting made Smalls accidentally became a larger character, because his thru-line of "fuck it, go for it" matched and paralleled Priscilla's (the anti-hero, Arielle's part) thru-line. But my primary motivation was to play a character who didn't have any lines to memorize. Because I'd just come off two years of doing one man shows and I was sick to death of memorization. But what was so gratifying with Smalls was when the character seemed to demand I go deeper than just avoiding memorization. I love it when art forces you to work with profundity in ways you didn't expect.

 = = =

  Los Angeles Overnight will be out soon. For now, check out the trailer here.

[zombiesdontrundotnet]

Snake Outta Compton (2018) (DVD REVIEW)

Snake Outta Compton (2018) (DVD REVIEW)

Snake Outta Compton (2018) (DVD REVIEW) DIRECTED BY: Hank Braxtan STARRING: Arielle Brachfeld, Eric Paul Erickson, Joston Theney RATED: R/REGION: 1/WIDESCREEN/NUMBER OF DISCS: 1 AVAILABLE FROM Lionsgate Films

A young rap group is on the verge of signing its first record deal just as a giant, mutated snake threatens the city and the group’s dreams of commercial success.

Snake Out of Compton is…

[jamieleealife]

TODAY Los Angeles Overnight - Movie starts a weekend run at 4 Star Theatre in San Francisco, March 23-25! Copy&paste this link in to your browser to get your tickets🎟👉🏼 https://www.movietickets.com/theaters/detail/id/ti-1118 “An indie feature that impresses across the board...Director Michael Chrisoulakis and writer Guy J Jackson deliver a refreshingly original, off-beat thriller with a pronounced Lynchian sensibility and a sense of black humor that Tarantino would appreciate...In the lead Arielle Sarah Brachfeld is a winning protagonist...An unusually impressive achievement.” -CINEPHILIA #LosAngelesOvernight #fourstartheater #sanfrancisco #moviepass #movielovers #indiefilm #sanfran #filmnoir #indiefilm #indie #noir #loveandlight #dreambig #actorslife #movienight #movie #laovernight @guyjjackson @mrtaxi14

[moviesandmania]

GLOWZIES Sci-fi comedy horror - free on YouTube soon

‘Earth’s up, dude’ Glowzies is a 2023 sci-fi comedy horror film about a group of military vets and influencers battling glowing zombies. The movie was directed, co-edited and co-produced by Hank Braxtan (Jurassic Hunt; Dragon Soldiers; Snake Outta Compton; Unnatural; Chemical Peel; Blood Effects) from a screenplay co-written with Guy J. Jackson. It was produced by Arielle Brachfeld, Kevin Brooks,…

[brokehorrorfan]

Snake Outta Compton will be released on DVD and digital on October 23 via Lionsgate. The creature feature spoof appears to be Snakes on a Plane meets Straight Outta Compton by way of Sharknado.

Directed by Hank Braxtan (Return of the Ghostbusters), the horror-comedy stars Ricky Flowers Jr., Motown Maurice, Donte Essien, Tarkan Dospil, Aurelia Michael, Joston Theney, Jon Kondelik, Arielle Brachfeld, and Eric Erickson.

Special features are listed below, where you can also find the trailer and synopsis.

Special features:

Audio commentary with director Hank Braxtan and actors Ricky Flowers, Motown Maurice, and Joston Theney

It’s a great day in South Central: Cam and his hip-hop crew are all set to sign a record deal that could change their lives. But their jealous friend Vurkel wrecks their plans when he creates a giant, mutant snake that quickly lays waste to the city of Compton, eating everyone in its path. Soon Cam, Pinball, Neon, and Beez Neez cook up a crazy scheme to stop the monstrous, munching menace—blow it away it by pumping up the jams! This horror-comedy is alive with laughs, thrills, and dope beats.

[thepeoplesmovies]

DVD Review - Consumption (2016)

DVD Review – Consumption (2016)

Consumption – 18 released from the incredible Left films who brought the delightfully chilling Classroom 6 and the Irish blood bathDevil’s Woods. Consumption will be released on UK DVD on October 10th 2016.

Four friends head up to the mountains for a getaway weekend. But secrets become revealed and blood will shed as this fun vacation with friends becomes a nightmare.

Going into this film I…

[fantastica-daily]

Los Angeles Overnight - First Look

Full disclosure: I love movies set in L.A. There’s just something so mysterious and magical about good old Tinseltown, even after all these years of knowing it inside and out. It’s still the mecca that beckons the dreamers of the world – and that’s the setup of Los Angeles Overnight, when we meet a young waitress at a Marilyn Monroe themed diner whose real ambition is to become – you guessed it: A movie star.

Priscilla Anders, played with just the right mix of gusto and pensiveness by Arielle Brachfeld, is at the end of her rope and thinking of giving up her dreams and going back home when something piques her curiosity. While waiting on a trio of seedy regulars at the diner, she overhears them mulling over a bizarre riddle that hints at scads hidden loot. This gets her cogs and wheels turning, and who can’t resist “buried treasure”? Priscilla gets her boyfriend Benny to help crack the code that could fund her Hollywood hopes… but there’s a reason that money is hidden and should have stayed that way!

What I loved about Los Angeles Overnight was, of course, the actual L.A. locations. It’s set in modern times, but has a noir feel to it (sort of a simpler Coen Bros. movie, I guess you could say) and it’s fun to see all the historic locations, sunshine and palm trees. Cinematographer Stefan Colson does a beautiful job making it all come to life as another character in the movie. I thought the cast was great: Lin Shaye, Sally Kirkland, and Peter Bogdanovoch are the “names” and they sure to live up to them. But it’s Arielle Brachfeld, Ruben Pla, Guy Jackson (who wrote the screenplay as well), and Camilla Jackson who really steal the show.

This is a little gem, highly recommended.

[terrorama]

O Mal É Eterno Neste Cartaz No Trailer De 'Consumption'

A WildEye Releasing liberou o trailer e um cartaz para o filme de terror sobrenatural independente Consumption, anteriormente chamado de Live-In Fear e que trouxemos até vocês há dois anos atrás quando a produção apresentou o seu primeiro trailer teaser. O filme se passa em uma cabana na floresta

Veja mais: http://terrorama.net/uncategorized/o-mal-e-eterno-neste-cartaz-no-trailer-de-consumption/

[gruesomemagazine]

“Knock” (2014): A Dare Turns to Dread on Halloween Night in Atmospheric Short

“Knock” (2014): A Dare Turns to Dread on Halloween Night in Atmospheric Short

Short films can be a perfect format for telling tales like the urban legends and childhood scary stories that friends pass along to freak one another out, and Knock is an excellent example of this. Though just under four-and-a-half minutes long before the ending credits roll, this brainchild of writer/director Joseph I. Martinez is positively riveting. Knock is rich with mood and set designer…