James Cullen Bressack is a filmmaker who's quickly taking the underground horror scene by storm. In the past two years, he has produced several micro budget horror anthologies and directed four feature films which have gotten released. The four directing efforts of his to see release are My Pure Joy, 13/13/13, Hate Crime and To Jennifer. James has just finished directing his latest feature Pernicious (featuring effects by Toe Tag's Jerami Cruise) in Thailand. He is a truly energized and enthusiastic young filmmaker who has hit the ground running and hasn't shown any signs of slowing down anytime soon. Today we take a look at the recently released To Jennifer, a found footage horror film like his previous effort Hate Crime, but considerably different in style and tone. Hate Crime was an extremely brutal and vicious found footage horror outing involving Neo-Nazis who invade the home of a Jewish family and terrorize them while filming their psychotic acts with the family's home video camera. Hate Crime has more in common with films like Fred Vogel's August Underground trilogy and things similar. It is essentially a cross between August Underground and the Spanish home invasion flick Kidnapped. To Jennifer has more in common with recent horror movies based on the new digital age with technology like iPhones, and internet Skype correspondence etc. being focused on. These types of films have included V/H/S, Megan Is Missing, Vlog etc. To Jennifer manages to be more than just a copy of those movies though and it has a genuine, original story.
To Jennifer tells the story of Joey (Chuck Pappas). Joey gets his iPhone and decides to make a continuing video journal with it because he suspects his girlfriend Jennifer has been cheating on him. He teams up with his friend Steven (played by Bressack himself) as they go on a road trip to document their adventure in finding their way to Jennifer so Joey can catch her in the act. Along the way Joey acts increasingly strange and seemingly becomes rather unstable mentally. He has a breakdown on an airplane which leads to him and Steven being put on a no-fly list and ends up in the hospital. They later meet up with an old friend who they go visit and party with. Joey has Skype conversations with his mom. His mom appears worried about his condition and wonders why he's never introduced her to Jennifer. Steven starts to wonder what's up with Joey as well. Things become increasingly more creepy and intense as Joey's condition worsens, leading to a terrifying conclusion when the inevitable confrontation with Jennifer comes to fruition.
While not as intense or disturbing as Hate Crime, To Jennifer is an entertaining found footage horror effort that should be interesting to those who enjoy the new "technology-based" horror flicks. It has some genuinely creepy moments, some gory stuff in the final act, and Chuck Pappas does a convincing job in the lead as Joey while James Cullen Bressack as Steven provides the bulk of the film's humor. Indie scream queen Jessica Cameron makes an appearance and Puppet Monster Massacre's Dustin Mills did the film's poster design.
The DVD release of To Jennifer from Psykik Junky Pictures and MVD contains an audio commentary and the film's trailer as extras. I recommend showing your support for Bressack and his films by going to Amazon.com and ordering this and Hate Crime, My Pure Joy and 13/13/13 today. Visit www.psykikjunkypictures.com for more info.
@extremehorrorcinema
