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This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies. Some selections reflect a specific day or event in April, and others were chosen at random.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings include an anthology, a creature-feature, some found footage, and two slashers.

The House of the Dead (1978)

Directed by Sharron Miller.

The House of the Dead — also known as Last Stop on 13 Street and Alien Zone — is an American stab at an Amicus-style anthology film. Shot in Oklahoma with students from Osu, this low-budget horror omnibus does a creditable job of capturing the macabre spirit of The House That Dripped Blood and The Vault of Horror.

This regional horror collection delivers four sub-stories as well as a wraparound about an adulterous husband (John Ericson...

Indie filmmaker Anthony Burns officially became a part of the Indiewood landscape earlier this year when he preemed his directorial debut Skateland in Park City, but Burns who has a background in writing learned the ropes by cutting his teeth in the Hollywood system serving as assistant to the executive producer on CW’s Hidden Palms and CBS’s pilot Law Dogs. - Indie filmmaker Anthony Burns officially became a part of the Indiewood landscape earlier this year when he preemed his directorial debut Skateland in Park City, but Burns who has a background in writing learned the ropes by cutting his teeth in the Hollywood system serving as assistant to the executive producer on CW’s Hidden Palms and CBS’s pilot Law Dogs. In an interview we conducted earlier in the year, Burns credits his start when he made the big move from Austin to L.

Indie filmmaker Anthony Burns officially became a part of the Indiewood landscape earlier this year when he preemed his directorial debut Skateland in Park City, but Burns who has a background in writing learned the ropes by cutting his teeth in the Hollywood system serving as assistant to the executive producer on CW’s Hidden Palms and CBS’s pilot Law Dogs. In an interview we conducted earlier in the year, Burns credits his start when he made the big move from Austin to L.A., “there I got involved with some strong producers working in television and film. This led to numerous projects including a featurette I co-wrote and produced titled ‘The Smoking Compartment’ in early 2008.” The following year is where he developed his feature film project and churned out a horror indie thriller screenplay titled Red Velvet for Bruce Dickson – the pic stars Henry Thomas and Kelli Garner...

Luke Goss has scooped the Ultimate Badass gong at a newly-launched sci-fi and horror film festival in Las Vegas.

The former Bros boy band star won Markowitz the Amazing Thug Armadillo's Ultimate Badass Award at the first Polly Staffle Grindhouse Fest, known informally as PollyGrind.

PollyGrind is dedicated to cult, horror, sci-fi, exploitation and arthouse films and took place in the city earlier this month. A rundown of all the winners was released today and is included in full below.

Luke - who's also had roles in Blade 2 and Hellboy II: The Golden Army - was recognised for his role as a vampire commando (see above and below right) in horror flick The Dead Undead.

The movie, released in the USA a year ago, centres on a fanged fighting force trying to stop the evil spread of a plague of vampire zombies. Caught in the middle of the battle is...

In an event described as "a B-movie jamboree of awesomeness", the Polly Staffle Grindhouse Fest - informally known as the Pollygrind - launches this Wednesday until May 16 at the Sci-Fi Center (2520 State Street) in Las Vegas.

Thirteen films and more than 31 trailers, music videos and shorts will play the PollyGrind, described by Vampires.com as "one of the biggest events for grindhouse and trash film lovers this year."

Organiser Chad Clinton Freeman said: "The festival is being put on in the same spirit as old-school grindhouse cinema - no funding and creatively using whatever is available.

"With that said, I think the line-up turned out rather nicely and I think everyone that comes out will enjoy what William Powell's Sci-Fi Center and the PollyGrind have to offer."

Five features will have their world premieres at the event. John R. Hand's sci-fi arthouse film Scars of Youth (pictured above...

In Dread Central's effort to promote independent horror, have we got the goods on a great horror film festival in Las Vegas! From May 12-16th Sci-Fi Center at 2520 State Street, Las Vegas, Nv 89109, will be hosting The Polly Staffle Grindhouse Fest (aka PollyGrind), which includes 30 different films with five world premieres, seven Las Vegas premieres, and one U.S. premiere. There will also be a ton of music videos and trailers and more horror-related goods for you to feast your eyes on.

Read on for the full line-up, and look for more from Dread Central on PollyGrind (click here for the official site) soon!

Wednesday, May 12

Post-apocalyptic Nightmares (Double Feature)

Hosted By Heather Wixson Of Dreadcentral.Com

5:30 p.m.

Vendor tables open

7 p.m.

Trailer - Michael Ramova’s Soldier Killer (30 seconds) (World Premiere)

Trailer - Michael Ramova’s The Texas Chainsaw Champion (1:23 minutes) (World Premiere)

Trailer...

I can tell that Red Velvet director Bruce Dickson has a future ahead of him. His debut is a rather impeccably designed slasher tribute, headlined by some gorgeous cinematography and dynamic color scheming. And Henry Thomas (Yeah, the E.T. Henry Thomas). Thomas makes a lot of his character, but can’t quite fuel the movie on his own. Unfortunately, his costar, Kelli Garner, isn’t a dramatic equal and so their many, many scenes of discussion together often fall flat. Those sequences take up about half of the film, the other consisting of some of the most innovative and fun-loving slasher ingenuity I’ve had the pleasure of viewing. It’s this sort of 50/50 deal that makes the movie very highly recommended for aspiring filmmakers. Technically and, for the most part, artistically, Red Velvet deserves its rather impressive success and critical reception; but half of the film is bogged down...

Chicago – Time to catch up with the DVD Round-Up, a collection of titles that may have slipped under your radar while you were busy blogging about Inglourious Basterds” or programming your DVR for the new Fall TV season.

This week’s titles are a motley crew of horror, drama, action, and a couple of films clearly tied to bigger theatrical releases. “Like Mila Kunis in “Extract”? Why not check her out in “Boot Camp”?” “Like Kelli Garner in “Taking Woodstock”? Take a look at “Red Velvet””

Plot synopsis, cast, and special features information - what you really want to know - for a half-dozen titles follow. At least one should make your Netflix queue.

“Dark Rising” and “London to Brighton” were released on August 11th, 2009.

“Boot Camp” and “Red Velvet” were released on August 25th, 2009.

“Homeboy” was released on September 1st, 2009.

“Boot Camp”

Photo credit: Fox Synopsis: “Sophie Bauer’s...

IFC Films gave Fango an update on when a quartet of its horror titles will debut as Blockbuster exclusives and then become available for retail via Mpi. Look for The Objective (at Blockbuster July 14) to retail on October 27; Pontypool (Blockbuster Oct. 13) to retail February 10, 2010; Dead Snow (Blockbuster Oct. 20) to retail January 26, 2010; and Dark Mirror (no Blockbuster date as of yet) to retail March 2010.

Meanwhile, the two Blu-ray set of the complete theatrical cut of the Weinstein Company’s Grindhouse (which we previously reported on here) has now been shifted to a street date of December 31 by Wal-Mart, which appears to be the only retailer offering it at the moment. That’s the slot the company has also set for a three-dvd Grindhouse edition—but since that’s a Thursday, and discs usually street on Tuesdays, could that just be a default date? (A few years back, the Weinsteins announced a...