Starve

IMDb
While researching an urban legend on feral children, three friends find themselves trapped in an abandoned high school, where they are confronted with an evil more sinister than the legend itself.


HollyWoodReporter

Three friends find themselves trapped and tortured in an abandoned school in Griff Furst's horror film

If the villainous Jigsaw had added food deprivation to his roster of tortures you'd have a sense of GriffFurst's derivative horror film that recently had its world premiere at Spain's Sitges International Film Festival. Concerning three friends who find themselves locked in an abandoned high school and tormented by a mysterious psycho, Starve is thin gruel indeed.

The cocksure young people naturally ignore the warning and are soon enduring such hardships as having their car stolen before they wind up kidnapped and thrown into the dilapidated school building, where they discover a motley group of fellow prisoners being systematically starved and forced to fight for their lives at the behest of the crazy Runyan (Bobby C. King). They're also subject to periodic taunting loudspeaker announcements by the school's "principal" who at one point asks, "Don't you know there are starving children in South Dakota?"The main characters are Beck (Bobby Campo), a graphic novelist; his comely girlfriend Candice (Mariah Bonner); and the oddly named Jiminey (Dave Davis), who arrive in the practically deserted town of Freedom, Florida to research an urban legend about feral cannibal children apparently spawned by massive sinkholes. They're greeted less than warmly by the residents, who advise them to "leave before they become part of the story."

Xander Wolf's screenplay has its occasional witty touches, such as when one of the prisoners is offered "finger food" that turns out to be exactly that. Later, one of the villain's accomplices asks him, "Can you burn the rest of the dead folk? It's starting to smell around here!"

Truer words were never spoken, as the film degenerates from its playful beginnings to the usual assemblage of unimaginatively rendered Saw-style torture porn clichés. Director Furst has staged the proceedings in reasonably coherent fashion, and production designer Matt Muschamp, dressing up an actual abandoned school, has created a vividly evocative house of horrors. But the overly familiar goings-on in Starve will only leave horror fans hungry for more substantial fare.

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Gore Orphanage

TribLive

Scottdale-filmed 'Gore Orphanage' lands on most-anticipated horror film list

By Mary Pickels

Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015, 5:46 p.m.

Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/7691913-74/film-orphanage-horror#ixzz3gdJBJ8f1 

Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on FacebookOne of the signs of a well-received horror film can be a creepy sense of anticipation - will you be able to stifle that scream, or keep from squeezing your eyes shut?

The title alone of a movie two Fayette County filmmakers produced apparently inspired that spine-tingling dread in some horror fans.

“Gore Orphanage” landed on the Chicago-based Horror Society's website's Most Anticipated Title of 2015 competition, along with several big-budget Hollywood productions.

Despite its title, the full-length, independent feature is a psychological thriller, not a bloodbath, its creators say.

Filmed last year at Scottdale's Greystone Manor, the film is set in an eerie orphanage in rural Ohio in the 1930s.

Uniontown residents Emily Lapisardi, 31, and her husband, Cody Knotts, 46, wrote the story based on an urban legend.

Lapisardi, the film's director, and Knotts, its producer, researched a legend claiming an orphanage destroyed by fire resulted in the deaths of many children, whose ghosts now haunt the ruins.

“It's not scary in an overt way. ... It's made so that what you think is going on is not necessarily what is going on,” Lapisardi said.

Mitchell Wells, who described himself as “everything from CEO to janitor” at the Horror Society, said he has seen an uptick in independent horror film production in recent years.

“It's so much easier now to do it,” he said.

Filmmakers can seek funding through social media sites and equipment is cheaper, Wells said.

He believes independent filmmakers often work on labors of love and show more originality in their efforts.

“Some people have a vision and know what they want. When film studios and investors get involved, that can get distorted,” he said.

Wells acknowledged it can be rare for such productions to achieve major success.

In some cases, he said, “starving artists” want to complete a project on their own terms and then submit to film festivals and try to get a distribution deal.

“It depends on what your version of success is,” he said.

Although the online voting offers no prizes, it can help to expose some otherwise little heard of projects. “That's kind of our little recognition,” Wells said.

Visitors can cast ballots through Feb. 23 at www.horrorsociety.com.

“Some of the (child actors) are voting as much as they can. They are very excited about this,” Lapisardi said.

Their tale evolved after researching a sign for a road called “Gore Orphanage” they saw in Ohio. Although no Gore Orphanage ever existed, the couple learned about a frightening local story weaving together the name of the road, an orphanage and a mansion that was lost to fire.

Basing their film on an urban myth gave the couple the freedom to create their own storyline.

“We wanted to pay homage to the original myth, but there were so many different versions. The main character, Nellie, is a product of our imagination,” Lapisardi said.

Nellie, 8 years old, comes to live at the orphanage after her parents die. The story's end has a bit of a twist, Lapisardi said.

Currently in post production, the film will be submitted to horror film festivals and festivals with female directors. It may receive a theatrical release or be televised, Lapisardi said.

This is Lapisardi's directorial debut, but the second joint project for the couple.

Knotts has worked on several horror films previously, but was attracted to a project he said was “different.”

“This was a chance to do a film that intellectually was interesting. The plot lines had to fit together. You can't depend on sight gags,” Knotts said.

Weekinweird

Northeastern Ohio teenagers have been creeped out for generations by the story of Gore Orphanage. A ruined stone foundation in Lorain County bears the marks of countless trespassers, wannabe Satanists, and ghost hunters searching for child spirits and telling creepy campfire tales. Now, it’s the subject of a low-budget horror flick due out in October 2015.

You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the trailer, but Gore Orphanage is billed as a horror movie. Instead of being a gore-filled scarefest, it’s more of a creepy “period piece” set in 1934 according to Executive Director Cody Knotts. The storyline follows a young orphan girl living at Gore Orphanage, her interactions with the other children, and a cast of dysfunctional employees.

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