WORLD PREMIERE OF TOOTH AND NAIL AT SCREAMFEST
On October 16th Screamfest was very busy. At the famous Grauman’s Chinese they were helping to host the LA premiere of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. Upstairs at the Mann Theatre in the Hollywood and Highland complex they were also having a world premiere of a little film called TOOTH AND NAIL. I am so glad that I decided to go see this film!
Mark Young the films writer/director has done three other films of which I am not that familiar, but am keeping my eye out for them. The cast for this film includes the amazing Rachel Miner (she was amazing in BULLY), Rider Strong (Boy Meets World, Cabin Fever), Michael Madsen and Robert Carradine. That alone was cool to me. My friend Alan wanted to see this film and actually bought tickets. He, Jamie, Overture and I arrived well fed and excited for some October horror! I just love this time of year!!
We stood in line for just a few minutes and got fantastic seats in the theatre—so far so good. When the film began I saw my old town of Philadelphia. It was weird because I had seen Philly look like this before. Ok not really. The city of brotherly love was a barren land with cars broken down everywhere and so it began.
The idea for this film is actually quite timely. Earth runs out of oil. Everything stops working and civil unrest destroys civilization. Al Gore will appreciate this film! I know, it’s a little over the top (the end of civilization) because there are other energy sources but…. Imagine the world without oil. I can’t. This film starts out with a 28 DAYS LATER vibe mixed in with a little ROAD WARRIOR (without the cars). Some survivors are walking around foraging (the foragers) food and supplies. They stumble upon a freaky man killing another. They shoot at him and he runs away. Upon investigating the scene, they find the lovely Rachel Miner hurt and almost unconscious. She pleads with them to help her and they do. They take her back to a hospital where a small group of survivors have banded together.
That night one of them is murdered and disappears. They discover that there are a group of people out there called Rovers that have decided to eat humans to survive. This group seems to be crazy killers who enjoy torture and murder. Michael Madsen is of course a part of this group. As the film unfolds, we discover a lot about some of the characters and see a lot of cool slash and fun action sequences as these survivors try to do just that.
This is one fun film that I will hopefully see again! The performances were great, the script was interesting and the film kept me engaged and excited. I wish I could have known more about some of the characters, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s an apocalyptic horror film. Most of them are just fodder anyway. There are also a couple cool references to the ALIEN films. Rachel Miner and Rider Strong give excellent performances, but the standout here was the wonderful Nicole Duport, who also stars in Southern Gothic by the same director. Perhaps he has found his muse.
At the Q&A afterwards a lot of the cast, the producers and the director were on hand to talk about the filming of TOOTH AND NAIL. Someone in the back told them to not market this as a horror film. The audience laughed and of course the producers, etc., kinda shrugged, however… to put the final nail in the coffin… this is a horror film. It is a slasher film. It is a thriller. It is an apocalyptic look at where society is headed if we do not watch out. A party followed at the Tropicana and fun was had by all!
If you get a chance to see this film at a festival or in theatrical release, GO! This is a wonderful film that doesn’t really break new ground but is one Hell of a Ride!
Kristoffer