Movies
‘Dave Made a Maze’ With Gravitas Ventures
Long time actor Bill Watterson has made his directorial debut on Dave Made a Maze, which had its World Premiere in competition at the Slamdance Film Festival (read our review), where it won the Audience Award for Best Narrative. Gravitas Ventures has acquired all North American rights with intent to release later this year. Watch for news as it comes in.
In the film, Dave builds a fort in his living room and ends up trapped inside by fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and creatures, leaving his girlfriend Annie to head up the eccentric rescue team to go in after him.
Luiz reviewed the film explaining that it’s what “cult classics are made of.”
“Even with the obvious adventure movie vibe, ‘Dave Made a Maze’ has some solid roots in the horror genre, with creepy cardboard puppet people and a monstrous minotaur creature stalking the characters as they delve deeper into the labyrinth,” explains Luiz. “The film is also exceptionally gory in parts, but the use of red yarn and other household materials as substitutes for blood help make the deaths seem a lot more fun, rather than off-putting. The brief stop-motion and hand-puppet segments can also be quite eerie, though the film still retains that charming, adventurous atmosphere.”
Dave Made a Maze stars Nick Thune, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Adam Busch, James Urbaniak, Stephanie Allynne, Kirsten Vangsness, Scott Krinsky, and John Hennigan.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
You must be logged in to post a comment.