The Last Horror Movie

This is a new INDIE horror movie that is catching viewers by storm. Let me first warn you this film is not for children or for the squeamish.

The Last Horror Movie begins as a pedestrian post- Scream slasher film, and then a moment or two into the movie, the image breaks up and we are suddenly introduced to Max (Kevin Howarth), who addresses the camera directly.

Max is a charming and handsome serial killer, who has decided to videotape his crimes over the interrupted copy of the horror film in question so as to provide a more authentically horrific experience for the viewer. And indeed, this is when the real horror movie begins.

British director Julian Richards utilizes this clever premise to deliver an unapologetically confrontational and intense exploration of the culpability involved in viewing violence as entertainment, and in the process, Richards has given this year's Best of Festivals program its most shocking and unsettling film. A film that recalls such cine-scandals as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Man Bites Dog , Last Horror Movie is not some sort of moralist polemic, and as we view Max's atrocious brutality, there is much dark humor and authentic horror film suspense to be savored?and that's exactly the point.

Richards (a horror fan) isn't delivering a lecture about how media violence has desensitized us to the real thing, but rather he's offering an opportunity to reflect on how we relate to these images of mayhem. Of course, this opportunity is also necessarily...disturbing viewing, to put it mildly. But you can take it. Can't you?