Supermarket Becomes Alien Raiders, Director Talks!
Johnny Butane
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Though it’s not due to hit DVD until the end of the year, I wanted to give some attention to another film from the Raw Feed line of direct-to-DVD horrors, if nothing else because “>Otis (DVD review) is out this week and we’re excited about what’s next for the label.
I’m referring to a film that was once called Supermarket (“>read our set visit from it here) but has since changed titles twice, first to Inhuman (which is how it’s still listed on the IMDB) and finally to Alien Raiders, which is what it will be called when it’s released on DVD this December. The official synopsis goes something like this:
Benny Hughes (Jeff Licon) and Whitney Steadman (Samantha Streets) are closing up at their small rural grocery store for the night, when suddenly they find themselves in the middle of a hostage situation with a motley crew of armed intruders helmed by a man named Ritter (Carlos Bernard). As hostages start dying, and dead bodies pile up in every aisle, the captives fight for their very survival … but they’ll soon find that they face an enemy far more powerful, and strange, than they could ever imagine.
Vague, yes, but hopefully mysterious enough to keep fans’ interest piqued. So why the identity crisis?
”It was very hard to come up with a title for the film that truly encapsulated the story and tone of the final piece,” director Ben Rock, former production designer on The Blair Witch Project (he’s the guy who invented the infamous “stick figure” for the film), told us via e-mail, ”When I was brought on to direct this film, I decided I would make a genre film with a capital “G,” as much as possible in the vein of the films I’d grown up watching (The Hidden, The Thing, Evil Dead, etc.). To that end I always wanted the film to have a very GENRE title, and even though “Supermarket” grew on me, I always felt that it wasn’t genre enough.”
Though Alien Raiders may sound a bit too much like a Sci-Fi original for some, Ben assures us that the film is something he’s very proud of, as is star Carlos (“24”) Bernard; ”[Carlos] saw the film last week and went out of his way to call and email me to tell me how much he liked the final product.” Rock enthused. ”This kind of blew me away, as Carlos isn’t himself a giant fan of the genre, and he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t dispense compliments unless he truly means them. The call literally made my week.”
While he waits for Alien Raiders to hit DVD, Rock is working on two “very genre” projects for the web; one is a series of standalone webisodes, the other part of a campaign for a horror property “that a lot of people are going to hear about”. Well, I’m intrigued, no matter how indistinct that statement might be!
Keep it here for more from Alien Raiders and other Raw Feed titles in the coming months!
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Categorized:News
