Jennifer's Bodies Official Selection 2017 - Karen Lam's Chiral!

I am so happy to announce that Jennifer's Bodies favourite crazy cat lady and knitting obsessive, Karen Lam, is back!  Yay!  Over the years I have screened two of the Lam'ster's features, Evangeline and Stained, as well as shorts Doll Parts, The Meeting, Stalled and The Stolen.

Karen creates such visually stunning films with a very twisted and macabre heart making this Canadian most definitely a woman after my own heart, haha.

This year I shall be screening her short film Chiral, which sees an art dealer confronting a would-be thief, only to come face to face with a horrifying experience.  

(Nelson Leis) 

Starring Nelson Leis (who has worked on two of my favourite ever shows, Bates Motel and The Killing, as well as Arrow, The Flash, Supernatural, The 4400 and a whole heap of cool stuff, including Lam's Evangeline!!), Vanessa Walsh (Supernatural, Olympus, Almost Human) and Ingrid Nilson (the voice of Raspberry Torte in the Strawberry Shortcake animated series, voice of Maud Pie in My Little Pony....like basically doing cartoons that were two of my favourites as a kid - how totally cool is that!?  She was also in Supernatural as well.   Ingrid is also a professional dancer, burlesque performer, song writer, theatre creator....an all round talented chickaroo!)

(Karen Lam and Vanessa Walsh)

(Ingrid Nilson)

Alongside Lam, Leis and Walsh, the film was also produced by Karen Wong.  Creepily enough (you wouldn't expect anything less from me, haha!!), I have just discovered that one of the films I was talking about yesterday in work, was actually the first film she worked on.  The utterly gore~geous Kissed!  Yes, I was talking about necrophilia to my customers at work, haha.  Wong has also worked on a bunch of Little Miss Lam's films, including producing the incredible Evangeline.

Ooh, Karen is also currently working as a staff writer on Neil Labute's Syfy series Van Helsing which I totally need to check out!  

You can check out the Official Facebook Page for Chiral here.  

Rose McGowan's "WOMANSWOMB" is a Must See Visual Statement Against Our Times of Dictatorship!

Holy fucking shit!  Rose McGowan is giving me all sorts of feels right now!  As an actress, she was awesome.  As an outspoken activist however...she is actually one of the most incredible and inspirational women out there leading the way today!  And as someone I totally consider one of my favourite women in horror, this level of punk as fuck awesomeness just makes me love her all the more!

"I actually used some of my own blood, put hydrogen peroxide in it, bubbled it up, filmed it, and then had a lovely Indian model in something that looks womb-like work her way out of ," she explained. "The black bars on the side of the frame represent how society squeezes women, squeezes their rights."

Like, actually LOOOOOVE!!!  She is fucking incredible! 

Her new video is a stunning piece of visceral artwork that truly echoes the real horrors of the world around us.  A world where women are still seen as second-class citizens in a world dictated to by men!   With the election to Presidential status of an inflated, uneducated orange blob with no care or concern for Women's Rights (Human Rights, Environmental Rights....any rights other than that of fellow racist, misogynistic, narcissistic, homophobic middle/upper class white wankers!), Rose has spoken out in the most incredible and genuinely touching way.  

Jennifer's Bodies 2017 - Event/Venue Details

This year's festival shall feature a mixture of feature/shorts as well as a Women in Horror panel which should be a blast!  If you are a woman working in horror/have done horror work before and would like to be involved in the panel, I would love to hear from you.  Just drop me an email at jennifersbodies@gmail.com and I shall get back to you asap.  :)  

Sunday 19th February  

Blackfriars 

36 Bell Street

G1 1LG

4pm-11pm

Tickets - £5 on the door but will be available to buy online beforehand for £4. 

Full line-up and guest list shall be announced on 31st January with announcements also as they come in.  

Jennifer's Bodies 2016 - Official Selection - Jane Clark's Crazy Bitches!

I am super fucking psyched to be screening Jane Clark's award winning Crazy Bitches at Jennifer's Bodies this year.  This film is absolutely quality and I swear to God (aka Chris Carter, hahahaha!!) that the memes she shares on the Crazy Bitches FB give me a meme for every day and every situation!!  Haha. :)

But yay, what I love about this, is that we all know some fucking crazy bitches......hell, my sisters and I alone are crazy bitches, haha.  I love how this takes these total crazy bitch habits and totally embellishes on them for fun entertaining value.  Although again....my sisters...I dunno....you could totally get away with just them being them and it would still be entertaining!!!  Hahahaha.

This is basically if Mean Girls meets Clueless, meets Jawbreaker, meets Scream.  And it is fucking EPIC!!! :)   A Cooper sister film to the max yo! ;) 

Director Jane Clark is an absolute fucking superstar and truly inspirational woman in film and I absolutely recommend watching the interview below with her, she's totally ace!!   

For more information, check out the Crazy Bitches Official Website HERE and the Official Facebook HERE.  :)

Jennifer's Bodies 2016 - Official Selection - Jessica Cameron's Mania Starring Tristan Risk and Ellie Church!

So it is with great pleasure that I can announce my first official selection for this year's Jennifer's Bodies....Jessica Cameron's follow up to Truth or Dare, Mania.

(Pictured above - Jessica Cameron on the set of Truth or Dare)

Starring Tristan Risk and Ellie Church, this "fucked up lesbian love story" is an absolute gem of a film for so many reasons, but for myself personally, the bipolar theme that runs throughout and the situations our characters get themselves into...or out of, so much of it relates to themes that I am sure we can all relate to...especially just how far we would go to protect someone we love. 

With its trippy dream sequences and mixed layers of emotions that come from dating a bipolar person, it truly is a fucked up lesbian love story and Jessica Cameron has made a wonderful film that people will remember for a long time.  :)

Jennifer's Bodies 2016 - Submission Guidelines - Date - Venue - New Partnership!

Fuck me.....year number 7!  Where has the time gone!?!!

I am really excited to announce that for this year's Jennifer's Bodies I have hooked up with my makeup/sfx bestie in crime, Hayley Tinline.  Hayley and I have worked on a number of films and projects together and so it makes perfect sense to partner up.  We have some truly wicked things coming your way for this year's Women in Horror Month and Jennifer's Bodies which shall be hosted at the Flying Duck in Glasgow.  The Flying Duck is absolutely the perfect place for this as it is a Vegan place with a totally alternative rad crowd....and my cousin Chris works there! :)

"Opening in 2008, The Flying Duck has hosted a variety of club nights and we’ve had a fair go at trying pretty much every other kind of event – graffiti jams, life drawing, film screenings, queer nights and some really curious gigs and performance events. Over the years, we’ve developed quite the reputation."

Sooooo....to submit your films.....

Your feature film/short MUST be either directed, produced or written by a woman.  

• All submissions must obviously be horror (doh!), be it psychological, zombie, ghost, revenge, slasher...as long as it is horror~ific...and if you're not sure, by all means, please do get in touch!  I also love haunting sad films that ooze melancholy and many of these can still be deemed horror of sorts.  It's all subjective to our own personal ideas I guess.  :)  

• For submissions of shorts and features, if you could email me links to a private Vimeo/YouTube account with the password for me to view.  If I then accept your submission for this year's festival, I will require a copy to be posted out on DVD/Blu-ray AND a high-quality downloadable copy (I am covering all my bases this year, haha!!).   

• Once you have been accepted into Jennifer's Bodies 2016, when posting out your DVD, if you could also include any campaign materials in hard copies, such as postcards etc. for your film. This way I can display them at the event and it makes it easier for people to remember the names of all the things they've seen. 

• Also if you have any other promotional items such as t-shirts, patches...whatever other rad things that you'd like to send.  :) I will be doing a giveaway and raffle at the event, with all funds raised to be donated to Beagle rights charity Unite to Care.  Also my boobs like to put your tees on them too.  They likes the coverage, moooahahahaha.  So T-SHIRTS for Morleysaurus BOOB coverage = GOOD!!  

• There is no charge for submissions. 

• I will consider a feature/short that is not directed by a woman IF it is both written and produced by a woman and has a strong female lead performance.

• Every year I screen a film directed by a MAN that has basically taken on board all of the principles of Women in Horror Month.  Such as Jose Pedro Lopes, and Jeremiah Kipp; both previously screened at Jennifer's Bodies, due to their strong female empowered films.  If you are a woman and you feel that you know a guy who embodies everything that we stand for, get them to drop me a line. :)

• All submissions are due by January 24th 2016.  (The day that MIGHT actually kill me, haha!!)

Email for submissions and more information - jennifersbodies@gmail.com

Details to include -

• Name
• Website/Facebook Page/Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram/Pinterest etc.
• A Small Bio About Yourself
• Short Description of Submission
• Links to YouTube/Vimeo (other private video site) with password
• Details of any awards won
• Trailer
• Poster

Come find me on Facebook and LIKE, LIKE, LIKE
Flying Duck Facebook 
Women In  Horror Month

Sunday 28th February 2016
The Flying Duck
142 Renfield Street (right next to bus station!!)
Glasgow

xo

Vote for my Favourite Mexican, the UBER Talented La Muñeca Del Terror‬ Gigi Saul Guerrero for Miss Shock Stock!

My precious, most beloved little Mexican of bad ass filmmaking is one of the finalists for Miss Shock Stock and I'm asking y'all to go vote for her....it can be your Valentine's gift to me.  :)  

Anyone who follows anything I do, will know that since I discovered Gigi, I have done everything I can to make sure people realise the immense amount of talent that this chicka has to offer.  

Her films are absolutely gore~geous, and just downright brilliant!!  I mean, just take a look at this wee sizzle reel of highlights to get your blood juices a flowin'!!  And then click on THIS link, scroll to the bottom, and VOTE for GIGI!! She did make a film with a midget, cannibal Mexican wrestler in a monkey suit after all!! ;)  You can find plenty of features on the lovely lady by scrolling through this blog...I do love her...A LATTE!!! ;) 

#LaMuñecaDelTerror

#WiHM666

Why Hollywood Needs to Pull its Finger Out its Arse and Accept That There are More Katherine Bigelow's Out There and Women Need Equal Opportunities!

So I was discussing the topic of the hardships that women face in the film industry with someone whom I have just recently made realise, that it's an actual real issue...and this individual STUDIED filmmaking!!   When he said that "surely women in horror isn't that much of a niche area", and I asked him, what should have been a really easy question to answer...name me ANY female film directors....to which I got Sofia Coppola and "that chick that did The Hurt Locker"....he kind of started to realise that he was actually pretty clueless.  Anyhoo, this conversation was continued last night so I thought I'd dig out a bunch of articles that highlight EXACTLY how bad the situation actually is.  His point was that, least things are changing, and that at least we should see it fully change within our lifetime.  Well....I would just like to point out that Hollywood admitted that there was a problem...IN 1978, and agreed to implement change!!  1978!!!  That was a year before I was born for fucks sake!  So in 35 years, yay....look how far we've come!

I think the biggest kick in the teeth came from the co-chair of Sony Entertainment, when she was quoted in an interview with Forbes Magazine last year saying THIS...

"For a woman to direct a movie in Hollywood, she has to go through so many layers of rejection by the powers that be—I suppose including myself—that it is harder to get to that point," said Pascal. "So you can't just create something. And I think there is a whole unconscious mountain… I think that the whole system is geared for them to fail."

The biggest advancement was of course in 2010, the year that Katherine Bigelow became the first woman to ever win the Oscar for Best Director!  Prior to her win, only THREE other women had ever been nominated...in 82 fucking years! 

When we look at how much technology has changed, and the way we make films in general....that's the kind of shit that when I was a kid, I thought I'd never see in my lifetime...and yet here we are today...we live in an age where technology rules all.  But yet we STILL don't have fucking equality for women working in the industry.  WHAT. THE. FLYING. FUCK!?!  How is that even fucking possible!?!  Like seriously!! 

What makes Bigelow's win all the more entertaining, is that she beat ex-husband James Cameron for Avatar.  The Hurt Locker was independently produced, on a budget of around $11 million...which is considered low budget for Hollywood.  Especially when you consider that Avatar had a budget of $425 million!  That alone should serve as enough of a statement.  

With The Hurt Locker, not only did it nab Bigelow the Oscar for Best Director, it also FINALLY got people paying attention to my beloved Jeremy Renner (who I've been in love with since 1995), and got him his first Oscar nomination too.  Yay!  

Just think...in 1984, James Cameron made the original Terminator, followed by Aliens in 1986 and then one of my all time favourite movies, Terminator 2, in 1991!  And then in 2010 he gives us Avatar!  That man alone has helped advance filmmaking technology to levels I never thought I would see in my lifetime.  

He is also an absolute lover of strong women...can we say, Sarah fucking Connor!?!  He has so much command in Hollywood, but yet STILL....no real advancement when you compare it to what he has done technologically.  And this is something that just frazzles my brain even thinking about it! 

When we think of 1978 and horror, it was of course the year that Halloween was released...and Jamie Lee Curtis became our beloved scream queen.  The daughter of original scream queen Janet Leigh.  In 1998, Jamie Lee Curtis returned to the role that made her famous, and just to add a total nerdfest for horror geeks, Janet Leigh also had a small part in the film.  One of my absolute favourite scenes is this one you see here.  I went to see H2O in the cinema on my own and actually squeee'ed out loud with delight when this played.  Talk about a Psycho nerdgasm! :)

Anyhoo, that was 20 years after the original Halloween.  Look how different everything is.  And also consider that this was Josh Hartnett's first film...followed by one of my all time favourites, The Faculty!  Look how far Josh Hartnett has come in the time since playing Michael Myers (way too fucking hot for his own good) nephew!  Yes Michelle Williams has also come into her own since then as well, and is a 3 time Oscar nominated actress...but even actresses don't get fair treatment in Hollywood...just look at the salary differences! 

Fuck, actually...look how far Joseph Gordon Levitt has come in that time!  He is now a a well respected director in his own right!  

The scary thing is...is that when H2O was released, how much had things really even changed from that moment in 1960 where Janet Leigh gave people a fear of taking a shower??

Green Street director Lexi Alexander summed it up perfectly when she wrote this superb piece, and I believe EVERYONE should read it!

If you read only one thing, please read this report from 1978, when the EEOC investigated equal-employment practices in the motion picture industry.

Okay, so we know that people have seriously acknowledged that there is a problem back in 1978, thirty-five years ago. Promises were made even back then to "work diligently" to fix the imbalance.

The fact that there has been no improvement in thirty-five years can only really mean two things:

1) Those who have promised to bring about change were insincere.
or
2) Those who have promised to bring about change were not very smart.

You choose.

And last but not least....listen to Olivia Wilde...girl speaks the truth! :)

So Just Why is it We Need Women in Horror Month?

As an ambassador for Women in Horror Recognition Month, I am always on a mission to keep people informed as to our general mission, and all year round as well.  Like I always say, it's a celebration of women in horror, as more than just tits and ass!!  :)  

Now last night I was speaking to a director/filmmaker I'm working with and I mentioned how much of a niche crowd us women in horror guys really are.  His reaction was, "Even more niche than British American Football?" to which I replied, "Are you fucking kidding me!?"  He then went on to say that he's known loads of women at college/uni etc. that were equally as good as the guys, ya di yah.  I then asked him what in an ideal world would be an easy fucking question for a filmmaker to answer - name some female directors!!  The only two he could think of were Sofia Coppola and "that chick that did The Hurt Locker"!!! 

THAT CHICK being Katherine Bigelow, pictured below on the set of cult Lance Henriksen vampire flick, Near Dark!

 I then asked him to name me some female horror directors, excluding Jen and Sylvia Soska, just because I'm friends with them and he only knows of them because of me, so that wouldn't count...that would be like asking him to name some of my mates.  The only female he could come up with was Jen Lynch...but again, she's a chick I'm always writing about etc.  Apart from them, he couldn't think of any!!   Yet if I asked him to name male filmmakers, he'd have no problem.  The thing is, yes, he's right, there are plenty of women out there that are just as good as the guys, if not better...so why the hell don't we see more of their work more often??  The answer is simple, women are treated as second class citizens in the movie industry.  And that is just something that does NOT sit right with me....at all!!   

Anyhoo, when putting together an article of all the Women in Horror Recognition Month Events, founder Hannah Neurotica pulled this quote from me that I had written a few years back to go alongside Jennifer's Bodies, and I'd totally forgotten about it!!  Although I fucking love it and still stand by what I said! 

"So what is the whole point of this, and why should we stand up and be noticed!?! Well, for one....the amount of talented and downright fucking awesome women that work in this genre is unbelievable!!! They write, they direct, they produce, they blog and most importantly....they are bloody awesome FANS!!!!!! Are we given that recognition though, hellsssss NOOO!!!!! The general concept is still that chicks are supposed to hide behind their hands and clutch onto the guy next to them...FUCK THAT!!!!! Because you know what, we're just as sick and twisted, if not even more so...we are also just as talented and have just as much to give when it comes to horror!!! So yay, join me in a celebration of wonderfully talented, totally rad-core to the maximus laydeeees that are changing the face of horror and who if you jump on the band wagon now, you can be all like "I was totally into them like waaaaaaay before they became popular!!!"