Fright Flick. La Luna Entertainment (www.lalunaentertainment.com). By Brian Kirst

While the original Friday the 13th was considered a low budget, quickly shot feature, it actually stuns the mind that the recently shot Fright Flick (which pays direct homage to the Friday the 13th series) was probably done with a third of that seminal fright fest’s budget and production time. This is especially revelatory because Fright Flick is such a twisted, enjoyably bloody good time.

Fright Flick, which received its debut screening at last weekend’s Chicago Horror Film Festival and is up for several awards at the upcoming Syracuse B Movie Film Festival, is jam packed with humorous jabs at the egos and indulgences of low budget filmmakers and is full of exciting kills and flesh baring bloodshed. Writer/director Israel Luna clearly loves the horror genre and the excitement involved with film making and he packs this joy into every grue speckled frame.

In Fright Flick, a second rate crew descends upon a hotel in a small town to create the second (and supposedly last) sequel to a low budget horror film series. Of course, the mysterious murder of the original film’s hilariously inept leading lady comes back to haunt everyone involved. Yep, it’s human fricassee, ladies and gents! Soon, the film’s industrious stills photographer is investigating the deadly on set mayhem, but of course, once he discovers the truth – it just may be too late to save his own life.

Luna begins Fright Flick with an extremely funny sequence involving the creation of the initial movie in the film-within-the-film’s mock series. The big breasted lead poses like a runway model as she screams upon finding her dead boyfriend (after initially inquiring, “Have you been eating jam?”) and the film is off on a steady, slashingly taut roll! Luna fills the frames with references to classic horror film deaths (some quite shocking) and he also eases surprisingly layered performances out of a number of his performers.

Chad Allen (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and the fun low budget slasher Do You Wanna Know a Secret?) is the biggest name here and he supplies a quirkily sweet portrait of a particularly dense leading man. His years of show business experience show as he intelligently navigates the material for all its worth. Natali Jones (who also appears in Mel House’s Walking Distance with Adrienne King) as Eye Candy, also charms with natural enthusiasm and when her character takes an unexpected character turn, she handles it with well thought out restraint. The rest of the cast is good looking, promising and, even when over-the-top, nothing less than fun.

Be sure to keep up to date with Fright Flick as it cuts its way through the festival circuit and into distribution at www.lalunaentertainment.com.