DIRECTED BY: Brian Weaver and Evan Makrogiannis
REVIEWED BY: Mario Dominick
Hallows Eve Films, an independent production company from New York run by Brian Weaver and Evan Makrogiannis, bring us their first effort which is this dark, gritty, gory, and atmospheric serial killer film that pays tribute to horror classics like Maniac and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer very respectfully.
NYC detectives are on the hunt for “The Turnpike Killer,” a psychopath believed to be responsible for a series of gruesome and horrific killings of prostitutes and young girls in the New York/New Jersey area in which the mutilated bodies have turned up near the turnpike.
We start the story by entering the realm of this “Turnpike Killer” as he brutally tortures and mangles the bodies of various prostitutes in an August Underground-looking basement in a variety of vicious ways (including by dismemberment with hack saws, throat slittings, hammer bludgeonings, nails embedded in faces, etc.). The killer hears voices in his head telling him to rid the world of its filth like whores and find the “chosen one.” Who these voices he’s hearing belong to are for the time being left up to the imagination. He helps open up an apartment with his friend who’s a landlord and a couple of college girls move in. He begins to fall for one of the girls as he believes she’s not a whore and is the “chosen one.” As he makes his way through the city at night picking up unsuspecting girls and hookers who become his victims, the police slowly begin to close in on him as he slips up giving them more leads. Can the young girl who he believes is the “chosen one” be saved in time?
The Turnpike Killer is a very well shot, gory, brutal, and disturbing debut effort from Brian Weaver, Evan Makrogiannis and Hallows Eve Films. The film has a very gritty look from the get go that stays with it and keeps the right atmosphere through the duration and the grainy quality of the video format it was shot on gives it a 16mm look that one would actually believe is 16mm if they didn’t know any better. The gore FX by Weaver, Makrogiannis, and Anthony Pepe of Demonic Pumpkins FX are very well-executed and the score by VOID and Chris Vazquez is very inspired and intense at times.
Also featured in the cast is Niki Notarile (from Knight of the Peeper, Zombies Anonymous, Frat House Massacre, Methodic, etc.) and German actress Manoush (from Barricade, Fearmakers, Philosophy of a Knife, The Tourist, Game Over, Unrated: The Movie, etc.).
You can visit Hallows Eve Films on the net at www.myspace.com/hallowsevefilms for more info on this and their upcoming film The Super.
Great review…really looking forward to seeing it when it becomes available. :)
the review sounds great and i saw the trailer which looked VERY cool. looks gritty and sounds very violent. when is it released????
There is a disgusting pig in this movie that the viewer is FORCED to see naked and jiggling her fat around, but thank fucking GOD there's a bag over her head in the scene.
Where did you see this movie and how can I see this?