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The serious brutality of the torture trend gives way to a more lighthearted type of bloodshed with Transylmania, a grisly horror/comedy going into limited release December 4 from Full Circle Releasing. Writing/directing brothers David and Scott Hillenbrand, whose credits include King Cobra and PIÑATA: Survival Island, discussed the flick with us and passed on a couple of photos, including an exclusive gruesome pic (see them below).

In the film, a group of students set off to study abroad at the isolated Razvan University, located in a centuries-old Transylvanian castle. What they find are black leather-clad professors, a 3-foot-tall dean, instructions in crucifix-wielding and topless vampiresses lurking in dark corners—basically the standard European experience.

“We thought it would be very interesting to mix the college comedy of Animal House with the vampire/monster-hunting genre,” the Hillenbrands tell Fango, “and spoof scenarios and characters like Professor Van Helsing, Selene in Underworld,...

Even before the Twilight revolution, vampires were in. Before pink was the new black, vampire movies were making their way into the mainstream with a vengeance. And now, with franchises like the aforementioned teen broodfest Twilight and the low-down and dirty HBO series True Blood, it seems that we just can't escape the fangs of a vampire-crazy culture. Which makes the whole thing ripe for spoofing. Enter brothers David and Scott Hillenbrand, the writer/director team behind such gems as King Cobra, National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze and the ever-popular Dorm Daze 2. They are taking the vampire fad to task in their new movie, Transylmania, a spoof that appears to be one part Twilight, one part wannabe Monster Squad (I stress the word wannabe) and one part ever other National Lampoons Presents movie of the past 5 years. Except, based on the trailer below, this movie looks downright awful. Not awful in the Friedberg/Seltzer sense, but...

I know I’m at Los Angeles’ American Film Market when, as soon as I get off the plane, I run into Lloyd Kaufman (in a men’s room, no less). The Troma chief serves as the Chairman of the Independent Film and Television Alliance, which runs the Afm. Who better to chair an organization and market dedicated to discovering and promoting movies created outside the studio system than Kaufman?

This November, the Afm unveils over 500 films in dozens of languages for prospective international buyers. They screen the majority of these new motion pictures at seven different screening venues in sunny Santa Monica. The Afm is the proud home for the smaller guys, foreign and art-house features and B- to Z-grade movies. Just about everything stars Michael Madsen, C. Thomas Howell and/or Billy Zane. Best of all, the number of genre films has increased substantially over the 11 years I’ve been coming here,...