Jose C. Gomez Raising Money for Strawberry Summer

Jose C. Gomez won an Honorable Mention Tabloid Witch Award in 2009 for his zombie feature, Bled White. In 2011 he released another horror feature, Plastic.

Now Gomez is now raising money for a new (non-horror) film -- Strawberry Summer.

In describing Strawberry Summer, Gomez says: "Fay is a quiet, introverted teenager. New in town, Fay has yet to make many friends. Fay tries to navigate through the divergent worlds of her disciplinarian, devout parents and the unrestricted lives of her peers, but feels alienated by both. When her parents' marriage begins to fall apart, Fay's feelings of isolation are heightened. She just wants a friend. Someone to listen, someone to love. Then Summer comes along, and nothing will ever be the same.

If you'd like to donate or invest in Strawberry Summer, you can find the details at IndieGoGo.com

29 Horror Film Entries So Far ...

As of May 21, 2012, the 2012 Tabloid Witch Awards has received 29 horror film entries: 18 shorts and 11 features. Entries have come from Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Italy, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, and the United States.

The Tabloid Witch Awards is a No Entry Fee horror film contest and festival. To enter the 2012 awards, your DVD must be in our in-box by August 31, 2012.

Details: TabloidWitch.com.

Mike Flanagan to Expand Oculus to Feature Length

Mike Flanagan's short film, Oculus, won several Tabloid Witch Awards in 2006 -- Best Horror Short Film, Best Actor, Best Sound.

Flanagan returned to the Tabloid Witch in 2011 with Absentia, a feature film that swept the Tabloid Witch, winning Best Horror Feature Film, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound.

Now Flanagan revisits Oculus. In 2006 he told the Hollywood Investigator that he intended to someday expand Oculus into a feature, and with Absentia's success, that day is now.

Dave McNamara of Daily Variety reports:

FilmDistrict has acquired Intrepid Pictures' horror project "Oculus," to be directed by Mike Flanagan from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Howard.

Film, based on Flanagan's short of the same name, is produced and fully financed by Intrepid's Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans with company's Anil Kurian executive producing.

International sales are being handled by Focus Features International at Cannes. Production is set for a late summer start.

Variety reported April 27 that Flanagan has come on board to direct, with production set for a late summer start. Intrepid and Focus previously collaborated on the international release of "The Strangers."

Read the rest of McNary's news report.

Steve Hudgins's Spirit Stalkers to Premiere June 16th

Steve Hudgins's first feature film submission to the Tabloid Witch Awards was The 3rd Floor. It was a rough production, yet it had a certain ... quality. It didn't win any Tabloid Witches, but it stuck in our memory. The film had passion and entertainment value, more so than most films we pass on. We liked it enough to give it a special screening at the 2009 Tabloid Witch Awards, two years after its submission. (Three other non-winning films also screened that year.)

In 2010, Hudgins's 5th entry -- Hell Is Full -- finally took home a Tabloid Witch (for Best Feature Film Screenplay). This made Steve very happy.

In 2011, Hudgins's 6th entry -- The Creepy Doll -- took home an Honorable Mention Tabloid Witch. The award went to the film's writer/director, PJ Woodside, Hudgins's creative partner at their Big Biting Pig Productions. Hudgins co-produced and acted in Woodside's film.

Now Hudgins's latest collaboration with Woodside, Spirit Stalkers, is set to premiere on June 16th, in Madisonville, Kentucky.

Hudgins says that Spirit Stalkers is "a mix between the modern popularity of paranormal investigative shows and the classic ghost stories that so many of us grew up with."

Details about the screening at the Spirit Stalkers webpage.

Rolfe Kanefsky's There's Nothing Out There to Screen on May 26th

In 2006, Rolfe Kanefsky's Nightmare Man won four Tabloid Witch Awards for Best Horror Feature Film, Best Actress (Blythe Metz), Best Supporting Actress (Tiffany Shepis), and Best Music Soundtrack (Christopher Farrell).

It should have come as no surprise that Kanefsky's film did so well, because was no newbie. Nightmare Man was his 11th feature film directorial effort. His debut film was 1990's There's Nothing Out There.

That film is now set for a special 10th anniversary screening in Los Angeles, at midnight, on May 26, 2012. According to Kanefsky's press release:

"There's Nothing Out There, the low-budget independent film, was directed by 20-year-old filmmaker Rolfe Kanefsky, who drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs described as having 'invented the self-referential horror flick with There's Nothing Out There, (an idea copied by Kevin Williamson's screenplay for Scream several years later.'

"Produced in 1989 on a budget of $125,000, There's Nothing Out There told the traditional horror story of a group of high school kids who go to a cabin in the woods for spring break only to be terrorized by a 1950's style alien creature. However one of the kids has been every horror film and knows the warning signs and rules of the genre.”

Details about the screening at the New Beverly Cinema.

26 Horror Film Entries So Far ...

As of May 9, 2012, the 2012 Tabloid Witch Awards has received 26 horror film entries: 17 shorts and 9 features. Entries have come from Canada, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Italy, South Korea, Scotland, England, and the United States.

The Tabloid Witch Awards is a No Entry Fee horror film contest and festival. To enter the 2012 awards, your DVD must be in our in-box by August 31, 2012.

Details: TabloidWitch.com.