 Thanks for checking out this movie review video So this is for the 2020 release as I'm putting this out hasn't even been released yet It is tails from six feet under it is an independent film and it will hit Amazon Prime video on the 15th of April, which is a Wednesday, sorry, so Wednesday April 15th. It'll be available. I don't know what the pricing on it's gonna be or anything like that But I was I was reached out to reached out to By the writer director editor musician basically the guy who did almost everything except some acting and some camera work Nicholas Michael Jacobs He reached out to me and he said hey, I did this independent film. Would you be able to review it? Do you have any interest and I'm like yes because I'm not gonna turn down doing a review for an independent film So one of the things I'm gonna say up front is I'm not doing star ratings for anything like this because here's the thing This is not a studio film. It's not getting a theatrical release. This is a no-budget film Just so people know going into it. It's a no-budget film It's not even low-budget like something like the headhunter which had you know It was a crazy low-budget film that was amazing, but that got thirty thousand dollars this one I guarantee was absolutely no budget whatever money was just some pocket change Basically, I understand what this is like because it actually watching this reminded me a lot of my days doing independent film Which you know, no there are no budgets. You just get together with your friends and family You do what you can you see what everyone has to contribute and you make it work And it's a fun time usually and you could tell that there was fun put into this film Especially one of the stories because it's multiple stories. It's an anthology, but let me go through this a little more methodically so Nicholas Michael Jacobs who is the visitor in this film just know that he plays the visitor He did films night and urban fears. I've not seen those because they're independent Unless I know about them, you know, I I'm not checking them out So I didn't know about those prior, but I did see tails from six feet under It's got like a 45 minute runtime So it's not a huge time commitment, which I actually like especially for an independent film And like I said on Amazon Prime video available Wednesday, April 15th And like I said, I don't know the price but consider throwing this dude and his crew a little bit of cash So they can keep doing films in the future This seems heavily influenced by creep show to be honest That's what I got immediately when you see the visitor in it The visitor is actually someone who kind of ties the whole movie together because it's very creep show like The visitor reminds me of creep show the structuring of it because it is a horror anthology Reminds me a lot of creep show it. It just feels very creep show Inspired which is not a problem because you know, we all have our influences from somewhere. I have plenty of mine But it yeah, it just hit me immediately with that. You can immediately tell it's a no-budget film and one of the reasons is the acting is Good for no budget like it's fine for no budget But you're not gonna get amazing performances when you have no budget or it's an independent film Usually, you know coming from my experience you get friends and people who are willing to just do it for the fun of it Or because you buy them lunch or something like that for the day. Literally, that's how it works. That's how I did it I was just like, hey, you want to do this for me and a lot of times people don't even show up I had times where I was doing in an independent film and people didn't show up that day for shooting So we just on the fly change the script because what else are you gonna do? You're there and you're ready to go It's in black and white, which I feel is a good visual choice for this And one of the main reasons for that being when it is a no-budget film You have a lot of limitations as far as practical effects and special effects and going black and white actually can hide a lot of Issues that you would have otherwise Mainly because like with practical effects, you can't get a whole lot of detail if you basically have no budget to it so Putting the black and white in there lets you play with shadows more you can hide The fact that there isn't a lot of detail to any sort of special effects Costuming or prosthetics or you know, whatever you're using and so for that reason it's smart One of the things with this film is you can tell that this guy Nicholas has done this before He's done no budget films before because he knows the limitations of what he's able to do And he finds ways to kind of work around it and adapt with it This is one of the reasons I like Independent film a lot because I feel like you have to be creative in order to get the film done in order to make What you want to make you have to be super creative and you have to work around things And I feel like when you get to like bigger budget films you start to get up a lack of Creativity because people have so much money to throw at stuff So I like when it's smaller budget because you get more creativity. So just saying this reminded me of that For how low the budget is I actually dig the music. That's one of the things I love the most about this the music was very interesting to me is very heavy heavily like synth driven It gave me these 80 by 80s vibes and it actually felt very much inspired by John Carpenter It had this carpenter-esque sound to it throughout and I would be interested to know if Nicholas is a big John Carpenter fan And if so if he feels like his music is inspired by John Carpenter But it really struck me that way and I really dug the music in this I really did it match quite well for regular people's actors the performances were not bad They're not great, but they're not bad. Like I said, you just you get who you can and that's what no budget film is about There's one portion that is extremely meta in this it is three separate stories that are all brought together under the anthology Umbrella by the visitor And the second story is my favorite by far and it's very meta and that's one of the things I loved about it what it's a cool story and How meta it is really made me smile because it's kind of this well Let me read how I put it down here because I probably did it better I found it fun and funny because it speaks to the struggles of a filmmaker trying to be Familiar but not unoriginal at the same time Basically, you kind of like as a filmmaker horror filmmaker horror script writer You want to be familiar enough that people are going to like what you're doing because they know what you're trying to do But not be too familiar that people feel like you're ripping someone off or just treading on ground That's already been tread too many times So for that reason I really love the second one because it kind of speaks to the struggle of horror filmmakers especially independent horror filmmakers kind of stuck in that spot of you know creative issues where you're just like I Want people to like want to see this because it's familiar to them But then I don't want them once they see it to be like oh, this is a total ripoff of this or that or it's so unoriginal and The character in that you you know It's very well driven home that that character is having that struggle and it makes it funny intentionally funny, I will say and What ends up coming together is very unique I Individually not unique, but how everything comes together is very unique And I liked it and I loved how funny it was and that was the best for me That right there sold me on the film to be honest that made me like it a lot. The first story was Fine, I didn't feel that I was like Super into it or not super into it I was interested enough to know where it's going the second one really sold me and the third one Let me talk about the third one in a minute I ultimately liked the third one the ending that is but I'll talk a little bit about in a second the second I already talked about it Some let's talk about the second one something that really hit me is the integration of cell phones in this film Which I think is really a generational gap thing and this isn't like a criticism or strength of the film It's just a something. I noticed while watching it Is it someone of it, you know being someone of an older generation now feels weird to say that but in Comparison to the age of the person who made the film being in an older generation myself There's a lot of use of cell phones in this and it's just something that people in my generation and above Would not think to do and it just hit me as this is interesting because this is from a younger generation And that just kind of baked into What they know? Societally and you write what you know like that's just how it is so it's just very interesting because I was watching I'm like I would never write a script that would have that much cell phone integration into it But it makes sense that this is being done because that's society. That's culture That's how these younger generations have grown up. So it just made me think about that and I thought it was interesting So I just wanted to share that with you guys The black and white does make it a little bit hard to read texts in this because there are is there is text Messaging throughout it when you you know, you're seeing the face of the phone as the texting is going on So the black and white makes it a little bit challenging The good thing is though the only portions that makes it challenging to see are the portions that the persons Whose phone you're seeing is typing out So you have you have to read it as they're typing it out the problem is they can go a little bit fast So you need to be able to read it kind of quick before it gets sent because once it gets sent It's really hard to see but the incoming texts for that phone Easy enough to see with the black and white. So it's just a little bit challenging visually there, but you know The other thing about the text though is for my personal taste I do not like prolonged texting in a film and actually I'm not really sure I've really experienced it before but in this film it happens it in a portion and That for me is too much downtime. It's too. It's too boring like literally watching someone text out entire Sentences and then getting sentences back and then going back and forth That's not interesting to me and it's not exciting and I I think that's something that maybe should have been changed in The film because I'm gonna give you know some constructive criticism with this I think that's something needs to be changed because it's a little too much downtime in my opinion but Maybe it's just a generational thing for me and or maybe it's a personal thing I don't know anyone who's already seen it can make a comment down there. We can talk about that The ending was a solid way to finish. I was down with it That third story is the one that has all that texting. So for that reason it kind of took me out of the story a little bit But then it comes back in getting me interested again with the very end of it I did like how it ended with that one. It's a particularly I don't know how to put it. I don't want to say tense. It's not particularly tense. It's a good horror moment I guess I could just put it that way. It's a good way to kind of bring it to a close Have a nice horror moment to end it and go to the credits. So I enjoyed that The visitors face in this actually looks pretty good I don't know if it was some it was like something that was purchased or something that was made by someone that Nicholas knew but It looked good. It looked pretty good, especially for a no-budget film to be honest Look better than anything I've used in any of my films when I was making films for the most part shots are pretty well framed And there are a few that have some cool angles to be honest It's not, you know, you won't watch it and be like, oh my god The cinematography is so inspired and amazing in the directing. Oh unbelievable, but it's good And that's the thing for someone who's younger for someone who's doing a no-budget independent film That like you don't need to have amazing like you're probably not going to have amazing and to be honest when I was watching this I saw a lot of myself in it. Like, yep, I would frame a shot exactly like that Yeah, I totally would or I've done shots exactly like that. I've done angles exactly like that I framed things like this. So, you know This the film was shot about one and a half hours from where I live I realized so which I thought that was kind of funny. So I'm not far from where these people are That's you know, considering how big the United States is that's kind of a funny thing So anyway, like I said, I'm not going to give a star rating for this because with independent no-budget films Why, you know, you can't compare it. There's just no possibility. I did enjoy it, you know, if you're looking for a Unbelievably polished, you know theater Um release type film, this is not it But if you're looking to you know, throw your money to someone who is an aspiring filmmaker who is doing no-budget independent film stuff Do it, you know, I like I said, I don't know what the pricing is gonna be But if it's a few bucks consider just throwing out a few bucks Like I said, the second story in particular, I think is a good time It is fun and the way it ends is good. So there's fun to be had with this film I enjoyed myself. I definitely enjoyed myself and like I said, it's 45 minutes, too So it's not too much of a commitment, which I like the other thing is this the horror community is Awesome with independent film. I actually have a friend who just recently got finished making an independent film that is not horror He I went to the premiere of it and everything and it's good It's well done, but I was talking to him and I said, you know What's your plan for this because as far as I know there isn't a whole lot of a of a market for super independent non horror genre films and It just made me start thinking about how good the the horror community is about Supporting and lifting up independent film within the horror community. So I said to to the friend I said, you know, if you want to try to actually make some money Doing independent film, I think you should do your next one as a horror film because that community supports it well So that said Keep that in mind if it's a few bucks on Amazon Prime video go ahead and get it give it a shot It's worth it Just to encourage these people to continue to do film because we need future filmmakers for the horror industry we do Is there a shortage? I don't know there might be with what's going on. Who knows but I Also want to say Nicholas. Thank you for sending this to me. It was fun and Yeah, best of luck to you, man. I see a lot of what I used to do I haven't touched the camera in a long time but I see a lot of what I used to do and what you did and Yeah, I kind of resonated with me for that reason. So that's cool. But anyway, thanks everyone for checking this one out Thank You Nicholas. Thank you to your whole crew and everything But um, yeah, if there are other independent filmmakers out there who want to send in and ask for reviews You can certainly do that. I'm at brutal battle podcast at gmail.com brutal is spelled Brutal brutal battle podcast at gmail.com just contact me and if if if my Schedule allows which probably it would I'll take care of that but thanks everyone for checking this out Do me a quick favor hit the subscribe if you can to show that you like anything that I'm doing do the thumbs up If you've already subscribed. Oh, and if you are gonna subscribe hit the notification bell so you know what I'm doing Posting new things especially when I'm gonna be jumping on and doing live streams It'll let you know when that's happening put some comments down there if you've seen this Yeah, and thanks for checking this out until next time keep it brutal