7Days

Maybe I've just spent too much time in the horror genre. Maybe I've become desensitized to violence and torture. Maybe I'm just incapable of ignoring the part of my brain that says "It's all just a movie." Whatever the case, it's rare that I find a film difficult to watch. But every now and then a film arrives that reminds me, no, I'm not desensitized to violence and torture, that my 'just a movie' switch can be short circuited, and that the horror genre can still get under my calloused skin. Such is Daniel Grou's 7 Days.

The French Canadian film had its world premiere last week at the Sundance Film Festival and starting today it will be available via the Sundance Selects program across a number of cable provider's OnDemand platforms. And while saying 7 Days got under the skin of a hardened horror movie fan sounds like the highest of compliments, I hesitate to consider that grounds for recommendation. Yes, it is difficult to watch. Yes, it is disturbing. Yes, it is made with the utmost craft. Yet I feel it prudent to point out that, while those are qualities we all can agree define a good horror movie, this is absolutely a film not for everyone.

On the surface, it's the story of a doctor who uses a cabin in the woods to methodically exact revenge on the man the police have accused of raping and murdering his eight-year old daughter. But beyond the torture is a harrowing journey into what happens to otherwise healthy relationships when they're sundered by the unimaginable. This isn't a tale of revenge in the Death Sentence tradition. This is an unflinching magnifying glass on what it means to lose everything. It spends as much time lingering on the physical torture as it does the mental; a combination that often times becomes almost unbearable to watch.

Utah isn't just for lovers--It's also for the Sundance Film Festival. Every year the fest rolls around I am jealous of those who get to attend the premiere of some of the most talked about independent films. This is the largest indie film festival in the U.S. and this year's lineup for the Park City at Midnight category looks like good stuff. The festival runs January 21 - 31 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. Many popular horror films got their start at the festival, including Saw. I wonder if Weinberg was there... After the jump you can get up close and personal with the lineup for Sundance's Midnight movie series. Keep your eyes here for more info on the films as we get it. I also gave you my picks. Tell me yours?

The beginning of November brought with it the annual American Film Market, a proving ground for independent films looking to find distribution. If you've ever wondered where most of those straight-to-video titles you pass up each week come from, chances are good a majority of them came out of deals made at the AFM. This year's convention screened 445 films, and thanks to the dedicated work of sites like Bloody-Disgusting and Dread Central, genre fans everywhere have been gifted with dozens of new trailers for potential horror movie hits to pour over.

Being the anal retentive nerd that I am, I decided to round up as many of the horror trailers as I could find for films that were at AFM '09 and put them in one place. And honestly, I wish I hadn't, because this took forever and in the end, I couldn't even put them all in one place. The number of new trailers was so high, I decided to break this post up into two parts so as to not overload your browser with independent film awesomeness. This is Part 1, Part 2 will arrive tomorrow.

In this edition we have trailers for:
Rampage
Blood Pledge
The Reeds
Altitude
Slice
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil
Blood: A Butcher's Tale
The Clinic
Chain Letter
The Tortured
7 Days