The tribulations of small-time crooks living on a tough housing estate ... and a tale of a zombie infection that plagues the area.

Dillon (Kemal Yildirim) drives to nearby woodlands with his lover Stacey (Lianne Robertson). On the way they talk about whether they're making the right choice - it soon becomes apparent that they're engaged in an illicit affair.

They're carrying a body in the boot of their car, hoping to dump it in the woods. The cadaver is Michael (Max Fellows), Stacey's husband - and a very abusive one at that, as an early flashback reveals. The problem is, when they come to dispose of his corpse, it springs back into life and chases them fleeing into the surrounding forestry.

Unbeknownst to them, a Private Investigator/hitman is also on their trail. Tough American Quaid (Rami Hilmi) had been hired by Michael to spy on his wife and kill anyone she was fucking with. Ironically, Michael's Nazi mate Leon (Jason Impey) has also paid Quaid to locate and gun down Dillon, for reasons of his own.

Tracking Dillon's abandoned car to the opening of the woods, Quaid quickly draws in close upon his unsuspecting prey. But a bigger issue awaits all three of them, as Michael's ravenous corpse is determine to spread its havoc ...

By the time Leon decides to don his hoodie and take to the woods in search of Dillon for himself, Quaid has already familiarised himself with a couple more zombies. It seems that whatever infection Michael has, it's spreading - and quickly.

Shot on digital and looking nicely sharp in a smooth, colourful widescreen presentation, THE TURNING is often pleasing on the eye. Framing and compositions are eagerly considered, while good use of natural lighting lends the film an agreeable raw edge that belies its meagre budget.

Forays into monochrome for flashback sequences lend the film an added ounce of style, while writer-director Jason Impey's script is the strongest he's worked with yet. Naturalistic performances and a suspected element of ad-libbing aid the savvy script further, affording the dialogue a rough quality - at times it's like watching a horror film directed by Mike Leigh, such are the social observations.

Although slow to build towards the full-on horror - playing more as a crime-drama to begin with - THE TURNING tosses in early ominous pointers such as Michael's bloody screaming and Ralph Cardell's foreboding score, all aimed at cluing the viewer in as to the darker content to come.

When it does come, the characters have been sufficiently explored so as to help give the action more impact.

In true no-budget style, the film was written and directed by Impey, and produced by his long-time pal Yildirim. The pair is responsible for the film's solid cinematography, while Impey also gets a credit for editing.

The film is proficient in all above aspects, clearly benefiting from the experience Impey and co have garnered on previous SGM faves such as CUT AND PASTE, NAKED NAZI and HOME MADE 2.

Where it suffers is in its bloated running time, which at 91 minutes feels about 15 minutes too long. There's no flab as such, but this is essentially a chase through woodlands with several lumbering zombie set-pieces (well-staged, and often reminiscent of THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE in their rural daytime attack scenes) and black-and-white flashbacks to flesh out the barebones plot.

Although the zombie action comes to the fore in the film's second half, the narrative for the most part very much centres on the fall-out caused by Dillon and Stacey's affair, and the former's unfortunate crossing with the frankly barmy Leon.

A twist origin of the zombie virus does emerge, being mildly revelatory and imaginative. Full credit though to Impey for, what with the social issues of gun crime and domestic violence being addressed, trying to expand on the basics of undead storytelling.

THE TURNING is a good example of what can be done with limited means (the filming budget was a reported £500.00), and proof positive that style and creativity don't cost anything.

Although not as much guilty fun as the films of Shane Mather (FANTACIDE; TERROR NATION) or as high-energy as Darren Ward's efforts (A DAY OF VIOLENCE), Jason Impey's ascension is ongoing and I'm convinced that, given the right budget and script, he could one day produce something really great.

As it stands, THE TURNING is a well-made and engaging hybrid of drama, thriller, zombie horror and even Nazi experimentation. And it has something that neither Mather nor Ward had in their films: Eileen Daly! But to reveal any more about her role would be spoiling the surprise ...

Review by Stuart Willis

by Stuart Willis

A longstanding popular indie filmmaker here at SGM, Jason Impey has long been entertaining the muties with his own special brand of Britsploitation filmmaking fun so to celebrate the release of his incoming undead opus THE TURNING our very own indie guru connoisseur Stu Willis kicked back with the man himself to discuss his work…

Stu: Hi Jason, it's good to speak with you again. First off, you seem to have been very busy in the last couple of years. I understand your film TORTURED is getting a DVD release shortly?

Jason: Yes finally! The original uncut version is getting a DVD release from Brain Damage Films on 6th July 2011, it has took a few years to get this after a number of failed distribution deals, and censorship issues, there is in fact seven versions of this film now, there is information on all these different versions on my website, but it is very nice to have my original vision coming out.

Stu: The 'harder' version of TORTURED, known as SEX SLAVE, was alarming for its scenes of Michelle Young getting candid in front of the camera. Had this presented problems for the film finding distribution?

Jason: I was concerned about finding distribution due to how graphic the film is, so I did a slightly cut version (about 2 minutes of cuts) and sent it to a distributor who liked it but said it was well too graphic including disgusting dialogue and were not sure if they could release it. However they did change the title to Deranged and released it on amazon.com for a very brief period and it was suddenly pulled off the site and I was told this film was too graphic sexually to stock! So I then cut 10 minutes out and re-titled the film to Escaped Convicts that has been put with my 40-minute film Tormented to make a double bill that Chemical Burn Entertainment have. But good old Brain Damage Films who released my earlier features Home Made & Sick Bastard agreed to release the uncut version under the title Tortured with extras including explicit making of documentaries!

Stu: More recently, you've been working on a HOME MADE REDUX. Can you tell us a little more about this? HOME MADE was the first of your films that I saw, and I was very impressed with it.

Jason: I made Home Made back in 2006 and managed to get a very good DVD release for the film, however it did not receive great reviews and actually caused me problems because of these reviews, other distributors were weary of releasing my other newer films because of how bad reviews Home Made got - even though a great amount of DVD's of this film have been sold! This film has bugged me ever since, I spent 9 months shooting it on various formats including Super 8, miniDV, DVCam & HDV, and some of the footage is great. I have hours upon hours of footage and I recently cut Home Made down from 88 minutes to 30 minutes for inclusion with my horror anthology Killer Stories. After re-watching Home Made for the first time in a few years I could see how it could be improved, I could also see how my films have changed and got better, I am also more experienced and know how to do edit better. So what I have decided to do is dig out all my rushes from the loft and re-capture all the footage and start the film from scratch with all the original footage. I am re-scoring the film, re-editing it - and in doing so changing the way the story is told, in fact I am editing the film I originally wanted to make but ended up trying to pursue the more mainstream look which did me no favours in the end. I am hoping to have this version finished by summer this year and will be seeking reviews and distribution shortly after.

Stu: Watching THE TURNING, I was struck by how much it appears to be influenced not only by horror cinema, but by the likes of Shane Meadows and even Mike Leigh: that socialist aspect, the stories of illicit affairs, rough housing estates etc. Do you agree with these observations?

Jason: Yes I do, I wanted to make a film that stood out, especially from my past films, I had gained a reputation of making very extreme controversial films, especially after Tortured AKA Sex Slave, and so I thought it would be nice to show a different side of my filmmaking. I still ended up being controversial but also concentrated on characters a lot more, and spent time developing them more and showing their backgrounds. The Turning is also a semi drama, and something I like doing is mixing different genres that I have done in The Turning, although not everyone likes films that mix genres, especially several like I have done in this case.

Stu: THE TURNING is a real hybrid film in terms of genre, full of ideas. What was the general inspiration for you?

Jason: I really wanted to make a new feature, but it is extremely difficult raising finance, and at the time I was finding it very difficult to gain distribution for some of my previous features. Kemal Yildirim who works closely with me on all my films since Revenge of the Dead wanted me to make a new feature and wanted to re-explore his acting roots. I came up with a very simplistic idea of a woman and her lover stuck in a barn after she had been bit and slowly turning, unable to leave due to the undead hanging around outside, cut off from everybody in the middle of nowhere and her lover looking on in horror as she slowly becomes a zombie, helpless and in pain that he cannot do anything to help. I pitched this idea to Kemal and he loved it and so I started to plan, Kemal was going to produce the film, but also star, he usually is my DOP and camera operator so I was going to direct, shoot and edit this film while he stars and produces. After a few meetings we started to develop the film and suddenly it was growing out of control with sub plots, crazy characters and political statements. Kemal was encouraging me and did not want my vision compromised due to funding. So I used this opportunity to make a film with scenes and a style that I had wanted to do and not explored so much of. I had a lot out of my system when it comes to filmmaking, but I had wanted to do a shocumentary like 'Faces of Death', a film that I found very disturbing and shocking, a film that stands out to me and I will never forget. So I decided to shoot the film in a documentary style, and to add to this style I thought I would revisit the Dogme 95 style of filmmaking that I had used with my earlier feature 'Troubled'. I really enjoyed 'The Idiots' by Lars von Trier and enjoyed making Troubled even though the film went to darker places than I thought it would. So I combined the shocumentary style of filmmaking with the Dogme 95 style of filmmaking to create the look of The Turning and then thrown in the genres I love and ones I wanted to explore more. I had made zombie films before, mainly shorts, I had won best film with my 10 minute short 'Zombies in the Wood' made back in 2004 and had grossed people out with the infamous zombie rape scene in 'Revenge of the Dead' 2007, but I had never made a full length zombie feature. The closest I had come was my 40-minute zombie flick - 'Zombie Village' that has now become 'Woods of Terror'. So I used the zombie sub genre as my main blue print for the film, which was exciting as I love zombie films, especially the old school flicks 'Zombie Flesh Eaters' & 'The Beyond', hence why the zombies are slow moving in The Turning. I am a big fan of the Nazi sexploitation films of the video nastie era, and that is where the Nazi sub plot comes from in The Turning, but it is also homage to 'American History X' that I really enjoyed and found very powerful and moving. As I am a fan of grindhouse/exploitation cinema I love some of the cheesy martial arts flicks and so decided to write in a bounty hunter character that would have a big showdown with the protagonist Dillon Slater.

Stu: Where and when was it filmed?

Jason: I shot the Turning in 11 days over April & May 2010 in Milton Keynes & Northampton

Stu: Would you agree that the zombie scenes are influenced by THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE - or am I way off?

Jason: I love that film, and even wore the T-shirt of it on the set of The Turning as well as owning the pre-cert VHS of it and the Anchor Bay and Blue Underground DVD releases of it so I would agree, and again I love the slow moving eerie look of the zombies in that movie, and wanted my zombies to act the same, that's how I think a zombie should be as it is a decaying body after all. Also that film has a strong political statement about destroying the world by means of messing about with science to improve crops, my statement is similar, but instead of messing about with our food my Nazi scientists are messing about with human genetics to create the perfect race.

Stu: You play a particularly loathsome character in THE TURNING - you're a real cunt from the second you're on the screen. Tell us something about this character; is he based on anyone?

Jason: I play Leon, the name inspired by the film 'Leon'. My character has a hat-ridge for life and is just not happy with the world he lives in, in particular the country he lives in. He is a racist (this character does not resemble me in anyway) and wants to purify the world in what is in his eyes full of diseased scum. Playing such a nasty character is great fun because you can really push the boundaries. I have met a lot of nasty people out in the world and even tried to be done over by a few so Leon is my ultimate character reflecting on all the nastiness out there in the world, he represents what's wrong with the world - people like him, which sadly people like Leon do exist and there are far too many people like him out there.

Stu: There's a lot of focus on the script in THE TURNING. What do you hope audiences take away from it?

Jason: I hope the audience have a roller coaster of a ride with the film and hardly have a chance to catch their breath. I also hope they hate Leon so much they want him punished for his sins and crimes, and I want to make them think about the state of current affairs and why there are people like Leon out their and these people should not be ignored but exposed, freedom of speech is a good thing, but respect for others is more important.

Stu: You've toned the gore down a little for THE TURNING?

Jason: Yeah, I wanted to make the zombie scenes graphic, but I also wanted to add more action in this film than my previous ones. I also wanted to make the film more mainstream and accessible to a larger audience, I did not want to restrict myself to a small audience due to how graphic the film would be and I also wanted to show people that I can do more than just gross out gore although I do love the glory gory films hell of a lot.

Stu: I haven't mentioned Rami Hilmi's dodgy American accent in my review. But, come on, it's iffy (enjoyably so). As his director, did you not dare mention it to him because he looks pretty handy?

Jason: I did a well dodgy accent in Home Made, and I really don't know where the hell that came from, my wife gives me stick about that a lot, but it added to the madness of my character Jack Hess, and like with Home Made Rami's accent in The Turning I felt gave his character that fun cheesy exploitation feel that I love, I did want a bit of humour and light relief in The Turning as it does deal with quite heavy subjects such as race, identity, and an extreme version of politics. Rami made his character Quaid into a Texas cowboy bounty hunter, and I love my spaghetti westerns so I loved the fact that I had a little homage in there, it is a shame because I had to cut some scenes out for the pace and some just did not work, but his cowboy background was more established in some of these scenes.

Stu: You bagged Eileen Daly for a role in THE TURNING. How did this come about? Care to share a few memories of working with her?

Jason: While shooting the film I was still planning the last 2 days of principal photography that were to be the Nazi liar with Ilsa (Eileen Daly). So Kemal set out to get someone and managed to get in touch with Eileen Daly who agreed to come down for 2 days to do a monster of a scene. This was so exciting to us as we are big fans of independent films like Razor Blade Smile and thought it would be a nice pay off to fans as well. Eileen is very supportive of independent filmmakers and she threw herself into the character and we had a real blast shooting this scene, it was one of the best shoots of the film and in fact best shoots I have ever done. She had a laugh with us and yet was very professional and took her character to another level, she even acted along side my son who plays the baby she holds in the scene, and my father is her henchman that Dillon kills. My dad and Eileen had great time and went to get drinks and ended up breaking into song in the coffee shop a story much talked about.

Stu: Your budget for the film was reportedly £500.00. How was this calculated? Don't worry, I'm not auditing you: I just think it would genuinely interest other aspiring filmmakers to learn how you apportioned the funds.

Jason: I am in a good position in that I have cameras and editing facilities and audio equipment etc, so between me and Kemal we had all the kit we needed to shoot the film. Rami is an actor me and Kemal have worked with since 2007 and built a great working relationship with so he gave up his free time and came and stayed with me for a week while we shot all his scenes, and did it for the support of me and Kemal and the project. Kemal rounded up the zombies from Northampton University to give all the graduating actors a chance to get a feature on their CV. I used my nans house as a location, my mums back garden for part of the forest, and we did guerrilla filmmaking in the rest of the forest and urban areas. We also managed to get a basement of a pub for free 'The Crauford Arms' in Wolverton Milton Keynes that is where we built the Nazi lair set. We just paid the pub for lunch, some drinks, and we put Eileen up there in the hotel part. The shack that gets smashed up in the 10-minute fight scene is my old shed in my back garden that I was getting rid of for a new one so it did me a real favour! A family friend (Jenny Buckland) who is self employed in beauty make-up came down and did the special effects to build her portfolio up with her assistant Becky Stone. When Eileen got involved a man called Ralph Cardell got in touch with me regarding the score of the film. He had worked in a band with Eileen in the past and is good friends with her who is still doing music in the TV industry, but he wanted to do something different and too loves zombie films and offered to do the score to make a change from what he normally does that was fantastic news to me and in fact he did a great job and we clicked straight away once we started talking about soundtracks we like and the style of film The Turning would be. My wife Sharon Impey has been my rock and generally my assistant, she has supported me and she filmed a lot of the making of footage and took a lot of the stills. She also looked after my guests and fed them and Kemal's wife Saima also made lots of food for the set and helped do the catering. So the only real crew was Kemal and me with help from Sharon and Rami was a great support on set choreographing with Kemal the epic fight scene. The money mainly went on travel expenses, stock for the camera and some props and costumes.

Stu: How are you finding attempts to get distribution for the film? As a low-budget UK filmmaker, you're in a prime position to put into perspective the state of the industry at present.

Jason: Sadly I am finding it extremely difficult to gain distribution. A few indie labels have gone bust or folded, and a lot of the others are not taking on new titles due to lack of DVD sales, which is partly due to piracy and downloading movies. I am constantly searching for distribution with my back catalogue of feature films, it is a bit disheartening to be sat here with a pile of films that are just gathering dust not reaching their potential audience. I would love to get a UK release, but it is dame near impossible for an indie film with the BBFC charging so much for submission and being harsh with censorship. Also some of the distribution deals out there are not great, and you do not gain much out of it apart from a bit of publicity. I am sure if all else fails I can get a minor release for The Turning, but I would like a better deal than I have had for previous films as I do feel that it is one of my strongest films along with Tortured.

Stu: You've revisited a few of your earlier films, re-edited them etc. Can you tell us a little more and the how and why behind this?

Jason: I like to get the most out of a film I make, and I also have become a bit more anal on my projects, so I have tried to improve on my older films, also this is a good way to keep busy and stay in the game of filmmaking without having to fund a whole new project. I have recently made a feature called Killer Stories that is a horror anthology I directed under my alias name of Joe Newton. I shot a wrap around story and cut down my films 'Tormented', 'Sick Bastard' & 'Home Made' to 30 minutes each to use as the short stories, and I think the films are a lot better now they are tighter, and the film has started to get good reviews as a whole unlike when Home Made was its own 88 minute feature. I have also just sold the rights to my XXX feature Naked Nazi to SRS Cinema, but to get it from 50 minutes to 65 minutes I added a brand new shot and re-edited 10 minutes from Tortured to add to the story to get a distribution deal. I have also revisited Tortured AKA Sex Slave for the final time to create my definitive version, a true grindhouse flick. I have read the reviews, watched it threw, seen what works and don't work and decided to improve it and make the film I originally wanted to make. I have taken the zombie element out, changed the timeline, used the opening as a flash back to build the characters, shot a brand new beginning and ending and additional scenes and cut some of the XXX shots out and made it a pure sleazy violent exploitation film and titled it 'Psychopaths' which runs at 78 minutes and am currently seeking distribution for it at the moment.

Stu: And how is JI Productions, your own production company, developing?

Jason: J.I. Productions is going well, I have 14 feature films under my belt at the moment, and on the verge of 30 short films, but am mainly focusing on making one feature film at a time. After Home Made Redux is complete there are 4 more ideas for features to be made, plans have started and each idea is very different, I have an order in which I want to make them as well. I have managed to keep J.I. Productions running since 2003 and every year it has grown stronger with more success so fingers crossed the future looks to get better.

Stu: Finally, what are your favourite genre films of the last few years?

Jason: I have a very wide variety of taste when it comes to watching films, I honestly watch just about anything, but my favourite genre is obviously horror, especially independent horror. I like films that stand out and leave a big impact on me that is usually due to a shocking nature and being controversial. Some of the recent films that have left their mark on me are A Serbian Film, Antichrist, The Saw Films, The August Underground Films and I am loving the Arrow Blu-ray releases of the classics, am getting myself quite a collection.

Stu: Cheers Jason, all the best with the film - it deserves to be seen and I hope you get the distribution it's worthy of.

Jason: All the best, Stu

Mar 23rd, 2011 | By Cut and Slash | Category: Horror Reviews, Zombies

The Turning 2011 filmStacey (Lianne Robertson), in a violent relationship with her husband Michael, has an affair with a childhood friend Dillon (Kemal Yildirim).

And just as things are getting intimate between them, they get caught, which leads to Michael and Dillon fighting and Michael being accidentally murdered.

Dillon and Stacey drive out to the woods to dispose of the body. Problem is when they open the boot he’s not dead! Oh sorry, I meant he’s undead!

We are then introduced to Quaid (Rami Hilmi) and discover through flashbacks that he had been hired by Michael to take pictures for evidence of an affair.

Leon (Jason Impey) joins the action, who has also hired Quaid. He’s something of a Neo-Nazi character, and he and Quaid’s relationship is rocky to say the least – Leon believing that Quaid is ripping him off and not doing the job that he agreed to do for him.

Meanwhile Stacey and Dillon have been followed by the now undead Michael who has still not forgiven Stacey for the affair. He finds the pair and proceeds to bite Stacey, who unfortunately begins that inevitable, gradual transformation into a zombie.

As poor Stacey starts to feel exhausted as her zombie side takes over, they find refuge in a cabin which sadly seems to be attracting all the zombies in the area – they proceed to make Stacey and Dillon’s lives hell.

We then discover that Leon has been working with Ilsa (Eileen Daly) through experiments on “test subjects” and it looks like they have been creating zombies by referring to past Nazi experiments. Dillon feeling battle worn, tired and hungry still manages to put up something of a fight and is not going to be taken down easily, even when he gets captured.

The Turning ends on quite a retro 70′s/80′s vibe, you’ll have to check it out to see what I mean…

The whole vibe of the film reminds me of a low budget 70′s/80′s horror movie crossed with a martial arts movie. The fight scenes between Quaid and Dillon are beautifully choreographed for a low budget feature. Also the soundtrack embellishments remind me heavily of 70′s/80′s zombie films which suits the visuals perfectly. Stacey and Dillon make quite a convincing couple on screen and you can genuinely feel the love between them.

What makes this low budget horror film better than most other films of its type, is that the director, Jason Impey takes the time to ensure that we are introduced to the characters through flashbacks, whilst ensuring we are kept along for the zombie ride. No momentum is lost in the process.

It’s also nice to find out how Stacey and Dillon meet, prior to their unfortunate circumstances after the death of Michael.

It would have been great to have had a touch more back-story regarding Dillon’s character as we don’t really ever discover what his character does for a living (drug dealer perhaps?)

On a personal note, I jumped out of my skin during a particular well shot scene when a zombie appeared out of nowhere in the cabin. It was totally unexpected, so congratulations to those involved for actually making Cut And Slash jump. It’s no mean feat!

Overall this is a great low budget film, which I would highly recommend you see once it has acquired UK distribution.

It's 2011 and naturally, a new Jason Impey movie had to be reviewed on here. I like this guy and his twisted Indie films, so when The Turning arrived in my mailbox, I got very excited because I knew I was going to watch something very cool and twisted.

The Turning tells the story of "Dillon" and "Stacey" who are having a steamy affair. Obviously, Stacey is married to a jerk that abuses the shit outta of her so of course she starts cheating on him with badass Dillon. So anyway, Dillon ends up killing Stacey's jerk husband, so he and Stacey decide to throw the body in the forest and run off somewhere, but things obviously don't go their way since a P.I. is after Dillon (He was hired by Stacey's husband!), nazis have brought the dead back to life, Stacey gets bitten by a zombie and becomes one, she bites Dillon's penis off, Dillon has an epic battle with the P.I. (even though he has no penis anymore!) and last, Ilsa appears. Yes, that Ilsa.

I like this movie, It was very cool but it did however get dull at times, mostly the flashback scenes with Dillon and Stacey. I also didn't enjoy hearing the camera move around and zoom. Still though, It is worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed Tortured. 6/10.

Posted By raculfright_13

I find Andreas Schnaas/Lucio Fulci/Sam Raimi/Ruggero Deodato & David Cronenberg very inspiring because of their works and careers.

2. How many films have you made that are distributed and who are they distributed with?

I have 12 features distributed, Naked Nazi is distributed by SRS Cinema, Sick Bastard/Home Made & Tortured (aka Sex Slave) are distributed by Maxim Media International and the rest are distributed by Chemical Burn Entertainment that include: Woods of Terror/Tales of Terror 1 & 2/Cut & Paste 1 & 2/Home Made 2 The Footage/Troubled & Tormented.

3. What would you say to filmmakers out there who may be struggling and want to give up for a career in retail?

I would say to stick at it, even though it can be very tough. I have had some extremely bad times making films, mad enemies, had financial problems, bad reviews that can hurt etc, but I love making films and it keeps me happy, there is no other job that would make me happy and content. As for making a living out of it, well it is nice but to survive I do my far share of corporate videos, live events, and even doing a bit of teaching filmmaking, the royalties on my features are not enough to keep me going, and I always find that I end up putting a bit of money back into making a new film. You have to stay strong and keep at it, not everyone is going to like your film but don’t let knock backs stop you from carrying on, everyone gets them, even very big and established directors can make a stinker. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your finished film complete and your vision come to life.

4. Tell us about your latest film the Turning?

The Turning tells the story of a man called Dillon who is trying to escape his past when he is thrown off track by an accidental meeting with his old flame Stacey. Soon they rekindle their love for each other, but desire gets the better of them and while they make love Stacey’s husband Michael rudely interrupts this passionate affair. Acting on instinct Dillon takes to his old ways as Michael begins to beat Stacey and therefore pays the price with his life as Dillon reacts with his gun!

This is only the start of Dillon’s journey to hell as when they go to dump the body Michael has become the un-dead and soon Stacey and Dillon find themselves in the world of the living dead, a bounty hunter and an underground Nazi organisation lead by Ilsa (Eileen Daly) who is behind everything!

Passion leads to desire, desire leads to murder, and murder leads to The Turning. The Turning is a film born out of both desire and frustration. I am an independent filmmaker who has done most things I have wanted to do in my career apart from get my big budget and make my epic movie! I have played with various sub-genres of the horror scene and messed around with styles. I wanted to make a new feature film as I always like to have a film on the go, but recently finances and various factors make it hard to get a movie off the ground, when taking on most of the job roles yourself there is so much to do, get locations, get actors, and pay for it all! My best friend and business partner Kemal Yildirim was pushing me to make a new flick as he wanted to work on another one of my crazy ventures, and he wanted to explore his acing roots again. So as time passed I came up with a rough outline for a concept for my new film. I had made zombie short films, and worked on other zombie features, and funny enough I had a reputation for zombie films as I had made a 10 minute short film ‘Zombies in the Wood’ that won best film in 2004 and had also made a super 8 controversial rape zombie flick ‘Revenge of the Dead’ that caused some outrage as we had a zombie penis made! Anyway after all this I had not actually made a zombie feature film and so I wanted to get this out of my system. The original idea for the film was about 2 people, a man and women stuck in a shack in which the women had been bitten and slowly turning, hence the title ‘The Turning’. I pitched this to Kemal as he would be playing the main lead and he loved it, we bounced ideas off each other and suddenly the film grew and grew more epic! Kemal gave me the opportunity to make the film I had in vision as he came on bored to produce the film with me, and he helped me gain the cast, locations, and fund the film. I was the only main crew, with Kemal helping when he could, but most of the time he was in front of camera, I had a make-up artist ‘Jenny Buckland’ doing all the crazy gore and she had her assistant ‘Becky Stone’, and my wife Sharon Impey helped with some stills and behind the scenes filming, the rest was down to me to undertake. In the end I decided to do a dogma 95-style shoot like I did with my earlier feature film ‘Troubled’. Rami Hilmi who plays ‘Quaid’ came to set to choreograph a massive fight showdown with himself and Kemal’s character ‘Dillon’. This fight grew and grew. Through out the shoot Kemal managed to get Eileen Daly on board to act in the final scene that was the final 2 days shoot. I decided when I was going to film dogma 95 style that I was going to approach the film in a documentary style and shoot the film in a shocumentary style, a bit like ‘Faces of Death’. This is a style I wanted to explore more of and so used this film to play with that, and I liked the adreliane and buzz you get from this, as you never quite know the exact result you will end up getting! ‘The Turning’ was fun to make but as every film it was not without its problems. The radio mic broke half way through day 7’s shoot and ended up in me having to stop the shoot why we spent hours trying to fix it, and ended up having to borrow one why our one was sent off for repair, but we managed to get the shoot back on track. I was most worried about the weather as half the film takes placed outside, but fortunately we was very lucky as the weather was perfect. I tried to shoot the film in order as the way I was shooting it, but due to the complex scenes and the fact that half the film plays as black and white flash backs through out this became more and more difficult, so we ended up shooting all over the place and that made continuity a real pain, but it appears we managed to stay on top of it. As always with my films ‘The Turning’ has become a very controversial movie that twists and turns, and is hopefully one of those films that you can watch multiple times and get something new from it each time. I have made my political statements through out the film, but I don’t want to give too much away as it is a very bizarre mix of art house and exploitation filmmaking in which not all is what it seems, and hopefully the story is not too predictable, it will keep you guessing the whole way through. It certainly is not a typical zombie film, as I have tried before I have mixed a few sub genres so it has elements of old school zombie films mixed with the Nazi sexploitation video nasties.

5. What does the future hold for Jason Impey?

I am currently re-editing my feature film Home Made under the title Home Made Redux that is a new version altogether, I have revisited all the old rushes and recreating the film I originally set out to make back in 2006. After this I have a few features planned that I want to make and will concentrate on one at a time, hopefully getting bigger budgets and better distribution.

6. what do you want to say to the fans.?

I am very appreciative of all their support and enthusiasm for my films, and it is that which encourages me and pushes me to get my next film into production. I hope you enjoy my future films and I will keep making films for the fans by a true horror fan, myself.

Posted by GOREHOUNDS

Director: Jason Impey

A monstrous murder and murderous monsters. That pretty well sums up The Turning, a new zombie thriller by British Indy filmmaker Jason Impey.

It took me a few weeks to get my head into watching this film. I’m not a huge fan of zombie flicks. I don’t even know if I’ve seen the Night of the Living Dead from start to finish.

But the deeper I got into this one, the more I enjoyed it. The acting is surprisingly strong. And the cinematography is quite creative.

Also noteworthy is the extensive use of black-and-white flashbacks. The reasons behind some stark and ugly situations are gradually explained as the story jumps, several times, between past and present. And the switch from color (for the present) to B/W (for flashbacks) makes the film a cinch to follow. This is good for folks (like me) who tend to pick up on a film’s atmosphere and environment, sometimes at the expense of remembering every storyline detail.

There are some graphic images of violence in this film (although the sex scenes are surprisingly tame). And its repeated use of the “F”-word didn’t do much for me. This kind of fare certainly is not for everyone. But, gruesome zombies aside, The Turning doesn’t conjure up anything that doesn’t already exist. So we could say that it merely points to some aspects of society that, for better or worse, are out there.

As for the stiff and twisted zombies, some are a bit more convincing than others but, on the whole, these scenes come off pretty well.

How can you tell a real zombie from a fake one? you might ask. Well, if zombies belong in the realms of urban legend, folklore and myth, some depictions just hit the nail on the head better than others.

Scholars of folklore and myth have written countless pages about the close connection between love and death. Joseph Campbell devotes an entire chapter of his The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology to what he calls “The Ritual Love-Death.”

Campbell talks about the same kind of mythic themes that crop up in The Turning–themes like love, infidelity, jealousy, violence, death and resurrection. The only difference is that this raw shocker flick brings to life what many ‘respectable’ researchers also delight in, but only under several layers of institutional varnish and, sometimes, shoddy obscurantism.

Now, being an open-minded person has its pros and cons. One pro is that you keep growing by not shutting out those things that could be upsetting. A con is that, well, sometimes you just get totally grossed out.

Toward the end of the movie, I instinctively threw up some psychological shields to guard against some icky props and abject imagery that I’ll never like. But, to be fair, the film treats these vile images responsibly. It’s just the images, themselves, that make me squirm.

An unexpected ending involves eugenics and reminds me of that warped, sadistic scientist played by William B. Davis in The Outer Limits episode “Worlds Within.” Only this time, the wacko is a woman.

Some may find this film unpleasantly dark and creepy or, depending on your outlook, a bizarre freak show or tongue-in-cheek lark. Whatever you make of it, The Turning calls to mind Shane Carruth‘s sci-fi sleeper, Primer. Both films are proof positive that you don’t need a bloated production budget to push boundaries and, in so doing, make a statement.

–MC

The psychotic kidnapper begins to toy with her. He's disgusted with her way of life, yet he gets pleasure from ramming a screwdriver through her kneecap. After some physical and mental torture, the girl realizes her tormentor is not a stranger like she thought, and that he has been planning his revenge for quite a while. Also, she's not his first victim- more like in the ballpark of his 30th...

We cut back to the couch, where the two talk about the story. Not wanting his visitor to top him, the guy decided to tell her about a psychotic killer who broke loose from jail and went on a bloody rampage through the nearby woods.

During a typical prisoner transport, somehow a long haired maniac escapes (this guy looks just like a shorter, non mask wearing Michael Myers from the Halloween reboot) into the prison basement. While the officers look for him, he slowly picks them off.

After finding his way out of the basement- and a pair of scissors- he basically slaughters any person he comes across. Eventually the killer's blood lust leads him to the woods, which just so happens to be packed with victim.

After ripping, slashing, and crushing about a dozen people, the only cop to survive the jail break goes on a one man mission to bring the killer down. But this is no ordinary killer, rest assured, this is one bat-shit-crazy-motherfucker.

After our cozy couple recover from this round of "I'm scarier than you", the guy pops some popcorn and settles down with his laptop to show his new partner a very special film. He promises she has never (and will never) see anything else like it.

This is by far the hokiest segment of the film. A killer who videotapes his murders begins to stalk a jogger in the woods. After toying with him for a bit, he lunges in and cuts the shit out of him with a knife.

Well one victim isn't good enough, so the killer shows up at a rural home for some more carnage. After the obligatory shower scene, he chops up a woman with an axe. Well things don't work out as planned, because her boyfriend comes back to check on things.

After seeing his dead girlfriend, the guy chases the killer through a nearby playground, where he escapes and kidnaps a new female victim. As it turns out, the jogger from the first scene wasn't really dead, so now he has the two tied up in a tool shed- and the camera is rolling. But a sudden setback by the boyfriend might give the two captives a fighting chance. And after this story finishes, the frame story ends with a twist you can see from miles off.

Okay, I'm just going to go ahead and say these stories range from great to mindless fun. Ironically, they do this in chronological order, so by the time the film ends, your brain will be mush- but in a good way.

The first segment is the best. The killer is intense, the victim is convincing, the effects are good, the setting is fantastic, and it leaves you with a very satisfying conclusion. There's a scene where the tormentor is placing tools on a clear picnic table and the camera is under the table, so you can only see the silhouette of the instruments. That's fucking brilliant.

My only complaint about this segment was that it hurt my pride just a wee bit. There's two places where that "one note jump scare" music blasts really loud, and it got me every damn time.

The second story is my favorite, and it reminds me of a tamed down version of Violent Shit. I love how far they went to make the killer seem crazy as hell, even having a scene where he eats one of his victim's guts. This is just a high body count, low brain cell film, and it's cheap enough to work on that level.

The effects are pretty good on this one. Dismemberments, guts being ripped out, garroting by chain, sledgehammer to the face- and that's less than half the kills in the entire segment. Also I love the look. It's a very degraded, cheap looking film, which does nothing but enhance the sleaze.

And now the final segment, which is full of plot holes and cheese. This one is enjoyable, but you're going to have one hell of a laugh at the plot. Basically what starts out as a snuff film turns into a psudo-crime drama, which makes me ask "how the fuck did a serial killer get a camera into the interrogation room, turn it on, record the entire conversation, then escape and manage to smuggle that honking thing out with him???".

You can tell this one was shot as a short film and not faux snuff, and if you take it that way it's a pretty good short, but the context it's used in, with this supposedly being real footage on someone's computer, takes a good bit of the seriousness away (and it didn't have much to start with). But I will admit, this segment has the best scene in the entire film. Director Jason Impey plays the snuff killer, and while talking to the detective he gives this insane, over the top spill on how snuff gets him off better than any other type of violent porn. It's sleazy gold.

A decent frame story with some entertaining shorts, Killer Stories is a fun film. It's not polished, it's not seamless, but I like that about it. I also like how each film appears to have been shot at different times with different equipment. The first story is fantastic, the second is gory fun, and the third is a cheesy laugh (with some pure insanity thrown in for good measure). If you like low low budget horror, then you need to check this out. 8/10

England, 2010

Thriller/Horror/Drama/Short, 38min

Distributed by: J.I. Productions

While I’m still on a roll with the short independent features, let me point out once agin, that there are some really talented people out there making some really interesting movies. Movies that cost less than the bog roll budget on major productions, and definitely deserve to be discovered by the thirsty for rejuvenating industry. Jason Impey is one of them.

In his own words a maker of dark films, which to date have become more than a dozen and special thanks on the independent Zombie flick Colin 2008. As Impey probably is the most renown of the short independent feature directors that I’ve been able to watch movies by these past weeks, I have no argument with the fact that Impey is indeed a maker of dark films.

I recently enjoyed watching one of his pieces that has been sent to me and that piece is the gloomy and gritty short Tormented, the third part of the trilogy made up of Troubled 2007 and Tortured 2008. Three movies, just like many of Impey’s previous pieces, are all inspired by the great movies of the exploitation genre.

Tormented starts out with Faye [Helen Clifford] sat waiting for someone on a field next to a railroad track. She receives a message and takes off looking disappointed. Behind her a sinister character lurks, it’s Robert [Rami Hilmi – a veteran of Impey movies and also plays Harry in Marc Price innovative zombie flick Colin 2008] who proceeds to chance Faye over the woodland terrain before he clobbers her with a mallet. After a short transportation transition Faye awakens tied to a chair in a room where the walls have been covered with protective plastic…

There’s very little dialogue in the first half of Tormented, and the first line to be spoken after Faye has regained consciousness is “Why me?” This is the main question that the rest of the plot builds around, why Faye?

The connection between Robert and Faye is explored until the answer is revealed. Then the movie changes direction again, and as we now know Robert’s reason for kidnapping Faye, and as he torments her with the torture to come, he lays forth exposition in a really great way.

Exposition is a tricky bitch to deliver, and often it comes in large uncomfortable dollops that bust up the flow of the narrative, but Impey presents the complex background of Robert in a impressive way and creates empathy for this dark character just like John Ajvide Lindqvist does in Let the Right One In 2008 – he exposes the fragile child in a vulnerable setting – the frustration and helplessness that Robert went through as a child is what has formed him and as soon as Faye regains her strength and starts bollocking him, he falls right back into the role of victim again. Which creates an interesting position for the audience, because now we have two characters that we can feel a connection with – the one out for revenge and the one fighting for her life.

Shot on Digital video in only two days, Tormented moves delicately and slowly builds both characters and atmosphere. If you are a regular here you know that I’m fond of movies that take their time setting up the lead characters. Now this is something that I like, or rather demand, as I prefer to know who I am supposed to be rooting for before a director starts twisting the narrative and manipulating me into feeling empathy or sympathy for this one or the other. It also helps the audience get into the mindset of the characters.

I dig the fact that the in-between space – that’s the one with Robert in the real world driving his car to the shed of torture - shows a complete different Robert than in the rest of the movie. This short sequence sees him stopping his car to let a mother and her infant child across he road, and being apologetic when he almost runs over a jogger [Impey in a cameo] – and who doesn’t want to run those fuckers down – and being a quite sympathetic character. Now at first this may just seem like a moment to slow down the pace after the chase we just watched or give us some calm before the torture show get’s a rollin'. But I interpret it as being character exposition. This shows that Robert is a decent guy when it all comes around, he’s not a complete homicidal maniac or else he would never have stopped for the mother and child, and he would definitely have run down that bastard jogger. Even if small, it gives some depth to the character.

In the world of film, nothing happens for no reason at all, there is always a chain of cause and reaction. Unless you are dawdling around in the abstract field that is. So however you chose to look at Tormented, there is a story in there, its not just about beating up some poor woman duct taped to a chair in a garage. Robert has a modus operandi, and that’s the torment that drives him to his actions - cause and reaction.

Shot on Digital Video in just two days Tormented is an interesting little piece of neo-grindhouse that works fine even if it’s not as bleak or exploitative as his previous works. But it does have a smooth flow, an engaging narrative, tightly edited, good cinematography by Impey regular Kemal Yildirim, and the acting is better than you see in most of the independent shorts that you find in the horror/effects niche.

Two things don't really work for me. One being the music. There’s no real edge to the soundtrack and I get the feeling that Impey may have been rushed to get the movie out there, the two drones and rough guitar riffs get pretty annoying eventually and do more harm than good for the film.

Finally the climax. I feel that this is the weak part of the movie, as the ending is a tad too conventional and the twist isn’t too hard to see coming. There are only two ways this movie could go, either Robert kills Faye or Faye kills Robert. I’d have loved to see something completely different end the movie, something more disturbing, like Fay’s school mates turning up to beat Robert to a pulp – the old gang still going strong. Perhaps Robert parading the other dead members of the childhood gang in front of Faye – sowing off his trophies of triumph. Or even the bizarre twist that the encounter was a one of agreement where Faye and Robert have met up to satisfy each other’s masochistic/sadistic desires.

 BY CINEZILLA