The Latest

• A LOOK BACK

  Last week, The New York Times asked filmmakers and others to contribute votes towards the best movies of the 21st century so far. Naturally, we have our own opinions on this matter.

• MORE SHARKS

  Daily Grindhouse Editor-In-Chief, Jon Abrams, finally gets around to watching the 2012 3D shark event BAIT.

• MORE LOOKING BACK

  The New York Times isn’t the only media empire feeling the need to see how far we’ve come. We thought it was time to size up the Best Movies of 2025 so far. 

• LOOKING AHEAD

  To whet your whistle…we have a new deep dive appreciation article coming up for STRIPES. And amazingly, we mentioned BATMAN FOREVER in the last newsletter…just as its 30th Anniversary arrives. It’s not just a momentous occasion, but another grand opportunity to yap about Val Kilmer, as we are prone to do. 

• FIREWORKS

  What kind of 4th of July weekend would it be without fireworks???

• To advertise in Daily Grindhouse, contact: [email protected]

 'ALL ALONE TOGETHER' IS A LOW-FI SPARK OF INSPIRATION TO FILMMAKERS EVERYWHERE!

Throughout the uncertainty, fear, and turmoil of the Covid pandemic, the only thing I created was a questionable online footprint. It was a completely different story, however, for the four student filmmakers behind 4085 Productions, who took their isolation and boredom and turned it into art. Their debut feature, ALL ALONE TOGETHER, was made with an impressive $15,000 budget and every cent of that budget is present on the screen. Just by looking at it, you wouldn’t guess it was made for that little as it is technically gorgeous, the sound and lighting design are both fantastic. This speaks to the vision of 4085 Productions, who state on their website that their “goal is to deceive the audience, making [their] incredibly-low budget be a shock compared to the genuine quality of the film.”

ALL ALONE TOGETHER itself is a meta exploration of the art of filmmaking and the often-blurred line between a creation and those who create it. We meet Lincoln (Alex Nimrod), a young filmmaker promoting his horror movie that ultimately hits too close to home. The longer he spends with the film, the more it bleeds into each part of his life from his work to his personal relationships and even to his sense of self. The audience is brought into Lincoln’s tormented psyche, leaving us wondering what is real as much as he is. This is achieved through reliance on tried and true staples of the genre (creepy smiling extras, glowing eyed creatures that harken back to several Mike Flanagan properties) along with several creative devices likely created as a result of the budget this team was working with. The result is successfully nightmarish at its best, trapping the audience in the downward spiral playing out in front of us.

It is a delightful feat to see how much was able to be accomplished with so little, and an important thing to consider when going into this film is meeting it where it’s at. What shines is the concept of ALL ALONE TOGETHER, the turmoil of the creative process taken to its ultimate extreme. However, there were still noticeable elements of this to be improved upon. The biggest hurdle, in my opinion, is the lack of time spent to establish Lincoln as a character. As the audience, we don’t really get to know him before his descent into madness, so it’s challenging to notice when his behavior is off. I found myself surprised when he says, “I haven’t been feeling like myself,” since up until that point, I had assumed he was just always kind of like that. Once things really begin to go off the rails however, it’s an unmistakable fact that something has turned within Lincoln, offering a handful of intentionally painful scenes to watch.

Above all else, ALL ALONE TOGETHER is a feat of amateur filmmaking, and an inspiration to all up-and-coming creatives to get out there and make the damn thing. It’s a movie about movie making created for and by movie lovers and that shines through the entire feature. With loving tributes to the horror genre and a clear display of technical prowess, I for one am eagerly looking forward to whatever may come next from the 4085 Productions team.

ALL ALONE TOGETHER was presented at Panic Fest, Popcorn Frights, and the Chicago Horror Film Festival and comes to VOD on July 7th

'HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK' IS YOUR NEXT ANNUAL SHARK-WEEK WATCH!

 It’s July, which means it’s the best time of the year — Shark Week time! This year is also extra special thanks to the 50^thanniversary of JAWS, a monolith of summer blockbuster animal horror that also just so happens to have been so equal parts rife with personnel and hands-on mechanical issues that its very creation was a sink or swim force of will.

Perhaps, then, it is best paid homage to through acts of nonsensical creative force. Enter Japan’s HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK, aka ONSEN SHARK, a front-to-back riot of insanity so clearly having a good time with itself it catapults its way up the ranks from shark-spoof cash-grab to true labor of comedic love deserving of annual watch treatment — and for my money, the best comedic effort of Chattanooga Film Festival’s whole 2025 lineup.

It is the tale of a town with a 3D-printed hot spring bath resort plagued by graphic, impossible shark attacks and the research team/diver combo that sets out to save Japan. If he wants to save his city, the clearly-out-of-his-depth police chief Denbei (Kiyobumi Kaneko) must team up with the mayor Kanichi (Fujimura Takuya) — obsessed with launching his new 3D-printed hot spring resort for visitors — and passionate marine biologist Mayumi (Nakanishi Yuu). And how could we forget the scene-stealing Macho (Sumiya Shiina), presumable guardian of the sea and expert in hand-to-hand shark-based combat?

Now more than ever the world needs more art made for the sake of fun whose seams you can see, and on that front this debut from filmmaker Morihito Inoue delivers in spades. His love for shark cinema — and JAWS in particular — is obvious in every second of this roller coaster ride, as well as his love for the dance between horror and comedy. Not for a second does HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK take itself too seriously, but it’s clear that its creation is a very serious labor of love. There are threads in this story about the importance of preservation of shark species as intricately woven into it as the threat they’re presenting to human life. But also, they eventually speak Pokémon-style as they swim around the warmer waters in search of their prey. Everyone involved is having the time of their lives, and it always keeps its heart front and center.

HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK is tailor-made for seeing with a crowd or group of friends looking to wile away a night with snacks, drinks, and plenty of shark jokes. One day, should the glory of Mystery Science Theater 3000 return to us, HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK will be waiting. 'Til then, fear not. You can meet Macho, Denbei, Mayumi, and the sharks they’re up against when HOT SPRING SHARK ATTACK comes to theaters and VOD on July 11, 2025.

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