Auteur

Director - George Cameron Romero (Repressed)
Starring - Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), B.J. Hendricks (Staunton Hill), and Ian Hutton (True Blood)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Some stories are better left buried"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     A few years back I met James Cullen Bressack through Facebook where I reviewed all of his films up to that point.  I checked out 4 or so films and out of all those viewings only one flick did not entertain me.  I soon started following his career.  Early this year I was lucky enough to check out his newest film Pernicious and was completely floored by the film.  This piece of cinematic gold is by far his best film to date.  After reviewing the film I was hit with news the Bressack had written a story for another film that was directed by the man George C. Romero.  This man is the son of the amazing George A. Romero.  I had to jump at the chance to see this film and MVD was kind enough to hook me up with a review copy.  Thanks guys!

     The film follows a documentary filmmaker who is searching for a horror director that disappeared at the pinnacle of his career with the only copy of his newest film Demonic.  The man interviews several cast and crew members of the film including a young lady that was part of the film's biggest scene who is very flirtatious with the director and tries extremely hard to find the filmmaker's whereabouts.  Sometime later the doc. director receives a post card with the possible whereabouts of the famed director Charlie Buckwald's location.  He follows the lead and finds him where he discovers he is now a recluse and paranoid of everyone and everything.  He is able to get close to Charlie where he reveals that he used magic to posses the young girl he met early in order to make an exorcism scene look real but was unable to control her.  She is now looking for the film and followed the documentary filmmaker back to Charlie where she will stop at nothing to get the last copy.  

     I really enjoy the films that Bressack has authored.  He always add depth to his characters and most of the time he does an amazing job at creating back stories which only pulls you into the lives of these characters that you will be spending an hour and a half with.  Auteur is able to capture that character's charm while throwing us in the middle of a fun story.  The acting in this one is solid but nothing that I would deem amazing.  The scene stealer is Ian Hutton who throws everything he has into his role creating a character you love to follow.  The remainder of the cast does a great job at carrying the story but they have no where the dedication that Hutton has.  The story for this one is one that starts out slow, hit the midway mark still barely crawling, and then unloads everything it has at you in the last portion of the film.  I really enjoyed the story once it hit it's peak and it really hit me with elements I did not expect.  Sadly, the film does take a very long time to get established resulting in bored viewers.  Finally, those looking for amazing on screen kills and practical effects with not find them here.  The film is pretty dry when it comes to blood.  Overall, Auteur is slow moving horror thriller that ends on a strong note.  The film has a solid cast and a story that is rich even though it is dry at first.  Check this one out!