Trailer of the Week - Dave Made a Maze

So a side project I've had has been my Silly Movie Trailer of the Day blog on Tumblr.  That's been a lot of fun, but it's something I've dropped in and out of so many times, and I've realised that one of the reasons why is that, though it has been good writing practice, doing those articles for daily release does mean eating up a lot of other writing time for things like my blog, fiction I'm working on, and freelance articles.  Besides, Tumblr's future is looking... interesting at the moment.  So with this in mind, I thought I'd split the difference, go for a weekly schedule, and co-ordinate most of my writing on here from now on.  Right then, let's have a trailer for something very thematically appropriate...

Why start with Dave Made a Maze?  Well, given that the titular character is a bumbling artistic type who's problem with never seeing various creative projects through to a proper conclusion, and in turn roping in quite a few friends to such matters... dunno, I can't see any significance, can you?

Anyhoo, that trailer gives a pretty good vibe to the whole thing, it's a sort of arts & crafts House of Leaves, or perhaps if Labyrinth was populated by hipsters.  In many ways it's mostly a one joke film (have an entire fantasy adventure story made out of cardboard and such), but that in turn spawns a whole slew of sub-jokes, and extra areas of creativity.  Mind, it doesn't just get laughs from the setting, there's a great cast of characters that fit the off-beat tone of the whole thing well too, who successful make you not question the fact that they are not questioning the fact they're in someone's Blue Petered together TARDIS.  Oh, and yes, for those that recognised the voice at 27 seconds into the trailer, that is James Urbaniak, Rusty Venture himself!

It also manages to work in some genuine thrills as well.  Of course since it's a labyrinth there's a Minotaur hunting them, (sorry, I'll stop the references to House of Leav- dammit!) but there are some good almost Cube style traps as well, with another fun homemade twist to their effects too.  Plus there's one longer sequence towards the end that is genuinely unnerving in a lot of ways, just from someone asking for high-fives.  This is far from the first story to do the whole "realm that's a reflection of a character's psyche" thing, but it's safe to say that stuff like Silent Hill has never been done in exactly this fashion.  This is a first time film from writer/director/cardboard scavenger Bill Watterson (no, not the same one who made Calvin & Hobbes, although it would have been suitable if it was), and it's a damn solid debut, I'd love to see what he does next.

It's worth mentioning that this has been released in the UK by Arrow Video, who are doing a special two for one offer on all their stuff this month at Fopp & HMV, so if you still have one of those shops near you... I envy you a lot.  But still, worth getting down there to pick this up under offer.  Also, Arrow have put together quite a bit of effort to market it, with a few extra promos across the Christmas holiday season.  I'll leave you then with their announcement trailer for it coming out in the UK...