The gibbering horror of howard ghormley (2005) 12:00 In the pulp tradition of weird fiction, and old time radio horror serials, a man while bicycling through the countryside, finds a strange key that soon unlocks a horrifying realization.
Winner of "Best Short Film" on the Fangoria Blood
Drive 2 dvd compilation. Dvd features a special "day in the life" featurette with horror film legend Bruce Campell, and behind the scenes wth acclaimed special effects studio KNB EFX. Released October 2005 and globally distriubted by Koch Vision and Fangoria.
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Kind Words:
"Steve Daniels needs to be praised for having the guts to avoid gratuity and grue. Instead, he has delivered up a strange and surreal slice of psychological terror. This is really not a horror film in the traditional sense - it is more a dissertation on mental illness and the perspective of the insane. There is some incredible camerawork here, an effective repetition of key shots and a marvelous use of shadows and darkness. The creepy ambiance really helps push us past some of the more perplexing elements in the plot, and the lead performance is wonderfully confused and concerned. This is a very interesting idea, and while one could easily see it being expanded even further, what Daniels has accomplished here is just remarkable."
-- DVD Talk, Bill Gibron
"All of the films in “Blood Drive 2” prove superior in either technical or artistic arenas, but the true standout is “Gibbering Horror.” Steve Daniels’ film proudly wears its lovely 8mm film grain like a badge of honor. He’s one of the few short filmmakers to understand and embrace his limitations. He doesn’t try to coax dramatic performances out of novice actors (a true liability in productions such as these) or attempt to comment on or pay homage to classic genre favorites. Its claustrophobic imagery most closely resembles that of David Lynch’s “Eraserhead,” and truly channels the spirit of pioneer filmmaker Maya Deren. However the beautiful, haunting shot compositions, eerie score and artful editing put it in a class by itself."
-- Monsters at Play, Bradley Harding
"Now this on the other hand, is full-on imagination. This black and white, Super-8 film has no dialogue and no linear storyline, but is simply a marvel of ingenuity. The story is simple: a lone man on a bike travels back and forth to an old house, reading cryptic messages and trying to enter. One day, the door opens, and he soon finds himself in a crazy world of horrors. The twist at the end is predictable, but still a good one. What makes the film so remarkable is the cleverness of the shots. Daniels discovers new ways to film a man riding a bike, and there were many times I was agog at how he got some of the shots. The tension is escalated when Ghormley gets into the house and the $&%# hits the fan, and Daniels' cinematography reflects it. Basically, this is a little masterpiece of a film that my words can't do justice."
--DVD Verdict, David Johnson