Trapped Ashes (2006)
Directed by Sean S Cunningham, Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell, John Gaeta
Written by Dennis Bartok
Starring John Saxon, Rachel Veltri, Scott Lowell, Lara Harris, Henry Gibson, Jayce Bartok
Lionsgate Films
Release Date: July 15, 2008

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, anthology horror movies poured from low budget production houses throughout Europe, including the time-honored Black Sabbath from Mario Bava and EC Comics inspired Tales From The Crypt by Freddie Francis. Anthology horror on the big screen took on new life in the US in the 1980s with Creepshow and sputtered out in the early 1990s with Tales From The Darkside: The Movie. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a ghostly anthology series called Troublesome Night has been going strong since 1997 and most recently the East Asian anthology films Three and Three: Extremes have been chilling audiences around the world.

But is there hope for a revival of this horror niche here in the United States? Writer Dennis Bartok would like to think so. Bartok, who has spent much of his career on the fringes of the film community as the head of programming at American Cinematheque in Los Angeles and as an interviewer for DVD featurettes, makes his screenwriting debut with Trapped Ashes, and with the help of some Japanese financing has brought along some top-name talent to back him up.