The Butcher Brothers aka Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores are currently making quite a stir in the Bay area of San Francisco and the horror genre. They have already won many awards at genre and non-genre film festivals and you may remember me talking briefly about their film, The Hamiltons in my blog post on After Dark Horror Fest.

What sets this director / writer duo apart from the rest of their contemporaries? For starters they are extremely talented at writing an original story. Even without the elements of horror, torture, extreme gore, their film The Hamiltons could stand its ground as a drama about a family coming of age. Unlike most mainstream horror films from the 90’s to today; The Hamiltons doesn’t rely on big budget special effects or canned attempts at scaring the audience. The fear or dread you experience from this movie is genuine. Personally, I compare the Butcher Brothers style of writing and concept of horror to the likes of Fulci, Lieberman, or Cronenberg.

The Hamiltons; this story takes place in a small town in California. After the deaths of their parents the oldest son takes it upon himself to raise the younger brother and sisters. The story centers around Francis, the youngest, who finds an old video camera and uses it to work on a project for school. We soon see how malevolent the Hamiltons really are through Francis's eyes and though his video camera.

There is a perverse notion in this film that suggests ideal family values are a kind of claustrophobic horror in and of its self. This took me a second to recognize but set the tone in a wonderful way at the beginning of the story. I was drawn in and amused simply because in reality you want the wife to thow an axe at the husbands head from the kitchen as he spouts the cliche'd "Honey I'm home.."

The family was cast well; David Hamilton Samuel Child stepping into the fathers shoes taking care of the uncomfortably close twins Wendell Hamilton Joseph McKelheer and Darlene Hamilton Mackenzie Firgens along with Francis Cory Knauf who delivered an exceptional performance as the awkward teen complete with all the angst and indentity problems you know and love.

Some people may argue the amount of pure gore in this film is minimal. I know because I was one of those people at first. True, there is very little caught on film but that is made up for in the pyschological element laced throughout film. The finale is perfect, the horrific truth of the family is revealed in an ending that stayed with me long after leaving the theater.

It took me more than one viewing to appreciate this film. If your up for a cerebral experience The Hamiltons is for you. A refreshing new take on horror and a welcome addition to the genre. I look forward to what the Butcher Brothers have in store next.

Look for a DVD release in March 07 via LionsGate. There is even already talk of a sequel tenatively titled The Thompsons and promises to be about how the parents in The Hamiltons meet their end.