What do you do when you're an aspiring filmmaker with lots of ideas and absolutely no money? Why, grab your friends and relations and make your own "Creepshow" of course! Chris LaMartina, university film student and horror film fanatic, serves up a quirky quartet of terrifying thrills in his creepy collection DEAD TEENAGERS.

We open on the university library at night, where Joe Student peruses the racks. A book falls to the floor, so the mindful collegiate picks it up. It's a weird little tome called 'The Book Of Lore", and curiosity gets the better of 'Joe' as he sits down and starts to read...

THE BOO MEN. In a spooky old house, Brian runs from his abusive stepfather; he finds a knife and hides in the basement. When "Daddy" finds 'the little bastard' Brian tries to defend himself -then a man with a sack tied to his head emerges and pulls Brian's stepfather away into the shadows. Was this just a dream? Next day, Brain's psychiatrist explains that it takes time to overcome traumatic events; the boy shouldn't let fear take over his life. Brian still feels extremely paranoid; he keeps seeing the sack headed men outside his window. So he decides to run away from the mental hospital, hitchhiking to his former home. Exhausted, Brian falls asleep, and the poor driver meets an all-too familiar shrouded nemesis when he stops at the roadside. Just who are the Boo Men, and will the truth really be able to set Brian free?

FULL MOONLIGHTING. A wolf howls as the moon waxes full - and a poor old woman finds out the hard way what happened to her little dog Snowflake...In the morning, Jen hears all about it on the local news. She decides to finally return the last bunch of junk to her ex, Collin. He's recently returned from Europe, and acts very strange, forcing Jen to leave soon after she drops off his stuff. That night, two local hunters meet a grisly end at the claws of a ravenous wolf...or is it? Collin believes he has become a werewolf, and he knows the moon will be full tonight. Can he protect Jen? Heck, can he save himself from such a cruel fate?

SKELETON KEY. Sarah plays a haunting melody on her piano when her boyfriend John calls. He wants to meet up, but she begs off - she has to visit her grandmother's house tomorrow to go through the basement before the house is sold. John weasels an invite to meet her there after work. So Sarah spends her day rummaging through boxes of crap, ultimately finding some sheet music her aunt had written. Sarah finds the strange melodies fascinating. She plays them for John when he arrives (he couldn't care less), and they agree to spend the night there...even though Sarah's aunt was murdered here years ago. Little do they realize the truth behind the death and the music will come back for vengeance in a most horrifying way.

SUCKERS. Another lad named Brian works at the local indie movie theatre, which shows cheesy vampire films and the like. He has a major cleaning job to do, since the theatre's been sold, and rooks fellow employee Kevin into assisting. Behind the small houses' screen in a loft, Brian finds an old film reel among the many 'long wooden' boxes. He and Kevin check the ancient film out, but Brian gets freaked. Seems a girl he swears he saw at the show last night appears on the screen. A disbelieving Kevin tells him the reel must be fifty years old at least. Later in the parking lot, Brian sees the film girl again, and it's obvious she's alive and wants him. An irate customer accosts Brian, and when he turns around again, she's gone. Will Brain discover the secret of the mystery chick before the theatre becomes a breeding ground for the undead? And just how is one guy gonna stop them anyhow?

I have found that a common mistake in making low budget features is cramming too much stuff into a film, or stretching an idea way too thin. To his credit, Chris LaMartina avoids this pitfall by making DEAD TEENAGERS a 'Night Gallery'-style anthology. Every segment is just the right length to keep the audience's interest and allow LaMartina to explore each particular idea - then he links them all together in a fairly clever way. GOOD - limited ideas to short format without over extending idea. The mood he creates is very atmospheric - a claustrophobic feel pervades the entire film. To heighten this mood, LaMartina uses quick cuts when editing, and shoots at crazy angles to keep the eye constantly moving and mind wondering what's coming next. I would be remiss not to mention the great soundtrack. There's a nice special effect done in post to reinforce the atmosphere by tweaking the film's color; it has a very Fall\Halloween cast which works well on a subtle level. Of course, some other effects make one really suspend the old disbelief, but hey, DEAD TEENAGERS is a real low budget film by a college student, so production is understandably compromised. As always, lighting is the main culprit. Too many shots are dark, and night scenes tend to be grainy. Most of the acting is pretty good, but some dialogue scenes have distracting 'pauses' (which could be tightened up in editing.) Sound is inconsistent in places, probably due to matching up the ambient noise in shots from different angles filmed at different times. These are the same weaknesses I've seen in most really low budget indie films, so I focus more on the passion, not the play. And the obvious passion he has for the genre shows me that DEAD TEENAGERS is a solid stepping-stone to a very successful future for Chris LaMartina.

There are only two special features on the screener DVD of DEAD TEENAGERS. One is the obligatory trailer. The other is a full-length commentary by LaMartina, which is interesting for his recollections of the shoot and many anecdotes about the cast and production.

Make no mistake; DEAD TEENAGERS is a horror, indie that is hampered by its lack of budget. There are plenty of good ideas that keep the interest in the film, and some clever writing Rod Serling would be proud of. Chris LaMartina shows he has potential, so I wouldn't be surprised for him to find success on the mangled bloody corpses of DEAD TEENAGERS...