Now I'm going to tell you a scary tale. Listen.

A long time ago, in a Dark Age far, far away, there was an evil warlock named Ambolin.

(This is the point where I ponder if "Ambolin" is a shot at Spielberg, who in the last decade managed to milk every genre that was once thrilling, from haunted houses to naziploitation. Even if that's not the case, makes me happy to think so).

Rant mode off, moving on: Ambolin managed to create a parallel dimension encased within the ice he scraped off the Sun (don't ask!). It was a dimension where heavenly and hellish creatures had no access. A place where Ambolin and his apprentice Abraham (the spooky D.J. Vivona) pull six not-so innocent humans from Earth every few years, and proceed to play with their fears until they crack - sometimes, literally. To the screenwriter's credit, those phobias aren't the over-the-top absurdities from the 80's horror, but real mundane fears like suffocation or being cornered on a dark alley by armed thugs. I don't know about you, but surviving a car crash only to become paralized from the neck down is ten times scarier than a proctological exam performed by Freddy Krueger, and Stanze did well by showing the terrors we read about on the daily newspaper and pray to God not to be victims of.

But power-hungry Abraham wanted more and, after overpowering and destroying Ambolin, became a more powerful being. He became... The Presence. But the idea of a soul-leeching dimension beyond their reach didn't sit well with all the angels of Heaven and all the demons of Hell, who joined forces to kick the Presence's arrogant ass. Problem is, only a being of flesh and blood can penetrate the ice that encases Abraham's realm. So they enlist a human, Alison (Ramona Midgett, a tad weak for such demanding role), who just commited suicide in her bathtub. Alison's soul is intercepted on the way to purgatory and sent back to her body, so she can sneak into the Presence's lair along with the six humans selected for the next session of tortures and mind games.

But why they chose Alison? Well, you'll have to watch it and find out.

Such story, imagined by writer-director Eric Stanze ( "I Spit on Your Corpse, I Piss on Your Grave", "Scrapbook"), screams for CGI effects, a bunch of Rob Bottin's creatures and an A-List cast to drag even non-horror fans to theaters (well, I surely would pay to see Freddie Prinze Jr's head exploding!). But you're not Amblin, you're just... Ambolin. All you have is 193 rolls of Super 8 film, some friends who don't mind being buck nekkid in front of a camera, a very limited amount of money and no Macs. What do you do, hotshot? What do you do?

You do some real filmmaking, that's what!

"Ice From the Sun" is a cheap movie with cheap sets, not-so-good actors and all the shortcomings of a Super-8 production. It just doesn't LOOK cheap, for Stanze and his crew managed to create an entire dreamlike universe using basic effects like grain, b&w and negative images, intentional scratches, over and undercranking, exquisitely clever editing choices and an astounding sound design that goes from subliminary noises to complete silence at the right moments. Ah, you're not here for the pretty pictures? Don't worry; IFTC also delivers on the gore department. You have exploding and melting heads, graphic surgery images and some extremely sadistic stuff (the fate of the nude girl is especially grizzly to me, cause something similar actually happened to a girl I knew). The fact that some of the tortures can easily be done in real life by any sicko-wacko only makes the story ookier.

I must confess that I didn't liked "I Spit On Your Corpse, I Piss On Your Grave". It looked like one of them porn flicks with plots. "Ice From the Sun" was made three years earlier, so I popped the DVD in my player expecting the worst, but came out pleasantly surprised with Stanze's talents and skills. This is a guy who sure knows the tools of the trade and has plenty of imagination to burn. All he needs now is to be paired with someone with money to burn, cause I'm sure we can expect cool things from this fellow.

The first batch of this DVD was ridden with authoring problems, but this one is the remastered, fixed version, with the label printed in blue (you can trade the red-labeled defective one at Wicked Pixel's website, www.wickedpixel.com). How does it look? Very good for a Super-8 film, and the Dolby Digital AC3 sound is also nice, although some dialogues during the coke-sniffing sequence are muffled. Extras include a still gallery, two trailers (the first one joyfully announces that the movie hates my family, my house, my religion and even myself, and I must deal with it; thanks for the warning!) and two commentary tracks - one by director Stanze and sound designer Matt Meyer (both have interesting things to say, so listen carefullly ye aspiring filmmakers!), other with actors Angela Zimmerly, Todd Tevlin, Ramona Midgett and Jason Christ.