Alastair Mackenzie Movies

With a premise that suggests an early 21st century variation on David Fincher's paranoia classic The Game (1997), New Town Killers stars Dougray Scott as Alistair, a slimy, ice water-veined financier who gets his kicks and thrills by targeting human prey. His modus operandi involves bringing in an innocent young candidate for a new job, Jamie Stewart (Alastair Mackenzie), and demanding as a prerequisite that the two play a mysterious game together. They must find a down-and-outer and challenge him to escape from their clutches over the course of one long and fateful night. The "prey" on this occasion is Sean McDonald (James Anthony Pearson), an inner-city teen with a serious problem on his hands: his pregnant sister risks being killed by the thugs to whom she owes gambling money. Alistair informs the young man that if he manages to evade them in their chase, he will receive enough money to clear off the towering gambling debts of his pregnant sister; if he loses, he will be killed. Out of concern for his sister, Sean agrees to the contest, though victory seems impossible for two major reasons: first, the crafty Alistair has closed all major exit routes from the city without informing Sean of this, and second, Alistair secretly plants a tracking device on Sean that the young man isn't aware of. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Snuff-Movie, an outing by the celebrated music video-director-turned-horror maestro Bernard Rose (Paperhouse, Candyman), references both the Charles Manson/Sharon Tate murders and Michael Findlay's notorious grindhouse film Snuff (1974), in its tale of a slasher movie director's involvement with off-camera butchering. Jeroen Krabbé stars as Boris Arkadin, the popular creator of stomach-churning cinematic gore fests. His life takes a dark turn late one evening in 1975, when, after a private screening of his latest opus, a group of maniacs turn up at his mansion and slaughter all of the overnight guests -- including Boris' pregnant wife, Mary (Lisa Enos). Cut to the present day, in London. A young actress, Wendy (also played by Enos), decides to audition for one of Arkadin's films, and accepts the director's subsequent invitation (despite the admonitions of her boyfriend, Andy) to stay at the Arkadin mansion overnight. Soon, Andy is wracked with horror to discover that additional murders are occurring and being broadcast live, online. But are these homicides real or simply staged contrivances for another film? Teri Harrison and Alastair Mackenzie co-star; Rose authored the script. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide