Cleopatra Records Scores Some Horror Music Deals
Cleopatra Records has been releasing music since 1992 from the non-mainstream, ranging “unknown” musicians you may have heard of.. to those you probably haven’t. Everything on the edge, from metal and alternative to prog rock and folk. After almost 25 years concentrating on music, Cleopatra is branching out into the film distribution world. While a few of their initial titles (naturally) come from the world of independent music (the documentary feature The Dammed – Don’t You Wish You Were Dead and Morressey/The Smiths biopic Steven), the company’s upcoming distribution slate features several films from the horror genre, starting with Blood Trap and The Dark Room, both scheduled for late 2016.
The classic crime caper movie takes a vampiric turn in September 2016’s Blood Trap. Horror genre notable Costas Mandylor (of Saw series fame) and Vinny Jones (Mr. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels himself) as part of kidnapping crew who find out their intended kidnap target isn’t so helpless, and they may be the ones trying to escape & survive. The NSFW trailer is now available on the Cleopatra Records You Tube channel.
The “beautiful house with a dark secret” subgenre, so beloved in 70’s classics like The Amityville Horror, The Entity and The Legend of Hell House will be revisited in director Rolfe Kanefsky’s The Black Room. Another cautionary tale featuring a pair of overly eager prospective homeowners who don’t bother with a home inspector, the titular room in their basement houses a demonic presence, one that will put stars Natasha Henstridge, Dominique Swain, and Insidious series star Lin Shaye into the path of something that may not stop with destroying one family.
Another factor in Cleopatra Records focus on horror films along with those concentrating on music? As FiveThirtyEight.com and NPR noted in 2015, in the hit or miss world of entertainment, horror movies tend to be very inexpensive to make, and therefore one of the safest bets for profitability (or Return on Investment). According to FiveThirtyEight, “even though the horror genre represented only 3.7 of the total box office total for 2015. The return-on-investment potential for horror movies is absurd. One in 5 horror movies in our set made its budget back at the box office 6 times over or more. One in 10 made its budget back 17 times over or more.”
With horror movies like Blood Trap and The Black Room among their first releases, Cleopatra Records is making what is a close to a sure bet as any decision in the entertainment industry can be.
