Film Is Hell: How I Sold My Soul To Make The Crappiest Movies In History
by Matthew Howe

Description

If you've ever stumbled across a painfully bad action movie while channel surfing and wondered, “Who would create such unwatchable trash?” Film Is Hell has your answer. Film Is Hell: How I Sold My Soul to Make the Crappiest Movies in History chronicles the outrageous exploits of Sultan Film Productions, a small band of rebel filmmakers who risk death and arrest to produce movies so awful they set the international standard for bad. In their heydey, Sultan's founders helped create a lucrative niche for low-budget action films during the 1980s home video boom. But when big-budget powerhouses flooded the market in the 1990s, Sultan found itself struggling to survive. Limited resources forced the company to pursue a new strategy—substituting grit, stamina and ingenuity for a reasonable budget.At the heart of Film Is Hell is the narrator's tale of his personal journey, which is strangely tragic and utterly hilarious. In his literary debut, cinematographer Matthew Howe relates a brutally honest and gripping account of the toll his work takes on his finances, his life and most of all, his psyche. Film Is Hell is both a poignant memoir and a guided tour through the underbelly of the low-budget action film business. The book follows the Sultan crew's reckless and comedic adventures as they scam their way on board nuclear submarines, hang precariously out of biplanes, get run over by tanks, brave cattle stampedes, and infiltrate Navy SEAL exercises. Howe also recounts his run-ins with such celebrities as Samuel L. Jackson, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Julie Andrews.Writing, producing and shooting for Sultan, Howe endures harrowing, 20-hour workdays and frustrating waits for elusive back-end fees. His desperation and despair escalate each time he has to sacrifice quality due to budget and time constraints. So why would he pass up the opportunity to shoot the critically acclaimed indie film Judy Berlin and the Oscar winning Boys Don't Cry to stick with Sultan? In Film Is Hell, Howe explores his fateful missteps and makes his peace with them.