#chris baugh

Boys from County Hell (2020) Chris Baugh

Boys from County Hell will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 21 via RLJE Films. The 2021 Irish horror-comedy is streaming exclusively on Shudder.

Chris Baugh (Bad Day for the Cut) writes and directs. Jack Rowan, Nigel O'Neill, Louisa Harland, Michael Hough, Fra Fee, Robert Nairne, and John Lynch star.

Sink your fangs into the special features below, where you can also watch the trailer.

“In light of the fact that we're supposed to be skeptical about the latest Trump allegations, I want to tell you a story. 

A long time ago, there was a man named Paul Manafort. Paul Manafort was a GOP operative who exported his political expertise. He and Roger Stone ran what was known in DC as The Torturers Lobby. They worked with warlords and despots. Paul Manafort even worked closely with Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats with ties to Putin. Manafort was one of the operatives who worked in Ukraine to elect a pro-Putin government. This is a verifiable fact. 

At one point, Manafort went missing for 3 weeks. Roger Stone joked that he'd been kidnapped by the Russians. This is about 2010. According to some members of the Intelligence community, around the same time Russia began cultivating Donald Trump as an intel asset. Timing, I'm sure, is totally coincidental. Just giving you a sense of where we're at in the story. In 2011 Donald Trump starts the birther movement, remember that whole thing? In 2012 Donald Trump flirts with a run for President, but he doesn't run. At some point, Hillary Rodham Clinton runs afoul of Vladimir Putin. She and Obama both take aggressive stance toward him. Then in 2016, Donald Trump declares his candidacy. 

He starts as a long-shot managed by Corey Lewandowski. As Trump grows in prominence, he fires Lewandowski and hires...Paul Manafort. Whose last job was in Ukraine. On behalf of Putin. Pual Manafort, who owned a lobbying firm with Trump confidant Roger Stone. Paul Manafort, who had been kidnapped (presumably) by Russians at one point but survived unharmed. Trump's positions softened under Manafort (re Ukraine specifically). Manafort's in charge over summer. It comes out that Manafort received 12 million dollars in an offbooks ledger from the pro-Putin party in Ukraine. 

Wait back up. 

Before this comes out, the DNC emails are hacked. Wikileaks releases the hacked emails. Why did Assange do this if it was an intel op by Russia? Possibly for the promise of asylum, but that's speculation on my part. Maybe he hates Clinton and Obama, but again speculating. Regardless, the leaks help one party and help the other. So now Manafort resigns after the Ukraine thing comes out. Trump hires Steve Bannon, ANOTHER one of Stone's friends. Manafort probably keeps advising Trump. He lives in Trump Tower, so they see each other periodically. Two of Trump's new policy guys are Michael Flynn and Carter Page. Both of whom have ties to Putin and Russia. Galas with Putin, RT, dinners, speaking engagements, etc. So Manafort, Flynn, and Page. Remember the names for a bit. 

Now Wikileaks starts leaking John Podesta's emails. Mostly harmless stuff, but Hillary Clinton and emails is just a bad look. We know they were hacked, we suspect by a state agent, and if you've been paying attention the answer's pretty clear. 

So the election happens and Trump wins. Then the intelligence community confirms what most of us knew or suspected. That Putin had launched an intel op specifically to hurt Clinton. Then it came out he wanted Trump to win, that he was behind the DNC hacks, that he was behind the Podesta hacks, all Putin from the get-go. Curiously PEOTUS refuses to accept the findings of the intel community. Claims it coulda been anybody. Defends Assange. Curious. In response, POTUS Obama kicks out 35 alleged Russian spies posing as diplomats. Pretty big move. The intel community seems pretty certain as to the facts at this point, and Obama is doing stuff he wouldn't do otherwise. 

So today this new trove of background comes out. BUT IT'S UNVERIFIED. Yeah, so what? What do the documents say? That about 6 years ago (around when Trump started birtherism) they began cultivating him. That they conspired to get leverage over him. That they preferred him to HRC. That they had Russian spies in the US posing as go-betweens. That there was high-level cooperation with Trump's campaign via Paul Manafort and Carter Page, remember them?

 So we're supposed to be SUPER SKEPTICAL about all of this.

 I mean, I guess so?

If you didn't know who Paul Manafort was, or what he did, or who Carter Page was, etc. If you didn’t find it odd that Trump's Sec. State Elect won the Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin. If you ignored all of these things, I guess it's healthy to be skeptical about this. 

So here we are, a week out from inaugurating a compromised asset of Russian intelligence President of the United States. I don't have some cool conclusion to the story because it's a scary story without a good ending. This is the new reality.”