John Polonia, half of the prolific Polonia Brothers, the grassroots filmmaking duo behind SPLATTER FARM, FEEDERS, BLOOD RED PLANET, and dozens more no-budge genre cult classics, suffered a heart aneurysm and passed away on February 25. The news is unexpected and sudden, and saddening in any case, but Polonia was only 39.

While this post is a bit delayed, I didn't hear the news until last night. I was listening to the Bros.' commentary on last year's decked-out SPLATTER FARM disc, and had the hankering to see FEEDERS 2, only to have the sad news delivered by the impersonal Internet. If there's one thing the Polonias' moves are, it's hands-on, with fingerprints. John wrote, directed, produced, acted (oh, that acting!) and whatever their shortcomings (such as: writing, directing, effects, acting...) the movies are full of energy and love. In high school, my sister and I were huge, obsessed fans of FEEDERS, and I sculpted her a clay model of the ridiculous alien puppets as a birthday present. I'll never forget seeing SPLATTER FARM for the first time in a college dorm at 4 AM over a congealed pizza, and and feeling I'd never before, would never again, see anything so A-1 deranged and dumbfounding. I don't think you can see SPLATTER FARM and not fall in lifelong love with it.

This must be a very hard time for John's twin brother, Mark Polonia, but for what it's worth, I for one have been brought a lot of happiness by their work.

John Polonia is survived by his spouse, his son, his brother and filmmaking partner, and a vast body of joyful, gross, ridiculous and extremely entertaining movies.