Castle of the Barens: TearFlame

Castle of the Barens: TearFlame is technically the third COTB film in the series, but it is not counted in the "numbered" movie lines. As the third film is being reserved for Castle of the Barens 3. However, TearFlame is part of a subtitled midquel/spin-offs to with Absum also belongs to. Interestingly enough, this series can be placed before or after the second film in terms of narrative continuity.

Plot
In 2004, Prof. Tim Dalton, after swearing never to go to the castle again, is successfully summoned by Roger Spotiswoode to a new briefing to invade another castle. Calling his office's answering machine, and sending Tim in a state of fear and shock. The main titles begin to unfold.

the brief commences as the new head of the Federal Hall of Defense, Spotiswoode, projects a slide of Dr. Frederic Van Der Beek, the recent owner of the castle of the barens; and informs them that his newfound acquisition, led him to his sudden death. He also shows them a slide of the castle that they will infiltrate: An underground labyrinth of tunnels and pathways located in Poland. He also introduces them to a Lion-Man, claiming them to be "lethal and dirty". Prof. Tim is reunited with a dramatically different looking Shake, who has been gaining weight and grown long hair, creating the impression that he has gone a surgical sex-change. the objective of the mission is to, not only infiltrate the castle, but to take care of a group of occultists that have been worshiping an ancient sect, and guarding the castle walls. Spotiswoode introduces Revolver Ocelot who will take care of them once they reach the gates, to which Tim mentions his familiarity with Revolver: "Hey, I know you!". Once the briefing has been made clear, Tim makes a fine point: "Let us hope that nothing will go haywire.". Once inside the castle their journey is riddled with perils both previously fought and never before encountered. Entering a totally different environment than what they experienced previously, Tim warns Shake that "The dead are resting here." and informs him of tonal cries that will awaken the dead, making the mistake of demonstrating them. Shake then questions Tim with screams of his own and an army of ferocious zombies are consequently awoken. The pair fend them off in a flash of flying bullets, skillful knifing, and the tumultuous cries of defeated zombies.

They proceed to hunt down an unknown evil that is very ugly, but their path is blocked by a giant web. Prof. Tim promptly panics that the big spider that set the trap is going to eat him. His fears are not unfounded, for after he and Shake escape the sticky mesh, the angry spider chases them until the chaos of the pursuit forces them to separate.

Prof. Tim finally destroys the spider and attempts to rejoin his missing partner. Making a satisfying remark on the availability of doors. He makes his way up to the roof of one of the castle buildings. It is a dark, dirty, and musty attic. Discovering a dead body contained in a giant back, hanging from a rope, Tim makes a statement: "Deadwalk! Without foot.". Identifying the body, he concludes that it cannot be Shake. Tim is then distracted by a mysterious light coming from an unkown source. Slowly walking towards it, and just about to touch it, Tim falls down a trap-floor into another room within the underground castle, and getting eyed by a demonic doll in the meantime.

Shake is found alive with a strong glimmering aura behind him, to which Tim asks "where is all the light coming from?"; Shake tells him he knows, and the two carry on to their next test of willpower. They find this in the form of a bell brought to attention by a curious piece of paper with the words: "Ring Me" scrawled over it. Not falling for so obvious a trick they continue around the corner but are shocked to hear the bell ringing anyway by a mysterious evil entity. Turning back to uncover the culprit of this ringing, they are met by Revolver who is in a state of frenzy so intense that it disallows him to converse coherently. Revolver, covered in spiderweb, explains to the two that he set up a giant bomb in the middle of the castle, that warns them all that in five elongated seconds, will go off and destroy half of the castle. Prof. Tim has trouble understanding the fatalistic warnings of this bomb; but luckily, he realizes the deadly situation in time to escape, prompting Shake and Revolver to follow, lest they be left to face their doom.

A short spot in this film is given to The Lion-Man, following the group, only to find the soon-to-be-detonated bomb and heralds the blast with a well placed, "Poop."

The heroes leap out of the castle just in time to avoid a tragic end, and walk away with seemingly no debilitating injuries in slow motion, while the theme to "The Magnificent Seven" heroically plays over the credits.

After the credits, The Lion-Man also emerges without sustaining any life threatening damages. Giving a humorous rant about the state of the castle.

Production
After paying a visit to Tim Majersky, at his house in 2004, Phil, Jake and Tim collectively decided to continue the "Castle of the Barens" series after a two year absence since Castle of the Barens 2. As soon as possible, Phil began thinking of a story that would expand the world of COTB. Knowing that Castle of the Barens 3's title should be reserved for a "better" film, Phil invented the "subtitle series": a series of sequels/prequels/midquels/spin-offs that could expand on the world of "Castle of the Barens" but, due to budget, time, and crew limitations, could be feasable to produce. The title "Castle of the Barens: TearFlame" was conceived.

During the day the film was shot, hot glue guns were borrowed from Phil's cousin, and with a hair-drier, were used to decorate the basement where the primary story took place with effective spider-web imitations. Production began with the castle footage filmed first. Finding other locations (such as the dark attic, and the doll house) were naturally discovered when location scouting while simultaneously filming the castle scenes. Both areas were found nearby the basement, and were filmed without any effort.

the last parts to be filmed were the mission briefing scenes, at the offices. Reluctantly being allowed to use the desired location, the crew quickly filmed the remaining scenes. Despite not having a script for this, the scenes with Roger were actually written on paper to help with the setting up of the story.

Abandoned 'spider-web girl' Scene
During the production day, the group had an idea to cast a little seven year old girl, to play dead, drained by the giant spider, which Tim would have discovered when looking for the ringer of the bell. Glue-gun spider webs were required to envelope the girl onto a wall. Warning Jake, who helped Phil add the hot glue gun strings on the girl, to be very careful not to have the nozzle come into contact with the girl's body; Jake accidentally did just that, sending the girl screaming and crying to her mother, with no way to re-do this scene. Infuriated, Phil punched and dented an innocent wind fan. Jake simply said "sorry, sorry!".

Original Ending
The film had a different ending. Instead of the hammy "Magnificent Seven" music played over a slow motion wideshot where the heroes dust themselves off heroically and walk off-camera, the original ending was to be much more dark. Phil Dragash's initial concept was to have an "epilogue" in which each character, now separated and at their own home, is staring into space and remembering the terror that was the Castle of the Barens. It would have also contained a voice-over in which Shake would recount the horrors and deaths of the demonic castle, and of what the future might hold for them, and their adversaries within.

This ending was scrapped due to "creative differences" with Jake and Tim, who persisted on the "cheesy ending with slow motion". Knowing this argument was not going to end to his favour, Phil gave in, and the original ending was never realized.

Characters

 * Prof. Tim Dalton
 * Shake
 * Revolver Ocelot
 * Roger Spotiswoode
 * The Lion-Man

Creatures

 * Zombies
 * The Giant Spider
 * Posessed Doll

Trivia

 * This is the only film in which Revolver Ocelot survives. Ironically, he is completely absent from Absum.
 * This is the first film to be shot on the Canon GL2, and utilize a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, creating a more cinematic and realistic look for the film, in comparison to the first two.
 * TearFlame was re-edited in 2006 for the COTB Collection DVD set. Improving the color grading, compressing, sound and music. Also, adding extra shots and giving the film a more intense feel.
 * The first film in which Prof. Tim's signature exclamatory word "Deadwalk!" is heard.