ICON FILM STUDIOS, home to THE SLEAZE BOX brand and the company that brought you the most controversial film in recent years, AMERIKAN HOLOKAUST.  ICON’s SLEAZE BOX brand specializes in bring you the most sleaziest, in your face, punch to the gut horror or exploitation themed films and DVD releases.  Here is a brief history on how this company got started which dates back to 1993.
 
Before the film studio had a name, it was loosely started after Chris Woods and Simon Lynx were working on a video project for school back in New York.  Friends since the late 1980’s the two started making movies in the early to mid-1990’s, which were no-budget horror films.  Woods eventually moved to Florida to go to college and started making a number of student films.  Lynx moved to Florida a few years later and again teamed up with Woods to make more films. From 1995-1997 along with their friend Luis Matos, they had a horror anthology series on Public Access called CREEPING DEATH. In 1997 they made the bizarre mind twister short film SHADOW OF A VICTIM and in 1998 they made the Sci-fi short thriller CHAMELEON.
 
For the next 2 to 3 years Woods and Lynx of spent most of their time writing and scouting for their new film which was a feature length entitled BLEED. In 2002 they officially formed ICON FILM STUDIOS. Later that year they released BLEED, which won several awards.  Between 2002 through 2005 ICON worked with many other talented filmmakers, actors and musicians.  Between those years they made a few short films such as REMEMBRANCE, TO LIVE IS TO DIE, RED MOON, BROKEN TOMORROW, POP, and SEVER.
 
In 2007 Chris Woods teamed up with filmmaker Shelby McIntyre
and the two produced a documentary on TAMPA legend and owner of the world famous strip club, Mons Venus, Joe Redner. The film was called STRIP CLUB KING: THE STORY OF JOE REDNER. McIntyre directed the film and Woods was the editor as well. The film was released in late 2008 and since then has screened at several film festivals including the Gasparilla International Film Festival in Tampa. The film was released on DVD in 2009 and is available at Amazon, Best Buy, fye, Borders, Target, and many other outlets. The documentary also had a few runs on video on demand on such cable providers as Time Warner, Bright House, Comcast, Cox, and Verizon FiOS and is still available on HULU.
 
In 2009, Woods got to work with one of his filmmaking heroes, The Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, who made the first splatter or gore film in the 1960's with Blood Feast. Lewis made many films throughout the 60's and early 70's, but then retired from moviemaking. Woods got to be the editor on his latest film THE UH OH! SHOW that was directed by Lewis and produced by Andrew Allan and Andy Lalino. The film is to be released on DVD in 2011.
Through 2009 to 2011 Lynx and Woods worked on a few other short films like SPAVENTARE, which screened at many festivals such as Spooky Empire's The Freak Show Film Festival, Gasparilla, Indie Creep, and Reel Terror where it won an award for Best Creep Factor. Lynx and Woods also released another short film, WHITE LIE starring Joel D. Wynkoop.  The film also played in several film festivals and picked out some awards.
 
In 2011, John Miller joined the group and Woods and Miller started working on a number of short films in 2011 and 2012.  Starting with MONDO SOCKO, HENNESSY x RED and VOMIT SOUP all directed by Miller and TASTE ME and DARK COMEDY all directed by Woods.  The two also started the web series, THE SLEAZE BOX, which showcases Top 5 lists on horror/sci-fi/exploitation/cult film related topics.  The show is hosted by Miller and Woods and featured some skits by the Grindhouse Girls and Aja “Splatterbaby” Jones.
 
In 2013 ICON would branch out and make THE SLEAZE BOX a brand with its first movie release AMERIKAN HOLOKAUST, which has grown an underground following worldwide.  The film has been reviewed on many websites and publications and made many Top Ten lists in 2013.  It has also screened at a number of film festivals worldwide.
 
In 2014, THE SLEAZE BOX brand pumped out more films with the release of MAKE THEM DIE SLEAZY.  The film included short films from Woods, Lynx and Miller and made into a horror anthology.  They also expanded the brand to make the company a distributor of films both from THE SLEAZE BOX and other filmmakers.  They re-released the 1993 S.O.V. cult classic from Chip Herman, BURGLAR FROM HELL and Terence Muncy’s 2008 film HELL WALKS THE EARTH.
 
They also teamed with filmmaker Sean Donohue from Gatorblade Films to release his brand new film JOE VAMPIRE sometime in late summer 2014.  THE SLEAZE BOX also has two more films to be released in 2014, NAUGHTY, DIRTY, NASTY directed by Woods and $KUMBAGZ directed by Miller.  Both films star Krystal “Pixie” Adams.