Posts Tagged ‘Horror’
Posted by dominie in Films, News on December 3rd, 2008
The final one-sheet for My Bloody Valentine 3D from Lionsgate debuted today on Shock Till You Drop. The film is a redo of George Mihalka’s 1981 slasher horror and this is the final of three movie posters.
Directed by Patrick Lussier, MBV finds Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) playing Tom Hanniger, a man who returns to his hometown of Harmony haunted by a tragic coal mining accident and the subsequent massacre that occurred courtesy of vengeful survivor Harry Warden. Ten years later, on Valentine’s Day, the killings begin again with a masked killer wielding a pickaxe on the loose. Has Warden returned?
Joining Ackles in this blood-soaked mystery is Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Edi Gathegi and Kevin Tighe. My Bloody Valentine 3D opens in theaters on January 16th.
Posted by dominie in Films, News on November 11th, 2008
While at the AFM, Bloody Disgusting got their hands on the trailer, early poster art, and synopses for George A. Romero’s Deadtime Stories, a horror anthology that features three half hour short films directed by Michael Fischa, Jeff Monahan, and Matt Walsh. Read on for the skinny from their post.
From the evil mind of George A. Romero, who unleashed Day of The Dead, Diary of the Dead, and, the horror classic, Night of the Living Dead, comes three bedtime tales that will dare you to fall asleep!
The Gorge: When Donna accompanies her fiance, Gary, and his best friend, Craig, on a morning caving expedition; she expects a fun hike, a few laughs, and maybe some kisses in the dark. But a sudden cave-in leaves them trapped with no way out. Gary’s leg has been crushed, and as the days go by, gangrene sets in. With everyone starving, Craig suggests that when they cut off the leg, maybe they should take just an extra few inches. Will it be enough to feed all of them? And how far will three people go to survive?
On Sabbath Hill: Richard has it made - a lovely wife, two beautiful daughters, and a good career as a history professor at a local university. A real stickler for attendance, he has no problem expelling students for missing even a single class. One student who never misses a class is Allison, a beautiful co-ed, ready and available for sex anytime Richard wants. But when the relationship gets too deep, Richard breaks it off… with deadly results. However, even in death Allison doesn’t want to miss class - how else could she haunt him to the brink of insanity?
Dust: George loves his wife, Audrey. So watching her die a slow and painful death from cancer is intolerable. A nighttime security guard at a high-tech lab for over 30 years, George learns that a doctor in the lab has been experimenting with dust from Mars that may cure cancer. When the doctor refuses to give George the dust, George kills him, takes the dust and gives it to Audrey. It not only cures her disease, it makes her younger, more vibrant and full of lust. With her insatiable appetite, Audrey wants more of everything. As her need for more dust grows, George realizes he has created a monster. He knows he has to get rid of the dust and, in a fit of rage, throws it into the wind. But no good deed goes unpunished. The dust settles in a nearby graveyard, causing the dead to rise and George to pay the ultimate price!
Posted by pete in Literature, News on October 20th, 2008
Our new friend Mark over at The Horror Drive-In has a nice article up on his site that any Famous Monsters Of Filmland fan will enjoy. Take a minute and check it out…
Posted by dominie in Events, Films, News on October 2nd, 2008
I can’t stop raving about how great this little Swedish vampire film is. Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (review) debuts in New York and Los Angeles Friday, October 24. The US trailer is now available in high definition on IGN and you can visit the official website for all everything you want to know about the upcoming release.
Let the Right One In is the inaugural film in Magnet Releasing’s Six Shooter Film Series that will feature theatrical releases of six films from the vanguard of quality worldwide genre cinema. Alfredson’s Let the Right One In has been named winner of such film festival honors as Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, Best Film and Best Cinematography at Göteborg, and Best Film, Best Director, Best Photography, Best European, North or South American Film at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.
Official Plot Synopsis:
A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy’s wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him.
But Eli’s arrival coincides with a series of gruesome deaths and attacks. Though Oskar realizes that she’s a vampire, his friendship with her is stronger than his fear…
Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing, darkly atmospheric, yet unexpectedly tender tableau of adolescence. The feature is based on the best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which the UK press qualified as “reminiscent of Stephen King at his best.”
Screening Dates and Locations:
10/24/2008
West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
New York, NY: Angelika Film Center
11/7/2008
San Diego, CA: Hillcrest Cinemas (more…)
Posted by jonathon in General, News on September 27th, 2008
Well, what do you know? Hammer Films is back in business. And to think, the last time they produced a film my parents weren’t yet divorced. Wait, my parents weren’t even married. In fact, they hadn’t even met. So, I guess, the last time Hammer Films produced a movie, I was not alive…and I’m almost 30!
The Wake Wood, directed by David Keating (The Last of the High Kings), written and produced by Brendan McCarthy and starring Aidan Gillen (The Wire), Eva Birthistle (Breakfast on Pluto), Ella Connolly and Timothy Spall (the guy who informs Tom Cruise that his nickname is “Citizen Dildo” in Vanilla Sky), tells the tale of a couple who moves to the town of Wake Wood to start anew after the loss of their daughter. Set in a cold, rainy, dreary Ireland, Wake Wood feels to be a common enough horror/supernatural story. But who cares if the film is good? I’m just happy that Hammer Films is back to putting “nails in the coffin.” (Yikes, that was a bad pun)
Now, let’s tangent: Writer/producer Brendan McCarthy obviously cast Birthistle as the female lead in his film. He also cast Eva in another movie he exec. produced called Breakfast on Pluto (which is an amazing movie starring Cillian Murphy). What I find interesting and really cool is that producers and/or directors use the same actors again and again. Cillian Murphy, as an example, is a Danny Boyle regular starring in both 28 Days Later and the fabulous Sunshine. D.J. Caruso’s new film Eagle Eye is the second film Shia LaBeouf has starred in. And let’s not forget the greatest director/actor relationship of all: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. I don’t know why I find these loyal affairs to be so gratifying. Maybe it’s because the film industry is such a savage and fickle business that it’s nice to see constants in all the chaos. I guess it brings hope into the equation. Something that is easily lost in the grind of everyday life. So, let’s have a couple of cheers for the faithful ones. And let’s have a cheer for McCarthy and Birthistle.
Posted by phillip in Reviews on September 22nd, 2008
Once in a great while, a movie is made that defies all odds. Poor production value, foreign locations that look like foreign locations, and bad acting. Yet it somehow gels together to make a masterpiece. Well this is one of them.
Flu Bird Horror is about a group of juvenile delinquents that are at a reform camp which happens to get attacked by pterodactyl looking-like things. Did you know that The Avian flu can morph ordinary pigeons into dinosaurs? Me neither. Any whooty…these delinquents get picked off one by one in the forest as the local ranger (Lance Guest, Last Starfighter, Holloween 2) desperately looks for these kids. At least its original.
Like a fine crafted Matrushka Doll, Flu Bird Horror (ah-chooooo, Gazuntight!) is truly a horror within a horror within a horror. The first horror is that it was ever written. Well maybe it was never written…maybe there was never a script at all. The second horror is that they actually tried to pass Romanian farmers off as Americans. This might have worked except they gave these actors a speaking role…very bad move. The third horror was that Leigh Scott (Hillside Cannibals, Transmorphers), the writer/director, convinced the executive producer that this was all going to end up well…or at worst, the exec producer might get laid if he ponied up a few G’s.
Now that we got that out of the way, there were some positive notes. It was only a feature and not a mini series. No real dinosaurs were harmed during the filming of this movie. And lastly, the two young performers, Sara Butler (A Couple of White Chicks at the Hairdresser) and Jonathon Trent (Transformers 2, Downstream) were pretty good. Despite some less then flattering comments about the cast by would-be, wanna-be critics, this ESL (English as a second language) challenged script actually was translated well by these two actors. Kudos for taking lemons and…well…don’t take anymore lemons in the future. You two are better than that.
Posted by dominie in Films on September 18th, 2008
First Look Studios announced the following DVD releases for September 30th, both of which were commissioned by The Powers That Be at Sci-Fi Channel.
FLU BIRDS, $19.98
From ex-Asylum director Leigh Scott, “A team building retreat becomes a nightmare when a group of teenagers are stranded as a flock of flesh eating birds, consumed by a deadly virus, makes them their prey. With the aid of the local forest ranger, the teenagers must run for their lives, fighting against the infectious mutated bird flu that starts to spread amongst them. With a lack of shelter and few weapons to defend themselves, the teens are forced to do whatever it takes to make sure they are the not the next to be eaten by birds. Tough choices are made as they are forced to choose who should live and who should be left behind for the flu birds. With the virus spreading to a nearby town, the race against time begins as the authorities try to control the situation with deadly consequences. FLU BIRDS is a thrilling horror with danger coming at you from all angles.”
GHOULS, $19.98
Directed by Gary Jones (Mosquito, Boogeyman 3), GHOULS stars Kristen Renton, “A young American girl [who] goes on a journey to Eastern Europe to visit her family. While there, she meets a strange and mysterious ghost hunter who speaks of terrifying mystical creatures who roam the surrounding forests, preying on the town’s innocent victims. Together, they discover her supernatural heritage and connection to the evil spirits who plague the town. The creatures once ruled the earth and are planning to rule again with her help, willing or not!”
Posted by dominie in Events, News on September 18th, 2008
The 14th Annual H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhu-Con at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Oregon is happening on October 3-4-5, 2008. The official website as announced a tentative lineup of events (outlined below) including Guest of Honor Brian Lumley Reading and Mike Mignola Q&A Panel. Don’t miss this event if you can help it!
The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival has been known for its promotion of the best in literary horror and weird tales from such greats as H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert W. Chambers, and many more through the cinematic adaptations by professional and amateur filmmakers. Founded in 1995, the festival is on a mission to properly recognize H.P. Lovecraft as a master of gothic horror and to encourage that his work be more faithfully adapted to film and television. Yes, we definitely need more of this encouragement!
Events:
A Pleasing Terror
The 2008 HPLFF is proud to present the critically acclaimed one-man show performed by Robert Lloyd Parry showcasing the atmospheric retelling of two of the earliest and greatest tales by M R James - the master of the English ghost story.
In Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook, a young Cambridge antiquary discovers the devil in the details of an old book in a medieval town in the French Pyrenees. In The Mezzotint a ghoulish revenge is enacted within a work of art, before the helpless eyes of a museum curator in Oxford . . .
Brian Lumley Reading House of Cthulhu
Come join us for an eldritch experience as Brian Lumley reads House of Cthulhu and then fields some Q&A. (more…)
Posted by dominie in Films, News on September 18th, 2008
Here’s another remake for you folks. Director David Alcalde will make his directorial debut in the states with a remake of the 1976 Spanish horror, Who Can Kill A Child? (Narciso Ibáñez Serrador) according to Bloody Disgusting. The screenplay, co-written by Alcalde and David Muñoz, is titled In the Playground to reflect the chaos that occurs when a vacationing couple arrives on an island inhabited only by children. They soon discover that the native children are possessed by a madness that drives them to slaughter adults.
Filmax will produce the project under Gold Circle Films and so far Diego Luna (Vampires: Los Muertos) has been signed to star.
Hmm…I won’t disagree that the premise (when you break it down) of the plot—children ridding their world of adults—is great if you’re a problem child. But we have the original; we have a similar Children of the Corn (Stephen King), and a remake too at that in the works. Do we really need another remake of a similar remake that’s also currently being remade?
Posted by dominie in Films, News on September 15th, 2008
The latest signed to feature in the indie psychothriller Dark Woods, is genre vet James Russo (The Ninth Gate, Trauma, Blackwater Valley Exorcism, Satanic) who will play Sheriff Demming in the movie.
From director Mike Escobedo and a script by John Muscamero, Dark Woods stars Tracy Coogan (Zombie Honeymoon) as Susan, a terminally ill woman whose husband (played by Muscamero) brings her to a remote cabin in the woods. Things take a turn for the “demented worse” when her husband entertains a relationship with a local teenage girl.
Other newly announced actors include Mary Kate Wiles, Yvonne Huff, and Rob Simpson. Mark Shady (who will also co-star) and Peter Nee are producing the psychothriller.
“Dark Woods is more of a psychological thriller than a horror film in the classical sense,” Coogan revealed to Fangoria in an interview over the summer. “This time, there are no zombies! Monsters come in many shapes and sizes. Susan’s health is deteriorating rapidly, and she’s spiraling into dementia. She starts to hallucinate, and believes demons are coming to take her away. She struggles between consciousness and dementia, getting glimmers of her life, her love, her husband and her ultimate demise.”
The final one-sheet for My Bloody Valentine 3D from Lionsgate debuted today on Shock Till You Drop. The film is a redo of George Mihalka’s 1981 slasher horror and this is the final of three movie posters.
