Hellraiser TV Series In The Works
Posted by Matt in Remakes, Television on April 6th, 2012
Dread Central (via Variety) had an interesting post a few days ago about a potential Hellraiser TV series currently in development. Apparently RHI Entertainment, who were formerly Hallmark Entertainment if you can believe it, have rebranded to become Sonar Entertainment and are now interested in producing TV shows with Hellraiser being an initial idea. Typically when I hear movie remake news, I get indignant and complain (please reference any number of posts on this blog) but with this one I’m somewhat positive. In the past few years television has quickly become my favorite medium for onscreen adaptations of novels with Game of Thrones being the most obvious example and the potential for a Dark Tower adaptation has me salivating. The long-form medium of a series really opens up the potential for complex storytelling that just isn’t possible in feature films. Imagine Game of Thrones as a 2-hour movie – ugh. I think it goes without saying that I’m talking about non-network TV here. HBO or Showtime would be the most desirable locations for a Hellraiser show, but both FX and AMC have shown they are capable of putting out edgy series as well.
And let’s face it – the only good entries in the Hellraiser series are the first two. The other seven are hokey, low budget affairs that were mostly straight to DVD. So, it’s not like a TV series would be desecrating a great body of work. Also positive is that Larry Kupin, who produced the first two films is apparently attached to this project. It’s doubtful that Clive Barker will return to direct, but hopefully the series can match some of the gruesome design and effects from the first film – the bar has been set pretty high there:
Watch Evil Dead And The Thing Online For Free
Out of all the movies that, over the years, have managed to gain “cult” status, a good percentage of them are horror films. Why? In general, horror is a genre that constantly needs to push boundaries in order to remain fresh and popular. Horror directors are more likely to take risks with controversial themes, effects, and levels of violence. This has resulted in a great number of horror films over the years being disregarded or even condemned upon release, whilst afterwards horror fans have gradually managed to access these movies and build them up into popular cult classics. Here are two of the best, both available from www.lovefilm.com,where you can rent DVDs and Blu-Rays or even watch movies online.
Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981) was one of the first films in the UK to be labelled a video nasty – films that were criticised for their violent content and often censored, or even banned. Made on a low budget, The Evil Dead features plenty of blood and gore, along with stop motion effects that may now seem outdated but were quite unique at the time. Although it received mixed reviews on release, the film has since gained a massive following, as have its sequels Evil Dead II (1987) and the humorous Army of Darkness (1993). There have also been many spin offs of the series such as video games, comic books, and even a musical. A remake of the original film is planned for 2013.
Made at a similar time to the first Evil Dead, John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) was already a remake of an existing science fiction movie, 1951’s The Thing From Another World. Carpenter, however, stuck closer to the source material, a novella called Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. Carpenter created a tense film strewn with paranoia, alongside revolutionary special effects. At the time of release, The Thing had to compete with a much more family friend alien flick – Stephen Spielberg’s ET. Understandably it failed to impress at the time, but like The Evil Dead has become increasingly popular ever since. The 2011 prequel, also titled The Thing, was decent but failed to capture the tension of John Carpenter’s cult classic.
What this…. A Mansion?
Posted by Chris in Video Games on January 19th, 2012
No, its not a Mansion, nor is Capcom interested in being “the master of unlocking,” the next great survival horror title, proven by the arrival of Resident Evil 6′s announcement trailer that broadcasts the fact that we’re going to have another high flying forced-Co-op action title. However, after this franchise alienated half its fan base by tossing out RE’s signature atmospheric adventure/Survival horror genre and, with it, its classic foot soldiers, the shambling Romero-esk, corpses; RE 6′s trailer seems to, at very least, promise the revival of the latter. While no one will mourn for the loss of the clearly racially offensive retarded AI drones that replaced the living dead for the past two games, This new title is sure to continue to polarize fans on whether or not RE should be action oriented or not. Either way, the announcement comes with a release date, 11/20/2012 and a lengthy trailer that you can check out Here.
Juan of the Dead’ May deserve a second look
When the first teaser of this obviously pilfered-titled piece hit the net over a year ago I was skeptical on the very basis of its shameless reference to the Pegg/Wright masterpiece. A very sparse teaser that seemed to want to bring a Ghostbusters style send up to the Zombie genre didn’t really help matters either. However, after very successful film festival run and a new full length trailer, I decided that the matter was worth at very least another google search.
What I found was very well done, well linked up, and professional looking website that included a new full length trailer, which left me thinking that this piece could have its own original brand of charm and humor. Aside from that, Zombie films tend to be an excellent vessel for sub-texts and with a country that’s been a political nightmare for the better part of half-a-century I expect this movie to bring a boatload of a new brand of social commentary to world audiences. Perhaps, more important than anything is the novelty of a Cuban movie hitting the states.
Even though no release date has been given, Report of this movie sailing across the to US here in the states have surfaced. In the mean time, I recommend everyone give this one a chance despite the lack luster, rip-off title.
Alien 0? Tweenlight 4-1 and K.Smith’s attempt at Horror.
Since its been few months since either of us have had the time or drive to type anything short of an Amazon search query, I thought I’d take a look back at what we’ve missed.
Prometheus…After a bunch of comic-booky garbage, popularly known as the AVP films, Alien’s orginal director Ridley Scott returns to the franchise with a new vision that ambiguously holds the title of prequel, in the sense of an origin story, to the once beloved Sigourney Weaver space opera. Scott, and others involved with the project, have provided conflicting reports as to how much Prometheus will actually tie into the franchise, but the inspiration seemed to be to tell the story of the “Space Jockey” and his derelict space vessel where the alien was initially encountered in the first film.
However, recent interviews with Scott provided further confusion as he played down any connection with the Alien franchise saying that, “the keen fan will recognize strands of Alien‘s DNA,” but basically seems to suggest that it will have little to do with his signature acid blooded beasts. Despite all that noise, the marketing department seemed to not hesitate to use the classic slow forming ALIEN-style font in the trailer. Also, anyone who has 70 seconds to spare to watch the teaser might notice a few other familiar sights: people in Cryo-chambers, Giger style architecture, diseased crew members, and even the Space Jockey’s ship itself. I wonder if we’ll all be surprised if someone is secretly an android.
Even if it has as little to do with the sci-fi giant as Ridley seems to want everyone to believe, how can you go wrong with the guy that directed Alien, Blade Runner, and that oh so Witty 1984 Apple Macintosh Computer Superbowl ad.
Check out the trailer for yourself Here
Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1… Yeah, I saw it. And as to be expected they dragged out a lot of the film’s teeny romantic aspects, especially the wedding and honeymoon, which droned on for a grueling while, but I must say that many aspects were done with a great deal more skill and grace than I would have expected. A perfectly controlled hyperbolic bloodbath dream sequence paved the way for a darker film waiting to emerge, and as the tone soured the illustration of Bella Swan’s “sickness” was executed with a convincing transformation to an emaciated body usually reserved for Holocaust victims. Unfortunately, one of the most painful exceptions to the rule was the presentation of the wolf-telepathy between Jacob and his pack which looked like a drunken argument between angry muppets after a long night of Kermit’s Green Jager shots.
Objectively, I would say the film was well done and probably a welcome entry for its fan base, albeit as hokey as usual.
Red State… I heard Jay and Silent Bob Fight God Nuts was the original title, but didn’t have quite the same ring. After seeing Smith’s fad-style of direction go out of favor and his originality wavier with it, I had been skeptical of Kevin’s Smith ability to direct anything well anymore let alone horror. However, Red State had some merit to it . The plot follows three exaggerations of high school boys that decide they should all go do the same chick that they met on the internet at once. (Cause we all knew lots of straight Teen boys that would be cool with a Pseudo-homosexual experience for no good reason in the confines of the most judgmental age bracket.) Regardless , and unfortunately for them, the whole setup happens to be a ploy by an extremist church to kidnap the three of them and execute them in their church for being sexually unwholesome, I guess.
Enter-Abin Cooper…an interesting mix of bible-literalist, radical extremist, and cliche all wrapped into one. While Smith does a good job of creating tension with one of the boys locked in cage, watching as Abin and his congregation mock and murder a homosexual man they’ve captured, every character in the room is pretty cookie cutter bible nut. In all fairness, though, the piece is hardly intended as a character study.
Shortly after things are looking bleak for the ill-fated teens, the film shifts POV to John Goodman’s character, Joseph Keenan, an ATF agent that’s prepped for the audience as a red blooded typical American from the second he rolls out of bed and onto the screen. His cigarette smoking and coffee drinking self receives a call from his high ranking government superior while his wife cooks him a hardy breakfast of eggs and processed ham. We soon learn that ATF has had their ever-watching eye on Abin’s cult for some time, and they want Goodman to perform a raid on their church. Despite Goodman’s warnings and concerns that ATF’s track record is a little tainted in such operations his superiors force him to mobilize a team to surround the church.
The rest of the movie carries out as you would expect: all hell breaks loose in a manner that heavy handedly criticizes events like the Waco assault. As the ATF starts killing Abin’s followers more brutally than this film attempts subtlety, the remaining hostages dwindle away and the movie works its way to a deus ex machina ending that’s sort of clever but sort of just pulled out of someone’s ass also. I guess Smith never heard of Chekhov’s gun or maybe it was just out of bullets.
Most offensive is the outro, where Goodman has to debrief with two high ranking government officials that make over the top “hot button issues” jokes about terrorism and how they can subvert due process because they’re the government. (PATRIOT ACT Blah Blah TERRIORISM Blah blah ENTER YOUR FAVORITE ANTI-USA BUZZWORD HERE.) Smith myswell have given them black handle bar mustaches to twirl while they bellow out deep laughs. However, Goodman shuts them up by rambling off childlike dog metaphors in a manner eerily similar to the one-speech-a-movie Silent Bob used to give. Curious.
Even though I sound like I hated it, Smith does pull off suspense, drama, and discomfort at a level that I enjoyed, but subtlety is not his forte. While the film’s commentary is a bit BIT too TOO much, I agree with most of what he trying to say. The theme that any extreme leads to evil is a timeless and good subject, especially when these acts are perpetrated by those in power, its just when you approach it with the skillful tact and subtlety of Donkey Kong tossing a barrel the message loses a smidgen of power, But I guess in a movie where you’re expected to believe that anyone could shoot at John Goodman from an elevated position less than 100 yards away and miss, you need to suspend disbelief a little.
Final thoughts…honestly that’s really all I’ve had time to watch on the horror front these days…If you feel like you were cheated a Paranormal Activity 3 review then it probably would have went like this.
Matt: “It’s the best thing ever”
Chris: “It’s the worst movie ever “
Short Film Released From Trick ‘R Treat Director
Posted by Matt in Halloween, New Releases, Videos on October 13th, 2011
Yeah, I know we haven’t done anything on this site forever. We’ve been busy/lazy, blah blah blah blah. Well here’s something that I can post that requires almost no effort on my part, so I can continue on my with my blatant disregard for our 6 readers.
Director Michael Dougherty, the man behind 2007′s Trick ‘R Treat, has released a quick two-minute video for FearNet that briefly features Sam, the evil doll/ghoul from the film. It rides the line between adorable and morbid quite well and definitely makes me want to watch Trick ‘R Treat again. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out (along with this new clip). It’s something to hold you over until Trick ‘R Treat 2, which is still in the works.
The GodMonster of Indian Flats
Once in a brief while a movie comes along that is so ungodly terrible that it’s wonderful. How I could have missed such a classic my entire life is beyond me, but somehow The Godmonster of Indian Flats has slipped under the radar since its release in 1973. Operating on level of hokiness and lack of logic that Mystery Science Theater (shocking they never covered it) would have a wet dream about, the movie is supposed to follow the story of a mutated sheep that runs amuck in a midwest town that prides itself on its traditional appearance and tourist-trap mock old west setting. Not the case, the overgrown sheep monster has less than 10% of the actual narrative . So what fills up the rest? Nothing, but the most random bunch of events anyone has ever squeezed into a film.
The bulk of the narrative concerns itself with an African American named Barnstable that has been sent as an emissary from a billionaire employee to buy the town. While the mayor refuses Barnstable’s offers he still insists that he enjoy their hospitality, which involves taverns, a whore house, and an old-west parade complete with shooting range. However, the whole event turns out to be a giant charade to convince Barnstable that one of his stray bullets has killed the Sheriff’s German Shepard.
In order to further discredit Barnstable, the sheriff holds a black-tie church funeral for the dog, and the entire town turns out. While this is going on we have the “main plot” of a drifter named Eddie coming into town and falling in love with the local professor assistant, Mariposa, while her employer experiments with his imprisoned mutated lamb. Eddie and Mariposa perform typical youthful hi-jinx as the professor plays with bad sound effects, Tesla coils, and what ever equipment could be rented from the last Frankenstein set.
Meanwhile, Barnstable, has taken to trying to go to door to door to buy out the land leases from the locals, but is falling on hard times due to his unpopularity from the fallout of the fake slain dog, that we learn has just played dead and is doing fine in Carolina, where the sheriff shipped him off to. Since Barnstable refuses to leave and starts spending his time consorting with the whore’s house’s local madame, Alta, the mayor sends his evil henceman, Philip Mal Dove, that lures Barnstable back to his apartment with the promise of friendly drinks. When the two men settle in with cocktails, Maldove laments about his ignorance to big-city life, experimental bi-sexuality, and all other manner of things that Barnstable must have seen in his time in the big apple. Then Maldove assaults him, shoots himself with his own gun, and frames Barnstable for the crime. I guess most people like to break the ice with Bi-sexuality discussions before they try to frame you for attempted murder.
Back at the ranch, we have more crappy sound effects, more Telsa coils, and more footage of the gimpy, hunchbacked, mutant lamb. Barnstable’s, unfortunately, isn’t having any fun with science, as his false imprisonment is just another clever rouge to eliminate him The Sheriff sits idle with mouth fulls of steak and peas as the film cranks up the racial tension dial by marching a lynch mob into the jail to put Barnstable in the noose.
With some help from Alta, Barnstable is spared from execution, and the friendly neighborhood madame takes him to the nutty Professor for asylum. While Prof. Clemens initially offers his aid he folds like a house of cards the moment the tear gas brigade rolls in to claim their prisoner. Unfortunately, the commotion upsets the monster sheep who escapes containment.
Mariposa tries to lure the sheep back by doing a bizarre pixie dance across the screen for no good reason while Eddie chases after her screaming her name about a dozen times. However nothing works and the RAMPAGE of the GODMONSTER begins, which consists of him blowing up one gas stations where no one gets injured and scaring some school children away from their picnic. Then it goes down to lasso squad of drunken cowboys.
If you’re not confused yet, congratulations, but the ending should put you over the top. We cut back to the mayor who is riding in a limousine with Barnstable, who he has released, and informed that he has sold the land to his employer on his own terms. In short, I was going to do what you wanted but first we had to lynch you, beat you several times, throw you into a jail cell, and make you think you killed a dog. With that awkward conversation out of the way, we cut to gathering in the town square where the mayor has screwed over the Professor and has stolen the giant sheep to boost his tourism and then rants about how the railroad tracks will now be paved with gold and unveils the creature in a cage. What follows is beyond describe.
To put it simply, the crowd, without precedent, starts a riot–as signified by the same recycled shot of people running down a hill–and: random gunslingers show up and kill Philip Maldove, stuff blows up, the monster is disintegrated, and the mayor keeps screaming and laughing like a madman, “I beat you, Barnstable!” The end of a classic, for sure.
While I apologize for the lack of a spoiler alert, the real joy of this film is experiencing it and realizing that someone spent over 130,000 (of 1970s money) to make this abomination. And its not just that the acting is awful or the creature looks like a mix between Quasimodo and Sherry Lewis’s worst nightmare it’s the fact that there is absolutely no logic to the progression of images that litter the screen. At least if the movie had a little more to do with the monster than I could understand the title and maybe appreciate it as a hokey old creature feature, but it doesn’t.
The driving force of the narrative is the underlining racism and militantly conservative nature of those in power. While the aftermath of the riot results in a dead monster sheep the audience is shown smoking rising from his burning body that drifts on the wind to a flock of sheep who inhale it. Playing sinister music, and implications of more monsters means nothing. The monster had no effect on the events that destroyed the town,…perhaps it came to show us that we were the real monsters? Or it’s probably just crap.
Dead Time Stories Vol.1
Posted by Chris in Movies, New Releases, Reviews, Vampires on July 29th, 2011
Well, Romero’s latest project, Dead Time Stories Vol. 1 has recently hit the VOD market, and it doesn’t exactly have me dying for Vol.2. For the most part, Romero has has left the direction up to Savini, et al, but his MO kind wafts from each vignette, and perhaps its just the segmented short films format that reminds me of Creepshow, however parallels to Romeros other fiction keep surfacing like old zombie hands.
The initial “Really?”-moment that has the piece off and running like a three legged horse is Romero establishing himself as the Crypt Keeper-esque narrator, which ends up turning out like someone’s pedophile Uncle Chester trying to act like a friendly harmless adult. While most fans that know Romero will realize that George is just being George and isn’t really trying to act it’s still too hokey to watch. The segments themselves have an interesting off-beat style, but most of the stories and characters are pretty forgettable. While I don’t think I’ll ever forget Steven King’s portrayal of the newly “fertile” hick named Jordy Verill, the cockroach plagued Entomophobic Upson Pratt, or Adrian Barbeau’s Shrewish “Billy” I couldn’t name a single character in any of the “Deadtime” stories I just watched yesterday.
With that said, the three segments do all have some redeeming quality. The opener is about a determined woman trying to discover the fate of her husband in a jungle with hostile natives, which has an interesting twist on the fate of the narrator, but is peppered with too much cartoonish gore. Its follow-up has the creepiest portrayal of a mermaid since Daryl Hanna got cosmetic surgery, however the tone is a little too reminiscent of Creepshow’s “Something to Tide You Over” vignette. Then again, how many ways can vengeance from the sea be pulled off? The final piece is a vampire tale directed by Savini that reminded me of Romero’s old vampire tale Martin, but maintained its own unique dark direction and utilized it setting, a turn of the century peasantry naivety, to execute its narrative seamlessly.
Perhaps I’m doing Deadtime Stories Volume 1 an injustice by comparing it to Creepshow, which paired King and Romero both in the prime of their careers, but on its own merit it does have seem to be missing something. Still, the tales are enjoyable for what they are if you’re in the mood for this format. Or if you need a good laugh a you can just watch the transition segments when Romero does his best work as the over the top narrator. Either way, it’s not a terrible watch. Let’s call it a B- and hope for Vol 2 to wow us.
Walking Dead Season 2 Trailer
Season two of The Walking Dead has been slated for October 16th, which is much too far away for my tastes, but should put us all in the Halloween spirit when it finally rolls around (as long as they don’t decide to push it back to Halloween night as they did last year). However, those of us (Like me) that have been dying for an appetizer can watch the quite lengthy Trailer below. While the trailer doesn’t offer too much in the way of hope for the comic book readers that the series will adapt more of their favorite characters (Michonne anyone???), we do see Rick carrying his boy towards a farm with a man and young girl waiting on the porch. Perhaps the Greene farm? Either way it looks awesome, check it out?
Paranormal Activity 3 (Or, Ways To Further Annoy My Coauthor)
Posted by Matt in New Releases, Trailers on July 25th, 2011
I was just playing internet catch up after 8 days of vacation and I stumbled upon the trailer for Paranormal Activity 3 which is set to be released in October. Though my esteemed coauthor (along with millions of others) has not enjoyed these films thus far, I’m on the other side of the fence having thought the first was brilliantly executed and genuinely frightening. The second film was less enjoyable as it repeated many of the same scares from its predecessor but I still enjoyed it.
Aside from those who don’t at all enjoy found-footage horror, I think most opinions about the Paranormal Activity films are largely influenced by the theater experience you have while watching them. Mainly, the number of rude assholes in the theater with you using their cell phones, talking, or otherwise destroying the tense atmosphere of these movies. During my viewing of Paranormal Activity 2, I had one woman behind me that couldn’t stop saying “awww shit, son!” Over my other shoulder were four teens chatting incessantly. So, it makes sense that I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one.
All this aside, the trailer for the latest entry in the series indicates that it’s partly a prequel explaining how Katie and her family came to be haunted by the demon. It utilizes old family footage shot by her father to show that strange things were happening all the way back in 1988. I can’t help it – I want to see it already. Even just the trailer makes me tense in a way that the vast majority of horror movies can’t come close to. Perhaps it’s my mind wanting to relive the fear I experience from the first film, but I’m all in for this one too. Maybe this time I’ll catch a showing early in the day to minimize the asshole to human ratio. Check out the trailer and tell me that the mirror image isn’t creepy….come on.
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