My friends over at Twitch have scored the final trailer for Bruno Forzani and Helene Cattet’s modern take the classic giallo thrillers of the 1970s, Amer, and it’s everything you’d expect from a trailer for a film paying homage to Italian suspense films.
The most striking thing about the clip is how retro it looks. Generally speaking, when filmmakers try to make their films look like they were made in an earlier era, it never works. Technology and fashion and all of these other little elements conspire to ruin the period vibe. That doesn’t appear to be the case with Amer–everything we’ve seen so far makes it feel as though this was a film that could have been shot at Cinecitta back in 1975.
Anyway, enough blathering from me–check out the clip below and bask in the stylish giallo goodness (and music from Stelvio Cipriani’s La Polizia Sta a Guardare soundtrack). Amer will be making it’s American debut at the SXSW Film Festival, which runs in Austin, Texas, from March 12th through the 20th.
Psych 9, a new British horror film from Andrew Shortell and starring Cary Elwes and Michael Biehn, has sort of flown under the radar–but that’s about to change with today’s unveiling of the official trailer. After watching this clip, I’m definitely more interested in checking out the full feature.
Our friends in England will get their chance to see what Shortell and company have come up with on April 9th, when the film hits theaters. Plans are currently in the works for a limited theatrical release here in the States as well, but the official release dates haven’t been hammered out yet.
If you’re interested in learning more about the film, my Horror Squad colleague Alison Nastasi recently posted a lengthy interview with Shortell over at her Screamstress blog. I highly recommend checking it out.
As always, here’s the plot breakdown:
A young woman with a troubled past takes a job at a recently closed hospital to collate the hard copy patient records. Working alone in the building after dark, she experiences a series of unsettling events that lead her to believe the hospital may be connected to a number of recent murders in the area. To uncover the truth, she has to solve the mystery of her own disturbing past.
Everyone keeps talking about how Twilight has made vampires popular again and a vampire movie renaissance is happening all around us, but I’ll be honest–I don’t see it. It should be pretty obvious to anyone who covers the genre or follows it closely that horror is still all about zombies. I remember lamenting years ago that I’d die happy if zombie films made a comeback–and there are now days where I regret making that wish. I get up and post news every day (well, almost every day–the past few weeks have been rough since my college courses are killing me this semester…) and there’s always something about a new zombie flick. The walking dead are everywhere.
Unfortunately, most of these films are of the “me too!” variety, or even worse, low budget crap that’s barely watchable. However, occasionally I stumble upon something that actually looks promising. Such is the case with this trailer for Chilean zombie film Blind Death.
The guys over at B-D brought this clip to my attention, and I’m sharing it with you, my zombie loving brothers and sisters. I don’t think the film, directed by Cristian Toledo and Lucian Rojas looks to be groundbreakingly original, but military guys blasting the holy hell out of zombies is something I can always get behind. The story is the usual “strange virus turns people into monsters and the military goes in later to find out what happened” deal, but it looks well shot and features lots of shooting.
No word on when we might get a look at the full version of Blind Death, but in the meantime you can check out this trailer–which even features English subtitles–to get you in the mood.
We’re all about to go to Hell with the upcoming release of EA’s Dante’s Inferno and its ancillary tie-in, Dante’s Inferno: The Animated Epic. The game’s set to hit retailers later this month, and the film makes its DVD and Blu-ray debut next Tuesday.
To help get everyone in the mood, here are two short new clips entitled Gluttony and Limbo.
I got nothing else to add, so here’s some press-released style info on what you can expect from the film:
“Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery! These are the 9 Circles of Hell made famous by Dante Alighieri in his famed masterpiece, Dante’s Inferno, his first story of The Divine Comedy. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic will take you on a harrowing trip through Hell as Dante braves the forces of evil, slaying demons and monsters of extraordinary imagination, all to save his love Beatrice, from the clutches of Hell’s master – Lucifer.
The companion piece to the hit Electronic Arts game, Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic, is inventively told through eyes of visionary animation directors from around the world, including Shuko Murase (Ergo Proxy) and Yasoumi Umetsu (Kite: Liberator) among others. 6 Directors, 6 terrifying visions of Hell, 1 heart-stopping epic adventure!“
I posted news and some still photos for a film entitled In the Mouth of Ubaldo Terzani a few weeks ago–and today I bring you the first trailer.
As a hardcore fan of Italian horror, I’m hoping that Gabriele Albanesei’s film might help get the country back into the horror business. Granted, I wasn’t blown away by the director’s last film, The Last House in the Woods, but it did have its moments. This trailer looks interesting enough, even if the whole thing feels like an Italian version of Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness. That’s not a negative as far as I’m concerned–I love Carpenter’s film, and some of the best Italian horror films were rip-offs of other western movies.
Anyway, here’s the plot breakdown:
Alessio Rinaldi, a 25 years old director, is hired by a producer to write the script for his first movie with Ubaldo Terzani, a well known writer of horror novels. Alessio moves into Terzani’s house to start this collaboration and a strange relationship of psychological dependence grows between them: Ubaldo Terzani unveils his dark side and Alessio falls into a desperate depth of craziness and nightmares.
There is a reason why Terzani’s bestsellers are so frightening…Alessio will discover that reality can be unexpectedly more terrifying than every brainchild and he will have to fight hard to break free of Ubaldo Terzani’s jaws.
Adam Green’s latest film, Frozen, generated quite a bit of buzz when it played Sundance last week. The story of kids stuck on a ski lift in the middle of nowhere seems to really connect with audiences because it seems s0 plausible. If a horror film can make an audience put themselves into the character’s situation with minimal suspension of disbelief, it’s definitely doing something right.
The film is slated for a limited theatrical release next weekend, and to get everyone in the mood, here’s the latest TV teaser advertisement. There’s no chance in Hell that Frozen will play anywhere near me, but I hope some of you get the opportunity to see it on the big screen.
La Casa Muda is another horror film that may not have appeared on your radar. The Latin American production is supposedly “inspired by true events”, but more interesting is that it’s shot with a professional photo camera, was made for roughly $6,000, and was filmed in one long continuous 72-minute take. That last part is what sets my inner film geek off. I nerd out over five minute shots with no cuts in them–hearing something’s going to run for 72 minutes is crazy. I can’t think of another horror film that’s attempted something similar.
A new subtitled teaser trailer for the film turned up online this week. You can find it below. According to the Dread Central gang, the film is currently in post-production and should meet its March 2010 completion date. No info on a release date yet, but here’s the plot synopsis:
Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage that seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house up for sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets louder and louder on the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what is going on while she remains downstairs on her own, waiting for her father to come down. The plot is based on a true story that happened some time ago in a small village in Uruguay. La Casa Muda focuses on the last seventy-eight minutes, second by second, while Laura attempts to leave the house, which hides an obscure secret, unharmed.
REAL FEAR IN REAL TIME is the most remarkable underlying feature of the film, which will not go unnoticed by all those who may be willing to experience this different and disturbing filming experience.
And lots more. Don’t miss the great features from some of the other staff writers–Terror Tuesday reports from Austin, Texas, Giallo film reviews, Horror-fied re-imaginings of mainstream films, and more.
EA’s Dante’s Inferno started a Hollywood bidding war before it was even announced. Now, it’s not only being adapted as a live-action film for the big screen, it’s getting an animated feature as well. That’s pretty impressive for a brand new IP…
This anime tie-in to EA’s forthcoming God of Warclone marks the second time in recent years that the company has taken a game title and released an ancillary cartoon in an attempt to drum up extra interest. They also did it in 2008 with Dead Space: Downfall(an animated prequel to the main game) and that turned out fairly well.
Unlike Downfall, Dante’s Inferno doesn’t appear to be a prequel, but instead is simply an animated version of the game’s narrative. Despite my general disinterest in all things anime, this title has piqued my curiosity with its mixture of melodrama and violent death. If nothing else, it should serve as a pleasing appetizer to tide us all over until the Dante’s Inferno feature film (already in pre-production) eventually releases.
The animated feature is set to make its DVD debut on February 9th–and in preparation, here’s the new clip.
Hey, what do you know, another After Dark Horrorfest trailer! This one’s for Nick Cohen’s The Reeds–which looks intriguing even though I have no idea what exactly is going on in it. That’s usually not a good sign, but I’m being a “glass is half full” kinda guy today.
Here’s the plot breakdown:
In The Reeds, a weekend boating trip through the Norfolk Broads becomes a deadly ordeal for six 20-something year old friends who lose their bearings in the vast reedy tidewaters. Chances of escape and hopes for survival diminish as inexplicable forces terrorize the lost and terrified group.
This year’s Horrorfest begins on January 29th and will run for one week only in select theaters. A DVD box set of the titles has already been announced for March. Check out the official site for more info.
