I posted a trailer for Jorge Michael Grau’s cannibal flick We Are What We Are a week or so ago (scroll down about four posts if you missed it). I think the drama about a group of people who eat human flesh looks interesting, primarily because it doesn’t do the things we’re used to seeing in cannibal films.
News from Cannes earlier today indicates that US audiences will have an opportunity to check out the film sooner rather than later. Twitch says that IFC has acquired the rights for domestic distribution of Grau’s film and that means we’ll most likely see it debut at some upcoming festivals, followed by a limited theatrical release and VOD appearance on IFC’s video on demand channel.
No words on when this might happen yet, but I’ll bring you more details as they become available. Kudos to IFC for landing another title that horror fans were desperate to check out.
One thing I absolutely love are military horror films. Outpost, R-Point, and Dog Soldiers are just a few examples of great movies that take a group of soldiers and face them to confront supernatural enemies they were never trained to encounter. If this new trailer for El Paramo is any indication, we could be adding a new title to the must see list in this subgenre.
Twitch shared the official trailer (complete with English subs) for the Colombian film and you can check it out below the plot breakdown. I think it looks great — so definitely have a gander at it.
A special high mountain command composed of nine experienced soldiers is sent to a military base in a desolate high-plains moor of Colombia with wich contact was lost several days ago and was believed to be the target of a guerrilla attack.
Upon arrival, the only person found inside the base is a peasant woman who is heavily chained. Gradually, the isolation, the inability to communicate with the outside world and the impossibility to escape, undermine the integrity and sanity of the soldiers, causing them to lose the certainties about the identity of the enemy and creating them doubts about the true nature of that strange andsilent woman.
Prisoners of fear, paranoia and a dark secret that they carry, they will challenge each other becoming animals willing to kill one another in order to survive.
I’ve been following Jorge Michael Grau’s We Are What We Are ever since Todd Brown over at Twitch started raving about it after seeing a screening in Guadalajara. It’s Mexican film about a family of modern day cannibals, which is pretty much dead center in the Mike Bracken Cinema Wheelhouse.
Brown and the Twitch gang now have brought us the first trailer for the film, which you can check out below. I’m impressed, although I’ll admit that I was expecting something a little different. This doesn’t look like your typical cannibal flick — it looks very serious and almost somber. I’m still interested in checking it out, of course, maybe even moreso given my new understanding of what to expect. Read the plot synopsis then have a gander at the trailer. No idea when we might see this here in America (it is playing Cannes, though), but when the news breaks I’ll bring it to you right here.
A middle-aged man dies in the street, leaving his widow and three children destitute. The devastated family is confronted not only with his loss but with a terrible challenge – how to survive. For they are cannibals. They have always existed on a diet of human flesh consumed in bloody ritual ceremonies… and the victims have always been provided by the father. Now that he is gone, who will hunt? Who will lead them? How will they slake their horrific hunger? The task falls to the eldest son, Alfredo, a teenage misfit who seems far from ready to accept the challenge… But without human meat the family will die.
Few people are more excited than I about the return of venerable British film studio Hammer. The iconic company has been gone far too long, but that’s about to change with their new plans to release several films in the months ahead.
The first project, a thriller starring Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Christopher Lee, is entitled The Resident. Swank plays a woman who moves into a new apartment and becomes convinced that her landlord (Lee) is spying on her. A leaked copy of the official trailer has turned up online (it came as a preview on the UK DVD release of Paranormal Activity). All in all, it looks pretty good–although I’ll say it needs more of Christopher Lee and less of the dowdy Hilary Swank.
The Resident is still in search of a US distributor, but I’m guessing one will turn up sooner or later. There has to be someone (like Magnet Releasing or IFC maybe) who’d want to be involved with helping resurrect one of the greatest film studios in horror history. I’ll bring you more details as they become available, but until then, enjoy the low quality trailer.
One of my favorite foreign horror films of recent vintage is Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s “monsters in a building” flick Rec. The Spanish film was creepy and intense and just a genuinely good time (and so much better than its American remake, Quarantine).
So, when news that the filmmakers were returning to do a sequel that picks up immediately after the first film ends, I was pretty excited. That feeling of anticipation grew with each new trailer and clip, and now comes the good news that Magnet Releasing (the genre division of Magnolia Films) is going to bring the film to America. Yes, unlike Sony, who sat on the original Rec for an eternity so it didn’t mess up the release of their subpar remake, we’ll actually be seeing Rec 2 very soon.
In typical Magnet fashion, the film will get a limited theatrical release sometime in July–but will be available through VOD services a month prior. Word on the street is that you need to see this in a theater if at all possible, but if you’re not lucky enough to live in a major metropolitan area, you’ll still be able to check it out on your home theater.
In preparation, here’s an English language trailer to get you in the mood.
You have to be a pretty serious gore fan to have seen the first three Violent Shit films–they were low budget German gorefests from filmmaker Andreas Schnaas and they really had no redeeming artistic value other than the sheer amount of (admittedly cheap) splattery special FX work on display. Schnaas, like his contemporary Olaf Ittenbach, was working with limited funds and subpar equipment–so that they were even able to make feature length films at all is something of an accomplishment.
The Violent Shit films were never big on plot–they basically revolved around Schnaas donning a metal mask and calling himself Karl the Butcher while obliterating his fellow humans in some of the most disgusting ways imaginable. Think Friday the 13th with essentially no plot, the gore quotient multiplied by like a thousand and production values on par with the home video footage you took of your cousin’s bar mitzvah and you’re in the ballpark.
It’s been nearly 11 years since the last Violent Shit film–and Schnaas has apparently decided this is as good a time as any for Karl to make his triumphant return. Cinema Suicide shared a link to this trailer for Violent Shit 4: Karl vs. The Axe. I have no idea who The Axe is, and it probably doesn’t even matter. What’s most interesting is that Schnaas is using some better technology this time around and the trailer looks almost professional. It also features a really great exploding head at the end.
No idea when this thing might come out, but it’s good to know that Andreas and The Butcher are still out there and primed for a return. Fans of low budget gore cinema will want to keep an eye on this one.
Oh, and it should go without saying, but the trailer is NSFW–it’s got some gore and boobs. Some bosses tend to frown on that, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why.
Hard to get much of a read on new French horror film The Shadow based on this short clip, but I thought it looked interesting enough to share anyway. Read on for the synopsis:
“So as to gather pieces of evidence for their doctorate thesis, three criminology students go with a camera to the place where a notorious serial killer performed his murderous deeds. But they are about to realize that entering such a sanctuary does not come without consequences.”
Is it just me, or does the music sound like it came right out The Blair Witch Project?
No official release date has been set yet, but sources say to expect it before the end of the year.
There’s probably nothing I can really say to prepare you to view the trailer for Dennis Law’s Hong Kong horror film Womb Ghosts, so I’m not even going to try. Sure, it rips off the girl ghost thing Japan is so infamous for in a pretty hardcore way, but it also pushes the boundaries of good taste by featuring more aborted fetuses than I’ve seen in a long time. Add in some really awful English subs and you wind up with a trailer that has to be seen to be believed. Thanks to the guys at Twitch for spreading the love and aborted children…
Here’s the plot breakdown:
Life after death of a fetus inside a woman’s body exists as a Womb Ghost. Unnatural termination of such life will turn the baby into the evilest and most vicious kind of spirit.
A mental hospital is haunted by spirits, the mysterious miscarriage of a young and beautiful inmate causes the authority to investigate. Only one answer can be given to the existence of such an ungodly creature…Womb Ghost.
Womb Ghosts, a non-stop horror experience where haunting begins when life ends…
My pals over at Twitch posted a cool trailer for the British horror film Salvage this morning, and since the internet is all about sharing, I figured I’d pass it along for your perusal.
Here’s the plot synopsis:
“It’s Christmas Eve and a quiet cul-de-sac is suddenly plunged into a world of violence, terror and paranoia when a group of heavily armed military personnel storms the area, sealing off the close and ordering the residents at gunpoint to retreat inside their homes. Unsure if this is the first sign of a terrorist attack, or something worse, one local single mother, Beth (Neve Mcintosh), finds it in herself to fight to save her estranged daughter, Jodie (Linzey Cocker), who is visiting her for the holiday but is now stranded across the street in a neighbour’s house. However, with growing dread, the trapped residents soon discover that the imminent threat is far more monstrous than any of them could possibly imagine. Only one thing is certain… survival is no longer guaranteed.”
The film is set to make its British debut on March 19th, then turn up on DVD on March 22nd. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to view it via VOD through iTunes here in America, but I suspect we’ll see it turn up on our shores sooner or later.
Check out the trailer by pointing your browser here.
If you mention the name Kongkiat Komesiri, even most horror fans wouldn’t know who you were talking about. Yet if you mentioned that he directed the Art of the Devil series, most savvy fans of foreign horror would get excited. The filmmaker’s back with a new project, entitled Cheun, and the Monsters and Critics blog has the first details on what we can expect.
The film revolves around the hunt for a vicious serial killer, and was written by Wisit Sasanatieng. As the author at Monsters and Critics points out, there are definitely some giallo overtones in the trailer. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles–but the language of blood, gore, and violent death is universal, so check it out below. In the interim, here’s a plot synopsis courtesy of an IMDB user:
A serial killer is preying on the rich and influential, exposing their sexual proclivities, dismembering them and dumping them and their severed body parts in various locations around Thailand. The police officer on the case is not even close to finding the killer, but given an ultimatum to solve it in 15 days, Papa Chin (Chatchai Plenpanich) turns to the one man he doesn’t want to use — an imprisoned hitman named Tai (Arak Amornsupasiri), who thinks the killer is a friend of his from childhood. Tai is let out of prison while his girlfriend Noi is kept under close watch by Chin. Tai heads back to his hometown to search for clues about where his old friend might be. As he recalls his childhood and friendship with the troubled boy Nut, the events of the present day crystallize until Tai is confronted with a shocking reality.
