I like this new trend of giving classic horror franchises their own documentaries. I thought His Name Was Jason was fun and informative, and I suspect that we’ll get the same thing from the forthcoming Nightmare on Elm Street restrospective, Never Sleep Again. Both of those franchises are certainly worthy of the documentary treatment.
Now we can officially add Hellraiser to the list. Pinhead and his merry gang of demonic S&M disciples are about to get their very own documentary when Dark Knight Pictures releases an as yet untitled look back at the franchise.
You can jump here to read the official Dark Knight overview of the project. It’s being scripted by Shock Till You Drop’s Ryan Rotten.
While I certainly love the first two Hellraiser films (I always cite Hellbound as an example of a sequel that’s better than the original film), I can’t help but wonder if this is a good idea. Hellraiser 3 is hard to watch, Hellraiser: Bloodlines derails completely after the first segment, and the direct-to-video fodder that came after that is better off forgotten. Crafting a loving retrospective on the first two films alone seems like a cop-out, but making one that has segments on movies like Hellraiser: Hellworld doesn’t sound particularly exciting either.
Maybe this will turn out well. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.
UK fright fans got a chance to check out The Descent Part 2 in theaters last December. Unfortunately, American audiences will have to make do with a DVD release as opposed to catching it on the big screen.
DVD Active is reporting that Lionsgate will bring Jon Harris’ sequel to Neil Marshall’s cult chiller to American home video audiences on April 27th. I’m ambivalent about this–to be honest, there are films that I don’t really need to see in a theater, and The Descent Part 2 falls squarely in that category. I’m perfectly content to watch it from my couch.
Here’s the synopsis:
Dazed, bloodied and speechless with trauma, Sarah Carter emerges alone from the Appalachian cave system where the events of THE DESCENT took place. Local sheriff Redmond Vaines forces her back underground to help the rescue team which is desperately searching for her five missing girlfriends. As the team moves deeper into the caves, Sarah’s flashes of fractured memory intensify and she begins to realizes the full horror of the would-be rescue mission. Only Sarah knows the terror which lurks in the shadows of the caves. But they are about to encounter a new tribe of crawlers, inbred, deformed and even more viciously feral than those Sarah faced before.
No word yet on what extras might be included with the disc, but I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to April 27th.
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.
I’m morbidly curious about Nic Cage’s Season of the Witch. I like the idea of a medieval supernatural film with knights and monsters, but at the same time, it’s a Nic Cage movie. Even worse, it’s a Nic Cage movie directed by Dominic Sena, who I like to think of as “the poor man’s Michael Bay” (yeah, think about that one for a second…how’re you feeling about this movie now?). On the positive side, it does feature Ron Perlman–and I think we all love him.
If you’re still undecided about whether this flick will be worth catching in a theater or waiting for DVD, I doubt there’s anything on the new fully launched official website that’s going to change your mind. That being said, you can still swing by and have a gander at the trailer, peruse still galleries, and explore some other material related to the movie. The site’s pretty cool looking–I’ll give them that.
Season of the Witch is due out on March 19th. Here’s an official plot description from back in October…
As the Black Plague rages across 14th century Europe, one brave knight Lavey, is tasked with transporting a girl suspected of being the witch who caused the pandemic to trial. Believing she is wrongly accused, Lavey and a group of wary followers fight through a mystical and treacherous landscape to a hallowed place where her innocence can be proved and Europe’s curse can be lifted. Unbeknownst to Lavey, even darker forces await them…
I don’t like doing posts where I just paste a huge press release, but when it comes to festival announcements, that’s pretty much the best I can do. So, my apologies in advance.
The line-up for this year’s SXSW (South by Southwest) film festival was announced yesterday, and it marks yet another year that I’m pissed I’m not going to be in Austin to attend (I really need to get my shit together, apparently). This year’s show is running from March 12th through the 20th, and features 119 titles in all, 55 of which are making their world premieres. As usual, our beloved genre is well represented in the selections (contained in the Midnighters section of the festival programming).
Some of the highlights include a screening of the gorgeous looking neo-giallo Amer (which is enough to justify making the trip to Austin for me), recent Sundance participant Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, and the Eli Roth-produced exorcism flick, Cotton. All three of those films should be well worth checking out.
Jump past the break for the official press release, complete with plot descriptions and cast and crew info.
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.
IFC is rapidly becoming one of my favorite film distributors on the planet. Seems like not a week goes by without news of them scoring the distribution rights to some cool horror film and promising to give it a limited theatrical run and show it on their VOD service at the same time. That’s like the greatest thing ever for someone like me, who moved from a major metropolitan area to the sticks.
Anyway, Variety is reporting the company’s latest acquisition is The Killer Inside Me, the somewhat controversial Michael Winterbottom film that just played Sundance.
Based on a Jim Thompson novel, the film stars Casey Affleck, who plays a small town sheriff with a psychopathic streak. Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Simon Baker, Bill Pullman, Ned Beatty and Elias Koteas also star.
The film’s debut sparked some controversy over its depictions of violence toward women. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t comment definitively on whether or not this is a justified criticism, but the fact that The Killer Inside Me is a film about a murderous cop makes me feel like the violence is probably at least somewhat justified. Of course, I’m the asshole who sticks up for Fulci’s full-on misogyny in New York Ripper–so maybe I’m not the guy to ask about this issue…
IFC hasn’t penciled in an official release date for The Killer Inside Me, but it should be out sometime this summer.
First off, I really fucking hope we’re not going to have to call this year’s annual Saw installment Saw VII 3D because that’s the most goddamn awkward title I’ve seen since Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. It’s not as much of a mouthful as that one, but still–let’s just call it Saw VII, for Christ’s sake.
Anyway, IMDB has some early casting listings on the film’s page. You have to take any casting news acquired this way with an industrial-sized salt-lick, but the people listed as being in the newest outing all make sense so I wouldn’t be surprised if this actually turns out to be true. If they had a listing that included Gary Oldman amongst the cast, I’d be a lot more dubious. However, according to this list, Tobin Bell, Betsy Russell, Costas Mandylor, and Tanedra Howard are all coming back.
No word on what the story (currently being concocted by screenwriters Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton) might entail, but I’m guessing it will involve complicated traps, loads of flashbacks featuring Tobin Bell saying things like “make your choice”, and a ludicrous ending that sets up a sequel for October of 2011.
Personally, I think Saw VII should find Jigsaw taking on an evil film company that forces a director to make their movie after he’d already signed on to make a competing film instead. Sounds pretty topical to me.
