The Horror Geek – News, Rants and Reviews From The Horror Geek!

I’ve been kinda slacking when it comes to covering Pontypool. I’m not sure why, but I’m just not entirely sold on it, despite the fact that it seems like it should be right up my alley.

Hailed as a zombie film that will turn zombie cinema on its head, the film follows the outbreak of a strange virus in a small town. Said virus turns people into savages. Nothing particularly new there–but what is different is that the virus is somehow spread through language. It’s a high concept idea for sure, but I’m just not sure how it’s going to turn out.

You can now judge for yourself, though–because the official trailer for the film is now live. Check it out below and get ready for the film’s May 29th release (courtesy of IFC, who will have it in a limited number of theaters and available through the video-on-demand service).

Rob Zombie continues to bring us new images from Halloween 2 (courtesy of his MySpace page). Here’s the latest–a bloody Laurie Strode being carted into the Haddonfield hospital.

Zombie then adds the following description: “Here is a new pic of Laurie Strode being rush into Haddonfield General. Let’s just say this is the best part of her stay. The worst is yet to come.”

I’m curious as to just how much of H2 will be set in the hospital. The original sequel spent the majority of the film there, but I’m personally hoping for something a little different in this re-imagining.

Expect more H2 details as they become available.

Cinematic adaptations of HP Lovecraft’s works can be hit or miss, but I think Colour From the Dark looks like it’s shaping up quite nicely. Based on Lovecraft’s classic tale, The Colour Out of Space, this Ivan Zuccon directed flick looks like it nails the atmosphere inherent in all of HPL’s work while still managing to work in some gore to keep fans of carnage pleased. The one-sheet (left) looks great.

I’ve no idea how faithful this will be to the source material, but here’s the official plot synopsis:

From the imagination of H.P. Lovecraft (Re-Animator), and the vision of director Ivan Zuccon (Nympha), comes a new tale of cinematic terror. Based on the classic story, “The Colour Out of Space.”

It’s 1943 and World War II is raging. Pietro and Lucia live on an isolated farm with Alice, Lucia’s younger sister, a 21-year-old who suffers from severe mental problems. Pietro is a good worker and a strong man who, unlike his three brothers, is not at war because of a deformed knee.

Lucia is a beautiful and reserved woman dedicated to her family. Their life is peaceful and good, in spite of the hard work. One day, while drawing water from the well, Pietro and Alice unearth something as a strange colour flashes before disappearing. From that moment on, inexplicable events begin to happen around the farm. At first, everything seems to take a turn for the better. Alice makes a miraculous recovery from her mental illness, Pietro’s knee suddenly no longer bothers him and the farm is producing luscious vegetation.

But then things quickly take a turn for the worse. Lucia is no longer mild mannered. Without any just cause, she attacks Alice at every occasion and Pietro is forced to lock up his wife. The colour soon takes hold of the entire area and dwells inside peoples’ minds. It brings them into its sick world of pain and destruction. Colour from the Dark is the next generation in Italian Horror.

Not since “The Exorcist” has there been a horror film this intense.

Last, but certainly not least, here’s a trailer. No official US release date has been set for this film–but here’s to hoping it turns up on DVD sooner rather than later.

Just a quick note here–if you cruise on over to The Black Bunny blog, you can see a plethora of still photos focusing on the behind the scenes workings of Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2. The town of Covington, Georgia has been festively decorated like it’s late October for the shooting of Zombie’s sequel to his rebooting of one of horror’s most famous franchises. No pictures of Myers or any of the stars here, but the photos certainly give you a feel for how the film is going to look.

Definitely worth checking out. Hopefully the blog owner scores some more in the coming days.

A story in today’s installment of the Risky Biz blog over at The Hollywood Reporter says what should be obvious to anyone who’s followed the cinematic exploits of Jason Voorhees over the past three decades: the slasher icon is almost assuredly coming back in a sequel.

Spurred on by a fantastic opening weekend box office haul of 42.2 million bucks, a sequel was all but inevitable (not even the 81% drop off in receipts from week 1 to week 2 could prevent it), so I’m not really sure how this is news–but I just cover stuff. Anyway, according to the post, screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon are already working on the next installment–despite the fact that it hasn’t been officially greenlit yet.

If New Line does eventually sign off on this (and they’d be nuts not to do it), the next concern is who directs. Marcus Nispel has his poker in a lot of other fires at this point. Stars Jared Padalecki and Amanda Righetti also have potential scheduling conflicts too (although one wonders why they’d even be back–the Friday series doesn’t have a rich history of main characters returning–unless it’s just to kill them off in the first few minutes, or with someone else playing them). Apparently, though, since this is being termed a “follow-up” as opposed to a “sequel”, there are definite plans to continue the first film’s characters.

The other potential snag is that Platinum Dunes (the production company responsible for the F13 remake) is gearing up to rape and pillage A Nightmare on Elm Street next. Juggling the two projects might be more than they can handle. If they can, there’s a spiffy Friday the 13th in August of 2010 that seems like it would be a great release date…

The idea that the artist eventually becomes inseparable from his art is one that’s been explored at numerous junctures throughout horror cinema history. From Dario Argento speaking to his critics through characters like Peter Neal in Tenebre and filmmaker Marco in Opera to Lucio Fulci the filmmaker casting Lucio Fulci the actor as the star of Cat in the Brain (and a nod here to Wes Craven breaking down the fourth wall in his attempt to rescue Freddy Krueger from New Line Cinema’s incompetence in New Nightmare), genre filmmakers have occasionally (and successfully) interjected themselves into their cinematic worlds. What makes My Name is Bruce stand apart from these postmodernist horror flicks is that it’s the first time that an actor, and not a director, is deconstructing his own persona for our enjoyment.

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Rob Zombie promised a photo from his now filming Halloween 2, and never let it be said that he doesn’t keep his promises. Here’s the first released photo from the film, a shot of Laurie Strode in an emergency room, apparently after her run in with Michael Myers in the last film.

In other H2 news, Zombie is still casting for the flick–and sent out a casting call recently for a young blonde headed boy. The current speculation that this role will be the new younger Michael. Apparently, Daeg Faerch (who was the young Myers last time out and will play the role again) has grown so much that he can’t pass as a young kid anymore. Since the movie features (reportedly) a wide range of flashbacks, Faerch could be doing the ones of a slightly older Myers while a younger actor will handle the ones from the more distant past. That’s all just speculation at this point though–so take it with a grain of salt. It could turn out to be another character entirely.

Way back in November of last year, I posted some news about Senator Entertainment prepping three genre flicks for American release. Those movies were Splice (a cool looking film with a cast that includes Adrien Brody and Sara Polley)–the latest from Cube director Vincenzo Natali, the long-awaited All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (for real–seems like we’ve been waiting for this movie for almost a decade now…) and the video game adaptation Clock Tower. At the time, there were no release dates set for any of these films. That has now (tentatively) changed.

Apparently, fans who’ve been clamoring for Mandy Lane will now get to see it this coming July (when it will have an actual theatrical run, apparently). Splice is currently aiming for a September release, and Clock Tower has a much more vague and amorphous launch window–simply “2010″. Whether any of these films actually make those dates remains to be seen, but there’s at least some sort of time frame for all of them now.

One of my favorite film reviews of all time comes courtesy of Chas. Balun (the gore flick aficionado who gave us Deep Red magazine). Chas is incredibly insightful and certainly knows how to turn a phrase (some of his reviews are much more thoughtful than the films they’re covering…) but there were times when he knew that a movie just wasn’t really worth the effort. His review of Monster Dog (an awful 1984 horror flick directed by Claudio Fragasso and featuring Alice Cooper) simply said this: “Title tells all. With Alice Cooper. Fuck it.” I’ve spent the past few years hoping to one day find a film that I could review so eloquently in so few words. Steven Seagal’s Against the Dark is the closest I’ve come. If I were doing a Balun-esque review of this flick, it would go something like “A paunchy Steven Seagal is a poor man’s Blade in this wannabe vampire/zombie thriller. He’s barely in the movie. Fuck it.” See? It’s close, but I’m no Chas Balun. I’ve got like three times as many words there as he did in his Monster Dog piece.

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Mark off April 27th on your horror calendar, because that’s the day Platinum Dunes has set to start principal photography on the new version of A Nightmare on Elm Street.  The movie will be shot in the Chicago area, and director Samuel Bayer is already working on assembling a cast.

No one has officially (despite countless rumors to the contrary) been tapped to play Freddy yet, but it won’t be Robert Englund. Expect that news here when it breaks.