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One of my all-time favorite videogames is Rockstar’s Manhunt, a PlayStation 2 title that merged the stealth of elements of Splinter Cell with snuff cinema aesthetics to create one of the most disturbing and terrifying game experiences I’ve ever encountered. Manhunt was about a convicted murderer freed from his own execution so that he could be the “star” of a sadistic producer’s snuff film. This character (named Cash, if you were wondering) had to run through the roughest parts of the city while avoiding psycho gangs and exterminating his enemies with extreme (and I do mean extreme…) prejudice. In the latter stages of the experience, Cash winds up in an abandoned building with one of the producer’s greatest performers—a giant man, wearing little more than a pig mask, who chases Cash with a chainsaw. The character, Piggsy, may be the most frightening videogame character in the history of the medium. I loved Manhunt from the moment I started playing, but when I ran into Piggsy for that first time, well, I knew I’d found one of my favorite games ever.

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Variety is reporting that director Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Underground will produce a new film entitled Alien Invasion, directed by Uruguayan commercial director Fede Alvarez.

If you’re not familiar with Alvarez’s name, you may have seen his work. The director became something of an internet celebrity for his short film Panic Attack, which featured an armageddon-esque robot attack made for less than $500. I’m posting it at the end of this piece in case you’ve never seen it before. It looks like it cost way more than $500 to make.

Raimi will oversee the production of Alien Invasion in much the same way Peter Jackson worked with Neill Blomkamp on District 9.

As the Variety story mentions, the most fascinating angle to this whole story revolves around the fact that Alvarez now has a major deal (the pay he’s being offered is unheard of for a first time filmmaker) based solely on the buzz generated by a short film he placed on the internet. That should be exciting news to all of you wannabe Kubricks out there–keep working, post your stuff on YouTube, and you may make it to the big time as well.

I’ll keep my ear to the ground and bring you more on Alien Invasion as it works its way through the development process.

Fangoria scored a look at the official cover art for the US DVD release of Lesbian Vampire Killers (which has been shortened to Vampire Killers here in the land of prudes…) and it once again highlights how most marketing people seem to lack any kind of creative vision. I get the joke with the Twilight riff and all, but the rest of the picture looks a lot like the poster for Zombieland. I don’t really get why that is.

Anyway, Vivendi Universal will be releasing the disc nationwide on December 29th. No word yet on extras, but I’ll pass them along as soon as I hear what they are.

Here’s the plot synopsis in case this is the first time you’ve heard of the film.

Two clueless friends find themselves part of a bloody big adventure when they wander into a feeding ground for a band of fangs-baring vampire babes.  With a busload of hot history students to protect, they’ll try to survive the night, break an ancient curse, and take down as many buxom bloodsuckers as possible.

Following the development of Predators has been a real roller coaster ride for me. I was excited when it was announced and everyone thought Robert Rodriguez was going to direct it. I was still excited when Rodriguez decided not to direct because guys like Neil Marshall were in the running for the job. I was dejected when they hired Nimrod Antal (who made the film Vacancy) and I was despondent after reading an early version of the script. Now, I’m hearing the newer draft of the script is much better (I haven’t had a chance to sit down and read it yet, but will soon) and I’m a lot more intrigued by Antal after finally seeing his debut film, Kontroll (which was very good and a much better example of what he’s capable of as a filmmaker than Vacancy). I’m still on the fence about the casting of Adrien Brody and Topher Grace, but at least I’ve gotten past the feeling that the film’s destined to be an outright disaster.

ComingSoon.net has an exclusive interview up with Antal, wherein the filmmaker discusses his involvement with Predators. I highly recommend checking out the entire chat, but here’s a quote about the casting that I found particularly interesting.

“Let me tell you, I was so much of a fan that I stood in line when I was 14 and I had the poster on my wall. I was a huge fan,” he responded enthusiastically, so we wondered how hard it was going to be not to be so faithful to the original that he’s not able to bring any of his own vision to it. “Again, it was a challenge in finding a balance. I think when we cast Adrian, there were a lot of people going, ‘What?’ but at the same time, if we cast a Vin Diesel in that role or if we cast anyone who is Arnold-esque, we would have been attacked for doing that. So we decided early on to go in a very different direction as far as the casting process, but it turned out fantastic. He plays a mercenary in the film and if you look at the guys in Iraq and Afghanistan today, they’re not ‘yolked-out’ Schwarzenegger-looking guys. They’re all very wiry and thin guys, and I think it’s going to play well.”

Antal also talks about the potential for a Schwarzenegger cameo, reuniting with his cinematographer from Kontroll, and how he and Rodriguez are getting along. Check out the full interview by clicking here.

If it’s Sunday, it must be time for me to share some of the stories I published over at Horror Squad this week. I like to think of it as “bonus Bracken” to brighten up your Sunday morning. If you haven’t been by that site, here’s what you missed:

Blue Underground is Bringing Vampyres to Blu-ray

Mulitplayer trailer for Aliens Vs. Predators unveiled

Awesome photos of a homemade Bioshock Big Daddy costume

Capsule reviews of Wrong Turn 3, Seventh Moon, and The Butcher

Season of the Witch trailer

And more! You can check out all of my posts by aiming your browser here.

Rob Zombie’s Halloween II didn’t exactly have horror fans lining up around the block when it was in theaters, but perhaps it will find an appreciative audience on DVD and Blu-ray when it releases next month.

DVD Active has posted promotional sales advertising for the film, which gives us a look at the Blu-ray packaging. Looks just like the film poster, which is pretty cool–I guess.

As far as extras are concerned, here’s what you can expect on this disc (which, as I’ve mentioned before, is almost assuredly a precursor to the Super-Mega-Awesome Rob Zombie 47 hour version of the film that we’ll see sometime later in 2010): Rated and Unrated cuts of the film, deleted and alternate scenes, audition footage, Uncle Seymour Coffins’ Stand-Up Routines, a Michael: Interior featurette, Captain Clegg and the Night Creatures Music Videos, and a blooper reel.

Expect to find the disc at retailers everywhere on January 12th.

Jump past the break to see the other ad for the Blu-ray release

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I’ll be honest–I hadn’t heard of Exam, a new British thriller, until I saw the trailer on Bloody-Disgusting yesterday. I think it’s more of a thriller than a straight horror film, but the trailer looked interesting enough (and it’s another slow news day) that I figured I’d share it with you.

The film’s set to hit theaters in the UK this Christmas. I don’t think it’s acquired domestic distribution here in America yet, but hopefully it will at some point soon. Check out the synopsis and trailer below.

Eight talented candidates have reached the final stage of selection to join the ranks of a mysterious and powerful corporation. Entering a windowless room, an Invigilator (Colin Salmon) gives them eighty minutes to answer one simple question. He outlines three rules they must obey or be disqualified: don’t talk to him or the armed guard by the door, don’t spoil their papers, and don’t leave the room. He starts the clock and leaves. The candidates turn over their question papers, only to find they’re completely blank. After the initial confusion has subsided, one frustrated candidate writes ‘I believe you should hire me because…,’ and is promptly ejected for spoiling. The remaining candidates soon figure out they’re permitted to talk to each other, and they agree to cooperate in order to figure out the question; then they can compete to answer it.

At first they suspect the question may be hidden in their papers like a security marker in a credit card, and they figure out ways to change their environment to expose the hidden words. But light, liquids, and other plans all come to naught. Soon enough, the candidates begin to uncover each other’s backgrounds, prejudices, and hidden agendas. Tensions rise as the clock steadily descends towards zero, and each candidate must decide how far they are willing to go to secure the ultimate job …“

Horror cinema’s pretty much a global thing at this point, but we don’t seem to get many horror films from Russia here in America. I don’t know if that’s because Russian filmmakers don’t make a lot of horror films or if no one on the distribution side thinks they’re worth the effort, but this trailer for Phobos has piqued my curiousity.

Twitch discovered this subtitled trailer for the film on YouTube, and now I’m passing it along to you. Have a gander at the synopsis, then check out the trailer. Some of the special FX are clearly not done, so don’t hold that against the movie.

Rainy summer evening – young people are arriving at the new trendy club named Phobos which is still under construction or re-construction – since it’s a former bomb shelter which is reconstructed to become a club. At first, the partiers sees nothing wrong, but soon the bunker doors turn out to be locked, and the teenagers get trapped underground without light and communication. None of them realize how dangerous their situation is. All of them will need to cope with their fears before the bunker will let them free.

Just a quick update since it’s a slow news day here in the wake of Thanksgiving. If you think back to last month, you’ll no doubt remember me talking about Martin Bechs’ Nazi-themed slasher flick Final Solution. I did stories here and over at Horror Squad about the poster and the teaser trailer. The film is shaping up nicely from what I can tell and I’ll be really interested in viewing the finished product when it releases next year.

In the meantime, the film’s official site is now updated. There’s still not a ton of content available for your perusal, but if you’re bored and looking to avoid the holiday shopping madness of Black Friday, poking around the new content will eat up a small chunk of your day.

Final Solution doesn’t have an official release date yet, but I’ll bring you more as Bach and company make the details available.

All of the sudden, posters for Universal’s remake of The Wolfman are everywhere. I posted one really cool one yesterday, now today I bring you two more (courtesy of Empire).

I still think yesterday’s poster is the best of all we’ve seen so far, but the one above on the left is pretty nice. I’m not as impressed with the one on the right, if only because it reminds me a lot of the poster for Wrong Turn 3–and that movie fucking sucked.

Here’s to hoping The Wolfman is better. The film hits theaters on February 12th.