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.
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.
Shock Till You Drop posted a link to a fascinating (well, fascinating if you like horror movies and find the inner workings of the movie business interesting, anyway) blog entry from screenwriter Todd Farmer chronicling how he and partner Patrick Lussier went from the fast-track on Halloween 3D to dead in the water in what seems like an instant. In this lengthy piece, Farmer tells you (mostly) what happened, what they were planning for the film (they wanted Tom Atkins to be in it…how awesome would that have been?), and why the whole thing fell apart.
I won’t spoil the story (it’s well worth reading for yourself), but this should be required reading for anyone wanting to work as a writer and creator in Hollywood. If things like this can happen to Farmer and Lussier (who were coming off their success with the My Bloody Valentine remake) just imagine what they can do to guys who haven’t had anything produced…
Check out the blog posting by clicking here. I’ll tell you that his blog is getting hammered this morning so it might not load right away. Be patient–it’s worth the wait.
I’m not sure why anyone would feel the urge to make a sequel to one of the worst films in recent history (Uwe Boll’s Alone in the Dark), but that’s exactly what’s happening and I’ve got the trailer to prove it (thanks to the mighty Dread Central).
What’s even more puzzling is why you’d make a sequel to a terrible film that is essentially universally despised, change the actors and story, and yet keep the title. Christian Slater and Tara Reid are gone and the only real tie to the original movie (which was based on a videogame series) is that Edward Carnby is still the main character. If that’s your only real tie to the original series, you’d probably be better off just doing a brand new standalone film. I guess this proves that even bad publicity is better than no publicity at all. I can see no other reason to tie yourself to anything directed by Uwe Boll.
Anyway, I’m probably gonna wind up watching this thing (and hating myself as soon as it starts) because it’s got Bill Moseley, Danny Trejo, and Lance Henriksen in it. Those three guys are cool enough to get me to watch just about anything and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Donald Pleasence had the same affect on me–and while I was burned by many a bad flick with Dr. Loomis skulking around in it, I kept going back for more.
We’ll all find out how bad Alone in the Dark II is when it debuts on DVD this January 26th.
Harold Raimis is at it again–he’s out there stoking the fanboy fires for the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3. This time out, he tells Heeb Magazine that things are looking good for a 2011 release date. I’d like to see a GB3 as much as anyone, but I’ll believe it when I plop my “a lot less fat than it used to be” ass in a theater chair and see the credits roll.
In the piece, Raimis basically recites the same old song and dance we’ve been hearing for the past few years. Ackroyd wrote a script, no one wanted to do it, now there’s an audience for it, we’re going to fuck it up by bringing in a new generation of young Ghostbusters, etc.
The story doesn’t become even remotely newsworthy (my lowered editorial standards for this week excluded, of course) until Raimis says “GB3 is progressing with plans to shoot next summer and release in 2011″.
So, there you have it–start counting down the days until Summer of 2011. Maybe Sigourney Weaver won’t have spoiled the entire fucking movie before that point.
Big news posted earlier this afternoon at Bloody-Disgusting. According to them, Laurence Fishburne is the newest addition to the Predators cast.
No word yet on who Fishburne will be playing, but we can only hope that he gets an opportunity to go all Ike Turner on one of the galaxy’s most feared hunters.
Predators is currently shooting in Austin, Texas with Nimrod Antal directing and Robert Rodriguez producing. The film is slated for a July 2010 release date. Expect more news on this as details come into focus.
As American audiences continue to wait impatiently for Sony to decide when we’ll finally be able to Rec 2, the rest of the world is getting cool trailers and release dates. The film’s set to make its Italian debut sometime soon–as this trailer fully demonstrates. There are no English subtitles, but the language of gore and terror is universal.
Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero’s sequel picks up roughly fifteen minutes after the end of the first film. A SWAT team has been dispatched to enter the quarantined building and I don’t think they’re going to like what they find inside…
I’ll bring you the full details on a US release whenever Sony pulls their head of their ass and actually announces it.
Ever since Halloween II disappointed at the box office, we’ve heard reports (many coming from director Rob Zombie himself) of the alternate version Zombie had envisioned for the film. With the flick set to debut on DVD and Blu-ray next month, we’re starting to see footage of some of that “alternate vision”–like this new ending for the film.
I’m not sure what to make of this new clip–I viewed it twice and I still don’t know that it’s any better than what we got in the theatrical version of the film. In fact, I’m starting to think that maybe Zombie’s vision (regardless of what form it takes) of the Halloween universe was just so different from what we’d come to expect that no matter how he cuts the film people will be unhappy with it. I also suspect that at some point in the next decade we’ll see an article arguing that Zombie’s take on the Michael Myers mythos is somehow better than Carpenter’s. It’ll happen–there’ll be some yahoo wannabe academic out there who will make the case no matter how ridiculous it seems.
Anyway, here’s the new ending. Naturally, it contains spoilers. Halloween II lands on DVD and Blu-ray on January 12th.
Cabin Fever 2, Ti West’s direct-to-DVD follow up to the film that launched Eli Roth’s career, has had a tumultuous road to release. I don’t want to spend this whole story chronicling all of the problems, but you can probably figure out most of them when I say Lionsgate is releasing the film and Ti West has talked about disowning the project at various points in the past few months.
That being said, I’m sure lots of you are still going to give the film a watch when it hits DVD on February 16th. I know I will. So, here’s the trailer for the film. It’s not the most awful thing I’ve ever seen, so there may be hope for the project after all. Or it might be a great example of how marketing people can make shit look like gold–the concept I was talking about with the trailers for the remake of The Crazies. I suppose we won’t really know which is the case until early next year.
Here’s the official synopsis, just in case you were curious.
“CABIN FEVER delivered terror in the flesh, but now your flesh will crawl with CABIN FEVER 2: SPRING FEVER, the bloodcurdling sequel to the hit horror film. Days after a killer virus consumed his friends, Paul emerges from a ditch by a river. Though his body has been ravaged by the virus, he is determined to survive and to warn others of the danger. However, a water bottling plant has already distributed contaminated water to the local high school. The school’s students are excitedly preparing for the prom, unaware they’re about to have a grisly date with death.“
I’m back in action, just in time for the usual slow news weekend. The PC is fixed (the problem was exactly what I thought it was), and I’m good to go. Thanks for suffering through the past few days of fewer than average updates.
Today, I bring you one of the stories that got missed because of my technical difficulties. A few days ago, Southpeak Games and Renegade Kid launched a teaser website for Dementium II–the follow up to their Nintendo DS title Dementium. Amazing how that whole sequel titling thing works, isn’t it?
Anyway, there’s not much happening on the site at the moment–it’s a little film clip with a timer that for some reason requires you to verify your age in order to see it. Apparently, that’s because there will soon be a lot more content on the site–including horrifying new clips and images from the game.
The title will be available wherever videogames are sold in February 2010.
