I saw the trailer for this bad boy just today (website here). This is a comedy/horror movie that wants to compare itself to Shaun of the Dead (but don’t they all). The “comedy/horror” classification is a bit played out as well … when I see that classification now, I read it to mean that the movie tries to be funny and scary, but most likely it is more like the 80′s Schlocky Horror genre (which I do like).
It’s opening in theaters today (July 25th) … however, it will open on a (VERY) limited basis which apparently means that if you live in one of 4 Canadian cities, you can (maybe) go see it today. That’s rarely a good sign. Why even have a “theatrical release” if there are 4 cities (all in Canada)?? I thought these were the movies that went straight to DVD. I guess now only kids movies now go straight to DVD. Regardless, they got chumps like me out there talking about it, so their promotional efforts work.
Anyway, if it upholds the traditions set in films such as Return of the Living Dead, or more recently, Slither (or even Shaun of the Dead (and good luck with that)), I will enthusiastically endorse it. By the way, it does appear to have a fat, tentacled-type creature in it … a la Slither??
Anyway, I like to see Robert Englund in a horror movie trailer … such as below:
“The Warner Bros. division has hired veteran scribe Wesley Strick to pen the relaunch of the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” series, the franchise that helped establish New Line into a movie player in the mid-1980s.”
“The new project will keep the high school setting and delve deeper in the psychology of nightmares and Krueger himself. The plan is to have a dark tone. The company hopes to have the movie ready for the 25th anniversary of the original.”
– That suggests a release date in 2009. I like the statement that it plans to have a dark tone. Does that mean no more funny-Freddy? God, I hope that Freddy-the-stand-up-slasher is gone.
“WMA-repped Strick penned “Arachnophobia” and “Cape Fear” and worked on “Mission: Impossible II,” among other films.”
– I don’t have much of an opinion on Wesley Strick … however Cape Fear is brilliant. He also did the screenplay for “Doom” which is virtually meaningless because how do you judge a video game that is made into a movie starring The Rock? (I remember Mortal Kombat the movie). You hope that this guy writes a great script worthy of one of the best horror movies and franchises of the last 3 decades. Those are big shoes to fill. Plus, you hope if the script is great, a producer like Michael Bay is kept in check and doesn’t give this great film a ”TCM: The Beginning” treatment.
Just remember, you only have one chance for a first remake.
If you didn’t know this, there is a remake of Friday the 13th underway with Michael “Transformers” Bay at the helm … with an expected release date in 2009. For those of you that may not remember, he also brought us the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003 (producer), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (The Beginning) in 2006 (producer), and The Amityville Horror in 2005 (producer).
I’m a big fan of these slasher movies … or at least the originals. Therefore, my natural instinct is to be excited about the opportunity to see the badass Jason and Freddy back on the big screen. However, I can’t say the prior remakes Mr. Bay has made have set the world on fire. Plus, both of these movie properties have been done multiple times in the theaters. Therefore, I wonder what the hell else can be done with Freddy/Jason that hasn’t been thought of or done before? I suppose we can wait a while and see Freddy / Jason Versus AARP.
I’ll definitely watch these remakes, but I’m very concerned that Bay will put some crap out that will prevent anyone else from trying to do these movies justice in the near future. If these remakes bomb, no one will have the balls to try to do remake them another time (I predict).
Here’s an idea for Michael Bay … work with a new idea. Most of your work lately has been a rehash of a previous movie or cartoon. Oh yeah … and don’t F’ up these classics … please?
I’ve been monitoring a horror movie discussion board over at Amazon.com that has over 100 posts and has been active for approximately 2 months. The question was simple … What would you pick as the Top 10 Gory Movie Moments of all time. I compiled the lists of 10 or more movies, and I ran some basic stats on this informal survey of very knowledgeable, true horror movie fanatics / gore-hounds. The list was over 150 movies long, but I will present to you a summarization of the list.
31 Movies were selected by multiple people. 120 movies were selected once. I will focus on the top 20. The list ranked the movies in order of the number of “nominations” the movie received. NOTE: THIS LIST IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN OR WORK … THE VIDEOS ARE VIOLENT, GORY, AND EVEN HAVE SOME (MINIMAL) NUDITY. On to the good stuff.
1. Day of the Dead… This received the most votes for multiple scenes (zombies “ripping” people was typically involved, a la below).
2.Dead Alive. No surprises here … Peter Jackson’s epic gore-fest (particularly the infamous lawn-mower scene) won an easy 2nd place.
3.High Tension (a.k.a. Haute Tension, Switchblade Romance). Surprised? Not if you’ve seen it. If not, run out right now, and get it. (The name fits). Scenes of interest involve decapitations, but overall there is plenty of gore to go around.
4. Inside… This was a bit of an unknown to me, it’s a well received ultra-gory French movie. Apparently there is an “amateur C-Section”and all sorts of crazy shit that should appeal to all those that want to feel queasy. Gonna watch this soon.
5. Cannibal Holocaust. This is the one you all know about. It’s an Italian classic from Deodato and arguably a cult classic by now. And yes, it’s not a PETA friendly movie, but if this genre is your cup of tea, you ‘gotta-see-it’.
6. Zombi 2. Another Italian classic from Fulci. It’s definitely near the top of any zombie movie list and the famous eye gouging scene is not the goriest, but definitely causes cringes.
7. Alien. The alien popping out of the chest is the scene that is very memorable and somewhat gory.
8. Evil Dead. An influential movie (think Cabin Fever) that has a particularly gory ending.
9. Ichi The Killer. I was surprised that it took 8 movies to get a Takashi Miike film on this list. Many of his are not horror movies in the most traditional sense, but once you’ve seen his work, there’s little doubt about including him on this list. Many scenes from this movie are disturbing … the tongue cutting scene is one such scene from Ichi.
10. Nightmare on Elm Street. This made it on the list primarily for the particularly blood soaked deaths of Tina and the Johnny Depp characters. Really, this series is one of the classic slasher series that is good to watch every year or two.
11. The Beyond. Fulci goes back to the winning formula with some eyeball pain for this gory scene.
12. Audition. Miike again. Therefore, you know torture is not far away. One of the most painful and famous torture scenes appears in Audition. Although, not as blood soaked as some, this scene makes people cringe everywhere in the world. Ouch.
13. Automaton Transfusion. This is not a widely loved film, but apparently quite gory with a jaw-tearing scene and some sort of scene involving a fetus? (haven’t yet seen it myself).
The rest of the list is very impressive and worthy of more attention. Below are some of the movies with multiple votes:
18. Friday the 13th (multiple scenes, multiple movies) This classic slasher series would be higher if the votes were not spread across multiple movies. There was plenty of creativity used in these movies … and of course, we saw Kevin “Footloose” Bacon get it.
19. Saw (multiple scenes and movies)
20. Frontier(s). Speaking of “saws” Frontier(s) finds that a table saw can be “handy” (in this clip … and pardon the French).
I’ll stop at 20, but list some of the other mutliple “vote” getters.
Hellraiser, Mordum, Imprint (another of Miike’s on the list … and yes, more torture, abortions, fetuses, etc.), Murder Set Pieces, Opera, Pan’s Labyrinth (the bottle scene), Pelts, Silent Hill, Suspiria, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Wrong Turn 2. Check out the conversation yourself here.
Maybe I’m a slacker, but I’ve just started reading Stephen King’s Cell.
As a rather zealous zombie fan, I’m thrilled that this just happens to be really an zombie story (in a non-Traditional (non-Romero zombie) sense).
Shit, even more … imagine my thrill to learn the movie is in development with Eli Roth at the helm. Apparently everything I write about is in reference to Roth. (Despite the fact that Slither‘s Tim Gunn blew me away, and I’m a fan of many other directors … odd trivia … did you know Gunn is married to Pam from The Office (Jenna Fischer)?)
Okay … this shit is FUNNY. I wanted to see what “Horror” would give me on a YouTube search, so I did exactly that and looked for the most viewed (by view Count) Horror videos of all time. Below are the most viewed HORROR videos on YouTube … and I’ve got to admit that the first three are pretty fucking scary. AHHHH!!!
Frumpy Middle-Aged Mom: Women who torture themselves with shoesKansas City StarBy MARLA JO FISHER I want you to cast your mind back to every horror movie you've ever seen, specifically the moment when the terrified woman running through the graveyard falls down and lies there helplessly, waiting to be attacked.and more » […]
PopMattersNot-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality PodcastPopMattersBurned by the studio experience, he decided that his next project would be a horror movie, a big departure from a career made of talky comedies. But Hollywood didn't welcome this kind of reinvention, and finding financial backing proved to be harder ...and more » […]
New York Times (blog)'Chronicle' the No. 1 movie after a big viral pushChicago Sun-TimesTrank's first feature film, “Chronicle,” taps into that desire to “chronicle” daily life but also uses two popular film genres: the found-footage horror movie and the superhero blockbuster. The low-budget movie made $22 million in its opening weekend, ... […]
Hollywood.comStrong Super Bowl Box Office Weekend!Hollywood.comThe PG-13 film boasts enough jump-out-of-your-seat moments to satisfy even the most hard core horror movie fan and debuted with a much stronger-than-expected $21 million. Female fans in particular were drawn to the film and its gothic setting and of ...'Chronicle' Tops US Box Office on […]
Partick Thistle boss Jackie McNamara: I wrote a comedy script.. it helps you ...Scottish Daily RecordIt's called The Therapy Room and centres around a player's experiences in the dressing-room and off the park, with McNamara basing many of the characters on former team-mates and managers. Given he played with Dunfermline, Celtic, Wolves, Aberdeen, […]
Cinema BlendDirector Ti West Talks Slow Horror, 'The Innkeepers'NPRThere's a kind of horror movie you don't have to be a horror fan to enjoy: The Shining and Rosemary's Baby are a couple of examples; but The House of the Devil, a film from three years ago, might belong on that list as well. House, about a seriously ...The Innkeepers […]
Horror movie-type mushroom found that devours plasticDVICEPestalotiopsis microspora, a horror movie mushroom if there ever was one, was found in Ecuador by biochemistry professor Scott Strobel and his team of Yale researchers as part of the university's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory.and more » […]
7 Horror Movie Victims Who Were Too Stupid To LiveScreen JunkiesKnowing not to go down the stairs puts you miles above these seven horror movie victims who were too stupid to live. Don't look at it as the loss of human life, but as a gain to the Earth's mean intelligence score. Remember, you don't have to outrun ... […]
Slate MagazineReview: 'Woman in Black' is tired, hackneyed horror of a movieThe Detroit NewsBy Adam Graham Daniel Radcliffe is fine, but the horror movie isn't particularly scary. (CBS Films Inc.) "The Woman in Black" is your standard-issue ghost story, gussied up in period garb to make it look like a prestige picture. But make no mi […]
Daily MailRecommended: Horror movie sickens two at Sundancemsnbc.comFrom breaking news to news you can't use, but enjoy anyway, we offer the hot stories of the day in TV, movies, music and celebrities. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Looking for the old Entertainment front? You can find it here!'V/H/S' at Sundance 2012: Movie-goe […]
compare itself to Shaun of the Dead
