It would appear that M. Night Shyamalan has finally burned through all of the good will he had left in Hollywood, as Universal pictures has decided to eradicate his name from the title of the upcoming thriller Devil, despite the fact it was the first film produced by Shyamalan’s much discussed Night Chronicles development house [...]
I’ve probably wasted more than enough energy explaining my take on film remakes in the past, so I’ll just kick this off with the short and sweet version: No remake could ever sully the good name of the original. Some remakes are incredible. Some remakes suck ass. The end. Just where the upcoming Hammer version of Let the Right One In — sadly re-branded as Let Me In — will fall remains unclear, but I’ll put myself down as very cautiously optimistic for now, and the newly released set of stills of Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl) as everyone’s favorite little blood-sucker certainly aren’t hurting things any.
Sure, Aussie horror director Brett Anstey is clearly a big fan of Sam Raimi, but who in their right mind isn’t? More importantly, the trailer for Anstey’s upcoming flick, Damned By Dawn, looks like a really fucking good time. I absolutely love it when contemporary horror directors tap into the fun and inventive spirit that carried through Raimi’s early work, and despite how cherished those classic films are, it’s not something the horror community gets enough of these days.
Cronenberg-esque body horror, tackled with a heavy helping of wit and the visual ingenuity of Jan Svankmajer, Jeunet and Caro. In other words: Wow.
Transforming Frankenstein’s monster into a tough-as-bolts (sorry, I couldn’t help myself), Philip Marlowe-esque P.I. is what scientists refer to as a damn good idea. In fact, it’s a stroke of brilliance I would be happy to claim as my own, but the credit all goes to Kevin Grievoux, who also happens to be the guy who created the Underworld series.
Way back in the 1960s, some wacky mad scientist discovered that the only way to make soap operas watchable for anyone with a brain operating above the level of sub-human was to throw a shit-ton of vampires into the mix, and thus the TV series Dark Shadows was born. Keep in mind that this was well before the invention of the television itself (archeological data points to that occurring at some point during the summer of 1983), so this was a pretty huge accomplishment all around.
It would be fair (sad, but fair) to have completely given up on ever actually seeing Trick ‘r Treat with your own eyes. The film, directed and written by Michael Dougherty, was originally completed back in 2007, and then, just shy of its scheduled October ’07 release date, Warner Bros. Pictures pulled the plug, beginning what would become a long standing tradition of ruthlessly cornholing the poor little film for lord knows what reason.
Finally, after many years of treating Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps like the red-headed step child of zombie films, Sony Pictures has begun work on a director’s cut of the 80s cult-classic to be released on DVD, and possibly even Blu-ray, this October (right in time for both my birthday and Halloween)! I’d wager a guess that most people have no idea that this film even exists, and I can’t say that I blame them, as it has previously only been kept alive in the hearts and minds of steadfast genre geeks, except for the handful who happen to own a shoddy bootleg, or one of the increasingly more rare VHS or Laserdisc versions (if you don’t know what a Laserdisc is, ask your grandparents).
According to a little teaser image (the very same one you see right there) that was included in the latest Criterion newsletter, the acclaimed distributor will be adding Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos to its ranks this fall! Cronos is one of del Toro’s earliest works (marking the beginning of his love affair with Ron Perlman), but it remains a very imaginative, very worthy inclusion to his resumé that also happens to be one of the most interesting takes on the vampire mythos ever put on film.
Before Sam Raimi became stupid rich adapting Spider-Man, he cut his teeth creating low on budget, high on craft horror films. He single-handedly made Bruce Campbell a household name (in all households that do not suck), and was one of the defining voices of the blood & guts scene during the 80′s (a period many consider its prime). This is why it’s a pretty big deal that the man is returning to his cinematic roots with the upcoming witch gone wild feature Drag Me To Hell.
It was announced today that Universal Studios has snatched up the film rights to Image Comics’ The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. I have a major soft spot for the work of Lovecraft (mixing horror and genius is a good way to tug at my heartstrings), and wasn’t even aware this comic book existed, so this is big news on all fronts. What’s more, the studio is targeting Ron Howard to direct, which makes for one hell of an interesting combination, even if he’s still in in the maybe column.
I am no stranger to professing my love for Let The Right On In, the Swedish vampire movie that captured the #1 spot on my favorite films of 2008 list. My catch-all word for it is sublime, because every damn thing about it was just that. What is not sublime is Magnolia Pictures completely botching the U.S release for reasons I won’t even attempt to understand. As fate would have it, I had yet to plunk down for my own personal copy of the movie on Blu-Ray, and I couldn’t be happier about that now that it’s been reported by Icons of Fright (thanks, guys) that the subtitles on the U.S release are completely fubar.
Sorry. No data so far.
-->