In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Man On The Moon.

I’m going to take a little time here to talk about a film I saw last Thursday called Moon. I’d been really looking forward to seeing it since the trailer surfaced a few months back. If you haven’t seen the trailer, you can watch it here. However, I might suggest you refrain, so that if you see it the narrative will unfold as the protagonist experiences it. To be honest though, the trailer really doesn’t give away as much as it appears.


Mining engineer Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is almost at the end of his solo three-year contract on the moon when things start to unravel for him. Is it cabin fever or something else entirely?

Moon is excellent science-fiction, and like all great sci-fi its subject matter puts forth many questions. The strength of Moon is you are never sure where its going. You make the usual assumptions as you watch, but they continually change as the movie progresses. Moon’s influences are many, with 2001: A Space Odessey, Solaris and the 1981 Sean Connery vehicle Outland being chief among them. Like Sunshine in 2007, it takes its lofty predecessors and fuses them into an entirely new beast. Sam Rockwell’s performance is first-rate. He has to play his character two different ways and tackles the challenge beautifully. It really illustrated something – how people change over time – that I don’t think I’ve ever seen done this way before. Kevin Spacey is great as the voice of Gerty, Sam’s helpful robot companion and it is the exchanges between the two that are some of the most engaging parts of the film.


I’d wager a guess that this movie cost very little to make (by Hollywood standards anyway), but you’d never know it from the production values. The space stuff looks top notch. Director Duncan Jones does a great job with the pacing and really toys with your expectations of how the story will play out. Moon is one of those rare occasions where a film fully delivers on the promise of its trailer. If you are fan of straight up science-fiction, be sure to check Moon out when it releases wide this Friday.

A Busy Month Ahead.

Yesterday, the Fantasia Film Festival FINALLY announced this year's lineup of titles. Here's a taste. From the UK we have Adam Mason's newest project Blood River as well as two Clive Barker adaptations, Dread and Book Of Blood. Also, from Ireland is a supernatural thriller by the name of The Eclipse. The newest horror offering from France is a little film called Mutants. Left Bank is a body-horror flick from Belgium. On this side of the pond, we have time-travelling thrills in Danny Kuchuck & John Weiner’s Cryptic, man vs. nature in Richard Harrah’s The Canyon and the LONG awaited Canadian premiere of Trick 'R' Treat. We'll also finally get to see what all the fuss is about when Paul Solet's Grace screens. Also falling in with the crazy kid theme are Tom Shankland's The Children and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan. The SXSW hit revenge thriller The Horseman rears its ugly head, as well. For those who like comedy with their horror, Dead Snow, Smash Cut and Lesbian Vampire Killers will also be on hand at Fantasia. From Asia, we have Cannes darling Thirst, as well as Love Exposure, martial arts flick Coweb and Korean thriller The Chaser. And lastly, I can't forget to mention Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is playing there too. I should be heading to Montreal in the last week of July, so I'm hoping to catch as many of these as I can.

For more news on the press conference announcements, check out Twitch here.

Monday, June 29, 2009

A Jolly Good Show.

The Film Race screening happened on Friday. It went really well. The audience seemed really receptive to Snip and laughed in all the right spots – as opposed to laughing in all the wrong ones. Thanks to everyone who showed up to support us. I definitely think that despite it being a little rough in spots, Snip was one of the best offered in our programme. If I were choosing a winner (at least from our group of fifteen, I didn’t see the second group of films that screened later that night) I’d probably go with The Harsh Light Of Day by team Just Kill Dixie Monday Josh. It was the most technically sound, looking like something that could have been lensed by Tony Scott. It’s funny how our influences naturally come to the fore sometimes. It should be no surprise that Snip has a noticeable Raimi flair to it, even though I wasn’t even aware of it until we were shooting. There was also another short called Payback’s A Bitch by Sean Grounds that had David Lynch written all over it. I also liked the entry Sprayback by team Lambda Lambda Lambda for its hilarious conclusion. Hopefully, these will all be on the filmracing.com website in a few weeks.

On stage at the Q&A.

The announcement of the winners won’t unfortunately happen for another month, so stay tuned. As for Snip, I am hoping to have it online for your viewage soon.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Don't Kill The Messenger XXIII

Two More Trailers.

Here are two new trailers for you. The first is Yoshihiro Nishimura's new project Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. I'm sure I'll be seeing this either in Montreal or locally in Toronto this summer, so stay tuned. The second is Daybreakers, the new film from the Spierig Brothers. Holy shit, these guys have come a long way from their humble beginnings with Undead. It looks good. Great cast. Sign me up!





All Aboard The Hype Machine.

I've been hearing rumblings about Grace. It premiered at Sundance and ever since the Web has been afire of stories of people puking and fainting during pre screenings. Who knows whether these are true - I know that Lionsgate certainly ran with the events that happened following Hostel's two screenings at TIFF in 2005 - but I'm down for whatever Paul Solet is selling. Bring it! Click on the picture below to see footage from a recent special screening of Grace at USC.


Flip Book Insanity.

Last, but not least, is a cool little animated short by small time inc. called The Black Dog's Progress that I found on Twitch. This is fantastic stuff. Check it out below.


Saturday, June 27, 2009

Fab.


It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. It seems that time just got away from me. I want to talk about a film that I didn’t see in its original release, but have become quite fond of over the last year. That film is Julie Taymor’s Across The Universe. I know that a musical would not be something you would expect me to be onboard with, but every once and a while one comes around (like Moulin Rouge for instance) that I embrace wholeheartedly. It must have been all those VHS viewings of Annie and Bugsy Malone when I was a kid.


The musical catalogue of The Beatles serves as the narrative for the story of three young people, Liverpool ruffian Jude (Jim Sturgess) and American upper class siblings Lucy & Max (Evan Rachel Wood & Joe Anderson) as they try to make a life for themselves in 1960’s New York.

I love Across The Universe. There was a while where I’d just have it on in the background while I was blogging. I had to stop doing that though because I’d get distracted and end up watching twenty-minute chunks of the movie while I was supposed to be “working”. That is just how mesmerizing I find this piece.


Yes, that last one was Salma Hayek times five. I really have to hand it to director Julie Taymor here. Across The Universe is clever, inventive and most of all, heartfelt. The love of the music is always paramount and any fan of the Beatles (which really SHOULD be everyone on the planet) will revel in its awesomeness. All the performances are great and the three leads, Wood, Sturgess & Anderson even perform their own songs. Who knew Evan Rachel Wood could sing? I’d heard that Taymor had some problems getting this film released. The studio heads didn’t like the running time and actually made a shorter cut without her knowledge. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over well and she fought for months to have her version released. She won, and so did we as far as I’m concerned. The movie is over two hours, but you’d never, ever know it. They pack a LOT of stuff in here too. In addition to the songs and countless Beatles references, there are several figures and events from the time that appear in the film. You could argue that some of the images are a little heavy-handed, but you can’t deny that they are visually stunning to watch. And as you can imagine, Across The Universe shines on Blu-ray. I’ve never seen colours so vibrant – okay, except maybe for Speed Racer.

This is a film of wonderful ideas that are complimented by the timeless works of The Beatles. Across The Universe is criminally under seen gem in my opinion and a must see for any musical fan. If you are a Beatles fan, this should already be in your collection.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

R.I.P. Michael 1958-2009

I got out of a screening for Moon this evening to hear that Michael Jackson died today. He was 50. No matter how much of a freak show he became later in life, there was no doubt that he was a consummate performer and in the peak of his career the most famous person on the planet. I cannot think of a better tribute here at THS than the video below.

Animated Interlude

Sorry, I've been slacking off a bit this week. After that busy weekend, I've kind of just been relaxing and watching Freaks & Geeks reruns on G4. However, Dirtyrobot was kind enough to turn me onto this new short by Axel Brötje called Kiss Of The Scorpion. Click on the pic below to be redirected.


It's refreshing to see an animated short set on a train that isn't infinitely depressing.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Another 24 Hours.

So, as promised, here's the skinny on how this year's 24 Hour Film Race shoot went this past weekend.

9:30pm – I arrive at Mike Schwartz’s and we get ready for the email that will be sent to us stating the theme and surprise element we have to use in the short.
10:00pm – The email arrives. The theme is ‘Payback’ and the surprise element is the ‘Spraying of Perfume/Cologne’. Schwartz & I, our editor Mark and Schwartz’s wife Rachael start spit-balling ideas. Schwartz tells me he wants to use his dog (a Pomeranian named Boo Radley) in the film because he recently went to a psychic and she told him that his next film project should involve Boo. At first I think he’s kidding. Isn’t there some adage about never working with animals and children?
10:30pm – Every idea being put forth seems to involve the dog. Now ALL I CAN think of is the dog.
11:00pm – I come up with ‘the nugget’, but I am not convinced Boo is going to be receptive to ‘direction’ when we start shooting. Schwartz assures me it will be fine.

Who can say no to those eyes?


12:00am – I start writing the script. Rachael has gone to bed and Mark has gone home to compose some music for tomorrow.
1:00am – I finish the script. It is two pages long, which is a little concerning. I don’t think there is a minimum length requirement, but that works out to two minutes of screen time, plus credits. Granted, there is a LOT of action, but still. The Mountebank (my 24 hour film last year) script was originally six pages and ended up being three-and-a-half minutes long. We begin the shot list.
1:30am – Schwartz & I take a trip out to the 24 hour Vet Clinic to get a dog cone we need for the shoot. He’s in there a while.
2:15am – We finish up the shot list. Sixty shots. That’s an insane amount! We’re going to have motor through the majority of them to finish on time.
3:00am – We hit the hay for a few hours.
6:15am – We wake up and have some breakfast.
7:00am – Thom, our actor, arrives and we start dressing the apartment for the shoot.
8:00am – We step out to shop for some supplies.
9:00am – We are back at the apartment, setting up the camera for the first shot.
9:15am – Our fifth and final member of the crew (Terence) arrives.
9:45am – The first shot is in the can! That puts us almost three hours ahead of last year’s pace.

Schwartz, Terence and Thom sizing up a shot.


12:00pm – Twenty shots done. Fourty more to go! Mark has the brilliant idea to capture and edit what we have so far.
1:30pm – Lunch break. Pizza, the staple of any film shoot.
2:45pm – Onto the bedroom scene. We have to garbage bag the windows. Yay! My favourite job in the world.
3:30pm – I am standing over a bed holding a rope that is attached to a half-naked dude. Don’t ask.
4:00pm – We are burning through the script and what’s best is we are editing as we go. Genius!
4:45pm – Preparing the last shot.
5:00pm – We have wrapped photography!
5:15pm – Schwartz, Terence & I are doing some foley, both live and pinched from the Web.
5:30pm – We are shooting some last minute pickup shots, due to a continuity issue.
6:00pm – Mark is working on a rough cut. Since we are actually CLOSE to the drop-off point this year, we’re still pretty good for time.
6:30pm – Wow! The rough cut is not nearly as raw as I was expecting. Now onto the sound mix and colour correction.
7:30pm – Dinner break.
8:00pm – We watch the newest cut. We’re almost there. There are three things I’d like to fix, but I don’t think we’ll have time. Now to add some end music and we should be good.
8:30pm – We show the latest cut to an impartial party – Rachael. She points out a few things that aren’t as clear as we thought they were, but she can’t believe all the footage we shot fits together as well as it does.
8:45pm – Finished! For better or worse.
8:50pm – Of course we’ve hit a snag. We seem to be having a problem transferring the short to a DVD. Oh my God, we’re SO CLOSE!
9:15pm – We’ve come up with a solution, but now we’re running dangerously low on time. Watching progress bars has never been so excruciating!!!

Time is a WHORE.


9:30pm – I’m sitting outside in my car waiting for Schwartz to come and hand off the finished product. It’s coming.
9:40pm – Schwartz hands me two copies in different formats. I am off.
9:47pm – I walk through the doors of the drop-off point, The Duke Of York. Yes, you read that correctly, I made it there in seven minutes. It was a combination of close proximity and inadvisable driving. I hand our short ‘Snip’ over to the 24 Hour Film Race representatives.
10:05pm – I am back at Schwartz’s place and we watch a copy of the movie. I think it’s an entertaining bit of film. It is at least memorable because of Boo. I cannot believe it, but Schwartz was right. With the use of some select phrases, a squeaky toy and a sizable amount of chicken, we got Boo to do EVERY SINGLE THING we needed him to. Boo is the STAR of this show (sorry Thom).
11:45pm – The traffic in downtown Toronto was atrocious. I’m finally back at home.
12:15am – Time for bed.

Well, that’s another one in the books. I hope it plays well to an audience. Technically speaking, it’s a little rough. Those three issues I mentioned are still in there. We could have fixed them, but then it wouldn’t have been in on time. It ended up being the same thing as last year, but we went the lesser-product-in-by-the-deadline-route this time around. We’ll see how it does. We avoided the mistakes of last year, but were almost done in by some new ones. That’s one of the craziest things about this competition. It is never the same set of hair-raising circumstances twice. Oh, and strangely the running time wasn’t an issue. Snip ended up being six seconds longer than The Mountebank, even though its script was three times shorter. Then again, we did have sixty shots this time around. I’m pretty pumped/nervous about showing it off. I’ll post it up here as soon as possible after Friday’s screening.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Don't Kill The Messenger XXII

Whew, sorry this one's a bit late, but I'm a little exhausted. I slept in until one today, which I haven't done in a long, long time. Let's get into it, shall we?

First Story's On Me.

The reason I'm so exhausted is the whirlwind of a weekend I just had. Schwartz and I participated in this year's 24 Hour Film Race. And we got miraculously got our film in ON TIME, which if you'll remember was not the case with my experience last year. These things are always so much fun. It is hard work and super stressful at times, but SOOO worth it. Anyway, I'll have a more detailed breakdown of the events posted tomorrow if you want to check back then.

More Joe.

Joe Lynch's (Wrong Turn 2) latest episode of Bodycount dropped on G4's Attack Of The Show this week. For those who don't know Bodycount is a little segment Lynch does where he runs down three horror titles that he thinks are worth checking out. I was hoping for ones that were a bit more current, but for those who haven't seen them, all his picks are required viewing (no matter how unpleasant some - or more specifically ONE - of them may be). Check it out below.


Two New Trailers.

Here are a pair of trailers that hit the Web this week. The first is finally some footage from the upcoming graphic novel adaptation Whiteout starring Kate Beckinsale. I was already in, but this trailer just reinforces it. The second is Zombieland, which is perhaps the most perplexing project I've seen in a while. I suppose it could be fun in a Shaun Of The Dead kind of way. Maybe I'm just not used to seeing a zombie movie starring A-list actors. It's kind of the same reaction I had to the Shutter Island trailer. Scorsese doing Gothika? WTF?! All I know is, if Leo is Patient 67 I am personally taking away Marty's Oscar. Anyway, trailers below.



Thursday, June 18, 2009

Zombie Lit That's All Meat.

You know it's funny. No matter how much you ensconce yourself into a particular subject, there will still occasionally be whole phenomenon that slip by you. This was the case with writer David Wellington's Monster series. I was perusing Cory Casciato's blog The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse a few weeks ago, when I came across his review of Wellington’s novel Monster Island. I'd never heard of this before, but from the title of Cory's post – I believe the word he used was 'brilliant' – I could see that he was pretty enamoured with it. That was all I needed and headed out to my local Chapters to pick it up. It was then that I saw it was actually the first book of a trilogy, so I had some serious reading ahead of me. It was exciting to have this whole new zombie epic of sorts just suddenly fall in my lap. I mean, I MUST have read about this in Rue Morgue or somewhere back in 2006, it just must have not stuck for some reason. Apparently, Island was originally released online serially as far back as 2004! Who knew?


Anyway, zombie apocalypse, I'm already in right? Get this. I'm waiting in the checkout line behind some coupon clipping old lady, so I do the logical thing and read the back cover and spy this...

“From the other side of the planet, a small but heavily armed group of schoolgirls-turned-soldiers comes in--” WHAAAAAT???

No one told me about schoolgirl soldiers! Needless to say, this book was devoured in a weekend and you KNOW that's a big deal for me. I find it amazing that considering how saturated the zombie subgenre is there are people out there that are still mining gold out of it. I wrote recently about my fantastic experience with World War Z. It all felt so detailed and covered scenarios that I hadn't even thought of. I constantly daydream nine-to-five about this stuff and still Max Brooks was five steps ahead of me. In a way, Monster Island does the same thing. It is not as pervasive and global a story as WWZ, but it is no less compelling. First, Wellington begins the story in Somalia with an original concept – at least to me – where anyone who had been in a well-established nation when 'The Epidemic' hit, was pretty much fucked. The only nations that survived were the ones in the third world because they were already hardened by death and misfortune. “Places you wouldn't walk out the door without a gun”, as the main protagonist Dekalb puts it. He is a UN weapons inspector, who falls in with a local warlord named Mama Halima who is dying of AIDS. In exchange for the safety of his daughter, Dekalb must travel to the U.S. to get the medication Halima needs to survive. Travelling with him, are the squad of aforementioned schoolgirl soldiers. It's a great setup and the story becomes even more intriguing once they reach New York. Wellington spends a lot of time describing post-apocalyptic Manhattan so it feels like you too are dodging flesh eaters like the characters in the story. It is probably the most absorbing portrayal of NYC I've read since The Stand. Speaking of which, Monster Island reminded me of that Stephen King touchstone quite a bit actually for reasons I won't get into here. Needless to say, that is a big compliment. Even though Monster Island boasts only a handful of characters, the scope is of an epic nature. I cannot wait to read Monster Nation and Monster Planet, the following chapters of the trilogy.

I realize I’m late to the party on this one and probably preaching to the already initiated, but if haven’t read this, GET ON IT! It has everything you like about the zombie genre, with an extra dimension that makes it even more of a page-turner.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

What's In A Name?

Coming up with a good title for your film is almost as important as making one people will want to watch. Just ask Irvin Shapiro. Which sounds more appealing? The Book Of The Dead or The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi and company would have gone with the former if not for the urging of the late producer. There are unforgettable horror movie titles like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Blood Feast that automatically drudge up horrifying images and then there are ones that take a simpler approach. They use a name. Sometimes, this name becomes irrevocably intertwined with its owner and becomes canon. Any car that is acting up becomes Christine and any crazy-ass canine becomes Cujo. For this Coverbox Wednesday, I culled together some of the other named titles we had at ye olde store.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Don't Kill The Messenger XXI

I got a little too much sun today, so I'll make this brief before I go take a nap before hockey.

More Michael?!

A story broke over at Fangoria.com this week about some lost footage from John Carpenter's original Halloween. It sounds like the majority of it is b-roll and unusuable takes, but it's all stuff any hardcore fan would love to see. And it looks like there's a LOT of it.


Now, I have no desire to buy yet ANOTHER Halloween Edition on DVD, but if they get all this stuff together (along with maybe some commentary by Carpenter himself), then I think it would be worthwhile. I mean, what else am I going to do? Watch H2? Not likely. Click here for the full story as well as information about how to let current Halloween currator Malek Akkad (son of the late Moustapha) know you want to see this stuff.

No Laughing Matter.

A short that I saw a few years ago called Headshot popped up on Vimeo recently. Thanks be to Twitch for pointing it out. This was a big hit with the crowd I saw it with and has several laugh out loud moments. Here it is below.


HEAD SHOT from Dennis Heaton on Vimeo.

This Shit Never Gets Old.

Another promo video for Yoshihiro Nishimura's (the mastermind behind last year's Tokyo Gore Police) newest blood opera Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl has appeared online. This one seems to be expanding on the funny little wristcutting commercial within TGP. I'm pretty sure this one is locked in for at least one of the upcoming festivals in my area, so I better have my slicker at the ready. Check it out below.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Amusement? Not Quite.


Amusement was a title that had been on my radar for a while, but like many horror flicks, seemed to disappear for a while and then suddenly drop on DVD. Mainly only on my radar for two reasons that I’ll get to later, I sought it out and watched it this week.


Three women are terrorized by a crazed maniac known only as The Laugh.

I found Amusement to be incredibly perplexing. The ideas were there, but much of the execution seemed clumsy to me. I’ll try and break it down for you. I had two big problems with this movie. The first was that it was all over the place. At first, it seemed like an “urban legend” style horror anthology. I didn’t know this going in, but I was fine with that. The first story was okay. It had a few plot points that stuck out sorely, but it was fairly short, so whatever. The second was probably the best, despite the obviousness of its punch line. The third – by far the oddest of the three – boasted a lavish location straight out of a Guillermo Del Toro picture. After the three stories played out, it became this weird crime thriller and then quickly descended into the tired depths of dreck like Captivity. My second problem was the constant implausibility. I’m obviously not going to stand here and say that movie plots have to be airtight – my favourite genre is horror for Christ’s sake – but if you go out of your way to make things ridiculously improbable, I’m afraid that’s a roadblock for me. There is a whole echelon of genre filmmakers that favour style over substance, where visuals and set pieces are paramount and everything else is just getting to those points, but MAKE AN EFFORT AT LEAST! Maybe I’m being overcritical of Amusement, but it seemed to me there were so many moments like that and there has to be a tipping point. The evil machinations of The Laugh make Jigsaw’s shenanigans seem rudimentary by comparison. It probably didn’t help that the villain was pretty laughable (no pun intended) as well. He gets pretty grating by the end, so his comeuppance couldn’t come soon enough.

Though in amongst all these clichés and logic leaps, there were some moments that surprised me, so I can’t write this movie off completely. It’s frustrating because I’d like to, but there is some good to be had here. Amusement is also good looking, and I’m not just talking about the lovely ladies that populate it. Which brings me to the two reasons I mentioned before…



I first saw Jessica Lucas (left) on her brief stint on CSI, and then Cloverfield. She was supposed to be in Drag Me To Hell as Alison Lohman’s roommate, but I guess that got nixed last minute. Bummer! Katheryn Winnick was in a little under seen gem of a movie called Satan’s Little Helper and I’ve always kept my eye out for her since. But yes, the production design is top notch. It looks like some money was spent on Amusement, especially on the third story I mentioned before. I think that the studio may have had higher hopes for this movie initially. I wonder if Picturehouse being shutdown in mid-2008 had something to do with it being shelved?

I really wanted to like this movie, but something about it was always continually off-kilter. It is hard for me to pin down without you seeing it for yourself. But that’s your choice to make.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Let's Try This Again!

After the power outage debacle at The Bloor back in January, we reassembled again last month to finally see the uncut version of the 1981 slasher flick My Bloody Valentine. It turns out that it worked out in our favour because now even more of the cast and crew turned up for the Q&A. In addition to director George Mihalka and actor Neil Affleck (Axel in the film), we had Lori Hallier, Alfred Humphries and Paul Kelman (who played Sarah, Howard and T.J. respectively) as well as line producer Bob Presner and composer Paul Zaza.


There was a little delay writing about this because I was waiting on some video accompaniment. My friend Rob Mitchell is a Toronto-based videographer who documents a lot of events around town and I was waiting for him to post the footage. Here is the video of the night’s festivities.




I hope you enjoyed that. I know I did. My favourite part of these Rue Morgue Cinemacabre Q&A’s is how appreciative (and often even stark surprise of) the filmmakers and cast - whether it be J.D. Feigelson, the writer of Dark Night Of The Scarecrow or Tom Waites, who played Windows in The Thing - are that people are still championing their work so many years down the road. What can I say? We’re a loyal bunch.

I know I’ve always had a soft spot for My Bloody Valentine, as I’m sure many of you have. It gets lumped in with all the B-grade slashers that flooded the market after Friday The 13th, but I think My Bloody Valentine offers more than a lot of its contemporaries did. Without even mentioning the iconic Harry Warden and the mine – which is a character in itself – there is a lot happening here. My Bloody Valentine deserves praise for doing things that most movies just don’t do. First, there was an attempt at realism. I spoke before about how Mihalka was attempting to get away from the ‘Ken & Barbie’ aspects of the slasher genre and really make things count. Setting the story within a small town populated with working class characters was a departure from the usual spoilt rich-kids of the genre. There’s also a moment where the jig is up and the revelling partygoers don’t stick around to get offed by the killer, they get the fuck out of dodge. That’s something people in most slashers STILL don’t do, even almost THIRTY years later. Perhaps most important is the gore that has been restored is all good stuff. We’re not talking about a few seconds here and there – as most so-called Unrated editions are guilty of – we’re talking MINUTES here. The MPAA were merciless with this one, so much so that the score had to be redone, as was touched on in the videos above. And I’m glad that memory served me correctly about just how prominent Moosehead beer was in this movie. It turns out they WERE a sponsor. I knew it! Seriously, you can make a drinking game out of how many times it shows up in the first act.



It was a really fun evening and the kind of thing that was worth waiting an extra four months for. If you want to check out more of Rob's videos, you can visit his website here.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Serve. Protect. Inform?

The super comprehensive zombie blog The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse tipped me off to this cool little article on Comicmix.com. Blogger Jenifer Rosenburg asks the question, when the dead rise, will your local police force give you fair warning? This stemmed from an exchange on the Boston Police's Twitter feed - which is an interesting read in itself and an excellent idea when you think about it - that ended with them saying they WOULD notify the public if there was a zombie outbreak. Jenifer then took this a step further and contacted the police departments of many other large cities, to see where they stood on the subject. Click here to check out the rest of her story. Now, I'm off to find out if the Toronto police are on Twitter.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Don't Kill The Messenger XX

Hey everyone. Since I wasn't here last week, I'm going to make number twenty a super-deluxe DKTM. So, let's see what we've got here.

Four New Trailers.

Here's a quartet of trailers for upcoming stuff I'm looking forward to.












Some Fan Service.

Here's a little article I found on Chud.com that brought a smile to my face. It's a list of 6 Reasons Why Horror Fans Make The Best Film Fans. Here's number six for example.

"They're Prospectors. Being a horror fan isn't easy. There's a lot of horror out there, and you have to wade through a whole bunch of dross to find the gems. But that's what any good film fan should be doing anyway - not just waiting to be handed the best of the best but be out there, on the ground, sniffing out the best. And the best way to really appreciate the good movies is to spend a lot of time with the bad movies."

I couldn't have said it better myself. For the rest of the list, click here.

Nightbreed Reborn... With YOUR Help!

An article on Icons Of Fright turned me onto this Nightbreed petition. See, the version of Clive Barker's 1990 horror film Nightbreed that made it to theatres was not the original cut. It was heavily massacred by the studio because they (as is sadly often the case) didn't 'get' Barker's vision. They couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that they had a monster movie where the monsters were the good guys, so almost a half hour of footage was cut removed from the film. This footage was thought lost, but some digging by Barker super fan Mark Miller discovered recently that was not the case. After talking to the right studio exec, Mark was told the footage not only existed, but could be accessed easily. It was just that it wasn't worth the money and trouble to pull it out. Here's where YOU come in. Do you want a restored original cut of Nightbreed on DVD? I know I do. Click here to get more info on letting 'the powers that be' know that you want to see Nightbreed the way it was meant to be seen.

More Dog Food.

Are you getting sick of me talking about this movie yet? Here are two more one sheets for the upcoming Brit horror flick Doghouse.


This Eases The Pain A Little.

After receiving the terrible news (for me, at least) that John Lithgow will be playing the baddie in the upcoming fourth season of Dexter, I was inconsolable. I fucking hate that guy! He is probably one of the biggest hams in show business and now I won't be able to switch the channel every time I see him on TV - such was the case with Third Rock From The Sun, likely the most unfunny sitcom EVAR next to Everybody Loves Raymond. However, the news of actress Courtney Ford being cast as a reporter on the show is good news. Maybe I'll just have look up this little movie called Alien Raiders. Click here for the original news item from Bloody-Disgusting.

Gearing Up For Number Four.

Now that his acting gig in Quentin Tarantino's new picture Inglourious Basterds is done, Eli Roth can now get back to concentrating on his filmmaking career. While talking with Empire Online last week, he let it slip the title of his next project. Endangered Species. He also still has plans to do a full feature of his Grindhouse faux trailer Thanksgiving, as well as a larger budget sci-fi flick. Click here for the original story.

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy your Sunday!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

We Lost Another One Today.

I just found out the sad news about David Carradine. He was just found dead in his hotel room in Thailand. He was 72. There are conflicting reports at this time about whether his death was a suicide or from natural causes, but the end result is the same. We've lost another genre icon. Carradine appeared in hundreds of movies and television shows, and in the last few years enjoyed a bit of a mainstream comeback, stemmed by his role as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's martial arts homage Kill Bill. Carradine was most known before that for his role as Frankenstein in the 1975 cult classic Death Race 2000 and as Kwai Chang Caine on the TV show Kung-Fu.

R.I.P. Mr. Carradine.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

E3 Is Here!

It's a quiet week here because I've have been embroiled in all the coverage of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. With all the tweets, online videos and G4's twenty-two hours of coverage, there are really not enough hours in the day. There are so many games coming out that look pants-crappingly awesome, it's ridiculous. I was happy that we finally got more info on the upcoming PS3 title Heavy Rain. Basically, it looks like an interactive movie in the vein of Seven. The way the game is setup is quite unique in that you play four characters throughout the course of the game, and if one dies, their death becomes part of the story and you move onto the next character. This allows for almost infinite outcomes. But, enough talk, here's some recently released video.





So, you can see the tone here. I'm lukewarm on the QTE gameplay, but I am very excited to play in this world. To be honest though, the most important thing to me here is the story. If that delivers, I think Heavy Rain will be very satisfying and unique.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Them's Good Eats.


Sorry about the absence of a Don't Kill The Messenger yesterday, but I had a good reason. I was in Ajax filming a short. Everything went fairly smoothly - as smoothly as a got-to-get-everything-in-one-day shoot can go I suppose - and we wrapped last night at about one-thirty in the morning. The short is called Serve Thy Master and we're hoping to parlay this into a bigger project. Fingers crossed and stay tuned.