The current Evil Dead remake project has hit a snag. Star Lily Collins has reportedly dropped out of the movie.

The actress’ camp is citing scheduling conflicts as the main reason for her decision to let go of the project. This is a big blow to the remake of the Sam Raimi-directed horror classic. The remake also has Raimi behind it so it’s also a sought after project in Hollywood because of its pedigree.

No one has been talking about what exactly the scheduling conflict really is. But many think that the conflict may be with Collins’ promotion work for Mirror Mirror, one of the Snow White movies coming out. Another project Collins is involved in is the film adaptation of The Mortal Instruments, which will be directed by Scott Stewart.

Raimi will have to go back and look for a replacement for Collins. For the remake, Raimi won’t be sitting on the director’s chair, he’ll be donning the producer’s hat instead. Fede Alvarez has been chosen to direct the Evil Dead remake. According to the production schedule, filming should begin by March so that it will be ready in time for an April 2013 domestic release.  The script was co written by Alvarez with Rodo Sayagues with a little help from the renowned Diablo Cody.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why Lily Collins is in the film, rumors are the new remake will feature a femal lead. Yes, a female lead — think Ash with PMS.

One reason why my friends love the horror movie marathons I host is the diversity I provide them. They’re sure to watch a movie they haven’t seen before and not the tired old Hollywood horror movies that everyone knows about.

If you want to host your own horror movie marathon and want to give your friends a real movie treat, why don’t you get some of these great horror films that were made in Europe. They probably haven’t heard anything about these movies, which will make it a scarier experience for them.

Dead Snow

Zombies are the new vampires. The zombie genre has become quite popular these days so if you want to give your friends an extra special treat, give them a movie that’s got zombies that come from left field. And nothing gives you that feeling than Dead Snow. So what does this movie offer that other zombie movies don’t? Two words – Nazi zombies. It doesn’t get more left field than that.

Rec

Rec has gained popularity because it was remade into that utterly disappointing Hollywood movie Quarantine. I’ve always maintained that if you want the best entertainment, go to the source, and Rec delivers like only the original can. Do check out the sequel, Rec 2 as well for more of the same horror goodness. The Rec series has been so successful that two more Rec movies are going to be released.

Haute Tension

Forget American slasher movies, this French horror movie defines the genre for the new century. Merciless, gory, and absolutely serious, Haute Tension will dfrive to the edge of your seat with your hand firmly clasped on your mouth.

Mum and Dad

Talk of British horror the most common peg would be the old Hammer Horror films from thirty to forty years ago. But Mum and Dad is British horror turned on its ear. It is a deeply disturbing movie that evokes the twisted family tropes used in movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes but with a twist that only makes this horror subgenre all the more frightful.

Sauna

Sauna is a little known Finnish film that elevates horror to a philosophical discussion of evil, sin and retribution. Don’t expect gore or any overtly frightening scenes here. This is a quiet horror movie, if there ever is such a creature. But what it does successfully is to creep under your skin. This is a very unsettling movie that provokes deep questions about morality.

George Romero is the acknowledged master of the zombie movie. Almost all of his Living Dead series are hits both in the box office and critically. His last zombie movie, Island of The Dead, was not as well received as the previous installments but this is not stopping Romero from taking another stab at the zombie genre.

The director has revealed that he has optioned the novel The Zombie Autopsies, which was written by Harvard psychologist Steven Scholzman. The novel follows the usual zombie premise we’ve come to know, and yes, love – a zombie apocalypse. But The Zombie Autopsies bring a new element to the table, the story is told amidst an economic collapse because of the zombie hordes. The novel has also gained an almost infamous reputation for all of its medically accurate descriptions and scenes. Romero is banking on this medical accuracy as the jump off point for his movie. He said he wants it “to be perfectly accurate, almost shockingly.” If that’s a quote that won’t spin zombie fans into a frenzy, I don’t know what will.

Romero has been delving more and more into increasingly shocking gory scenes. If you’ve seen Night of The Living Dead (which, by the way, is now part of the pubic domain so you can download it freely), the gore was quite tame compared to today’s standards. The gore increased with each movie until probably reached the pinnacle with Diary of The Dead, Romero’s attempt at “found footage” horror. It was a success and brought Romero’s movies to the 21st century level of blood and shock scenes. It will be interesting to see how he plans to treat The Zombie Autopsies. If we’re to base it on The Crazies, a movie he executive produced, prepare for a gorefest.

Dead Island created quite a stir when it released a cinematic trailer that was very poignant and horrific in equal measures. It became a very popular trailer that was passed around the internet and shared in various social sites and made everyone who saw it anticipate the game with a lot of excitement. The game did not really offer the kind of emotional resonance the trailer promised (it was your basic action RPG albeit made extremely interesting because of the currently cool zombie milieu) even though it was well reviewed. But thank the wonders of a great trailer and clever marketing, Dead Island actually got offers from Hollywood even though the game wasn’t even released yet. The eventual winner in the bidding war was Lionsgate.

According to press statement released by the company, the Dead Island movie will be an “innovation” on the zombie genre as it will focus less on the horror and the gore and more on family relationships, human emotions and the harrowing experience of trying to survive in a world gone mad. The movie will reportedly employ non-linear storytelling – which may be a nod to the awesome trailer that played with the timeline of events.

The Dead Island movie is reportedly already in development and a producer is already on board – Sean Daniel, who has worked on The Mummy, Dazed and Confused and Tombstone. No word yet on who the director will be or even who will be part of the cast. We can expect to hear more news about the film in the coming months.

The direction Dead Island is taking is nothing new. Walking Dead, the hit TV series, is already mining that same formula. It will be interesting how the guys at Lionsgate will put a twist on their new property to make it fresh and interesting for film and zombie fans.

1. The Car (1977) – This aptly titled film stars James Brolin and Kathleen Lloyd and is directed by Elliot Silverstein. The car referred to in the title is a black coupe that mysteriously appears in a small Utah community and starts running over people. It’s Captain Wade Parent’s job to try to stop this evil car, which the movie strongly implies is possessed by a demon.

2. Christine (1983) – Christine is based on the novel by Stephen King, and is directed by John Carpenter. It stars Keith Gordon, John Stockwell and Alexandra Paul. “Christine” is a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury that Arnie Cunningham finds and decides to restore. His friends find out that the car has a deadly past and that they need to destroy it to save Arnie. However, the car has other ideas and it goes on a rampage through town killing anyone who has ever damaged her. Whenever Christine is badly damaged, she is able to regenerate and make herself look as good as new.

3. Duel (1971) – Duel is a television movie starring Dennis Weaver. It was Steven Spielberg’s directorial debut in terms of feature length films. The evil car in question in this movie is a Peterbilt 281 gasoline tanker truck. David Mann encounters said truck in the middle of the desert and spends the rest of the movie trying to evade the truck as it tries to kill him.

4. Maximum Overdrive (1986) – Stephen King strikes again with Maximum Overdrive, a film based on one of his short stories. He also directed this movie – it was his first and last attempt at ever doing such a thing again. The movie is about a group of big rig trucks that come to life and try to kill a group of people trapped in a truck stop. Emilio Estevez stars as Bill Robinson, the leader of the group who tries to keep everyone alive. A title card at the end of the movie suggests that aliens caused the trucks to come to life in an attempt to stage a takeover.

5. Wheels of Terror (1990) – Wheels of Terror is a television movie directed by Christopher Cain. It stars Joanna Cassidy as a mother whose daughter is kidnapped by a black Dodge Charger. Although it is strongly implied that there is a driver, he is never shown. The car appears to have a life of its own as it rips through the desert on a killing and kidnapping spree.

Author Byline:

About the author:

This post is by Ryan Embly from CarRentalExpress (CRX). If you’re looking for very safe and very affordable car rentals then visit CRX today.

The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

Attack of the F-Bombing Super Fan

I remember the movie fan.  She was in her late teens or early twenties.  She was excited.  My brother-in-law went to a late showing of The Devil’s Rejects and she approached us as we left the theater as if we were old friends.

“That was awesome.  Awesome.  Wasn’t it great?”

Well, that wasn’t her exact opening to the conversation.  In reality, she punctuated every sentence with one or two variations of the F-word.  She wielded the F-word like a grammatical Swiss Army knife.  It was a noun, an adjective, an exclamation, a verb and I think she even found ways to use it as an adverb.

Our reaction to her rave review, which probably consisted of no more than a slight nod of acknowledgment or a mumbled “yeah” was enough.  She turned the talkativity dial to 10.

“I liked House of 1,000 Corpses.  I know lotsa people didn’t, but I did.  A clown?  Awesome.  But I know people thought it was crap.  Whatever.  This one.  Man.  This one was so awesome.  This one was perfect.”

She explained that she was excited to watch the next installment of the Saw series.  She talked about the soundtrack to The Devil’s Rejects.  She babbled on and on about Rob Zombie’s overall awesomeness.  She recounted her favorite kill scenes.

Eventually, she decided to find someone who was slightly more communicative and she bounded off, energized by two hours of on-screen carnage, sadism and a rip-off ending to a movie that took everything including the kitchen sink, coated it in retro slime and dumped it right into the theater.

We weren’t as thrilled with The Devil’s Rejects.  My brother-in-law and I both enjoyed it, though.

I can’t explain his rationale.  This is mine.

A Bad Movie

Sometimes, horrible ideas, horrible execution, poor choices, ham-fisted technique and a general lack of talent can somehow merge to create something good.  That is the story of The Devil’s Rejects, a movie justifiably maligned by most critics and just as justifiably loved by people including the stranger in the theater.

Let’s get rid of the bad stuff right away.  There are a billion reasons to hate The Devil’s Rejects.  Here are a few high(low)lights:

• The casting was more of a tribute to B-movie horror veterans with a little 70s kitsch on the side than it was an effort to create a credible ensemble.
• Zombie overuses the soundtrack in a heavy-handed effort to shove the desired retro feel down the throats of audience members.
• The Devil’s Rejects contains multiple scenes that do little to advance either the plot of the movie or the development of its characters.  The scene with the chicken peddler, for instance, exists only to showcase a series of unfunny jokes.
• The movie’s attempts to balance tension and sadism with comedy fail.  It may be jarring, but it’s not the kind of disconnect for which any sane filmmaker would strive.
• Rob Zombie’s appreciation for the contours of his wife’s butt may be great for their relationship, but it’s not something the audience needs to explore during a horror/road movie.
• The movie’s moral compass isn’t just a little off.  It’s in a room of electromagnets that spun it so hard and fast that it finally ceased to point anywhere.
• The ending is an accidentally comic mish-mash of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and Bonnie and Clyde with a little bit of Thelma and Louise tossed in for good measure.  It’s utterly ridiculous, but not in the “let’s make wriggle room for a sequel” mode of most horror flicks, which is at least understandable from a dollars and cents perspective.

So, The Devil’s Rejects is an amoral mess that frequently insults its audience, features inferior performances and reveals a serious of weird, if not flat-out stupid, directorial choices.

And I liked it.

So Bad, Yet Pretty Good

I didn’t like it as much as the F-bomber, but I did enjoy it.

Why?

I have a tender little place in my heart for movies that try extremely hard, even if they fail miserably.  That’s why I’ve confessed to an appreciation for the ridiculous Legends of the Fall, and its oh-so-earnest attempt to be a stirring epic.

That’s why I like Armageddon, a moronic space movie that merged the Magnificent Seven team assembly strategy with poorly acted romance, Bruce Willis’ Christ-like sacrifice for humanity and Billy Bob finally getting his mission patch.

Everyone involved in movies like those seemed to be giving it their all.  They played it straight, without an ironic wink.  These movies are so sincere in their intentions and so audacious in their goals that it’s hard not to root for them even when their weaknesses are so readily apparent.

The Devil’s Rejects is the Armageddon of horror.  It’s the Legends of the Fall of road movies.

Rob Zombie and his limited-talent cast try hard.  They don’t deliver, but they put forth the effort.  You can tell that Zombie wanted to make a MOVIE, not just another movie.  He built a world with its own rules and its own feel.  He shoehorned Marx Brothers references into the script and he found places to feature actors he loves, even if the audience is unlikely to feel the same way.

Most people hate it because it seems like an utterly pointless and sadistic tale incapable of adding anything to their lives.

Some people love it, completely oblivious to its many, many, many flaws.

Between those two poles, there’s room to enjoy this dusty, broken horror movie without being a Zombie super-fan.

How to Like The Devil’s Rejects

You might not naturally find yourself in that space between oblivious super fans and sane normalcy, so let me give you a few recommendations.  If you follow them, you can enjoy watching The Devil’s Rejects.

• Surrender the idea of emerging from the movie with any thing remotely associated with moral enlightenment.  The Devil’s Rejects is an exercise in atmosphere that preaches an amoral gospel.  Don’t even think about trying to feel good about humanity based on the actions of the film’s characters.  Any of them.
• Focus on the few really tremendous moments in the movie.  The hotel hostage scene is extremely intense and frightening in a way that rises well above traditional slasher fare.  Kudos to Priscilla “Three’s Company” Barnes for this scene.
• Appreciate the fact that Rob Zombie actually manages to take a collection of utterly grotesque and despicable murderers and transforms them into the very folks for whom you’re rooting as they roll down the highway toward their demise.
• Make a game out of finding elements Zombie has either lovingly lifted or cheaply stolen from other movies.  Engage in an internal dialog, debating whether these thefts make The Devil’s Reject an homage to other horror movies or a if they demonstrate a lack of originality on the part of the filmmaker–or both.

And, most importantly…

• Don’t take it too seriously.

I read a review of Saw 3D today in which the critic lambasted the movie for its misogyny and for not somehow living up to the standard established by its Saw precursors.

One of the first comments in response to that review pointed out how silly it seemed to criticize a Saw movie for being anything other than a fairly dumb, gory, somewhat scary diversion.  That response makes a great deal of sense.

At some point, we need to adjust our movie expectations based on what we know before we buy a ticket, rent the DVD or add something to our NetFlix queue.

If you were looking for a spine tingling, thrilling masterpiece of horror that would somehow provide you with tremendous insights about the human condition while not offending you with sadistic violence and other ugliness…

Well, picking The Devil‘s Rejects was stupid.

Give yourself two hours to disappear into a world of head scratching dumbness, jeans sagging off the butt of Sherri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig with rotten teeth and serial killers eating ice cream on the run.  Try to forget what you know for a while and take The Devi’s Rejects for what it is.  If you do, The Devil’s Rejects is a (and it’s hard to believe I’m writing this) pretty good movie.

You can critique it later.  I did.

Or, maybe you’ll come out the other side of raining bullets and “Freebird” with a strange compulsion to approach strangers and to talk at length about just how much you fucking loved everything about The Devil’s Rejects.

It’s also something of a family affair.  Bobbie Sue Luther produced the movie.  She also serves as the female lead.  Luther is married to the special effects expert who directed the movie, Robert Hall.
You can bet your severed head that its makers weren’t worried about whether the general public would fall in love with it.  They just wanted to appeal to its micro-niche.

It looks like they did a good job.   A perusal of the surprisingly large world of slashercentric blogs reveals generally positive reviews of the movie and a great deal of appreciation for its spree-killing star character.

The killer villain of Laid to Rest is the highly stylized Chrome Skull, who as his name suggests, has a face covered by a chromed skull mask.  He also has two big chromed blades that look like what the twin gynecologists from Dead Ringers may have owned had they taken gear to the guys at West Coast Choppers for some pimpin’.  Oh, he also has a little video camera mounted to his shoulder with a glowing red light.

The plot involves an amnesiac girl who escapes from a coffin just in time to flee Chrome Skull.  She seeks help from good-hearted but incompetent people.  Chrome Skull kills several of them.  A few of them survive until the final credits, including the protagonist scream queen.  Chrome Skull appears to die, but we all know better.  Two sequels are already in the works.

If you have delicate sensibilities, you’ll never consider picking up Laid to Rest in the first place.

If, on the other hand, you love incredibly gory kill scenes, Laid to Rest may become one of your all-time favorites.

The movie basically exists to take us from one act of butchery to another.  I don’t know if you can actually call the murders realistic, because I don’t know as if anyone has any idea what some of these creative bloodlettings would look life in real life.  I can tell you that you will see eyes filling with blood, entrails and even some face skinning.  If that’s your thing, this is a five-star effort.

I’m not easily offended and I’m not a slasher aficionado.  I’ve subjected myself to so much stupid crap over the years that I’m desensitized to the slaughter action. Though I’m not squeamish, I don’t really enjoy bloody mayhem for the sake of bloody mayhem.  With that in mind, here’s a quick explanation of why Laid to Rest is, by reasonable standards unrelated to the buckets of faux innards used in the production, a crappy movie.

• Chrome Skull may have a look that’s appealing to the gorehounds of the world, but no one ever bothers explaining much, if any, of his back story or motivations.  Classic movie killers like Freddie, Michael and Jason captured the public’s interest and scared folks, to at least some extent, because they had at least some messed up rationale for their non-stop killing ways.  Lacking that, Chrome Skull is just a boring, unexplained robo-man with a creepy mask.
• The stupidity of the non-killing characters reaches a level that far exceeds the average slasher flick victim.  These movies only work when characters make bad decisions, but the characters of Laid to Rest make unfathomably stupid calls at every turn.
• Laid to Rest is poorly written, poorly edited or both.  Ideas and little features that seem to have potential relevance to the story go nowhere.  Trust me when I tell you that they’re not meant to be that way.
• There are only two potential reasons you might care even slightly about the fate of anyone in the movie.  You might want someone to make it to the end so you can learn more about Chrome Skull or you might find the lead actress attractive.  As noted, Chrome Skull remains a dull mystery and Bobbie Sue Luther’s good looks aren’t a point of emphasis.

Laid to Rest isn’t scary.  It isn’t interesting.  It isn’t much of anything other than bloody.    If you need a gore fix, watch it.  Otherwise, steer clear.

• Pick out a fistful of horror movies I haven’t seen.
• Watch them.
• Write a review of one every other day until Halloween.

It’s simple with a relevant holiday theme.

Jeepers Creepers was first up on my list.  It doesn’t lend itself to a simple review.

Here’s what I knew about Jeepers Creepers before sitting down to watch it:

• It was something of a surprise mini-hit during its theater run.
• It was popular enough to spawn at least one sequel, with another one lurking in the future.
• Someone deemed the movie important enough to release a “special edition” DVD.

Here’s what I didn’t know:

Victor Salva wrote and directed it.

This was a complication.  I knew that I’d filter every frame of Jeepers Creepers through my understanding and opinions of the writer/director.

Just in case you didn’t know it, Victor Salva is a child rapist.

Victor Salva’s first feature, Clownhouse, was in the can.  The movie told the story of a little boy who was victimized by a crew of sadistic felons in stolen clown garb.

The cops were more interested in another Salva movie–a little homemade video he kept in his house.  It featured Salva, the former daycare worker, and the twelve year-old star of Clownhouse engaged in sexual activity.  Salva used his longstanding relationship as a trusted adult with the child and his position as a director to create an opportunity for abuse far more horrific than anything his creepy clowns did to the child’s character.

Salva pleaded down eleven felony counts to five and got what he wanted–a relatively light prison sentence.  He did less than two years of a three-year stint before getting out and resuming his career in movies.

His first post-prison movie was Powder.  He wrote and directed the story of a supernatural albino high school boy who found himself the target of derision and bullying.  I thought its scenes of actors portraying high school kids tussling in the rain and a magnet force prying away the buttons on a pair of Levis were more than slightly unsettling, considering Salva’s history as a pederast.

The Disney-produced Powder caught the attention of protesters who couldn’t believe that the family-friendly conglomerate would allow a child rapist to make features.  Somehow, despite the protests and the lukewarm reviews, Victor Salva managed to hang around Hollywood and to make Jeepers Creepers.

Once upon a time, Salva was a kid who loved movies.  He particularly loved Jaws and saw it over five dozen times.  Later, he discussed his childhood fascination with the movie.  He didn’t relate to the human characters in the movie; he was focused on the shark.

He related to the monster because people thought it was ugly and frightening.  Salva saw himself as a reviled outsider–a fat, gay kid in a world of less-than-tolerant people.   He said:

When someone in the movie pointed and screamed, ‘Arrrrgh, he’s so hideous! He’s so ugly!’ I thought, ‘No, the monster is the most interesting thing about the movie. I wonder what he’s thinking and feeling.

I think those comments may shine a light on the way he makes movies.

If he finds a sense of kinship with the villains, Clownhouse makes sense and is even consistent with the unspeakable behavior in which he engaged.  He took something children are at least theoretically believed to love and trust, clowns, and turned them into predatory monsters.

Powder becomes weak apologia in which Salva the outsider tries to show us just how hard it is to be a misfit.  He begs for sympathy or makes excuses with the lead character–a freakish albino with strange powers who stands in for the fat kid trying to figure out how to survive in a world that doesn’t understand him.

What about Jeepers Creepers?

The Creeper comes out of hiding every twenty-three years to feast for twenty-three days.  He chooses young people, high school/college students, as his victims.  That’s all we really know about the villain.  He’s a strong, unexplained evil force hellbent on maiming killing kids without justification or developed backstory.  You never grow to hate the creeper or to understand his motivations.  They defy explanation.  The Creeper is a teen-seeking monster who can only keep to himself for so long before he must feed again.

Is this Salva’s way of addressing the twisted, sick parts of his brain that led him to rape a kid who trusted him?  Is he telling us that the evil inside of him “just is”?  Or, even more frighteningly, is he warning us that the destructive compulsions that put him into prison can only lie dormant for so long before they’ll override his sensibilities?

Maybe this is a case of a “cigar just being a cigar”.  Perhaps it’s just an almost-decent B-grade horror movie and the Creeper story is shallow because Salva didn’t write a great script.  Maybe the victims are kids solely because kids are the target audience for these horror movies and Salva needed to pitch something marketable.

I suppose Salva’s movies and his crimes could be unrelated.  A horror movie that takes the idea of kid-friendly clowns and sets them loose as terrorists targeting a boy might not have anything whatsoever to do with the fact that a friendly Salva was simultaneously abusing his position of trust to sexually violate the kid who played the Clownhouse boy.  Powder could just a be a vaguely shitty movie about a powerful outcast.  Jeepers Creepers could be one of millions of semi-forgettable fright flicks.  In Jeepers Creepers II (which I won’t be reviewing), Salva’s camera’s attention to the detail of tanning shirtless guys may be nothing more than acceptable eye candy.

I have my doubts.

And that’s what makes Jeepers Creepers scary.

If I could divorce myself from the knowledge of the writer and director being a child rapist, I wouldn’t have much to say about Jeepers Creepers.

The opening portion, in which an unknown pscyho in a truck that looks like ‘Mater from Cars engaging in Duel-like activity with a brother/sister teen duo is relatively good.  Then, like most throwaway horror flicks, the whole thing begins to fall apart, circling the drain faster and faster until it reaches a lame conclusion.

Jeepers Creepers has a posse.  Some people absolutely love it and consider it one of their favorite movies.  I don’t understand these people.  Sure, the movie has a few “BOO!” moments that might make one shudder in his or her seat, but there’s nothing that new, great, interesting, creative or impressive.  The Creeper’s scariness shrinks the more we see him and the teenage stars are really nothing more than speaking props.

The production values are decent.  The movie isn’t horrible relative to its genre.  Then again, horror is littered with extremely bad movies and very few great ones.  Perhaps it shines a little only because the options surrounding it are so very dull.

If you’re looking for a way to scare yourself before Halloween, don’t bother watching Jeepers Creepers.  The scariest part of this movie is a name in the credits.

And get it you will. Amidst speculation that there will be a third movie in the horror series, it can now be revealed that fans will get not one, but TWO [REC] movies in the future. Both movies will still have the original [REC] directors Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero. But this time the two will split the directing duties by tackling one movie each.

To shed more light on the planned movies, the producers will be doing both a prequel and sequel to add to the series. The aim is to further flesh out the mythology that was introduced in the first film and further explored in the sequel. Paco Plaza will be tasked to direct the prequel, which will be entitled [REC] Genesis, which is – based on the title – the origin story for the whole mythos. Jaume Balaguero will then direct the other bookend in the series – [REC] Apocalypse. Even though the two directors will be directing one movie each, it’s been said that the two will still be involved in each other’s project in some capacity.

According to reports, a sequel is already being prepared and Kevin Greutert, the director of Saw VI. Michael Perry will be writing the script.

The sequel looks like it’s also going to be a quickie production with Paramount eyeing October 22 — OF THIS YEAR — to release the movie. Oren Peli, the director of the original movie, will be the producer, along with Jason Blum.

Peli has reassured fans of his movie that the guys who are going to make the movie “get it” and that fans will not be disappointed. We’ll really have to try to take that with a straight face. If you guys remember, another super low budget independent horror movie made with a shoestring budget made millions when it was released, which prompted people to release a sequel that sucked so much it killed the whole “franchise.” That movie was The Blair Witch Project. Good luck on these guys and their delusions.

I knew that when The Orphanage, the Guillermo del Toro – produced and Juan Antonio Bayona directed horror film was released and gained great reviews from critics worldwide that Hollywood won’t be able to keep its talons off this beautiful film.

New Line / Warner Bros. has announced that it will embark on a remake of The Orphanage. Instead of hiring original director Bayona, the studio has announced that it has signed Mark Pellington to direct the English language remake.

Even though Bayona will not be sitting on the director’s chair for this remake, Guillermo del Toro will still be involved as one of the producers (along with Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson). Del Toro will also co-write (along with Larry Fessenden) the script for the remake. With Del Toro’s close involvement in the remake there is hope that this is not going to suck as much as the other Hollywood remakes that essentially just butcher the source material for the sole purpose of Americanizing it.

Director Pellington’s previous credits include Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies and Henry Poole is Here. He also directed the concert movie U23D. So in the directorial front, it looks like there is a bit of promise too. Let’s hope that the Hollywood version of the The Orphanage is a refreshing interpretation of a wonderful Spanish horror movie.

Speculations can now end now that Campbell has signed on to return and reprise her role of Sidney Prescott. Production for Scream 4 will begin in April or May.

Scream 4 is the first part of another Scream trilogy so better dust off that Scream mask, it’s going to get popular next Halloween again.

Raimi has officially signed on as producer for the supernatural horror movie Refuge. The movie will revolve around a town that is being attacked by a Yeti.

I’m looking forward to this movie.

According to reports, there are plans to reboot Anne Rice’s ultra popular Vampire Chronicles and Universal Pictures is eyeing Downey to play Lestat.

Movie buffs will remember that Tom Cruise played Lestat in Interview with The Vampire, while Stuart Townsend played the character in The Queen of The Damned.

Downey is a great actor, probably one of the top real talents working right now but I think he’s a little too old to play Lestat. Tom Cruise was already a bit old to play Lestat and that was in 1994 when he was still young.

I’m also curious which among the remaining novels will be made into a movie or if the studio will start with the first novel again since it is going to be a reboot anyway.

“Drag Me to Hell” is receiving praise from all over for being a throwback in time when horror films managed to still be more fun to watch than just plain scary. That isn’t to say that director Sam Raimi didn’t make the film scary, at least if you’re a 10 year old or someone like me, but if you prefer the really truly disturbing horror flicks of late then this won’t be scary at all to you.

“Drag Me to Hell” was co-written by Sam and Ivan Raimi. It stars Alison Lohman who plays a bank officer who is cursed by an old woman (played by Lorna Raver) when she refuses to give the woman an extension of her delinquent mortgage. The movie is getting good reviews though not for its plot but for the really funny B-movie stunts and effects. Now that’s a horror film that I might be able to actually watch without regretting my decision the whole time I’m in the movie house.

Anyway I just saw Dead Silence this week though it came out 2 years ago. The verdict? It was really scary but since I’m not a horror connoiseur I wouldn’t trust my judgement. The movie is about a guy who goes back to his hometown after he receives a dummy in his doorsteps and his wife is killed a few minutes later. I never really cared for dummies just their mere appearance scares the hell out of me, and though I have great respect for ventriloquists I wonder why they don’t just use cute puppets like Terry Tator (winner of America’s Got Talent) does instead of those awful dummies. The story goes on with Jamie Ashen (played by Ryan Kwanten) doing his best to find out why his wife died and to find the truth behind the Mary Shaw poem his mother told him when he was a child. During the entire time he’s trailed by Detective Lipton (played by Donnie Wahlberg) who believes that he has something to do about his wife’s death. The story is pretty straight forward except until the end where…(SPOILER ALERT DON’T READ FURTHER IF YOUR DON’T WANT TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS)…he finds out that his dad has been dead all along and is being controlled by the perfect female puppet that’s possessed by Mary Shaw. Scary!

All in all it was pretty entertaining though be sure to watch it with someone if you scare as easily as I do.

Above is the first still from the upcoming movie that is being descriped as a visceral, dark horror.

According to Lawrence, who directed the apocalyptic flick, Warner Bros. has begun work on the prequel to I Am Legend, which amazingly grossed $584 million internationally. Amazing because the movie was so bad.

Lawrence will return as the director and Smith is also slated to reprise his character Dr. Robert Neville. He will also co-produce the movie through his Overbrook Entertainment partner James Lassiter as well as Akiva Goldsman. The script, written by DB Weiss, is reportedly already finished. The story was based on an outline that Smith, Goldsman, Lassiter and Lawrence collaborated on.

The basic premise is that the movie will feature the final days of of the virus outbreak that kills the earth’s population, leaving Neville alone.

Popular media has been deluged by reality shows and the massive availability of video recording equipment has made everyone a chronicler of sorts. The world has become heaven for the voyeurs who peep into the lives of other people – as seen in Youtube and various blogging sites that chronicle the life of celebrities or even the mundane lives of the normal joes.

This is the kind of world that George Romero wanted to take to task in his newest movie Diary of The Dead.

This latest edition of his zombie series is a rejigging of the whole mythos that began with the seminal cult hit Night of The Living Dead. Diary of The Dead happens right alongside the events that happened in the first movie. A bunch of college film students are shooting a horror film in the woods when reports of the dead coming back to life reach them. They retreat back to their RV and attempt to find a safe place to hide in as the whole world goes upside down.

Romero’s cinema verite style that evokes The Blairwitch Project is very visceral and immediate. Zombie movies, even Romero’s feel fantastical because of the very mythos it presents to the audience. But not Diary of The Dead, the gung-ho reality style makes you feel that the dead suddenly reanimating is entirely possible. You feel more for the people who only have their RV as their flimsy sanctuary. What also helps is that Romero has employed a bunch of “no-name” actors. You get a feeling that these are real people and not paid talent acting out their characters.

This decision to use untested talent is also the biggest flaw of the movie. The way some of the actors react to some of the situations they’re in are just too amateurish sometimes. You know these are greenhorns. I guess Romero is also partly to blame for this. Managing his actors better would have resulted in a more believable film. As it is, it’s the very actors in the film that occasionally shatter the illusion that what we’re watching is an actual documentary. In a sense this is where The Blairwitch Project really excelled. The movie had three tyro actors that really knew how to act and they helped sell the movie.

The effects employed in the movie are quite superb and believable despite the shoestring budget. It may not be the big budget gorefest that Land of The Dead was but the effects were not only passable, they were even quite realistic at some point. Romero has made some setpieces and imagery that will become part of the zombie canon. I especially loved the floating zombies in the indoor pool. It was a dreamlike vision that is made horrifying knowing that it was someone’s family down there.

Diary of The Dead is a flawed movie but it is still a cut above the rest of many of the horror movies that Hollywood has been churning out. It may polarize many moviegoers but for me, this is a worthy addition to the Romero zombie mythology.

Rating: B -

The Resident Evil star is now set to work on Clock Tower, a horror game that was available on the Playstation. She will appear alongside Brittany Snow and Alyssa Jayne Hale. Jovovich will play the character of Alyssa Barron.

The movie will be based on the second Clock Tower game, in which the main character is trapped in a psychiatric hospital while she tries to escape from the curse that haunted her family.

The movie will reportedly be set on an island located off the North American coast. The residents of the island witness their relatives coming back from the dead and laying havoc to the community. The leaders then get into a moral dilemma of whether to kill their reanimated relatives or to keep them in a safe place in the hope that a cure can be found.

There has been a resurgent fascination for zombies in popular culture. This is not only apparent in literature but also in such popular cultural forms as comicbooks as well as in movies. I’ll be reviewing different zombie-related movies for my next series of reviews.

First up is Day of The Dead.

Hollywood is so devoid of imagination right now that when zombies became popular again, instead of thinking of new stories to present to audiences, they just take the lazy route and just rehash old zombie movies and present them as “remakes” or a “retooling” of classic horror films. This is what’s been done to Day of The Dead, a remake of the classic George Romero movie. Day of The Dead basically completes the Romero series of zombie movies that have been remade. All of them, unfortunately, sucked.

The new Day of The Dead remake is different from the other Romero remakes in that the story has been drastically altered from the original. The new movie tells the story of a “flu-like” epidemic that ravages an unnamed town in Colorado. The military has been issued an order to cordon off the area and prevent people from leaving.  Corp. Bowman (Mena Suvari) is part of the military contingent and is coincidentally also a resident of the town. She decides to visit her mother and discovers that she is sick from the flu and decides to bring her to the hospital along with her brother and his girlfriend. While in the hospital, the flu victims turn into zombies and all hell breaks loose.

That small synopsis is enough to show Romero fans that this was not the story of the original film. Gone are the almost philosophical musings of what makes a man, civility and baser instincts. What is left in the 2008 version is an oversimplification of the whole original concept – an MTV version that substitutes depth for gore, senseless violence, and a kindergarten level story. I also have to take exception to this whole “fast zombie” phenomenon. It’s a big insult to zombie lore and just makes zombies more unbelievable than they already are. And Day of The Dead makes the stupidest version by actually making the zombies cling to walls and ceilings!

Mena Suvari’s talents are wasted in this movie. This is such a big demotion compared to her star-making turn in American Beauty. She tries to come off as a strong femal e character but ends up looking lost and bewildered. Ving Rhames is another talent that is wasted here. The fact that he only had almost twenty minutes of screen time for a character that is not even memorable leads one to believe that Mr. Rhames just needed the paycheck for accepting the movie. The inclusion of Mr. Mariah Carey Nick Cannon has also led me to the conclusion that any movie with his name attached to it is liable to suck big time.

I am not even going to try and talk how director Steve Miner did in this movie. This is not the Steve Miner who managed to make Lake Placid such an entertaining ride.

The bottomline here is that if you want your zombie movie fix. You’re better off looking for it elsewhere. Or better yet, track down the original for a more cerebral fix.

Rating: F

It’s quite rare for me not to notice movies that come out in theaters so it was a big surprise that I found out that not only has Saw IV already been released, Saw V is coming out later this year. I am not a Saw fan at all but having seen all three Saw movies, I wouldn’t want to break my run so off I went to find a copy of Saw IV.

Anyone who has seen a Saw movie will known that this is just another run-of-the-mill torture porn. The first one quite innovative for its time but succeeding movies that dealt with torture (like Hostel) has lessened its impact with the succeeding sequels.

As sequels go, it takes a really good story to make succeeding movies emerge from the shadow of the original. And here Saw seems to have stalled. I think the twist in Saw 2 was quite cool and made the movie a good enough sequel for the disturbing first movie. But the third movie failed to deliver a good yarn, but I have to give the movie props for ending with a very memorable scene with Jigsaw apparently getting killed.

The fourth movie begins with Jigsaw, dead in a mortuary table. The first incision on his body is proof that Jigsaw is not going to come back to life or some such nonsense. Death is the final end for him. This was an intriguing beginning as it immediately makes you think, “if Jigsaw’s dead then why the hell is there a new movie.” But, as Jigsaw says in the microcassette that was discovered in his stomach, the games are just about to begin.

The basic plot of the fourth installment is the recruitment of a new person who will continue Jigsaw’s work. Like all Saw movies, the basic template is a whodunit only with more blood, and graphic depictions of eviscerations. There is something to be said about writing the perfect whodunit. I have to admit that Saw 2, did it quite well, but three was a big letdown. All I can say that Saw IV is messier for the simple reason that the writer tried to string together the three previous movies with the fourth one. This gives a lot of complications because timelines are sure to get screwed up, and I think it did with this movie.

I won’t comment too much about the acting because this is, after all, a slasher flick designed to appeal to baser instincts. I just have to say that there were no standouts here. No one really stood out as great actors—except maybe for Tobin Bell, who has proved his mettle before as a talented character actor.

Fans who get off on the creative ways of torture in Saw will also be disappointed because there seems to be far fewer set pieces. And the reason is that the producers really did decide to make a character piece of the fourth movie as a way of really exploring how Jigsaw became who he is.

This is not the best Saw movie of the bunch but for Jigsaw fans, this movie will prove to be indispensable.

Rating: C-

Del Toro’s imagination is just so out of this world wild that anything he puts his opinions on will get a lot of mileage among film buffs, sci-fi/fantasy geeks and even the general media. During the Hellboy II premiere, Del Toro was asked about his vision for the Frankenstein film that he plans on doing. And he dropped the bomb, so to speak.

Del Toro wants Doug Jones to play Frankenstein’s monster.

Jones has been a perennial Del Toro performer, having worked for him as early as Mimic. He currently plays Abe Sapien in the Hellboy series. Del Toro justifies his choice, saying that he has always related to the Berni Wrightson version of the Frankenstein monster–”lanky, long and gorgeous in a tragic way.” He feels that Jones has those same qualities and will do a great job as the monster.

He declined to give his choice for Dr. Frankenstein though, adding that if he did, people will know what he plans to do.

The last decade has seen the explosion of Asian cinema in the world stage. The films of John Woo, Johnnie To, Fruit Chan, the Pang Brothers, Wong Kar Wai and Ang Lee have enjoyed a growing worldwide audience that fully appreciates the new things that these Asian directors have contributed to cinema.

Aside from the Asian art cinema contingent, another contribution of Asian cinema during the last ten years is the reinvigoration of the horror genre. The last ten years has also seen a spate of Asian horror movies that have redefined what is scary and how to give show it in fresh, delightfully ghoulish ways. Before the Asians, horror movies mostly followed the Hollywood formula of tricky camera angles so that “surprise” images will jolt the audience. The Asians went the opposite route and delivered slowburn horror movies that build on the dread without any clear directions of what will happen. And the imagery that is brought to film is truly horrifying indeed without even showing blood or entrails.

Not surprisingly though, the Asian horror genre has been suffering from too much exposure. Fresh ideas are coming in fewer amounts. But it looks like another continent may yet claim the title of horror capital of the world.

Europe has been quietly churning out horror movies that evoke the Asian horror explosion. Films from France and Spain are gaining a lot of popularity among horror fans. One particular movie that should be mentioned, which I saw this week was Rec.

Rec is a Spanish horror movie that relies on the cinema verite style that was successfully used in both Blair Witch Project and more recently Cloverfield. The movie is a tour de force in horror, one that brings you in an ever increasing spiral downwards towards horror and madness. The movie starts off with a woman reporter and her cameraman filming footage for a TV show. They are following the lives of firemen as they go through their midnight shift. Things were proving to be uneventful until a call comes in about an old woman who may have been injured. The media people tag along for the call and upon entering the building they discover that it is far from a routine call and that they have been locked inside the building by government authorities who fear there may be a deadly infection inside the building.

This is where the story really picks up and the sense of dread and helplessness pervade the whole movie. No one knows what is happening outside and the situation inside the building is fast turning from bad to worse. The film effectively brings the audience within the milieu and involves them through the creative use of the camera. One good thing about Rec is that the jerky camera movements have been kept to a minimum, which will surely delight those who complain and whine about how dizzying Cloverfield was. The story, too, is quite easy to follow and no convoluted plot twists were used. The only twist would be the sudden change in direction from scientific to paranormal. But this too was quite effective as it threw a curveball at the audience – one that they least expected.

Rec is a horror movie that should be seen by movie fans. Watch it before the inevitable American remake is shown this year.

Rating: A -