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 -