Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2007 July.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to admit one thing about the SAW franchise: it has managed to avoid the pit that sucks so many horror sequels down into box office oblivion. The first SAW was a sleeper hit, considered a success because its tiny $1-million investment netted nearly $50-million at U.S. theatres; both [...]

I must admit I’m surprised at the success of THE SIMPSONS movie, which made its debut at #1 with $74-million. Yes, the popularity of the TV show indicates there was an audience, but did they all really feel the need to run out opening weekend like Homer chasing after doughnut?
I was almost equally suprised by [...]

Within days, two of the most famous names in the world of European art house filmmaking have passed away: Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni.
Both men were known for making unique, highly personal, ambitious, symbolic, even confusing films with a reputation for appealing to sophisticated audiences and critics (although both of them occasionally met with derision [...]

I KNOW WHO KILLED ME – the new mystery-thriller starring Lindsay Lohan – remained a mystery to critics on Friday, who were not permitted to screen the film in time to have their reviews tabulated at Rotten Tomatoes.

You can probably guess what this means. As if to confirm our cynicism, the one lucky (?) reviewer [...]

In a nice rundown of news from the San Diego Comic-Con, Variety tells us that Leonard Nimoy will return as Mr. Spock in the upcoming Star Trek film being developed by J. J. Abrams. Zachary Quinto (Heroes) will play a younger version of the character, suggesting that the script by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci [...]

THE HOST, which reached U.S. video store shelves today after an art house release in March, is – first and foremost – a great monster movie. However, it achieves greatness by striving to work as a good movie in all departments. The Korean film introduces its monster early – in broad daylight – yet much [...]

The American Cinematheque has announced their schedule for this year’s annual Festival of Fantasy, Horror & Science-Fiction, which will be screening at both the Egyptian in Hollywood and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. The fest starts on August 2 and continues through August 26..
Highlights include:

The week-long debut engagement of TRAPPED ASHES, an anthology horror film featuring contributions from [...]

It was a rare summer weekend when the #1 slot at the box office was not occupied by a fantasy film. Last weekend’s winner HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX was knocked into second place by the arrival of the Adam Sandler comedy I KNOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY.
ORDER OF THE PHOENIX [...]

Stuart Gordon’s MASTERS OF HORROR episode “The Black Cat” came out on DVD this week (I reviewed the film here), so it makes sense to make that the focus of this week’s episode of Friday Cat Blogging.

This is yet another adaptation of Poe’s story, more faithful than most, i which a man is driven by [...]

Today sees the release of the DVD for MASTERS OF HORROR – THE BLACK CAT. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story has inspired numerous adaptations, but director Stuart Gordon’s version is a rare exception that tries to stay true to the source material. Adapted by Gordon and Dennis Paoli, the teleplay’s most obvious conceit is to place [...]

E-Splatter.Com informs us that MGM is planning to release a box set of Vincent Price horror titles on September 11:

MGM owns the best Price titles and a box set of them all is long overdue. It looks like, however, this will be the first of two volumes. The set will include “The Abomininable Dr. Phibes,” [...]

What’s in a name?” Shakespeare asked. Apparently quite a lot, as I happened to run across two posts recently (one by Chris Stangl, one by Gloria Steinem), both of which object to particularly labels applied to certain films. First, Chris Stangle, at the Exploding Kientoscope, objects to the term “torture porn,” even though he did [...]

It’s a sad day for STAR WARS fans as everybody’s favorite wookiee finds himself on the lam from the law.
That’s right: Chewbacca is wanted by the police – for molesting Marilyn Monroe.
Well, actually it was a Chewbacca impersonator, wanted for molesting a Marilyn look-alike:

The Chewbacca impersonator was wanted on suspicion of grabbing the Monroe impersonator’s [...]