Cinefantastique Online

WARPED IMAGINATIONS: DARKLIGHT’S FEMALE HORROR DIRECTORS takes a look at Warp X, a digital film studio trying to address the question of  why there are not more women horror directors. To that end, four female directors, out of ten nominees, have been chosen to have their ideas for a horror film expanded into 25-page treatments. Warp X promises that at least two of the treatments will be expanded into screenplays and green-lit for production. On the subject of women in horror, potential director Smita Bhide pointed out that horror films like CARRIE, ALIEN, and ROSEMARY’S BABY “have very strong female characters in them” and there believes that it “makes a lot of sense for women to be working in that genre.”

TORCHWOOD RETURNS FOR A NEW SEASON:

In the second season of “Torchwood,” premiering Saturday (9 p.m. EST), Jack returns to the clandestine Torchwood agency in Cardiff, Wales, where he watches over an alien-spewing rift in space and time beneath the city streets. Together with his hip, young Torchwood team, Jack battles his old pal, the time-traveling psychopath Capt. John Hart (James Marsters of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). As always, Torchwood operates outside the law and the British government. It stands tall against all manner of monsters, including a recurring cast of nasty, sewer-dwelling weevils. But Jack and crew still find time for office romance and ill-fated, inter-species love affairs — of the same- and opposite-sex sorts.

HEATH LEDGER REMEMBERED: An article about the young actor who died earlier this week from a drug overdose. Though not a genre specialist, he did have some noted genre credits, including THE BROTHERS GRIMM and the upcoming THE DARK KNIGHT, in which he played the Joker.

BLUNT’S HORROR MOVIE CONFESSION:

Actress EMILY BLUNT is proud of her new film THE WOLF MAN – but is too scared to watch it herself. The Devil Wears Prada star appears alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins in the upcoming horror movie, but Blunt confesses she isn’t a fan of the genre. She says, “It’s a period gothic werewolf story and it’s really good. “(But) it’s not a film I would go to see because I don’t like scary films.”

SIX HORROR FILMS ABOUT FEMALE SEXUALITY: Matt Prigge picks CAT PEOPLE, REPULSION, HOUSE OF WHIPCORD, RABID, GINGER SNAPS and TEETH.