The pickin’s are a tad slim when it comes to horror, science-fiction, and fantasy titles released on home video this week, but quality more then compensates for quantity - and a little variety doesn’t hurt, either. There’s a musical-comedy-horror film, a computer-generated anime sci-fi adventure, some talking-singing chipmunks, an ersatz superhero movie based on an old television show, and some episodes of another old television show about a Time Lord who travels the galaxy in his Tardis. Of course, the grand (guignol) release of the week is SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. By now, readers have probably grown bored with my rhapsodic hymns of praise to this this film, so for the present time I will restrain myself to pointing out that the film arrives on DVD in two versions, single-disc and double-disc. Sounds simple, right? Guess again. Depending on the store where you make your purchase, the packaging and/or special offers will be quite different: Continue Reading »

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The Fangoria Weekend of Horrors is coming to the Los Angeles Convnetion Center next month. Guests include: George Romero, Clive Barker, Angus Scrimm, Sid Haig, Ray Wise, Ken Foree, Michael Pare, Corbin Bernsen, and over 70 other horror celebrities. There will be a 40th anniversary cast-and-crew reunion screening of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (like the one that took place at the Texas Frightmare Weekend earlier this month, which we covered here).

Hollywood Gothique and Cinefantastique are teaming up to get you into the convention - for free. We are giving away six general admission passes to the convention, which takes place on the weekend of April 25-27.

To enter the contest, simply go to our World Of Horror Contest Page and post a comment saying you would like to participate. You will be prompted to register as a (free) Subscriber if you are not already registered. When you register, make sure to include a working e-mail address, so that we may contact you if you win. Your first comment will not appear on the page until it has been approved by the administrator (subsequent comments on this website do not require approval).

Six winners will be selected at random on April 18, one week before the convention. You will not receive a ticket; your name will be on a list at the door. Affiliates, friends and family of Cinefantastique and Hollywood Gothique are not eligible.

For more information on the convention, click here.

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This disappointing follow-up to THE SIXTH SENSE reteams star (Bruce Willis) and writer-director (M. Night Shyamalan), but the old magic fails to re-materialize, thanks to overwrought melodrama and contrived plot developments. The premise (of a man who miraculously survives a train wreck that kills everyone else on board) initially seems intriguing, setting up a mystery that the audience is eager to explore; unfortunately, the script begins to fall apart as it reveals the explanation for what is happening. Ultimately turns laughable in its attempt to take a frankly silly comic book premise and treat it with all the seriousitude of an ersatz Greek tragedy. Imagine mixing gummy bears with Terrine de Foie Gras Naturel, and you’ll have some idea of the result. Continue Reading »

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Raimi’s Horror Reality Series Wants You: Shock Till You Drop has some information on the casting calls for Sam Raimi’s new TV series, 13, which take place March 31 and April 3 in Los Angeles, and on April 13 and 15 in Philadelphia. “Casting directors are looking for men and women between the ages of 18-30 who are energetic, competitive, and full of personality to be part of televisions first scary competition reality show and win a grand prize fo $66,666.”

Voltage Amps Up “Hybrid” Horror: Variety reports that Voltage Pictures will handle foreign distribution on HYBRID, a horror film directed by Eric Valette (ONE MISSED CALL). Starring Oded Fehr and Shannon Beckner, the film (written by THIRTEEN GHOSTS’ Neal Marshall Stevens) tells of a female mechanic who “spends a night of terror with a hybrid car.” (Is this a comedy?) Production takes place in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Battlestar Galactica: Katee Sackhoff conference interview: Den of Geek provides a transcript of a Q&A with the actress, who plays Starbuck.

No Guts, No Glory: The Wisconsin State Journal offers a profile-interview of director Stuart Gordon (REANIMATOR), whose latest film, STUCK screens at the Wisconsin Film Festival in April.

FEARnet to present ‘Fear Itself’: Hollywood Reporter tells us that the FEARNet has struck a deal to offer all 13 epsiodes of the anthology FEAR ITSELF online. The NBC show makes its debut in the 10pm time slot on May 29.

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The weekend’s big genre release, SUPERHERO MOVIE, failed to perform heroically at the box office. The spoof of costumed crime-fighter battled its way to to distant third place. Making its debut in 2,960 theatres. SUPERHERO MOVIE earned an estimated $9.51-million, well behind 21 and HORTON HEARS A WHO.

As for holdover sci-fi, fantasy, and horror titles…

DR. SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO slipped to #2 after two weekends at #1. The cartoon comedy earned $17.42-million, raising its three-week total to $117.27-million.

SHUTTER closed in sixth place, down from its debut a week ago at third. The remake of an Asian horror film earned $5.33-million in its sophomore session, for a two-week total of $19.1-million.

10,000 B.C. took two steps down the evolutionary ladder from #5 to #7. The prehistoric adventure added $4.875-million to its four-week total of $84.92-million.

Read the complete Top Ten here.

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Scary Movie: Ma Xu Weibang and Song at Midnight (1937): At Kung Fu Cinema, Jean Lukitsh takes a fond look back at “China’s first true horror film,” an adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.

Horror Icon Richard Widmark, 93, Dies: At Cinematical, Peter Martin makes an unconvincing attempt to paint the Hollywood actor as a horror star, based on his well-remembered protrait of grinning evil in KISS OF DEATH. Someone, Martin neglects to mention Widmark’s one true horror film, Hammer Film’s 1976 swan song TO THE DEVIL, A DAUGHTER, co-starring Christopher Lee.

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By Steve Biodrowski

This is a considerable improvement over last year’s EPIC MOVIE - which is not to say that SUPERHERO MOVIE is very good, just that it has a few jokes that are designed to make you laugh because they are funny, not just because you are recognizing a recreation of a familiar scene from a hit movie. Unfortunately, the film has nothing remotely interesting or satirical to say about the genre it is spoofing, so there is little to hold your attention between the gags, which do not arrive at the rapid-fire clip necessary to sustain the laughter through a tired storyline that is simply a cut-and-paste job of SPIDER-MAN, with little bits of BATMAN BEGINS and X-MEN thrown in. The result feels more like a pale imitation - well, like a made-for-television a rip-off, actually - rather than a skillful parody. Still, if you’re forced to see it because you have children who think flatulence jokes are the ultimate in humor, in between bouts of boredom you will occasionally find yourself laughing in spite of your better judgment.

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By Steve Biodrowski

This is an almost unimaginably unfunny piece of drek that makes even the wan SCARY MOVIE 4 look like a comic gem in comparison. With its shotgun-style approach, firing off scatter-shot rounds at anything and everything in its path, it’s absolutely amazing that, just through sheer luck, the film does not hit the target more often. The result is an absolutely dreadful tedium, a fragmented collage of scenes yanked from other movies and just barely tied together with feeble jokes, which leaves you debating which is more painful: the dreary set-ups to the punch lines or the punch lines themselves?

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This fourth entry in the franchise comes nowhere near matching the gross-out of the original SCARY MOVIE, but that doesn’t mean the series has moved toward sophisticated satire - just that the crude sex and scatology jokes are filmed in a way that will earn a PG-13 rating. Despite an infusion of talent once associated with everything from AIRPLANE to HOT SHOTS to THE NAKED GUN, SCARY MOVIE 4 feels tired and worn out - far more tired and worn out that the films it spoofs, which is a really bad sign. Continue Reading »

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After the SCREAM trilogy ran its course, this spoof was a way to keep the money rolling in at the box office. Since the SCREAM movies, contained a healthy dose of self-referential humor, SCARY MOVIE seemed a bit redundant (it’s easier to make fun of movies that take themselves too seriously), yet it turned out to be a colossal success, selling far more tickets than the film it parodies. Why it was so huge is hard to say, except that SCARY MOVIE works on the level of the Farrelly Brothers’ THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY: that is, it seems less interested in being amusing than in being outrageous – if by “outrageous” we mean offensive to those viewers who are not part of the target audience. The appeal seems to lie less in laughter than in respect for the filmmakers’ irreverence as viewers sit back and think, “I can’t believe they showed that!” Continue Reading »

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MyFoxAtlanta.com has some details on the upcoming X-FILES feature film, courtesy of franchise creator Chris Carter and writer Frank Spotnitz:

While this is not a mythology movie, it’s true to everything that’s come before,” Spotnitz said at the William S. Paley Television Festival. “It’s true to Mulder and Scully, who they are and where they would be this point in their lives and all of the experiences that they’ve had.”

The first X-FILES film, FIGHT THE FUTURE, did rely on the television show’s mythology, turning it basically into a somewhat more lavish two-hour episode of the series. Fans were pleased, but initiates were confused, and after a strong start the box office returns trailed off (although it did manage a respectable $83.89-million). Plans for a second film were ditched due to a lawsuit by Carter Against Fox Network over syndication profits.

The new film, which will be directed by Carter, is scheduled for July 25.

Carter, who also directs the new movie, said it takes place in the present and uses a story envisioned when the series ended. While the show’s sprawling alien mythology isn’t part of the plot, Carter said there is a reference to Scully’s seemingly supernatural son, William, who was born in season eight and later given up for adoption.

The title appears to be the subject of some controversy. Says Carter:

“I know what I want it to be, but Fox has some ideas of their own.”

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SUPERHERO MOVIE - the latest in too long a line of obviously named spoofs - opens today without benefit of critics screenings. We will refrain from pointing out the obvious inference, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. The listing for the film at Rotten Tomatoes reveals only one review, posted by Luke Y. Thompson in the OC Weekly blog:

Director Craig Mazin has delivered a groundbreaking, whip-smart comic-book spoof that deftly deconstructs the genre without relying on surface-level parody…it’s called The Specials, and it came out nearly eight years ago. Superhero Movie, which is only Mazin’s second directorial effort, is everything his first film was not: predictable, flat, name-dropping, tragically unhip, and likely to make a decent amount of cash.

Whatever the deficiencies of the movie itself, it has engendered a promotional video that brilliant parodies the infamous Tom Cruise Scientology video. If the whole film were this funny, it would be a comic masterpiece:

Skip the box office lines and buy movie tickets online at Fandango.

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Looking for blockbuster hits released on home video this week? Better look elsewhere, buster, for there are none to be had. However, if your interest lies more towards the esoteric and the unusual, or if you enjoy sifting through the DTV detritus looking for the occasional dusty gem, however flawed, then there are riches aplenty this week. Ironically, the “major” horror release is the least interesting of the bunch: Stephen King’s THE MIST (2007), which despite the possessory title was actually adapted for the screen and directed by Frank Darabont, who made such a hash of it that it flopped miserably when released in theatres last year. That did not prevent the faithful from proclaiming the film an instant classic (in much the same way that the Rodriquez-Tarantino collective blindly overlooked the myriad flaws of GRINDHOUSE). Continue Reading »

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By Steve Biodrowski

This is one of those strange little outgrowths of the horror genre that have been popping up from time to time lately. At this point in their evolution, low-budget horrors are almost inevitably awash in blood and violence, yet there seems to be a realization that there should be something more: a touch of the surreal, perhaps, or a hint of the supernatural. Thus, we get films like NIGHTMARE (2002) and FINGERPRINTS, in which ghost stories cross-pollinate with stalk-and-slash motifs. Even HATCHET, an homage to ’80s slasher films, cultivated an aura of legend around its maniacal killer, implying that Victor Crowley might be the walking dead. SHROOMS is the next off-shoot in this horticultural hybridism, taking the seeds of a standard slasher movie and planting them firmly in the soil of a hallucinatory drug flick, engendering nightmare visions in which the frantic victims seem to be pursued by killer as frightening and unstoppable as the most mythical of monsters.

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One of the great joys about writing for Cinefantastique, was to find that actors like Elijah Wood and directors like Peter Jackson actually enjoyed talking to you! It was thanks to the very good reputation CFQ enjoyed in the biz. So we never had very much difficulty in convincing most fantasy filmmakers to speak with us (with the major exceptions of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.) It was more a case of convincing the studio publicists, who would rather get exposure in The New York Times than in CFQ.

But a young actor like Elijah Wood, was quite happy to talk in detail about his work on Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers to CFQ, so here is part one of my long interview with the amazing Hobbit at the center of the Lord of the Rings saga, Mr. Frodo Baggins… Continue Reading »

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