Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 June.

[ September 18, 2009 to September 20, 2009. ] This computer-animated family fantasy features the voices of Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Bruce Campbell, Andy Samberg, James Caan, Mr. T and Tracy Morgan. The screenplay tells of an aspiring young inventor whose contraptions always go wrong until he finds a method make cloud rain food instead of water. Co-directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller wrote [...]

Courtesy of Fancast, here is our latest free movie, the uncut version of COUNT YORGA – VAMPIRE! (under its original title THE LOVES OF COUNT YORGA). This is a fine example of 1970s exploitation horror at its best – crude but effective, graced with some fine performances, especially the late Robert Quarry in the title [...]

[ July 31, 2009; ] THIRST - the bloody vampire-drama-tragedy from Korean writer-director Park Chan-wook – has been scheduled for a July 31 release in the U.S., courtesy of Universal Studios’s boutique label, Focus Features. Fans of Park’s earlier work (OLD BOY, SYMPATHEY FOR MR. VENGEANCE, LADY VENGEANCE, THREE EXTREMES) will see much that is familiar, but this time the meticulous cinematic [...]

National Public Radio has posted a review of DEAD SNOW, the Norwegian nazi-zombie-horror film that opened today in New York. In the review, titled A Scandinavian Splatterfest, Relishing Its Cliches, Nathan Lee writes:
It may be “Scandinavia’s first Nazi-zombie-horror-slasher-feel-good film” — and sure, there’s a certain novelty to the fact that everyone here is speaking Norwegian [...]

[ June 26, 2009; ] This Norwegian film - about a group of  young people who run afoul of Nazi zombies while on a ski vacation – opened in New York on June 19, but Los Angeles residents do not get to see it until June 26, when it reaches Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatre ( 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046; [...]

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 – the goofy show about an astronaut and his robot friends, forced to watch bad movies aboard an orbiting satellite – was cancelled ten years ago, but thanks to the miracle of home video it lives on. For years, fans circulated home-made videotapes, which helped the cable show reach viewers in cities where the local cable service did not carry it

[ June 19, 2009; ] This stop-motion film featuring offers “slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life.” Directed by Tatia Rosenthal, who co-wrote with Elgar Keret, based on his stories, $9.99 features the voice of Geoffrey Rush as a surly guardian angel looking out for the interests of an unemployed 23-year-old who purchases a book that promises to [...]

A retiree (voice of Barry Otto) learns that guardian angels (Geoffrey Rush) aren't always all that's advertised in $9.99
What with all the “family-oriented” animation that we’re going to be saddled with over the next few months, Tatia Rosenthal’s debut stop-motion animated feature, $9.99, comes as a welcome change. Based on the stories of Etgar Keret [...]

Boswell provided music for HARDWARE (1989)
British composer Simon Boswell has scored films that span a myriad of genres and styles, but it is his work for horror and fantasy cinema that stands out: the mid ‘80s giallo films of Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava, Clive Barker’s masterful horror film, LORD OF ILLUSIONS, the chilling atonality of [...]

Here is the coming attractiosn trailer for THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger about a woman (Rachel McAdams) married to a man (Eric Bana) with an unfortunate disorder that makes him leap through time unpredictably, so that he disappears from her life for long stretches at a time. The film [...]

As part of its promotional campaign for 9, which opens this September 9 (9/9/09 – get it?), Focus Features has launched a website they call the “Scientist’s Lab.” It’s laid out a bit like an old computer video game: you drag your cursor across the screen and click on objects, which open to reveal graphics or [...]

Hollywood Reporter informs us that the surprise success of THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT has engendered a sequel, to be titled THE HAUNTING IN GEORGIA. Rather like SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNSLINGER (the follow-up to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF), this is less a sequel than a remake, reprising a similar situation but with a new cast of [...]

Director Neil Burger effectively evokes a sense of mystery and magic, but the plot grinds too methodically to match the dazzle of the title character’s on-stage illusions.

At the turn of the 20th century, movies and magic were one and the same, thanks to early pioneers like magician-turned-filmmaker George Milies. Cinema was a modern magic lantern [...]