Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 August.

We were as surprised as anyone to see Joss Whedon back at Fox with a new series after the FIREFLY debacle of a few years back. And for a while last season, it looked like DOLLHOUSE might suffer the same fate; iffy ratings and a difficult-to-quickly-impart concept has spelled doom for more series than we [...]

1986 saw director John Carpenter at the height of his career; a string of staggering successes charting back to HALLOWEEN and including THE FOG, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING and CHRISTINE represent a creative peak that any director would be jealous of. 1984’s STARMAN not only buoyed the streak; it gave Carpenter the critical raves [...]

Director Phil Claydon’s comedy-horror film, LESBIAN VAMPIRE KILLERS was released on region 2 DVD this week, with no sign of a region 1 release. Mathew Horne and James Corden, fresh from their roles in GAVIN & STACEY star as luckless losers Jimmy and Fletch. Having read many reviews of this film, most of them not [...]

Race to Witch Mountain, Mutant Chronicles, Big Trouble in Little China, Stargate Atlantis: Fans Choice, Ulysses
Since brevity is the soul of wit, we will overlook this week’s numerous direct-to-video releases and ultra obscure cult items in favor of focusing on a handful of higher profile titles. For fans of science fiction and/or Dwayne Johnson, the [...]

Oh dear, oh dear – it would appear that we have been a tad remiss in keeping you up to date with recent happenings in good ole’ blighty. Don’t panic folks! You will no longer be entirely reliant on Google for your news of all things British! I will grab the ‘London After Midnight’ page, [...]

Christopher Smith’s British, comedy, horror, SEVERANCE, is advertised as THE OFFICE meets DELIVERANCE. Mixing genres like this is tricky, as it’s almost impossible to get the balance right: the comedy dilutes the horror and vice versa. Consequently, SEVERANCE is not as funny as THE OFFICE nor as scary as DELIVERANCE, but it still manages to [...]

Recently released on region one DVD, Michael Feifer’s B.T.K. describes itself as ‘a fictional film based on a real character’. That character is the serial killer Dennis L. Rader, who was arrested in March 2005 for the murder of ten people, in a killing spree that spanned two decades. Rader was known as “B.T.K.” because [...]

Steven Spielberg has agreed to direct a remake of HARVEY,  based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Mary Chase. The previous film adaptation, released in 1950, is considered a classic, starring James Stewart as an eccentric man who believes he has a friendship with a 6-foot tall invisible rabbit named Harvey.  The new screenplay is by novelist [...]

Variety reports that Ridley is attached to return as director for an ALIEN prequel, to be scripted by Jon Spaiths. Scott Free will produce the film for 20th Century Fox, home of the franchise. No plot details are available yet.
Spaihts is a buy writer these days. His other genre credits include SHADOW 19, a sci-fi [...]

Variety reports that 88-year-old producer Harry Alan Towers died on July 31 after a short illness. Towers was responsible for a series of exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, often writing screenplays under the psuedonym “Peter Welbeck.” He produced many efforts by cult director Jess Franco and also employed Christopher Lee on many occasions, [...]

Oliver Blackburn’s horror-thriller had only limited release in the U.S. earlier this year, before arriving on DVD in April. The disc’s cover offers a comparison to DEAD CALM; unfortunately,  DONKEY PUNCH is not in the same league with Phillip Noyce’s memorable yacht-based thriller, starring Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane and Sam Neil.
Donkey Punch centers around three [...]

[ August 7, 2009; ] G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA – the feature film based around the popular action figure – opens on August 7. Far from the typical war movie that you might have expected, the film looks like a science-fiction spectacular, complete with a genre friendly cast that includes Dennis Quaid (INNER SPACE), Christopher Eccleston (DR. WHO), Jonathan [...]

[ August 28, 2009 to August 30, 2009. ] Like it or not, the Shape is back once again. Hopefully, this one will be a little more imaginative and a little less blunt and crude than its predecessor. Oh wait, who am I kidding? Director: Rob Zombie. Stars: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell. Studio: Dimension Films.