Cinefantastique Online

You are browsing the archives of 2009 September.

Oliver Parker’s 2009 film DORIAN GRAY, adapted from Oscar Wilde’s classic 1890 novel  The Picture of Dorian Gray, has no scheduled U.S. release date, so are film fans in the U.S. missing a treat, or is this a blessing in disguise? Starring Ben Barnes as Dorian and Colin Firth as his friend and cohort Henry [...]

Released on Monday 7th September on DVD in the U.K., FIRE & ICE: THE DRAGON CHRONICLES was made by MediaPro Pictures and The Sci-fi Channel, and directed by CATWOMAN director Pitof. Anyone expecting a fantastical spectacle of fantasy and adventure, with amazing mythical dragons and state of the art special effects is going to be sorely [...]

Declaring that “nothing before has been as big, as bold and as bloody” GRIMM UP NORTH is a brand new horror festival that takes place at The Odeon Printworks in Manchester, England from 30th October to 1st of November. This festival will screen over 30 films and is advertising red carpet premieres with special guest appearances, and previews of the gaming industry’s hottest unreleased titles. There’ll also be a Zombie Ball where you can kill some time with the Halloween Horror Hunt and other bloodcurdling entertainment.

Recently released on Region 2 DVD, with no sign of a region 1 release, HUSH is a nerve-shredding journey of kidnapping and horror. In spite of the fact that the lead character makes some strange choices that will have you yelling at the screen in frustration, HUSH is a good, entertaining, and brutal journey.
Filmed in [...]

Steven Sheil’s MUM & DAD was shot in seventeen days, on a micro-budget of only £100,000, yet the 2008 release manages to stands up as one of the best British horrors in recent years. How did Sheil pull off this amazing feat? Cinefantastique Online’s British correspondend Deborah Louse Robinson was lucky enough to collar the writer and [...]

Rob Grant’s 2009 zombie film YESTERDAY was filmed three years ago in the summer of 2006. Grant and three of his college graduate friends managed to cobble together the $12,000 Canadian budget – a tiny amount in the movie world. Shooting on 16mm with an inexperienced crew for 31 days, the team worked tirelessly after [...]

It is with sorrow that we note the passing of Erich Kunzel at the age seventy-four. On September 1, 2009 the celebrated conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for well over thirty years was struck down by “cancer of the pancreas, liver and colon,” according to Chris Pinelo, a spokesman for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, [...]

Last February, I suggested on this site that Roger Corman was a director and a producer who the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should consider honoring with a special Oscar. Today, the Academy’s Board of Governors (to my great surprise and delight) have decided to heed that [...]

As the Mayhem Horror Festival draws ever closer, the line-up of brilliant movies is now locked in place. Unfortunately due to conflicting schedules, they’ve had to drop I SELL THE DEAD. Not that this should impact them too much, as there is still plenty for the discerning horror fan to get his/her fangs into.
In addition [...]

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is Quentin Tarantino’s grim and gruesome fairy tale version of WWII.
“Once upon a time.”
Four fun little words that are intended to let us know that we’re being led into a tale of fakery and many times sheer magical fantasy. You know, with talking animals or mystical creatures or such. Yet I’ve seen many [...]

The feature film version of 9 – expanded from Shane Acker’s earlier short subject – is one of the most amazing visual experiences you will enjoy inside a cinema this year – for about the first ten minutes. Acker immediately introduces you to – and immerses you in – an imaginative fantasy world – dark, [...]

The original short subject 9, on which the new feature film is based, is a cryptic little gem. Without the time to develop its premise fully into a dramatic story, writer-director Shane Acker instead presents an eerie vignette that throws us into a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. Without dialogue or exposition, Acker’s film leaves us to [...]

Would it surprise you that Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov were co-producers on this project? Would it further surprise you that the CG animated film — directed by newcomer Shane Acker, based on his deservedly highly-praised short film has tons of grotty atmosphere and an overall dark attitude?