Cinefantastique Online

The voice of Cinefantastique Online. Updates about what is happening on the website, along with opinion and analysis of the state of the horor, fantasy, and science fiction genres.

Old legends never die; they just fade away…
Ray Harryhausen with the Medusa model from the 1981 CLASH OF THE TITANS
Over at NJ.com, Stephen Whitty has an interview-profile of Ray Harryhausen, the legendary special effects maestro responsible for the original version of CLASH OF TITANS. The 90-year-old Harryhausen is a major influence on today’s fantasy filmmakers, [...]

Considering the mythical nature of dragons, you would think they would be th superstars of cinefantastique; instead, they have too often been relegated to supporting status in sub-par films. Fortunately, there are a few good dragon movies out there, and even the dramatic disappointments can feature impressively realized reptiles of mass destruction.

Last week, Bloody-Disgusting.com posted an interview with Simon Oakes, head of the recently revived Hammer Films, who suggested that three of the company’s old properties are under consideration for being remade: THE QUATERMAS XPERIMENT; CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER; and DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE. Or, more precisely, Oakes stated that there was no intention of remaking anything, simply of “reimagining” the characters for the 21st century.

Zoe Saldana is the Wonder Awards choice for Best Actress, in the Best Pic winner, AVATAR.
It’s Sunday, March 7, and everyone is wondering what the winners will be. Well, wonder no more, because here are the official winners of this year’s Cinefantastique Wonder Awards. Oh sure, other people are tuning into the Oscar telecast to [...]

What were the best horror, fantasy, and science fiction films of 2009? Well, we’re here to tell you, with this year’s nominations Cinefantastique’s second annual Wonder Awards. In a year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science broke with tradition by nomination two science fiction films (AVATAR and DISTRICT 9) in multiple categories (including Best [...]

Due to technical difficulties that have recently restricted access to the Internet, yesterday’s Sense of Wonder column – “Conservative critics carp at Avatar (surprise!)“ was written in some haste, omitting a couple of points I wanted to make. I came back to add an update at the bottom, but the length of the comments seemed worthy of [...]

ABC News has a doozy of an “article” titled “The Politics of ‘Avatar:’ Conservatives Attack Film’s Political Message“. I use the quotations marks around the word article, because Huma Khan’s piece is not really a work of reporting; it’s a big megaphone to amplify conservative voices, whether or not they have anything to say. Their views [...]

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
The genre delivered big bang at the box office, blowing most of the competition off the screen.
It’s the end of the year. Time to look back and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the last twelve months worth cinefantastique. Before getting into the artistic side of the equation (a thornier problem [...]

Due to technical difficulties, Cinefantastique Online has had to revert to a blog-type format today. For some reason, the automatically generated links to posts are not working, even though the articles are indeed still there. Manually coded links work (whether on this website or from another sitee), as do links from search engines like Google. [...]

Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog informs us that the long-discussed remake of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN is back in development. Neil Burger (THE ILLUSIONIST) is slated to direct, from a script he is co-writing with Dirk Wittenborn. Few details about the project’s direction are available except that it will differ significantly from previous script that have been developed.

Fancast, which describes itself as the “top entertainment site dedicated to celebrating television,” offers free episodes of television shows like THE INCREDIBLE HULK, THE TWLIGHT ZONE, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, STAR TREK, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and TWIN PEAKS, and such movies as CARNIVAL OF SOULS, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN, and DRESSED TO KILL.

Cinefantastique has a long tradition of inclusiveness when it comes to defining the genres it covers. Most recently, we reviewed the mystery-thriller ANGELS & DEMONS because its plot is built around an anti-matter bomb, which technically makes the film science fiction. Having opened the door on the universe of Dan Brown’s novels, and the films adapted from them, I thought I might as well re-post this rant that I composed upon viewing THE Da VINCI CODE in 2006.

How does Pixar manage to maintain such a phenomenally high quality? We have long since passed the point where the law of averages should have caught up with them, yet like a gambler on a winning streak they keep defying the odds.