by Dan Persons

Come to scenic, Mars-based Neo-Venezia, where beautiful, female gondoliers paddle… gondolas and… look beautiful. That’s essentially the gist of the trailer you’ll find here, promoting Rightstuf’s upcoming release of ARIA THE ANIMATION (click the tabs at the left to start the video). Sure looks pretty, in any case.

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I am two months late on this, but I wanted to make a comment regarding this post. Appropos of GIALLO, the latest production from Dario Argento (MOTHER OF TEARS), the Blood-Spattered Scribe remarks:

In a way, Dario Argento is like an absentee father for horror fans. No matter how many times he forgets our birthday, bounces a child support payment, or not show up to take us to the zoo, we still love him because…he’s Dario! Just watching 5 minutes of Suspiria or Bird with the Crystal Plumage and we forget all about…well, just about every other picture over the last 10 years.

I like the absent-father metaphor, but I have to object to the time frame: Argento’s last ten years have not been his best, but they have been a considerable improvement over his work in the ’90s. After the brilliant period that culminated in 1982’s TENEBRE (his masterpiece), Argento delivered over a decade of disappointments, with only an occasional flash of the old brilliance. He seemed on the verge of becoming, like John Carpenter, a filmmaker churning out the same old thing over and over without any new inspiration.

Then in 1998, Argento descended to the absolute nadir of his career with PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - which was almost enough to make even hardcore fans abandon their idol. In retrospect, PHANTOM seems like a brilliant career move - a film so bad that everything afterward, per force, seemed like a comeback. SLEEPLESS was a return to form - not necessarily vintage Argento but close enough to be respectable, and the fine performance by Max Von Sydow certainly helped. THE CARD PLAYER’s depiction of online poker was seriously flawed (it’s supposed to be about matching wits, but it comes across like random chance), but the film was slick and effective. DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK did not feature the expected bravura visual stylings, but the low-key approach was matched with a reasonably effective thriller scenario that avoided overt brutality in favor of an homage to the American master of suspense. And of course, MOTHER OF TEARS trounced the upstart gore films of the new millennium, putting the young upstart filmmakers in their place.

So yes, Argento is like a absent father whose past neglect we overlook because we remember the good times, but over the course of the past ten years he has at least been trying harder to be attentive. So I think we should forget the past and let bygones be bygones - as long as he doesn’t announce plans to make PHANTOM 2.

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by Dan Persons

It’s online, it’s free (until Sunday), and man, is it cool. Spawned from a desire to keep people working during the writer’s strike, Joss Whedon’s serialized, musical, low-budget, love-starved supervillain vs. asshole superhero watchamacallit, DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG is being debuted all this week. Act I is now up, with Act II being released July 17 and Act III on July 19. (Past Sunday, you’ll have to pony up to watch, either through download or eventual DVD release.)

Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day star & sing their hearts out. Catch it here.

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In a snarky post titled “Bloggers 1: Science 0,” coeruleus.blogspot takes aim at the conservative blogosphere’s theory du jour to explain away global warming: the rise in arctic temperatures is due to undersea volcanoes. The post offers an even more radical theory for the melting of arctic ice…

The only flaw I can find in this theory is that Godzilla, being of Japanese origin, tends to spend more time in the Southern hemisphere, closer to Antarctica.

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In anticipation of the Augst 15 theatrical release of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, New York Times offers a profile of George Lucas, who muses on returning to a galaxy far, far away. Although not overtly negative, Dave Itzkoff’s article expresses a certain skepticism about revisiting the STAR WARS franchise, in light of Lucas’s expressed desire to make smaller, more personal films. Basically, there were no takers for 22 completed episodes of a computer-animated CLONE WARS television show - until Lucas opted to produce a feature film version to launch the series. Lucas is also developing a live-action STAR WARS TV series. Continue Reading »

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Variety reports that Relativity Media and Warners Brothers are battling over who will be the first to reach the screen with a big-budget fantasy film based on Greek Myth. Relativity is backing a film called WAR OF THE GODS, which had Warner Brothers had considered backing until they signed Louis Leterrier (THE INCREDIBLE HULK) to direct a remake of 1981’s CLASH OF THE TITANS instead. The CLASH remake had been in development a while but was immediately green-lit upon hiring the director; GODS meanwhile is racing to get started by the end of the year, with Tarsem Singh (THE CELL) directing from a script by Charley and Vlas Parlapanides. Unfortuantely, it sounds as if both films Continue Reading »

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The Spenborough Guardian offers up an interesting piece, “Horror Films for Parents? Be Very Afraid,” in which Adam Wolstenholme muses on his change in attitude toward horror films since growing up and becoming a parent.

If adolescence made body horror more powerful, parenthood does the same for horror films that deal with children.
The makers of scary films are shrewd sadists who delve beneath our rational defences and plumb the dark, primal swamp beneath. And they have made much use of our anxieties about kids.

The Exorcist is ostensibly about a child who becomes possessed by the Devil. But what parent of daughters cannot respond to the film’s subtext - the disturbing suggestion that your cute little poppet will one day morph into a highly-sexed, potty-mouthed tyrant?

Wolstenholme also references THE FLY, THE SHINING, and CARRIE in his brief but worthwhile essay.

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Hollywood Reporter opines that Oscar Season unofficially begins with the release of Pixar’s computer-generated animated sci-fi film WALL-E, which critics seem to be embracing with rabid enthusiasm:

The critics are just beginning to weigh in on “Wall-E” — the Village Voice’s Robert Wilonsky has already called it “both breathtakingly majestic and heartbreakingly intimate” — but the buzz surrounding the film about a lovelorn robot already is so heady, there’s no doubt it will be the movie to beat for best animated film. The bigger question is whether it might become a candidate for a best picture slot.

At one point last year, director Brad Bird wanted to position his “Ratatouille” in the best picture heat, but he was convinced to focus on the best animated film category, which it handily won while also picking up noms in four other categories.

But if today’s moviegoers warm to “Wall-E” the way an earlier generation embraced “E.T. the Extra-Terrestial,” then the latest Pixar effort could find itself contending with the big boys for best picture.

In any event, the photo-real, computer-animated “Wall-E” should dominate the animation arena, which given the number of films expected to be released this year should yield three Oscar nominees.

There was some griping earlier this year when Pixar’s previous critical and audience favorite RATATOIULLE was not nominated in the Best Picture Category. Oscar voting is notoriously driven by considerations beyond quality, with nominees receiving awards because they were percieved to be snubbed for previous Oscar-worthy work. I would be willing to be that, with the momentum from RATATOUILLE, Pixar’s WALL-E will at least be nominated in the Best Picture category next year.

UPDATE: While we’re on the subject of how good WALL-E is, here is Variety reviewer Todd McCarthy’s assessment:

Pixar’s ninth consecutive wonder of the animated world is a simple yet deeply imagined piece of speculative fiction. Despite the decade-plus since its inception, “WALL-E” is a film very much of its moment, although in a cheeky, uninsistent way; it has plenty to say, but does so in a light, insouciant manner that allows you to take the message or leave it on the table. Adroitly borrowing from many artistic sources and synthesizing innumerable influences, Pixar stalwart Andrew Stanton’s first directorial outing since “Finding Nemo” walks a fine line between the rarefied and the immediately accessible as it explores new territory for animation, yet remains sufficiently crowd-pleasing to indicate celestial B.O. for this G-rated summer offering.

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CCTV.com brings us news of Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark’s latest film, MISSING, which is described as a combination of romance and horror, vaguely akin to GHOST. It’s about an underwater photographer who mysteriously disappears. His psycho sister begins tormenting his fiance, but his ghost intervenes to protect the bereaved woman. According to Liu Fang:

The first half of the flick is rife with horror and suspense. In its latter scenes the horrific elements are set aside, and the story becomes moving.

Tsui’s film emphasizes the psychological stress on the characters as the action unfolds.

Tsui started shooting “Missing” three years ago. He was inspired by a documentary about an ancient sunken city. The city is located at Yonaguini Island, at the westernmost tip of Japan. The 10,000 year old city was unknown to the world until its ruins were found by a diver in 1986. The ruins also touched Tsui’s environmental spirit.

[…]

Although the film is categorized as “horror”, many people coming out of theaters said horror-flick fans are likely to be disappointed. But people who like love stories would think it was wonderful - as long as they survived the horror scenes at the beginning.

It’s always nice to know that Hark is up to something new. In the ’80s and ’90s, he produced and/or directed a string of widly entertaining films, including many fantasy efforts: ZU, WARRIORS OF THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN; A CHINESE GHOST STORY; GREEN SNAKE; THE SWORDSMAN. Unfortunately, his work in the new millennium has not been up to par: Tsui Hark’s VAMPIRE HUNTERS was a disappointment, and ZU WARRIORS (a remake of the older ZU film) was virtually unwatchable. (By way of comparison, THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, which plays like an American knock-off of a Tsui Hark production, was much better than the ZU remake.)

Hopefully, MISSING will find Hark back on track.

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This strikes me as odd: Vincent Price, the late, great horror movie star who died back in the ’90s, is about to become the subject of a series of comic books. The series, titled “Vincent Price Presents,” will feature the actor “in a myriad of roles including host, muse, background player, and protagonist,” according to the official press release.

The series, from Blue Water Productions, is being written by Chad Helder, who has a nice blog called Unspeakable Horror. The first issue is scheduled to debut in October, naturally, to coincide with Halloween.

Read the press release below the fold. Continue Reading »

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Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily has a hysterical piece of gossip about former New Line topper Bob Shaye’s relationship with the IRON MAN film. According to the post:

Years ago, New Line had an option on the property, but the film never got out of the planning stage because Shaye insisted that Iron Man should not fly (regardless of the fact that this was an established part of the comic book). The option lapsed, and Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad self-financed the blockbuster movie that came out this summer.

The story does not end there, however. Shaye was so convinced that a flying IRON MAN would bomb that he tried to short sell some Marvel stock. Short selling is a process whereby you borrow and sell stock at the current price but don’t actually pay for it until later; the strategy is to sell at the current high price on the assumption that the price you pay later will be much lower.

Of course, IRON MAN became a big hit, and Marvel stock went up. Instead of cutting his loses, Shaye hung in, hoping that THE INCREDIBLE HULK would drag the stock back down. Instead, INCREDIBLE HULK became another hit.

Is all this true? The post is thinly sourced (it is supposedly a story that Shaye himself told to some “close pals”). We pass it on to you for your consideration.

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Variety columnist Anne Thompson offers ten reasons for the financial failings of SPEED RACER. Click below the fold to see what they were. Continue Reading »

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Gary Susman of EW.com asks the perhaps unanswerable question, “Who else remembers KRULL?” At least, it’s not a question that many people would be willing to answer in the affirmative. However, he points us to this discussion at the House Next Door blog, in which a handful of enthusiasts discuss the film at length.

Shorter version: The hero and/or the actor playing him is a wimp. The music by James Horner is awesome, as is Lysette Anthony’s cleavage. Uwe Boll should probably direct a remake. And, most important whatever its flaws, KRULL is a kind of fantasy film that Hollywood would not dare make today (an original story not based on a pre-existing property with a loyal fan-base). Continue Reading »

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Inspired by the release of THE HAPPENING, National Public Radio offers up, “Eco-Horror: Green Panic on the Silver Screen?” - which analyzes what may be an emerging trend in horror films. Originally, an audio piece, the NPR website offers a partial transcript:

Of course, movies with environmental themes are nothing new. Back in the ’70s — another era defined by an oil crisis and discussions of alternative energy — movie audiences entertained themselves with disaster movies (Earthquake) and creature features (Prophecy, Frogs).

What makes today’s eco-horrors different is that the entire planet is seen as vengeful and malevolent towards its human inhabitants. Film scholar Kendall Phillips compares this crop of films to an old genre favorite: haunted-house movies in which the house becomes a kind of character.

“They’re just expanding that so literally; the ecosphere plays that kind of menacing role,” Phillips says. “Somehow, the planet has grown tired of us. We’ve overstayed our welcome.”

Speaking of THE HAPPENING, ReadingEagle.com has posted a nice interview with M. Night Shyamalan, “Call Him Paranoid,” from New York Times syndicate writer Ian Spelling. Unlike other recent articles about the writer-director’s new movie, this one actually has lots to say about the movie. Citing INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and THE BIRDS as influences, Shyamalan explains the genesis for THE HAPPENING:

“I’d had this idea,” Shyamalan says, “and it stuck with me, the tone of it, in my head. It was this feeling of something happening and you don’t understand what’s going on, and you’re feeling more and more trapped in the situation. You’re unable to get out and your nagging belief of what’s happening is so irrational and so bizarre that it can’t be true.

“All that paranoia was in my head.”

In his “Science Snapshot” column at USA Today, writer Dan Vergano interviews Shyamalan in regards to the scientific basis for  THE HAPPENING:

A: Well, we spent last year talking to scientists and developing ideas for The Happening and it has been fun. The way it really worked is that the story is science-based. I had the idea for the movie and then I asked a research assistant to check into it. “Go tell me if I just made up that part of a consciousness, a rabid ability to defend itself in the environment?” I asked her. And she came back with this stack of research papers. Often a story is loosely based on something you heard somewhere in a conversation and then you have see if it will work.

Obviously, we were heavily influenced by the scientist James Lovelock in looking at the evidence.

Note: Scientist James Lovelock first published the outlines of the “Gaia” hypothesis, which suggests that Earth’s flora and fauna are interlocked to systematically moderate conditions in Earth’s atmosphere to make the planet more hospitable, a controversial idea best known from his 1979 book, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth.

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Here are a couple reviews of Shyamalan’s latest fear-fest:

Shyamalan offers a horror film with plenty to laugh at

If M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, “The Happening,” only cost $500 to produce, was made on scratchy 16mm film and cast the late Bela Lugosi, it would be a thousand times more charming than the utter disaster it is now.

What’s the Twist?

The opening of a new movie by writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is occasion for two linked questions: Will there be a twist ending? And has he managed to return to the levels of genius shown in his breakout film, 1999’s The Sixth Sense? Alas, this time the answer to both is the same: Not really.

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