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Post by kittygobonkers on Nov 1, 2005 19:17:16 GMT
oh now Alien was scary i love that film and the sequels, although not as good as the first, were brilliant. I watched Alien vs Predetor the other day and that was terrible. The Exorcist was probably scary back when it was first released but its lost its edge thanks to all the gore fests we have to endure today
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Post by DreamDangerously on Nov 1, 2005 19:53:43 GMT
I think it's actually a pretty challenging concept....they were discussing the film on the Ultimate Scary Movie documentary and sort of saying, well think about it, the concept that the Devil has no morality and doesn't give a crap that he's using this innocent harmless little girl to do the most vile things. That's pretty horrifying. The book is excellent.
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tituscrow
Senior Hexen
...as i fly
beware the dweller!!
Posts: 924
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Post by tituscrow on Nov 2, 2005 13:15:40 GMT
true, most times i prefer the books to the films because you get to create it how you want to in your head
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Post by kittygobonkers on Nov 2, 2005 17:53:50 GMT
I've read the Exorcist, fantastic book much better that watching the film i must say.
I love any films that involve the devil and the church....whats that one with Arnie...End of Days, the devil takes human form and tries to impregnate some girl yadda yadda yadda great stuff hehehe.
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Post by fenris on Apr 27, 2008 15:36:42 GMT
A couple of years ago, one of the horror movie websites that I regularly visit ran several news items about an independent, low budget British film called StagKnight. A horror-comedy, the movie was about a combined paintballing weekend/stag party (complete with strippers) in the middle of a forest, interrupted by a supernaturally-resurrected armoured knight. StagKnight boasted a slick and impressive official website, and the news-site I frequented reported that filming had been completed, the movie was in post-production, and the producers were hopeful of a cinema release both in the UK and America. And then... nothing. The movie just seemed to slip off the radar.
Until now.
StagKnight is debuting on the Zone Horror channel on 02/05/08 at 22:55, having bypassed cinemas and DVD althogether. Another example of how hard it's become for independent film-makers to get decent distribution in today's market.
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Post by fenris on Apr 28, 2008 19:27:42 GMT
An upcoming American horror flick entitled Banshee!!! has also caught my eye. It's a low budget production in which a group of students on a road trip get stranded in the middle of nowhere, and blah blah, scream scream, kill kill, etc. (I'm a huge horror movie fan, but I'll be the first to admit that the genre scores little when it comes to originality.) The trailer (link below) looks encouraging, with the title creature being particularly impressive. I'm getting a nice Jeepers Creepers vibe from this - and I mean the first Jeepers Creepers, not the misconceived sequel. Enjoy; www.joblo.com/video/arrow/player.php?video=BANSHEE
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Post by fenris on May 16, 2008 20:55:22 GMT
An upcoming independent horror movie that might be of interest to Hex fans is Chainsaw Cheerleaders (now that's a title which gleefully knows no shame). Popular cult film actress Tiffany Shepis plays a medieval witch who escapes being burned at the stake by using magic to time-travel to present-day America. Four lesbian cheerleaders try to stop her spreading her evil in the modern world. Also in the cast is another horror movie icon, the lovely Debbie Rochon. Here's a link to an article about the film, including the trailer; fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=6542
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Post by fenris on Jun 20, 2008 21:47:06 GMT
I've always been fascinated by urban legends, especially those that lend themselves to horror movie storylines (needless to say, the three films in the Urban Legends series are particular favourites of mine). A new movie that's recently appeared on my radar is Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, which is based on a fairly recent urban myth that originated in Long Island, New York, about the murderous ghost of a female serial killer. It stars genre veteran Danielle Harris, best known for appearing as a child actress in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and Halloween 5 (1989), then returning to the series all grown up (but still remarkably looking like a teenager) in Rob Zombie's recent remake of the first Halloween. Here's a link to Blood Night's official MySpace page, which includes a trailer; www.myspace.com/bloodnightmovie
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Post by fenris on Jul 16, 2008 19:45:44 GMT
Yet another Eighties horror movie is being remade (!). This time it's Night of the Demons, which was never actually a major success, but it developed a cult following which resulted in two sequels - Night of the Demons II and Night of the Demons III (the latter was retitled Demon House in the UK). Amelia Kincade starred in all three films as demonic villainess Angela, tormenting, killing and enslaving any unwary teens who ventured into a haunted mansion called Hull House. Apart from the sequels, Night of the Demons also directly inspired several other films: Full Moon's Witchouse trilogy ( Witchouse, Witchouse II: Blood Coven, and Witchouse III: Demon Fire) featuring a demon-witch named Lilith; The Convent, in which the titular establishment is full of possessed nuns; and more recently The Hazing (retitled Dead Scared in the UK). The editors of British indie horror magazine Gorezone are also big fans of the Night of the Demons series, and seem to find ways to mention the films in every issue. The only confirmed news about the remake so far concerns the cast. Monica Keena (who's previously had leading roles in Freddy vs Jason & Left in Darkness) and Diora Baird will both be starring, and the role of Angela will be played by Shannon Elizabeth. Elizabeth first came to the attention of horror fans about ten years ago, when she appeared in Jack Frost, a cheap & cheerful movie about a killer snowman. Shortly thereafter she achieved mainstream success with her roles in Scary Movie, American Pie, American Pie 2 and 13 Ghosts, and also did some very revealing photoshoots for several lads mags. A promising A list career (and sex symbol status) seemed certain... but then several years ago she just kinda disappeared. Hopefully her role in the Night of the Demons remake will spark a comeback for her. Here's a link to more info; www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=12984
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Post by fenris on Aug 26, 2008 19:42:41 GMT
One of my all-time favourite horror movie series is the Maniac Cop trilogy, all of which were directed by William Lustig and written/produced by Larry Cohen, with actor Robert Z'Dar starring in all three films as vengeful dead NYC police officer Matt Cordell. Maniac Cop (1988) was a gritty police thriller with strong horror overtones, which actually got a wide cinema release in the UK. As did Maniac Cop 2 (1990), a colourful action/horror hybrid which despite it's low budget boasted several large-scale, jaw-dropping stunt sequences that put major Hollywood studio blockbusters to shame. The final film, Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993) went straight to video on both sides of the Atlantic, and was another departure - a dark, atmospheric tale of urban gothic. Lustig and Cohen planned another sequel in the mid-Nineties - Maniac Cop: The Resurrection - in which a rookie police officer was going to inherit Cordell's old badge number and subsequently become possessed by the Maniac Cop's spirit. But they failed to secure enough financing and the project was abandoned (an unrelated movie called The Force later used a similar plot). Lustig and Cohen instead made a spin-off movie called Uncle Sam, about a soldier killed by friendly fire during Operation Desert Storm who rises from his grave on the Fourth of July and reeks murderous havoc in his small home town. However, Lustig (who for the last decade has been in charge of the cult American DVD label Blue Underground) has just announced that he and Cohen are currently developing a third Maniac Cop sequel. Whether it will use the Resurrection storyline or utilize an entirely new script is currently unknown. Here's a link to more info; www.fangoria.com/news_article.php?id=7163
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Post by fenris on Sept 2, 2008 19:50:16 GMT
The latest film from Albert Pyun (who has directed numerous low budget sci-fi and action movies) is Road to Hell, which is being marketed as an unofficial sequel to Walter Hill's cult favourite Streets of Fire (1984). In Streets of Fire, Michael Pare played ex-soldier Tom Cody, who received an urgent telegram from his sister (played by Deborah Van Valkenburgh) and returned to his home town to rescue his kidnapped ex-girlfriend, singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane). Aiding Cody was his female sidekick McCoy (Amy Madigan). Road to Hell has Pare playing an ex-soldier called 'Cody', who's returning across the desert to his hometown of Edge City, when he encounters a pair of female spree-killers (one of whom is played by Buffy's Claire Kramer). Van Valkenburgh is also in the cast, playing 'Sister'. Other characters include a brunette singer called 'Ellen' and a woman named 'McCoy', with both roles recast. Well, since we're never going to get an official sequel, I'll happily settle for this. Road to Hell is apparently in post-production and will be going straight to DVD. Here's a link to the movie's website: www.roadtohellmovie.com/
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Post by fenris on Dec 29, 2008 20:04:08 GMT
Have just found out about a new independently-made horror film that sounds very promising. It's called Dark Reel, and after receiving rave reviews after being screened at several film festivals in America, it's being released on Region 1 DVD on 10/03/09.
Dark Reel boasts a great cast of genre regulars: Lance Henrikson, Tracey Walter, B movie scream queen Tiffany Shepis (playing a B movie scream queen called Cassie Blue), Tony Todd, Edward Furlong, Alexandra Holden, and even a cameo by special effects legend Rick Baker.
The story concerns a horror movie fan named Adam (Furlong) who wins a walk-on part in a new film in a competition. However, members of the cast and crew begin to fall victim to a bizarre serial killer, and not only does Adam find himself suspected of the murders by the investigating detective (Todd), but he starts seeing glimpses of an eerie figure that he eventually believes is the ghost of a 1950s starlet called Scarlett May (Holden), whose murder was never solved.
Sounds like my kind of film. Unfortunately there's currently no news of a Region 2 release.
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Post by fenris on Mar 28, 2009 17:34:13 GMT
Not many people know that Disney once made a horror film. Sort of...
Historically, the majority of Disney's live-action movies have been comedies and fantasy films, all intended for a family audience. Well known examples include Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Flubber (followed by a sequel, Son of Flubber), The Shaggy Dog, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, the Herbie movies, etc. However, in the late Seventies and early Eighties, the House of Mouse flirted with making slightly more serious and darker family films. The spy/action thriller The London Connection, sci-fi bandwagon jumper The Black Hole, the Witch Mountain series, and the surprising bleak and gritty Depression-era road movie The Journey of Natty Gann were produced during this period. Which brings us to The Watcher in the Woods.
Based on a novel published in 1976, Watcher was filmed in England and tells the story of an American family who move into a country cottage and make the acquaintance of their elderly next door neighbour, played by Bette Davis. The oldest of the family's two daughters (portrayed by teenage professional ice skater turned actress Lynn-Holly Johnson) starts to notice some strange events in the surrounding woods (lights and unexplained sounds) which swiftly escalate into a series of un-nerving visions and seemingly paranormal phenomenon. Johnson comes to believe that these events are connected to Davis's daughter, who vanished without trace several decades earlier. It eventually transpires that (spoiler font) an occult ritual carried out by the local children as a dare during a solar eclipse caused a portal to open to another dimension. Davis's daughter was sucked through, while an alien creature was deposited here, and both have been trapped ever since. With another eclipse fast approaching, the phenomenon are the creature's attempts to persuade Johnson and the original children (now middle-aged and still traumatised to varying degrees by their friend's disappearance) to re-create the events of that night, so that the creature can return to it's own dimension and rescue Davis's daughter.
Unfortunately, having agreed to make a dark, supernatural movie, Disney then appeared to chicken out, and the shoot was apparently interrupted by many heated arguments between the producer and various Disney executives, with the latter calling for the material to be softened and made lighter. To make matters worse, Disney also decided to bring the films release date forward, to capitalise on the 50th anniversary of Bette Davis's first movie. As a result, Watcher's climax, a fifteen minute long special effects sequence in which (spoiler font) Johnson and the creature travel into the other dimension and discover Davis's daughter, unaged and in held in suspended animation inside a wrecked spaceship, couldn't be completed in time. Disney decided to leave this sequence unfinished and instead substituted a six minute long ending in which (spoiler font) the creature and Johnson both vanish, with the latter promptly returning with Davis's daughter a few seconds later, without any proper explanation of what just happened or where Davis' daughter has been for all those years. Upon the film's release in 1980, audiences found the ending too confusing, so Disney swiftly yanked Watcher out of cinemas and re-released it in 1981 with yet another ending, in which (spoiler font) the creature is just a pillar of light, and Johnson remains in our world, with Davis's daughter simply re-appearing out of thin air. It is this 'official' version of the film that has been subsequently shown on TV and was released on VHS.
A few years ago, Anchor Bay hoped to release a Director's Cut of Watcher on DVD, with the previously-unseen 15 minute original ending restored, but after much interference from Disney, the DVD (sadly only available on Region 1) eventually featured the 1981 'official' version of the movie, with the original ending and the 1980-release ending included as extras. The 1980 ending can be seen on YouTube, and (spoiler font) although the creature is clearly an elaborate puppet, it's still bloody creepy and genuinely otherworldly.
The Watcher in the Woods is being shown on BBC2 at 13:10 this coming Tuesday (31/03/09), and even in it's diluted form it's still a very eerie and effective little film.
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Post by fenris on Jun 1, 2009 22:14:42 GMT
Here's a link (below) to an article and trailer for an upcoming direct-to-DVD movie entitled Legend of the Bog. Starring Vinnie Jones and The Descent & Doomsday actress Nora-Jane Noone, it was filmed in Ireland and seems to be a cross between two of my favourite monster movies: Rawhead Rex (1987) which was an adaptation of Clive Barker's short story, also set in Ireland; and the more recent Man-Thing, based on the cult Marvel comic book series about a swamp creature. www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=16870
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Post by fenris on Jul 8, 2009 18:56:10 GMT
An upcoming American horror flick entitled Banshee!!! has also caught my eye. It's a low budget production in which a group of students on a road trip get stranded in the middle of nowhere, and blah blah, scream scream, kill kill, etc. Banshee is being screened on Zone Horror at 22:55 this coming Saturday (11/07/09), and repeated on Sunday (12/07/09) at 21:00.
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