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Post by fenris on Feb 28, 2011 16:57:33 GMT
Following on the coat-tails of Solomon Kane and Black Death is the upcoming Ironclad, a UK independent production which chronicles the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in the year 1215. I must confess that I completely lost track of Ironclad's development, and have only recently found out that it's being released into UK cinemas this Friday (04/03/11). Here's a link to the official trailer; www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tpqF-zXuU |
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Post by fenris on Mar 20, 2011 15:42:18 GMT
Have recently discovered and watched a low-budget entry in the current wave of medieval horror/action movies (Solomon Kane, Black Death and Season of the Witch). It's called Dark Relic, and concerns a group of Crusader knights being pursued by supernatural forces as they return to Europe from the Holy Land. It was commissioned by the (American) Syfy channel, and the premiere screening took place in late March 2010 (about the same time that Season of the Witch was originally supposed to be released in cinemas, suggesting that Dark Relic was at least partly conceived as a cash-in).
I'll get around to writing a review at some point, but in the meantime here's a full synopsis of Dark Relic that I've submitted to the IMDB, though I currently don't know if they're going to accept it. As I've described the storyline of the movie in detail, I've placed it in spoiler font;
The Holy Land, 1099AD. The end of the first Crusade. When the conflict began, Christian knight Sir Gregory lead over a hundred men, but now less than ten remain. They include his squire Paul, a friar named George, and the arrogant Sir Robert. George and Sir Gregory discover a holy relic - a fragment of the True Cross that still oozes the blood of Christ. The knights embark on a journey to Rome, to present the relic to the Pope, but the ship they have chartered is battered by a sudden storm that kills the crew and causes the vessel to run aground. Continuing their journey overland, the knights come across three Turkish warriors (two swordmen and a female archer) and two pilgrims (a woman named Rebecca and an un-named man) being attacked by bandits. The knights rush to their aid, and after a brief fight all the bandits are killed. Grateful, the Turks' leader introduces himself as Hasan and the archer as his wife, Safa. They insist on accompanying Sir Gregory and his men on their journey, and the pilgrims also join the group. That night, the male pilgrim and one of the knights both go missing, and are discovered the next morning hanging upside down from a tree, their bodies horribly butchered. Later that day, hundreds of dead birds rain down upon the travellers, and when night falls they are attacked by ravenous wolves. One of the knights is knocked to the ground and dragged off screaming to his death. Meanwhile, Sir Robert becomes ill and feverish after a splinter from the relic becomes lodged in his finger. The next day, the group arrive at a farmhouse and are offered food and shelter by the farmer and his young daughter. Suddenly a swarm of locusts appears from nowhere and descends upon them, but while the travellers retreat into the farmhouse for safety, the farmer and his daughter rush outside to try to save their livestock from the swarm. After a few minutes the swarm leaves, and the travellers emerge to discover that the farmer and his daughter are dead, their bodies stripped to the bone. Sir Gregory realises that dark forces are pursuing them, intent on destroying the relic. Hasan suggests they seek advice from the monks in a nearby monastery. The group travel to the monastery, where the Abbot examines the fragment and declares that the forces of darkness are not trying to destroy it. Instead, the relic is cursed and Evil is being drawn to it. Suddenly the Abbot and the other monks are possessed by a demonic force and they attack the travellers. After a violent struggle the monks are all killed, but the third Turk and one of the knights are also slain. Hasan tries to destroy the relic by throwing it into a fire, but it refuses to burn. George announces that it must be indestructible. Sir Gregory realises that the fragment only began attracting Evil after it was removed from the Holy Land. He theorizes that the only place it can be safely kept is where they first found it, and they must journey back there. Sir Gregory tells Rebecca that it is too dangerous for her to remain with them, and offers to instruct Paul to accompany her wherever she wants to go. Rebecca rejects the idea, telling him that she has no home to return to, and Sir Gregory suggests that if they survive, they could share his home in England. That night, as the group retrace their steps, the trees and bushes around them burst into flame, and a winged, fire-breathing demon swoops down out of the sky. It attacks the travellers, killing George and one of the knights. Taking his wife's bow and arrows, Hasan ties an amulet that bears a holy Muslim symbol to an arrowhead and fires it at the creature. The arrow wounds the beast, and it flies away. Rebecca suggests that a siege weapon could be powerful enough to kill the demon. The next day, Sir Robert - infected with evil from the splinter - suddenly attacks Safa. Hasan restrains him, and the travellers tie him up and carry him on a makeshift stretcher. That night, the group make camp close to a cliff top. Sir Robert bursts his bonds, tentacles erupt from his body, and he uses them to begin to strangle Paul. Hasan hacks off the tentacles with his sword and Sir Gregory forces Sir Robert over the edge of the cliff. The next morning the group search the valley below for Sir Robert's body, but there is no sign of him. Suddenly there is a rockslide and Paul is crushed to death beneath a boulder. Only Sir Gregory, Rebecca, Hasan and Safa are left. Continuing their journey, they arrive at a walled town and discover that it is unoccupied, apart from a young man called Simon who reveals that he has a siege weapon - a large crossbow, mounted on a wheeled platform. The group are suddenly ambushed by Sir Robert, who swiftly kills Simon, Hasan and Safa. Sir Gregory picks up Hasan's swords and decapitates Sir Robert, finally destroying him. Rebecca and Sir Gregory decide to lay a trap for the demon. Using the skills her late blacksmith father taught her, Rebecca forges four oversized arrowheads, which Sir Gregory then soaks in Christ's blood, drained from the relic. That night the demon appears, and Rebecca uses the siege weapon to fire two of the oversized arrows into the beast, wounding but not killing it. The creature attacks Sir Gregory, and he yells for Rebecca to throw him the relic. She does so and he shoves the fragment into the demon's gaping mouth, then uses a well-placed punch to lodge it deep in the monster's throat. The knight and the pilgrim scramble for cover as the demon explodes, destroying the relic in the process. Safe at last, Sir Gregory and Rebecca kiss.
Recognisable faces amongst Dark Relic's cast include James Frain as Sir Gregory, Samuel West as George, Demons and Trinity's Christian Cooke as Paul, and Clemency Burton-Hill (who's got form when it comes to sword & sorcery, having previously starred in Dungeons & Dragons: Wraith of the Dragon God) as Rebecca.
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Post by fenris on May 7, 2011 13:12:49 GMT
Following on the coat-tails of Solomon Kane is Ironclad, a UK independent production which chronicles the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in the year 1215. It's being released into UK cinemas this Friday (04/03/11). Here's a link to the official trailer; www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tpqF-zXuU has been given a re-edited, action-packed trailer for it's upcoming US release (reportedly in July). Here's a link. |
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Post by fenris on Jul 1, 2011 13:59:23 GMT
Judging by the latest trailer for his upcoming version of The Three Musketeers (see below), director Paul Anderson has taken what can only be described as a steampunk approach to the material... though 'steampunk' isn't strictly accurate, considering that the movie is set before steam-power was developed. I've always found Anderson to be something of a puzzle. He's clearly a talented director with a good visual eye, and he certainly knows how to construct a decent action sequence. Yet practically all of his films so far have ultimately been bland and forgettable. Hopefully The Three Musketeers will be the exception to this rule. I must confess I'm looking forward to it. As far as I'm concerned, the movie has yet to be made that couldn't be improved by having a climatic airship battle. Link to the trailer. |
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Post by fenris on Jul 12, 2011 15:36:18 GMT
From the SFX website; Johnny Depp could shift from playing a vampire to hunting them. He is currently shooting Dark Shadows, the Tim Burton directed remake of the ’60s and ’70s US supernatural soap opera, in which he plays vampire Barnabas Collins. But if Deadline is to be believed, Disney also wants him to star as Carl Kolchak, a journalist who investigates the supernatural, in a movie version of the ’70s US TV series The Night Stalker.
The Night Stalker was the show that Chris Carter unashamedly credits as being a major influence on The X-Files. It began as a 1972 TV movie starring the legendary Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a reporter whose murder investigation leads him to a vampire. A second TV movie followed in 1973, The Night Strangler, with the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker following a year later. There was a terrible, and short-lived, TV remake (just called Night Stalker) in 2005, starring Stuart (“I was nearly Aragorn, you know”) Townsend.
According to Deadline, Depp himself, who has fond memories of the TV movie, pitched the idea to Disney with his producing partner Christi Dembrowski, and the film would specifically be an adaptation of the first TV movie.SourceReally excited by this news. I'm a huge fan of the original Night Stalker movie, it's sequel The Night Strangler and the subsequent Kolchak: The Night Stalker series (which I personally consider to be still the best genre TV series ever made). I also liked the 2005 Night Stalker revival series starring Stuart Townsend, despite it being hampered by bizarre network constraints (the suits vetoed any monsters, and also insisted on an unnecessary X-Files-style ongoing story arc). And I used to eagerly buy the various Kolchak comic books published by Moonstone, until changes to my financial situation forced me to make cutbacks. |
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Post by fenris on Jul 13, 2011 13:48:22 GMT
Following on the coat-tails of Solomon Kane is Ironclad, a UK independent production which chronicles the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in the year 1215. was released in the UK on Blu-Ray and Region 2 DVD this week, but although it was shot (and shown in cinemas) in the widescreen ratio 2:39, it's in 1:69 on both formats. This means that parts of the image have been chopped off on both vertical sides, effectively ruining many of the widescreen shots as originally conceived and filmed by the director and cinematographer. It's a pity that Ironclad has been treated so shoddily by it's distributor. I was intending to buy it (in a few months, when the price has been reduced), but will now wait to see if it gets re-released in the correct 2:39 ratio. |
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Post by fenris on Jul 16, 2011 19:47:08 GMT
Have recently discovered and watched a low-budget entry in the current wave of medieval horror/action movies. It's called Dark Relic, and concerns a group of Crusader knights being pursued by supernatural forces as they return to Europe from the Holy Land. Have found a trailer for the German DVD and Blu-Ray release of Dark Relic; Link to trailer. |
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Post by fenris on Jul 25, 2011 16:05:59 GMT
Banshee!!! appears to have sparked off a mini-wave of Banshee movies. Damned by Dawn ( Link to the trailer), in which the screaming spectre menaces yet another group of American teenagers, was released on Region 2 DVD several months ago, and Scream of the Banshee ( Link to the trailer) is available on DVD in the UK from today (25/07/11).
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Post by fenris on Jul 26, 2011 16:06:30 GMT
If you've read previous posts I've made on this thread and elsewhere on this forum, you've probably gathered that I'm a fan of the current wave of medieval horror/action movies that has emerged in the last year-and-a-half. Solomon Kane was my favourite film of 2010, I enjoyed both Dark Relic and Season of the Witch, and I'm looking forward to The Asylum's contribution to the sub-genre - the upcoming Dragon Crusaders. Well, Variety reports that another movie about knights returning from the Crusades only to discover they've swapped the horrors of war for horrors of the supernatural kind has gone into development - the vampirific Sword of Wood; Framelight Prods. and producer Howard Rosenman (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) are developing Sword of Wood - a tale of vampires during the Crusades - from comicbook scribe Chuck Dixon. The team, which made the announcement Friday during Comic-Con, is seeking writers to pen the screenplay and is planning to a supplement the project with a comicbook and a videogame.
Dixon has extensive comicbook credits on Batman, Punisher and Conan. Sword of Wood is a previously unpublished work that tells the story of a landed baron and knight who battles in the Holy Lands at the time of the First Crusade, then returns home to learn that his manor and holdings have been raided by an army of vampires, and his wife and children carried off. This begins his new crusade, going alone against an army of the damned. Source |
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Post by fenris on Aug 15, 2011 15:57:36 GMT
Have always had an appreciation of horror films that are set during WWII. To name a few examples, Michael Mann's little-seen The Keep (which has only been shown once on UK television, about twenty years ago during an aptly-named 'Forgotten Movies' season on BBC2) is simply wonderful, and the similar British effort The Bunker - while not in the same league - is still worthwhile. There was an American Sci-fi Channel Original movie called SS Doomtrooper made a few years ago that is apparently bleeding awful, but I'd still love to see it for myself. The latest entry in this sub-genre is the New Zealand movie The Devil's Rock, set in the Channel Islands on the eve of the D Day landings. It had a blink-and-you'd-miss-it release in a handful of UK cinemas a couple of weeks ago, and was made available on Region 2 DVD shortly thereafter. Here's a link to the trailer. |
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Post by fenris on Aug 22, 2011 18:50:10 GMT
Conan the Barbarian opened in American cinemas last week and has comprehensively flopped. Having cost $90 million to make (not including marketing), it took only $10 million in the all-important opening weekend. The film's producers were intending to follow it with a Red Sonja movie staring Amber Heard, but Conan's box office failure will almost certainly scupper those plans.
A separate Red Sonja movie was in development a couple of years ago, with Rose McGowan cast as the she-devil with a sword, but that project also collapsed.
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Post by fenris on Oct 1, 2011 16:33:06 GMT
The trend for medieval period horror movies continues. The latest addition to this sub-genre is Red Riding Hood, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who previously helmed the first Twilight movie. The big Hollywood studios are busying themselves making revisionist versions of classic fairy tales. We've already seen Amanda Seyfried as Red Riding Hood, and next year we can expect Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters with Jeremy Renner and Lost in Austen's Gemma Arterton as the grown-up siblings, and Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman. The Syfy Channel in America has responded by commissioning it's own reimagings of several fables - Beauty and the Beast: A Dark Tale starring Estella Warren (which was actually ahead of the curve, having been filmed in 2009); Felicia Day as a modern-day descendant of Red Riding Hood in Red: Werewolf Hunter; and Syfy's own 'Hansel & Gretel as adults' movie, starring Shannon Doherty, Paul McGillion, Sarain Boylan and former Sanctuary regular Emilie Ullerup, which was announced as Hansel, filmed as Witchslayer, and is apparently going to be screened in November 2011 as Gretl. The Asylum have also jumped on the trend (of course), with The Brothers Grimm' Snow White in pre-production. |
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Post by fenris on Nov 15, 2011 16:40:32 GMT
The big Hollywood studios are busying themselves making revisionist versions of classic fairy tales. Next year we can expect Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman. The Asylum have also jumped on the trend, with The Brothers Grimm' Snow White in pre-production. , and I think it looks quite promising. It's clearly intended to be an epic fantasy adventure, as opposed to just a tweaked retelling of a fairy tale. It will be interesting to see if Snow White and the Huntsman finds an audience when it's released next summer. In the last twelve months, the three main stars of the Twilight movies have appeared in high-profile films outside of the franchise - Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett in The Runaways, Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants, and Taylor Lautner in Abduction - which have all either underperformed or completely tanked at the box office. The tween Twilight fanbase is ridiculously huge, but so far it seems they're only interested in seeing the saga's lead actors playing their Twilight characters. In addition to The Asylum's aforementioned Grimm's Snow White, there's another rival Snow White movie being released in 2012. Having undergone several title changes while in pre-production, it's currently being called Mirror Mirror. A more traditional version of the story, it has Lily Collins as Snow White and Julia Roberts as the evil Queen. |
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Post by fenris on Jan 12, 2012 2:17:18 GMT
The big Hollywood studios are busying themselves making revisionist versions of classic fairy tales. We've already seen Amanda Seyfried as Red Riding Hood, and next year we can expect Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters with Jeremy Renner and Lost in Austen's Gemma Arterton as the grown-up siblings. The Arrow in the Head website reports that Paramount have pushed back the planned release date for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters by almost an entire year; As not too uncommon, with the new year comes release date shuffling from the studios. Perhaps this is our first example of 2012...
Word has crossed the line that the Jeremy Renner/Gemma Arterton starring Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has been bumped back almost an entire year, moving from its original date of 2nd March 2012 to the newly slotted 11th January 2013. Apparently Paramount didn't anticipate making such a financial killing with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and surprise indie-hit The Devil Inside. Being all but guaranteed to finish in the black this fiscal term, Paramount will wait until early next year to break out what could be another huge potential earner. Furthermore, the delay gives audience time to either get acquainted with, or take a breather from, Jeremy Renner, who also has The Bourne Legacy and The Avengers out in 2012.
Directed by Dead Snow helmer Tommy Wirkola, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters chronicles the fairy-tale siblings fifteen years after their traumatic gingerbread house incident, which provoked them to become witch bounty hunters. Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Zoe Bell, Monique Ganderton, Thomas Mann, Pihla Viitala and Derek Mears also appear in the film. Remember, it now opens 11th January 2013.SourceDisappointing that we'll going to have to wait considerably longer to see the film, but I can understand how it makes financial sense to Paramount, and it's quite a canny move on their part. |
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Post by fenris on Jan 23, 2012 15:52:52 GMT
Urban Legend (1998) is being shown on the 5* channel at 21:00 on Friday (27/01/12). It's a personal favourite of mine, and in my humble opinion was the best film to emerge from the post- Scream slasher revival of the late Nineties. One of the most memorable aspects of Urban Legend was the killer wearing a dark green parka jacket with the fur-lined hood permanently raised in order to hide their identity. It was such an instantly ironic look that similar/near-identical parka clad killers subsequently appeared in the following movies: the Sylvester Stallone vehicle D-Tox (2002) which received a cinema release in the UK but went straight to DVD in America; low budget effort The Retreat (2005) which was retitled Silent Scream in the UK; the German-made Death Academy (2005) which was exclusively available on DVD in the UK via the now-defunct Slasherpool website; and the polished but messily scripted 7eventy 5ive (2007) which also duplicates one of Urban Legend's signature kills. Well, the green parka gets another airing in new movie ATM, starring British actress Alice Eve. There's not yet any news regarding whether ATM is going to receive a cinema and/or DVD release, but it's apparently already available on Netflix in America. Link to ATM's trailer.
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