Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922)

The first, and arguably the scariest, adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. The Stoker estate sued to get this film stopped, so some names and minor plot points were changed, as well as moving the action from England to Germany. But otherwise, it's the same story. The main difference between the film and most of the adaptations that follow is Max Schreck as the vampire. He is not debonair or seductive or even tuxedo-clad. No, he is tall and skeletal, more rat than human. The scene where he is standing in the hallway and walking towards the camera into the doorway spooks me every time, as does the shot of his face peering through the boards of his dilapidated casket in the basement of his home.. Yes, it moves slow at times, but some interesting effects and camera work along whith Schreck's performance still make this one of the classic horror movies of all time for me.

The Thing (2011)

In 1982 John Carpenter remade (or just made a more faithful adaptation of the original story depending on your point of view) Howard Hawk's film "The Thing From Another World". Howard Hawks film was a decent B-sci-fi film, but Carpenters was fantastic. Now the film industry today learned that "remake" is a dirty word...people don't like em! So they've created and used every other word they can think up to avoid using the term "remake" yet keep making them. The word they chose this time was "prequel". Don't let them fool you...this is only a prequel in the flimsiest of senses...its a damn remake. Why? Plots the same, a lot of the plot points are recycled, and visual it bears resemblance to Carpenter's fantastic film. Yes there are certain aspects that are lead into the 1982 film, but the title and everything else just lead me to calling this exactly what it is: a REMAKE. Beyond being a remake though, it is also a mundane film. Carpenter's was a master work of the ensemble cast. It has like 11 or 12 characters yet most got development and I understood who everyone was. I could barely remember the name of the main character five minutes out of the theater (it eventually dawned on me that it was Kate). The characters are grossly underdeveloped. Add onto that the suspense, tension, and paranoia that ruled Carpenter's film is all lacking. The movie just wasn't as much fun or as entertaining as Carpenter's film, and if I'm being honest: even Howard Hawks film. The thing while there was plenty of mystery about the Norwegian outpost at the beginning (and throughout) the 1982 film, the truth is it doesn't matter what happened...you can guess it was similar to what happened to the US outpost. And this movie showed that it was almost EXACTLY the same.

The River - TV Promo

Carrie (1976)

Carrie might be a film about high school, but it wasperhaps Brian De Palma's first completely mature film, at least equaling thenearly-concurrent release Obsession in gothic pathos. Based on StephenKing's first novel, famously written in near-poverty as the future bestsellingmogul tried to make ends meet by teaching English to high school kids, Carrieturns a fairly contemptuous source text (in the book, Carrie is nearly as unappealingas her tormentors) into, as Pauline Kael said, a "teasing, lyricalthriller." It brought both De Palma and King into mainstream visibility,kick-started the careers of nearly everyone involved (or, in Piper Laurie'scase, provided an unexpected return to form playing horror cinema's ultimatemom from hell), won two acting Oscar nominations and earned fantastic reviewsand word-of-mouth. Surely this represents De Palma's first great selling out,right?

Absolutely not. Carrie, a profoundly sad horror comedy about adumped-on, telekinetic outcast whose late-blooming menstrual cycle and sexualmaturation react violently with her fundamentalist mother's psychologicalchastity belt, is the film in which De Palma discovered that his destructivesense of humor could be synthesized with his graceful visual sensibilities in amanner that would accentuate both. The linearity of King's storyline (actually,the linearity of screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen's version of King's novel,which was told via a fussy collage of news articles, testimony, and Reader'sDigest memoirs) has the preordained momentum of Greek mythology; some ofthe shots of a pig blood-soaked Carrie standing above her peers at the fatefulprom were lifted from the theatrical performance De Palma shot of Dionysus.
But De Palma's technique reaches a new volatility here. Half Phantom ofthe Paradise, half Obsession, Carrie is hysterical inevery sense of the word. Laurie said while filming that she took the entirefilm to be a satire, even claiming it was difficult for her to film herperverse death scene—being pinned to a doorway by flying knives until sheresembles the Christ-as-pincushion shrine she keeps in Carrie's punishmentcloset—without busting out in laughter. She later admitted to beingdisappointed that the film wasn't inherently a comedy, not realizing it was.Maybe the comedy isn't always as broad as Mrs. White heaving and moaning inecstasy as her daughter gives her the vaguely homo-incestuous gift of martyrdom,but it's always there, and usually bittersweet.
The scene in which Carrie realizes she likes Tommy Ross, for instance. DePalma begins by showing Carrie sitting in class with pencil eagerly poised totranscribe Tommy's poem as their tweedy teacher reads it aloud to the class.The camera swirls around to show the entire class slacking, yawning, exchangingjocular smirks to indicate they know the poem's true author was Tommy'sgirlfriend Sue. Tommy ends up in severe close up while a split diopter shotputs Carrie in the background behind Tommy's impressive blond mane. "It'sbeautiful," she murmers, her hair like bundled hay in front of her face.Even the teacher piles on, sensing the emotional vulnerability as anopportunity to attain camaraderie with his indifferent students. "Yousuck," Tommy says, even more covertly than Carrie, before the teacher'srequest for a repeat begets the response "I said 'aw shucks.'"Tommy's chiseled features melt into a triumphant cackle. A perfectly realizedscene in the midst of a hundred (many of which have little to do with thehorror of mind-controlled fire and everything to do with the horror of teenageresponsibility), Tommy's social triumph under the wire stands in mockery ofCarrie's inability to do the same. And when Tommy silently demands "What'sthat?!" in slow motion after the bucket tumbles down on Carrie, thefulfillment of that disparity comes to pass and the resulting inferno must becarried out.
Whether intimate or flamboyant, Carrie's style is insistently sensual:Carrie running her finger along the definition of "telekinesis" insuper close up, Miss Collins's gym class doing detention calisthenics to theaccompaniment of a blaxploitation-esque "Baby Elephant Walk," Carrieand Tommy swirling in rapture courtesy De Palma's Tilt-O-Whirl cam, PinoDonaggio's tempestuous chamber music leading up to the bucket drop, Carrieseeing red in kaleidoscope as her sanity burns. It's as passionate, erotic andclumsy as the descriptor "sensual" implies. Maybe because it's the firstDe Palma film that it could be said belongs decisively to women. (Those Oscarnominations don't lie, and it's a shame both Spacek and Laurie lost to thevirgin and whore in Network's boys club.) The would-berevealingly-titled Sisters may seem a volley between MargotKidder, Jennifer Salt, and an insane woman with her can of Lysol, but all threeare tamed and controlled by Kidder's effete creep husband. Carrie, onthe other hand, is frighteningly feminine, a slap in the face of those chargingDe Palma with misogyny as fierce as the one Betty Buckley whales across NancyAllen's face.

Suspiria (1977)

The original ad campaign boasted that the only thing more terrifying than the last five minutes of SUSPIRIA were the first 90. Actually, it's the first 15 minutes that contain some of the most frightening footage ever committed to celluloid, but why quibble.
American dance student Susy Banyon (Jessica Harper) arrives too late at night to gain admittance to her new school, Tanz Academy, but before returning to town, Susy witnesses a hysterical student, Pat (Eva Axen), fleeing the grounds in terror. By the time Susy begins classes the next day, Pat hasbeen brutally murdered, although the academy, under the watchful eyes of administrator Madame Blank (Joan Bennett), fearsome dance instructor Miss Tanner (Alida Valli), and the school's directress, who never appears in public, insists she was expelled. Pat's death is just the first in a string ofbizarre occurrences at the school that include a mysterious maggot infestation, phantom breathing, and several more gruesome murders.
Unlike many of the films it has inspired, Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA has lost little of its hallucinatory power over the years. Although anyone with an ounce of common sense would have checked out of Tanz Academy tout de suite, the film floats by on its own eerie logic, unfolding like a nightmareinto which the viewer is dragged kicking and screaming. Not since James Whale's expressionist masterworks (1932's THE OLD DARK HOUSE and 1935's THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) has a fright film boasted such impressive art direction and scenic design: the Tanz Academy might have been created by Erte forballetomane descendants of the Marquis de Sade. Throughout this nerve-wracking journey, Argento's sly gift is to strike when you least expect it, often when the soundtrack grows silent, and always after you've expected the knife blade to plunge in earlier.

The Skin I Live In (2011)

The Skin I Live In could have been a wonderful movie, taking us on a journey of destruction via a modern Dr. Frankenstein, doing "God's Work" in his own mind; but it suffers from some serious overacting problems from a few characters, most notably Zeca (Roberto Álamo), whose acting style is oddly reminiscent of a hyper dog. His entire segment could have been cut if not for the emotional turn it takes Vera and Dr. Ledgard on, propelling us into the second half of the movie, wherein we learn of the doctor's losses and his own depravity.
Which brings us to the pacing of the film. The first 40 minutes play out in a linear fashion; we follow along and feel like we are going somewhere. There is genetic mutation, illegal experimentation, abduction, rape and even a death. However, The Skin I Live In comes to a sudden screeching halt as we get 10 minutes of flashback and then flashback-flashback to six years earlier, which I admit I was lost on for several minutes because I missed the subtitle telling me...six years earlier.
The movie then plays out the next 40 minutes catching us up, finishing the story of Dr. Ledgard losing his wife and daughter and revealing Vera's story, which again suffers from some weak acting and awkward pacing. Not to mention that at this point the medical experimentation and the modified skin lose their focus as we move into character drama territory.
That being said, the second half is where the real "horror" comes in. While you might not see it as horror at the time, it's in the days and weeks afterward as you think about the situation (which I won't spoil) and what Vera goes through, putting yourself in her place, when the fear elements come into place. It plays out a touch predictably, but it becomes a curiosity which you must view to its conclusion.
The two halves of this movie are essentially their own stories and could have played out as such, but in this non-linear, extended flashback way, it becomes disjointed and removes all character development. We aren't going on a journey with these characters; we're just being shown vignettes. The ending comes fast and abruptly with an unsatisfying and ambiguous postscript that borders on groan-inducing.
Banderas and Anaya do as good of a job as they can with a script that does them no favors, and I might go so far as to say it's the most intense and watchable I've found Banderas since Desperado. In the end, though, it doesn't matter; The Skin I Live In has no real message and very little symbolism to actually stand behind with a story that depends on the viewer to process and fill in the blanks. I'd have to say skip it.

NBC Bringing Back The Munsters

The time for talking is over. We've been following the proposed reboot of "The Munsters" for a while now, and today the once proud as a peacock network has made it official. We know, you're bursting with excitement, right?
According to Deadline less than two weeks after receiving Bryan Fuller’s script for "The Munsters", NBC has given a pilot order to the "Pushing Daisies" creator’s reboot of the 1960s comedy.
Universal Television is producing the project, described as an imaginative reinvention of "The Munsters" as a visually spectacular one-hour drama. Fuller originally developed "The Munsters" last season and his was one of very few scripts new NBC chief Bob Greenblatt kept in play when he took over the network in January.
Word is that the network envisions the new "Munsters" as a potential summer or event series. Like Fuller’s previous series, "Pushing Daisies", the project features striking visuals mixed with all the classic "Munsters" archetypes. Grandpa Sam Dracula is essentially Dracula who assembled Herman because no man was good enough for his daughter Lily, a sexy vamp. Lily’s niece Marilyn the freak is actually normal and Lily and Herman’s only child, Eddie, has his werewolf tendencies surface in puberty, forcing the family to relocate to their famous 1313 Mockingbird Lane address.
More as it comes.

The Devil Inside new image

A new image from Paramount's latest scare-fest, The Devil Inside, has quietly made its way online via the film's Facebook page, but don't worry, kids; nothing gets by us. Like Legion, we are many!
Bonnie Morgan, Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Preston James Hillier, Evan Helmuth, Suzan Crowley, D.T. Carney, and Ionut Grama star. Look for the film in theatres on January 6th, 2012.
For more visit the official The Devil Inside website, "like" The Devil Inside on Facebook, and follow The Devil Inside on Twitter.


Synopsis
In 1989, emergency responders received a 9-1-1 call from Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) confessing that she had brutally killed three people. 20 years later, her daughter Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) seeks to understand the truth about what happened that night. She travels to the Centrino Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Italy where her mother has been locked away to determine if her mother is mentally ill or demonically possessed. When she recruits two young exorcists (Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth) to cure her mom using unconventional methods combining both science and religion, they come face-to-face with pure evil in the form of four powerful demons possessing Maria. Many have been possessed by one; only one has been possessed by many.

On the brink...

It looks amazing

Inhumane (2011) - Trailer

A Horrible Way to Die (2011)

Sweet, soused Sarah (Amy Seimetz) is a serial killer magnet. There's her ex Garrick (AJ Bowen) who's behind bars, and then there's creepy fellow AA frequenter Kevin (Joe Swanberg) who wants to be next in line for Sarah's misplaced affections. Between these two men, Sarah floats between the past and her possible future. When the two collide, Sarah becomes a plot twist pawn in a reasonably inventive fashion.
A Horrible Way To Die could be renamed A Horrible Way To Watch, and I'd die happy. This movie is one of the shakiest, shrillest, most headache inducing features I've had to sit through in quite some time — and as someone who's been resentfully enduring this seemingly never-ending trend for years now, that is saying a lot. For no apparent reason (no "found footage" conceit here), the camera bobs and weaves, focus fades in and out, while zooms zip and shudder from smooth to choppy. Music is dissonant, at best. I believe the aim was for a classic Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer bleakness, but all that's achieved is sluggish blankness.
Fortunately, A Horrible Way To Die has a decent script and good actors going for it. As per usual, AJ Bowen is the standout amongst his costars. As per unusual, he actually has more than just a few minutes onscreen. He's not exactly the lead (I guess that'd be Seimetz) but Garrick has an actual arc and we get to see what Bowen can do with more than just few memorable moments.

Dracula - Reborn (2012) - Trailer

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

This camcorder-horror series has a pedigree almost as strange as its central premise: the life-long haunting of sisters Katie (Katie Featherstone) and Kristi (Sprague Grayden).
Part one scared Steven Spielberg so much he wrapped his copy in a bin bag to keep the evil inside. Part two played out concurrently, with various cast crossovers, neatly streamlining the concept. This origins-exploring threequel, meanwhile, was made by the “documentarians” behind Catfish, who have more than a passing acquaintance with the tricksy truth/fiction divide.


Rewinding back to 1988, the film recounts the childhood traumas of young Katie (Chloe Csengery) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown). Kristi has an imaginary friend (uh-oh), while mum Julie (Lauren Bittner) and stepdad Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith) hear noises in the night.
A wedding cameraman by trade, Dennis decides to document what happens next on (suspiciously nice-looking) VHS cameras. He mounts one of these on a fan so it pans across the room, revealing and concealing with robotic regularity.
It’s a great little gimmick, capturing that corner-of-the-eye sensation of being watched, and the film is the best-shot – if the least scary – of the series.
Although there’s a sense of (wholly appropriate) déjà-vu, watching people sleep waiting for something unspeakable to happen remains an unnerving experience. Let alone watching people watching people sleep.
Retrofitted in this way, with the girls’ stepdad as obsessive a documentarian as their future partners, you sometimes get the feeling that it’s the camera, rather than anything supernatural, that’s really haunting them.
Dennis means well (and he’s far less irritating than part one’s Micah), but besides a couple of blood-freezing spook sequences and an ill-fitting ending, he’s still a man spying on his own family.
Whether cameraman or chimera, isn’t it time everyone left these poor girls in peace?

You gotta see this!

Devil – Behind-the-Scenes Featurette

11-11-11 (2011)

Director Darren Lynn Bousman takes on a much written about phenomenon. For those who have stayed astute to numerology and the upcoming date of 11.11.11., already well know that there have been documented cases of persons who are seemingly haunted or obsessed with the reoccurrence of double digit numbers. More notably and the primary focal of the numbers is the set 11:11.


In this latest film which seems to take its marketing serious by debuting on the “actual” 11.11.11 date, this very study is explored to a mass of cinema goers. So while it is indeed a movie, the data that is used is actually centered around the phenomena itself.
Timothy Gibbs plays Joseph Crone, a much heralded author who has gained a following of dedicated readers over the years. His works have become best sellers which sell in the millions. Though he has been struggling as of late with writing a follow up novel. This struggle seems to be connected with his insomnia and strange knack for awakening to a clock sporting an 11:11 time display on a pretty consistent basis. This particular number set has also shown up in various points through-out his life usually on tragic or dramatic events. We learn that his wife an child were killed in a fire that an over passionate fan had caused in relation to one of his books. Joseph is called to the side of his dying father in his last days as well to his childhood home. It is here that he reacquaints his relationship with his younger brother Samuel (Michael Landes).
Samuel is a priest who has spent the better portion of his life honoring God and trying to build up his church following. Joseph, the darker atheist of the bunch doesn’t give much thought to religion or what his family has built up over the years. Though while he is making amends within his family he begins to open up to some of its possibilities. During his stay his frequency in seeing this 11:11 sign increases taking him on a journey of research to really discover why this is happening. He finds that the 11:11 number is in fact a sign or event of that which seems to be escalating into “something”. The term “Midwayers” is introduced and the eerie reoccurring appearance of these in-between beings becomes more frequent.

Much of this idea and the myths about it are built up over the course of the film which also seems to get increasingly haunting in the process. Joseph is later joined by an acquaintance he made back home by the name of Sadie (Wendy Glenn) who also helps him into understanding his purpose and reason for being “initiated”
In all this is a pretty good film that offers some worthy scares along the way. The subject matter is of the deeper sort which takes an excellent stab at what has been written “today” on the concept. I will say that the ending was the payoff for me which you’ll just have to discover on your own viewing. Though the relationship between numerology and religion is a complicated and often times dark area that deserves more investigation.

The clincher here is that the actual event itself is also occurring on the movie debut date making for a rather unsettling backdrop of wonder. 11.11.11 is a bit of a slow grind at first but stays with the format of a more classical directing approach. Most folks will expect one thing over the other but while 11:11 is a standalone concept it does make a worthy  attempt at marrying it to religion and the things we don’t understand. If the subject itself is at all of interest, I would point you in the direction of the book 11:11 The Time Prompt Phenomenon by Marie D. Jones and Larry Flaxman. You’ll find some great connections in this read that explain what has occurred so far in relation to the phenomena. 11.11.11 is a powerful film that succeeds in capturing the essence of 11:11 and does so while provide a pretty entertaining foundation.

Funny Kaspersky Ad

Trancers (1984)

The straight-to-video revolution began in earnest during the '80s––those halcyon days of lukewarm Crazy Bread and 1 a.m. VHS rentals from Uncle Pete's Video Suppository––and producer/writer/director Charles Band was bayonet-forward, leading the charge. In 1983 he formed Empire International Pictures, a modest but ambitious production house that specialized in low-budget genre titles with high entertainment value. In 1989, Band abandoned the struggling studio to form Full Moon Entertainment, but in that brief 6-year period, Empire International Pictures managed to crank out a handful of now-classic titles like Ghoulies, Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dolls, and Intruder.
1985's Trancers is also a member of this Empire International class of over-achievers, a fondly-remembered slice of B-movie cheese that somehow, some way, manages to remain giddily entertaining after all these years. A growly, Neanderthal-browed Tim Thomerson plays Jack Deth, an Angel City police detective who lives in a future that looks a lot like Blade Runner as set-designed by an 8th grade drama class. His arch nemesis, Whistler, is a steely-eyed cult leader who can transform the weak-minded into “trancers”, grunting zombie-like creatures in bad make-up. When Whistler time-travels back to 1985 Los Angeles to trance some bitches in a cheaper-to-film decade, Jack Deth is forced to pursue him. Jack's “core consciousness” is sent into the body an ancestor living in '85, a poofy-haired journalist who has just wrapped up a one-night stand with an adorably young Helen Hunt. After smearing his hair back with a wad of hand lotion (“Dry hair's for squids”), Jack divulges his time-travel agenda to Hunt, who is skeptical only until a shopping mall Santa gets all trancer up in Jack's business with what are presumably a set of reindeer horns. Once Jack takes the trancer Santa down, Hunt has fully drunk the Kool-Aid and is ready to have Deth's babies.

Several highly awkward make-out scenes follow (the almost 30-year age difference between Thomerson and Hunt is a glaring––and hilarious––distraction), but eventually, the duo refocuses on the mission at hand: getting that nefarious Whistler dude. Armed with a revolver, a magical time-slowing watch, and a bevy of sarcastic one-liners, Jack Deth gets down to business.

Trancers would eventually go on to spawn five straight-to-video sequels, and it's easy to see why. There's a blissful obliviousness to the entire production, like a retarded kid who doesn't know he's retarded. From its ridiculous synth score to its sloppy editing to its seemingly endless array of B-movie surprises (“Honda scooter chase!…Boom mic in the frame!”), Trancers is a movie that desperately wants to entertain you at any cost necessary…as long as that cost isn't monetary. It's a slice of history caught in amber, from a time when B-movie filmmakers tried to please their audience above all else. Unlike the studios of today, Empire International didn't make intentionally shitty movies knowing they could break even on production costs after a stellar marketing campaign. Their intent was to make movies that entertained the widest possible audience. And if the film found an audience, the profits would eventually follow. That undoubtedly resulted in some dumb movies. But also a hell of a lot of dumb fun.

Resident Evil: Retribution Set Raises Red Star!

Holy shit! News coming off of the Resident Evil: Retribution shoot that's not brought to us by Milla Jovovich? She's gonna be PISSED! In any event, get ready, kids, for your first look at the Soviet Zombieland!Website BlogTO somehow made itsvway onto the Russian set of the now shooting film and came back with a boatload of images of the proceedings. Click on the image below with the Red Star for the whole enchilada!
Written and directed by Paul Anderson, Resident Evil: Retribution stars Milla Jovovich, Boris Kodjoe, Shawn Roberts, Michelle Rodriguez, Sienna Guillory, Li Bingbing, Kevin Durand, Johann Urb, and Colin Salmon. Look for Resident Evil: Retribution in theatres on September 14, 2012 from Screen Gems.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The next chapter in the Elder Scrolls saga, Skyrim revolutionizes the fantasy epic, bringing to life a world for you to explore any way you choose.

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)

*Spoiler Warning

There's nothing I hate more than a mean-spirited horror movie with the pure intent to shock. In my book, films in that vein score an immediate 0 skull rating. So what separates Tom Six's The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) from pics like Chaos and Morituris? Not only is the movie ingenious, but it also shows us just how big Six's balls are. Centipede 2 is literally a big "f*ck you" to critics of the first Sequence, and once you understand this you'll also realize that his 12-person concoction is actually a comedy. Yes, a comedy (albeit it a sick one).
Six's flick is an over-the-top and in-your-face splatterfest that spends an hour and half making one bold statement: Centipede 2 isn't real life; it's just a movie. Six is screaming at the top of his lungs that everyone is taking his sh*t way too seriously. It's simple art and nothing more. Stop over analyzing it.

The sequel has an absolutely brilliant opening as the footage from the end of First Sequence transitions into "real life" where Martin (Laurence R. Harvey) is watching the film at his job as a parking attendant/security guard. Martin's world is bleak, dark and hopeless; the audience is taken through a sad journey of his life as they learn of his former child abuse and watch as his mother verbally assaults him. He's mentally handicapped and his only outlet is his creepy obsession with Human Centipede (First Sequence, a brilliant meta device that strings together the gut-punching sequences.

Human Centipede 2 follows Martin as he collects his own human specimens and jots down the first film's "directions" for assembly (being that it was "100% medically accurate") While the first movie had sterile environments with precision cutting, the sequel pulls a complete 180 and takes the victims to a disgusting warehouse where Martin uses kitchen tools for his deviant plans. In a curve balls twist, Martin brings Ashlynn Yennie (who starred IN the 2009 film) to town for an audition for a new "Quentin Tarantino movie." Little does she know that this time around she'll become a human centipede for real…

Six uses this plot to drive his position home, almost to the point of beating a dead horse. He explains through actions (which I won't reveal) that, in real life, there are no happy endings. And he pushes everything in the flick too far, so much so that Human Centipede 2 intentionally becomes silly (a woman gives birth in her car and sacrifices her baby in order to escape Martin's grasp).

Don't get me wrong; it's a truly disturbing and disgusting film. But it's so insanely excessive that it's straight up funny. There's literally a scene where Martin gives all of the specimens laxatives, which pays off in a hilariously orchestrated muddy mess all over the warehouse. Six literally builds up the insanity in an obvious attempt to piss viewers off. You can just imagine him kicking dirt at the audience and screaming, "You thought that was offensive? Check THIS out. Go ahead and complain about THIS…"

Look, I completely understand everyone's hatred for Human Centipede 2. It's an extremely malicious film where Six spends the duration proving his point instead of telling an engaging story. But to his point, who gives a sh*t? It's art, it's his movie and it's his statement; at least he's actually saying something. He doesn't have to make a movie FOR you, nor does he owe it to anybody to do so.
Human Centipede 2 is a brilliant response to critics of his first film. It makes a strong statement that it's just a movie and that people take his work way too seriously, while also implementing a unique concept. I found it an intensely engaging and absolutely hilarious meta experience that gets its point across with flying colors (in black-and-white, nonetheless). Still, Six's screenplay does lack serious depth and is pretty f*cking mean-spirited. If anything, Human Centipede 2 beats a dead horse to no end – but at least that was Tom Six's intention.

Miley Cyrus steps into ‘Hotel Transylvania’ with new role

Well with growth comes new experience, this latest word comes over from EW that teen pop star Miley Cyrus is joining up with an all star cast for Sony’s “Hotel Transylvania“.
Dracula played by funny man Adam Sandler is the owner of this famed hotel which caters to monsters. Though its his younger daughter Mavis that he worries about of whom our own Hannah Montana will take on the role. Though you can read the official synopsis below. The new movie though arrives in the form of a 3D animated kid film so you’ll only be hearing the voices this time around.

Synopsis 
Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s (Sandler) lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free from meddling from the human world. But here’s a little known fact about Dracula: He is not only the Prince of Darkness; he is also a dad. Over-protective of his teenage daughter, Mavis, Dracula fabricates tales of elaborate dangers to dissuade her adventurous spirit.

As a haven for Mavis, he opens the Hotel Transylvania, where his daughter and some of the world’s most famous monsters – Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more – can kick back in safety and peace. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem – but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis.

The Orphan Killer (2011)

Marcus Miller is a bad man. I think we need to establish that fact before we go any further with this. If you take nothing else out of this review of The Orphan Killer, know this: Marcus Miller is a bad man.


For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Marcus Miller is The Orphan Killer (and just to clarify, he is a killer who was orphaned, not a killer of orphans...although throughout the film he didn't seem too fussy about whom he was filleting). Created by Matt Farnsworth, Miller is a killing machine hell-bent on finding, torturing and (eventually) killing his sister.
The Orphan Killer contains a lot of your typical slasher elements, but it does have some unique qualities that stand out. It's the story of a pair of siblings, Marcus and Audrey, who are orphaned after their parents are violently murdered in a home invasion. Audrey adapts well to the orphanage and is eventually adopted. Marcus does not and is left alone at the hands of the less-than-nurturing nuns running the home. As his sister goes off to greener pastures, Marcus, who already has a penchant for violence, has that ember stoked by regular beatings from his guardians, not to mention the fact he's forced to wear a mask as a form of punishment. Why don't they just put the butcher knife in his hand and give stabbing lessons? Silly nuns.
The adult Marcus Miller is played nicely by David Backus. I've never seen anyone swing an axe as hard, or with such bad intentions, as this new serial killer. Goddamn, he simply pulverizes his victims. Miller is a faceless murderer, the kind we've seen several times before, but conversely to some masked slashers of the past, he speaks. And it's the fact that he verbalizes his intentions and sufferings that makes his character that much more chilling, especially in the climactic scenes with his sweet sister.
The Orphan Killer creator/director Matt Farnsworth definitely had an agenda with this film. His goal was to create a character he could build a franchise around. And call me crazy, but I think he did that with Marcus Miller. The dude has a cool back-story, crazy eyes and serious bad intentions. His ire at the Catholic Church also leads to some visually intense (and marketable) images, not the least of which is Marcus' idea of how to combat pedophilia among the clergy. (Put it this way... it's hard to diddle anyone if you don't have hands. Get it?)
Now to keep ourselves grounded in reality here, The Orphan Killer does have its shortcomings. It is a low-budget offering and often looks like it. I would say Farnsworth did the best he could with what he had available to him. And it's certainly not a study in brilliant acting or intricate storytelling, but The Orphan Killer focuses on what it's good at - bloodletting. This isn't a Shakespearean drama, after all. This is a movie from a guy trying to create an iconic horror character. And whether Marcus Miller ever steps foot into another film or not is yet to be seen, but I think Farnsworth certainly did enough with this picture to warrant a crack at a sequel. And judging by The Orphan Killer's 100,000+ Facebook fans, he's doing something right.
Overall I think the characters stand out here more than the film as a whole. And that might not be a terrible thing. Marcus is a quality character, and his prime target, Audrey (played by the sexy Diane Foster), is certainly memorable as well. She's as feisty a victim as you'll find and proves to be a bit more of a challenge than big brother expected.
The bottom line on The Orphan Killer is this: You're getting a new slasher, one with a lot of similarities to some of our favorite characters of the past, but with its own unique spin. Know that at times the acting is somewhat lacking but serviceable, and the F/X range from questionable to brilliant, depending on the scene. There are some really cool practical effects here and some that fall short, but again, it works overall.
Take it for what it is, and you might just find yourself falling for The Orphan Killer. If you can get past some of the warts, you're going to find a couple of characters you can really get into. And did you say you wanted blood? I think AC/DC said it best: "If you want blood... you got it!"

It's Official! Elijah Wood Is a Maniac!

It can cut you like a knife, if the gift becomes the fire. On a wire between will and what will be ... he's a maniac, maaaaaniac on the floor ... *stomping feet rapidly in one place* Sorry ... couldn't help that. Well, the official word is here, kids. Mr. Frodo himself couldn't be farther away from the shire with this flick!


Confirming the original report from Bloody Disgusting, Deadline just dropped the word that Elijah Wood has been set for the lead role in Maniac, a remake of the scalp-happy William Lustig 1980 slasher classic!
Directed by Franck Khalfoun and produced by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Lavasseur, Wood plays the role of a serial killer who works at a shop that sells antique mannequins. He finds victims on the Internet and stalks them like prey, all the while suffering from hallucinations that throw him back into the past when he was abused by his own mother. In his twisted mind he gains a measure of revenge against his mother with each kill. It will shoot later this year.

Legends II: A Halloween Tale Picks Up Where H20 Left Off

Did you ever wonder what happened after Halloween: H20 left off? No? Well, some people did. And the good folks at Godbout Entertainment have answered the question with Legends II: A Halloween Tale. The story picks up ten years after that particular Halloween film leaves off, and it takes an angle you certainly wouldn't expect.
Legends 2 assumes that everything we saw in the Halloween series was true, and then Hollywood took the story and turned it into one of the most successful horror franchises of all time. Really? Someone do something slimy like that in Hollywood? Never!
The film stars AJ Jones, Alexia Maria Orihuela, Anthony Cosmano, Andrew Niemann, Michael Santi, Fran Rafferty, Cooper Zachery, Jeffery Vazquez, Karla Dieseldorff, Sarieha Alsawaf, Katrice Gallaway, Jennifer Ayala as Laurie and Ralph Lugo as The Shape. Gerald J. Godbout III wrote and directed. Check out the trailer below and cruise over to the Legends II: A Halloween Tale Facebook page and the official Legends II: A Halloween Tale websitef or more info.


From the Press Release
Godbout Entertainment is proud to announce the release of its latest production a tribute film to Halloween called Legends II: A Halloween Tale.
The film picks up ten years after the events depicted in Dimension Films' Halloween: H20. But there is a twist: Legends 2 conceives that the events in past Halloween films happened in reality and then Hollywood turned them into films. "Telling the story this way lets us keep the events of the films as canon but allows Legends 2 to have its own path," said writer/director Gerald J. Godbout III. "It was a labor of love and craziness as we shot part of this film in North Carolina - driving ten hours to the replica house from the first Halloween film that Kenny Caperton, a fan of the franchise and overall great guy, had built."
Legends II: A Halloween Tale will bring to close a chapter of the Halloween franchise that was started by John Carpenter in 1978, something that was abandoned when Hollywood remade the original film in 2007.

Legends II: A Halloween Tale Synopsis:
John Tate has been living as John Freeling in Orlando, Florida, for the past ten years. As Halloween approaches, John begins to dream of his half-sister Jamie. She comes to him warning that their uncle the boogieman has re-awakened and will kill again. She tells him that together they can put an end to his rage and finally break their family's curse. Meanwhile Haddonfield has gotten an upgrade by a huge construction company and has been bringing families back into its fold. New partner Greg Trent has a lot to prove and has gotten his friends together for the grand opening to the new Haddonfield. In the end John finds himself with a choice: run or go back to Haddonfield and face the man that has changed the name of Halloween forever, "Michael Myers".