I love scary movies and I love blood and guts and severed heads and tangled up intestines everywhere. I guess tangled-up intestines are kind of the same thing as guts, but, wow, do I love grisly gore. It seems like older horror movies often focused more on the psychology of how horrifying a situation or act was and newer horror movies put more attention into convincingly showing every stab and every spurting artery on camera. For example, especially when you factor in what audiences of the time were used to, Last House on the Left was really shocking in 1972. It’s slogan was “To avoid fainting, keep repeating it’s only a movie, only a movie, only a movie.” Most of the most horrible events in the movie, you hear the suffering, but you can’t really see what is going on. By contrast, the 2009 version seems to be shot somehow higher quality, partly just due to the technology of modern cinematography. To my modern eyes, the color palette is more pleasing in the 2009 Last House on the Left. More of the gruesome parts are visible, although they could still go more extreme with that, for my taste. But the new one somehow loses some of the aura of menace, while at the same time vastly improving special effects and general overall look. Partly I suppose Aaron Paul just didn’t seem very scary to begin with and he already seemed like a tragic hero to anyone who had seen him play Jesse in Breaking Bad. You can research more about both the 1972 film version and the more recent 2009 remake at Wikipedia and you can read a bit about Last House on the Left distribution channels for horror at Blue Blood.
Horror special effects definitely have come a long way since the seventies. Now though, the special effects are, not to sound ironic, to die for. Trust me, if the quality of movies were still the same as they were a few decades ago, you can bet that I wouldn’t drop what I was doing over at http://www.partybingo.com just to watch some crappy special effects, and acting that we will just label as sub-par. Thank god though, that isn’t the case! To prove my point, just go watch one of the many (I think there are eight) movies in the Saw series, or if you are really up for some cringing, then watch Hostel.
So, in conclusion, I’ll watch the seventies movies for the acting and the newer ones for the special effects, but the special effects really have to be pretty impressive. I’m thinking about going to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D. I figure, even if the acting is all Disney Channel, the special effects on that have to be worth a theater ticket.
In this new clip from Friday night’s “Grimm” Episode 4.11, “Death Do Us,” which NBC just released, Nick, Hank, and Wu get a glimpse of their Wesen killer when watching the film a ghost hunter shot right before he died. Check it out!
“Grimm” Episode 4.11 – “Death Do Us” (1/30/15; 9-10pm) AN ELECTRIFYING HOMICIDE HAS LOCALS THINKING A HOUSE IS HAUNTED – Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) are finally off on their honeymoon, but that doesn’t mean trouble isn’t stirring in Portland. Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) are called to a shocking homicide at an abandoned residence many Portland locals think is haunted; even the survivors swear a ghost committed the murder.
Meanwhile, on the heels of Juliette’s (Bitsie Tulloch) startling revelation, Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) seeks the help of a mystical woman (guest star Garcelle Beauvais; “Franklin & Bash,” “The Mentalist”) from his past. Reggie Lee also stars.
Get out your calendars, folks, because Paramount has just done a lot of moving around with its slate of horror flicks. Two movies have been bumped to a later date, and one has officially been granted a release date.
According to Deadline, Paramount Pictures is kicking Friday the 13th, co-written by Richard Naing and Ian Goldberg, to 2016 with a Friday, May 13th, release date.
Gregory Plotkin’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, originally scheduled for March 13th will now open on October 23, 2015.
Finally, F. Javier Gutierrez’s Rings, the third installment in Paramount’s popular horror Ring franchise, will now be released wide on November 13, 2015 (Friday the 13th‘s old spot).
The CW confused us a bit this week by releasing a batch of stills from “The Vampire Diaries” Episode 6.13 before anything from Episode 6.12, but now they’ve cleared things up by sending over these latest photos for the latter, which is entitled “Prayer for the Dying.”
“The Vampire Diaries” Episode 6.12 – “Prayer for the Dying” (1/29/15) THE MERGE — When Liv (guest star Penelope Mitchell) and Luke’s (guest star Chris Brochu) father arrives to town to celebrate their birthday, they try to convince him to let Jo (guest star Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) and Kai (guest star Chris Wood) take their place in the merge ceremony. After Tyler (Michael Trevino) finds out that the merge is happening sooner than he expected, he urges Liv to let him talk to her father.
Meanwhile, after Caroline’s (Candice Accola) plan to cure her mother takes an unexpected and devastating turn, Elena (Nina Dobrev), Stefan (Paul Wesley), and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) gather at the hospital, while Jo attempts to save Sheriff Forbes’ (guest star Marguerite MacIntyre) life.
Lastly, with the merge set to take place, Damon’s risky plan quickly sends things spiraling out of control, forcing one of the twins to take matters into their own hands. Jeffrey Hunt directed the episode written by Brett Matthews and Rebecca Sonnenshine.
With Will Smith officially out of the picture for Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day sequel, ID Forever, the director is zeroing in on a new leading man. According to The Wrap that man very well may be Liam Hemsworth.
The site reports that Hemsworth has the offer to star in the movie but there’s nothing else to report at this time. Emmerich is directing the sequel, in which Michael B. Jordan has also been rumored for a role.
Fox hired Carter Blanchard (Glimmer) to rewrite the script. James Vanderbilt wrote the first draft of the film, which Emmerich is producing with Dean Devlin and Harald Kloser.
Drafthouse Films has just revealed its release plans for Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s (Resolution) new film, Spring (review). Look for it in U.S. theaters and on VOD March 20th!
Benson and Moorhead directed from Benson’s script. Evil Dead star Lou Taylor Pucci and Nadia Hilker appear in the sci-fi horror film.
Synopsis: Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci; Evil Dead, Thumbsucker) is a young American fleeing to Europe to escape his past. While backpacking along the Italian coast, everything changes during a stop at an idyllic Italian village, where he meets and instantly connects with the enchanting and mysterious Louise. A flirtatious romance begins to bloom between the two – however, Evan soon realizes that Louise has been harboring a monstrous, primordial secret that puts both their relationship and their lives in jeopardy.
So it’s not set in stone just yet but Variety is reporting that Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones are all in talks for roles in the upcoming remakeboot that has fans in a tizzy.
Several sources say Jones is likely to play a government official similar to the role William Atherton played in the original. Allegedly, the plan is to land “Game of Thrones” fav Peter Dinklage for the villain role. He would play the ghost of a murderer who resurrects a ghost army based on historical characters.
Paul Feig is directing with Katie Dippold penning the script.
Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones
As we learned recently, The CW plans to debut “iZombie” on Tuesday, March 17th (9:00-10:00pm ET), which will necessitate moving “Supernatural” to Wednesdays; and if you’re curious about the show, a new trailer is now available.
“iZombie” Synopsis: Rose McIver (“Masters of Sex,” “Once Upon a Time”) stars as Olivia “Liv” Moore, a rosy-cheeked, disciplined, over-achieving medical resident who had her life path completely mapped out until the night she attended a party that unexpectedly turned into a zombie feeding frenzy. Malcolm Goodwin (“Breakout Kings”), newcomer Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley (“One Tree Hill”), and David Anders (“Once Upon a Time,” “The Vampire Diaries”) co-star. As one of the newly undead, Liv has devised a way to resist her baser urges to devour fresh human brains: She’s taken a job in the Seattle coroner’s office. In this appropriately dead-end job, she can secretly snack on the brains of the many Jane and John Doe corpses that make a final stop in the morgue.
Liv remains resigned to an eternity without hope or purpose, until she realizes that with every brain she consumes, she retains a portion of that person’s memories, and she begins to experience visions from the point of view of the murder victims. It’s not the same as being alive again, but at least she can find purpose in her undead existence by helping to solve the murders of those who are indeed fully dead.
A new trailer is here for Alien Outpost (review soon; formerly Outpost 37) for quite some time, and it much like the movie kicks ass. Look for the flick in theaters and on VOD on January 30, 2015, courtesy of IFC Midnight.
Jabbar Raisani directs. Adrian Paul, Rick Ravanello, Reiley McClendon, and Douglas Tait star.
Synopsis: Two documentary cameramen embedded in an army unit in the most hostile place on earth, an outpost surrounded by the last remaining alien fighters (Heavies) of an invading attack force. The world may have forgotten about the Outposts, but the Heavies are planning the second invasion of Earth and the soldiers are the only ones who can stop it.
Cats are hearty animals, man, and you’re about to hear a tale (tail?) of one tough little sonovabitch. Bart, a young cat in Tampa, Florida was buried alive by its owner, who thought he was dead after getting hit by a car. But Bart proved everyone wrong by climbing from his own grave.
ABC reports that the cat appeared to be lifeless and the owner buried him. Five days later, the cat showed up in a neighbors yard, alive! “Bart had dug himself out of the grave and slowly made his way back home, albeit in weak, dehydrated and in need of medical attention,” explained a rep from The Human Society of Tampa Bay who is now tending to the little guy’s injuries.
The society believes he will be at home recovering soon.
You’re camping in the woods with your friends. The fire is crackling, the marshmallows are toasting, and life couldn’t be better. Then you hear it. A rustling in the trees. Heavy footfalls coming your way. Before you know it, you’re face to snarling face with a very hungry Sasquatch. What do you do? What. Do. You. Do.
That’s the subject of today’s Dread Central quiz, kids. Being that I’ve seen enough movies to know that tramping around the forest is a bad idea, I’m pretty safe, but what about YOU?!?!? Tell us how you’d survive in the comments section below.
