Posted by Bloody-Disgusting Horror News on
July 31, 2011
Donnie Darko was perhaps the first big cult film of the 21st century and the only good thing director Richard Kelly has ever churned out depending on who you talk to I really dig the chaotic zaniness of Southland Tales myself. Coming out shortly after the September 11th tragedy (and again in 2004 as a directors cut), the tale of the mentally unstable teen and a time traveling bunny who saves him from a plane crash flopped at the box-office because it hit too close to home at the time, but went on to entrance audiences on home video. Although complex and having its fair share of plot holes (what time travel film doesnt, though?), setting the ominous and dreary subject matter in a charming suburbia circa 1988 gave it a nightmarish, Blue Velvet-like feel and let audiences have a glimpse of what really goes on behind white picket fences. Between that and the revolving door of well-casted stars and up-and-comers, its easy to see the appeal.
Posted by Bloody-Disgusting Horror News on
July 30, 2011
At this past week's San Diego Comic-Con, NECA unveiled their Evil Dead 2 horror line featuring three versions of Ash (played by Bruce Campbell is the 1987 film directed by Sam Raimi), alongside a deadite version of Henrietta.
In the previously released images you'll see all sorts of sweet accessories, but apparently NECA wasn't finished. This morning the toy company changed their Twitter avatar to the possessed deer that's featured in the maddening sequence where Ash laughs alongside a heap of furniture.
As revealed, the three Ash figures will be as follows: "Hero Ash," "Deadite Ash" and "Farewell to Arms Ash", along with "Henrietta" and her elongated demon head.
Survival horror, when done right like Open Water, Frozen, and Buried, results in a visceral, harrowing experience. Which is why we're keeping a close eye on writer/director Jennifer Still's Canyon Road. Read on for the early details, some artwork, and a teaser trailer for the promising new film.
In this original film starring Roxanne Jaeckel and Ivan Lovegren, a young couple trapped in a failing marriage is unexpectedly buried under a mudslide on Malibu Canyon Road. Air running out. Roof collapsing. Water rising. Rescue uncertain. - Can they survive?
Canyon Road will include the world premiere of the new song "Next Time We'll Shine" by Michael Bluestein, keyboardist/backing vocals for Foreigner. A music video is under way to be released as part of the Canyon Road experience.
The film was produced by Sheri Reeves and is the second feature collaboration between Calix Lewis Reneau (co-director and co-writer of the script with Still) and executive producer Len McLeod of Dark Sky Pictures. They are aiming for a spring 2012 release.
When you consider that Stephen King movies during the Eighties boasted theme songs performed by the likes of AC/DC and The Ramones, having the guy most famous for singing “Everything Is Beautiful”, “Ahab the Arab”, “Gitarzan”, and “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” provide one probably seemed like a strange choice.
And you’d be correct. Because the Ray Stevens that recorded the titular theme song to the 1986 anthology film Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye was NOT that Ray Stevens.
No, the title song to this collection of short films based on Stephen King short stories was performed by a different Ray Stephens, whose biggest claims to fame included a short stint as lead vocalist for The Village People on their final 1985 album Sex Over the Phone and his role as ‘Roy’ on the cult early Eighties children’s program “The Great Space Coaster”.
Ray Stephens’ “Cat’s Eye” is a rare track that's very hard to find in any format outside of the motion picture’s closing credits. Here it is in a customized video featuring footage from the film from which it heralds.
Be warned: This song is much catchier than it has any right to be and could very easily get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
We've saved some of the best of our coverage from the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con for last. Up next is our chat with "The Vampire Diaries" executive producers Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson, who tease us with tidbits from Season 3 like what we'll see in the first few episodes, what's up with both Katherine and Jeremy, and whether or not supernatural beings get horny, too!
As for how Season 3 begins, Plec told us, "I can tell you that we did ourselves hopefully and the audience a favor at the end of Season 2 by kind of laying out a little sampler platter of what was in store. And we'll follow through with it. We've got Stefan having taken a bullet, so to speak, for Damon as Damon and Elena were finally reaching an understanding in their own friendship that was probably a little more profound than either were anticipating. We have Stefan back in the blood and back on the dark side with Klaus. We have strange and curious visitations from characters of the past that we lost along the way. So we've got a lot of stuff to kick us off, the first of which obviously being where is Stefan? Is he alive; is he dead? How can we find him; how can we help him; how can we save him? And ultimately, can he be, or does he want to be, saved?"
Williamson chimed in with, "A show like this rests on its twists and turns, and that's the fun of the show. It's why I like to write it. So the last thing I want to do is give too much away, but this season … we break it down into chapters. I would say the first chapter is clearly Klaus. We're going to watch what Klaus is doing with Stefan, what he's up to, what is this hybrid about? We're going to try to get into the Original family this year and sort of understand who they were and what they were about, perhaps meet a few of them. If you remember the mythology, Elijah explained there's eight family members, and Klaus is kind of the bastard child. He always has been. And now he's a hybrid and he's all alone. I would imagine the first thing he wants to do is change that. So it sort of launches us into Klaus and his first chapter."
Since they brought up Klaus, we wondered what the big bad has been up to, and Plec offered, "I think that Klaus and Stefan have been kicking their way through the Southwest states of America, one dive bar at a time. [laughs] They've been on a little bit of a journey, and we'll learn a little bit about that, what they've been up to, what Klaus wants and why he wants Stefan to do it with him. And that's going to be part of the first couple of episodes."
Expanding on that a bit, could she provide any clues as to Klaus' motivations? Reproduction possibly? "Honestly, there's got to be some reason why Klaus wanted to be a hybrid that's more than just, 'I'm the only one of my kind, and then doesn't that make me cool?!?' I think that what we've already seen in his character is that he has a power complex, and having been rejected by his own family and taking it out on them, one dagger at a time, we'll get a window into his desire to build a new 'family' so to speak in the form of … can he create more like him? It is creepy, but where one hybrid goes, there certainly are more to follow -- I hope, for Klaus' sake."
Enough about Klaus already! What about that bitch Katherine? This time last year everyone was talking about HER. We asked Williamson to tell us where she is going to be this year and what she'll be up to. "That's a good question; however, I can't because I don't know. I think Katherine does play a part in this year without question, but we have so much ground to cover in the beginning that in the first six episodes, while she surfaces … in terms of her relationships and her huge storyline, we're not going to focus so much on that in the first six. She's very instrumental in what happens, but once again, she doesn't get into this big, rich storyline because we're so busy telling Klaus, Stefan, some Original family stuff. We've got Jeremy seeing dead people. You know we've got so much to tell, so much ground to cover."
Speaking of Jeremy, Williamson told about those ghosts he's seeing, "They factor into Season 3 in a major way. And it's not so apparent at first, but once you watch the show, you sort of understand what's going on and why Jeremy … that hour that he died … has an opportunity, and it's interesting to watch him respond and figure it out. How is Bonnie going to help him? He's torn between two lovers plus a witch. So it's going to be fun. I just can't give anything away."
Plec elaborated a bit on whether or not it was always the plan to bring back characters who were killed off earlier in the show. "No. Actually, that was something that we came up with this year, early in the season, but when we kill people, we usually mean business. We say, 'Sorry, man, you're done. We love you, but you're done.' It was more about showing the consequences of Bonnie using too much power and Jeremy, who finally is finding himself in this, I say the word 'functional' [relationship], although it's completely dysfunctional in that she's a big powerful witch, and he's a kid with an eternity ring, but still, there's something nice about Bonnie and Jeremy, and safe. And the first thing that we're doing is screwing that up by having him confronted with people from his past that he actually loved quite a lot and his first love. You never forget your first love. You never forget your second love. By the time you get to your third love, you're like, 'Eh.' [laughs] 'Whatever!'"
And Tyler? Did he decide to stick around after all? Plec explained, "Yes, Tyler's around. Tyler and Caroline are friends. Very important - they are 'friends'. There is a moment in the first episode where they admit that the urges that come along with being a supernatural being physically are a little overwhelming. And so while last year they were struggling with all the horrible parts of being supernatural entities, they start to discuss a little bit about the side effects of being a vampire and werewolf. I think there's a quote, and I haven't said it before, but Tyler says, 'I'm just horny all the time!' [much laughter]"
Another character we were curious about is everyone's favorite Original, Elijah. Considering the condition he was in at the end of Season 2, we asked Plec if she could give us any hints as to whether or not he'll be seen in Season 3. She reassured us, "Yes, I can. I love him. He might be my favorite character - don't tell anybody else. We've already said that this is the year where we're going to explore the origins of the Originals. We're going to see more about the Original family, and that will involve our friend, Mr. Daniel Gillies, at the very least in flashbacks."
Now it was time to get to the nitty-gritty that fans have been waiting to hear: What about Damon and Elena's relationship this season? Plec opined, "We're trying to tell the story that we started the show wanting to tell, which is it's a girl who has lost a lot of people in her life who finds warmth and comfort and solace in one brother and then ultimately finds herself being the object of the affections for the other brother. Elena is growing up. There is definitely a road that can be traveled between Damon and Elena in the life of this series, absolutely, and right now they are alone in Mystic Falls without Stefan, but also they are trying desperately to help and rescue Stefan so their complicated relationship will only become more complicated very early on and continue to be complicated all season."
And then Williamson was asked the age-old question: What do you think is the draw of the show? Vampires used to be the bad guys, and now they're in this gray area. He offered up the following explanation, "Well, they are in a gray area, no more so than Damon, who's sort of this reluctant hero who's not meant to be a hero. It's not his answer; saving people's lives is never the answer. And now he is. And he sort of has to be, or he's going to risk losing Elena and her trust and her friendship because Elena's not okay with that, you know? And so it's one step forward, three steps back for Damon. And I think he's going to continue to wrestle with it until he can't wrestle with it any more. And it will explode and implode, and a lot of stuff will go down. And I think it will also climax with what happens between him and Elena at some point. And Elena is wrestling with what Katherine told her last year, which was, 'It's okay to love both of them.' And she will. And she does. But it's her actions that dictate everything else. It's like, what kind of love is it? Because we all know there's all sorts of love out there, and is it romantic love or is it … you know, this is a story about Stefan and Elena's epic love story so I just think it's fun to watch the twists and turns that's going to take. Because, you know what, she loves them both."
Things closed out with Plec being asked if she's still having fun writing the series, and she replied, "Yes! It is hard. It is hard, it is exhausting. But surprisingly, it's getting easier … not getting easy by any means, but I think because we know these characters so well and the audience knows them so well there's almost like a storytelling comfort that you know that the audience is with you on this ride, and so they're going to be willing to explore things with you whereas when you're starting a series, you're like, 'We have no idea if someone's going to like this character or hate them, if this story's going to work.' And now we're in the groove and we're all thinking and breathing like one organic storytelling machine, and it's not easy, but it's not as terribly nervous breakdown-inducing painful as it was in the beginning."
You always hear that if you want to lose weight or get in shape, you need motivation. Something that drives and pushes you to never quit. The reason most never make it? No motivation. I have the cure for that ... the living dead.
That good enough motivation for you? How long could you run? What obstacles could you overcome with a horde of zombies grasping at you, their gaping mouths hungry for your flesh? Time to put your money where your life is. Run For Your Lives is a 5k zombie-infested obstacle course race that promises to push you to the limit mentally and physically this fall.
This October 22nd, Baltimore, Maryland, plays host to the first wave of the apocalypse. However, other dates and more locations are expected for 2012.
The race will consist of a 5k cross-country style course riddled with 12 obstacles to navigate. There will be waves of zombies on the course to keep you running, and they will be coming for you. Your goal? Complete the race without being turned.
And before you ask, "Slow Zombies or Fast?", they are mum there as well (though I expect a mix of both). With camping, parties, and zombies, this might just be the most fun exercise you will ever get.
Another preview video for The CW's hotly anticipated new show "The Secret Circle" has hit the Internet, and of course it's no secret we have it for you right here. Shhh ... don't know the Secret of the Circle? Find out in the series premiere on Thursday, September 15 at 9/8c!
Synopsis:Cassie Blake was a happy, normal teenage girl – until her mother Amelia dies in what appears to be a tragic accidental fire. Orphaned and deeply saddened, Cassie moves in with her warm and loving grandmother Jane in the beautiful small town of Chance Harbor, Washington – the town her mother left so many years before – where the residents seem to know more about Cassie than she does about herself. As Cassie gets to know her high school classmates, including sweet-natured Diana and her handsome boyfriend Adam, brooding loner Nick, mean-girl Faye and her sidekick Melissa, strange and frightening things begin to happen.
When her new friends explain that they are all descended from powerful witches, and they’ve been waiting for Cassie to join them and complete a new generation of the Secret Circle, Cassie refuses to believe them – until Adam shows her how to unlock her incredible magical powers. But it’s not until Cassie discovers a message from her mother in an old leather-bound book of spells hidden in her mother’s childhood bedroom, that she understands her true and dangerous destiny. What Cassie and the others don’t yet know is that darker powers are at play, powers that might be linked to the adults in the town, including Diana’s father and Faye’s mother – and that Cassie’s mother’s death might not have been an accident.
The series stars Britt Robertson as Cassie Blake, Thomas Dekker as Adam Conant, Gale Harold as Charles Meade, Phoebe Tonkin as Fay Chamberlain, Jessica Parker Kennedy as Melissa, Shelley Hennig as Diana Meade, Louis Hunter as Nick, Ashley Crow as Jane Blake and Natasha Henstridge as Dawn Chamberlain. Based upon the book series by L.J. Smith (author of “The Vampire Diaries” book series), THE SECRET CIRCLE is from Outerbanks Entertainment and Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios with executive producers Kevin Williamson (“The Vampire Diaries,” “Scream,” “Dawson’s Creek”), Andrew Miller (“Imaginary Bitches”), Leslie Morgenstein (“The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl”), Richard Hatem and Gina Girolamo. Elizabeth Craft (“The Vampire Diaries,” “Lie to Me”) and Sarah Fain (“The Vampire Diaries,” “Lie to Me”) were executive producers on the pilot which was directed by Liz Friedlander (“The Vampire Diaries,” “90210”).
The CW has released the "sizzle reel" for "The Vampire Diaries" that aired during last week's San Diego Comic-Con, which is mostly a recap of Season 2 but includes a quick teaser of Season 3. Don't look now...this season of "The Vampire Diaries" is sure to be indecent.
As Joseph Morgan, who plays big bad Klaus on the series, told us during our "TVD" roundtable interviews during SDCC, "The show starts a couple of months from where we left off so obviously Klaus has taken Stefan under his wing and whisked him away on a path of corruption. So we're going to see what's going on with those characters... how far Klaus has corrupted him and how far he's willing to go. As the series go on, we'll learn a lot more about Klaus' motives for bringing Stefan along because he's not just done it on a whim; there's a goal behind it. There's a plan there. We're going to certainly find out a lot more about that."
And that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as what we can expect during Season 3. There's Damon and Elena, Caroline and Tyler, Jeremy and his two ghosts ... the list goes on and on!
The series returns Thursday, September 15th. For more visit the official "The Vampire Diaries" website via the link below.
Rocksteady Studios did something almost unheard of with 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum; they made a game based on the Dark Knight that not only didn’t suck, but was actually one of the best games released that year. How do they plan on following up their initial salvo into the world of the Caped Crusader, you ask? By upping the stakes and making everything bigger and badder.
With a five times bigger environment, more villains, more combat abilities, more gadgets, over 400(!) Riddler challenges and even the addition of a completely new playable character, Batman: Arkham City looks like it’s shaping up to be a more than worthy follow-up to one of the best games of this console generation.
It’s been roughly a year since The Joker took control of Arkham Asylum, and a lot has happened in Gotham City. After that incident both Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison have been declared unfit to hold prisoners. Quincy Sharp, former warden of Arkham, has been elected mayor. After a bombing during his inauguration speech, Sharp, along with new warden Hugo Strange, has decided to cordon off the slums of Gotham and build his new prison right there in the city. The new prison’s only rule – Don’t try to escape.
This goes about as well as can be expected.
It’s largely lawless inside the walls of Arkham City. The heavy hitters of the Batman universe--namely, The Joker, Two-Face, and The Penguin--have set up shop and are vying for control of the prison. Each of them has staked his claim to a section of the city, started up a gang, and will stop at nothing until he is the last man standing.
The Riddler is in the mix as well. While he doesn’t seem to be one of the major players, that doesn’t make him any less dangerous. In Asylum Riddler was primarily a hands-off antagonist, being little more than an annoyance Batman had to deal with from time to time. This time around, however, Riddler is taking a much more hands-on approach. He’s kidnapped innocent civilians and locked them in seemingly Saw-inspired challenge rooms featuring all sorts of death traps including, of course, copious amounts of deadly saw blades.
Batman has to complete Riddler’s games, or innocent lives will be lost.
It’s unknown as of now exactly what calamity has required Batman to intervene in Arkham City, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that he’s the goddamn Batman and there are bad guys whose faces need to be punched.
And punch them you shall.
The combat in Arkham City will feel very familiar to veterans of the original game. It uses the same timing/combo based system as Asylum but with a few more bells and whistles. You can now use the famous explosive gel during combat. You can quickly spray a little on the ground, roll away, detonate it and stun a group of enemies. Very awesome. But my favorite new combat ability has to be the Batclaw Takedown. In Asylum you could use the Batclaw to pull enemies toward you to continue your combos. In City, however, they’ve amped up its use exponentially. During a combo you can launch the claw at an enemy, pull him toward you Scorpion style, sweep his legs out from under him, and clothesline him to the ground all in one motion. It’s visceral, brutal, and extremely satisfying.
One of the big changes from Asylum to City is the world traversal; no longer are you primarily confined to building interiors and small outdoor areas. As Batman, Arkham City is yours to explore. From the rooftops to the seedy alleyways, nowhere is off limits. Much like in Asylum, you can use your cape to glide, but in this game they had to amp it up just a little bit more. While gliding in Arkham City, you can pull the right trigger to go into a dive bomb; wrapping the cape around, you can build up speed and head straight toward the ground. Let go of the right trigger and you unwrap the cape, catch the upward thrust from the wind, and gain more gliding speed. The combination of the grappling hook and Batman’s cape allows phenomenal freedom of movement. It’s possible to go from one side of the city to the other without touching the ground.
THE biggest change, however, has to the inclusion of an entirely new playable character in the form of Catwoman. I’ll be the first person to admit that I was a little apprehensive when I heard she would be fully playable. I mean, I play a Batman game to be the man himself so adding another character that’s not Batman just didn’t seem like it made a lot of sense. Upon thinking more and more about it, though, I realize that it’s actually quite a brilliant addition. There’s no one in Batman’s rogues gallery, outside of The Joker, that’s as polar opposite to Batman as Catwoman. Where Batman is serious and stoic, Catwoman is light-hearted and playful. Batman has dedicated his life to ending crime in Gotham; Catwoman is a life-long thief. Batman has a very strict “no killing” rule, but Catwoman will ice a dude if the situation deems it necessary. It’s going to be very interesting seeing the Arkham world through her eyes.
Batman: Arkham City isn’t re-inventing the wheel here because there’s really no need to fix something that wasn’t broken to begin with. Rocksteady Studios is taking the formula that worked so well the first time around and jamming it with as much awesome stuff as they possibly can. And, in this instance, “more of the same” is more of one of my favorite games of all time. I’d have to be criminally insane to turn that down.
Batman: Arkham City hits the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC on October 18, 2011. Check out our exclusive video interview with Dax Ginn below to hear more about this upcoming game!
Everyone knows that in horror sequels are inevitable. When you hit the right chord and people dig it, it only makes sense. Determined to prove that the sequel can be as good the original, Days of the Dead has announced not one but two shows next year.
Based on the success of Days of the Dead in Indianapolis, they will be taking all of their shows and events to Atlanta, Georgia, March 9-11, 2012. But don't worry, they will be bringing the madness back to Indianapolis July 6-8, 2012.
Days of the Dead: Atlanta has already announced some of their guests including: PJ Soles (Halloween, Carrie, Stripes, Rock N' Roll High School), Dey Young (Rock N' Roll High School, Running Man, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Red Eye)- This will be the first Rock N' Roll High School reunion in 30 years, Gary Busey (Silver Bullet, Predator 2, Pirahna 3DD), Taafe O' Connell (Galaxy of Terror, New Years Evil), and Nivek Ogre (Repo Genetic Opera, Skinny Puppy). Also announced are Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis, the special effects artists that, combined, have brought you such favorites as Aliens, Pumpkin Head, The Terminator, Monster Squad, Galaxy of Terror, and Tremors.
Tickets and VIP passes are already on sale at their Days of the Dead: Atlanta ticket site. Limited to only 100 tickets, the VIP passes are guaranteed to sell out.
As for how Season 3 begins, Plec told us, "I can tell you that we did ourselves hopefully and the audience a favor at the end of Season 2 by kind of laying out a little sampler platter of what was in store. And we'll follow through with it. We've got Stefan having taken a bullet, so to speak, for Damon as Damon and Elena were finally reaching an understanding in their own friendship that was probably a little more profound than either were anticipating. We have Stefan back in the blood and back on the dark side with Klaus. We have strange and curious visitations from characters of the past that we lost along the way. So we've got a lot of stuff to kick us off, the first of which obviously being where is Stefan? Is he alive; is he dead? How can we find him; how can we help him; how can we save him? And ultimately, can he be, or does he want to be, saved?"
Plec elaborated a bit on whether or not it was always the plan to bring back characters who were killed off earlier in the show. "No. Actually, that was something that we came up with this year, early in the season, but when we kill people, we usually mean business. We say, 'Sorry, man, you're done. We love you, but you're done.' It was more about showing the consequences of Bonnie using too much power and Jeremy, who finally is finding himself in this, I say the word 'functional' [relationship], although it's completely dysfunctional in that she's a big powerful witch, and he's a kid with an eternity ring, but still, there's something nice about Bonnie and Jeremy, and safe. And the first thing that we're doing is screwing that up by having him confronted with people from his past that he actually loved quite a lot and his first love. You never forget your first love. You never forget your second love. By the time you get to your third love, you're like, 'Eh.' [laughs] 'Whatever!'"
Synopsis: Cassie Blake was a happy, normal teenage girl – until her mother Amelia dies in what appears to be a tragic accidental fire. Orphaned and deeply saddened, Cassie moves in with her warm and loving grandmother Jane in the beautiful small town of Chance Harbor, Washington – the town her mother left so many years before – where the residents seem to know more about Cassie than she does about herself. As Cassie gets to know her high school classmates, including sweet-natured Diana and her handsome boyfriend Adam, brooding loner Nick, mean-girl Faye and her sidekick Melissa, strange and frightening things begin to happen. 
The CW has released the "sizzle reel" for "The Vampire Diaries" that aired during last week's San Diego Comic-Con, which is mostly a recap of Season 2 but includes a quick teaser of Season 3. Don't look now...this season of "The Vampire Diaries" is sure to be indecent.
