Watch the first few seconds of the trailer for the Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard scribed The Cabin in the Woods, and you’ll get a major case of déjà vu. A group of 20-somethings, most likely on vacation or celebrating graduation from college, decide to take a relaxing retreat off the beaten path. On their way, they are given ominous warnings by an old-coot gas station attendant. Once they arrive, their idyllic destination inevitably turns horrific. We’ve seen this set up plenty of time: The Hills Have Eyes, Cabin Fever, Pennydreadful, Wrong Turn, The Evil Dead, Dawning, Don’t Go in the Woods, (just off the top of my head).
Even the trailer knows it’s laying some familiar groundwork, but titillates: “You think you know the story… Think again”.
See for yourself after the jump…
Ever watch a documentary about the American Civil War on the History Channel? They inevitably show early black and white photos of battlefields strewn with hundreds of dead. Despite the blurriness and deterioration, I find these images deeply unsettling and poignant. You can almost smell the intolerable stench of decaying flesh…
Now imagine all of those decaying, tattered bodies came back to life, Night of the Living Dead style. Pretty fucking creepy right? Now check out this trailer for the Canadian Horror film Exit Humanity.
Written and directed by John Geddes, Exit Humanity stars Dee Wallace, Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Leatherface), Stephan McHattie (Pontypool), Mark Gibson, Jordan Hayes, Adam Seybold, and Brian Cox. Recently acquired by Bloody Disgusting Selects, this film will be available on DVD and On Demand sometime this year. There’s no release date, but it can’t come soon enough if you ask me!
See the gripping trailer after the jump…
After a period of vampiric hibernation that lasted over 2 decades, Hammer Films reemerged a couple years back, hoping to reclaim their place in history as Kingpins of Horror. First, Hammer acted as a distributors for Let Me In in 2010, then as producers of last year’s ultra-creepy resurrection saga Wake Wood. Hammer is also the studio behind The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliff and slated for release Friday February 3rd (and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can’t possibly have missed the current media push).
As Hammer kicks open its coffin-lid in search of new relevance, Titan Books has released The Hammer Vault: Treasures from the Archive of Hammer Films. Compiled by film historian and Hammer uber-fan Marcus Hearn, The Hammer Vault is a must-read for fans of vintage Horror. While not a history of Hammer, nor a summation of their catalog, The Hammer Vault gives a chronological overview of the production of each film, beginning with The Quartermass Xperiment in 1956. Each film gets a 2-page color pictorial featuring production stills and other rarities.
Read the Official Synopsis after the jump and find out how you can order your copy of The Hammer Vault after the jump…
Well, the Academy released its list of Oscar nominations this morning—and it looks like 2011 was the dullest year for cinema since the invention of motion pictures. I’m almost proud of the fact that I haven’t seen a single film nominated for Best Picture. I heard The Help is pretty good, but the rest of the contenders look ridiculously boring and mundane. And they didn’t even nominate The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Melancholia! Anyway, if you’re one of those people who actually cares, you can see all the nominees here: http://oscar.go.com/nominees
Saucy Josh likes to imagine an alternate reality where Horror films are held in such high regard that the Academy created categories just for them. I’ve gone so far as to look back over 30 years to compile lists of what films would have been nominated had a category existed for Best Horror Picture. You can see my attempts at revisionist history on my personal website, Blood and Guts for Grown Ups where you can find out who won Best Horror Film Oscars in the 80’s , the 90’s, and the 00’s.
Now, if you are so inclined, drop into my bloody fantasy world after the jump to find out the nominees are for Best Actor in a Horror Picture, Best Actress in a Horror Picture, and Best Horror Picture of 2011…
Talia al Ghul! Abiet, a young Talia played by Joey King, I should point out. Depending on your nerd levels with the Batman universe, you may just know her last name as sounding familiar. Her father Raj al Ghul, was in Batman Begins, as Bruce’s martial art’s mentor. Or you may know her as the Bat’s love interest in the comics. Either way, this is news I wasn’t expecting, and is pretty exciting! But why is she young? Does it have something to do with the Lazarus Pit ? So many questions! Find out what actress had to say about it after the jump.
Underworld: Awakening, the 4th Chapter in the Underworld franchise, opened on Friday hoping to top the weekend’s battle at the Box Office. Produced by Sony Screen Gems, written by John Hlavin with Michael Straczynski and directed by Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, Awakening stars Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rae (Interview with a Vampire), Theo James, India Eisley, and Charles Dance.
Read my review after the jump…
These 5 new images for Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises come to you from the newest issue of Entertainment Weekly. The pictures feature Christian Bale in his awesome Batman suit, Tom Hardy as Bane, and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon.
Check them out after the break!
The fact that American Horror director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) worked with Imagenation Abu Dhabi on a supernatural thriller that takes place in the United Arab Emirates is interesting enough. Now add rumors that the UAE Royal Family wants to bury the film, Djinn, and the intrigue factor rises exponentially.
Earlier this week, Upcoming Horror Movies quoted “someone” close to the Royal Family as saying: “They do not appreciate its portrayal of the UAE and considers the movie to be politically subversive, and that they’ve paid off the studio’s chairman, Mohammed Al Mubarak, to bury it.” Adding… “The whole cast and crew is furious with Imagenation. They are telling everybody different stories. One actor in the film was even told by someone at the studio that it would never be released because it portrays a ‘witchcraft belief that the country does not acknowledge’.” That’s unbelievable!,” another source close to the production said. “Everybody knows what’s really going on but they’re afraid to talk because they think Al Mubarak will start a smear campaign against them in the Emirati press – which is not exactly fair or free.”
Read the studio’s response and see the epic 4-minute trailer after the jump…
More Haywire news. Hulu has released the first 5 minutes of Steven Soderbergh‘s next film. Apparently it’s going to be one of his last films. After Haywire, Soderbergh plans on shooting two more films (The Side Effects and Behind the Candelabra) and then retiring. Unfortunately, because this clip is on Hulu, only American audiences can view it. I’m sure it will be up on YouTube soon enough (it probably already is).
The clip features stars Gina Carano and Channing Tatum talking for approximately 3 minutes, and then beating the shit out of each other for the last 2. Be sure to check out the trailer, pictures, and poster we put up the other day.
Check out the mayhem after the jump.
The Devil Inside is a “Found Footage”/Mocumentary Horror film that opened in theaters Nationwide on Friday. Written and directed by Brent Bell (Stay Alive) it was produced by Paramount Insurge, a branch of Paramount Pictures that was created after the success of Paranormal Activity to produce and acquire “micro-budget” movies. The Devil Inside was filmed for under $1M, but you’d never suspect it as the quality, acting, and effects are all top notch. The first big Horror release of 2012 is a good one, setting the bar pretty high for whatever follows this year.
I know that a lot of you are sick of both “Found Footage” and exorcism films, as both have been produced ad nauseam over the past decade or so. While this certainly works to its disadvantage, The Devil Inside at least seems to have paid close attention to these similar films. And where many of its predecessors failed, this film gets it right. Just like Paranormal Activity 3 makes the first two films in that franchise seem cheap and boring, The Devil Inside puts many past exorcism films to shame.
Continue reading this review after the jump…
