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“Invitation to Dance - It’s a Dance. And sometimes they turn the lights off in this ballroom. But we’ll dance anyway, you and I. Even in the Dark. Especially in the Dark. May I have the pleasure?” --- Stephen King ::::::::::: MY CRITERIA FOR DISCUSSION ENCOMPASSES THE HORROR GENRE AND BEYOND, SO I USE THE TERM "NIGHTMARE MOVIES". SPOILERS CAN OCCUR WITH OR WITHOUT WARNING. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

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HORRORPHILE'S CODA GRIND FOR ALL HALLOW'S EVE

October 31st 2012 09:13
Halloween title credit

I decided to wrap up my time on Orble with a doozy.

Here’s the challenge.

It’s all about favourites, and in one case an ultimate: my True Believers’ and mine.

All you have to do is copy and past the questions below into the comment box and fill in your answers.

You’ll have to think a little, but hey, that’s half the fun. Of course, don’t think too hard, go with your gut reaction. A few of the latter questions will have a nudge to keep your answer on track.

The incentive to undertaking this challenge is that I will be choosing the person whose answers tickle my dark fancy the most and will send them a lucky dip prize pack of several cult/classic DVDs and/or Blu-rays. It’s a gesture of thanks to my loyal subscribers and followers.

So here are the 31 questions – my coda grind - to tie in with October 31st: The Eve of All Hallow's ... Hallowe’en.

Halloween Michael Myers


1. Favourite pre-1968 movie:

2. Favourite vampire movie:

3. Favourite zombie movie:

4. Favourite monster or creature feature:

5. Favourite supernatural or ghost movie:

6. Favourite scariest movie:

7. Favourite comedy:

8. Favourite remake/reboot:

9. Favourite sequel or prequel:

10. Favourite novel or short story adaptation:

11. Favourite Australian or New Zealand movie:

12. Favourite science fiction/fantasy movie:

13. Favourite movie that genuinely scared you as a child (pre-teens):

14. Favourite black & white movie:

15. Favourite werewolf movie:

16. Favourite psycho/boogeyman/slasher movie:

17. Favourite witchcraft (demon/Devil/demonic possession) movie:

18. Favourite director (include three movies):

19. Favourite low-budget movie (less than $1m):

20. Favourite gore or transformation set piece:

21. Favourite movie based on a true story, events, or real person(s):

22. Favourite Asian movie:

23. Favourite European movie:

24. Favourite line of dialogue:

25. Favourite exploitation/grindhouse-style:

26. Ultimate pet hate (movie, element, genre, etc):
[Nudge: The flick that everyone else likes but you, or maybe it’s the use of CGI instead of squibs, or perhaps it’s the found footage sub-genre]

27. Favourite repeat viewing:
[Nudge: The flick you can watch over and over and over and over …]

28. Favourite score:
[Nudge: You don’t need to name the composer, the movie will suffice]

29. Favourite weirdest, freakiest movie:
[Nudge: The flick with imagery and/or story that continues to baffle you, or that obscure one few people know about]

30. Favourite brutal/disturbing movie:
[Nudge: Not necessarily the goriest, but the one that has marked you, maybe even given you nightmares]

31. Favourite Final Girl:
[Nudge: Who has the ultimate pair of lungs, that charismatic chutzpah, that joie de vive?]

Alien chestburster
Possession Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill

I'll Never Die Alone


And here are my favourites, for the record:

1. Favourite pre-1968 movie: INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)

2. Favourite vampire movie: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2007)

3. Favourite zombie movie: DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

4. Favourite monster or creature feature: THE DESCENT (2005)

5. Favourite supernatural or ghost movie: POLTERGEIST (1982)

6. Favourite scariest movie: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

7. Favourite comedy: SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)

8. Favourite remake/reboot: Three-way tie: THE THING (1982), THE FLY (1986), DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)

9. Favourite sequel or prequel: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 (2011)

10. Favourite novel or short story adaptation: THE THING (1982)

11. Favourite Australian or New Zealand movie: WOLF CREEK (2005)

12. Favourite science fiction/fantasy movie: Tie: PHANTASM (1978) and VIDEODROME (1983)

13. Favourite movie that genuinely scared you as a child (pre-teens): Tie: AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981) and THE OMEN (1976)

14. Favourite black & white movie: NOSFERATU – A SYMPHONY OF TERROR (1922)

15. Favourite werewolf movie: GINGER SNAPS (2000)

16. Favourite psycho/boogeyman/slasher movie: HALLOWEEN (1978)

17. Favourite witchcraft (demon/Devil/demonic possession) movie: ANGEL HEART (1987)

18. Favourite director (include three movies): DARIO ARGENTO - DEEP RED (1975), SUSPIRIA (1977), INFERNO (1980)

19. Favourite low-budget movie (less than $1m): THE EVIL DEAD (1982)

20. Favourite gore or transformation set piece: NORRIS-THING (The Thing)

21. Favourite movie based on a true story, events, or real person(s): Tie: THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) and DEAD RINGERS (1988)

22. Favourite Asian movie: JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (Japan, 2003)

23. Favourite European movie: Tie: POSSESSION (West Germany/Poland, 1981) and THEM (France/Romania, 2006)

24. Favourite line of dialogue: “AND TO THINK I HESITATED” --- Dr. Channard/Channard Cenobite (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, 1988)

25. Favourite exploitation/grindhouse-style: I’LL NEVER DIE ALONE (2007)

26. Ultimate pet hate (movie, element, genre, etc): CENSORSHIP

27. Favourite repeat viewing: ALIEN (1979)

28. Favourite score: HALLOWEEN (John Carpenter, 1978)

29. Favourite weirdest, freakiest movie: ERASERHEAD (1976)

30. Favourite brutal/disturbing movie: A SERBIAN FILM (2010)

31. Favourite Final Girl: Tie: MORJANA ALAOUI (Martyrs, 2008) and JESSICA BIEL (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003)

Martyrs Morjana Alaoui

The Texas Chainsaw MAssacre 2003 Jessica Biel



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MY PENULTIMATE POST ON ORBLE

October 30th 2012 00:16
Horrorphile

Back on August 14th I indicated that I would soon be making an announcement.

It’s almost All Hallow’s Eve … That time has arrived.

It’s been a rollercoaster year so far, and I’m stepping off the Orble ride. After Halloween I will no longer be posting on Horrorphile – Pleasure Of Nightmares. I am moving on from underneath the Orble umbrella, slipping into the Darkness momentarily whilst I build my new platform.

I’m looking at it as a re-birth; like the phoenix from the fire.

I started Horrorphile in August 2006 as a curious delving into the relatively new realm of “blogging”. 1105 posts later and that world has changed dramatically in the six years I’ve been involved with Orble. I’ve had a good time in this neck of the cyber woods, and I’ve met some great people, several of whom have become good friends, and I’ve garnered an impressive following. But the time has come to spread my wings wider, soar higher, fly further.

However there are two very important elements to my departure from Orble. Please take note!

1. Although I will no longer be posting on Horrorphile – Pleasure Of Nightmares it will remain active as an online archive. No one else will be stepping in as host, editor or mediator, however I will endeavour to answer as many comments as I can, but I can’t guarantee a swift reply.

2. As soon as I have my new website up and running I will provide a banner here with hyperlink to re-direct traffic. I hope that all my loyal email subscribers will follow me to my new online home. It’s very important to have my True Believers follow my path.

So this is not so much a goodbye, as a goodnight.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jon, Orble’s founder, for providing me with the platform to wax lyrical about the pleasure of nightmares, and for his support over the past six years. I would also like to thank some of the fellow Orble bloggers (past and present) who made my time here all the more enjoyable and interesting; - first and foremost, my pardner in ciné-crime, John Doe, who joined two days after I did, the early years posse; Cibbuano, charles, Damo, Homer Joyce, Natalina, Michaelie, Tracy, KylieW, Nina, DuskDevi, D. Armenta, Dementia, MelissaA, Journeywoman, Luke, Ruby, Stanley, Someone, Kelly Wand, the other serious movie buffs; Matt Shea, David O’Connell, Shaun Katz, Catherine Stebbins, cinemaistruth, and last, but not least, suitably*wounded.

Cry loud and write hard.

And long live the new flesh!

Bryn, your True Believin’, gorehound, terrorfreak, Horrorphile in the Darkness!

The Phoenix

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EVIL DEAD TEASER TRAILER!

October 29th 2012 23:32
Evil Dead (2013)
Looking not so much like a remake, but more like a reboot up the arse, Evil Dead (2013) promises to be the best one since Zack Snyder took George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) and kicked the living shit out of it.

I was extremely concerned when I first heard Sam Raimi had given the green light and was being involved in a new version of his low-budget cult classic The Evil Dead (1981). As a rule remakes suck, but of course like all rules they can be broken, and there are a clutch of them that are amazing, but they are a rare breed of beast.

Evil Dead (2013)
I was a little outraged when I read that Diablo Cody was involved as one of the new screenwriters, especially since her attempt at horror, Jennifer's Body (2009), was a dreadful misfire. I appreciate she has an ear for hip dialogue, but I have strong reservations on her understanding of the horror genre. I don't care if she calls herself Diablo.

The director is Fede Alvarez, a South American. Another South American colleague of his is the other screenwriter, along with Sam Raimi (although whether Raimi's credit is simply due to the original screenplay, I'm not sure, and not sure why the "The" has been dropped either). Scripting aside, the teaser trailer is what is getting the cynics like me excited. The imagery looks impressively atmospheric and visceral and nightmarish.

The movie is not released in Australia until May next year, so quite the period for bated breath, but a nice little goodie for Halloween!

Here's the teaser:
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American Mary

October 26th 2012 06:22
American Mary movie poster
Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle) is a medical student studying and practicing to be a surgeon. Her teacher, Dr. Grant (David Lovgren), is stern and demanding. Mary is struggling to pay her way and desperation leads her to the Bourbon-a-Go-Go strip club where the sleazy owner Billy (Antonio Cupo) makes her an offer she can’t refuse. Before she can say “scarification” Mary has earned herself a tidy wad of cash and the bittersweet taste for the dark side. But her talent with the scalpel slices open a door she will never walk back through. Be careful what you wish for Mary …
American Mary Katharine Isabelle
Katharine Isabelle as Mary
Canadian twisted twin writers and directors Jen and Sylvia Soska have impressed many overseas festival audiences with their sophomore effort. Their debut feature, Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009) was made on the smell of bloody rag, and rampaged its way through the exploitation festival circuit. Now they’ve got a bigger budget and some serious talent in their cast and crew. American Mary (2012) is a dark tale of disenchantment and vengeance.

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Grabbers

October 26th 2012 02:28
Grabbers poster art
This is director Jon Wright’s second feature and it’s an accomplished piece of work. Nice cinematography, good performances, an irreverent sense of humour, and some solid CGI and prosthetic work. Grabbers (2012) is a creature feature, an Irish production with a strong Irish sensibility. It’s about a small island grappling with the invasion of an alien beasties that resemble something Lovecraft would’ve winked at.
Grabbers Ruth Bradley and Richard Coyle
Ruth Bradley as Lisa and Richard Coyle as Ciaran
Erin Island Garda officer Ciaran (Richard Coyle) has a problem with the bottle which new officer Lisa (Ruth Bradley) isn’t too impressed with. But they’ve got a bigger fish to fr. A female alien monster has crash-landed in the Atlantic Ocean and come ashore for a little egg dropping. That’s all well and good, but this maternal beast is hungry too and likes the taste of human blood … providing it doesn’t have any booze in it.
Grabbers Lalor Roddy
Lalor Roddy as Paddy
Local fisherman Paddy (Lalor Roddy) insists on calling the creature a “Grabber”, much to the annoyance of local marine scientist Adam (Russell Tovey) who is fascinated with the seemingly dead specimen Paddy has brought in. After it attacks a rather squiffy Ciaran they realise they’ve found a weak spot. It’s time to get the islanders down to the local and juiced up


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Dredd

October 25th 2012 06:08
Dredd movie poster
I won’t beat around the bush, Dredd (2012) kicks proverbial arse into the middle of next week. Forget that overblown disingenuous tripe that Sylvester Stallone made nearly twenty years ago (you probably had anyway), this is the real deal, or at least as close to the dark ruthless spirit of the original 2000AD comic series created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, which first appeared in the UK in 1977. Director Pete Travis and novelist-cum-screenwriter Alex Garland have fashioned an ultraviolent instant cult movie that never tries to be anything more than what it is: a futuristic shoot–em up.
Dredd Karl Urban
Karl Urban as Dredd
Kiwi actor Karl Urban dons the Dredd suit and delivers his best Clint Eastwood persona. Although not quite the bulky build I imagined for Dredd, he commands an impressive presence and, much to fans relief, doesn’t once remove his helmet! His sidekick is rookie Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a genetic mutant psychic, under evaluation from Dredd. Together they infiltrate Peach Trees, one of the massive vertical slum complexes of Megacity One.
Dredd Olivia Thirlby
Olivia Thirlby as Anderson
A drug lord called Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) has control of the behemoth building and resides near the top of its 200 levels. The drug she is produced en masse is known on the street as Slo-Mo, a synthetic opiate that slows reality down to around 1% of its normal speed. It’s Dredd and Anderson’s job to bring the bitch down. There will be blood. Lots of it


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Inbred

October 25th 2012 00:39
Inbred movie poster
You want blood? You got it. You want gore? You got it in spades. You want sick humour? You got it. You want loud, obnoxious, foul-mouthed, characters? You got ‘em in spades! You want a black comedy about hapless city folk trapped in the country town from Hell? Inbred (2012) is your hick cuppa tea! More head-splittin’, gut-bustin’, limb-choppin’ macabre fun than you can poke a hoe at. All washed down with a pint of swill.

Three guys and a girl, all of them young offenders, are out for a little rural character building. Their supervisors, Jeff (James Doherty) and Kate (Jo Hartley) have their hands full. They stop near Mortlake, a remote Yorkshire village, and get the teenagers’ hands dirty. Then it’s off to the local, The Dirty Hole (“Food No Served Here”), for home-made lemonade (“Tastes like piss!”, “It’s just warm, needs more ice.”) and pork scratchings (“hairy or smelly


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Excision

October 23rd 2012 04:01
Excision movie poster
Back in 2009 I covered some of the highlights from A Night Of Horror International Film Festival’s mini-programme of “Fucked Up People Doing Fucked Up Things”. One of them was an eighteen-minute short film called Excision (2008) written and directed by Richard Bates Jr. It had lots of promise and it delivered, especially in that uneven terrain of horror-comedy. Excision was black as crocodile bile. But Mr. Bates hadn’t finished his home surgery lesson, he had a longer tooth to pull, or in this case a bigger chest cavity to separate. So now here is the feature-length version of Excision (2012), fresh from the overseas festival circuit, and here to lay waste to competing other horror black comedies.

Bates has re-cast from scratch, and although Tessa Ferrer gave a sensational performance in the short film original, the difficult role of Pauline is now in the hands and mind of AnnaLyne McCord, a glamourpuss who pulls a deformed rabbit out of the hat. McCord is transformed from beauty to beast; all thick brows, pimples, jutting jaw, slouched shoulders, and no doubt seriously bad personal hygiene. She is the wallflower from Hell, about to unleash her own brand of nightmare truths upon her unsuspecting family of losers


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Maniac (2012)

October 19th 2012 05:38
Maniac (2012) movie poster
William Lustig’s Maniac (1980) holds a special place in the dark hearts of hardened horrorphiles. It’s one of the very few movies that polarises the dedicated True Believers; some champion it, others find it too depressing. It’s a mixed bag; featuring impressive special effects make-up from Tom Savini (and a very young uncredited Rob Bottin) and classic NYC location shooting, but the lead character is a truly ugly piece of work and the tone and atmosphere of the movie is oppressively grim and sleazy. The movie, understandably, has a strong cult following.
Maniac (2012) Elijah Wood
Elijah Wood as Frank
When I first read that the movie was going to be remade with Elijah Wood in the role of Frank, the serial killer, I rolled my eyes. How on earth were the filmmakers going to pull this one off?! As a rule I don’t appreciate remakes of movies that worked the first time around. For all its repulsive nature the original Maniac works, and works well. But there are always exceptions to the rule, and therein lies the remake rub. For every ten remakes that fail miserably, one of them works superbly. Director Franck Kalfoun’s Maniac remake is one of those superb rarities.
Maniac (2012) Nora Arnezeder
Nora Arnezeder as Anna
It’s a French-American co-production, co-scripted and produced by the duo behind High Tension (2003), and the bang-on remakes of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Piranha (2010); Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur. That’s a hat-trick for the French lads. Director Kalfoun, also an actor, helmed the uneven parking lot nightmare thriller P2 (2007), but with Maniac he shines. Utilising the ambitious and potentially disastrous visual narrative ploy of shooting (almost) the entire movie from the POV of the killer Kalfhoun delivers a wholly surprising artful horror movie. Yes, Maniac, despite the inherently dark and disturbing subject matter (a fetishist psychopath who scalps women) is a disquietingly beautiful movie


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DREDD IN-SEASON TICKET GIVEAWAYS!

October 15th 2012 06:23
Dredd
The lovely folk at Icon in conjunction with Horrorphile have five in-season double-passes of the all new re-booted Dredd to giveaway!

From the reports Dredd is everything Sly Stallone's Judge Dredd wasn't. And we all know how terrible that version was


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