Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Sites | Writers | Advertise | My Orble | Login
 
“Night brings terror. Strange, alien forms move restlessly across the face of the earth. Fear, horror and death follow in their wake. The sky is dark; the moon has not yet risen; the stars seem too frightened to shine ..." --- Drake Douglas (introduction to Horrors)

Horrorphile - November 2007

POSTER GALLERY 7

November 30th 2007 02:16
The Brain Eaters
Nearly missed my monthly post on horror movie posters! Sheeesh, can’t have that. Especially since Cibbuano, Orble’s veteran movie critic, plugged last month’s poster post so wonderfully. Thanks Cibby!

So here they are in their fabulous grotesque glory, thirteen (horrorphile’s list rule of thumb) movie posters for past, present and very-near-future releases. I tend to gravitate toward the retro styling, simply because they look more interesting than so many of the contemporary ones.

Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)
Actually that’s not entirely true, I’ve included several recent, or soon to be released, so I’d be a hypocrite if I said I post mostly old designs. In fact, nearly half of these are newbies, so go figure.

I must admit I haven't seen half of these (unsual I know), and chances are some of them might be utter shite, but the poster art looks great, and that's what this post is all about.

I have noticed over the past few years that DVD releases of cult classics sometimes feature better, or at least, intriguingly different, artwork than the original poster did. For example, the DVD cover art for Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971) is much more evocative than the poster art. But this is more of an exception than the rule.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Curious to note is a new English-language version of one of horror’s most important movies; The German expressionism masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari which was made a couple of years ago. Apparently the director digitally inserted new actors into the original 1919 film and created an entirely new experience. Very curious indeed, but I hold reservations on how successful it actually is. The artwork is starkly effective though. I’ll be reviewing the original sometime in the weeks to come, and will keep an eye out on this “re-boot” (for want of a better description) on the DVD shelves.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Madhouse (1974)

Black Christmas (1974)

Alice Sweet Alice (1976 aka Communion)

Demon Seed (1977)

Alligator (1980)

Haute Tension (2003, High Tension)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005)

The Breed (2006)

Skinwalkers (2006)

The Strangers (2007)

Vacancy (2007)

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)



74
Vote
Comments (10)Comments (10) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: poster galleries
   


THE ART LAIR - II

November 29th 2007 02:15
Meg Lyman
I love the way each person can interpret different things from a piece of artwork, more so than your average movie poster. As much as I love graphic design, a movie poster is, more often than not, designed to illicit an immediate and deliberate response from the viewer; basically the poster should be saying “You want to see this movie! Now!”

Melissa Byrd
With a piece of artwork, whether it be an charcoal sketch, a water colour painting, an air-brushed illustration, or a metal sculpture, the intention of the artist is to create a reaction from the viewer; not necessarily a feel-good sensation, but definitely an excited one. With horror art, the artist’s intention is to create a sense of morbid fascination, unease, dread, a macabre rush of adrenalin as fear crawls up the spine, or, most effectively, a recoil, as the imagery reminds one of a recent nightmare!

Gabe Marquez
As you will see in my artists' selection, I gravitate toward the horror art that romances the surreal, the lurid, the grotestque, yet strangely beautiful, and the dangerously sexual. Like Medusa, the siren, luring the impressionable hedonists to their doom. This is the second in my monthly post of horror artwork, The Art Lair. Savour these ghoulish displays of artistic expression like a fine goblet of dark arterial wine, then let the blood dribble down your chin and splash upon your breast where it congeals and glistens in the moonlight.

Adam Geyer

Charles Keeping

Frank Fiedler

Dorian Cleavenger

Josef Stark

Marcelo Orsi Blanco

Mario Velarde

Matthew Stawicki

Michael Ivan

Robert Walker

Taint Tin

Yvo Waldmeier

David Sammons






67
Vote
Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: the art lair
   


Beowulf

November 27th 2007 23:53
Beowulf movie poster
I read a prose adaptation of the epic Nordic poem "Beowulf" back when I was a lad. The monster Grendel gave me the heebie jeebies, and I was especially horrified when the warrior Beowulf tore the hideous creature’s arm off, leaving it to slink back to its lair to die. It was this moment of unbridled horror which stuck in my mind for years.

"Beowulf" the poem was penned on shaved leather some time between the 7th and 12th century, but apparently had been told for centuries before that. It’s a single 3000 word poem written in Old English and set in Denmark. It tells the story of a village of Vikings governed by King Hrothgar who are terrorised by a monstrous 12-foot tall humanoid beast called Grendel that lives in a cave in the nearby mountains. Grendel is a creature of intense pain and immense rage, his flesh like that of a tumor, all bloody and ruined, his face falling apart, his bones bursting through his ruptured skin; truly a nightmarish sight to behold.
Beowulf Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar
Grendel storms the dining hall in a whirlwind of supernatural blue light, and tears it apart, throwing the men and women around like rag dolls, tearing them limb from limb, and biting off their heads. He confronts Hrothgar, but defiantly Hrothgar stands his ground, a strange moment of recognition between the two. Then in a howl and a whine he leaves the scene of carnage, dragging bodies away to gnaw on back in his watery lair.

Beowulf movie poster art
Ray Winstone as Beowulf
In despair Hrothgar demands a warrior of immense courage is needed to defeat and kill Grendel. He promises power, treasure and glory. They need a hero. And thus, a hero arrives across the dark fearsome seas; a tall, bold, fearless golden-haired warrior by the name of Beowulf. “I will kill your monster,” he tells them.

Screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary wrote the adaptation ten years ago. Now it finally reaches the screen using the latest in motion capture technology. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, who first used this process with his kids flick The Polar Express, Beowulf (2007) uses real actors wearing skin-tight lycra suits fitted with numerous motion senses. Then they act out in a customised sound stage called a volume and are filmed with countless cameras from all angles (apparently three hundred cameras were used!). Then their bodies, and the surrounding interiors and exteriors, are digitally animated over. The result is a curious one.
Beowulf Brendan Gleeson, John Malkovich, Robin Wright-Penn
Brendan Gleeson as Wiglaf, John Malkovich as Unferth and Robin Wright-Penn as Wealthow
It is often spectacular, but also it’s a strangely distancing effect. While it enables the director to orchestrate the most elaborate action sequences which would be impossible to film with real actors, there is a distinctly human element missing from the performances: the life behind the eyes. There is no real focus from the eyes, they appear dead. This is the one area the digital animators have yet to succeed in. Another area of irritation is the varying accents, but if the film was in Danish with subtitles, the box office would suffer (this isn’t The Passion of the Christ, remember).
Beowulf Crispin Glover
Crispin Glover as Grendel
Zemeckis has garnered a very strong cast, and many of them are recognisable in their Viking guises; Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, John Malkovich as embittered Unferth, Brendon Gleeson as Beowulf’s right-hand man Wiglaf, and most recognizable of all, Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s water-demon mother, a succubus-siren if ever I saw one (and her nude first appearance slowly rising from the waters of her lair is something to behold!)
Beowulf Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother
Others are less recognisable; Robin Wright-Penn as forlorn Queen Wealthow, Alison Lohman as earnest young Ursula, Crispin Glover as demon offspring Grendel, and most disguised of all, Ray Winstone as Beowulf. Ray, of receding hair, average height and overweight, is transformed into a 6’6”, lustrously-haired, super-buffed, chisel-jawed warrior. If you thought 300 was over the top with its air-brushed six-packs, then you ain’t seen nothin’.
Beowulf dragon
The demon-spawned dragon confronts a terrified Ursula (Alison Lohman)
Most impressive though is the golden dragon of the movie’s second half. This is a raging beast of truly spectacular proportions. It is in the second half that Beowulf truly commands. After adjusting to the soulless dazed expressions of the characters I become more engulfed in the story-telling, and it both Gaiman and Avary have done a great job with what is renowned by literary experts as a very disjointed and clumsy narrative. The themes of seduction and pride, courage, greed, and despair are painted in vivid colour. It is a tale of valor and glory, submission and annihilation, and it comes full circle in a curiously satisfying way.
Beowulf dragon in flight
The evil golden dragon in glorious flight
Beowulf Ray Winstone
Ray Winstone never knew he could scrub up so well
I was not impressed by the trailers for Beowulf, nor the idea of so many “name” actors in what looked like a vanity project, but Zemeckis, for the most part, has pulled it off. It’s an epic myth in the guise of SuperTrash. And probably the most visceral M-rated “horror” movie I’ve seen. You even get to see both Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie fully starkers … well, actually, no, not really. Angelina had a body double (she certainly isn’t as voluptuous as that anymore!), and the animators have attempted to de-sexualise her (ie no nipples and genitalia), while during the scene where a naked Beowulf battles Grendel, although you see plenty of tight Nordic butt, there is always something strategically covering his Scandinavian schlong. It’s rather amusing to say the least.
Beowulf Angelina Jolie
Is that a nipple I see before me?
Beowulf might appear to be a kidult movie, but if I was a parent I wouldn’t be taking my ten-year-old along. Grendel is a genuinely frightening, and repulsive creature likely to give any kid nightmares! Adn that dragon is pretty nasty too. Mind you, kids these days are subjected to all manner of grotesque and adult material, so go figure …
Beowulf Crispin Glover
The rage and pain that is Grendel
The Beowulf myth has been adapted numerous times over the years in various different guises. Curiously a production came out a couple of years ago, Beowulf & Grendel, with Gerard Butler in the lead role, whom would go on to appear in the lead role in 300, another digitally-drenched mythical tale of dark heroism. Beowulf is perhaps not as slick or quite as adult and violent as 300, but it’s as vivid and intense and, arguably, more entertaining.

Of note, I saw the 3D version at IMAX. The 3D is pretty damn impressive, although not as impressive as the live action stuff I saw for the last 20 minutes of the last Harry Potter. We’re still waiting for the state-of-the-art 3D projection with non-obtrusive glasses, but in the meantime, deal with the slightly taxing and ever-so-slightly blurry effect, and go enjoy the in-your-face sword and sorcery of Beowulf in 3D on the giant screen. It still rocks and rolls.

Although it doesn't do the cinematic experience justice, here's the best of the trailers:

73
Vote
Comments (14)Comments (14) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


The Exorcist

November 27th 2007 03:23
The Exorcist poster image
Recently voted scariest film ever made in a survey by The Times and by various other publications along the way, The Exorcist (1973) is certainly a movie wearing big laurels. Director William Friedkin is not shy in stating he thinks it’s as close to a perfect film as you’ll find, and is adapted from one of the best novels ever written by William Peter Blatty.

The Exorcist Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil
The Exorcist Linda Blair
Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil
I haven’t read the novel, but I’ve seen the movie numerous times, both the original theatrical version, and the director’s cut which came out in 2000. The director’s cut added a few scenes of dialogue, restored the original ending (a short conversation between Lt. Kinderman and father Dyer), as well as the famous “spider-walk” sequence which was cut for technical reasons, and added some very effective super-impositions of demon imagery (blink and you miss them


[ Click here to read more ]
126
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (17)Comments (17) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Stephen King's THE MIST and Gramma

November 23rd 2007 01:50
The Mist movie poster
One of Stephen King’s best novellas is The Mist which featured in his uneven collection of short stories, Skeleton Crew. It’s up there with The Body (filmed as Stand By Me), Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and The Running Man (sensational read written as Richard Bachman, but dreadful movie).

I was anticipating a movie would be made of The Mist; pretty much 98% of what King writes gets optioned, and it has been made, with a release date for down under early next year. It’s screenwritten and directed by Frank Darabont who made the most popular King adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption (which features high in imdb’s top ten all-time movies


[ Click here to read more ]
62
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (5)Comments (5) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: bait
   


A Nightmare on Elm Street

November 22nd 2007 01:19
A Nightmare on Elm Street movie poster
Michael Myers had been stalking and slashing for a good six years, Jason Voorhees had been slicing and dicing for a solid three years, Leatherface had been in hiding for ten years, but the buzz would be back in another couple of years. It was 1984 and writer/director Wes Craven unleashed the bastard son of a hundred maniacs, Freddy Kreuger, upon the world in his horror masterwork, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Freddy’s mother, Amanda Krueger, was a nun in an institution for the most violent of the criminally insane, so the back story goes. Over the Christmas Holiday in the early 40s Amanda was inadvertently left inside the patient containment area, where she was repeatedly raped and brutalized. Help only arrived days later. Barely alive, Amanda was rescued from the clutches of the barbaric inmates. And she was with child. A child conceived in pain, torture, insanity and evil. That child was named Frederick Charles Krueger


[ Click here to read more ]
76
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Near Dark

November 20th 2007 23:49
Near Dark movie poster
A distinctly 80s movie, but a highly original one at that, director Kathryn Bigelow’s hybrid western-horror with heavy shades of noir, Near Dark (1987), is one of the best vampire movies of the past 25 years.

Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), a young mid-western farmboy, who lives at home with his father and kid sister, meets a striking, but shy young woman, Mae (Jenny Wright), one night. He is immediately taken by her ethereal beauty, and offers her a lift back to the trailer home where she is staying with “friends”. But Caleb wants a kiss in return, and reticent as Mae is, she eventually necks with Caleb - necking being the operative word. Mae bites Caleb, drawing blood, then runs off into the night


[ Click here to read more ]
55
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (8)Comments (8) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


THOU SHALT NOT PLUNDER ... But plunder they do!

November 20th 2007 06:54
movie queue back in the day
In the wake of watching Rob Zombie demystify and, in a roundabout kind of way, ruin the original Halloween conceit with his pedestrian and dreadfully ill-concieved re-envisioning/re-imagining/r e-fucking-make (disregarding the numerous dreadful Halloween sequels, Halloween II and III notwithstanding), I decided to savour the vitriol and make a series of movie lists.

Cult Classics That Should Never Have Been Remade (But Were or Will Be, Damn Them!)
[ Click here to read more ]
74
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (11)Comments (11) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: lists
   


Halloween (2007)

November 19th 2007 06:58
Halloween (2007) movie poster
"The darkest souls are not those which choose to live within the hell of the abyss, but those which choose to break free from the abyss and move silently among us." --- Dr. Samuel Loomis
So here we have it, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, and the picture ain’t pretty. He’s butchered my favourite horror movie. He’s carved it up and laid it out with no real rhyme or reason, no respect for the supernatural allure or mystery of the original. This Halloween will be remembered for being wholly unremarkable. Y’see, I don’t think Rob Zombie is a very good director. I can appreciate that he loves horror movies, and he might very well have some interesting things to say about them if I was chatting to him at a party after several beers and a joint, but I think his movies are messy, irritating, bloated and over-rated. Halloween just drives the nails further into his coffin.

[ Click here to read more ]
53
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Death Proof

November 16th 2007 00:55
Death Proof alternate movie poster
Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s not strictly horror fare, but Death Proof (2007) was designed as a double feature billed with Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror under the umbrella title Grindhouse, inspired by the cinema programs that played host to many a shlocky piece of exploitation, and here at Pleasure of Nightmares, we champion all that is lurid and schlocky, excessive and perverted. Tarantino’s Death Proof fits that bill fairly snugly.
Death Proof Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier as Jungle Julia chillin' on the sofa with a bong at her side
The original grindhouse movies were low-budget flicks filled with violence, nudity, sex, drugs, loud music, bad editing and dubbing (especially the foreign flicks), grungy production values, schonky “acting”, and often missing reels of footage (so films would inexplicably jump in narrative) which were churned out at low-rent cinemas in downtown Manhanttan. But, they possessed a raw, funky aesthetic, and appealed generally to either adrenalin junkies, the dirty mac brigade, or hardened genre lovers of horror, sci-fi, organized crime, martial arts, or vehicular action. And sex. There was always sex.
Grindhouse Death Proof car
Stuntman Mike's killer car
Quentin Tarantino has always proclaimed his love of B-grade movies, and so has Robert Rodriguez. So together they concocted the Grindhouse concept; two very modest-length (around 80-odd minutes) features in the grindhouse vein that would screen one after another like a drive-in double feature, complete with fake trailers to other trashy flicks thrown in between for good measure. Brilliant concept, but it bombed, in all the wrong ways


[ Click here to read more ]
80
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (13)Comments (13) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Dèmoni

November 15th 2007 03:24
Demons movie poster
“They shall make cemeteries their catherdrals and the cities will be your tombs!” ran the tagline for Demons (1985), a vivid and garish cult classic from the dark creative whirlpool of Dario Argento. Directed and co-written by Lamberto Bava, the son of legendary Italian director Mario Bava, with Argento co-writing and co-producing, but it has the Argento stamp of excess all over it.

Whilst riding on the West Berlin subway Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is approached by a strange man in black wearing a metallic mask (Michele Soavi, who would go on to direct Stagefright and Dellamorte Dellamore) who offers her tickets to a movie premiere . Later Cheryl and her friend Kathy (Poala Cozzo) meet two young men, George (Urbano Barberini) and Ken (Karl Zinny) at the newly renovated Metropol cinema for the special screening. A pimp and two of his ladies are checking out the foyer displays, one of the hookers tries on a prop mask from the movie and accidentally cuts herself on the mask’s sharp edges


[ Click here to read more ]
60
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Lost Highway

November 13th 2007 23:41
Lost Highway movie poster
… have me!” Splintering from the mind’s eye, crossing the median strip of the mainstream, down the off-ramp of self-indulgence, swerving onto the twisted path of the lost highway, plunging headlong into the noir whirlpool of the 21st century … this is the last exit to Lynchland.

Cinema’s favourite American auteur, master of the bizarre, duke of the surreal, and magician of the fluid nightmare, David Lynch, made one the of the most hypnotic and potent films of the 90s: Lost Highway (1997): a psychogenic fugue that penetrates and shatters conventional film language, causing massive ripples and undulating disturbances that ricochet through the madness of reality


[ Click here to read more ]
53
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (2)Comments (2) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Se7en

November 12th 2007 12:49
Se7en movie poster
Written as The Seven Deadly Sins, but shortened to the conceptual and smartass title of Se7en (1995), director David Fincher’s neo-noir tale of a serial killer, the pitch black brilliance in the execution of his master plan, and the two policemen who are desperately trying to get catch him, is a stroke of genius.

The superb screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker unfolds with a stylish clarity, atmospheric intensity and visceral edge crime seldom seen in drama-buddy flicks. But it’s the hybrid noir-horror feel of the movie that makes it so damn interesting; a twisted morality tale sunken in the mire of sociopathic absolution and the sins of the good and pure. It’s wonderful when Hollywood puts on its filthy boots and starts stomping down the back alleys, which it does so very rarely


[ Click here to read more ]
72
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (10)Comments (10) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Irréversible

November 9th 2007 03:27
Irreversible Monica Bellucci and Jo Prestia
Alex is savagely raped by La Ternia (Jo Prestia)
Irréversible is not exploitative. If a viewer feels violated, they’ve been slapped in the face for all the right reasons; cinema complacency demands shock treatment, and Noé delivers in spades. It is both beautiful and grotesque, a ghastly examination on the destruction latent in the ploy of cause-and-effect; for the fabric of time can tear so easily the joy of love and life.

Noé not only wrote and directed, he also did the cinematography and edited the film. The soundtrack utilises subsonic noises and drones to induce a sensation of nausea and anxiety in the viewer, especially during nightclub scenes at the beginning of the film. Thomas Bangalter, one half of French electronic act Daft Punk, delivers an experimental score which also plays ruthlessly on our senses. Then to add insult to injury Noé employs strobe-lighting effects from the opening credits (which include all the credits usually at the end of a movie) through the club scenes and again at film’s end (the beginning). Those who are easily upset, physiologically, by strobe-lighting, should be warned


[ Click here to read more ]
105
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (12)Comments (12) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


The Howling

November 8th 2007 00:41
The Howling movie poster
Lycanthrope movies are a tough, but rare breed. There’s one being made in New York City at the moment, Jack & Diane, a lesbian romance … with hair and fangs. But there were two werewolf flicks made within the same year – 1980 – that to this day haven’t been bettered.

The one whose production began first, but was released second, was An American Werewolf in London (1981) directed by John Landis. The second movie, which ended up being completed and released first, was The Howling (1981) directed by Joe Dante. Both movies are laced with a strong knowing sense of black humour, but also reek, like a wet dog, with a raw pungent atmosphere of palpable fear. These movies are genuinely frightening. They also employ, what was then, state of the art special effects make-up, and boy, do these effects hold up or what?! They kick ass


[ Click here to read more ]
77
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (8)Comments (8) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Day of the Dead

November 7th 2007 01:05
Day of the Dead movie poster
“The darkest day of horror the world has ever known.”

George A. Romero’s third installment in his Dead quartet, Day of the Dead (1985), is not only the best of the series, but is arguably one of the most darkly powerful and viscerally intense modern horror movies ever made. It is a tenebrous, atmospheric masterpiece; a stomach-churning indictment on the abject greed and inherent nihilism of the human race. It also set a benchmark for special effects makeup which has rarely been equaled


[ Click here to read more ]
66
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (5)Comments (5) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Dawn of the Dead

November 5th 2007 23:14
Dawn of the Dead movie poster
“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.” One of the most enduring taglines in modern horror history to one of the most discussed modern horror movies in history. George A. Romero’s 1978 sequel to his landmark zombie flick Night of the Living Dead (1968) cut down all the competition like a point blank shotgun blast to the head. There hadn’t been a graphic horror movie with such a relentless tone and seared with a scathing satirical edge like this shopping mall mayhem.

Dawn of the Dead opens at a Philadelphia television broadcast station where everything is under pressure. It seems the plague of the walking dead established in the first movie has escalated ten fold. Instead of rogue farmers armed with shotguns taking out whoever looks troublesome, it’s SWAT teams armed with M16s storming apartment blocks killing anything remotely disheveled and evacuating the odd lucky person


[ Click here to read more ]
70
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (6)Comments (6) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


Night of the Living Dead

November 5th 2007 05:23
Night of the Living Dead movie poster
Writer/Director George A. Romero re-invented the horror movie with his landmark super low-budget cult classic Night of the Living Dead (1968). Shot on 16mm in grainy black and white and with a bunch of amateur actors in and around his home town of Pittsburgh the movie became a staple of the midnight movie circuit and, in retrospect, spearheaded the rise of the modern horror movie.

Along with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Night of the Living Dead re-vitalised a dying art form, injected it with the dark uncompromising attitude, and gave it the visceral edge it so demanded. It was the end of Hammer Horror’s stranglehold. The subversive sideshow of Hollywood was here in all its glorious grotesquerie


[ Click here to read more ]
70
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (7)Comments (7) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


A Short Film About Killing

November 1st 2007 23:18
A Short Film About Killing Polish movie poster
Dead cockroaches lie in a saucer, a dead rat lies in a puddle, and giggling children run away from a hanged cat. A young man (Miroslaw Baka), a sullen drifter, walks the streets of a cold Polish city. A middle-aged, disgruntled taxi driver (Jan Tesarz) prepares for another day, another dollar. An idealistic young lawyer (Krzysztof Globisz) is on the brink of his career, having successfully passed his Bar Exam.

The young man idly eats a doughnut and spits in his coffee at a café not far from where the lawyer sits with his lover discussing his future, then moments later the drifter hails the taxi and tells the cabbie to take him to a remote area near a lake on the city’s outskirts


[ Click here to read more ]
64
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (6)Comments (6) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


30 Days of Night

November 1st 2007 01:00
30 Days of Night movie poster
Like the undead waiting anxiously for the night, I’m always hungry for a new vampire movie. Director David Slade, who made the thoroughly unnerving drama-thriller-with-horror-un dertones Hard Candy (2006), has helmed one of the best entries in the vampire horror sub-genre in years. I haven’t seen such ferocity since From Dusk Till Dawn (1995), except that flick was played for laughs, whereas 30 Days of Night (2007) ain’t very funny.

Based on a three-book graphic novel by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith 30 Days of Night has re-injected the vampire myth with some serious bite! It’s neo-gothic, almost science fiction. The setting reminded me of the cold isolation of The Thing (1982) with the trapped desperation of Dawn of the Dead (1978). There are relationship issues too, and the movie finishes in vaguely poetic fashion


[ Click here to read more ]
75
Vote
Read MoreRead More Comments (8)Comments (8) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews
   


More Posts
July 2008
4 Posts
June 2008
23 Posts