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“The actual world is so shitty that horror is the perfect genre to express the most honest and concrete things … More than ever, horror should embody the absolute escape from the lies of official society. The genre has a great opportunity to be really countercultural again after years of having been softened by the cynical postmodernism of our times.” --- Pascal Laugier
56th Sydney Film Festival banner
I love this time of year: Sydney Film Festival. Fifty-six years old and going strong. Kicking off this Wednesday June 3rd and going through until Sunday June 14th. It’s twelve days of cinema heaven. Although the pickings are a little slim on the hardcore horror front, the lean selection promises to be intense, visceral, memorable, and destined for cult status (with one already holding that honour). Here are the six titles worth checking out.

Coraline movie poster
Coraline
Wednesday 10 June 6.30pm @ Greater Union VMAX
Saturday 13 June 12pm @ GU5

Okay so maybe my inclusion of this animated girls own adventure is a little tenuous, but it’s based on the book by legendary modern fantasist Neil Gaiman, features a phantasmogorical view of an alternate reality, and is directed by Henry (The Nightmare Before Christmas) Selick, plus apparently there are some genuinely creepy and nightmarish moments, even if it is aimed at the younger audience. I’m sure it’s a cult classic bursting at its sown-up seams.

Here’s the trailer:


Dead Snow movie poster
Dead Snow
Saturday 6 June 9pm @ Dendy Opera Quays
Sunday 14 June 8.40pm @ GU9

A Norwegian Nazi zombie black comedy set in the snow! YES! Severed-tongue-in-cheek this will be one of the Festival highlights I’m sure. Hardgore alpine nightmare guaranteed for instant cult status. Further proof the best horror movies are currently coming out of the Mediterranean and Scandinavia.

Here’s the trailer:


Paranormal Activity movie poster
Paranormal Activity
Wednesday 3 June 8.30pm @ GU9
Saturday 13 June 8.35pm @ GU9

Presented as found footage a la Blair Witch Project, this is spine-tingling stuff for the ghostheads. A video is set up around the house of a young American couple in an attempt to record poltergeist, and sure enough, the paranormal reveals its elusive self, but in ways designed to truly terrify the couple … and the audience.





Pontypool movie poster
Pontypool
Saturday 6 June 8.15pm @ GU9
Monday 8 June 3.45pm @ GU8

Holy rotting cannibals, another zombie flick! Cult Canadian director Bruce McDonald delivers a caustic tale of small-town chaos pitched at those of a literary bent. Taking its cue from low-budget 70s horror and capitalizing on parochial ill-behaviour this is one nasty virus worth catching. Bring on the new flesh!

Here’s the trailer:


Van Diemen's Land movie poster
Van Diemen’s Land
Friday 5 June 8.40pm @ GU9
Sunday 7 June 6.10pm @GU9

The second recent feature (the other being The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce) based on the events surrounding the legend of Alexander Pearce, the nineteenth Century penal colony convict who escaped into the Tasmanian wilderness (Van Diemen’s land) with a bunch of other criminals. Pearce was eventually captured, but was the only survivor. In his pockets was the flesh of his comrades. Dying Breed also uses the Pearce legend, but twists it into modern tale.

Here’s the teaser trailer:


Wake in Fright movie poster
Wake in Fright
Saturday 13 June 11.45pm @ State Theatre

A lost dark Ocker gem from 1971, Outback (as it was known overseas) tells the nightmare tale of a teacher from Sydney who takes a job at a school in the desert. The Yabba locals don’t take too kindly to him and are hellbent on showing him the gnarly ropes they way they see ‘em. Controversial and palpably Australian, this movie won’t do any favours for the Outback tourism board, even if it is nearly forty years old. Co-stars the always brilliant Donald Pleasance.

Here’s a classic excerpt:

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THE DESCENT: PART 2 ...??!!

May 10th 2009 23:51
The Descent: Part 2 Shauna MacDonald
What a blatantly ill-conceived excuse for a movie: The Descent: Part 2 (2009). If you haven’t seen Neil Marshall’s The Descent (2005), then read no further: big-time spoiler alert!

The Descent is one of the scariest, most intense horror movies of the past ten years. There haven’t been many horrors in the past decade that have genuinely impressed me, and left a lasting impression. The Descent was one and Ils (2006) was another.
The Descent: Part 2 nasty beast
Now the five producers of the original, including Marshall, have decided to continue the plight of Sarah (Shauna MacDonald), with Jon Harris (editor of the first movie) in the director’s chair and three new screenwriters. Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) also returns.

But it gets worse. Whereas the original UK version finished with Sarah hallucinating that she had escaped the cave and made it back to the car, but saw an apparition of Juno (presumed dead and devoured) beside her in the car. This shock brought her back to reality and she realizes she’s still in the cave with the creatures closing in; terrifying ending, superbly nightmarish.
The Descent: Part 2 Shauna MacDonald
Perhaps the sequel is just a bad dream
However, U.S. distributors decided it was all too grim, so they re-edited the movie to finish with Sarah’s hallucination being a reality, so that she has managed to escape, and thus we have a more upbeat ending supposedly more suited to the wider, and more conservative, American demographic. Sometimes the American marketing school of thought does my head in!

The Descent: Part 2 Natalie Jackson Mendoza
Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) has been slumming it underground it seems ...
For The Descent: Part 2 the producers have decided to take the lead from the American edit, and so the movie begins with Sarah having survived and escaped the subterranean horrors and is hospitalized. Authorities come to the conclusion that Sara is at least partly responsible for the disappearance of her friends and colleagues. But, they also determine that there may be some kind of psychopath dwelling underground.

So, Sara is coerced into returning to the cave with a rescue team to search for other possible survivors. What a brave, brave girl. And, as it turns out, Juno is alive! Wow, so those nasty creatures didn’t actually eat her, what a curious surprise. However those carnivorous albino freaks are definitely hungry.

The Desent: Part 2 beastie
... and partying with the bad boys
All of this is revealed in the trailer. I can only shake my head in grand disappointment. What was a brilliant executed, claustrophobic “Boo!” machine, has now been tainted by a totally unnecessary sequel. There are no genuine surprises here since we know the creatures are down there so it’s simply a matter of watching as the humans get picked off in a series of gruesome attacks.

From the trailer the special effects make-up looks impressive, but the plotting and direction looks pedestrian. Marshall obviously thinks a sequel will put some of the money he lost on Doomsday (2008) back in his pocket, what a sell-out. The movie premiered in Brazil last month, no release dates yet for the rest of the world.

Here’s the trailer:

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WHETTING YOUR BLOODLUST

March 24th 2009 23:34
Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body
Here’s four trailers to salivate over, being released either on DVD or theatrically during the year; Martyrs (2008), a savage French revenge “chick-flick”, The Last House on the Left (2009), a slick Hollywood remake to a capital B-grade revenge flick, Pandorum (2009), a stylish sf shocker, and Dead Snow (2009), a Norwegian Nazi-zombie comedy (yup).

Martyrs:
Martyrs movie poster



The Last House on the Left:
The Last House on the Left House 2009 movie poster


Pandorum:
Pandorum movie poster


Dead Snow:
Dead Snow movie poster


Jennifer's Body movie poster
Other upcoming movies that I couldn’t find trailers for include; Jennifer’s Body (2009), written by Diablo (Juno) Cody and starring Megan Fox as a cheerleader whose body is possessed by a deadly demon; The Box (2009), a supernatural thriller, directed by Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly and co-scripted with Eli Roth, based on an obscure Richard Matheson story which was adapted into an early Twilight Zone episode called Button, Button. Remakes of The Crazies (2009), Piranha (in 3D), The Stepfather (2009), Night of the Demons (2009), and, last but not least, The Wolfman (2009) have also piqued my interest.
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A Night Of Horror International Film Festival 2009
Now in its third year the Sydney-hosted International Film Festival A Night of Horror continues to cut deep and splatter fresh blood across the independent horror movie scene. If you’re a gorehound, terrorfreak, or all-round horrorphile, the ten-day film festival is the city’s hottest ticket; more macabre movie wonders than you can shake a severed leg at, and this year’s line-up of features looks pretty damn impressive; I’m salivating like a rabid dog to see some of these nightmarish delights.

The Broken French movie poster
Festival directors and founders Dean Bertram and Lisa Mitchell are joined by associate programmers Grant Bertram and Shane K, plus exploitation specialist, curator Jack Sargeant. Special guest programmers are veteran psychotronic cine-freaks Jamie & Aspasia Leonarder, aka Jay Katz and Miss Death. It’s good to read how Dean’s life was changed by a movie that we both agree is a seminal cinema experience in modern horror: John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978


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The THRILL of TALKIN' HORROR

February 10th 2009 03:53
Friday the 13th (2009) teaser poster
Every Friday from 5pm til 6pm Sydney’s AFTRS (Australian Film, Television & Radio School) hosts an hourly talk with screen and broadcast industry folk offering insight and perspective on different topics. It’s called "Friday on My Mind".

This Friday is the 13th, so the discussion is called Thriller Night
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I was surfing on youtube, searching for something or rather, as you do, and inadvertently discovered a couple of semi-precious gems, as you do. Those brief little vignettes put together by someone with perhaps a little too much time on their hands; little crazy raisins lost in the giant fruit salad that is youtube. But I found them. And I’m putting them up on the Horrorphile pedestal.

I’m sure there are countless other raisins like these, but these little wrinkled grapes tickled my fancy. If you like your J-Horror, in particular the brilliance that is Ju-On and Ringu, then you’ll love these cleverly contrived pieces of editing and After Effects which appear to be viral ads for a tutorial site called www.homegrownhorror.com. I’m not sure quite how they do it, but it’s very impressive all the same


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Bad Lieutenant (2009) teaser poster
German maverick filmmaker Werner Herzog, who has made some powerful documentaries (Lessons of Darkness, Grizzly Man, Encounters at the End of the World) and some startling features (Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu), turns his curious hand to crime and addiction. In a very bold and rather dubious move he has decided to tackle a deeply subversive and challenging movie and remake it. Actually there’s nothing new there, Herzog does this stuff all the time … but Bad Lieutenant (1992)?!

That’s right, Herzog’s remake of Abel Ferrara’s searing, blistering, uncompromising character study of despair and desperation, addiction and corruption, resignation and redemption is currently in post-production and due for release in the coming months. The movie is being re-titled Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) and Nicolas Cage is in the titular role


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Underworld: Rise of the Lycans Rhona Mitra
The silly season is officially upon us. I love this month; partly because it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks, but also ‘tis the season to be merry, and I love merriment. Horror and merriment go severed hand in severed hand.

So to celebrate the good stuff here are six pretty narly trailers to movies being released overseas in January and February next year, expect them down under not too long after. We’ve got a prequel and two remakes, a directing debut from respected screenwriter David Goyer, a Japanese director making a Clive Barker story in Hollywood, and an Oscar-nominated newbie adding his own stylistic touch to the horror-thriller genre


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Horrorphile on SCREENWRITING LEAVE

October 31st 2008 05:37
The screenwriter's original friend
My fellow horrorphiles and True Believers, I am talking a hiatus from my blog for a couple of weeks to delve deep into the dark and wicked pool of my imagination to conjure an exciting and provocative new draft to a feature screenplay I started four years ago.

Actually the concept was born back in the early 90s when I was at university doing film and drama studies. It was only a paragraph or two, a loose premise – an erotic nightmare - that concerned a male artist and a female demon. I had a title, imagery, and narrative ideas


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zombieeeeeeeee!
Here's something to get excited about! George Romero began shooting a new zombie flick at the beginning of the month in Ontario. It’s an independent production with a cast of mostly unknowns; although several of the actors have Saw III (2006), IV (2007) and/or V (2008) on their resume, which gives me great concern for the calibre of acting.

Alan Van Sprang
Saw III's Alan Van Sprang
The screenplay is by Romero; the plot involves inhabitants of an isolated island off the North American coast who find their relatives rising from the dead to eat their kin. The leaders of the island feud over whether or not to kill their reanimated relatives or preserve them in hopes of finding a cure to the zombie plague.
Athena Karkanis
Saw IV and V's Athena Karkanis

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WICKED NASTY TEASER TRAILER TRASH

August 4th 2008 06:23
Wicked Lake ladies
I’m dealing with Mondayitis. So what better substance abuse than posting a trailer to a new piece of deep trash. Wicked Lake (2008), director Zach Passero's debut, is a low-rent indulgence in backwoods violation mayhem that should’ve been shunted straight to DVD, but apparently has managed to secure a theatrical mean season Stateside.

In a nutjob, err nutshell; four girls gone wild head to the woody hills for a little carpet lickin’ r&r, however their fun time is interrupted by four demented men who have a little last house on the left intent. Cue misogynistic behaviour from hillbillies ("Suck the nub!"), and then at the stroke of midnight, cue ladies who lunch


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Day of the Dead Joe Spilato
I have never felt more envious of Melbournites than I currently feel. The Melbourne International Film Festival has always featured a bigger, and arguably, superior programme to the Sydney Film Festival. Why? I’m not sure.

This year I’m really feeling the pinch. Apart from many movies, especially documentaries, that weren’t in the Sydney Film Festival, there are still more exclusives, including numerous horror, “nightmare” and exploitation movies that I’d kill to see on the big screen


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HOLLYWOOD ADDRESSES HORRORPHILE!

May 29th 2008 01:54
Fear Itself title credit
I was contacted by the online publicity department of US channel NBC in regards to a new TV anthology, Fear Itself, where successful and respected horror directors deliver short horror movies; thirteen hour-long episodes to be precise. The first episode airs in the States, June 5.

Publicity explained that "Horrorphile.net was selected because we thought it’d be a great place to reach horror fans on the Web.". Fair enough. Keep it comin' I say


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Import/Export movie poster
It’s a rich bloody banquet this year! Compared to the six movies I fitted snugly under my Pleasure of Nightmares banner in last year’s festival, this year the number of “nightmare” movies within the Sydney Film Festival’s programme comes to a sensational eighteen! I’m very excited! Who knows, maybe next year they might even do a retrospective on a seminal horror director’s body of work … David Cronenberg, perhaps?

The 55th Sydney Film Festival runs from Thursday June 4th (Gala Opening Night) through until Sunday June 22nd. I haven’t had the opportunity to view any of the movies in advance as yet, but I will endeavour to preview as many as I can, or at least provide a review shortly after its screening


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... and for a few BLOODIED MORE

April 30th 2008 00:57
The Dark Lurking
A further handful of potentially potent new movies that are hitting the big screens and not-so-big screens now and in the near future:
The Broken Lena Headley
The Dark Lurking movie poster
The Broken finds Lena Headley as Gina, a woman who sees herself driving past on a busy London street. Creepily intrigued she follows the car to her own apartment and from there slides into a dark, unhinged reality that will haunt her most horribly. This is a psychological horror-thriller from second time director Sean Ellis.

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Some things WICKED this way come?

April 29th 2008 00:38
Zombie Strippers
Ever since the resurgence in modern horror movies took audiences by the throat and throttled them you can count on numerous new titles being released every month, mostly straight to DVD, but some manage to squeeze a short theatrical season if they’re lucky. Who knows when this glut of turgid filmmaking will subside?

It seems clueless producers and the ilk (who actually fancy themselves as zeitgeist puppeteers) have the notion that horror movies are the easiest and most profitable genre to plunder. Well, on one hand they’re right; horror movies can be made cheaply and effectively, and they can, if the marketing campaign is savvy and the movie was cast just so, make a killing at the box office. But more often than not the filmmakers botch it up from the get go


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MACHINE GIRL!!!

February 11th 2008 06:42
My apologies for the short post, but I’m recovering from my bucks weekender.

The Machine Girl movie poster
So in keeping with my scrambled eggs mind I’m posting this trailer to a new Japanese piece of deep trash called Kataude Mashin Gâru (which translates literally as The One-Armed Machine Girl, but will be shortened to The Machine Girl for Western audiences). It is directed by Noboru Iguchi (Death Trance
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One Cloverfield's early teaser images
Rather ironically a huge SuperTrash monster flick that had been very successfully viral marketed is about to be released, Cloverfield, and I’ve only just heard about it. Which rock have I been under?!

Since July of last year producer J.J. Abrams (TV’s Lost) has been leaking teasers and internet tentacles that hint at what his monster movie is about. Basically a massive leviathan emerges from the watery depths surrounding lower Manhattan and wreaks destruction on par with 9/11


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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


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LA TERZA MADRE ... She is coming closer!

September 25th 2007 03:43
The Third Mother teaser poster
I am so hungrily awaiting the Australian release of Dario Argento’s hugely anticipated third and final part to his masterful witchcraft trilogy known as "The Three Mothers", I've got snakes writhing in my stomach! I’ve already written two “bait” posts on her dark self already!

First there was Mater Suspiriorum in Suspiria (1977


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