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Horrorphile - April 2008

... and for a few BLOODIED MORE

April 30th 2008 00:57

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 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.

The Dark Lurking is set 800 feet below the surface of the Antarctic where a subterranean research station has gone offline. Hundreds of ravenous and constantly mutating creatures are on the loose and eight researchers must find their way up through thirteen levels to reach safety. A low-budget Australian production described as Alien meets The Evil Dead directed by Greg Connors and starring Anthony Edwards.

Funny Games U.S. is controversial German director Michael Haneke’s American remake of his own movie Funny Games (1997), which was a movie I had a lot of trouble with. The Dutch director of The Vanishing (1988) remade his own film for Hollywood, and compromised the ending so radically he basically eviscerated any real horror the original possessed. I have a feeling Haneke will attempt to keep his English-language version of Funny Games as close to the original as possible, which won’t make it any easier to digest. We’ll see.

100 Feet is the new film from writer/director Eric Red who wrote The Hitcher (1986) and wrote and directed the little seen werewolf flick Bad Moon. Starring Famke Janssen as Marnie, a woman who kills her abusive husband in self-defence, then sentenced to house-arrest, only to discover her dead husband’s malevolent ghost is in the house dead-set on making her life an absolute hell.

The Tattooist is co-written by Kiwi Jonathan King who gave us Black Sheep and directed by Peter Burger. It’s a supernatural tale about a deadly Samoan spirit released through the ancient art of the Pacific tatau. It stars American Jason Behr and New Zealand veteran Michael Hurst. It’s going straight to DVD in the States, but hey, I’m not surprised. Hopefully we’ll get a theatrical release down under.

Mother of Tears: The Third Mother, the hugely anticipated third part to Italian horror maestro Dario Argento’s trilogy of witchcraft. This has had its international release thwarted, possibly due to the less-than-stellar reception in the homeland. It will have a limited U.S. theatrical release in June, with the DVD coming out sometime later. With the track record of Argento’s movies releases in Australasia it is highly unlikely we’ll get to see it on the big screen which is a real shame, even if it does bark like the hound from hell.

Twilight is one I’m not sure about at all, perhaps because it’s plot reminds me a little of my own vampire movie I made fifteen years ago; a young girl named Bella falls in love with a vampire, which sparks a rival vampire clan to pursue them, forcing Bella to decide if she too should become one of the undead. Based on the young-adult fantasy novels by Stephanie Meyer, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown), and co-starring the talented young Nikki Reed (who co-starred and co-wrote Thirteen). It'll probably suck, but hey ...

To finish off on a bitter note, here’s a comprehensive list of remakes I unearthed that are currently in states of pre-production, principal photography, post-production, or have just been released. It’s truly painful; It’s Alive, The Thing, The Stepfather, Scanners, Rosemary’s Baby, Piranha, Near Dark, Motel Hell, The Birds, Night of the Demons, My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, The Brood, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Evil Dead, The Entity, Don’t Look Now, The Changeling, Alice, Sweet Alice, Battle Royale, Long Weekend, The Crazies, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Suspiria, Raw Meat (aka Death Line), Hell Night, The Witches … even Attack of the Killer Tomatoes fer Chrissake!

And it gets worse; the extremes of Last House on the Left, Cannibal Holocaust and the dodgy pseudo-doco Faces of Death are also being remade. Nothing is sacred anymore in the realm of horror. If it can be exhumed and re-animated, then it shall be, but only because there is money to be made.

And mark my words, Alien and Phantasm will be plundered soon enough. Oh, the inhumanity!

Enough tears! Here's the trailer for The Dark Lurking:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: bait

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Comments

12 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

April 30th 2008 02:09

Dark Lurking looks pumped up on action.
I will probably rent it when it comes out for the kiddies. Then we will spend the next day arguing over whether it was really scary or not.
I just keep getting Alien 2 in my head when I saw the trailer.

100 Feet sounds like a good concept if it is directed well.

If the remake Alien I will scream in pain. I don't even like the extended directors cut that much.
It would like remaking Bladerunner.

Comment by Cibbuano

April 30th 2008 03:22

Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

What!? That list of remakes is truly shocking when it's all laid up like that. They're remaking Cannibal Holocaust? Are they going to kill turtle, too, and remake the scandal? Is Jessica Alba going to star?

Comment by David O'Connell

April 30th 2008 03:44

Screen Fanatic

I agree about the ridiculously long list of remakes. I bought Near Dark recently on dvd to see if it stood the test of time and it's still a damn good movie - Kathryn Bigelow in general is quite underrated I think.
I've seen the original Funny Games and found it quite unnerving, but I hated the ending with a passion!

Comment by Bryn

April 30th 2008 04:04

Horrorphile

Cheers for the comments gentlemen.
Damo, Blade Runner ... oh sweet Jesus!

Cibby, yes, it is a ghastly nasty list ....

Daivd, I too found the ending thoroughly annoying ... In fact the whole movie annoyed the pants off me, but then I suppose that was part of Haneke's point. I think American audiences are struggling to comprehend the remake (98% of whom won't have seen the original) and finding it appalling, for all the reasons Haneke made the original. Perhaps I will warm to the whole concept with the remake, but I doubt it ... There's another film starring Liv Tyler called The Strangers, also about a home invasion which is due for release or has been released recently in the States ... I'm keen to see that.

Comment by Cheryl J

April 30th 2008 06:21

Rhythmatism
Zentertainment
Budget Centsability

A couple of those sound like they have real potential. As for the remakes, for the love of God doesn't anybody have original ideas anymore? It pisses me off when people remake classics and then do a half arsed job of it while they are at it.

Remakes of Alien and Blade Runner *shudder*; bite your collective tongues just in case it puts ideas in someone's head!

Comment by Michaelie

April 30th 2008 08:17

Flick Wit

100 Feet and The Broken sound good, and I REALLY like that pic for Twilight, but yes, that will probably be the best thing about it...

How's married life? Hope you had a great honeymoon.

Michaelie

Comment by The wonderful Peter Yang

April 30th 2008 08:32

The wonderful Peter Yang's Variety blog
Power Ranger Online
HAITI EARTHQUAKE
Comedy TV Online

WOW COOL!!!

CHEERS

Comment by JohnDoe

April 30th 2008 10:30

Film & TV on DVD

Remakes of gold, the horror, the horror!

Some potentially good fun with Eric Red back in the game...man I love that guy, though I haven't read much positive buzz for 100 Feet yet.

Missed The Dark Lurking, it looks like it could be trashy fun.

I concur that Twilight will probably not even touch the darker corners of the source novel.

The original Funny Games makes my top 20 on a good day so I have serious reservations about it being sodomised by Hollywood, hope they keep the atmosphere of audience accusations.

Comment by D. Armenta

April 30th 2008 17:55

The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.

Hum. So what's next?

Britney Spears playing Carmen at La Scala?

Comment by Bryn

May 1st 2008 01:31

Horrorphile

Hi Cheryl, trust me, those ghastly ideas have no doubt been festering for some time in the evil minds of Hollywood executives!

Michaelie, married life couldn't be better, at the thought of sounding old-fashioned, I thoroughly recommend it ... when the time is right.

JD, yeah trashy fun fer sure ... I wasn't familiar with Twilight, so that's new for me, and has the girl from Into the Wild, so could be good, plus director has a little edge, but then again it could be Mills & Boon with fangs.

Funny Games will be provocative to say the least.

Armenta .... bang on!

Comment by KylieW

May 1st 2008 09:09

Celebrity Obsession

That list of remakes in the works is horrific!!!! Someone must stop them. Forget Al Qaeda, these remakes are what we should really be declaring war on!!

The Tattooist sounds kind of interesting (okay, so I love Jason Behr........but still......)

By the way, I'm very pleased to hear that married life is suiting you!

Comment by Bryn

May 1st 2008 23:49

Horrorphile

Hi Kylie, yes, let's start mobilising now!!!
The Tattooist is a Kiwi flick, so I'm obviously interested too.

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