Some things WICKED this way come?
April 29th 2008 00:38
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.
Horror movies might appear to be a stroll in the park at night for greedy executives, but what they don’t understand is that horror movies are actually one of the most difficult genres to get right. What I mean is the successful combination and execution of the key elements; content, cast, tone, dialogue, special effects, soundtrack, ending. I suppose you can apply this school of thought to every cinematic genre, but for horror it’s that much more important, especially when you’re making it on the smell of an oily rag.
A hungry zombie in Romero's Diary of the Dead
A lot of filmmakers think with horror movies you can get away with average to cringe-inducing dialogue and acting, graphic, but really shoddy special effects, and mediocre to poor lighting, as long as there’s some nudity, drug use, brutal violence, excessive profanity, and, of course, some kind of overtly nasty premise.
Wrong!
But time and time again we see lame and uninspiring remakes of movies that were great, or at least pretty good, the first time round, or we have directors like Uwe Boll soiling the shelves of the video store.
I few new titles, that have either been recently released or are about to be, have caught my eye. They sound promising, but whether they’re any good we’ll just have to wait and see. And I’m not talking about the remakes of Prom Night (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), or My Bloody Valentine (1981).
Jennifer Ellison shovels her food in The Cottage
Diary of the Dead is zombie maestro George Romero’s answer to the disappointing box office he received with Land of the Dead; a low-budget, inventive, pseudo-doco about a group of young horror filmmakers dealing with trying to make a movie, and the initial outbreak of the zombie plague. This has been getting rave reviews, I can’t wait!
Hunting for the Tasmanian Tiger
That's gotta hurt
Outpost In war-torn Eastern Europe, a world-weary group of mercenaries discover a long-hidden secret in an abandoned WWII bunker. Methinks this is another flesh-eating feature, seems cannibalism is the new black in horror (suddenly I have a flash of Cannibal Holocaust being remade and my stomach turns!) Directed by another newbie Steve Barker, it’s a UK production that’s being receiving solid reviews for its acting and screenplay. Not to mention the marrow-sucking.
The Wolf Man Okay, so it’s a remake, but it looks like this could howl and whine with the best of them. Directed by hirsute-loving Joe Johnston, written by Andrew Kevin (Se7en) Walker, and starring Benicio Del Toro as the man who bays at the full moon. It co-stars Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. Get excited, get, get excited!
And finally, with severed tongue-in-cheek we have ...
Here's the trailer for Midnight Meat Train:
And here's the trailer for Zombie Strippers:
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Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Damo
I am not sure about the Stripper Zombies.
Schlock?
Dying Breed- I think there have been a few episodes of convict cannibalism in Australia. One in WA after a ship wreck.
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Zombie strippers, that has promise of being funny as hell if handled right..and oh, how many sick jokes can we make with that? The mind boggles....
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Armenta, first pic is from Zombie Strippers.