By Todd Garbarini
The plot of Dario Argento’s 1985 thriller Phenomena has long been the subject of ridicule and derision by critics and fans alike since its initial release. The inevitable complaints about the film range from the bad dubbing and stiff performances to the ludicrous notion that insects can be employed as detectives in a homicide investigation (this is true and has actually been done, providing the inspiration for the film). If the film does not sound familiar, that could be attributed to the fact that Phenomena was severely cut by 33 minutes and retitled Creepers when it opened in the States on Friday, August 30, 1985.
Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) is a fourteen year-old student attending an all-girls school in Switzerland while her movie star father is away for the better part of a year shooting a film. Her mother, who left the family when Jennifer was a child, is merely mentioned but never seen.
The plot of Dario Argento’s 1985 thriller Phenomena has long been the subject of ridicule and derision by critics and fans alike since its initial release. The inevitable complaints about the film range from the bad dubbing and stiff performances to the ludicrous notion that insects can be employed as detectives in a homicide investigation (this is true and has actually been done, providing the inspiration for the film). If the film does not sound familiar, that could be attributed to the fact that Phenomena was severely cut by 33 minutes and retitled Creepers when it opened in the States on Friday, August 30, 1985.
Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) is a fourteen year-old student attending an all-girls school in Switzerland while her movie star father is away for the better part of a year shooting a film. Her mother, who left the family when Jennifer was a child, is merely mentioned but never seen.
- 9/3/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Arrow Video will have special treats in store for horror fans this spring with their limited edition Blu-ray releases of Evil Ed and Brain Damage.
Both Evil Ed and Brain Damage will be released on Blu-ray in the Us and the UK this May, and you can check out the impressive lists of bonus features below, as well as the eye-popping cover art for the releases.
Arrow Video has also announced a new UK Blu-ray release of Dario Argento's Phenomena (aka Creepers), which includes the 116-minute Italian cut of the film.
Evil Ed Blu-ray / DVD: "New UK/Us Title: Evil Ed (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) Limited Edition
A veritable smorgasbord of flying limbs, exploding heads, busty babes and creepy creatures!
Pre-order your copy via Arrow: http://bit.ly/2kRcxF2
Pre-order via Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/2kRgU2Y
North American pre-orders links should be live soon!
Release Dates: 29/30 May
When His Mind Blows,...
Both Evil Ed and Brain Damage will be released on Blu-ray in the Us and the UK this May, and you can check out the impressive lists of bonus features below, as well as the eye-popping cover art for the releases.
Arrow Video has also announced a new UK Blu-ray release of Dario Argento's Phenomena (aka Creepers), which includes the 116-minute Italian cut of the film.
Evil Ed Blu-ray / DVD: "New UK/Us Title: Evil Ed (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) Limited Edition
A veritable smorgasbord of flying limbs, exploding heads, busty babes and creepy creatures!
Pre-order your copy via Arrow: http://bit.ly/2kRcxF2
Pre-order via Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/2kRgU2Y
North American pre-orders links should be live soon!
Release Dates: 29/30 May
When His Mind Blows,...
- 2/17/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
If you are new to the works of Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, Phenomena (1985) is as good a place as any to start. It practically plays like a ‘greatest hits’ of all his virtues, and more than a few of his vices. And for the Argento veteran, it’s a gas for those very same reasons – by combining so many elements from his other films he’s created his most bizarre feature to date – no mean feat. When I need five alarm Dario, I throw on Phenomena.
Released in his homeland in January, Phenomena was picked up by New Line Cinema, chopped all to hell (27 minutes cut!), and released stateside in August under the new title Creepers. Did it do well? Of course not. Argento has always been a cult artist in North America; revered by the horror press and some fans at the time, the Cult of Dario has...
Released in his homeland in January, Phenomena was picked up by New Line Cinema, chopped all to hell (27 minutes cut!), and released stateside in August under the new title Creepers. Did it do well? Of course not. Argento has always been a cult artist in North America; revered by the horror press and some fans at the time, the Cult of Dario has...
- 1/14/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Wonsuk Chin, is a Korean American Indie Filmmaker. I have known Wonsuk since the early Ifp Market days in the 1980s when he lived in New York and produced “Too Tired to Die” which made some waves in the indie world at that time. He disappeared for several years and we recently reconnected in L.A.
Wonsuk: As you know, I started out in New York. I went to School of Visual Arts and studied film there. My first film was “Too Tired To Die”, a dark comedy I wrote and directed in 1998. It starred Takeshi Kaneshiro, Mira Sorvino, Ben Gazzara and Jeffrey Wright. It premiered at Sundance Film Festival that year.
Then I did a feature length documentary “E-Dreams” which chronicled the rise and fall of kozmo.com. After a special world premiere at Walter Reade Theater, the film went on to screen at such festivals as Seattle, Hamptons, Jeonju (in Korea) and San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film also won the Best Documentary Award at Ammi, the aMagazine-sponsored Asian-American "Academy Awards” when “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won the Best Film.
Having grown up in Korea idolizing Hollywood films, I was one of the first Korean emigre filmmakers in the United States. When I first came here, many people were asking me if we even had a film industry in Korea. Truly, Korean films were virtually unknown outside Korea at the time. Of course, things have changed dramatically and Korea has produced some amazing films in the past 15 years. Some of the filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho are very influential and I am proud of it. But it is true many of those wonderful Korean films are still considered cult classics and have a limited audience. It has been my goal to make a film about Korea that can travel beyond the arthouse and foreign film fans.
In the mid 2000s, I tried to make a film called “Expats”, a heist comedy about American expats teaching English in Busan, Korea. Although we had a partial cast (Chris Kline, John Cho and others have expressed interest), we couldn’t raise money and the project ultimately fell through. Many were saying I was a little ahead of the time. In the mid 2000s, Korean studios weren’t interested in making films for the global audience. Personally it was a devastating experience. You work on a project for several years and it doesn’t happen. Financially and spiritually it hurts you so much.
Wonsuk: In the past decade, I would travel back and forth between Korea and L.A., always trying to find the right project that has the best of Korean and American indie cinema.
Meanwhile, I ended up hosting a radio program in Korea to play soundtrack music. It was a great experience. I also appeared in a TV show regularly as a part time critic. I taught classes at Korea National University of the Arts.
I also tried producing some movies. I was involved in a Korean-Singapore-Chinese co-production Dance of the Dragon and a Korean wild boar movie “Chaw” but neither was a pleasant experience for me. I guess, I missed being creative. My role was very limited in those projects.
Then, I saw “Blue Valentine”. It was directed by a fellow Sundance alumni Derek Cianfrance. He had “Brother Tied” then. When I heard Derek had been working on the project for 12 years – that he never gave up his passion and dream for it -- it was a rude wake-up call for me. I’d been slacking off, placing blames on my producers for not being able to make my own movies. But Derek just persevered and made it happen for him.
I was truly humbled. I was inspired. I also sensed the time slipping away from me. I had to go back to making movies although uncertainty always awaited me.
In 2010, I started making some short films and music videos using iPhone and it got me excited about filmmaking again. They’re tiny projects created with a smartphone but I was happy to tell stories again. I got a little bit of notoriety because of them. In 2012, I shot “992,” a 13-minute comedy with an iPhone and it premiered at Macworld. The film received great reviews both in Korea and internationally and as a filmmaker, it boosted my confidence again. To be able to tell a story, even if it’s just short and online, I started believing again in my ability as a storyteller. Also, when you make a movie with a phone and raise the budget via crowdfunding, you begin to sense this is the brand new world.
Because of my previous works such as “E-Dreams” which dealt with the early days of the dot com world and those iPhone generated shorts, I’ve been known as a tech-savvy filmmaker in my homeland. I also exec produced the iPhone film Park Chan-wook co-directed called “Night Fishing”. I’m also known to be an early adopter as I’m one of the first filmmakers in Korea to use social media. As an indie filmmaker, you have to know what tools are available to you since you have to be resourceful.
Ironically, my new project is far from technology. As you know, I’m working on a film called “Ape of Wrath”. This will be my first feature as a director since e-dreams which I made over 13 years ago. This one will be very special because I will get to shoot it in the country where I grew up.
“Ape of Wrath” is a comedy about an ambitious but questionably talentless American director who travels to Korea in 1976 to make a giant ape movie. Yes, the story takes place in 1976 and we’re going to make it as a mockumentary as if this was the making of from the era. Those who read the script have compared it to Ed Wood and “Bowfinger”.
This story was inspired by an actual giant ape movie shot in Korea in 1976. It is called “A*P*E” and is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. But it has become a cult classic.
My story is completely fictional and the protagonist is a Edward Wood, Jr.- like character named Federico Smith who has no resemblance to Paul Leder (Mimi Leder’s father), the director of “A*P*E”.
In my story, Federico Smith is a USC graduate (went to school with George Lucas) who made one forgettable horror film called “The Seventh Steal”. Now he gets to make his own King Kong in Korea with a washed up Scottish actor John McGregor playing the ape when his college roommate, Mr. Park, tells him to fuck copyrights and come to Korea to make the King Kong rip-off. Federico thinks his giant ape movie will be up there with Merian C. Cooper’s “King Kong” but you know well how this film will turn out.
This will be my lifetime dream come true ever since, as a little kid, I saw the posters of “A*P*E” in the streets of Songtan, a small town near Osan Air Base. As a 8 year old kid, I thought “A*P*E” was the sequel to King Kong and was proud Hollywood came to Korea to make a movie.
Many years later, now, I am preparing to make a film in Korea with an international cast. Luckily I have a great team behind us already. I hooked up with Paul Green of Anonymous Content who's the main producer of the project. Paul is the president and COO of Anonymous Content and has executive produced “Laggies” and will be executive producing “The Revenant”. Earlier this year, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was filmed partially in Korea and soon “Sense8”, the new Netflix TV series from the Wachowski siblings will shoot scenes in Korea.
But “Ape of Wrath” will be the first coproduction with the U.S. to be shot entirely in Korea. It will be quite challenging though. We have a production system quite different from the ones in the States. Often, the shooting days are much longer in Korea. We can't afford to do that this time. Also it will be a daunting task to recreate 1970s Korea as Korea has changed so much.
But as a filmmaker, such challenges are always welcome. I’m not interested in making movies which seem familiar to you. The story of a hopeless dreamer may be familiar to you but such a story taking place in 1976 Korea will seem unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
If everything goes well, we will go into production next March. In the coming weeks, we hope to start casting the film.
You can watch Wonsuk Chin short film "992" below.
Wonsuk: As you know, I started out in New York. I went to School of Visual Arts and studied film there. My first film was “Too Tired To Die”, a dark comedy I wrote and directed in 1998. It starred Takeshi Kaneshiro, Mira Sorvino, Ben Gazzara and Jeffrey Wright. It premiered at Sundance Film Festival that year.
Then I did a feature length documentary “E-Dreams” which chronicled the rise and fall of kozmo.com. After a special world premiere at Walter Reade Theater, the film went on to screen at such festivals as Seattle, Hamptons, Jeonju (in Korea) and San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film also won the Best Documentary Award at Ammi, the aMagazine-sponsored Asian-American "Academy Awards” when “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won the Best Film.
Having grown up in Korea idolizing Hollywood films, I was one of the first Korean emigre filmmakers in the United States. When I first came here, many people were asking me if we even had a film industry in Korea. Truly, Korean films were virtually unknown outside Korea at the time. Of course, things have changed dramatically and Korea has produced some amazing films in the past 15 years. Some of the filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho are very influential and I am proud of it. But it is true many of those wonderful Korean films are still considered cult classics and have a limited audience. It has been my goal to make a film about Korea that can travel beyond the arthouse and foreign film fans.
In the mid 2000s, I tried to make a film called “Expats”, a heist comedy about American expats teaching English in Busan, Korea. Although we had a partial cast (Chris Kline, John Cho and others have expressed interest), we couldn’t raise money and the project ultimately fell through. Many were saying I was a little ahead of the time. In the mid 2000s, Korean studios weren’t interested in making films for the global audience. Personally it was a devastating experience. You work on a project for several years and it doesn’t happen. Financially and spiritually it hurts you so much.
Wonsuk: In the past decade, I would travel back and forth between Korea and L.A., always trying to find the right project that has the best of Korean and American indie cinema.
Meanwhile, I ended up hosting a radio program in Korea to play soundtrack music. It was a great experience. I also appeared in a TV show regularly as a part time critic. I taught classes at Korea National University of the Arts.
I also tried producing some movies. I was involved in a Korean-Singapore-Chinese co-production Dance of the Dragon and a Korean wild boar movie “Chaw” but neither was a pleasant experience for me. I guess, I missed being creative. My role was very limited in those projects.
Then, I saw “Blue Valentine”. It was directed by a fellow Sundance alumni Derek Cianfrance. He had “Brother Tied” then. When I heard Derek had been working on the project for 12 years – that he never gave up his passion and dream for it -- it was a rude wake-up call for me. I’d been slacking off, placing blames on my producers for not being able to make my own movies. But Derek just persevered and made it happen for him.
I was truly humbled. I was inspired. I also sensed the time slipping away from me. I had to go back to making movies although uncertainty always awaited me.
In 2010, I started making some short films and music videos using iPhone and it got me excited about filmmaking again. They’re tiny projects created with a smartphone but I was happy to tell stories again. I got a little bit of notoriety because of them. In 2012, I shot “992,” a 13-minute comedy with an iPhone and it premiered at Macworld. The film received great reviews both in Korea and internationally and as a filmmaker, it boosted my confidence again. To be able to tell a story, even if it’s just short and online, I started believing again in my ability as a storyteller. Also, when you make a movie with a phone and raise the budget via crowdfunding, you begin to sense this is the brand new world.
Because of my previous works such as “E-Dreams” which dealt with the early days of the dot com world and those iPhone generated shorts, I’ve been known as a tech-savvy filmmaker in my homeland. I also exec produced the iPhone film Park Chan-wook co-directed called “Night Fishing”. I’m also known to be an early adopter as I’m one of the first filmmakers in Korea to use social media. As an indie filmmaker, you have to know what tools are available to you since you have to be resourceful.
Ironically, my new project is far from technology. As you know, I’m working on a film called “Ape of Wrath”. This will be my first feature as a director since e-dreams which I made over 13 years ago. This one will be very special because I will get to shoot it in the country where I grew up.
“Ape of Wrath” is a comedy about an ambitious but questionably talentless American director who travels to Korea in 1976 to make a giant ape movie. Yes, the story takes place in 1976 and we’re going to make it as a mockumentary as if this was the making of from the era. Those who read the script have compared it to Ed Wood and “Bowfinger”.
This story was inspired by an actual giant ape movie shot in Korea in 1976. It is called “A*P*E” and is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made. But it has become a cult classic.
My story is completely fictional and the protagonist is a Edward Wood, Jr.- like character named Federico Smith who has no resemblance to Paul Leder (Mimi Leder’s father), the director of “A*P*E”.
In my story, Federico Smith is a USC graduate (went to school with George Lucas) who made one forgettable horror film called “The Seventh Steal”. Now he gets to make his own King Kong in Korea with a washed up Scottish actor John McGregor playing the ape when his college roommate, Mr. Park, tells him to fuck copyrights and come to Korea to make the King Kong rip-off. Federico thinks his giant ape movie will be up there with Merian C. Cooper’s “King Kong” but you know well how this film will turn out.
This will be my lifetime dream come true ever since, as a little kid, I saw the posters of “A*P*E” in the streets of Songtan, a small town near Osan Air Base. As a 8 year old kid, I thought “A*P*E” was the sequel to King Kong and was proud Hollywood came to Korea to make a movie.
Many years later, now, I am preparing to make a film in Korea with an international cast. Luckily I have a great team behind us already. I hooked up with Paul Green of Anonymous Content who's the main producer of the project. Paul is the president and COO of Anonymous Content and has executive produced “Laggies” and will be executive producing “The Revenant”. Earlier this year, “Avengers: Age of Ultron” was filmed partially in Korea and soon “Sense8”, the new Netflix TV series from the Wachowski siblings will shoot scenes in Korea.
But “Ape of Wrath” will be the first coproduction with the U.S. to be shot entirely in Korea. It will be quite challenging though. We have a production system quite different from the ones in the States. Often, the shooting days are much longer in Korea. We can't afford to do that this time. Also it will be a daunting task to recreate 1970s Korea as Korea has changed so much.
But as a filmmaker, such challenges are always welcome. I’m not interested in making movies which seem familiar to you. The story of a hopeless dreamer may be familiar to you but such a story taking place in 1976 Korea will seem unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
If everything goes well, we will go into production next March. In the coming weeks, we hope to start casting the film.
You can watch Wonsuk Chin short film "992" below.
- 9/6/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Brother Brain
Save for the occasional classic like Golden Eye 007, video games adapted from films have a long and mostly shameful history. Cranked out cheaply to capitalize on a narrow window of opportunity, most are plagued by poor design, curious power ups, half-baked plot points that make no damn sense and only a loose connection to the source material.
Enter John McGregor, A/K/A Brother Brain, a prolific artist and illustrator based in New York City. His excellent Tumblr feed, overflowing with geeky mash ups that draw inspiration from both mediums, hints at the promise inherent in the combination – if only it could be properly finessed out.
Instant eye candy for a generation of pop culture fanboys that grew up on a steady diet of Arnold Schwarzenegger flicks and Nes cartridges, McGregor’s work of late has been spun around a series of amazing pixel GIFs, what he calls Bits Vs.
Save for the occasional classic like Golden Eye 007, video games adapted from films have a long and mostly shameful history. Cranked out cheaply to capitalize on a narrow window of opportunity, most are plagued by poor design, curious power ups, half-baked plot points that make no damn sense and only a loose connection to the source material.
Enter John McGregor, A/K/A Brother Brain, a prolific artist and illustrator based in New York City. His excellent Tumblr feed, overflowing with geeky mash ups that draw inspiration from both mediums, hints at the promise inherent in the combination – if only it could be properly finessed out.
Instant eye candy for a generation of pop culture fanboys that grew up on a steady diet of Arnold Schwarzenegger flicks and Nes cartridges, McGregor’s work of late has been spun around a series of amazing pixel GIFs, what he calls Bits Vs.
- 3/16/2014
- by Travis Greenwood
- Obsessed with Film
by Nick Schager
[This week's "Retro Active" pick is inspired by the female boarding-school chiller The Moth Diaries.]
Dario Argento's fascination with sight takes sexually anxious form in Phenomena, the Italian giallo maestro's surreal 1985 saga of boarding school maturation. That carnal awakening isn't overt in Argento's film, which is nominally about a serial killer stalking young females in a remote Swiss village, a spree that coincides with the arrival of Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of a famous hunky movie star, at the imposing Richard Wagner Academy for Girls. On her maiden drive from the airport, Jennifer protects a bee from being swatted by hysterical Frau Brückner (Argento regular Daria Nicolodi), an act that's soon explained by the fact that Jennifer shares a telepathic bond with insects, thus making her a prime candidate to befriend local entomologist Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasance). McGregor is fascinated by Jennifer's relationship with bugs, which—as when she causes one to emit its mating call out of...
[This week's "Retro Active" pick is inspired by the female boarding-school chiller The Moth Diaries.]
Dario Argento's fascination with sight takes sexually anxious form in Phenomena, the Italian giallo maestro's surreal 1985 saga of boarding school maturation. That carnal awakening isn't overt in Argento's film, which is nominally about a serial killer stalking young females in a remote Swiss village, a spree that coincides with the arrival of Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of a famous hunky movie star, at the imposing Richard Wagner Academy for Girls. On her maiden drive from the airport, Jennifer protects a bee from being swatted by hysterical Frau Brückner (Argento regular Daria Nicolodi), an act that's soon explained by the fact that Jennifer shares a telepathic bond with insects, thus making her a prime candidate to befriend local entomologist Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasance). McGregor is fascinated by Jennifer's relationship with bugs, which—as when she causes one to emit its mating call out of...
- 4/20/2012
- GreenCine Daily
Whether it’s the baffling soundtrack (tracks by Iron Maiden and Motorhead are out of place and far too loud in certain scenes), the girl controls insects plot, Donald Pleasence in a wheelchair with a Scottish accent or perhaps the monkey servant, Phenomena has always stood out for its strangeness, even in a career as fascinatingly odd as Argento’s.
Jennifer Connelly plays the lead named, in what is perhaps the film’s only unimaginative moment, Jennifer. Jennifer is daughter of a famous actor and is sent away from home to a rural boarding school where she is immediately treated unfairly and like an outsider by the school’s strict principal. The area she moves to is also being terrorized by a serial killer who is preying on young girls from the school. Very soon after moving there she befriends Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasence), an expert in bugs and...
Jennifer Connelly plays the lead named, in what is perhaps the film’s only unimaginative moment, Jennifer. Jennifer is daughter of a famous actor and is sent away from home to a rural boarding school where she is immediately treated unfairly and like an outsider by the school’s strict principal. The area she moves to is also being terrorized by a serial killer who is preying on young girls from the school. Very soon after moving there she befriends Professor John McGregor (Donald Pleasence), an expert in bugs and...
- 3/9/2011
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
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