There are horror movies that don’t dive straight into the most frightening parts with all those jumpscares, loud sounds and rivers of blood. On the contrary, they set a chilling atmosphere of danger coming to swallow the characters and create a never-ending sense of unease quite slowly through perfectly developing suspense.
Here are 7 slow-burn horror must-watches, handpicked by Reddit.
The Wicker Man (1973)
First comes the cultish genre’s staple that follows a Christian detective during the investigation of the disappearance of a pagan tribe’s girl. It creates a very unsettling and even paranoidal atmosphere by blending mythical elements with onscreen reality.
Funny Games (2007)
Naomi Watts and Tim Roth’s psychological horror is a perfect example of a movie that takes time for the full extent of the terror to be revealed on screen. It focuses on a couple who get captured and tormented by two young criminals on their vacation.
Here are 7 slow-burn horror must-watches, handpicked by Reddit.
The Wicker Man (1973)
First comes the cultish genre’s staple that follows a Christian detective during the investigation of the disappearance of a pagan tribe’s girl. It creates a very unsettling and even paranoidal atmosphere by blending mythical elements with onscreen reality.
Funny Games (2007)
Naomi Watts and Tim Roth’s psychological horror is a perfect example of a movie that takes time for the full extent of the terror to be revealed on screen. It focuses on a couple who get captured and tormented by two young criminals on their vacation.
- 5/17/2024
- by info@startefacts.com (Ava Raxa)
- STartefacts.com
The grimly effective 2008 home invasion shocker gets a strange semi-remake that sucks out all of the suspense
In a genre in which innovation is increasingly resigned to the furthest outskirts, there’s something almost admirable about just how staggeringly redundant The Strangers: Chapter 1 is, early contender for 2024’s most pointless horror movie. It’s the third in a series that should have stopped after one, a reboot that’s more of a remake but sold as a prequel while also acting as the start of a new trilogy, an over-complicated attempt to squeeze new life out of old IP. The 2008 original, which starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple menaced by three masked invaders, was a short, sharp shock to the system, a bare-bones exercise in drip-drip suspense made scarier by its cold, motivation-less villains (“Because you were home”).
There was a stark, naturalistic nastiness to it, closer...
In a genre in which innovation is increasingly resigned to the furthest outskirts, there’s something almost admirable about just how staggeringly redundant The Strangers: Chapter 1 is, early contender for 2024’s most pointless horror movie. It’s the third in a series that should have stopped after one, a reboot that’s more of a remake but sold as a prequel while also acting as the start of a new trilogy, an over-complicated attempt to squeeze new life out of old IP. The 2008 original, which starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple menaced by three masked invaders, was a short, sharp shock to the system, a bare-bones exercise in drip-drip suspense made scarier by its cold, motivation-less villains (“Because you were home”).
There was a stark, naturalistic nastiness to it, closer...
- 5/16/2024
- by Benjamin Lee
- The Guardian - Film News
10. Pearl (2022)
Hope isn’t the only thing chasing dreams can induce in one’s mind. Amid WWI and the global pandemic, a young woman is stuck with her family that she’s sick of. Her strict mother, paralyzed father, and across-the-ocean husband are her world… But she wants much more for herself, and her madness lights a dark path for her.
You can watch Pearl on Max, Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
9. Nope (2022)
Sometimes, you should trust your gut; sometimes, it’s much better to be rational. Two siblings struggle with maintaining their family ranch after their father’s death — and as they’re about to give up and sell it, they witness something unsettling in the locale. Instead of leaving, they decide to try and make the sight into their attraction.
You can watch Nope on Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
8. Midsommar (2019)
Keeping ancient traditions and...
Hope isn’t the only thing chasing dreams can induce in one’s mind. Amid WWI and the global pandemic, a young woman is stuck with her family that she’s sick of. Her strict mother, paralyzed father, and across-the-ocean husband are her world… But she wants much more for herself, and her madness lights a dark path for her.
You can watch Pearl on Max, Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
9. Nope (2022)
Sometimes, you should trust your gut; sometimes, it’s much better to be rational. Two siblings struggle with maintaining their family ranch after their father’s death — and as they’re about to give up and sell it, they witness something unsettling in the locale. Instead of leaving, they decide to try and make the sight into their attraction.
You can watch Nope on Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
8. Midsommar (2019)
Keeping ancient traditions and...
- 5/11/2024
- by dean-black@startefacts.com (Dean Black)
- STartefacts.com
Even after decades of masked killers armed with increasingly ludicrous weapons, cinemagoers still flock to theaters to experience the raw thrills of watching homicidal maniacs hunt the most dangerous game. And while there’s nothing wrong with filmmakers choosing to rely on tried-and-true formulas when depicting classic cat-and-mouse conflicts, the sheer amount of these movies means that horror fans often find themselves wishing for riskier takes on these familiar ideas.
Thankfully, there are some brave filmmakers out there that use of the basic premise of a slasher as a jumping off point to tell more creative stories. A recent example of this is Chris Nash’s highly ambitious In a Violent Nature, a Friday-the-13th-inspired horror film told from the melancholy perspective of the undead killer himself. And with the film impressing genre fans with its artsy reinvention of common clichés, we’ve decided to come up with a...
Thankfully, there are some brave filmmakers out there that use of the basic premise of a slasher as a jumping off point to tell more creative stories. A recent example of this is Chris Nash’s highly ambitious In a Violent Nature, a Friday-the-13th-inspired horror film told from the melancholy perspective of the undead killer himself. And with the film impressing genre fans with its artsy reinvention of common clichés, we’ve decided to come up with a...
- 5/9/2024
- by Luiz H. C.
- bloody-disgusting.com
If you’ve played the Fallout games, it’s likely you’re aware of how American it can feel. Not only with its setting and cultural aspects but also the philosophies honed by its narrative. As it turns out, Todd Howard pretty much aligns his views with this, keeping aside the feelings of Fallout: London developers.
In an interview, Todd made it very clear that the games are supposed to stick to a cultural approach that is familiar to most of its fans. Now that the TV show is out, this is even more evident. Sorry Fallout: London fans, this one’s gonna sting.
Todd Howard Would Like to Keep Fallout American, and That’s It Todd is pretty clear about the Fallout history (and future).
In an interview conducted by a Kinda Funny Games podcast, Hodd Toward didn’t hold back when he spoke about Fallout’s true nature...
In an interview, Todd made it very clear that the games are supposed to stick to a cultural approach that is familiar to most of its fans. Now that the TV show is out, this is even more evident. Sorry Fallout: London fans, this one’s gonna sting.
Todd Howard Would Like to Keep Fallout American, and That’s It Todd is pretty clear about the Fallout history (and future).
In an interview conducted by a Kinda Funny Games podcast, Hodd Toward didn’t hold back when he spoke about Fallout’s true nature...
- 5/1/2024
- by Tanay Sharma
- FandomWire
Starfield fans, some exciting news has just emerged for all you space-faring adventurers eagerly waiting for the next big update for Bethesda’s sci-fi open-world RPG.
In a recent interview, Todd Howard, the director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, dropped some interesting hints about what’s in store for players in an update that’s coming in the next few days, completely separate from the Shattered Space Dlc.
Get Ready to Customize Your Ship in Starfield Upcoming Update
Starfield is set to get some major free updates in the next few dates
Howard didn’t spill all the beans during the Kinda Funny Games interview, but he did tell viewers there’s an update coming in a few days that’s different from the much-anticipated Shattered Space Dlc releasing later this fall.
He hinted that the update will feature shipbuilding features and city maps, some of the things...
In a recent interview, Todd Howard, the director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, dropped some interesting hints about what’s in store for players in an update that’s coming in the next few days, completely separate from the Shattered Space Dlc.
Get Ready to Customize Your Ship in Starfield Upcoming Update
Starfield is set to get some major free updates in the next few dates
Howard didn’t spill all the beans during the Kinda Funny Games interview, but he did tell viewers there’s an update coming in a few days that’s different from the much-anticipated Shattered Space Dlc releasing later this fall.
He hinted that the update will feature shipbuilding features and city maps, some of the things...
- 4/30/2024
- by Vibha Hegde
- FandomWire
Icon Film has released a brand new trailer for the 4K restoration of Bernardo Bertolucci’s modern classic ‘The Dreamers’.
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew, an American student, to stay with them in their Parisian apartment, what begins as a casual friendship transforms into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off-limits, and anything is possible…
From Academy Award-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci, the original cut of modern classic The Dreamers has been remastered for its 20th anniversary in stunning 4K. The restoration was completed by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna under the supervision of director of photography, Fabio Cianchetti.
Set against the tumultuous background of the ’68 Paris student riots, experience this unforgettable love letter to cinema and the French New Wave like never before. Starring Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel (Little Women), and BAFTA winner Eva Green in her daring cinematic debut.
Also in trailers – Teaser trailer...
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew, an American student, to stay with them in their Parisian apartment, what begins as a casual friendship transforms into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off-limits, and anything is possible…
From Academy Award-winning director Bernardo Bertolucci, the original cut of modern classic The Dreamers has been remastered for its 20th anniversary in stunning 4K. The restoration was completed by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna under the supervision of director of photography, Fabio Cianchetti.
Set against the tumultuous background of the ’68 Paris student riots, experience this unforgettable love letter to cinema and the French New Wave like never before. Starring Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel (Little Women), and BAFTA winner Eva Green in her daring cinematic debut.
Also in trailers – Teaser trailer...
- 3/29/2024
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
When it comes to exploiting our deepest, darkest fears, nothing jangles the nerves more effectively than a well-made home invasion flick. We all want to believe we're safe once we lock the doors and windows, but unless you live in a fortress, you know that if someone really wanted to get in your house, they could do so with relative ease. Typically, we're worried about burglars, but we know vicious people exist. We've read Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" and watched Michael Haneke's "Funny Games," and know, deep down in our hearts, once intruders cross the threshold, it's not going down like Kevin McCallister versus the Wet Bandits. Because anyone bold enough to break into a house is either desperate or disturbed, and this places us at a severe disadvantage.
No 21st-century film has exploited this to more terrifying effect than Bryan Bertino's "The Strangers." The premise...
No 21st-century film has exploited this to more terrifying effect than Bryan Bertino's "The Strangers." The premise...
- 8/21/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
If you don't know the name Grant Singer, chances are you're familiar with his work as a music video and commercial director. Singer has been behind some of the most visually striking videos of the past few years and has worked with artists such as The Weeknd, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Ariel Pink, and Skrillex. Now, Singer is following in the footsteps of filmmakers like Michael Bay, David Fincher, Gus Van Sant, McG, Joseph Kahn, Daniels, and Spike Jonze by delivering his first narrative feature. With a star-studded cast and a compelling story, Singer's new Netflix thriller looks and sounds like a refreshing addition to the streaming juggernaut's library of original projects. Check out the film's official synopsis below:
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems,...
Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems,...
- 8/21/2023
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Australian Film Television and Radio School
Australia’s leading screen arts and broadcast school benefits from a beautiful Sydney campus and a deep pool of industry lecturers and close ties with the Australian film community. Notable alumni include multi-Oscar nominee Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American) and Black Widow filmmaker Cate Shortland, plus a slew of esteemed craftspeople like Margaret Sixel (editing on Mad Max: Fury Road), David White (sound editing for Mad Max: Fury Road), Andrew Lesnie (cinematography for The Lord of the Rings) and Tony McNamara (best original screenplay Oscar nominee for The Favourite).
Beijing Film Academy
The USC of the world’s second-largest film industry, China’s most prestigious film school offers its graduates a wealth of industry ties to some of the country’s most prominent working actors and directors. Bfa also now has an undergraduate film program taught in English.
Australia’s leading screen arts and broadcast school benefits from a beautiful Sydney campus and a deep pool of industry lecturers and close ties with the Australian film community. Notable alumni include multi-Oscar nominee Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American) and Black Widow filmmaker Cate Shortland, plus a slew of esteemed craftspeople like Margaret Sixel (editing on Mad Max: Fury Road), David White (sound editing for Mad Max: Fury Road), Andrew Lesnie (cinematography for The Lord of the Rings) and Tony McNamara (best original screenplay Oscar nominee for The Favourite).
Beijing Film Academy
The USC of the world’s second-largest film industry, China’s most prestigious film school offers its graduates a wealth of industry ties to some of the country’s most prominent working actors and directors. Bfa also now has an undergraduate film program taught in English.
- 8/11/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski, Alex Ritman, Scott Roxborough and Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In “Red Rooms,” Pascal Plante didn’t want to show explicit images of violent killings. He wanted to talk about them instead.
“During the pandemic, we have been spending all this time in front of our screens, consuming violent images in a very detached way. Realizing that led me to the dark web, basically,” he tells Variety.
His “sort of cyber thriller and sort of courtroom drama” – world premiering at Karlovy Vary Film Festival before opening Canada’s genre fest Fantasia – revolves around the high-profile trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), accused of murdering teenage girls and selling videos of his exploits.
“It was very deliberate not to show it. I have been listening to crime-related podcasts and they feel even creepier. This way, the audience almost wants to see them. In a weird, morbid way,” he says.
“This film is about the psychological consequences of extreme violence. I really...
“During the pandemic, we have been spending all this time in front of our screens, consuming violent images in a very detached way. Realizing that led me to the dark web, basically,” he tells Variety.
His “sort of cyber thriller and sort of courtroom drama” – world premiering at Karlovy Vary Film Festival before opening Canada’s genre fest Fantasia – revolves around the high-profile trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), accused of murdering teenage girls and selling videos of his exploits.
“It was very deliberate not to show it. I have been listening to crime-related podcasts and they feel even creepier. This way, the audience almost wants to see them. In a weird, morbid way,” he says.
“This film is about the psychological consequences of extreme violence. I really...
- 7/1/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
My primal reaction when watching Goodnight Mommy was extreme unease and discomfort. Directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the mysterious thriller left me feeling emotionally drained after its screening at Fantastic Fest in September 2014. My fellow writer Pierce Conran was in much better shape to write about it, which he did with his superb elegance. So it is with mixed emotions that I report on a remake that is coming out next month. On the plus side: Naomi Watts. She is excellent in just about everything she has done, and is a big bonus in a remake, such as The Ring or King Kong or Funny Games. In the original Goodnight Mommy, her character was the one who was placed in danger by...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/24/2022
- Screen Anarchy
Naomi Watts certainly has a predilection for leading English-language remakes of Austrian psychological horror hits. After starring in Michael Haneke’s remake of his own Funny Games, the actress is now taking part in Matt Sobel’s Goodnight Mommy, a retelling of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s 2014 horror feature. Ahead of a September 16 release on Prime Video, the first trailer has now arrived.
The film follows twin brothers (Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti) who arrive at their mother’s (Naomi Watts) country home to discover her face covered in bandages. The result, she explains, is from recent cosmetic surgery, but they immediately sense that something doesn’t add up. She sets strange new house rules, smokes in her bathroom, and secretly rips up a drawing they gave her—things their loving mother would never do. As her behavior grows increasingly bizarre and erratic, a horrifying thought takes root in the...
The film follows twin brothers (Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti) who arrive at their mother’s (Naomi Watts) country home to discover her face covered in bandages. The result, she explains, is from recent cosmetic surgery, but they immediately sense that something doesn’t add up. She sets strange new house rules, smokes in her bathroom, and secretly rips up a drawing they gave her—things their loving mother would never do. As her behavior grows increasingly bizarre and erratic, a horrifying thought takes root in the...
- 8/24/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The thing about Hollywood provocateurs is that they tend to have a remarkably short shelf life. After all, you can’t expect to keep helming A-list projects with all-star casts and massive budgets while simultaneously turning away audiences in droves by showing them exactly what you know they don’t want to see. Lars von Trier was banned from Cannes. Except to remake his own 1997 meta-horror hit Funny Games, Michael Hanake never really crossed over stateside. And, infamously, much of Ken Russell’s works have been unavailable in their original, uncensored form since they were first released decades ago. By and large,
Best of 2021: Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Benedetta’...
Best of 2021: Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Benedetta’...
- 7/3/2022
- by Brian Hadsell
- TVovermind.com
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Bad Vacations
I imagine your summer plans didn’t go as expected, but in at least a few films in a new Criterion Channel series, some characters have it worse off than having to quarantine inside. Titled Bad Vacations, the collection includes Bonjour tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958), La collectionneuse (Éric Rohmer, 1967), The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977), House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977), Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978), The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986), The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990), The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990), Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997), Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001), La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001), Unrelated (Joanna Hogg, 2007), and Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012).
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Epicentro (Hubert Sauper)
“This is utopia, bright and burning.
Bad Vacations
I imagine your summer plans didn’t go as expected, but in at least a few films in a new Criterion Channel series, some characters have it worse off than having to quarantine inside. Titled Bad Vacations, the collection includes Bonjour tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958), La collectionneuse (Éric Rohmer, 1967), The Deep (Peter Yates, 1977), House (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977), Long Weekend (Colin Eggleston, 1978), The Green Ray (Eric Rohmer, 1986), The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990), The Sheltering Sky (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990), Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997), Fat Girl (Catherine Breillat, 2001), La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001), Unrelated (Joanna Hogg, 2007), and Sightseers (Ben Wheatley, 2012).
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Epicentro (Hubert Sauper)
“This is utopia, bright and burning.
- 8/28/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
If you, as I, are the type to presume that a “dramaturgical assistant” is some form of midlevel job in a hospital’s oncology department you might be startled to see that none other than the great Michael Haneke is credited on the promotional material of To The Night–an unrelenting new work from filmmaker Peter Brunner–as being that very thing.
We are, naturally, being rather facetious here. The film in question, which follows an artist/arsonist’s (artsonist’s?) creative attempts to get over the horrific loss of his family–who perished in a fire from which he himself was the lone survivor–is in fact the third feature film from Brunner, a 35-year-old Austrian director who was, as it turns out, a student of Haneke’s at the Vienna Film Academy. If one’s old professor happens to have two Palme d’Ors and an Oscar lying around,...
We are, naturally, being rather facetious here. The film in question, which follows an artist/arsonist’s (artsonist’s?) creative attempts to get over the horrific loss of his family–who perished in a fire from which he himself was the lone survivor–is in fact the third feature film from Brunner, a 35-year-old Austrian director who was, as it turns out, a student of Haneke’s at the Vienna Film Academy. If one’s old professor happens to have two Palme d’Ors and an Oscar lying around,...
- 7/22/2018
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The debut film by Veronika Franz - the wife of Ulrich Seidl - is the Haneke-esque story of a woman swathed in bandages and her potentially vengeful twin sons
Veronika Franz, the journalist and wife of Austrian film-maker Ulrich Seidl, makes her debut, co-directing with Severin Fiala for this chilly, angular, ultra-violent arthouse horror showing in the Venice film festival’s Orrizonti sidebar. Seidl himself produces, and the result is a technically proficient and at times unwatchably horrible ordeal set in an elegant modern lake-house bordering sinister forests and fields. It’s all topped off with a huge psychological twist, and this ending would appear to be influenced by a very specific director and very specific film. Naming these would be unsporting, but it is generally comparable to Haneke’s Funny Games and Jessica Hausner’s Hotel.
Elias is a nine-year-old boy who appears to be enjoying an idyllic summer...
Veronika Franz, the journalist and wife of Austrian film-maker Ulrich Seidl, makes her debut, co-directing with Severin Fiala for this chilly, angular, ultra-violent arthouse horror showing in the Venice film festival’s Orrizonti sidebar. Seidl himself produces, and the result is a technically proficient and at times unwatchably horrible ordeal set in an elegant modern lake-house bordering sinister forests and fields. It’s all topped off with a huge psychological twist, and this ending would appear to be influenced by a very specific director and very specific film. Naming these would be unsporting, but it is generally comparable to Haneke’s Funny Games and Jessica Hausner’s Hotel.
Elias is a nine-year-old boy who appears to be enjoying an idyllic summer...
- 8/31/2014
- by Peter Bradshaw in Venice
- The Guardian - Film News
Year: 2011
Directors: Vladan Nikolic
Writers: Vladan Nikolic
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Ben Austwick
Rating: 2 out of 10
There.s nothing wrong with being pretentious if you.ve got the intellect and ideas to back it up. Why not rewrite the rulebook and sneer at those around you if what you.re doing is better than everyone else? But it really has to be very good, otherwise you.re going to come over a complete idiot.
This confusing and badly-written film is set in the near future, where a population genetically modified into a permanent state of happiness seek out black market drugs just so they can feel something, even if that feeling is pain. Jack is a drug dealer, inhabiting a familiar underground of graffitied streets and sterile, gothy raves, who uncovers a murky conspiracy explained in a series of numbered tapes, discoveries of which introduce each chapter of the film.
Directors: Vladan Nikolic
Writers: Vladan Nikolic
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Ben Austwick
Rating: 2 out of 10
There.s nothing wrong with being pretentious if you.ve got the intellect and ideas to back it up. Why not rewrite the rulebook and sneer at those around you if what you.re doing is better than everyone else? But it really has to be very good, otherwise you.re going to come over a complete idiot.
This confusing and badly-written film is set in the near future, where a population genetically modified into a permanent state of happiness seek out black market drugs just so they can feel something, even if that feeling is pain. Jack is a drug dealer, inhabiting a familiar underground of graffitied streets and sterile, gothy raves, who uncovers a murky conspiracy explained in a series of numbered tapes, discoveries of which introduce each chapter of the film.
- 5/10/2011
- QuietEarth.us
What's your favorite scary movie, a deep unfamiliar voice questions on the other end of the phone in the Scream series. What's scarier then supernatural terrors? People just like you and me that one day just snap. People are the scariest creations out there. Not restricted by sunlight or a full moon or to haunt a home single home. People have free will. Human beings can go anywhere and do just about anything. To me there is nothing scarier than that. Horror movie villains are not all monsters, demons, and ghosts. In fact some of the most menacing villains in cinematic history have been realistic completely plausible human villains such as Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs", the masked killers from "The Strangers", and Peter and Paul from "Funny Games".
My favorite human villain is Leslie Vernon (Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon). Sure this film...
My favorite human villain is Leslie Vernon (Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon). Sure this film...
- 5/4/2011
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
Some directors react angrily to remakes of their films, particular when it’s the title that helped launch their career. Others – such as Funny Games’ Michael Haneke – go so far as to tackle the remake themselves. Nicolas Winding Refn is taking the supportive approach as the UK version of his drug thriller Pusher announces a cast including Paul Kaye, Richard Coyle, Bronson Webb and Agyness Deyn.Refn’s 1996 original found Kim Bodnia as Frank, a drug dealer whose life seems to be a big bucket of win until a deal goes badly wrong and is busted by the police. He gets away and is able to ditch the dope in a lake, but that leads to a new problem – he’s now in serious debt to his supplier, and that’s a man you don’t want to be in trouble with. Frank’s world becomes a mad scramble to...
- 5/3/2011
- EmpireOnline
Based on its trailer, The Perfect Host appears to be one part Funny Games, one part Weekend at Bernie’s, and one part Frasier. And if that description isn’t enough to pull you in, watch the teaser purely for David Hyde Pierce’s hauntingly hysterical portrayal of a twisted man who turns the tables on a bank robber (Clayne Crawford) hiding out at his house by making him the abused subject of an eccentric dinner party. I do not want to know what Pierce’s host is preparing to do with the party’s tossed salad and scrambled eggs.
- 4/11/2011
- by Kate Ward
- EW - Inside Movies
Craig here with Take Three. Today: Michael Pitt
Take One: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Pitt’s weedy teenage wannabe rock imp Tommy Gnosis (The Jesus freak army brat formerly known as Tommy Speck – then, very nearly, Tommy Ache) got to grapple with Hedwig’s Angry Inch in unconventionally inventive ways back in 2001. John Cameron Mitchell’s slip-up-operation rock opera, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, was like nothing else on screen at the time. If you could avert your eyes from internationally ignored “icon” Hedwig’s shining beacon of starlight, then hidden in the flared remnants, and on the sidelines, was Pitt’s Tommy. He was initially willing to dote on her every word but eventually reluctant to acknowledge his own sneaky appropriation of her back catalogue. He became the big star; Hedwig toured the fish restaurants of America.
Pitt does the naive, overtly adoring rock moppet well. He also does the non-committal,...
Take One: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
Pitt’s weedy teenage wannabe rock imp Tommy Gnosis (The Jesus freak army brat formerly known as Tommy Speck – then, very nearly, Tommy Ache) got to grapple with Hedwig’s Angry Inch in unconventionally inventive ways back in 2001. John Cameron Mitchell’s slip-up-operation rock opera, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, was like nothing else on screen at the time. If you could avert your eyes from internationally ignored “icon” Hedwig’s shining beacon of starlight, then hidden in the flared remnants, and on the sidelines, was Pitt’s Tommy. He was initially willing to dote on her every word but eventually reluctant to acknowledge his own sneaky appropriation of her back catalogue. He became the big star; Hedwig toured the fish restaurants of America.
Pitt does the naive, overtly adoring rock moppet well. He also does the non-committal,...
- 3/27/2011
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
There is a terrific series titled ”Auto-Remakes” starting today at Anthology Film Archives in New York. The series, which runs through March 31, pairs films made and remade by the same director (in the way Michael Haneke did recently with Funny Games). C. Mason Wells, one of the programmers, writes “Anthology surveys the history of auteurs who – per Ken Jacobs – returned to the scene of the crime. Whether out of dogged perfectionism, playful abandon, or, yes, monetary gain, they changed their own films from black-and-white to color, from documentary to reenactment, from tragedy to comedy, from silent to sound, from noir to Western, from video to celluloid – reimagining the same stories, characters, or ideas with new collaborators, technologies, and formal strategies.”
What’s interesting about the pairs of posters for these films is that they are markedly similar. Aside from the casting, you can’t tell much about what differentiates the original and the remake,...
What’s interesting about the pairs of posters for these films is that they are markedly similar. Aside from the casting, you can’t tell much about what differentiates the original and the remake,...
- 3/18/2011
- MUBI
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? I'm interrupting this column to announce a sweet contest open to budding filmmakers who not only love the fake trailers that played during Grindhouse but...
- 3/12/2011
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
A new online movie service specializing in independent and international films launches today. For $10 a month, Fandor gives members unlimited access to movies they can stream at any time. The company bills itself as a “curated” service that offers movies of artistic and historic merit. According to Fandor, “the catalog consists of a mix of film festival favorites, award-winning documentaries and short films such as ‘Happy Together,’ ‘Old Joy,’ ‘Carcasses,’ ‘Funny Games,’ ‘Searchers 2.0,’ ‘Black Gold’ and ‘Cairo Station.’” Jonathan Marlow, Fandor’s founder and VP content development and acquisitions, told TheWrap that the...
- 3/9/2011
- by Joshua L. Weinstein
- The Wrap
I should first say, for those of you just joining us, that my “Flashback” posts are not necessarily recommendations of each film; usually my intent is to point out something specific about each film, whether good or bad, or just revisiting them for no reason other than I recently watched them again.
Surviving The Game, directed by Ernest Dickerson, is a 1994 loose adaptation of Richard Connell’s 1924 story, The Most Dangerous Game, starring Ice-t, Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey and Charles S. Dutton.
It’s a low-budget, b-grade exploitative genre flick; but I’d also consider it something of a guilty pleasure, with Ice-t being the weakest link. This was made 3 years after New Jack City (another guilty pleasure), and Ice’s acting skills don’t seem to have much improved over that time period, during which he co-starred in 4 other films.
It’s one of several adaptations of Richard Connell’s short story,...
Surviving The Game, directed by Ernest Dickerson, is a 1994 loose adaptation of Richard Connell’s 1924 story, The Most Dangerous Game, starring Ice-t, Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey and Charles S. Dutton.
It’s a low-budget, b-grade exploitative genre flick; but I’d also consider it something of a guilty pleasure, with Ice-t being the weakest link. This was made 3 years after New Jack City (another guilty pleasure), and Ice’s acting skills don’t seem to have much improved over that time period, during which he co-starred in 4 other films.
It’s one of several adaptations of Richard Connell’s short story,...
- 3/3/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
If Naomi Watts had only done Mulholland Drive she would be secure in movie history. She deserves a lot of camera time
Who ever heard a bad word about Naomi Watts? And don't expect to read one here. Still, her latest film, Fair Game, where she plays the outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, with Sean Penn as her husband, made too little impression on all of us who like her. It seemed promising: attractive married people plus international intrigue, along with the suspicion of there being more to the case than we ever heard. Directed by Doug Liman, the movie turns out rather dull. Is playing opposite Sean Penn anti-chemical (this was the third time Watts had tried)? Or did the drama need to be shifted towards comedy? Being married to a "spy" may play best as a version of "Can you trust your wife?"
But if the Anglo-Australian Watts...
Who ever heard a bad word about Naomi Watts? And don't expect to read one here. Still, her latest film, Fair Game, where she plays the outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, with Sean Penn as her husband, made too little impression on all of us who like her. It seemed promising: attractive married people plus international intrigue, along with the suspicion of there being more to the case than we ever heard. Directed by Doug Liman, the movie turns out rather dull. Is playing opposite Sean Penn anti-chemical (this was the third time Watts had tried)? Or did the drama need to be shifted towards comedy? Being married to a "spy" may play best as a version of "Can you trust your wife?"
But if the Anglo-Australian Watts...
- 2/25/2011
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
James Marsden and Patrick Wilson are both currently in talks to star in a dark indie thriller entitled Loft. Based on Erik Van Looy’s disturbing 2008 Belgian film, the plot follows five men who hold keys to a penthouse apartment where they go to exorcise their lustful demons. But when a dead woman turns up in the apartment, chained to a bed, all hell breaks loose. Taking his cue from Funny Games helmer Michael Haneke, Van Looy will direct the English-language remake of his earlier film, with a script from A Nightmare On Elm...
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- 2/24/2011
- by Josh Winning
- TotalFilm
So yet another not very old foreign film is getting the remake treatment. And much like, say, Funny Games, it's getting remade by its original director. The film is called Loft, a remake of a 2008 Belgian film from director Erik Van Looy (The Memory Of A Killer), about "five married friends who decide to rent a loft together where they can bring their mistresses. When the body of an unknown woman is found in the loft, they realize that they don't know each other as well as they...
- 2/24/2011
- by George Merchan
- JoBlo.com
How well do you know your friends? It’s a subject tackled by tricky Belgian thriller Loft, and now Patrick Wilson and James Marsden are putting the idea to the test, signing on to star in the American remake.The 2008 original, directed by Erik Van Looy, followed five married blokes who all chip in to rent a swanky pad together as a place they can bring their mistresses for a little extra-marital fun away from the prying eyes of their other halves.But then a seemingly unknown woman turns up dead in the loft, and the five turn on each other as their suspicious minds start trying to figure out which among them may be (insert dramatic musical sting here) a murderer!Wesley Strick, whose last attempt at writing a remake script brought us the rebooted A Nightmare on Elm Street, is scribbling the screenplay. And in the tradition of Michael Haneke and Funny Games,...
- 2/24/2011
- EmpireOnline
Reviewed at the Sundance Film Festival 2011.
There are bleak films and then there's "Tyrannosaur," a movie so dark it's like a cinematic black hole, a film from which no light escapes. Just how dark is it? The most cheerful scene in this movie is a funeral.
By the end, "Tyrannosaur" arrives at a deeply moving place, but before it arrives at that deeply moving place the viewer must endure one of the tougher sits of any movie in recent memory. Put this one alongside "Requiem For a Dream" and "Funny Games" on the Mount Rushmore of One-Timers, movies you have to see once, but can't imagine seeing twice. It's a powerful film you can't shake and won't want to revisit anytime soon.
It tells the story of two desperately sad people in Leeds in the UK, a man and a woman, united by their shared sense of helplessness. Joseph (Peter Mullan...
There are bleak films and then there's "Tyrannosaur," a movie so dark it's like a cinematic black hole, a film from which no light escapes. Just how dark is it? The most cheerful scene in this movie is a funeral.
By the end, "Tyrannosaur" arrives at a deeply moving place, but before it arrives at that deeply moving place the viewer must endure one of the tougher sits of any movie in recent memory. Put this one alongside "Requiem For a Dream" and "Funny Games" on the Mount Rushmore of One-Timers, movies you have to see once, but can't imagine seeing twice. It's a powerful film you can't shake and won't want to revisit anytime soon.
It tells the story of two desperately sad people in Leeds in the UK, a man and a woman, united by their shared sense of helplessness. Joseph (Peter Mullan...
- 1/22/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
"Five tales that will mess you up for life." That's the tagline for Burning Palms, which opens in limited release on January 14. Written and directed by Christopher B. Landon (who wrote Disturbia, Paranormal Activity 2), the film follows five separate stories all across Los Angeles that delve into very taboo territory. It stars Zoe Saldana, Jamie Chung, Dylan McDermott, Paz Vega, Nick Stahl, Shannon Doherty, Rosamund Pike and more. Check out the trailer - which has a very Funny Games feel - after the jump. Thanks to Shock Till You Drop [1] for the below trailer. But first, read the plot description. It helps inform the trailer immensely. Burning Palms is a dark comedy, interlacing multiple stories where no taboo is left unexplored. Framed as a graphic novel come to life, the film unfolds in five popular neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Each story from the sandy beaches of Santa Monica, the...
- 1/11/2011
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
While his sure to be rip-roaring tale of elderly decay was set to be titled These Two, writer and director Michael Haneke (or someone higher up) has apparently decided that the title doesn’t quite work for him. It’s been given the new, possibly ironic title of Love, according to Cineuropa (via IonCinema and ThePlaylist).
But, have no fear, this minor change won’t mean that production is delayed. It’s still set to begin in February with a quick 40-day shoot; excitingly, this means that it could premiere anywhere from Cannes in May to Tiff in September. As I said above, there’s possibly a sense of irony to the new name, and this isn’t anything new, as it could be similar to something like his previous Funny Games, both the Austrian and American versions. When you consider his filmography and the fact that this seems like...
But, have no fear, this minor change won’t mean that production is delayed. It’s still set to begin in February with a quick 40-day shoot; excitingly, this means that it could premiere anywhere from Cannes in May to Tiff in September. As I said above, there’s possibly a sense of irony to the new name, and this isn’t anything new, as it could be similar to something like his previous Funny Games, both the Austrian and American versions. When you consider his filmography and the fact that this seems like...
- 12/27/2010
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
I love that a heated discussion over Titanic’s infamous Oscar sweep of 1998 has already begun over at Laurent’s excellent retrospective. I guess it’s just the nature of this particular film. There is something about Titanic that hits a raw nerve in people and they feel a need to defend/criticize it so passionately.
As it happens, I fall in the ‘unconditional love’ category and I’m not afraid to admit it. To this day I have a passion for Titanic, a film that so perfectly matches what a glorious, spellbinding, big spectacle romance against an historic backdrop should be, and those films are so rare, especially when they are made with such precise and meticulous detail from James Cameron.
We shouldn’t be embarrassed over how much we loved Titanic in the 90′s. We should embrace it. So as our third ‘Choose The Winners’ article, we are...
As it happens, I fall in the ‘unconditional love’ category and I’m not afraid to admit it. To this day I have a passion for Titanic, a film that so perfectly matches what a glorious, spellbinding, big spectacle romance against an historic backdrop should be, and those films are so rare, especially when they are made with such precise and meticulous detail from James Cameron.
We shouldn’t be embarrassed over how much we loved Titanic in the 90′s. We should embrace it. So as our third ‘Choose The Winners’ article, we are...
- 12/24/2010
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
If you enjoy a good old fashioned home invasion flick then 'The Replicas' is the bad boy for you! It's the first feature from music and commercial director Jeremy Regimbal and will be hoping to grab some of the success of other recent home invasion thrillers such as 'Funny Games' and 'The Strangers'. There's definitely an audience for it out there so why not? And if you're going to be casting a couple of hotties like Selma Blair ('Hellboy') and Rachel Miner ('Supernatural') it's definitely going to be worth checking out. Actors Josh Close (who also penned the script) and James D'Arcy have also been cast in Regimbal's new project. Now check out the hottie double-act below and start putting money on who's the goodie and who's the baddie....
- 12/7/2010
- Horror Asylum
- Film Independent checks in with producer and Find Fellow René Bastian -
Over the years, Spirit Award-winning producer René Bastian has worked to make a name for himself in the independent film world. Named one of Variety's 10 Producers to Watch in 2005, René, under his banner Belladonna Productions, which he runs alongside producer Linda Moran, has produced films including L.I.E., Transamerica, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, as well as Michael Haneke's American remake of Funny Games. Linda and René are two-time Spirit Award nominees for L.I.E. and Transamerica, and René was 2001 Spirit Award recipient of the Motorola Producers Award. He is currently in pre-production on Neither the Veil Nor the Four Walls, by writer/director Afia Nathaniel, which was selected for Film Independent's 2009 Fast Track financing market.
By Josh Welsh
Let's start with Neither the Veil Nor the Four Walls. This is a remarkable project, set in post 9/11 Pakistan,...
- 12/2/2010
- by maint
- Film Independent
After putting his Internet-centered film on hold to focus on the elderly drama These Two, Michael Haneke and those involved in the project have been relatively quiet on what it’s really about. All we’ve heard about the story is that concerns the “humiliation of the physical breakdown in the elderly” (I will never get tired of reading that), with not much else in the way of plot. Thankfully, IonCinema (via ThePlaylist) has picked up a synopsis, which can be read below.
Plot: Centers on cultured octogenarians Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), who are retired music teachers. Their daughter (Isabelle Huppert), also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne suffers a minor stroke. When she leaves the hospital and returns home, she is paralysed down one side. The love that binds this old couple will really be put to the test.
From the screenwriters of Tangled.
Plot: Centers on cultured octogenarians Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), who are retired music teachers. Their daughter (Isabelle Huppert), also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne suffers a minor stroke. When she leaves the hospital and returns home, she is paralysed down one side. The love that binds this old couple will really be put to the test.
From the screenwriters of Tangled.
- 11/24/2010
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw the Devil was treated to a special preview screening at this year’s London Korean Film Festival and the audience seemed to thoroughly ‘enjoy’ the film, apart from a small number of walkouts during the particularly violent scenes.
I Saw the Devil received a release in Korea earlier this year but due to its violent content it was heavily cut and was relatively unsuccessful at the box office. The cut shown at Lkff was a longer cut than that shown in Korean theatres but was supposedly “the ‘export’ version: slightly gorier and trimmed of expository moments he [Kim Ji-woon] thought westerners wouldn’t need”. There were certainly a number of gory and unflinching scenes of violence but as is often the case this has perhaps been a tad exaggerated in the hype that has surrounded earlier festival screenings.
The film is violent throughout though but this never...
I Saw the Devil received a release in Korea earlier this year but due to its violent content it was heavily cut and was relatively unsuccessful at the box office. The cut shown at Lkff was a longer cut than that shown in Korean theatres but was supposedly “the ‘export’ version: slightly gorier and trimmed of expository moments he [Kim Ji-woon] thought westerners wouldn’t need”. There were certainly a number of gory and unflinching scenes of violence but as is often the case this has perhaps been a tad exaggerated in the hype that has surrounded earlier festival screenings.
The film is violent throughout though but this never...
- 11/12/2010
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
There are brilliant filmmakers, and then there are filmmakers like Michael Haneke.
With a canon featuring stunning films like The Piano Teacher, Code Unknown, Cache, Funny Games (along with its remake), and this year’s White Ribbon (nominated for Best Foreign Film at last year’s Academy Awards), Haneke has become one of today’s most beloved, if not controversial, filmmakers.
Read more on Michael Haneke to shoot These Two come 2011…...
With a canon featuring stunning films like The Piano Teacher, Code Unknown, Cache, Funny Games (along with its remake), and this year’s White Ribbon (nominated for Best Foreign Film at last year’s Academy Awards), Haneke has become one of today’s most beloved, if not controversial, filmmakers.
Read more on Michael Haneke to shoot These Two come 2011…...
- 11/10/2010
- by Joshua Brunsting
- GordonandtheWhale
Neils Arden Oplev criticises casting of American actor in lead role of Lisbeth Salander in American version of Swedish film
The director of the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has questioned the need for the upcoming American remake, reigniting a long-running war of words over Hollywood raiding foreign language films to repackage them for a global audience.
With an English-language version in the works, to be directed by The Social Network's David Fincher, film-maker Niels Arden Oplev expressed anger at plans to cast an American actor in the lead role of Lisbeth Salander, drawing unflattering comparisons with the Hollywood adaptation of the French film La Femme Nikita, which was poorly received when remade as The Assassin, starring Bridget Fonda in the 1990s.
He told the Word & Film website: "Even in Hollywood there seems to be a kind of anger about the remake; like, 'Why...
The director of the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has questioned the need for the upcoming American remake, reigniting a long-running war of words over Hollywood raiding foreign language films to repackage them for a global audience.
With an English-language version in the works, to be directed by The Social Network's David Fincher, film-maker Niels Arden Oplev expressed anger at plans to cast an American actor in the lead role of Lisbeth Salander, drawing unflattering comparisons with the Hollywood adaptation of the French film La Femme Nikita, which was poorly received when remade as The Assassin, starring Bridget Fonda in the 1990s.
He told the Word & Film website: "Even in Hollywood there seems to be a kind of anger about the remake; like, 'Why...
- 11/10/2010
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Cinematical
- Daniel Radcliffe is looking sharp in the first of two images from Hammer Films' period-piece horror film 'The Woman in Black' about a lawyer (Radcliffe) and his quest to discover the identity of a woman a small town refuses to acknowledge exists.
- Speaking of Hammer Films, 'The Resident,' a horror movie about a mysterious apartment building, has been picked up by Image Entertainment for Us distribution. Hillary Swank, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star.
- 'Silent Hill 2' director Michael J. Bassett has opened up a little bit about the film on his blog. Plot details are still hazy, but it is cool that Bassett makes it clear he's bringing back as much as the creative team and crew members behind Christophe Gans' film as he can.
- 'Kung Fu Panda' co-director...
- Daniel Radcliffe is looking sharp in the first of two images from Hammer Films' period-piece horror film 'The Woman in Black' about a lawyer (Radcliffe) and his quest to discover the identity of a woman a small town refuses to acknowledge exists.
- Speaking of Hammer Films, 'The Resident,' a horror movie about a mysterious apartment building, has been picked up by Image Entertainment for Us distribution. Hillary Swank, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star.
- 'Silent Hill 2' director Michael J. Bassett has opened up a little bit about the film on his blog. Plot details are still hazy, but it is cool that Bassett makes it clear he's bringing back as much as the creative team and crew members behind Christophe Gans' film as he can.
- 'Kung Fu Panda' co-director...
- 11/10/2010
- by Peter Hall
- Moviefone
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Cinematical
- Daniel Radcliffe is looking sharp in the first of two images from Hammer Films' period-piece horror film 'The Woman in Black' about a lawyer (Radcliffe) and his quest to discover the identity of a woman a small town refuses to acknowledge exists.
- Speaking of Hammer Films, 'The Resident,' a horror movie about a mysterious apartment building, has been picked up by Image Entertainment for Us distribution. Hillary Swank, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star.
- 'Silent Hill 2' director Michael J. Bassett has opened up a little bit about the film on his blog. Plot details are still hazy, but it is cool that Bassett makes it clear he's bringing back as much as the creative team and crew members behind Christophe Gans' film as he can.
- 'Kung Fu Panda' co-director...
- Daniel Radcliffe is looking sharp in the first of two images from Hammer Films' period-piece horror film 'The Woman in Black' about a lawyer (Radcliffe) and his quest to discover the identity of a woman a small town refuses to acknowledge exists.
- Speaking of Hammer Films, 'The Resident,' a horror movie about a mysterious apartment building, has been picked up by Image Entertainment for Us distribution. Hillary Swank, Christopher Lee and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star.
- 'Silent Hill 2' director Michael J. Bassett has opened up a little bit about the film on his blog. Plot details are still hazy, but it is cool that Bassett makes it clear he's bringing back as much as the creative team and crew members behind Christophe Gans' film as he can.
- 'Kung Fu Panda' co-director...
- 11/10/2010
- by Peter Hall
- Cinematical
This is a Recap of Boardwalk Empire, Season 1 Episode 8, entitled “Hold Me In Paradise”. It contains spoilers, such as the spoiler that Eddie Money wrote the title to this episode. Nucky is off to Chicago this week, and because that trip takes 48 months back then, Eli is temporarily filling in as Head Kickback Giver-Outer. As we remember from the “Previously” segment, though, no one takes Eli seriously. Also, didn’t someone get cut in the face a few episodes ago? It wasn’t in the “Previously” this week, so I have no recollection. Anyway, no one wants to visit Eli because he grammar bad at, and the one person who visits him by accident completely patronizes his authority, bruising Eli’s fragile corrupt sheriff ego. Eli’s learning the hard way that substituting ain’t easy: After the jump, the bullets are flyin’ and the boobs are returnin’ and a...
- 11/9/2010
- by Dan Hopper
- BestWeekEver
There are three horror or thriller titles releasing next week beginning November 2nd. The period action piece Centurion will release on DVD and Blu-Ray formats, with the Blu-Ray offering nine special features. Also releasing is the Blu-Ray copy of the 2007 sleeper hit Funny Games, which will only offer bare extras. Finally, Once Fallen will release through First Look International; the film stars Ed Harris (Waking the Dead), Richard Tyson (The Fear Chamber), and Peter Weller. Have a look at each of these titles in more detail below.
Centurion - DVD, Blu-Ray
Director/writer: Neil Marshall.
A partial synopsis for Centurion is here:
"Ad 117, the Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts."
*The full...
Centurion - DVD, Blu-Ray
Director/writer: Neil Marshall.
A partial synopsis for Centurion is here:
"Ad 117, the Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts."
*The full...
- 10/31/2010
- by 28DaysLaterAnalysis@gmail.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
I am a horror fan. I make no apologies for this. There is a lot to be gained from an experience shared with other genre fans sitting in a darkened theater. At various times over the years (as I am clearly an old crone), I have wondered what draws me to the genre. Is it experiencing fear in a controlled environment, so that I don’t feel threatened? Is it a revenge fantasy made real? Or am I simply a voyeur?
This last suggestion seems to be the theme behind Jt Petty’s (Soft for Digging, The Burrowers) film S&Man. S&Man is a faux documentary discussing some of the most debase films in underground horror cinema. The film includes interviews with the folks at Toe Tag Productions (some of the vilest filmmakers working today), supposed Scream Queen Debbie D., Carol Clover (noted critic who developed the “final girl...
This last suggestion seems to be the theme behind Jt Petty’s (Soft for Digging, The Burrowers) film S&Man. S&Man is a faux documentary discussing some of the most debase films in underground horror cinema. The film includes interviews with the folks at Toe Tag Productions (some of the vilest filmmakers working today), supposed Scream Queen Debbie D., Carol Clover (noted critic who developed the “final girl...
- 10/27/2010
- by Melissa Yearian
- FusedFilm
In the first of his columns from the London Film Festival, Michael reports back with five movies worthy of your attention...
Blogging from a festival is a daunting task. The London Film Festival is a massive deal, at least from a raw numbers point of view. With the late additions to the bill, it comes to over 200 films, in just over two weeks of screenings.
Making sense of it all is made easier by spotting threads, be it thematic, national or topical, and these columns are spinning out of that thinking. I was surprised by how immediately the connections presented themselves. It's silly, really, as this is a pretty well curated amalgam of cinema.
Within the first week of previews, I was blindsided by a selection of films that, you could say, strayed a little close to home. They featured young adults, that key demographic that sits in between maturity and middle age,...
Blogging from a festival is a daunting task. The London Film Festival is a massive deal, at least from a raw numbers point of view. With the late additions to the bill, it comes to over 200 films, in just over two weeks of screenings.
Making sense of it all is made easier by spotting threads, be it thematic, national or topical, and these columns are spinning out of that thinking. I was surprised by how immediately the connections presented themselves. It's silly, really, as this is a pretty well curated amalgam of cinema.
Within the first week of previews, I was blindsided by a selection of films that, you could say, strayed a little close to home. They featured young adults, that key demographic that sits in between maturity and middle age,...
- 10/20/2010
- Den of Geek
Michael Haneke, 2009
What is it about Michael Haneke's 2009 Palme d'Or winner that makes it so immaculately disquieting? It's not just the plot: a series of crimes – some ascribable, most anonymous – rumple the surface of a small town in northern Germany on the eve of the first world war. A disciplinarian doctor tries and fails to instil a sense of responsibility and culpability into his children. A woman is left by her lover, then subjected to a torrent of abuse that makes Max von Sydow's dismissal of his girlfriend in Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light (a film whose warm monochrone this movie echoes) look compassionate in comparison.
It's clearly – and this is, by and large, a strikingly foggy film – a fascist parable, an attempt at explaining the psychology of the people who came to power some 30 years later. It's also a mystery without resolution, a whodunnit with a hole...
What is it about Michael Haneke's 2009 Palme d'Or winner that makes it so immaculately disquieting? It's not just the plot: a series of crimes – some ascribable, most anonymous – rumple the surface of a small town in northern Germany on the eve of the first world war. A disciplinarian doctor tries and fails to instil a sense of responsibility and culpability into his children. A woman is left by her lover, then subjected to a torrent of abuse that makes Max von Sydow's dismissal of his girlfriend in Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light (a film whose warm monochrone this movie echoes) look compassionate in comparison.
It's clearly – and this is, by and large, a strikingly foggy film – a fascist parable, an attempt at explaining the psychology of the people who came to power some 30 years later. It's also a mystery without resolution, a whodunnit with a hole...
- 10/20/2010
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Having had the TV hit of the summer with Sherlock, Mark Gatiss is now bringing cult horror to the masses – and putting Edwardians on the moon. Stuart Jeffries meets a shooting star
'When I was a boy," says Mark Gatiss, "I wanted to be a whiskery man in a white coat saying, 'Look, it's a pterodactyl!'" He elaborates, mentioning one of his film heroes, who died earlier this year: "I wanted to be Lionel Jeffries in an Edwardian-set family fantasy film."
Gatiss, now 43, has his wish. He's playing Edwardian inventor Joseph Cavor in his own defiantly kidultish adaptation of Hg Wells's 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. Cavor is white-coated, facially hirsute and occasionally ditsy. Just before they set off for the moon, fellow astronaut Arnold Bedford inquires: "I say, Cavor, we will be able to get back, won't we?"
"I don't see why not," says Cavor vaguely.
'When I was a boy," says Mark Gatiss, "I wanted to be a whiskery man in a white coat saying, 'Look, it's a pterodactyl!'" He elaborates, mentioning one of his film heroes, who died earlier this year: "I wanted to be Lionel Jeffries in an Edwardian-set family fantasy film."
Gatiss, now 43, has his wish. He's playing Edwardian inventor Joseph Cavor in his own defiantly kidultish adaptation of Hg Wells's 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. Cavor is white-coated, facially hirsute and occasionally ditsy. Just before they set off for the moon, fellow astronaut Arnold Bedford inquires: "I say, Cavor, we will be able to get back, won't we?"
"I don't see why not," says Cavor vaguely.
- 10/11/2010
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Ricky is having a tough day, the bullet with his name on it is quite literally staring him in the face. Structured as a flashback of his life right at the second of final judgment, for (ostensibly) our entertainment, the writer of cult festival hit Sexykiller, Paco Cabezas, blows up his award winning short into a lengthy feature of the same name: Neon Flesh. In the world of Carne de Neón you are either climbing the rungs of the sex business (It's hard out there for a wannabe pimp) or being gobbled up by it. There are cops and John's to make life difficult or lucrative, but it is the spectacularly screwed-up street folks that are on display here either for a stab at gangster coolness or goofy sight gags. Let us get this out of the way, I will probably not see a worse or more disappointing film in 2010 than Carne de Neón.
- 10/10/2010
- Screen Anarchy
[Why do I insist on republishing this review of Rubber every time it pops up and conquers a film festival? No Reason. Why did Sitges program it at 10am on a Saturday after a big Friday party night in this wonderful resort town? No Reason. Why should you wake up and check it out? There are plenty of reasons, first and foremost, is that it is a gem, secondly, this intro will make sense after you have seen the film's whopper of a prologue.]
A moment early on in Quentin Dupieux's delightfully absurd Rubber has the titular tire rising out of the primordial sands of the southwestern united states desert to ascend to some form of intelligence. There is no Also Sprach Zarathustra on the soundtrack, but the scene plays like a riff on the opening minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey (yes, seriously) especially when the 'moment of intelligence' turns to violence. Spinning bone to rolling vengeance, as cinemas first serial killing goodyear is set loose. But Rubber is no run-of-the-mill manufactured cult film. It is a treatise on why we watch films and why people (or at least the French) make films. The glib answer would be, "No Reason" and Rubber has an highly entertaining fashion to get that point across early. But ultimately it is a filmmaking challenge of a similar sort to Haneke's Funny Games. Only, uh, well, significantly more funny.
A moment early on in Quentin Dupieux's delightfully absurd Rubber has the titular tire rising out of the primordial sands of the southwestern united states desert to ascend to some form of intelligence. There is no Also Sprach Zarathustra on the soundtrack, but the scene plays like a riff on the opening minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey (yes, seriously) especially when the 'moment of intelligence' turns to violence. Spinning bone to rolling vengeance, as cinemas first serial killing goodyear is set loose. But Rubber is no run-of-the-mill manufactured cult film. It is a treatise on why we watch films and why people (or at least the French) make films. The glib answer would be, "No Reason" and Rubber has an highly entertaining fashion to get that point across early. But ultimately it is a filmmaking challenge of a similar sort to Haneke's Funny Games. Only, uh, well, significantly more funny.
- 10/8/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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