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2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 1994
1-20 of 27 items from 2012 « Prev | Next »
More Classics from the Warner Archive: The Awakening, Eye of the Devil, The 27th Day, Night School and The Spiral Staircase
15 May 2012 3:47 PM, PDT | DreadCentral.com | See recent Dread Central news »
More long hidden horrors are now available as part of Warner's made-to-order Archive Collection. Oh, the classic terrors that await you, dearest reader! Dig it!
Head on over to the Warner Archives and order yours today!
Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Charlton Heston, Susannah York, Jill Townsend, Stephanie Zimbalist
Synopsis
Mention Bram Stoker’s name, and literature and movie buffs will conjure up Count Dracula. But there was more blood in Stoker’s pen. He also wrote The Jewel of the Seven Stars, later filmed with chilling effect as The Awakening, grippingly directed by Mike Newell (Dance with a Stranger, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and sensuously shot on Egyptian locations by veteran cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Charlton Heston stars as an Egyptologist with a passion that will trigger several mysterious deaths. He’s obsessed with a sorceress whose return has been prophesied – and whose tomb he opened »
- Uncle Creepy
Movie Review: 'Asylum Blackout'
8 May 2012 11:00 AM, PDT | FEARnet | See recent FEARnet news »
Back in 1982 there was a very cool horror ensemble flick called Alone in the Dark. It starred Jack Palance, Donald Pleasance, and Martin Landau, and it focused on how an unfortunate psychiatrist has to defend his home from a pack of escaped lunatics. It's clunky and dated these days, but there's some actual fun to be found in that flick. But even back in 1982 I remember thinking, "Man, it's really stupid to have an asylum locked down through electricity. You're just begging for a storm, a blackout, a mass escape, and a gory massacre." Thirty years later, not much has changed. The recent French/Belgian/American co-production known as Asylum Blackout proves that pretty capably. Known on the festival »
Classic Horror Coming to DVD/Blu-Ray: Macabre, Morturary, Shock, and More
26 April 2012 8:30 AM, PDT | DailyDead | See recent DailyDead news »
Those on the lookout for classic and obscure horror titles will be interested in today’s round-up. We have some new DVD releases to report on from Blue Underground, along with a few upcoming Blu-ray titles :
The first three titles are part of Blue Underground’s Midnight Movies Horror Triple Feature DVD set. The next 3 are part of Blue Underground’s Midnight Movies Thriller Triple Feature DVD set. Both DVD’s will be available on July 31st.
A Blade in the Dark: “Bruno is hired to compose the music for a new horror movie and rents an isolated villa to concentrate on his work. But when several beautiful young women are brutally murdered within the house, Bruno becomes obsessed with solving the savage crimes. Is a clue to the killer’s identity hidden within the film itself, or is there a more horrifying secret lurking deep in the dark? »
- Jonathan James
007 Legends: 5 Best & 5 Worst Potential Missions
23 April 2012 11:48 PM, PDT | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »
Coinciding with the 50th Anniversary of the Bond series, anticipation couldn’t be any higher for Daniel Craig’s third turn as the iconic secret agent in the upcoming Skyfall.
Directed by Sam Mendes with a cast that includes Judi Dench, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes, Skyfall features a smorgasbord of respected Oscar talent. It even has the legendary Coen Brothers regular Roger Deakins on cinematography duties, making it clear that this isn’t just any run of the mill Bond film. But while excitement is high for Bond’s 23rd outing on the big screen, the secret agent also has to compete with the London Olympics and the Queens Golden Jubilee for the world’s attention.
As well as the release of Skyfall and a 50th anniversary Blu-ray box set of all 22 Bond films, a celebratory video game titled 007 Legends has also been recently announced. Best described as a »
- Stephen Leigh
Retro Active: Phenomena (1985)
20 April 2012 9:56 AM, PDT | GreenCine Daily | See recent GreenCine Daily news »
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 »
Malcolm McDowell talks Silent Night, Deadly Night Remake Casting
9 April 2012 11:28 AM, PDT | DailyDead | See recent DailyDead news »
It was revealed last week that a remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night was in the works. The film will be directed by Steven C. Miller (The Aggression Scale) and stars Malcolm McDowell. In a new interview, McDowell talks about his recent casting.
Malcolm McDowell will play a small-time sheriff chasing down a killer Santa Claus and told IFC that he took on the role because he wanted to play a good guy after taking on so many villain roles: “Yeah… That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do it. I’m happy to do it and I hope it’s going to be good.”
Also of interest is that he hasn’t seen the original Silent Night, Deadly Night and won’t watch them for reference. We remember hearing somethings similar regarding the Halloween movies, because he didn’t want to be influenced by Donald Pleasence’s performance in the films. »
- Jonathan James
Halloween II: 30th Anniversary Blu-ray Review
8 April 2012 12:41 AM, PDT | MoreHorror | See recent MoreHorror news »
By Dan Slaten, MoreHorror.com
Somehow, despite being a huge fan of the Halloween series (pre-Rob Zombie), the release of the Halloween II 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-Ray slipped under my radar until now. Is it worth a purchase if you already have Halloween II in some other format? If you’re a devoted fan of the movie I’d say yes.
First of all, you finally get the film on Blu-Ray, and secondly, there are some decent special features included on the disc, like deleted scenes and an alternate ending. (Don’t expect any huge revelations or life changing moments in any of this material, though; there was a reason it got left on the cutting room floor in the first place.) Finally, there is the inclusion of the 1984 film Terror in the Aisles as a bonus feature – yes an entire movie. (But more on that later.)
- admin
Danger! The world's scariest films!
2 April 2012 1:20 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Drowning, rabies, electrocution: 70s public information films suggested you could die at any moment. And they were so frightening, they still haunt people today
• Peter Bradshaw on the horror of public information films
• Jude Rogers on how public information films haunt today's directors
In the mid 90s, a company secured the rights to release a selection of classic public information films on video, under the title Charley Says. I bought it not, as I suppose most people did, in a haze of nostalgia, but in the spirit of confronting a terrible fear, like those people who try to overcome their aerophobia by booking on to a course that involves a trip in a plane.
I can't remember the first time I saw The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water, the 1973 public information film in which a Bergman-esque Death literally stalks children playing on riverbanks. That was part of the problem: »
- Alexis Petridis
Halloween 2 (1981)
1 April 2012 3:21 PM, PDT | Planet Fury | See recent Planet Fury news »
Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
Written by; John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Charles Cyphers
This review was originally slated for last October. However, just days after viewing the Halloween 2 30th Anniversary Edition disc, the Moustapha Akkad credit controversy sort of eclipsed the release. If you’ll recall, when the much-anticipated Blu-ray debuted last fall, fans noticed the opening credits had been altered. Universal had replaced Akkad’s “presents” credit with a Universal/McA card.
The late Akkad, an executive producer on all eight original Halloween films, was the key person responsible for the longevity of the series. Fans were outraged and started an online petition to encourage Universal to replace the original credit. The studio eventually acquiesced and gave fans the opportunity to exchange their altered DVD for a copy with the original credit. Since the replacement copies have finally »
- Bradley Harding
Doctor Who: Professor Wenn – The Series That Never Was
1 April 2012 1:18 AM, PDT | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »
I’m sure by now most of you have already read or heard the fascinating news from the BBC. Apparently a very, very early draft version of Doctor Who has surfaced. How early? 1956, making it a full seven years before the series actually aired.
From what it sounds like, this idea never really made it past the concept stage. They never did any filming or casting, though they had some people in mind, and never wrote any stories, but they did have some outlines. The series was to go into production in 1957, in an effort to capitalize on the success of The Quatermass Experiment. BBC budget cutbacks early that year prevented this from happening, which was for the best, as you’ll see. The BBC article is quite long, so I’ll summarize it for you tl;dr people.
The series appears to have been the creation two low-level BBC »
- Chris Swanson
Hollywood’s proposed 1984 movie: what will be left of Orwell’s novel?
23 March 2012 7:32 AM, PDT | Den of Geek | See recent Den of Geek news »
Could an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 survive a trip to Hollywood? Ryan looks at the best and worst case scenarios…
Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984, as we’ll refer to it here for search-based reasons). What more can we say about one of the most influential and widely read sci-fi novels yet written? A common set text in English lessons, and full of ideas and terms that have since seeped into our everyday language, it’s easy to forget just how brutal and urgent George Orwell’s novel is.
Already adapted several times since its publication 63 years ago, 1984, we learned last week, is going to Hollywood. Two production companies (Lbi Entertainment and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment) are teaming up to bring a new version of Orwell’s dystopia to the big screen. A screenwriter is still being sought – and there’s no word yet as to who will direct it »
Imagine Entertainment Get Orwellian With New ‘1984’
22 March 2012 7:00 AM, PDT | The Film Stage | See recent The Film Stage news »
Well, here’s one I didn’t expect tinsletown to dig up. According to THR, Imagine Entertainment and Lbi Entertainment are hoping that the third time’s a charm for 1984, with both companies conspiring to produce another screen version of George Orwell‘s classic dystopian novel. (The two prior film adaptations would be a little-seen 1956 feature that starred Donald Pleasence, and a second, better-known incarnation led by John Hurt.)
The project was brought to the respective companies’ attention by none other than Shepard Fairey, creator of the Obama “Hope” poster and, to be more pertinent, a major figure in Exit Through the Gift Shop. Although specifics of his eventual participation are entirely dependent on how things shake out with studios, financing, and the like, it’s wholly possible that some kind of producer credit will get thrown his way; I may not like the guy, but fair’s fairey.
But, »
- jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
10 (Kind Of) Great Classic Sci-Fi Flicks You May Have Never Heard Of
16 March 2012 11:27 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »
We know the greats; movies like Metropolis (1927), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977).
And there are those films which maybe didn’t achieve cinematic greatness, but through their inexhaustible watchability became genre touchstones, lesser classics but classics nonetheless, like The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), Them! (1954), The Time Machine (1960).
In the realm of science fiction cinema, those are the cream (and below that, maybe the half and half). But sci fi is one of those genres which has often too readily leant itself to – not to torture an analogy — producing nonfat dairy substitute.
During the first, great wave of sci fi movies in the 1950s, the target audience was kids and teens. There wasn’t a lot in the way of “serious” sci fi. Most of it was churned out quick and cheap; drive-in fodder, grist for the Saturday matinee mill.
By the early 1960s, »
- Bill Mesce
Pierre Schoendoerffer obituary
15 March 2012 5:06 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
He was one of the few directors of war movies with first-hand experience of conflict
Pierre Schoendoerffer, who has died aged 83, was one of the few directors of war films who had actually lived out the adventures of his soldier heroes. The American film-makers William Wellman, Sam Fuller and Oliver Stone did so, but no other director explored the same subject as single-mindedly and doggedly as Schoendoerffer.
His experiences of combat as a military cameraman and as a prisoner of war during the conflict in Indochina marked his output, most directly La 317ème Section (The 317th Platoon, 1965), about a doomed French unit; Le Crabe-Tambour (The Drummer Crab, 1977), about French officers involved in the fall of the French empire after the second world war; his Oscar-winning television documentary La Section Anderson (The Anderson Platoon, 1967), which followed the lives of Us soldiers in Vietnam; and Diên Biên Phú (1992), about a Us war »
- Ronald Bergan
[Now Streaming] Your ‘John Carter,’ ‘Friends With Kids’ and ‘Footnote’ Alternatives
8 March 2012 6:00 AM, PST | The Film Stage | See recent The Film Stage news »
Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. This week we offer alternatives to John Carter, Friends With Kids and Footnote.
Friday theaters will determine the fate of Disney’s big budget epic John Carter, which faces off against the closest thing to a Bridesmaids sequel your likely to see and an Oscar contender that transcends the language barrier. But if these offerings pique your desire for adventure, rated-r romance and heralded Hebrew features, then we’ve got you covered with some of the best titles Now Streaming.
Director Andrew Stanton makes his live-action debut with this this Mars-set adventure about a Civil War veteran (Taylor Kitsch) who finds he has extraordinary powers on this extraterrestrial terrain that enables him to be a hero to a beautiful alien princess (Lynn Collins). Willem Dafoe co-stars.
More »
- jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
Top 10 Fictional Movie Presidents
20 February 2012 2:53 PM, PST | GeekTyrant | See recent GeekTyrant news »
Since today is Presidents Day, I thought it would be a good time to give a fun list of the 10 best fictional movie presidents. I have to say that I think we need a Harrison Ford type president in the White House today. Check out the list below, and let us know who you would like to see as the real president of the United States.
I think all of these movies are worth watching again if you haven't seen them in awhile.
Donald Pleasance as President “Unknown Name” – Escape From New York
Air Force One crash lands in the futuristic dystopia Manhattan which has been turned into a maximum security prison, and the President is taken hostage by the criminals. Snake Pliskin is injected with a serum that will kill him in 24 hours, to get the antidote and survive he must save the President.
Gene Hackman as President Alan »
- Venkman
Horror Channel announce the ‘Heritage of Horror’ season
17 February 2012 12:18 AM, PST | Blogomatic3000 | See recent Blogomatic3000 news »
Following the success of last year’s Cruel Britannia season, Horror Channel have announced another Brit-centric season, the Heritage Of Horror, which continues to showcase and celebrate British horror, past and present, at its finest – featuring two classics from the vaults and two brand new films, yet to be shown on UK television. I know I’ll be tuning in every Friday night – especially considering Horror Channel are showing one of my all-time favourite horror movies, the superb Blood on Satan’s Claw. I can also recommend 13Hrs, which I saw at FrightFest in 2010, it’s a great little (and by little I mean claustrophobic), werewolf movie. You can read my review of 13Hrs here.
From the press release:
First up, on Friday March 9, is Gary Sherman’s 1973 Death Line. Set on the London Underground, this moody shocker features brilliant horror icon Donald Pleasance in the lead role as a cockney copper. »
- Phil
James Bond Retrospective: Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
15 February 2012 12:13 PM, PST | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »
To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and as James Bond prepares for his 23rd official outing in Skyfall later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Fleming’s creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history.
Following the departure of George Lazenby after just one film in the lead role, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were left wondering if the success and popularity of the series so far had been down to just one man, Sean Connery. While Lazenby had made a good impression as Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service his performance was essentially a reinterpretation of Connery rather than a reinvention of the role itself. With the producers keen to cast a new lead they set to work auditioning actors for the part, »
- Chris Wright
James Bond Retrospective: On Her Majesty’S Secret Service (1969)
30 January 2012 10:08 AM, PST | Obsessed with Film | See recent Obsessed with Film news »
To mark the 50th Anniversary of one of the most successful movie franchises of all time and as James Bond prepares for his 23rd official outing in Skyfall later this year, I have been tasked with taking a retrospective look at the films that turned author Ian Fleming’s creation into one of the most recognised and iconic characters in film history.
The sixth film in the series was to be inspired by Fleming’s 11th novel, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Ohmss). Following the excesses of You Only Live Twice, the decision was made to take Bond back to his roots and make a faithful adaptation of Fleming’s original story with less reliance on gadgets and an emphasis on the love story at the heart of the novel.
Peter Hunt, who had already made his mark on the series by serving as editor for the previous films, »
- Chris Wright
Scorpion Releasing Doles out Three More Classics onto DVD: The Devil's Men, Terror, and Revenge
23 January 2012 3:21 PM, PST | DreadCentral.com | See recent Dread Central news »
Oh, Scorpion Releasing. How we love you. The cats who always go the extra mile to bring you the most obscure little films possible are back with three more lost gems! Read on for details.
From the Press Release
On January 24, 2012, Scorpion Releasing and Katarina's Nightmare Theater present a double bill of The Devil's Men/Terror as well as Revenge!
In The Devil's Men tourists visiting a Greek archeological site are being abducted by a strange cult intent on providing their God - the Minotaur - with a sacrifice. Father Raoche (Donald Pleasence) enlists the help of a former pupil and NY private detective to find out what has happened to them. Starring horror icon Peter Cushing, this film was released here in the States as Land Of The Minotaur in an edited PG version; now watch the cult classic Uncut for the first time in the U.S.! The »
- Uncle Creepy
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 1994
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