January, 2008
Below are links to articles posted in January, 2008
George Romero’s Diary of the Dead Poster
“In his first independently produced zombie film in over two decades, George A. Romero returns to ground zero in the history of the living dead. When a group of film students making a horror movie in the woods discovers that the dead have begun to revive, they turn their cameras on the real-life horrors that suddenly confront them…
Horror Guy’s Review of Cloverfield
Hell YEAH!!!!!
That pretty much sums up my immediate reaction after seeing the J.J. Abrams produced big monster epic Cloverfield. I was so thrilled-to-gushing with excitement that I thought it maybe best to sleep on it a couple of days before trying to write up a review. That, and I’m one lazy s.o.b. of a Horror Guy.
What Cloverfield lacks in originality and (to be honest) strong plot, it more than makes up for in suspense, frights and sheer thrilling entertainment. I’m not a big fan of the the whole cinema verite style but director Matt Reeves does manage to make great use of the technique as far as being able to convey emotion and strong characterization. Cridafer and I did take care to sit a bit further back in the theater than usual as we knew that sitting too close to the ‘wobbling camera’ effect would only result in nausea and much irritation. And I absolutely adore the creative decision to not clearly show the monster until well into the flick. This hearkened back to my childhood days with films like the original Alien, where you were completely terrified outta yer fuckin’ skull over this creature you could even really see, but when you did finally see it….holy shit, you were even more freaked out than before!!! Well…if it was a good flick like Alien or Cloverfield, anyway.
It’s not a perfect movie by any stretch, and certainly not the revolutionary piece of art that some reviews would lead you to believe, but it is absolutely a great piece of entertainment and a long overdue American entry to the sadly under-utilized Giant Monster sub-genre of horror.
Horror Genre Gets Own Category at the Razzies
The writers strike may have stopped the Oscars and Golden Globes but it can’t take down the Razzies. The 2007 Razzie Award nominations celebrating the worst in movies have been announced and this year they added a new category Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie honoring our genre. The nominations are:
Kentucky Fried Chicken Defeats Kentucky Fried Horror Show
Horror fans are still confused about what crawled up the fast-food chain KFC’s lawyers asses. As we reported earlier KFC sued the small film The Kentucky Fried Horror Show because they found it “Alarming, ghastly, disturbing, revolting and vile” (Read Here) without ever reading a script or seeing an actual frame from the movie.
The Boogeyman (1980) Retro Horror Review
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you killed your mother’s abusive boyfriend in front of a mirror, then twenty years later broke that mirror, reassembled it, bled on it, and hung it up in your kitchen? If so, then “The Boogeyman” has the answer for you!
Tales From the Carnel Morgue Vol. 1 (2007) The Playground Movie Review
Steelweb Studios and the “Carnal Morgue” brings you three tales from David Quitmeyer, the guy who brought you Slaughter Disk in their first volume of short films. They are presented in the unrated director’s cut.
New Year?s Evil (1980) Retro Horror Review
Welcome to a time when movies had songs written exclusively to use the title in the chorus, nurses were sexy and smoked in the hospital hallways, and the host of a New Year’s Eve New Wave countdown show could be in her mid-40’s and still hip! Welcome to New Year’s Evil!
‘Kentucky Fried Horror’ Poster
Here’s a poster to the now ultra-controversial “Kentucky Fried Horror Show,” which this month received a letter from the KFC chain demanding that they stop the movie.
‘Saw IV’ Hits DVD Tuesday
It’s a light week for horror releases to DVD. The one major release is “Saw IV.” The complete first season of the TV series “Swamp Thing” is also hitting stores.
‘Cloverfield’ Breaks Records
It enjoyed the biggeest opening weekend of a film released in January
Cloverfield
Some thing has found us.
A modern version of the old-fashioned mega-monster movie, Cloverfield is seen through the camcorder of a group of young people who’ve gathered for a going away party, shown to us as archival footage from the area called Cloverfield, formerly known as Central Park. Once their party is interrupted, our main characters go on a quest to save a true love from a giant monster while an entire city collapses.
Basically another “little story in a big story” flick, which I do like. The characters appealed to me enough that I really did feel invested in the story. The other style of the film is the one that’s going to have half of movie goers calling for their money back, it’s that Blair Witch controversy all over again. I just hope monster movie fans can get past all the hype and gimmicks and enjoy a pretty good movie.
Dracula III: The Legacy
Elizabeth has been kidnapped by the immortal dark prince Dracula. Father Uffizi has turned his back on the church and has decided to eliminate Dracula in his own way in order to save his own soul and Luke is tagging along hoping to get the girl and help out in anyway he can. There is about to be a final show down, once again, between good and evil, once again, in the mountains of Transylvania, once again.
Picking up right after the events in Dracula II: The Ascension, Dracula III: The Legacy is able to do something that hasnt been done very well in the past, or maybe ever for that matter. It ends up making a decent horror buddy-movie.
After the cliffhanger ending of The Ascension, you kind of knew that the story was going to continue.
‘Wizard of Gore’ on the Big Screen
H.G. Lewis’ classic screens with “Scum of the Earth” on Tuesday
Cloverfield Trailer
Cloverfield, which hits theaters on Friday January 18, will revolve around a monster attacking New York, with events unfolding from the point of view of the camera. Interesting from that standpoint and, therefore, not just another creature movie. Grawl.
So what does the cloverfield monster look like? Well I have been hacking through pages and pages to find the star of J.J. Abram’s monster flick.. and… zip… nothing… rien. Let’s see… Maybe the Cloverfield trailer below will shed some light?
Nah… it doesn’t… but this latest horror movie still looks quite entertaining.
PS: In case you didn’t see the post about it, don’t forget the Cloverfield party on January 17
‘Cloverfield’ an ‘Impressive Achivement’
It’s really quite an impressive achievement, considering how hard it would be for anyone to tell a coherent story as if it were told and seen entirely from the POV of an amateur cameraman.
‘Doomsday’ Site Is Live
New site, new trailer
John Carpenter Hires Argento’s Screenwriter
Same team that’s writing “L.A. Gothic” is writing “Giallo”.
Cloverfield (2008) Movie Review
Cloverfield: Fly On The Wall
“The world’s been here for millions of years. Man’s been walking upright for a comparatively short time. Mentally we’re still crawling.”
– Professor Tom Nesbitt from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
“When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new […]
What’s Up?
Not a lot going on horror-wise with the Horror Guy this week. The Soul Crushing Day Job has had me at wit’s end for the past several days and when I haven’t been dealing with that particularly real life horror I’ve been trying to maintain some semblance of a home life. Things should be quieting down a little after today and I can get back to the uber-important business of horror blogging. I do have tix for Cridafer and I to see Cloverfield tonight, one of the flicks I’m anticipating most in this new year, so there should be an official Horror Guy review showing up here in the next 24 hours or so. Until then, any of my 12 readers have any juicy tidbits from the world of all things fun and terrifying that they’d like to share?
‘Diary of the Dead’ Official Poster
The poster shows up in Russia
Save to del.icio.us
