As one of the Horrorfest: 8 Movies to Die For the film Mulberry Street takes place in a run down apartment building in Manhattan. Starring Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice and Bo Corre. Mulberry is shot in a gritty, realistic low budget style in the vein of 28 Days Later.
The plot is simplistic, a disease runs rampant through Manhattan. It starts in the subway tunnels and back alleys. People are being attacked by rats. Those who are bitten become ill and the tension begins to mount as those who are infected begin to attack those who are healthy. As the movie progresses it veers away from the zombie movie feel by revealing that rather then the infected dying from their wounds they’re being transformed into rat like creatures.
It doesn’t take long for the film to pull back from the overall picture to the tenants of the apartment building on Mulberry Street. The retired boxer, his daughter, returning from the war, her face scarred from shrapnel. The flamboyantly gay next door neighbor who helped to raise the girl and the waitress and her son who live on the next floor up. Mix in a handyman who spends too much time in the basement and an old man who is bedridden and breathing off of an oxygen tank and you have an ensemble cast of blue collar and lower middle class people struggling just to get by day to day. It’s the perfect set up for an urban tale of terror and the struggle to survive.
The third version of the classic Richard Matheson novel, I Am Legend tells the tale of a world wiped out by a plague that kills 90% of the human race and turns the rest into monsters. The first movie was the 1964 classic The Last Man on Earth and starred Vincent Price in the lead role as Dr. Robert Morgan. The second treatment was the classic The Omega Man with Charlton Heston taking the role of Dr. Robert Neville in 1971.
The current movie, after spending close to a decade in limbo features Will Smith (Independence Day, I, Robot, Men in Black) picking of the mantle of Dr. Neville in a Manhattan sealed off from the rest of the world. What starts out as being a miracle cure for cancer spins wildly out of control and becomes the ultimate super plague. In an effort to contain the virus a decision is made to seal off Manhattan and prevent the infected from leaving and therefore saving the rest of the world.
Three years later the world is a wasteland and Neville and his dog Sam are the only survivors in the city. They spend the day foraging for food and searching for other survivors via an AM radio broadcast. It’s during the night that they’re forced to go into hiding from the vampire like creatures that the virus didn’t kill but rather mutated into savage monsters.
This week Rob Zombie unleashes his story of Michael Myers, when Halloween comes to DVD. When word of this ambitious project first came out there were three very different opinions on this film being made. One side was the basic ‘oh great another remake’ and expected yet another watered down and lame attempt from a Hollywood that seemed to be out of original ideas. The second was the purists who wanted nothing to do with the new Halloween because nothing could ever top the John Carpenter original. The third group (and the one I firmly belonged in) was They’re redoing Halloween… and they got Rob Zombie to do it? Holy cow this is going to rock!
Over the last couple of decades there have been a bunch of Stephen King’s works translated to film, and a lot of them have met with everything from mild interest to outright disgust. Carrie, Maximum Overdrive (based on the short ‘Trucks’ and directed by King), Cat’s Eye (three of King’s shorts tied into a rather bizarre story featuring a young Drew Berrymore), Firestarter, and the list goes on and on…
Terror stalks the streets as a scientist’s human-transplant experiment runs amok in this 1968 cult classic horror flick! Don’t you just love that toy robot that appears in the title design? It’s like they build you all up and then you get that letdown, however vicious Satana (played by Tura Satana) more than makes up for it. In fact I love this fanboy quote from Quentin Tarantino quote I came across about Satana:
Today I’m going to talk about a film that’s been getting a lot of critical acclaim. I know, I know, ‘critical acclaim’ tends to be Hollywoodspeak for artistic crap but there are exceptions. Pulp Fiction was critically acclaimed and it was chock full of blood, violence and Uma Thurman. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was critically acclaimed and introduced the western world to Ang Lee and while the movie had it’s moments of pure eastern spiritualism it still stands as one of the great action packed films of the last decade.
Now comes No Country for Old Men. The Cohen Brothers (O’ Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Labowski, Fargo) bring the novel by Cormac Mccarthy to life. A drug deal in the middle of the desert goes wrong leaving several dead bodies, A truckload of Heroin and two million dollars in cash and a dead dog (which is pointed out by just about everyone that sees it). The first to find it all is Llewellyn Moss played by Josh Brolin (Planet Terror, American Gangster, In the Valley of Elah). Llewellyn steals the money with the plan on keeping it and soon finds himself being tracked by the very creepy and insane Anton Chigurh played by Javier Bardem (Goya’s Ghosts, Life in the Time of Cholera). Also after Llewellyn are the Mexican Cartels, a local Sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones and the firm that originally brokered the drug deal.
2007 was a year filled with blockbuster films, Spider-Man returned for a 3rd (and final?) installment that introduced the world to Venom and brought joy to the lips of comic book fanboys worldwide. Johnny Depp took on the mantle of Captain Jack Sparrow and sailed around the world. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez took us into an absurd world of violence and flesh with their homage to the 70’s exploitation films with Grindhouse.
In the world of horror films it was more of a down year. Films like The Pulse, The Reaping and Captivity netted lukewarm box office at best. That does not mean that there weren’t any good horror movies out there in 2007, just that no one went to see them.
My favorite weekend of the year recently passed by, a new annual tradition called Horrorfest. Lionsgate and After Dark Studios releases 8 new horror films for one week in a limited release. The fun of Horrorfest is watching all 8 movies over one weekend. 3 on Friday, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. By the last film Sunday night you’re sated on a virtual feast of death, mayhem and fantastic situations.
With this being my first column I’ve decided to begin the discussion of the best horror movies you probably haven’t seen from the year 2007 with one of the ‘8 Movies to Die For’ from Horrorfest called Tooth and Nail:
We’re here to aquire breeding stock for our planet!!! What’s intersting to me about this classic 1965 drive-in movie is that the uncredited space monster is played by well known character actor Bruce Glover who went on to have many bit parts in every tv series from Mission: Impossible to T.J. Hooker. Although you might be more familiar with his famous son who is Crispin Glover. By the way hardcore fanboys might get a kick out of this cute collectable showing Frankenstein knocking out the Space Monster.
Crawling, Slimy Things Terror-Bent on Destroying the World! This classic 1958 horror flick is fanboy-notable as it’s somewhat based on the novel the Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein. Although the producers never quite asked Mr. Heinlein for his permission, so he sued them and the case was settled out of court. Years later the Puppet Masters would go on to be made as a bad film in it’s own right in 1994 (which thankfully Heinlein didn’t live to see).
“The original cape which was worn by actor Christopher Lee in the 1958 vampire film, Dracula, has been found in a London fancy dress store. The memorabilia, which has been missing for 30 years, is thought to be worth $50,000 (£24,410). Lee, who played the Count, was called upon to verify the cape was authentic after Angel’s staff discovered it.
Manager Emma Angel said she was “delighted” to have found the cloak during their annual stock take. “In the run-up to Halloween we are frantically checking our other costumes, so that we do not inadvertently let a party-goer show up to a raucous fancy dress party in any another precious pieces of film history,” she said.”
As someone who commutes over the Williamsburg Bridge every day I got a real kick out this new poster for I Am Legend (although the bridge featured in the poster is the Brooklyn Bridge, but that’s close enough for this fanboy),
This trailer proves that it’s hard to go wrong when you team up Tim Burton with Johnny Depp! I’m also impressed they they have Sacha Baron Cohn too, yet my only regret is that Angela Lansbury wasn’t included:
If you live in NYC and love horror flicks and pizza, the new film Unholy will be playing at Two Boots Pioneer Theater on August 15th. The plot sounds very cool (I love the time travel twist):
“Adrienne Barbeau and Nicholas Brendon star in this provocative shocker about a mother’s investigation into the grisly suicide of her daughter. But what begins as a family tragedy will soon lead to a conspiracy of bizarre crimes, occult carnage, and a necromancer who may control a dark new trinity of warfare. How far would our government go to harness a Nazi legacy of paranormal power? Has the U.S. military secretly attempted to develop time travel, invisibility, and mind control as weapons? Answers await in a mind-blowing journey that will take one woman from the trauma of the unimaginable to the ultimate horror of the UNHOLY.”
Shown above is a detail from a poster for the upcoming Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd. I have no idea how Burton is going to pull off a musical, or even if it will be a musical – but I have to say this poster looks great.
Shown above is the trailer for I am Legend which will hit theaters this December. This will be the third film based on the 1954 horror novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in Los Angeles, California. Although I’m pleased to see this new version seems to take place in my hometown New York City!
So for the historical fanboy record here’s the trailer for the 1964 version of the film which was titled The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price:
And here’s the trailer for the 1971 version of the film which was titled The Omega Man and features none other than Charlton Heston:
Shown above are cover illustrations from Frangoria Comics which will debut it’s first titles in June. The first illustration is from Mark Kidwell’s Recluse, and the second illustration is from Jeffrey Nodelman’s the Fourth Horseman. It’s also interesting to note that the Fourth Horseman comic book series will be a prequel to an upcoming animated horror film being produced by Fangoria.
Above are two new posters for 28 Weeks Later, the first one is for the domestic market while the second one is aimed at an international market. I don’t know how good this follow up film can be, but let the hype begin…
What do you get when you take two of the greatest writer/directors in the world and let them do whatever the hell they want? You get the movie Grindhouse. Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn, The El Miriachi Trilogy) join forces once more to take you through a tour de force of the classic Grindhouse exploitation movies of the Seventies. The film features two full length movies back to back that include evrerything you would find in an old seventies exploitation flick. Noise pops, scratches on the film even missing reels and skips.
Things start out with a ‘fake’ trailer for the movie Machete. Danny Trejo stars as the mad Mexican killer Machete and in joined by his priest/brother Cheech Marrin (Cheech and Chong). After the two minute trailer the first movie, Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror begins.
Set in Texas Planet Terror is an over the top gorefest that slaps you in the face with it’s rediculous plot and stereotyping of women as sluts and lesbians…Except for Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan). She’s got a chip on her shoulder and doesn’t like much of anyone. Our Heroine set we meet the rest of the cast. Freddy Rodriguez as El Wray, Micheal Biehn as the Sheriff and Jeff Fahey as his brother J.T.
The story really cranks when Naveen Andrews (TV’s LOST) and Bruce Willis (Do I even need to mention what HE’s been in?) Show the audiance that there’s a mysterious gas that turns people into flesh eating zombies. Without giving too much of the plot away things go sideways and the gas is released. Mayhem ensuses (Including Fergie getting eaten by Zombies). Things spin quickly out of control and people are attacked left and right as the gas spreads. It all comes down to El Wray and Cherrie Darling to save the day and yes this does include Cherry sporting a new leg that happens to be a machine gun. It sounds corny as hell but while you watch it everything just seems to make sense.
With roles from actors of past and present by the likes of Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead), Josh Brolin and Marlie Shelton Planet Terror was an in your face visceral blow shit up fest that keeps you bouncing back and forth from lauging to going COOOOOL!
Thomas Harris returns with the fourth part of the Hannibal Lecter story this time with a Prequal aptly named Hannibal Rising. The Author who penned Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal chose this time to take us back to Lithuania (and later to Paris) during World War II. There we see a young Hannibal (Aaron Thomas) and his little sister Mishca (Helena Lia Tachovska) are running from their castle home with their family into the woods to hide from the approaching Russians from the East and Germans from the West.
Things don’t go well and soon young Hannibal and Mischa find themselves alone and in the clutches of 6 rather evil men who are traitors to the Germans and are hiding from both them and the Russians. These men hold Hannibal and Mischa captive and plan to use them to show they are ‘taking care’ of them should a patrol stop by the cabin. One problem arises almost and becomes grave very quickly. There is no food and the men are starving.
As stated in the trailer…”From two of the six guys who wrote Scary Movie.” Epic movie is scripted by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer who bring their ‘A’ game to a script that is filled with tongue in cheek humor mixed with Slapstick and over the top gags.
The main setting for the film is the Chornicles of Narnia but the duo takes shots at The Davinci Code, Snakes on a Plane, Nacho Libre, X-Men and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Much like Scary Movie Friedberg and Selzter take the basic plot points of the films and twists them into some gems of comic genius.
Kal Penn (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle), Adam Campbell (Date Movie), Faune A. Chambers (White Chicks) and Jayma Mays (TV spots on Heroes, House MD and Studio 60) play the four youngsters who end up in Gnarnia (changed to prevent the lawsuits says Mr Tumnus.) To get there we see Lucy (Jayma Mays) bumble her way through the Divinci Code, Edward (Kal Penn)suffer through his life in the Mexican orphanage where he dreams of being a Luchadore, Susan encounter Snakes on a Plane with a pretty damn good Samuel Jackson impersonator and Peter being miserable at Mutant High.
