1st Quarter 2009: Three Great Months for Slasher Fans

Posted on January 3, 2009 by Thomas Ellison
  1. Jan. 13, 2009  My Bloody Valentine Uncut.  This is the holy grail of uncut slasher films.  I still find it hard to believe that MBV is finally going to be seen in all its gory glory.  Words can’t describe my excitement for this dvd.
  2. Jan. 16, 2009 My Bloody Valentine 3D.  After The Punisher and The Spirit bombed at the box office, Lionsgate’s stock took a major hit.  The studio is in desperate need of a successful film and all their hopes are riding on MBV3D.  Quite an ironic twist considering studio head Jon Feltheimer wants Lionsgate to move away from horror films.  The trailers look promising so I’ll be in the theater on opening night.
  3. Feb. 3, 2009 His Name was Jason : 30 years of Friday the 13th.  I’m more excited about this doc. dvd about the F13th series than I am about the remake.   Tom Savini acts as host and many of the major players and directors are interviewed. 
  4. Feb. 13, 2009 Friday the 13th.  Jason’s back and he’s still pissed.  What more do you need to know?  Seriously, though, it’s great  that Jason and Harry Warden are returning to the big screen just a month apart. 
  5. March 31, 2009 Psychos in Love.  I don’t have any information about dvd extras but hopefully Carmine Capobianco and Debi Thibeaultwill be interviewed or included on a commentary track.  If you’ve ever been in love with a psychotic woman or just stalked one, then this is the romantic slasher for you. 
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New Year’s Evil (1980)

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Amanda By Night

*This review originally appeared on Pretty Scary, but the site has been down for an overhaul, so I just thought I’d reprint it here! Have a great New Year’s EVIL!

Although it’s slipped through many a crack, New Year’s Evil should be notorious for several reasons:

The star, Roz Kelly, better known as Pinky Tuscadero to Happy Days fans, went on a shooting spree in the 1990’s…

Grant Cramer was Kato Kaelin’s best friend and was rumored to have been with him the night he met Nicole Brown Simpson for the first time…

And scariest of all, Kip Niven was married to Linda Lavin!

Before these actors were all featured in their own horror show (of course I kid, Kip), they gathered together to star in the Golan Globus extravaganza New Year’s Evil. Set on the last day of 1980 at a posh hotel, Kelly plays Blade, a hot KROQ DJ hosting a live telecast countdown to the New Year. Blaze is perhaps the most selfish Final Girl in the annals of slasher history. Already waaaaay past her prime, she’s a self-absorbed egomaniac who ignores her son Derek (Cramer) when he announces he’s just landed a part on Space Ship America (!) – Now who could discount that?!? There must something to Blaze’s narcissistic attitude, because she begins receiving phone calls from a guy who likes to be referred to simply as “Evil”. This guy tells Blaze that he’s going to commit murder at the stroke of midnight as she rings in the New Year in each North American Time Zone (excluding Alaska and Hawaii of course). He makes pretty good on his promise too and calls Blaze immediately after he snuffs his victims so he can replay the scene of the crime via an archaic looking tape recorder. This takes up a lot of Blaze’s time (as does her hilarious banter with an investigating cop), so she ends up ignoring her son even more as he begins to reveal a very sinister side of himself. Well, sinister if pulling a pink stocking over your head is scary. As the clock ticks down to midnight Pacific Time, Evil joins the party as he tries to take Blaze down in all her flaming glory.

There are two major reasons to see New Year’s Evil: One is for the ultra-cool post punk bands, whose performances make up almost half of the film’s running time. The best band is obviously Shadow, who sing the title song. And the second reason to watch is to enjoy the time capsule this movie truly is. The opening credits of New Year’s Evil really capture that what-we-all-thought-LA-would-really-be-like attitude, including Sunset Boulevard steaming with obnoxious punks, girls in vans who love flashing their considerable assets and of course, Hell’s Angels.

There are other reasons to kick in the New Year with this too. If you’re interested in catching a glimpse of a semi-topless Teri Copley pre-We Got it Made or if you’d like to see the lovely and underrated Louisa Moritz (Last American Virgin, Death Race 2000) in a wonderful performance as the ditzy blonde who uses meditation to go potty, than this is movie is calling your name! I’m not giving anything away by revealing Kip Niven as the killer. His identity is revealed in Scene #2. Niven pours on the charm though and becomes a rather charismatic (and semi-believable) killer. A mask does come into play later, but never makes much of an impression. Actually that device he sticks in his mouth to distort his voice is probably the scariest part of all.

New Year’s Evil may play purely by the numbers, but there is more than enough retro-charm to push it into the next century. So what do you say, New Year’s Eve or New Year’s EVIL?

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Posted on December 27, 2008 by Dusk

I’m a little late for Xmas and a little early for New Year’s, but time is short so wanted to just say, hope you all enjoy the holidays. This year saw some random dropping off/picking up of postings from me due to working on a few “real world” retro slasher related projects, some of which you should hopefully be hearing about in the near future.

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How They Did It: MBV Uncut

Posted on December 19, 2008 by Dusk

I read a pretty thorough article over at Shock Till You Drop about the reinstatement of uncut scenes into the upcoming My Bloody Valentine DVD. Seems they were always going to integrate them into the film, so everyone got in an early huffy all for naught – sometimes we have to trust the companies. Here’s my favorite paragraph:

With footage in hand, Dean and Ventrella say there was never a question of whether they should restore the film or relegate the cut scenes to the special features section of the DVD. The game plan was to release an uncut version all along. And to help in the restoration, they called in director Mihalka. Ventrella recalls, “He was really glad we found the material and he was instrumental in viewing the elements put back into the feature and giving us some tweaks and suggestions on how it originally was. Having him there was the last piece of the puzzle. It was an early film for him and he remembered every detail – where everything went, the original audio mix, everything, so it was essential having him there.” In total, with the restored footage, the film now runs an estimated three minutes longer than its theatrical counterpart.

Read the full article here.

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Cat In The Brain DVD (Grindhouse Releasing)

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Dusk

Coming off a superb (I’m told – too expensive for me right now) Special Edition of Pieces, Grindhouse Releasing are bringing Lucio Fulci’s self-reflective slasher Cat In The Brain to DVD on March 31, 2009. No word yet if that a representational enhanced cover above for the disc, nor extras.

Dr. Lucio Fulci is a director of splatterfilms. He stages a gestapo-orgy like it was any other movie scene. But he is influenced by these things more than he likes. He is hunted by bloody visions day by day. Is Fulci still normal? He asks a psychatrist. He doesn’t know that the psychatrist has much bigger problems than Fulci himself. The psychatrist uses Fulci’s visions for brutal murders in real life…

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Rob Zombie’s H2

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Dusk

The man that said he’d never remake a horror classic and reneged later said he’s never do a sequel. News flash – he’s turned around on that one, too. Because Rob Zombie is such an artist of conviction. Heh – okay, I’m not one for negativity so I’ll balance the preceding snarky comment with an admission – I’ve actually grown to enjoy RZ’s Halloween. Not as a Halloween film mind you, but the overall aspects of trying to put together a homage to the original classic. Now that he has got the origin tale and literal adaptation out of the way, I’m eager to see what he’ll do with H2, broken free of those earlier constraints. Will he serve up another trailer park bloodbath, or will the hairy director go jihad on expectations?

Dimension Films and Rob Zombie are teaming for another chapter of “Halloween,” and he’s racing to scare up the pic for release in October.

Zombie will write and direct “H2,” the sequel to his 2007 reinvention of the John Carpenter horror classic. Production will begin in March.

The new film picks up right as the first remake ended, following the aftermath of Michael Myers’ murderous rampage through the eyes of the sister he hunted.

Zombie said it won’t resemble the original second installment, as the “House of 1000 Corpses” helmer continues to take the franchise in different directions.

Zombie took Carpenter’s original and stamped it with an original storyline that treated Myers as a clinical psychopath. The film grossed $60 million domestically in 2007.

Zombie had told Dimension chief and TWC co-chairman Bob Weinstein he wanted nothing to do with a sequel. But just like the franchise’s villain, Zombie was compelled to come back.

“I was so burned out. (But) I took a long break, made a record and I got excited again,” Zombie said. “Now, we’ll be hauling ass, and that’s the problem making a movie called ‘Halloween’: If you come out Nov. 1 or after, nobody cares. If it was called anything else, I’d be fine.”

Malek Akkad of Trancas Intl. Films will produce with Spectacle Entertainment’s Andy Gould.

Source: Variety via the ever awesome OHMB.

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Sorority Row Redux Writer

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Dusk

Like My Bloody Valentine 3D, the House On Sorority Row redux is one I’m interested in. The original is my absolute favorite retro slasher, but my eyes are not clouded by unmatchable nostalgia here. The title has been shortened to simply Sorority Row, hopefully the film won’t carry the usual remake stigma. A pretty big ball in its court is that the screenwriter Josh Stolberg is a huge fan of the classic and can prove it beyond the standard Hollywood lip service.

Q: Many fans have been wondering, will the famous “I’m a sea pig” be there in the remake?

A: As it’s my favorite line in the original film, I’d be surprised if you didn’t see it in there.

Q: How did you manage to get Mark Rosman on board this project?

A: Mark owned the rights to the film, so any kind of remake or re-imagining had to go through him. Which is how he came aboard as a producer on the project. It makes me happy that he’s attached because I’d hate to think we were going in a direction that he disapproved of.

Q: Did any of the original cast and crew give and send you their blessings for remaking the 1983 classic?

A: Aside from Mark, I haven’t had any contact with any of the original participants. I actually tried to get in touch with Kate McNeil at one point to tell her it was happening. For a while I was thinking that she may be interested in playing the part of the house-mother (I know she still acts, as well as teaches), but when the studio decided to stunt cast, I knew it wouldn’t work out. Unfortunately, the only sizable “adult” role is Carrie Fisher’s part — we focus almost entirely on the college kids. I DO have a really cool original, foreign poster that Mark hadn’t even ever seen so I’m hoping to have her sign it at some point. I hope they invite the original girls to the premiere.

Read a lot more insight at Josh’s Blog.

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Trailer Flashback: Nightmare (1981)

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Dusk

Thanks to youtube user AustralianRoadshow for the vid. Don’t forget, Romano Scavolini’s preferred cut of Nightmare is coming to DVD (with extras) from Code Red in the future! More news as it develops.

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Last House On The Left Collector’s Edition

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Dusk

An Unrated edition of Wes Craven’s Last House On The Left is hitting DVD on Feb 24th from MGM. Presumably it should have coincided with the redux but the release date for that is in limbo, so here we are. The extras contain some cool new shit.

Audio Commentary with David Hess, Marc Sheffler And Fred Lincoln, Wes Craven Featurette, Celluloid Crime Of The Century, Scoring Last House, Tales That Will tear Your Heart Out, Deleted scene – Mari Dying At The Lake, Never-Before-Seen Outtakes, Wes Craven’s Annotated Shooting Scripts, Photo gallery.

Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out is the name of an uncompleted zombie anthology feature from Roy Frumkes that Wes directed a segment of in the early 80’s – since the film was never finished, hopefully this supplement will show off the raw dallies similar to one of the other stories, Snuff Maximus, as shown on Dr Butcher M.D./Zombie Holocaust’s DVD extras. But even if it’s a few stills and a Craven interview about it, I’m happy.

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My Bloody Valentine 3D Trailer (UK)

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Dusk

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