Horror Power Ranking - March 30, 2009
It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas here at the Horror Power Ranking. We're finally getting original horror movies out the wazoo, with news about a big budget Cthulu mythos film from Ron Howard, of all people; plus Lars Von Trier tackles horror; and on the bad side, Magnolia Pictures ruins one of the best original horror movies in years. Find out what we're talking about, below:
Think our rankings are off base, out of touch or hopelessly lame? Speak up here!
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| Rank | LW | Movie | ||
| 1 | - |  |
The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft Want proof that comic books are the new remakes, at least where horror movies are concerned? Look no further than this book, which was optioned by Ron Howard... And the book's not even coming out until April 8. |
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| 2 | 1 |  |
Thirst Though the idea of big budget Cthulu may have me frothingly excited this week, I'm still feeling pretty good about Thirst. And, from your comments last week, it seems like the rest of the 'net is, too. |
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| 3 | 2 |  |
Drag Me to Hell I've got nothing new to say about my favorite trailer of the year... Excpect Raimi, on the press trail to promote the movie, has promised he's going to whip Bruce Campbell back in shape for Evil Dead 4. Raimi is back, baby. |
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| 4 | - |  |
Antichrist A Lars Von Trier horror movie starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg? Um, yes please. Not much is known about the movie, other than that it'll debut at Cannes. And that I'll be flying to Cannes to watch it. |
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| 5 | 3 |  |
Last House on the Left Judging by your reactions, people seem pretty split on Last House to the Left, hence it's new parking space on the five-spot. I'm still high on the film, but my enthusiasm is waning, as we start to get more original ideas in the mix. |
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| 6 | - |  |
The Thing OK, we've been going back and forth about this remake for a while now. But it looks like there's been a ground-up rewrite of the previously panned script, so... Maybe this is good news? Hey, if it's got dog tentacles, I'm golden. |
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| 7 | - |  |
Sorority Row Sorry, guys. I totally forgot to mention that the heavily awaited Sorority Row trailer finally hit this week, giving us our first look at college girl killing shenanigans. And I forgot, because it looks like every other horror movie that's ever come out. |
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| 8 | 7 |  |
The Haunting in Connecticut Ah, sweet validation. For weeks, I've been ragging on Haunting for it's silly title, when I should have been concentrating on the poor pacing, and terrible special effects, at least according to our reviewer. |
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| 9 | 9 |  |
Nightmare on Elm Street Finally, plot details have come to light, and... It's not good. Freddy may be a child molester... Or he may be falsely accused! Meaning, he kills kids in their sleep for no reason... Or does he? This would be the bottom choice, if it wasn't for: |
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| 10 | - |  |
Let the Right One In One of the best vampire movies in years, and it's at the bottom of our list? That's because the subtitles for the DVD release were re-written for the express purpose of making it stupid. Bad move, Magnolia. Thanks for ruining a great movie. |
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I guess Magnolia's not too hot at keeping people in the loop, either; since almost nobody seems to know they responded to the outcry and put the theatrical subtitles back in. No refunds for those who've already bought it, but hey, early adopters, if you can afford to blow twenty-something bucks on a DVD instead of waiting a couple weeks to buy it used, you can afford to double-dip.
Feel free to check my work on this, but I think the way to know you've got the right translation is, it'll say something about "theatrical subtitles" under "languages" on the back of the case.
Sorry to be so vague, but I don't even know where I found out about this. You'd think Magnolia'd make a big whoop out of their fanservice; it's not like we get to pandered to by distributors all that often.
As far as I've heard, there's no exchange policy either--if you bought the DVD when it first came out, you're stuck with the dumbed-down subtitles.
@gil mann & @Dave: Yeah, you're totally correct... I think they announced that over the weekend, and annoying about the non return policy.
The bigger question is, why did they change the subtitles in the first place? I don't think they've adequately answered that particular question.