Fangoria just uploaded the back of the one-sheet for Creature of Darkness (formerly called the far-less-horrific Hunter's Moon). If you squint really hard to read the text, you'll find that the movie actually has an imaginative plot: A boy's nightmares become reality when he embarks upon a road trip. He meets the Catcher, "a skilled and brutal collector of human species for alien science." The Catcher looks like something between E.T. and an anorexic bird of prey. The upshot? It looks like the nature of the ugly character may be strong enough to spawn a sequel or two.

Getting the indie film to this stage has been a trial: The primary financier of the film, a $111 million Powerball lottery winner named Andrew 'Jack' Whittaker, became embroiled in a number of lawsuits and a divorce. According to the filmmmakers (via Fangoria), that divorce stopped the film, which began shooting in 2005. Whittaker was able to provide the rest of the funding for post-production, and the film is now " steamrolling toward the finish line."

For the last year or so, Electronic Arts has been touting its upcoming scifi horror game, Dead Space. The console game about a spaceship that's taken over by creepy aliens called Necromorphs will be one of the best games of the year when it's released this fall, says EA. Starz Media must have believed the hype because the game will now be an animated movie as well. 

Reports Variety, "Starz' Film Roman unit is producing a film that serves as a prequel to the game, picking up where a comic that is being made by Image Comics leaves off." It makes more sense to create an animated feature out of Dead Space than it does to make a live action movie: The Dead Space graphics are so incredibly detailed, a movie would require a budget of $100 million or more to pull off that kind of realism.

Beyond Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, even beyond the next James Bond movie, MGM has something else in store for horror fans: The Outer Limits, the black and white, monster-filled, mid-60s TV show that saw new life from 1995-2002. The original edition featured creative young writers like Harlan Ellison, and a few of the monsters in the program even reappeared in the Star Trek TV series. Now, a press release from MGM mentions an upcoming film franchise based on the classic series that scared baby boomers and Gen Y'ers alike.

Just look at this YouTube video, and imagine the possibilities for an update.

You have to love funny, but still-unsettling lines in Keeper of the Purple Twilight: "Icon...Don't kill him. Just take his mind!" 

It looks like Funny Games with a little Friday the 13th thrown in as well. So The Strangers, the upcoming horror film starring Liv Tyler, is derivative, but that doesn't make this trailer any less disconcerting.

As you watch, note how the perfect couple in the perfect house with the perfect relationship begins to disintegrate about 30 seconds in. A swing squeaks. Locks click. As life gets worse for the happy couple, a wraith-like figure appears in the doorway. Liv cries, "There's someone out there!" Then, like a house of cards, everything falls apart. Liv, oh Liv. Don't die: Live!

Warner Bros. has confirmed that it will take the darkest, most evil book in the Harry Potter series and split it into two movies. According to Variety (via Entertainment Weekly), the last installment of the epic wizard series will be chopped into two movies which will hit theaters six months apart: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will premiere first in November 2010 and then in May 2011.

This makes sense for two reasons: The book is nearly 800 pages long, rife for cutting into two. Also, Warner Bros. knows it has a franchise that makes big bucks and wants to extend that money-making machine as long as possible. The book that sold a staggering 11 million copies on its first day is full of frights -- monstrous Death Eaters, the devious elf Kreacher, a scene in Dumbledore's tomb, not to mention the one in the haunted Shrieking Shack. Add in the centaurs, giants and a final battle with Voldemort, and you'll understand that it's not too greedy to make two movies from this, the last in the landmark series which touched so many people -- children and adults alike.

The remaking of Alfred Hitchcock's legendary The Birds has been the subject of much consternation here at MonsterFest. Not just from the bloggers, the commenters have also had strong opinions. Most think the very idea of the remake is blasphemous because the original was a nearly perfect film.

But Birds remake star Naomi Watts, out on tour to promote the recrafted Funny Games, feels the Micheal Bay/Platinum Dunes film has potential. "It's a work-in-progress at this point," she told Shock Till You Drop. "There are great things in it that interest me. The script isn't completely there yet, it probably won't happen until next year." Watts followed up by stating that she has a say in the approval of the script: "I'm sure they'll come with me the next draft. I've seen one draft, it's good. There's more to develop."

What she says is somewhat heartening, though not completely convincing. Do you want to see the remake of The Birds now that you've read what Watts has to say?

The truth is out there in western Canada. At a packed news conference in Vancouver, X-Files creator and sequel director Chris Carter joined David Duchnovny to talk about the recently wrapped shoot. Carter told the packed room that filming was sometimes plagued by paparazzi -- and that a kiss between Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson was staged to throw the photographers off track. Apparently, there's no romance between the two in the film.

A fantastic teaser trailer, much like the one previously leaked to the Web, was also unveiled. Says Canada's National Post, it showed "Ms. Anderson, Mr. Duchovny and shaggy co-star Billy Connolly searching a snowy field with dogs and sticks for some unspecified monster." Duchovny ended the conference by saying that the time was right for a sequel, and perhaps other sequels, since "This is a great, flawed, questing hero -- there's always more stories for that person to be involved in." Unfortunately, Anderson did not attend the press conference due to illness.

James Kyson Lee has made quite a name for himself in the hit TV show, Heroes. Now, with Necrosis, his upcoming supernatural horror film, Lee hopes to branch out beyond science fiction: He'll play a man who goes mad after being stuck in a cabin during a mammoth snowstorm. Lee told Sci Fi Wire he prepared by channeling Jack Nicholson's iconic Jack Torrance character from The Shining.

Says Lee, "He's not really sure if what he's seeing is actually happening. You find out that the place we're staying in is part of where the Donner tragedy took place in the 1800s. As we find out more about how that story unfolded, things start to go really bad in the cabin and around the location."

The cast and crew experienced their own snowstorm of the century as they filmed in Lake Tahoe. During the time they were in the resort community, the town received over 250 inches of the white stuff. Talk about art imitating life.

After watching the much-anticipated trailer for Lost Boys II: The Tribe, it's clear the danger isn't that it doesn't live up to the original-- it's that it actually does. This trailer cuts through Lost Boys nostalgia like a hot blade, a grim reminder that the original was actually a lot cheesier and less coherent than you remember. In this case, creating a perfectly apt and serviceable sequel has proven to be the unkindest cut of all.

Stick around after the preview to watch Corey Feldman discusses the film at length. After all the speculation and snark (including my own), it's a bittersweet surprise to see that the underdog actor has found himself making a sequel that was actually worth his while. If only we could have had this and keep our youthful first impressions of the original!

Buckaroo Entertainment, Sam Raimi's production company, sure isn't taking a breather. After announcing production on the vampire horror offering, Priest, and the supernatural thriller, Drag Me to Hell, Raimi got Paramount Pictures to pick up the rights to the upcoming graphic novel, Monster Zoo.

The action begins, says The Hollywood Reporter, when an ancient idol is brought to a zoo. "There, the idol's spirit awakens and starts to mutate the caged animals. A group of teenagers must band together to try to stop the idol and the evil from destroying the world." The graphic novel is by Doug TenNapel, the same mind who brought the world the popular Earthworm Jim.

It's too bad that Raimi isn't directing Monster Zoo himself. Nor will he direct Priest. You will, however, see his careful work in Drag Me to Hell, which stars Alison Lohman. It's utterly terrific that Raimi is returning to his horror roots. But everyone is still wondering: What about Spider-Man 4?