The disemboweling of the American horror biz, the glut and bust of the Asian horror industries and the rise of the Euro-Horror machine was the big story written between the lines at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. America has dominated horror movies for a long time, but the Asian invasion sparked by the release of Japan's The Ring in 1998 wrested the crown away from us. We could have gotten it back -- after all, we reached the moon first -- but we were lazy and complacent, and so Hollywood churned out PG-13 mainstream multiplex horror and remakes of older, better horror movies. But over in Europe, directors were pushing boundaries, and what's happened now is that they're better at horror movies than we are.

Trying to come up with a list of horror movies that will be remembered in 20 years, I can't think of a single American horror movie from 2007 or 2008 that's a contender. The Mist? Rob Zombie's Halloween? 1408? But check out this list of foreign possibilities: Inside (France), Vinyan (Belgium/France), Rec (Spain), The Orphanage (Spain), Martyrs (France). Let the accounting go back a few years and it gets even worse: Severance (UK), Pan's Labyrinth (Spain), Shaun of the Dead (UK), 28 Days Later (UK), Haute Tension (France), Calvaire (Belgium), Nightwatch (Russia) and The Descent (UK). And with a fall schedule heavy with upcoming films like Let the Right One In (Sweden), Dark Floors (Finland), Trackman (Russia) and Dead Set (UK) there is only one thing to say: America, we eat shame cake.

Continue reading "Toronto Film Festival Found American Horror Producers Eating Shame Cake" »

S&MAN director JT Petty returns to the Toronto Film Festival with his latest film, The Burrowers, and talks to AMCtv.com about why he traded in the world of snuff films in his last feature for the cowboys and creatures of this one.

Q: When you look at your previous films, particularly S&MAN, The Burrowers is a completely different sort of film for you. What made you want to make a western?

A: It started as much about making a western as making a horror movie. I've always loved the hell out of westerns and a lot of what went into The Burrowers is that when you think about how to try and scare people now, you have to figure out how to break the genre conventions a little bit. It's like how Hostel killed off who you think will be the main character at the thirty-minute mark and let the funny sidekick be the main character. I thought that was a really effective way of throwing you off balance. Or like Audition, which seems to be like a romantic comedy...

Q: ...Until the bag jumps.

Continue reading "JT Petty Talks Cowboys and Monsters in The Burrowers" »

Labor Day has come and gone and with it, the hordes of gamers that descended on Seattle for Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2008. The annual gaming convention started by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik draws thousands of die-hard gamers each year, but this year, a record-shattering 58,000 attendees flooded the floor. Game producers also had an unprecedented presence at PAX, offering up a veritable cornucopia of twitchy delights ranging from precious to petrifying.

Among the frightful wares available for play at PAX were Microsoft's post-apocalyptic sequel Gears of War 2, the endlessly anticipated Fallout 3 from Bethesda, EA's Dead Space, and Left 4 Dead by Seattle's own Valve Studios.

Continue reading "Left 4 Dead Proves the Most Promising at PAX 2008" »

People are lining up in the rain to get seats for the Tribeca Film Festival's remaining features, including its horror selections, many of which will screen through the coming weekend.

Some suggestions: The Wild Man of the Navidad is a bizarre "'70s-style B movie" about a creature stalking the Texan wilderness and Dying Breed, in which a young posse searces for supposedly-extinct tigers in the Australian outback, both promise upsetting, old-school scares. Other films have a deceptively lighter touch -- Jeff Fisher's Killer Movie brings laughs, groans, and screams from the set of a reality show gone awry, The Cottage puts the screws to a classic hostage situation by uniting captive and captors against a fearsome enemy, and Baghead spins a couple's home movies out of control when they find themselves starring in a horror flick they didn't mean to make.

Continue reading "Tribeca Film Festival - Horror Selections Let You Meet the Vampire Next Door" »

Joe Dante has directed some of the best genre movies of the last 30 years (Piranha; The Howling; Gremlins; Innerspace; Gremlins 2: The New Batch; Matinee) and is one of the most ardent and articulate supporters of horror films around. But he's also one of the most underrated filmmakers, because his movies, which brazenly mess with filmmaking conventions rather than stick by them, are hard to pin down. He's a guy who deserves respect and that's what Los Angeles' New Beverly Cinema is doing by giving him his own film festival this month.

Continue reading "Joe Dante Screens His Favorite Films at LA's New Beverly Cinema" »

It's not too late -- there's still a chance to catch the tail end of AFI Dallas' Texas Frightmare Weekend festival and inhale that glorious "new horror movie" smell!

One of the festival's highlights was Spine Tingler!, a documentary about director-mad-genius-marketer William Castle. To find out more about the film, check out the Shootout blog, for an interview with director Jeffrey Schwartz.

Two new midnight features remain in their lineup for Friday and Saturday:

Continue reading "AFI Dallas: Texas Frightmare Weekend" »

Some holidays are lucky to have great horror movies associated with them -- Halloween and Black Christmas, for example -- but unfortunately St. Patrick's Day has to make due with Leprechaun, the movie now best known as the skeleton in Jennifer Aniston's closet. This is where the luck of the Irish ran out, my friends.

Let's get this out of the way: Leprechaun is an awful movie; it's not even "good bad,"-- it's a chore to sit through. Not even the idea of seeing Aniston in an early role makes it fun, and that "I want me gold" routine got old around '94 or so. But Austin's Alamo Drafthouse will be screening the movie tonight at 10pm while Austin's 6th Street, recovering from the insanity of SXSW, is in the midst of the insanity of St. Patty's Day. (The whole of Austin is going to be mighty hung over for the rest of the week.)

They're serving green beer and a bowl of Lucky Charms to go with it, and no doubt Zack Carlson will come up with some pre-show fun and games to make it worthwhile.  But do yourself a favor and down as much green beer as possible, because that's what it's going to take to make this movie bearable. First the potato famine, then Leprechaun. Can't the Irish catch a break? 

Earlier this week we told you about some of the genre offerings at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and if you like paying Broadway show prices for second-rate movies, then knock yourself out. As for myself, I'm driving down to Philly to check out several of the selections at this year's Philadelphia Film Festival.

Phillyfest (as they like to call themselves), runs April 3-15 and has always had one of the best midnight horror selections of any fest I know. This year offers another batch of solid genre titles, including the world premiere of Bad Biology, the first film from legendary Basket Case director Frank Henenlotter in (jeez) 17 years. 

By all accounts, Bad Biology's sex and violence is so extreme, they're going to have to create a new rating for it. In the past, however, Henenlotter has never cared about ratings or who he might possibly offend -- which can only mean this one is a must-see.

Continue reading "Philadelphia Film Festival Premieres Henenlotter's Bad Biology" »

Horror will not be ignored at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. First up is Let The Right One In, which was featured two weeks ago here at MonsterFest. The story, about a 12-year-old boy who falls for the young vampire next door, is based on John Lunqvist's best selling book and is one of the highlights of the fest, according to today's Variety.

Also on the slate: Oscar-nominated animator Bill Plympton will premiere his darkest film to date, the completely hand drawn feature, Idiots and Angels. In the film, an evil, greedy man grows wings, but do the wings make him more or less of a monster? When the movie premieres, we'll all get the scoop.

The full list of films isn't up yet at the Festival site, but rest assured that once it's up, the schedule will be combed thoroughly for more horror offerings.

We talk all the time about the difference (and importance) of seeing great horror films on the screen instead of on DVD, and next month L.A.'s beloved American Cinematheque is going to prove this point -- big time.

From March 13 to the 23rd, the Cinematheque is hosting Mario Bava: Poems of Love and Death, an exclusive retrospective of 17 Mario Bava films, many rarely screened here in the U.S. Many of Bava's best, from Black Sunday to Danger: Diabolik to Blood and Black Lace, will be shown, with screenings hosted by Bava fans such as Eli Roth and Joe Dante. Dante will also be conducting a Q&A with Baron Blood/Lisa and the Devil star Elke Sommer. 

The big screen flatters Bava more than any remastered DVD ever could. Bava's mastery with the camera, along with his use of color and visual storytelling style, made him one of the greatest craftsmen in the genre's history -- something this fest will no doubt prove. If you love horror and live in L.A. you must attend some of these screenings.