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.

The winners of the 2008 Razzies were announced this week, and this time they're personal: Lindsay Lohan's career-busting "comeback" I Know Who Killed Me gathered a record-setting eight trophies, with Lohan herself receiving two "Worst Actress" awards: One for each "character" she played in the film. The runner-up was Eddie Murphy's Norbit, which garnered "Worst Actor," "Worst Supporting Actor," and "Worst Supporting Actress" -- all for Murphy.

While I think it's useful to keep tabs on Hollywood's worst and the Razzies are all in good fun, it seems that the awards themselves have become entirely editorial in nature. I mean, I Know Who Killed Me was definitely a fatally flawed movie -- but was it singled out because it really was the worst, or because of Lohan's off-screen persona and antics? Considering that she also garnered Razzies for "Worst Screen Couple," as well as "Ripping off Hostel, Saw, and the Patty Duke Show," it's pretty clear that the folks at the Razzies were willing to bend logic for the chance to pelt Lohan with golden fruit. It's fans of the award who have been truly left in the dust: We know less about the worst films of 2007 than about the Razzie committee's personal agenda.

It's a big gamble, but it's also a compelling idea. Starting on February 11, the organizers of Insomnifest will place a dozen horror films online to view for the price of $4.99 each. While some films aren't new, many have never seen life beyond the borders of the countries in which they were originally screened. Each day, two films will available for viewing, many with wonderfully cheesy titles like Backwoods Bloodbath (U.S.), Dead Floor (Indonesia) and The Grief (Sweden). The most unique plot seems to be that of Complexx, a Netherlands film about the late night slasher horrors that befall gamers playing Dark Planet 2 at a video game convention.

Will the experiment work? The organizers caution against sending films for next year's fest: "We don't know whether or not we're going to do a festival next year. It all depends on how big a success it is this year."

Two living legends will share the stage at this year's World Horror Convention: John Carpenter and author Robert Weinberg are both going to be presented with lifetime achievement awards by the Horror Writers Association.

In a statement from HWA, President Deborah LeBlanc said, "Bob Weinberg's contribution to the genre goes much deeper than his obvious body of published work, as he has always been a reliable, invaluable resource to HWA, and ever-willing to offer advice to our young writers." Weinberg has written dozens of genre-spanning books, such as The Devil's Auction and Horror of the 20th Century. And then there's Carpenter: "The influence of Halloween surpasses the boundaries of film, touching literature, comics, non-fiction, and nearly every other aspect of the horror genre." LeBlanc went on to say, "The creation of Michael Myers and his iconic theme music alone would be enough to earn him this award. The fact he has been a consistent and innovative force in the genre is just icing on the cake." The icing, of course, being movies like The Fog, The Thing, and In the Mouth of Madness.
.
Previous winners of this honor include Thomas Harris, Stephen King and Anne Rice.