1. Monsterfest columnist and horror novelist Scott Sigler gives parents a lesson in disciplining their unruly children -- even the ones born from Satan.

2. Nick Nadel reviews director Nelson McCormick's remake of Prom Night, which he says will leave you wondering two things: Where's my requisite T&A, and which of these filmmakers needs to go back to school?

3. Monsterfest columnist Stacie Ponder discovers how to successfully adapt horror comics for the big screen. Hint: As long as Dr. Wesley Snipes is involved, it'll probably scare the bejeezus out of you.

4. Worst director in the world Uwe Boll off-handedly remarked that if 1,000,000 detractors signed a petition he would stop making movies.The series of tubes were clogged that day, my friend.

5. Who loves horror? Zombie authority Helen Matthews, who likes to pop in Pumpkinhead while she grades her students' papers. Confused by the proliferation of margin comments like "need brains," said students just assume they need to study harder.

Continue reading "Best of Monsterfest: Week of Apr. 7 " »

• Obscure: The Aftermath is a survival horror game with a new trailer. Decide whether the Nintendo Wii offering is just a B-movie or a video game worth your time.

• What's the mystery behind Earth vs. Moon? The screenwriters got a ton of money from Universal, but no one will say anything about the  plot.

• Welcome! The new Vacancy movie is a prequel that will star Agnes Bruckner. A young couple "check(s) into the Meadow View Inn where the employees are making snuff films."

• It's an ugly fight: Bloody Disgusting vs. rarely-prepared celebrity freelancer Stephen Schaefer. Schaefer thinks Bloody Disgusting invented quotes about The Ruins. There's more horror here than in the movie!

Continue reading "Horror Surfer: A Vacancy Prequel; the Sounds of Prom Queen Massacre " »

• Mark your calendars. Dario Argento's Mother of Tears will be released on June 6 by the Weinstein Company. Who is the evil Third Mother and why will we only see her in six cities?

• A young writer who uploaded a video on YouTube is penning a screenplay called Rain in which he filmed a hallucination that will be part of the movie -- if it gets made.

• The Sundance Channel is buying 22 films from Lionsgate, including the excellent horror comedy, Fido, where a zombie is the family servant.

• Our pal and MF columnist Scott Sigler's book Infected is the number 2 on Amazon's horror list. You can see the author as he waxes profound about the book during a short video, too.

Continue reading "Horror Surfer: Date Set for Mother of Tears; Is The Mist the Most Depressing Film Ever?" »

• The bad news? John Carpenter isn't directing Fear Itself. The good news? Hitchcock-influenced indie director Larry Fessenden is now on board, says Shock Till You Drop.

• Anchor Bay just picked up two indie horror films for direct-to-DVD release. The best looks like Breathing Room in which a woman wakes in room naked to find a strange box and 13 others surrounding her. Hey, at least it's not more remakes from Anchor Bay.

• Speaking of... Deadbolt lists 10 horror movies that deserve remaking. The top three? Fright Night, The Dead Zone and Christine.

• The monster still kills! Cloverfield topped the box office in Japan this past weekend, earning $2.6 million from 235 screens, says Variety. That's a lot of yen for the Land of the Rising Sun.

Continue reading "Horror Surfer: Zombie Jenna Jameson; John Carpenter Out of Fear Itself" »

If too much of a good thing can be bad, then it's only logical that too much of a bad thing can be really awesome. Richard Schmidt can testify to that -- the site Doomed Moviethon is his way of documenting epic movie binges that challenge him as a fan, as a reviewer and as a mad scientist. (What is the effect of watching 13 Dario Argento films in 34 hours on the human brain?) Schmidt dedicates his site to "the bleary-eyed, the caffeine-fueled, and the ridiculously under-slept movie marathon," inspiring us to hold our own private film festivals -- or at the very least, to live vicariously through his.

The site began three years ago as a collection of his cult movie reviews, and could have peaked there; with hundreds of entries now bleeding into several genres such as spaghetti westerns, yakuza, kung fu and Eurocrime, Doomed Moviethon covers a lot of ground. 

Continue reading "Site of the Week: Doomed Moviethon" »

Those who have just about had it with Uwe Boll's bottom-of-the-barrel video game adaptations and Ed Wood-esque stabs at horror movies will perk up at the following news: In an interview with FearNet, Boll acknowledges a petition that's being passed around demanding that he retire from filmmaking, and declares it would take a million signatures to sway him. That was just a mere four days ago, when the petition had only 18,000 names on it. Today the figure teeters at 100,000. At this rate, it will take just a few weeks to get the necessary signatures to call Uwe's bluff.

The interview also contains a few choice insights into the mind and humor of the little-understood director and ardent PETA supporter, such as his rationalization about filming a scene in which a cat is used to muffle a gunshot: "Oh, it was fake; it was made out of a puppet... The real cat was not really doing on set what we wanted so it took a long time to shoot the scene. He adds, "And it was actually one thing from the game that I really liked."

• If a horror film shows in the theater and no one is around to see it, is it still scary? CinemaBlend's Weekend Box Office report says "The horror genre is 0 for 5 so far this year, with little hope on the horizon."

• Is Cowboys for Christ dead? Stv.tv says the Wicker Man sequel was scheduled to shoot in Scotland, but due to financial problems, it's over before it even started.

• Sony Pictures new Prom Night promo is a scream. Patrons open the display door "for a night to die for" and a multiplex employee jumps out shrieking. Will it get them to open their pocketbooks and buy a ticket? Watch what happens.

• Should Detroit stick to making cars? Or this this metro city movie so bad it's brilliant? Bite Me: The Movie.

• When it comes to Blair Witch-style filming techniques, most movies run up against the law of diminishing returns. But the trailer for Paranormal Activity suggests there's still fresh blood in home-movie horror.

• Holidays can be a let-down, especially when knife-wielding maniacs are involved. Bloody-Disgusting rounds up dismal failures in holiday-themed horror, from ThanXgiving to New Year's Evil.

• Bette Davis -- Baby Jane herself -- would have turned 100 this weekend. Billy Loves Stu celebrates by defending her title as the original Scream Queen.

Continue reading "Horror Surfer: Del Toro Talks Hobbit; Happy Birthday Baby Jane" »