Most people know Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin, the vicious Outer Rim Governor from Star Wars: A New Hope, and one of the few to casually dismiss the almighty Vader without ending up on the business end of a force choke. It was through the role of Tarkin that Cushing achieved widespread fame as a man well versed in invoking fear. But with 20 years of classic horror roles under his belt, Peter Cushing was singularly prepared for the part of a cold-hearted fiend.

In 1957 Hammer Productions released The Curse of Frankenstein, and with it, kicked off a long line of films that have since become "required reading" for anyone expressing an interest in horrific history. Cushing played none other than Baron Victor Frankenstein, a role he would reprise again and again over the course of his career.

Continue reading "Before He Was Moff Tarkin in Star Wars, Peter Cushing Played Other Cold-Hearted Villains" »

Oscar-winner William Holden turned down the lead role in the original Omen film, claiming he didn't want to star in a film about the Devil. Whether this was a moral grievance or because he merely found the script silly, an actor is entitled to his principles -- but I have a bone to pick with this excuse. Holden had already indirectly engaged in dealings with the Dark One for many years, so why draw the line at being Damien's daddy? Perhaps he suffered spiritual setbacks after starring in the 1968 war movie The Devil's Brigade? Jeopardized his immortal soul while on the set of Satan Never Sleeps back in '62? One can't help but wonder whether he found the title of The Towering Inferno a little too metaphorically loaded for his tastes.

Continue reading "For Omen 2, William Holden Changed His Mind About Working With the Devil" »

It's easy to see from Lord Richard Attenborough's directorial resume what sort of stories he's interested in telling: Soaring biopics and heavy war dramas. But amidst the hunger strikes and rockets' red glare, a single horror movie stands out like a sore thumb between A Bridge Too Far and Gandhi, demanding to be taken just as seriously: Magic. Was the movie so far off the beaten path for the avuncular Lord Attenborough that he simply had no interest in returning to the genre? Or did it have something to do with spending so much time around a creepy ventriloquist dummy?

Whatever it was, it didn't seem to keep star Anthony Hopkins from continuing to explore his own dark side; the actor went on to work with David Lynch and Jonathan Demme on some of the most disturbing films of the '80s. Maybe Lord Attenborough's just a gentler soul -- his extensive acting career shows a clear bias against the super-scary: Jurassic Park is about as wild as it gets for him, and even then his character, John Hammond, saw less dino action than virtually else in the series. (Notable, considering that in the book, Hammond was actually devoured by his own creations.)

Continue reading "Did Something in Magic Scare Richard Attenborough Away From Horror?" »

Maybe Motel Hell's Farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun) was onto something when he started turning his customers into beef jerky. No doubt Sweeney Todd would approve; as would the butcher in Delicatessen. But what about people who aren't fictional characters in horror movies? Who would call up for room service?

For one, Danish artist Marco Evaristti. On January 13, 2007, Evaristti -- whose previous work included 10 blenders with live goldfish inside of them and an open invitation to turn them on -- had his friends over for a dinner party. The main course was angolotti pasta, with meatballs made from Evaristti's own body fat. The artist prepared the pasta with fat that had been liposuctioned from his torso earlier that year. Undoubtedly, this is a supper where a gourmand like Hannibal Lecter would have asked for seconds.

Continue reading "Would You Order Room Service at Motel Hell?" »

There is a sequence early on in John Carpenter's The Fog during which various inanimate objects suddenly (and ominously) spring to life. The nozzle of a gas pump disengages itself and begins to pump fuel all over the blacktop, a host of car alarms go off like a chorus of doom, racks upon racks of bottles rattle nerve-wrackingly in glass-doored refrigerators. Nothing terrible comes of the initial disturbance. OK, a few tipsy guys on a ship are impaled, but on land, the fog doesn't set off an endless series of murders so much as taunt a town with one uneasy question: What if things (as opposed to beings) came to life with evil intent? What would happen if inert objects found themselves in motion and enraged?

Continue reading "John Carpenter's The Fog Argues for the Clean Air Act" »

Joss Whedon certainly appreciates Nathan Fillion. He cast him to play Captain Mal on the short-lived television series Firefly, then had him reprise the role in the movie adaptation Serenity. Whedon even gave the actor a recurring part on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Fillion played Caleb, the killer priest.)

Director Patrick Lussier likes him too. He gave him the lead in White Noise 2: The Light, and secured him a decent part in Dracula 2000, his update of the vampire legend -- produced by none other than Wes Craven.

So with fans in such high places, why isn't Fillion a bigger name? It might simply be that the actor is often brought in too late in a series to garner attention from anyone but superfans. He didn't get to Buffy until the final season (although, even without fangs he was one of the series' most charismatic villains); he's had a similar fate with Desperate Housewives. Still, it's puzzling that his principled tough-guy and wry smile act in Serenity didn't lead to more action roles. Those traits are usually star-making meat and potatoes for Hollywood's leading men. Will he ever break out and be a bona fide star?

All signs point to maybe. Fillion, who has spoken of his desire to write and direct in interviews, has penned a pilot for a show titled Repo Brothers that has reportedly been picked up by ABC. No word yet on whether he'll also act in the series, but perhaps his destiny is behind-scenes.

In the interim, get your Fillion fix with the AMC broadcast of Dracula 2000. For a full schedule of Dracula 2000 on AMC, click here.

To share your review of the movie (and Nathan Fillion perhaps), click here.

We love our privacy. Privacy provides us with safety and protection from the outside world, but when given the opportunity to look into sneak a look at the private lives of others -- especially as filmgoers -- we are more then willing to watch. 

In movies, voyeurism draws form different motivations. In Rear Window and Disturbia, the voyeurs are spying on neighbors to satisfy curiosity and to break the boredom of being confined in their homes. We see what Jimmy Stewart and Shia LaBeouf see, and connect with their characters and the experience, particularly when it involves something like... possibly bearing witness to murder. But that's nothing compared to the tension you feel when you're watching the action from the killer's point of view, whether it's Peeping Tom or Violent Midnight.

Continue reading "Violent Midnight Lets You Watch From the Killer's Point of View" »

In 1990, readers thrilled at Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's send-up of both the '70's horror classic The Omen and the entire biblical Apocalypse in their collaborative novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. A bungled switch-at-birth results in the Antichrist and his pet hell-hound being raised in a modest country home, while another, totally normal, child gets the diplomat mansion, the Satanic nanny and the whole bit -- thus, the end of the world winds up being a little more disorganized than you'd expect. Demand for a film adaptation piqued, and in 2002, Terry Gilliam announced that a script had been written; rumors that Johnny Depp and Robin Williams had been cast as the book's respective demonic and angelic presences spread like wildfire. So what happened?

Continue reading "Will The Omen Ever Get the Terry Gilliam Spoof It Deserves?" »

Ever since Stephen King announced the "death" of his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, in 1985 he's been troubled by his decision. In his 1989 novel, The Dark Half, King contemplated a world in which the imaginary pseudonym would claim to be more real than the true author, and even fight to the death to prove it. Timothy Hutton plays both writers in the film version: Quiet family man Thaddeus Beaumont, and psychopathic "high-toned sumbitch" George Stark. The pair eventually grow so alike it becomes hard to tell them apart.

Right after that, King (or was it Bachman?) cooked up the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden. Published in 1990, right after The Dark Half, it too presented an author running up against his murderous, territorial alter-ego. (And because life is funny like that, Timothy Hutton was called in once more when the 2004 film Secret Window was made, meeting a bitter end as the new husband of Johnny Depp's ex-wife.)

Continue reading "Stephen King Makes Peace With His Own Dark Half, Richard Bachman" »

Numerous movie sites intimate that the scary puppet Blade from the Puppet Master series is modeled after Klaus Kinski, allegedly director David Schmoeller's favorite actor. Considering the weirdness of this particular fanbase (or haven't you seen the tribute videos?) and how easily nonsense becomes "true" after being repeated enough, I have to admit this seemed like a dubious bit of trivia. In fact, I was rooting for it to be false -- designing a murdering puppet in someone's likeness is certainly an unsettling way to demonstrate affection.

As it turns out, the story is true, as Schmoeller himself reveals in an interview with Terror Trap. "Blade is really Klaus Kinski - see the resemblance?" he says, neglecting to address a detail that has me feeling a little strange: Schmoeller's movie was made in 1989, and Kinski died in 1991, the same year that Puppet Master II came out. Considering this is a franchise in which living humans' "life essence" is often channeled into doll-sized avatars, is no one else afraid of the voodoo at work here?

Continue reading "Klaus Kinski's Miniature Doppelganger in Puppet Master" »