• 

  Chris Evans circling King adaptation “The Ten O’Clock People”

  When one thinks of the horror genre, one name that does not come immediately to mind is Chris Evans. Appearing on the scene in Not Another Teen Movie, it seemed he was doomed to play “the handsome guy” who stars in cliché romantic comedies and action films. Despite appearing in some horror-action hybrids such as Cellular  and Sunshine, his foray into the Sci-Fi genre as Johnny Storm in the sub-par Fantastic Four film put the actor front-and-center in the public eye. This led to greater roles: he played another hero, Captain America, in the Marvel Studios produced Captain America: The First Avenger and…

• 

  Black Rock (Film Review)

  Survival horror, as a genre, has a certain advantage over other subgenres as the complete concept requires a level of voyeurism from the viewer. In just the ways the human mind works, the audience puts themselves within the shoes of those trapped against the elements or their fellow man, in which people form their own plans-of-action and retaliations throughout the course of the film within their head. Most of the time, this enhances the cinematic experience, creating more intense audience reactions and a greater investment in the highlighted protagonist. Yet, survival horror also requires a quantity of realism in its…

• 

  Exclusive: Herschell Gordon Lewis to appear at Calgary Horror Con

  The Great White North is going to get a little bit darker this August, as the Third Annual Calgary Horror Con comes back to town, and this time, they’re bringing the big guns. The Calgary Horror Con will take place at Hotel Blackfoot in Calgary, AB, Canada on Saturday, August 3rd and Sunday, August 4th from 12 p.m.- 7 p.m. In addition to showcasing both short and feature length horror films at the Con, a rogues gallery of horror icons will be making appearances, headlined by none other than the elusive “Godfather of Gore” himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis! Lewis, currently…

• 

  Titan Comics releases remastered “Razorjack” series

  Fans of independent horror comis should rejoice, as Titan Comics has announced that they will be releasing the “Razorjack” comic series “as we’ve never seen it before.” The highly-acclaimed series comes from writer/artist John Higgins, who made a name for himself as a colorist on such classic works as Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” and “Batman: The Killing Joke.” “Razorjack,” first published back in 1999, is the story of two police detectives, Ross and Frame, following the trail of a vicious serial killer. Their investigation leads them to discover the existence of Razorjack, an evil entity from another dimension, released into our world accidentally by…

• 

  Pieta (Film Review)

  There is a certain exchange that is understood between audiences familiar with the “extreme” cinema coming out of East Asia in the past decade or so and the filmmakers within that particular subgenre. Specifically speaking, the exchange usually follows a basic code, acknowledging that in line with the horrifying, brutal content that the film exposes comes a powerful message within, much akin to the cautionary folklore traceable to almost any territory in the world. However, with Pieta, the vicious new film from Kim Ki-duk in limited theaters today from Drafthouse Films, a noticeable identity crisis is on display, as the…

• Chris Evans circling King adaptation “The Ten O’Clock People”

  May 21, 2013

• Black Rock (Film Review)

  May 20, 2013

• Exclusive: Herschell Gordon Lewis to appear at Calgary Horror Con

  May 18, 2013

• Titan Comics releases remastered “Razorjack” series

  May 17, 2013

• Pieta (Film Review)

  May 17, 2013

Festival News

It’s not Candyland, it’s Monsterpalooza

Back in 1992, I went to the second Lollapalooza music festival. It, and similar music fests seem, to me, more like automat concert experiences than innovative cultural experiences. Regardless, all that Monsterpalooza has in common with the music festival of its namesake is a conglomeration of like-minded consumers and merchants. Straight up: this is an exposition for the public to load up on monster gear. Masks, props, toys, magazines, posters, signatures and make-up classes were all on display for us, the drooling horror community, to gobble up. If you’ve never associated horror with cleanliness, it’s time you lathered up with…

V/H/S/2 (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]

It’s funny how quickly the mind is willing to quit analyzing a movie when it’s actually scary. Last year, V/H/S, a film widely lauded as the game-changing horror anthology, milked the minutiae of the found-footage subgenre dryer than each bore-and-snore-inducing Paranormal Activity film combined. And, because it forced audiences to commit their attention to ineffectual non-events shot with insufferable faux-shaky cam, V/H/S’s general nastiness and casual misogyny seemed to take center stage; the film’s most problematic aspects seemed more interesting to discuss than its attempt to reinvent its tropes of choice. But here’s the thing about its sequel, V/H/S/2: it’s…

The Machine (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]

Welsh writer/director Caradog James’s second feature, The Machine, asks its audience a difficult question: in an age of artificial intelligence, what does being “human” really mean?  While The Machine, like its namesake in the film, functions well enough—like a diluted Blade Runner or Minority Report — its narrative and character development are completely robotic. James’s film may be able to deliver a clever imitation of a great story, but it lacks the depth to do anything more. For all its high production value, it’s a pretty face with no soul. Dr. Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens), a computer expert working underground —literally—…

Mr. Jones (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]

Karl Mueller wrote last year’s truly awful apocalypse flick The Divide, directed by Xavier Gens, which posited that when the chips are down, 99% of people will turn into slavering, sub-human monsters. Incisive stuff. Now he’s back with his directorial debut, Mr. Jones, which boasts a much more interesting setup. Scott and Penny (Jon Foster and Sarah Jones), an artsy young couple with marriage problems, repair to the desert so Scott can focus on finishing a nature documentary, only to discover that they’re living next to a famously reclusive artist, Mr. Jones.  As they investigate Mr. Jones’s reputation (inscrutable; possibly…