Open Windows: Preview

Computer stalking seems too be the new rage in horror and thriller films. And who can blame producers with whole Snowden; NSA, Big Brother scandal that has rocked the world these last few months.

Will replace the ever popular POV style of horror the likes-of-which and the long running "Paranormal Activity" spin-offs? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Me, however, I think --while some are well done-- can live without the next POV style, found footage flick.

Until next time. Until then check out the trailer for "Open Windows" which stars Sasha Grey and Elijah Wood.

Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium"... First Images and What Not

Class warfare seems to be the theme of the day whether it is real life or that of Hollywood productions, so it should come to no surprise that the Sci-Fi genre is going to follow suit with Matt Damon’s new flick “Elysium”.

The film centers around an orbital space station named -surprisingly, Elysium- where the rich seem to live the life as they always have for centuries, while they orbit around the an apocalyptic 22nd century diseased ridden Earth. Damon plays the central character Max, an ex-con who is trying to get up to the space station because he is dying, and he is given a mission that will, hopefully, not only save his life but equality to the world and people as a whole.

“Elysium” Also stars Jodie Foster as Secretary Rhodes, an evil and twisted government official that will stop at nothing to enforce Elysium’s anti-immigration laws and so in effect keeping the luxurious lifestyles that the rich have come accustom too… oh, yes, the have-nots so want to be part of the haves.

Sound familiar?

It should, also, come to no surprise that “Elysium” was written and directed by “District 9’s” Neill Blomkamp who based a lot of that film on the way the South African government treated blacks and Apartheid. So, I believe, a lot of what “Elysium” rings with is Arizona and their immigration laws (and I believe a lot of Secretary Rhodes’ character can be said comes from Arizona’s governor). After reading the over-all plot synopsis, it seems that we have been down this route of sociopolitical ideas before (Think George Romero’s zombie films, “Escape from New York” (John Carpenter), even that of the “Resident Evil” franchise, to name a few).

Do we need another film like this? One that appears to be -a much better and grittier, but sort of the same premise- “Judge Dredd” meets “Total Recall” retread? I don’t know about you but I for one is getting a little tired of it. But it might be fun to see Matt Damon back to a grittier, tough guy role in the realm of Bourne.

Originally slated for a March release, but it appears that it might get pushed until August.

Update April 10th, 2013

Here is the first trailer for the film. It looks it'll hit theaters on August 9th

"Eddie,The Sleepwalking Cannibal" Gets Distribution

Chicago-based Music Box Films looks to have picked up the distribution rights of the cannibalistic comedy film “Eddie, The Sleepwalking Cannibal”.

For those of you who don’t know about this, the film follows a once celebrity artist, Lars Olafssen, who is slipping into the realms of has -been and with a ungracefully aging hipster for an art dealer who doesn’t want his meal ticket to end, and a metal problem that keeps Lars from painting, it’s no surprise that his career is in shambles. It seems Lars’ creativity comes at a high cost to him as his inspiration is of carnage: Blood & guts & limbs and shit, all of which lead to a breakdown of Lars so he no longer paints. (Not a good thing if you want to a living that way) None-the-less, Ronny the Art Dealer arranges a teaching gig for Lars at a school in a small Canadian town in the middle of nowhere hoping it will be the "therapeutic” means to an end of Lars’ problem. While there Lars befriend a student named Eddie who suffers from a strange -and rare- form of sleepwalking that turns Eddie into a ravenous cannibal craving fresh meat. Is this the thing that Lars needs to spur on his creativity? Because, truly great art always comes at a high price, and Lars’ price looks to be sacrificing lives of the residents of Koda Lake.

At the moment there is no release date “Eddie” or if it’s going to go straight to DVD (which will probably be the case). However, it is making the rounds of the film festivals so if you have a chance to grab a seat I say take it.

Takashi Miike: Back Where He Belongs: In Horror

The highly prolific and controversial horror director, Takashi Miike, is back behind the camera with “Lesson Of The Evil” and his new film is being touted as his most twisted and gore filled film yet.

You remember him don’t you. And if you are a horror fan -especially of Asian horror- how can you not?

Takashi Miike rose to fame back in 1999, here in America anyway, with his film “Audition” that told the story of a lonely Japanese widower whose friend decides to hold a fictitious audition for a role in an up coming movie so he can find a new love to share his life with. And as fate would have it the widower grows enamored with one girl in-particular but in Japanese fashion not all goes the way it should.

This time around, Miike is directing “Lesson Of Evil” which is adapted from the 2010 best selling novel “AKU NO KYOTEN” by author Yusuke Kishi and is shooting for a November release. Not sure when it’ll make to American shores but I can’t imagine it would be that long as for the large following Miike has in the States.

The plot for “Lesson Of Evil” follows A teacher named Seiji Hasumi who is loved by his students and respected by his peers. However, his outward charm masks his true nature. In reality, Hasumi is a psychopath who is unable to feel empathy for other human beings. Specifically, he has a severe antisocial personality disorder. Because of his mental condition, Hasumi chooses to deal with problems like bullying and overbearing “monster parents” the easy way—by systematically murdering his students.

Other Miike notables are “Ichi the Killer, “Gozu”, Yakuza Demon”, and the Showtime series “Masters of Horror: Imprint”. “Imprint” if you remember was banned from the Showtime broadcast but is available on DVD.

247⁰F -Movie Trailer Official HD: Can You Survive The Heat

In the vein of movies like “Open Water”, and “Frozen”, or even that of “ATM” where we find young attractive twenty something’s trapped, left fighting for survival, “247 Degrees” is no different.

The film opens and we find that Jenna (Scout Taylor-Compton of Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” fame), Renee, Ian

(Travis Van Winkle from the “Friday the 13^th” remake)

 and Michael are heading out of town intending to enjoy a carefree weekend of fun, fun, fun up at a lakeside cabin owned by Ian’s uncle played by Tyler Mane. Of course after the group settles in and things begin to heat up between friends they find a new thing heating up as well. One that they rather wouldn’t.

While enjoying the cabin’s main selling point: a sauna, Jenna, Renee, and Ian are soaking in the steam when they find that they are locked in. At first the group thinks that maybe Michael is playing some kind of joke on them they soon realize that this is all too real and that help isn’t coming anytime soon. As the heat begins to rise the three friends are pushed to their limits trying to figure how, not only too survive, but find a way out because staying isn’t all that easy to do anymore because in their efforts to get cool air they break the small window that is in the door only to find that the coolness from the outside has the thermostat thinking that it needs to run the heater no stop. Pushing the the temperature well past the body’s limits.

I don’t know about this one. I’m thinking that I can waste 90 minutes of my life doing something else. But who knows. It my be up your alley.

Rated R for language, a scene of sexuality, some disturbing images and drug use.

House at the End of the Street Trailer HD (2012) and My Thoughts on Whether to see it

I don’t know about you but every time I see a horror film with a PG-13 I cringe. Not saying all the horror films that get saddled with that rating suck but you can pretty much tell which ones do just by the trailer. And “House at the End of the Street” happens to be just one those. And not in the good way, because from the looks of this trailer the producers’ set audience are your typical PG-13 horror movie wannabes.

“House at the End of the Street” is basically a mother (Elisabeth Shue) and her daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) move to a new town -you know, your fresh start thing- and find themselves setting up shop next store to where a young girl murdered her parents. And when, lo and behold, the new girl makes friends with the surviving son bad things happen. Twists occur and I’m sure in the end it won’t be the young girl who killed the parents but the son… AARRGGGHHH.

So in other words this won’t be making my must see list and I’ll just wait for a night that nothing is on cable to actually try to sit through this.

But hey. That’s just my opinion…

The Return Of “PontyPool“… In “Pontypool Changes”

While perusing the internet the other day I came across Dread Central with them displaying the sales art for the upcoming sequel to (in my opinion) the very cool “Pontypool“. You remember that flick, right? Where sound waves from speech patterns create zombie-like people hell bent on fucking your shit up and generally giving you a bad day.

Adapted from the book “Pontypool Changes Everything”, by Tom Burgess (Burgess also wrote the screenplay) and directed by Bruce McDonald we follow the hard drinking and very opinionated radio DJ Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) as he reports the odd goings on in the far off town Canadian town of Pontypool where he has been, shall we say, demoted too.

The entire movie playing out pretty much inside the radio station with all the information of what is going on outside it’s walls coming from their eye-in-the-sky-traffic-guy Ken Loney (Rick Roberts) as he reports in by cellphone.

“Pontypool” is a nice departure from an overly crowded field of mostly bad zombie films that seem to plague the airwaves and DVD shelves.

From what I have able to gather, “Pontypool Changes”, the upcoming sequel, looks to follow more of the Burgess novel then the first film. The film is supposedly set for release in 2013.

On a strange side note, there actually happens to be a town called Pontypool in Canada, Ontario. Might have to be on the list of locals to see…lol