Rutger Hauer Joins "True Blood". Maybe it Won't Suck This Season!

If you are like me then HBO’s “True Blood” has been, well, a little on the rough side to watch. While Season 5 of the show was better (slightly) than the 4th which I thought was a complete waste of time I am, however,  while still on the fence, starting too look forward to of Season 6. Mainly because HBO has peeked my interest with adding Rutger Hauer. You know him: “Blade Runner”, “The Hitcher” (and not that shitty Sean Bean version. While I am a fan of the Bean his version of “The Hitcher” was about as fun too watch as having nails jammed into your ballsack... but I digress), “Hobo With a Shotgun”. Yeah, that fucking guy... lol. So I am hoping that with the addition of Hauer to “True Blood” that he breathes in some new life. Apparently from the interweb scuttlebut Hauer is going to be playing Warlow. A badass ancient vampire that killed Sookie’s parents. So it is already looking on the up and up. However, I am a little iffy on the whole “I look like the professor from “Back to the Future”” look look.

I am sure true to “True Blood” fashion that there will be plenty of hot naked bodies and plenty of blood. Because we all know, and no matter how Hollywood tried to tell us different, there is always tons of blood, sex and nudity when it comes to vampires. And THEY DON’T SPARKLE!

Until next time...

Wes Craven Speaks of "Scream", "Coming of Rage" @ SXSW

Apparently, We Craven, horror icon extraordinaire, has been bouncing around South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin. Where the guys over at “Arrow In The Head” got a chance to say a few words to him about possibly another “Scream” film and what the hell ever happened to the comic “Coming of Rage”.  

It seems at the moment that a “Scream 5” is in the hands of the Weinstein brothers (Bob mostly) and according to Craven has not been told anything of when or if a fifth sequel is going to happen. (the fourth movie in the franchise made an estimated 97 million overall so it would be safe to assume that there would be) Also for those of us who have been waiting for a reboot of the classic Craven flick “People Under the Stairs” that has been talked about since 2008, well, it’s a DEAD issue and is no longer in the works. Craven recently told SCiFiNow (January 13th, 2013) that “[We] did explore, very seriously, doing the remake of it... [But] it wasn’t working out -there were a few entities involved with the property and for whatever reasons it just never came together.”

As for the comic (“Coming of Rage) it is still set for release this year. The story of [Rage] follows a teenage boy who apparently was born into a family of vampires, although, he doesn’t find out until his coming of age which doesn't happen until he steps into the middle of a bar fight. During the fight he is helped out by a couple who turn out to be a zombie and a werewolf. The story completely reminds be of Toby Whitehouse’s “Being Human”. As all the supernatural characters as have a touch of humanity in them and is pretty much them against the world.

While I did enjoy “Being Human” (the BBC version per-say of the SyFy one) I think I might hold off on the comic.

You can catch the final season of the British “Being Human” on BBC America later this year and the SyFy version on Monday Nights on, well, the SyFy Channel.  

Until next time...

Stephen King's "The Night Flier""

I found Stephen King’s “The Night Flier” one of the better adaptations done to his original stories. Because we all know when it comes to King being brought to the big screen it can be more miss than hit. Save a few exceptions in the likes of “The Shinning”, “Carrie”, “Christine.” Mostly because they had great directors behind them. That, and the movie actually follows the short story pretty closely.

“Night Flier” follows the exploits of Richard Dees (Miguel Ferrer), ace reporter for the sleaze tabloid magazine Inside View. However, Dees seems to have fallen on hard times as a reporter. And along with an up coming starlet Katherine Blair (Julie Entwistle), who is out to make a name for herself and is breathing down the Dees’ neck, it’s just a matter of time that Dees will find himself washed up. Because in truth, there is not in the way of reporting after you have done the tabloid thing.

Dees is offered a story by his editor (Dan Monahan) about a guy cruising private, out-of-the-way airports in his own plane and is killing the people that he finds there. The twist: The killer is draining the blood of his victims. Even going by the name Dwight Renfield (a character from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”). Dees turns the story down thinking that it is a waste of time. The story then goes to Blair who turns up some interesting info of what has been taking place with the murders. Smelling that this might turn into something, Dees decides to take back the story and sets out in his own plane, back trailing the killings. 

Unfortunately, for Dees, he has no idea that his waste of time story will be the biggest thing to ever come his way.   

American Horror Story Season 3 News

FEARNET via Hollywood reporter is stating that the next (third) season of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” will have a different tone for next for the show. Possibly one that will have more of a horror romance -ala ’True Blood Perhaps”? However, some fan favs will surely be back in the forms of Evan Peters (Kit Carson), Sarah Paulson (Lana) as well as Jessica Lange who, according to Murphy, the next season will revolve around. Lange is also reportedly a non-credited producer of he show now.

Murphy is also reportedly in talks with other actors that had appeared in the season 1 that had NOT returned for 2 to bring them back.

The next season of “American Horror Story” won’t hit the airwaves until October.

"The Last Exorcism Part 2": The Trailer and Thoughts

The much anticipated sequel to the 2010 faux-documentary film “The Last Exorcism” is finally coming out this March. Love or hate the found-footage genre in horror movies today, it did take a relative simple storyline -that of a lost faith preacher as he tries to prove that the way that people take god is WAY to seriously and that they would follow someone off a cliff who had a good enough spiel (Jim Jones anyone?). The first film -for those of you have not seen it- followed Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) as he tried to “exorcize” a demon from the body of a young girl.

Now the whole first half of the movie paints the picture that this girl, Nell (Ashley Bell), is not in fact possessed, by in reality suffers from metal problems and is possibly being molested, if not by her father, then, definitely her brother if not by both. However, Nell’s father comes off as a confused man living in the backwoods of Louisiana, and suffers his own metal problems, in addition with his deep seated beliefs, as he tries to deal with the death of his wife and raise his family from the evils of the world when he is convinced that his daughter is in fact possessed because she has wild mood swings and has supposedly been eviscerating the live stock on the farm.

As Cotton Marcus goes through the motions, for not only Nell’s father, Louis (Louis Herthum), but for the documentary crew as well, strange things start to unfold leading to the fact that Marcus begins to rediscover his faith as he starts to think that Nell might actually be possessed by the demon, Abalam. As the facts of the case start to unfold we learn of a large conspiracy that involves the local church as well as Nell’s brother, Caleb. Leading to a confrontation of what looks to be actually a demon. The confrontation, as a result, also leads to the death of the crew and possibly Cotton Marcus.

Flash forward now to the sequel entitled: “Last Exorcism 2”, producers Eli Roth and the gang at STRIKE have now dumper the found-footage, POV style of filming and have gone the route of the traditional film as we find Nell somewhat safe and sound living in a halfway house in New Orleans. Nell seems to have limited knowledge (or at least portrays herself that way) of the events that took place and how she got to where she is (according to the trailer), but she knows that she is being perused by forces unknown.

While a lot of the movie goers that saw the first film were less than impresses, I in fact was a fan of the film. I thought that “The Last Exorcism” made good use of a style of filmmaking that has, over the years, been way over done and pretty much thrown into effect for movies that had very poor scripts to begin with. Like somehow using POV/Docu-style filming was going to fix the fact that their scripts sucked or they had a good idea and no money to get real actors that can act. Now I am not saying that they needed big or known names. Just people that had acting chops and not just a buff body or a nice pair of tits.

The trailer for “The Last Exorcism 2” has me interested to see where they can take this storyline. While the message boards do not really care for the “Christian” and religious horror films that use good and evil in the subtext of angels and demons -they may be right on some occasions- but some of the best horror films -in my mind- have used religion very effectively in the way they have created a real feel of dread in the theater. (“Omen”, “The Exorcist”, “Hellraiser” just to name few).

The fact is the horror genre will always fall on one two types of movies: The religious angle or that of the masked villain (ie Freddy, Jason, Leatherface). While both styles have been WAY over used they can and are still affective if done the right way. But each to their own.

Until next time….

How Masked Horror Villains Should Jump the Medium

Ah, yes. What I am sure is going to be the next “low-rent” re-hash of one of my favorite horror flicks makes it’s way to the movie theaters today. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” has had some worthy notes to the franchise and some rather full fledge duds as well. And this latest incarnate of Leatherface has me feeling that this is on the latter side of the sequel/remakes.

This time around “TCM” gets a name makeover to the awesomeness of “Texas Chainsaw 3D” (yes, for whatever the fucking reason we get to see Leatherface in all his gory glory in 3D… yay! And yes I am being sarcastic when I say “YAY”). Hollywood seems to still have a hard-on for that for some moronic reason. Sure we have the supper hot Alexandra Daddario for our heroine but is that enough to make me cough up ten plus dollars to sit in the theater, and in January no less. Because we all know that January is the dumping ground for crap movies. That and I have been fucked over too many times with these updates/reboots that have just sucked. (“Friday the 13th” anyone?)

Hey. I am all for a good telling of the same old story. (Just ask any of my friends who get to sit through one of my drunken retellings of days gone by to anyone new and/or willing to listen.) I think with how horror has finally jumped mediums and moved into television we can truly explore some of the old 80s villains. (Hell, they already have Norman Bates & Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lector cued up, ready to go.) Just look how widely respected “American Horror Story” and “Walking Dead” have become. This makes me think that it might be time to explore that thinking. How good of a story do you think can come out of story lines like “Hellraiser” if given a 13 episode run instead of trying to pound 3 lbs of shit into a 80-90 minute flick? Same goes to Freddy, Jason, and the aforementioned Leatherface.

Hopefully Hollywood is watching and taking note if “Bates Motel” takes off. Imagine the great TV horror fans and fans of the great masked villains would be given.

Until Next time…

The "Evil Dead" remake: REDBAND Trailer; Thoughts of It

Okay. I admit it. I was not a fan of Hollywood remaking “Evil Dead”. Not even with the fact that Raimi had something to do with it. However, I am now eating those words after watching the REDBAND trailer for it.

The original “Evil Dead” (the Bruce Campbell ones) I found, while shot on a low budget, pure masterful. Even though they were of more a dark comedy than actual horror (especially 2 & 3) per say. And when I heard the rumor mills start with Hollywood looking to remake the classic from my teen years I was appalled. Because lets face it. Most of the remakes, especially of the horror variety, have pretty much sucked balls. Then they went and attached Diablo Cody’s name to the new version & I was ready to jump out a window. Now its not like Cody is a bad writer and all (I found “Juno” quite good, and I even defended her at times when people talked shit about her), I do believe that she is slightly overrated especially when she talked about being such a huge horror fan and that how she really wanted to do a horror film then gave us the god-awful “Jennifer’s Body” I felt that she should have been taken out and flogged. A little extreme I know, but I really disliked that movie that I had such high hopes for. When I heard Cody’s name pop up with he rewrite for “Evil Dead” I was really starting to think that this remake was going give us tremendous levels suckage.

But all is starting to be forgiven. And I’ll admit that I will be more than happy to eat any amount of crow for thinking and bitching the way I did about the remake of “Evil Dead” if it lives up to what the trailer is promising.