News Update: David Gordon Green's Suspiria

Ah, amongst the sadness caused by the news of this remake, there is hope.

It seems David Gordon Green will be using the original soundtrack by Goblin for the new film. So at least we know that even if it sucks, it'll have a great soundtrack, kind of like Sucker Punch!

Read more »

David Gordon Green to remake Suspiria

NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! 

OK, now that that's out my system, let me tell you about David Gordon Green's (Pineapple Express, Your Highness) plan to remake the horror classic, Suspiria. 

Let me start off by saying that I think this is an absolutely awful idea and who ever thought of it should be shot. Harsh? Yes, deservedly so. Why, just why, would a director, like David Gordon Green, ever in a million years, ever even think of remaking Dario Argento's masterpiece? Is this some kind of cruel joke?

Personally, I thought Pineapple Express was....awful (sorry stoners). Could this be because of my burning hatred for James Franco? Yeah, that's probably why. And just by watching the trailers I can tell Your Highness will be even worse. 

Right now, this whole Suspiria business is just a rumor, and hopefully one that will end up not being true.

How could you ever have a Suspiria without a soundtrack by Goblin? Without the classic, iconic theme song? Without the master Dario Argento behind the camera calling the shots?  

With a film like Suspiria, I feel like a director, such as David Gordon Green, who isn't experienced in the genre, won't do it justice, and Suspiria is a film that, if remade, better be done correctly.  Personally, I would love to see a Ti West Suspiria, I think he's one of the few people who could do it justice. But we'll have to see what Mr. Green can do, but let it be known that I have no faith in this remake.

Read more »

Blinky

Academy Award nominated director Ruairi Robinson's new robot-slasher (did I just invent a new genre?) short film Blinky is awesome! and you can watch the whole thing right here!

Blinky™ from Ruairi Robinson on Vimeo.

Read more »

Horror Remakes: The Good, the Bad, and the Terrible

Over the past 5 years, the horror genre has been dominated by remakes and reboots of classic films. To some people, the newer films are the only ones they've seen. So are these remakes helping the genre or destroying it?

The most destructive factor that comes in to play when it comes to horror remakes is fans that are new to the genre. To some naive fans who don't know very much about horror, 2006's The Hills Have Eyes is the only one they've heard of. I'm not saying that I have anything against this film, I happen to like it, but it isn't the original and no matter how good a remake is, you should always see the original first and this is mostly due to the fact that there are those terrible remakes out there.

Take, for example, the 2009 "reboot" of Friday the 13th. This is by far one of the worst horror remakes in history. First of all, I don't even know how this can be called a reboot or remake considering both the plot and the killer are completely different then in the 1980 Friday the 13th which featuring no Jason Voorhees character until the last few seconds and this Jason certainly wasn't a full grown man in a hockey mask. Now, I'll give the directors the fact that this Jason has become the most iconic figure in horror, so I understand why they used him, however, Marcus Nispel, who also directed the much better Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, had apparently never seen the first 3 Friday films. To avoid ranting about this film for the next half hour, I'll finish by saying that this remake plays out as if the person who wrote it had only seen Freddy vs Jason and none of the actual Friday the 13th movies. 

Yet another horrible remake is, of course, the 2006 version of The Wicker Man (NO NOT THE BEES!). The fact that Nicolas Cage is the star of this film should automatically give away that it'll be god awful, but it succeeds in being beyond that bad. The acting is so horrible that the movie actually plays out more like a comedy than it does a horror film. I can't even explain in words how badly it disgraces the Christopher Lee version (which is very good). Nicolas Cage is so bad in The Wicker Man that there's an entire youtube video dedicated to his awfulness in that film alone.

However, among the wreckage that that is horror remakes, there are some gems.

One of which is the masterpiece remake of the incredible Swedish vampire film known in the States as Let Me In. Going into this film last October, I wasn't sure what I was about to see. The Swedish version (Let The Right One In) is no doubt an instant classic, and as we saw with films like The Ring, foreign remakes usually flop. Surprisingly, I was blown away by Let Me In. It had everything that Let The Right One In had (minus the subtitles, of course) and much more. It's always great to see an incredible film get an equally incredible remake.

This is also true with horror aficionado Rob Zombie's reboot of the Halloween series. Some fans discredit Rob Zombie's Halloween by saying that it adds too much gore that wasn't present in the original. However, the absence of gore in the original is something that just wouldn't work in a modern slasher. After films like Hostel and Saw, people want blood and more blood and then some more blood. I thought that Rob Zombie did a great job of integrating the blood and gore into the story of Michael Myers and by remaking the film, it's obvious that Rob Zombie was going to put his own twist into it and as we saw with House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects, Mr. Zombie is pretty fond of piling on the bloody shocks and gory thrills.

When it comes to remakes, good or bad, new fans should always see the original first, and this is something I cannot stress any more. Hopefully over the next few years, remakes such as Fright Night (SEE THE ORIGINAL FIRST) and Hellraiser won't fail to deliver the same thing that drew us in to the original film and got us hooked.

Read more »

Insidious (2011)

A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further. (via IMDB)

Insidious (or the movie with haunted Justin Bieber on the poster) is Saw and Dead Silence director James Wan's new paranormal horror film about malevolent spirits haunting a young boy.

In recent years, paranormal films have been, well, they've been terrible. Movies like A Haunting in Connecticut and An American Haunting are just so bad that they have given people a bias view of all paranormal films. Even Paranormal Activity couldn't really save the genre of paranormal horror, instead it prompted some bad knock offs and a god awful sequel.

However, I have faith in James Wan. The original Saw is an amazing stand alone film (also with a few god awful sequels) and to be honest, I didn't mind Dead Silence.

Insidious looks like it has great potential to be exactly what the paranormal horror genre needs. The trailer is exceptionally creepy and if you manage to catch it (it goes by pretty quickly) there's a part with a super cool looking red demon bad guy standing behind Patrick Wilson's character. (fig. A).

Fig A.

The only thing that I do worry about with Insidious is the PG-13 rating. On a personal note, I was drawn to horror movies initially because it's a genre that always pushes the boundary. Whether it be with blood and gore, graphic violence, social commentary, or taboo themes, horror movies never hold back. A PG-13 rating in horror movies is always a bit of a turn off. Some films, like Drag Me to Hell and 1408 manage to pull it off perfectly, but you can't always assume that others movies will be able to do the same.

However, the PG-13 rating could in fact be a good thing as well, especially for a movie like Insidious. This rating will mean that it's a film that doesn't run on shock value, but actual scares and terror.

So we'll have to wait and see how James Wan manages to pull it all together this April in Insidious.

Release Date: April 1st 2011

Director: James Wan

Notable Actors:  Patrick Wilson

Official Wesbite: Insidious Official Website

Official Trailer: 

Read more »

Yet another Wolfman reboot in the works

"Universal is out to writers for what they're calling a period piece reboot (again) of George Waggner's classic 1941 film starring Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man.

The only details I have is that it's supposed to start a fresh direct-to-disc franchise like what they're doing with Death Race, although their direction is still unconfirmed. " (via Bloody Disgusting)

So it seems that The Wolfman will once again be getting a reboot.

Unlike most fans I've talked to, I enjoyed the Benicio Del Toro Wolfman. I thought it had an overall darkness that really worked for the story of a tortured man turned into a hellish beast. 

Well, despite what I think, the series is getting a period piece reboot that will apparently be direct-to-DVD. I don't really have as much faith in direct-to-DVD horror like 2001 Maniacs as I do in direct-to-DVD action like Undisputed III: Redemption, but we'll have to see how they manage to make yet another Wolfman movie without seeming completely unoriginal and repetitive. 

Read more »

Website Review: Fright Rags Clothing

Fright-Rags

With a slogan like "Kick-Ass Horror Shirts", it's obvious from the start that Fright-Rags isn't your average clothing company.

With mainstream companies like Ed Hardy and Affliction using skulls and other death-related imagery, it's hard for a horror fan to find quality clothing that will make them stick out as a horror fan and not just another person buying into the current fashion craze. 

Team David

I mean, when was the last time you walked into a store and found a t-shirt with a blood soaked Bruce Campbell wielding a chainsaw? or David from The Lost Boys ripping Edward Cullen's head off? or anything even remotely related to movies like Street Trash and Maximum Overdrive?

Enter Fright-Rags.

Now sure, you could type in "horror t shirts" on Google and find plenty of websites offering shirts with vintage horror movie posters printed on the front of them (not that there's anything wrong with that), but these are all images that, as horror fans, we've seen a hundred times already, and sometimes we just want more than that. 

"Sick of the same old horror shirts? So were we...and that's why we started FRIGHT-RAGS! Since 2003, we've been bringing horror fans from around the world the best in horror t-shirts and apparel. We know what you want, because we're fans ourselves. From cult classics to even the most obscure films, we have the horror shirts you want...better yet, the horror shirts you NEED." (via Fright Rags)

Killer Klowns from Outer Space

As they so perfectly stated on the website, they're horror shirts for horror fans by horror fans, so they know exactly what you want. The designs are all original, and usually depict exactly which scene of the movie you want on your shirt, not just a reproduction of the poster. 

 One thing about Fright-Rags that really stands out the most (other than the amazing and original designs) is the customer service. You can tell right off the bat that these are regular guys who run the website, not some corporation. If, for some reason, you aren't happy with the shirt you ordered, you can send it right back for a full refund. It's obvious that the people at Fright Rags care more about customer satisfaction than they do about the money they make off of their customers. 

Another interesting characteristic of Fright-Rags is that the designs are changing all the time. With some companies or artists, its the same 3 graphics on different articles of clothing, but with Fright-Rags not only are there a ton of designs to pick from, but there are also designs that haven't been released yet, or even created yet for that matter, so it's the type of website that you'll find yourself checking every once in a while to see which shirt you need to buy next.

Basically, Fright Rags is the #1 place for die hard fans to get the best shirts on the market with the best designs on the market. So what are you waiting for? Head over the Fright-Rags right now and place your order!

www.fright-rags.com

Dead Alive

Read more »