Week Two – 21st January 28th January

Another week, another bundle of news, reviews, gossip and trailers to pass on. I don’t know how everybody else spent their last week but mine was a fair divide between work and movies. There’s so much good stuff to see at the moment and I’m trying to see every film on the original long nomination list for Best Foreign Picture Oscar that if the days were 48 hours long, they might still be just a tad short.

Let’s start this week with a trailer for Frightfest friend Adam Mason’s new film Blood River. Although I am less than a fan of Mr. Mason’s work (talk about the understatement of the year), Blood River does have a plot that could potentially be interesting. Then again Broken sounded potentially interesting and ended up being potentially responsible for an attempted suicide on my behalf so you can never tell about something before you see it. The film is set in 1969 and tells the story of Clark and Summer who are happily married with Summer expecting their first baby. On their way across Arizona to California in order to bring the good news about the pregnancy to Summer’s parents; they drive across the seemingly never ending and desolate desert landscape when they have a blow out. It’s a nasty one that sends the car into a massive, near fatal crash. They crawl out of it, hurt but alive, Summer terrified for the well being of her unborn child. The nearest place on the map is the uninviting sounding town of Blood River where they meet a mysterious stranger, Joseph. The clash between Joseph and Clark reaches fever pitch and drives the characters ever closer to a violent, destructive and shocking conclusion that will chill you to the bone. You can access the full, uncut trailer here: http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1299148583&channel=1214718128&lineup=1338935057

Next up is Midnight Meat Train, based on Clive Barker’s short story and directed by Ryuhei Kitamura who was behind the brilliant and inventive Versus and the fairly entertaining Azumi, the film tells the story of a New York photographer who unwillingly witnesses Mahogany, a butcher, using the subway system as his killing floor. As Bradley’s obsession with Mahogany grows deeper, he tries to find the reason behind the seemingly senseless killings and risks his life for a truth that may be better left unknown. The story itself was a sharp, short shock to the system, proudly opening one of Mr. Barker’s Books of Blood and the film has so far shown great potential. When you also consider that it is our very own Vinnie Jones in the role of Mahogany, there seems to be no reason left not to get excited. Access the full trailer here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8pifkqLq6c0

For those poor souls out there who were less than enamored with the last offering from Argento might be pleased to hear the announcement reported by Variety last week. Apparently Mr. Argento’s next project is to be Giallo, an English language homage to the genre which made him famous, starring none other than prickly star Vincent Gallo and of course, the beautiful and mannish Asia Argento. Also Ray Liotta is in talks to play the lead detective who will be investigating serial slashing perpetrated by Gallo’s character and having to play a game of cat-and-mouse. So far most of the details are sketchy, but we can hope that this will signal a return to form for Mr. Argento.

And some connected news to the previous item, John Carpenter is preparing to shoot a new movie titled L.A. Gothic which includes five interwoven stories about a priest trying to save his teenaged daughter from demonic forces. The interesting thing about both this and the announced Argento project is that they are both being written by the same screenwriter(s); namely Mr. Sean Keller and Mr. Jim Agnew. It will be interesting to see two very-well respected directors with outputs less than stellar in recent years , come up with two very different projects (hopefully bringing them back to the limelight and gaining some that lost respect) use the same pair of screenwriters.

If you were not one of the lucky ones to see the special preview of Neil Marshall’s upcoming wasteland film Doomsday fret not as the trailer has finally hit the screens. An opening date of 1st April has been given for the U.S. and we can expect to see the film on these shores sometimes around the March/April months. Although the trailer is nowhere as bloody and cool looking as the stuff that was screened at Frightfest last August, it is still more than enough to get this write into a frenzy. You can watch it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=feELmdZUrTs&feature=related

I don’t know about you guys, but I was really excited to hear about new Swedish vampire flick by Tomas Alfredson titled Let The Right One Come In. Based on a best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the film tells the story of Oskar, a bullied boy who finds love through Eli, a beautiful and peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire. The film is Alfredson’s debut project and looks like it might be much better than any other vampire flick that we have seen in recent years. You can watch the trailer here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=flcm66HyElg

Finally, this week saw the poster for Quentin Tarantino produced Hell Ride materialize. With a cast that includes Mr. Michael Madsen, Mr. Dennis Hopper , Mr. David Carradine and Mr. Vinnie Jones and directed by Mr. Larry Bishop (who aced in mad classics such as Angels Unchained and The Devil’s 8) , the biker gang film styled after the 60’s/70’s classics looks like it might turn out to be one hell of a trip! You can access the poster (and drool) here: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/sundancenews.php?id=4315

And that’s it for this week. Be sure to let me know of any stuff that I might have missed and hope you have a full-on, movie-mad week. Remember to watch Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber Of Fleet Street on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as this might be THE Tim Burton film we have long been waiting for.

Until next time

Evrim ‘The Duke’ Ersoy

P.s. Over the weekend I watched a lost Turkish horror classic from 1970’s titled The Dead Don’t Talk (Oluler Konusmazki). The film is absolutely non-sensical, but also totally, brilliantly weird and oddly stylized. Comes highly recommended from me especially for the single person flashback scene, the stolen music (from Rosemary’s Baby to 2001: A Space Odyssey to weird Ennio Morricone bits) and the unnecessary and totally unfunny (film-ruining almost) comedic elements please catch the trailer here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TjlRRL5K8ao For more weird Turkish wonders, watch this space!