Week 4 – Feb 09th – Feb 15th.

It has been a busy week here at ‘The Horror! The Horror!’ headquarters what with the Oscars looming ever so close and some of the most nominated movies finally making an appearance on our screens.

Of course it is not all seriousness and pondering either – just this week you faithful servant found time to go see two Frightfest favourites yet again: All The Boys Lvoe Mandy Lane by Jonathan Levine and last year’s Glasgow favourite The Tripper by none other than David Arquette. Mandy Lane is finally getting a cinema release on February 15th (and how appropriate being so close to Valentine’s Day!) whereas The Tripper is going straight to DVD on 31st March courtesy Momentum Pictures. I’ll remind you all of The Tripper when we get closer to the time.

But now on to the news, tis been a good week for those waiting to hear of exciting developments within the horror world!

First, the Finnish horror film Sauna finally gets its’ first teaser. A story of two brothers, who leave a young girl to die and become haunted by her, as she follows them in supernatural form, her face pouring with endless filth. The brothers escape with a commission marking the border between Russia and Finland to a Russian-Orthodox village. In there they find a sauna - The sauna where all sins are washed away. Seeking for forgiveness, the brothers step into the sauna.

Now I don’t know about you but any film that can take the crazy concept of saunas (seriously broiling yourself for fun?!) and then turn it into a horror film and make it crazier gets my vote.

You can watch the teaser right here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=D9H0nWovb40

Next up is Dead Air, a zombie film from America directed by Corbin Bernsen. I know, I can hear you groaning all the way from here but at least this one has an interesting concept: Logan Burnhardt is the ego-king of the airwaves, but his unflappable persona is put to the test when a terrorist bio-attack unleashes a plague of flesh-ripping maniacs on Los Angeles.

The idea of a radio team dealing with an onslaught of zombies whilst trying to warn listeners: there’s just something cool about this one.

You can catch the teaser here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=r756gNwXbcs

Moving on to something a little more different: Chan-Wook Park the king of vengeance has announced that his next project is to be a horror film ; specifically a vampire movie! Evil Live at the moment, he said that they are currently looking for the lead actress to play across Song Kang-Ho as his male lead. However, this is turning out be no small feat since apparently the role has more than its’ fair share of nude scenes! I for one cannot wait!

I nearly damn well had a heart-attack when I read about the next film on our list: Flick is a new film David Howard in which he creates an homage to the drive-in classics of the 50’s and 60’s. However if this wasn’t an exciting prospect enough, he ups the ante by casting the always-stunning Ms. Faye Dunaway as a one armed cop! She plays Memphis cop Lieutenant McKenzie who is called in to investigate a series of strange deaths and wierd sightings following the resurrection of a local boy murder victim from the 1950s who is brought back to life in modern times and tries to find his teenage sweetheart who is now aged 62 and also to seek revenge for his death. Doesn’t that sound awesome? And what with the poster looking so goddamn brilliant, what’s stopping you from watching the trailer and getting excited right now? Nothing, that is!: http://www.flickthemovie.com/

Next we move onto South Korea and a new serial killer flick called Chaser. Jung-ho is an antihero who gives a bad first impression. He's a former cop who got fired for bribery, and now runs a so-called door-to-door masseuse service, which is really a sordid call girl business. The film concerns Jung-ho who is in a sour mood as one call girl vanishes after another. When Mi-jin (Seo Yeong-hi) disappears he notices that they've gone missing after getting a call from the same client, or cell phone number.
While the cops are busy poking around in all the wrong places to retrieve evidence, Jung-ho, convinced that Mi-jin is still alive, embarks on his own investigation It’s been a while since we get to see a good, solid serial killer flick so hopefully this will do the trick. Released in Korea on Valentine’s Day, we’ll have to wait for a release on these shores just yet.

You can watch the teaser here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRx7aDRRrU and the main trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKAwfNdv0cs

The following piece of news from Variety made my blood boil – whne are they going to stop with the crappy remakes already?! Submitted as read:

Days after signing an interim agreement with the Writers Guild, RKO has launched Roseblood Movie Co., a subsidiary that RKO topper Ted Hartley said will remake eight classic horror films churned out by Val Lewton when he headed RKO's low-budget horror unit in the 1940s.The slate includes "Lady Scarface," which will be written by Tony Puryear; "While the City Sleeps," which will be scripted by Shin Shimosawa and Jim Morris; "The Monkey's Paw," which will be scripted by Todd Farmer; and "The Seventh Victim," which doesn't yet have a writer.The other films on the initial slate are "Bedlam," "Body Snatcher," "Five Came Back" and "I Walked With a Zombie," titles identified last year (Daily Variety, June 15) when RKO made a co-financing deal on the quartet with Twisted Pictures, the makers of the "Saw" films."The launching of the Roseblood Movie Co. was the motivating force behind our making an agreement with the Writers Guild," Hartley said. "We've got other projects at RKO, but we needed to get going on this. The most successful ROI in the movie business comes from scary movies that get wide release and cost under $10 million. We've studied it extensively for our stockholders and investors and we saw the opportunity to take the rich Val Lewton library of scary thrillers and create a unique company out of it."The moniker is a play on words from the reveal of "Citizen Kane," the biggest title in the RKO library for which Hartley owns remake rights. He said RKO will put some money in the films and is arranging other financing. Hartley said the program of films will be made over 24 months, and the first one will begin production in the fall. No distribution has yet been set.

There’s no way any of those Lewton movies could be bettered- they are simply stunning pieces of cinema and trying to modernize them is only going end up with atrocities plus how are you ever going to get a cast as good for While The City Sleeps?

And finally , let’s end the week on a good note: our good friend (an amazing storyteller) Adam Green’s psychological opus Spiral (co-directed with Joel Moore) has gotten a limited cinema release stateside. Obviously this doesn’t mean we’ll ever see it at the cinema again but , and here’s the brilliant part, the film will be released on DVD on the 19th February! Which means for those of us who have been dying to see this neat little twister again, Anchor Bay is finally giving us the chance! For those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure of seeing this title, here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4NoVFa_NY

So for now, I must bid you farewell. Hopefully we will have more exciting news next week – until then keep your eyes and ears peeled!

I remain as always your faithful servant.

Evrim ‘The Duke’ Ersoy

P.s. If you haven’t yet heard of or seen the amazing Thai flick 113 Beloved or 13: Game Of Death as it is called now, then you have to prepare yourself! Dimension Extreme is actually releasing this title on March 18th and a remake is already in the works with the Weinstein Brothers. Make sure you pre-order, or buy , or beg , or borrow a copy as thwe film itself is simply amazing. Watch the trailer here and get excited: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X59MSadoKL0

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