This year has seen zombies in World War 2 (War of the Dead)
and the American Civil War (Exit
Humanity). It has seen the US DVD premiere of The Dead2011 (zombies in West
Africa). They keep on coming. Will it all end with the big budget summer
release of World War Z2013 or will they be
encouraged to a final solution?
In the 2000’s J-Horror meant a Japanese ghost
story earmarked for Yankee remake. Here at Thrill Fiction the term is used as a
catch-all for Asian horror films. It’s looking increasingly provincial and
archaic because Deranged is
a Korean zombie flick. It shares the premise of 28
Days Later2002 but
will it share the impact?
These zombies keep on coming. It is a war
without end.
Derangedopens
July in South Korea. It is awaiting release dates in the US and UK.
The Horror Folk claim Alien1979 as their own as well they should. Previously in Thrill Fiction I have resisted in accepting Ridley Scott’s definitive work as horror. I have always referred to it as scifi but I wrong. It is one of the best horror films ever made.
The difference between it and Aliens1986 is the definition of the series. One can shoehorn in Alien31992 but the good times for fanboys ended there – 20 years ago.
This summer the elderly Scott will attempt to end his career on a high note. Prometheus2012 is an attempt to rescue the series from the 20th Century suits that commissioned Alien: Resurrection1997 and the straight-toDVD caliber that followed.
In a previous vignette Guy Pearce proclaims mankind to be “the new gods”. It is profound. Ridley is aiming for scope. He is aiming for legend. He may well have created myth. He’s got some of the best non-American actors recognizable to Americans to participate. This could feel like fire from the cinema ‘gods’.
Prometheus2012 may not be horror but it belongs to the Horror Folk as much as Alien does.
American Psycho2000 deserves its reverence and Horrorfolk will revere the deserving. Whereas the film is not horror it is a fine example of crossover appeal (reminiscent of Se7en1995). It is director Mary Harron’s second film. Her debut feature is I Shot Andy Warhol1996. These two pictures alone establish her as an auteur more so since she wrote both scripts. Her third movie, TheNotorious Betty Paige2005, was a misstep but not an artistic faux pas.
That is the sum total of her feature cv to date. She has released three films in 16 years because Hollywood rewards box office and ignores the cultural significance of storytelling. That is why McG has directed five pictures in 12 years.
In her first three films Harron has directed Lili Taylor, Christian Bale, Chloë Sevingy, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Willem Dafoe, Gretchen Mol and David Strathairn amongst others. The Moth Diaries2012 is film number four for Harron. There are no names in this feature perhaps because it is a horror film.
The damage done to the contemporary version of bloodsuckers started with Interview with the Vampire1994. Television’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) made the demon palatable to young girls. The Twilight movies finished the job. It is time for vampires to horrify humans again.
Whether The Moth Diaries will achieve this or no is speculation based on the trailer. As her name suggests Harron is female and women bring a different sensibility to the genre. Not everyone is Kathryn Bigelow.
Not everyone directed American Psycho.
The Moth Diaries is released 20 April in the US in limited theatres. DVD and VOD dates to be announced. UK dates to be confirmed.
Now that the yankee carpetbagger is looking elsewhere to plunder the genre can progress in its own direction and at its own pace.
1Here at Thrill Fiction J-Horror is a catchphrase for Asian cinema. This includes but is not exclusive to Japan, Thailand, China, Malaysia and South Korea. It does not include Bollywood as that is its own category.
Doomsday Book2012 is not based on the land survey of England of 10862. Nor is it based on the British scifi novel published in 19923. The forthcoming film is an anthology of three stories; two directors.
Jee-woo Kim is best known to Westerners for A Tale of Two Sisters2003 and I Saw the Devil 2010. Both films were flawed beyond repair but therein remains a great filmmaker awaiting discipline. Pil-sung Yim directed Hansel & Gretel2007 which I’m yet to see. IMDb scored it a 6.9.
So Doomsday Book has pedigree.
Doomsday Book is scheduled for a soft March release in Korea4. US and UK dates to be announced. Thrill Fiction would like to thank Dread Central for use of its exclusive content.
There is the issue of validation when dealing with Hollywood horror: finally the master has noticed me; finally he will spend money on me; I will become belle of the ball.
The success of The Exorcist 1973 hovers over every production like a possibility.
Studio horror intention is at its best this year with The Woman in Black and at its worst with Underworld: Awakening. Red Lights is listed as a thriller1 but its premise and trailer scream horror tropes. This looks like is an A-list film to note however it is being distributed by Millennium Entertainment. They bequeathed the world Faces in the Crowd last year so what do they know?
Director Rodrigo Cortéz helmed Buried 2010. That much lauded film is a one-trick one act stretched into 95 minutes. It is fraud – but like the best cons it fooled the right people.
Robert De Niro was once inspiration to the acting profession and to the public that watched him. He hasn't played a good role since Jackie Brown1997. Sigourney Weaver is what everyone expected from De Niro. She is second only to Meryl Streep. Cillian Murphy is as steadfast as Ed Norton. Elizabeth Olsen is a limited actress inexplicably receiving a huge push.
Or perhaps she is easily explained. The Olsen twins have been in Hollywood for 20 years. Both they and their parents have no doubt built solid connections in that time. If the twins want their little sister to be a star (like they were) there are plenty of sycophants who will oblige. It seems Rooney Mara2 (A Nightmare on Elm Street2010) is taking a similar course – except she has talent.
Despite the red flags Red Lights will create buzz. That's what Robert De Niro does. Despite a previous cringe worthy foray into horror (Hide and Seek 2005). The audience knows if he turns it on its lights out.
Horror films can be categorized by geography for cultural convenience. American horror – which includes Canada – is Hollywood and the independents. J-Horror comprises the significant output from the Far East. Spanish horror includes the eponymous nation, Portugal and Latin America.
What’s left can be lumped together as ‘foreign horror’. There’s an argument for British horror but Hammer’s heyday was in the 70s1. The Italians have their own brand (Giallo) but that is indicative of their country and not the region. The French [Frontier(s)2007, La Horde2010, La Meute2011] have wishful thinking.
This begs the question of Scandinavia. Let the Right One In2008 is a great horror film but the region suffers the same blight as the UK; a lack of output resulting in irrelevance. Of the 60 plus films Ingmar Bergman2 directed only one of them was horror3 so his zombie can stay in its casket.
Norway’s Trollhunter2010 toured the international festival circuit last year. It garnered great reviews and a UK theatrical release. The bad news is this low budget POV camcorder-cinema was the highest profile Scandinavian horror movie of 2011.
Babycall2012 is a first: a Scandinavian horror film headlined by a movie star.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (pub 2005) by Stieg Larsson is the first novel in the Millennium Series. By 2010 the series had been translated into English and was on sale in the United States4. It is a trilogy of worldwide bestsellers5. Each book has been adapted into (Swedish made) thrillers starring Noomi Rapace.
Hollywood may have shunned Rapace when she wasn’t cast in the American Tattoo remake but it was an astute decision. She was too old to play The Girl in the originals. Nevertheless her performances endeared her to the Millennium fanbase. Hollywood may not have shunned Rapace; she was cast in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 2011 and Prometheus2012.
She is a movie star.
How long she remains one is open to precedent. Americans do not tolerate foreign accents. So where the English may get away with it the Australians don’t and the South Africans can’t. Rapace must americanise herself the way her Prometheus costar Charlize Theron has.
Once upon a time there was a European actress hot of a foreign hit that was later remade. Anne Parillaud was the star of Nikita1990 but couldn’t shake her French accent. It took one (horror) film for Hollywood to get bored and deport her. Parillaud now works in French TV.
A movie star can kick-start a genre. Noomi Rapace is the only Swede who fits the job description. She could carry the weight of that nation or the whole of Scandinavia in her resume. It’s yet to be seen if her name alone can carry Babycall to success. If she does pull it off then the horrorfolk can look forward to output from the dark psyche of planet earth.
In word association for me ‘genie’ evokes Christina Aguilera.
We’re all of a certain time and place and age.
When I was a kid the word meant receiving something for nothing – but be careful what you wish for (Manchester City fc1). Due to the informative quality of horror movies westerners now know ‘genie’ is another word for ‘djinn’.
After the downfall of Muammar Kaddafi last year one piece of dirty linen was found in Hollywood. The dictator’s son Al-Saadi had invested $100million in a LA production company Natural Selection2. All bets are now off including purported films involving Mickey Rourke and Susan Sarandon’s daughter.
Tobe Hooper is a Horrormeister. He directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre1974 and Poltergeist1982. His new film Djinn2012 has been the subject of speculation3 over the last few days. It is funded by an Arab production company – Imagenation Abu Dhabi. The speculation revolves around the portrayal of Arabs in the film thus its rumoured subsequent burial.
See what happens when you take dirty oil money?
The good news for Hooper is the rumours are (apparently) false.
The film will be released later this year. The cautious take is Tobe Hooper hasn’t made good since television’s Masters of Horror. The most recent output from those other Masters of Horror Wes Craven, John Carpenter and George A Romero have been atrocious.
The worst remake ever made is Psycho1998. The film was directed by Gus Vant Sant and starred Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche and Julianne Moore. Van Sant was a respected director at the time and his cast remain active 14 years later. What killed the remake was the now infamous direction. Van Sant copied Hitchcock shot-for-shot. It begged the question by definition; why remake?
La Casa Muda2011 is a Uruguayan found footage horror flick with more gimmicks than William Castle. This rush-to-production cash-in-cow American remake replicates the dishonesty. ‘Real terror in real time’ is an allusion to the purported one-shot-cinema – which is a blatant lie. ‘Inspired by True Events’ is a fabrication that could apply to The Muppets Take Manhattan1984 (à la Kourtney and Kim).
One of the Osmonds Olsens plays the lead. Elizabeth made a lot of noise for her role in Martha Marcy May Marlene2011. That film is American independent cinema at its most torpid. If Elizabeth Olsen is the new indie it-bit the good news is she will gravitate away from horror. The bad news is Silent House2012.
Silent House is released March 9 in the US.
The original La Casa Muda is available on DVD in the US and UK. It is the Uruguayan select for the Academy Awards 2012.
Last year there were zombies in West Africa (The Dead2011) and Germany (Rammbock2011). This year there could be zombies in Cuba (Juande los Muertos) as well as Russia.
The spread of the infection in the mainstream remains surprising because as a metaphor zombies are the antithesis of the mainstream. Nevertheless Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’ was anti-mainstream but that didn’t stop the Republicans2.
When the object of criticism celebrates the critique then art has been successful.
Meteletsa2012 is set Mother Russia where the people are hard because they have to be. Quite frankly those zombies have no chance.
George A Romero’s Dead trilogy will live forever as the greatest in horror movies if not in film entirely. Zombie fiction as written or filmed by others does not come close. There is Romero – there is everything else.
At the top of everything else are films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters1979, Return of the Living Dead 1985 and [●REC]2007. The latter spawned a sequel. A third film is incoming.
[●REC]22009 had a narrative flaw that was unforgiveable to some (but not to me). If [●REC]32012 surpasses its predecessor then horror fans will fan another zombie trilogy to treasure ad infinitum.
Joss Wheldon has to take ownership of The Cabin in the Woods 2012 the way Guillermo del Toro takes ownership of the movies he’s produced. This film is being marketed on Whedon’s name alone. It has been filmed in secrecy, delayed and reshot. A Martin Scorcese film wouldn’t survive that trauma.
Here’s the trailer:
Josh Whedon say what?
The Cabin in the Woods is released 13th April in the US and UK.
There was a time a Spike Lee film meant something. An Oliver Stone film meant something. A Martin Scorcese film meant something. Those times are gone. All three directors are still working but their recent output means nothing.
Ti West directed House of the Devil2009 and Cabin Fever 22010. The Innkeepers2011 could and should be his entry into horrormeister status. Yet for all his critical and fanboy accolades The Innkeepers is his second film in a row to bypass theatres. There is no doubt in my mind that this (young) director is on the ascent. All he needs is a stab at the mainstream alas The Innkeepers is not it.
Sight unseen it is potentially one of the best horror films of the year. This is because it is directed by Ti West. His films mean something.
Saw2004 is great entertainment. It’s a puzzle film similar to the likes of Se7en1995 and Cube1997. The Saw impact was such that it spawned a franchise and popularised a subgenre.
The once popular subgenre torture porn is dead.
Hostel2005 is a good film. The torture porn label is accurate but the criticism is unjustified. All a genre film has to do is hit those perfect beats and then add flavouring. Hostel achieves this thus making the film palatable to discerning genre fans. Hostel2 starring Heather Matarazzo and Bijou Phillips was a cash grab piece of trash.
Where will Hostel3 fit in this? Its subgenre is dead and a belated sequel always sounds like a belated cash grab. Creator Eli Roth has no input in this instalment for better or worse.
The Wrong Turn franchise has a life on Straight-to-DVD. The first the first two sequels were better than they ought to have been (Wrong Turn 4 2011 is worse than imaginable). As such there is hope for Hostel3.
Theoretically.
Hostel3 is released on DVD 27th December in the US. Thrill Fiction would like to thank Bloody Disgusting for use of their exclusive content.
As much as it irks me that the future of British horror is in the hands of a Dutch reality TV mogul I must concede that The Woman in Black2012 ticks all the boxes for a great film.
This is the movie that will legitimise Daniel Radcliffe as a star. It’ll put Hammer back on the horror map. It’ll make director James Watkins a Master of Horror contender. It may well be film of the year. I predict box office bonanza.
To understand my enthusiasm you can buy the eponymous book and/or watch the television adaptation on Youtube.
The Woman in Black opens wide 3rd February in the US and 10th February in the UK.
Prior to the release of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 the great debate amongst the fanboys was the shifting of Freddy Kruger from child killer to child molester. Some supported it. Some apologised for it. Some of us hated it.
This year the online yakking concerns Universal’s marketing. They’re calling The Thing2011 a prequel. The simple minded believe them just like the simple minded believed Hitler when he called them a ‘master race’.
As soon as art reaches the public it becomes owned by the public. Graffiti expresses New York. Murals tell the story of the Irish in the nine counties. Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the US’ was a call to right-wing arms. Child’s Play1988 is a video nasty.
For good or ill the public at large will misinterpret or reinterpret the artist’s original intent. Every artist must be aware that they may suffer that. Every artist must be aware that there is a section of the public that will scrutinise and analyse. These are the fanboys; the hardcore; the smart marks. They look closer – out of love.
John Carpenter’s The Thing1982 tells a different story to different people. It is scifi, paranoid thriller and/or horror. It tells a different story with each viewing. It is a work of excellence. It was a box office failure upon release. The fanboys of subsequent generations have elevated it to classic.
Hollywood has a new generation at work. They are the likes of production house Anchor Bay and writer Eric Heisserer – the man who rewroteA Nightmare on Elm Street1984. This new generation make movies by numbers. This hack Heisserer rewrote John Carpenter’s The Thing1982.
The following red band is similar to the Terminator Salvation 2009 trailer: it’s noisy and says nothing. Anyone who has watched the original is going to hate this remake. There are anti-story jump scares and too much monster taking centre stage. All this can be gleaned from the trailer (and clip). Them’s the best bits.
The Thing2011 may advertise itself as a prequel but do not be deceived. It’s a remake or less. It’s a ripoff.
The Thing is released 14th October in the US and 2nd December in the UK.
