Prometheus

There is so much internet buzz about Promethius, and as with most things before they are released I am trying to do my best to avoid any possible spoilers. This includes me not actually seeing an actual trailer for the movie, but I have to put my trust in ridley scott. The only things that I actually have seen are the grand set pieces that are reminiscent of Alien. What I do know is that Promethius is set in the same universe as Alien, one of my favorite movies. Ridley Scott is returning to the director’s chair for this sequal? Prequel? Whatever it is I cannot wait. Promethius supposedly will not have the famous alien or its face huggers, but I am very okay with that, especially after seeing one of their viral marketing for the movie, featuring one of my favorite rising stars Michael Fassbender. Fassbender will play a human like robot named David. His demeanor and speech are so close but there is still a distance. The way he stresses some words, is definitely causing some distress. Watch the video below to get a better understanding of what I mean. This summer is going to be a great one, with Avengers, Spiderman, and the Dark Knight Rises, but I really think that the one I am most excited for has to be Promethous. I think there is something more mysterious, about it, I really hope that it lives up to the hype. I hope that they don’t just remake alien, but I definitely feel like that they are smarter than that. It’s been a few years since I have been this excited about a Science Fiction space movie, I think the last was Moon which was beautiful. I have complete faith that this movie will be one of the best of the year.

Cabin in the Woods

So Cabin in the Woods, I guess I have very little left to say on the matter, but really quick on the blog I wanted to post a picture of the white board that the puppetmasters place their bets on. It is easily one of the best parts of the movies, and gets all your nerd juices running. It is just an easy list of some cliché horror movie monsters but its so good none the less. The horror classics are there: werewolf, alien, zombies, whitches, clowns, demons, snake, mummy, and vampire. But seeing it all at once is just enough to go wild. The board includes nods to other movies like the “angry molesting tree” a total nod to Evil Dead and also Deadites, which is what the zombie like demons in Evil Dead are called, which shows how much respect Weedon has for Sam Rami and the whole seriese itself. The Hell Lord is a nod to Hell Raiser. The next groups areother stapeles of horror lore reanimated, jack o lantern, scarecrows, wreatihs, the doctords, sasquatch. And finally the ones that get the most laughs from the crowd: not just witches but “sexy witches”, a Unicorn which doesn’t seem terrifying, but when it spears a random person later on the laugh is one of the best in the movie. DragonBat is a personal favorite of mine, as well as the terrifying merman. Also, never rule out Kevin. The whole movie gets my undying respect and love, I just wanted to point out one of the best things that is easy to miss if you only see once.

Stuck In a Rut

After writing about famous directors that got their start in the genre it made me think harder about the ones who never were able to shake off the stigma of being a writer or director of horror. The person I think about the most is George A Romero, the creator and director of Night of the Living Dead. He was so promising as I have stated before Dawn of the Dead is one of the best not just zombie films but horror films in general. The way that it statires mall culture, and consumerism in America was outstanding. He singlehandedly created the modern day zombie, but from there what else was there. Night of the Living Dead, Dawn and Day of the Dead, Crazies, Martin, and Creepshow are all horror classics, but what else was there. He will forever be known as one of the greats of independent cinema. But after 1988’s Monkey Shines there is little else to him. Hollywood started remaking all the first two movies he did, and poorly I might add, but this lead to the zombie boom of the last ten years. Romero, it seemed would be back on top, the grandfather of the zombie, however all the movies he made were terrible. Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the dead were all critically panned, even by fans of the genre. It is a shame that Romero couldn’t ever get away from the world of zombies.

Stigma #2

There are of course directors that absolutely transend this mold. Hitchcock is absolutely renowned as one of the greatest directors of all time and Pycho will almost always be noted as one of the best “horror” films, with Norman Baits always being known as one of the best “horror” villians. The Brids and Rear Window are also notable as being inbetween the horror and thriller categories. Peter Jackson won an academy award for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but will always be beloved by the entire film community not because of the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit series, but because of his first two movies, cult favorites Dead/Alive and XXXX , two low budget gorefests filmed in his native New Zeland. David Cronenburg comes to mind. Sam Rami of Spiderman fame directed The Evil Dead seriese and Army of Darkeness, two of the largest cult films that are loved by many. Ridley Scott is another great director. Alien is one of the scariest movies ever made, and it is wonderfully shot and clostrophobic that it always is on the list of greatest movies of all time. He went on to direct Blade Runner, and Gladiator. Even giant James Cameron who directed the two most profitable movie of all time Titanic and Avatar directed Aliens. Rosemary’s Baby which is one of the creepiest, and most loved movies of all tme was directed by the controvercial Roman Polanski. The movie itself transends horror s does Stanley Kubrik’s The Shining. What is it about these two movies especially that people will take as far as not even calling them horror. What is the stigma? Why do we perpetuate this.

Stigma #1

Ok, the whole thing is tricky. Putting a movie into a specific genre. Where do thrillers end and horror movies begin. I guess I should lead off with what got me thinking, there exists a movie titled Apt Pupil. It was adopted from a Steven King short story and stars the always wonderful Ian McLellin as an ex-Nazi living out his days in hiding in the United States, his neighbor takes interest, and eventually finds out who he is, which leads to more deception, and domination over each other. The movie explains that as a nazi Sir Mclellins character was responsible for many atrocities, which intetest the boy even more. They both take on traits of eachoter and eventually leads to a murder as well as him being found out by the Isreali procecutors. The movie is labeled as a thriller, and I would totally agree, however it contains what I believe to be some of the most gutwrenching, and terrifying things I have ever watched. There is very little blood and gore in this movie, but the domination that the boy takes over, as well as his actions and behavior throught the movie makes for a very interesting, if not terrifying movie.
Now thrillers being labeled as horror is nothing new, but I feel like the other way around is a much higher mark. Movies like Fallen, Apt Pupil, and Pycho are very easy to suggest to fans of the horror genres, but it seems that a movie must reach a certain level of prominence before it can lose its stigma of being a horror film.

Chillerama

Ugh. Ok so everything I have reviewed so far I have pretty much loved, or spoken highly about, but I cannot about this movie. Infact I am deliberately writing this review out of pure unadulterated hate for this film. A midnight movie, great I love those, Trick or Treat is one of my favorite horror movies that came out in the last 10 years, and I have a special place in my heart for Steven King and George A Romeros Creep Show, movies with short little vinyettes sometimes interwoven or with a background. CHillerama I guess you could say falls into the same category, but I hate to even mention these movies in the same breath. Chillerama came recommended from a few friends, but I have no idea why. The movie centers around a drive in theater, but on a night where zombies raise from the dead, we are shown 3 movies, interspereced with the coming zombie apocalyplse. The movies which I even refuse to say the name of any of them because they are discusting, or flat out offensive, are trite. There is no substance, only mean spirited jokes, or jokes played only to be offensive. There is an entire movie that is completely unwatchable, because it is so uncomfortable because it is so homophobic and full of terrible stereotypes. I understand what the 4 directors tried to do when started, but they failed miserably. Honestly do not listen when people say it is light hearted and its supposed to be that way, it is not it falls flat and is not worth wasting an hour and a half of your life on.

The Collector

Walking around the local Family Video, almost every newer horror movie on the shelf says from the creators of Saw, or from the writers of saw one, three, or five, or any number of the seemingly endless sequels that exist in the franchise. Let me say this right now, stop, no one cares who wrote the sequels of Saw, they weren’t good, and certainly the writing and dialogue was the weakest part. I know that I have really no room to talk, but there are just so many boxes that feature this prominently. That said, I did take home a movie like this called The Collector. It written by the guys who wrote Saw IV through VII, but what confuses me is that they also did the Feast trilogy, which is to me a much better film series, it does not take its self seriously, much of it is played for laughs, and unlike a lot of horror movies, the jokes actually work. Doesn’t matter, back to The Collector, this movie is not funny, like at all. It revolves around a man named Arkin, a reformed criminal, who is working on a house in the country, it turns out that his ex wife owes people money, so Arkin decides to rob the family that he is working for. He breaks into the house to discover that the house has been booby trapped, and that someone else is there trying to both kill or collect family members. Ok so kind of a silly plot, and the more you think about it the dumber the idea of setting up such intricate booby traps is, but somehow I didn’t hate it. I didn’t hate it to the point that I kind of liked it. Arkin is such a good character, he is so likeable, because he does have so much heart. I can’t spoil you any more, but this movie is worth watching for any horror fan, or I guess anyone who wanted to see an adult version of the Mcully Kulkin Home Alone movies.

The Muppets

On their first outing since their debatably muppetesque ‘Muppets in Space’, the muppets make a return to form in 2011’s ‘The Muppets’. At the helm, we have (thankfully) a man who grew up loving the muppets for what they were, Jason Segel. Once word got out that he would be writing and starring, there was little doubt that the muppets would stray from what made them so arresting almost 40 years ago. What we have is a fantastically self aware and family friendly movie with laughs and heart. The new muppet, Walter, is Jason Segel’s little brother and the two of them are the muppet’s biggest fans. They drive out to California and take a tour from Alan Arkin of the old Muppet’s studio. When Walter over hears Tex Richmen, the greedy, oil loving tycoon is going to buy it and destroy it, he decides that he must reunite the muppets to save the theaters. Jason Segel’s love interest, Amy Adams, is fantastic as always. The two have a side plot going on that only adds to their strength of character without overpowering the muppets plot, which is, after why we’re watching this move. The cast is star studded, with plenty of cameos and pleasant surprises along the way. Plenty of enjoyable nostalgia and some of the catchiest songs for a movie in recent memory, the muppets movie is worth your time. It’s nice to see a movie low on computer animation, and actual heart. Something tat is truly hard to come by these days. Love and accept each other, kindness and laughs will always win out.