I keep meaning to write reviews for all of the episodes of season one, but until then, here’s the heads up on Season 2. Seven directors are returning, three new vets are signed on (including Brad Anderson, a favorite of this site), with three spots left to fill out the 13 episode series.
All around it’s a pretty solid team with a fairly impressive batting average (though I’m not sure how the guy who made Bones got the gig, man must have one slick agent). I’d bench Tobe Hooper though, as everything he’s done in the past decade has been no good. And no, I’m not cutting him any slack just because he made Texas Chainsaw, one of the landmark indepedent films of American history, his new stuff is just bad no matter how you try to spin it.
Below is the director/writer lineup in the order they are being filmed, but not necessairly the order in which they are airing.
Family
Directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London)
Written by Brent Hanley (Frailty)
Pelts
Directed by Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red, Tenebre)
Written by Matt Venne (White Noise 2)
Not Yet Titled
Directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist)
Pro-Life
Directed by John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, The Fog)
Written by Drew McWeeny, Scott Swan (Carpenter’s last ep, Cigarette Burns, Race With the Devil remake)
Not Yet Titled
Directed by Ernest Dickerson (Demon Knight, Bones)
Not Yet Titled
Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins 1 + 2, Small Soldiers)
Written by Sam Hamm (Dante’s last ep, Homecoming)
The Black Cat
Directed by Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, all other Lovecraft adaptations)
Adapted from Edgar Allen Poe’s story of the same name
Also set to direct, but no info about their episodes yet, Mick Garris (series creator and adaptor of all things Stephen King), Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist) and Tom Holland (Child’s Play). If I remember right, Eli Roth was being courted for an episode, but the man gets attached to projects left and right with few of them ever seeing fruition, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that falls through as well.
Source: Fangoria.com
Does it make me a bad person if I’m not excited by this list at all? I think I’m all “Showtime Horror”-ed out.
Nah, I understand entirely. The only episodes I’m actually excited for are Joe Dante’s (the man is hilarious as a director), Brad Anderson’s and John Carpenter’s.
But given all the talent actively working today, I think they’re pretty much doing the best they can with what they’ve got.
I need to draft up my dream team, that’d actually be fun.
Heh heh. If Dante’s Season Two episode is as good as the first–and he remembers to make it scary as well–it could be a win.
I remember Session 9 being pretty cool, and I also liked The Mechanic… is that all I’d know Anderson for?
However, John Carpenter is pushing the “Tobe Hooper Factor” as far as I’m concerned. It’s getting very close to “put up or shut up” time. (I’m biased though, having never gotten into the whole Halloween thing at all.)
Damn, now I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon wondering if there was ever a good screen adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe…
Yah, that’s all Brad Anderson has done so far (except The Mechanic = The Machinist), but I think he’s a great director with a whole lot of potential.
John Carpenter is the man. For me, he’s donated so much to the bank of good horror that I don’t think he’ll ever reach the ‘Tobe Hooper Factor’ (good way of putting it). There isn’t a lot of lvoe for what he’s done since the ’80s, but I still find a lot to enjoy out of stuff like Vampires and even Ghosts of Mars (though Village of the Damned is worthless), plus In The Mouth of Madness is actually my favorite Carpenter film ever.
I can’t even think of any Poe adaptations, but you should check out this cool trailer for a claymation Pit and the Pendulum:
http://www.thepitandthependulumshortfilm.com/pit.mov
Whoops, Machinist… right. I usually refer to it as “GODDAMN, MAN! EAT A SANDWICH!“
….but where’s Miike?
According to The Horror Channel, he’s in talks for another episode. I doubt he’d turn it down, since the man churns out 5 movies a year, so my guess is its all up to whether or not IDT makes a real offer…