I can imagine in the context of the time, with Hammer Films entering its final creaky decade and with the stunt casting of twin Playboy Playmates, that Twins of Evil would’ve been received as one of Hammer’s lesser efforts. No matter; time and distance have been kind to Twins of Evil. The Collinson Twins carry none of the baggage of their time, having faded from the public eye, and Hammer’s old-fashioned gothic approach feels appropriately classic now, not as dusty as it did in the wake of eye-opening contemporaries like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.
Synapse has brought the film to Blu-ray (in a Blu/DVD combo pack), the first time the movie has been available since the days of VHS (Synapse also did the same for Hammer’s Vampire Circus, which is a great disc, even if the feature isn’t as strong as Twins of Evil). For Hammer fans, Twins of Evil is a must-own. The HD transfer is vivid with sharp contrast and lively, organic film grain. It’s not that Twins of Evil has never looked better — it’s that no Hammer film I’ve seen has ever looked better. Synapse ups the game in the special features department by including a feature length documentary (also in anamorphic HD) that specializes on Hammer’s three-film approach to J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla story.
Sometimes, I find trailers more entertaining than the finished product. Nevertheless, I continue to hope for the best. When the writing and acting in modern horror films finally manages to match the imagery, atmosphere, and visual effects that draw us into the theaters, we will enter the real golden age of the genre. Of course, with my luck, that will be the same day that the portals to R’lyeh open up and all film is destroyed in the resulting invasion.
With all of that in mind, several new pics and a (mostly) well-crafted trailer have been released for The Apparition, the upcoming horror film from Warner Bros. Pictures and Dark Castle Entertainment. The film is directed by Todd Lincoln and stars Ashley Green, Sebastian Stan, Luke Pasqualino, and Tom Felton. I’ll be honest. The trailer is very impressive. Visually, anyway. And the story is actually quite unique.
The plot centers around the hypothesis that ghostly apparitions are products of the human imagination. In an attempt to prove this as scientific theory, a group of students attempt to create a specter using only their minds. After they are successful, the entity that they have created begins to spread like a virus, infecting a young couple’s home.
Possible the greatest fear in the entertainment industry, for both artists and fans alike, is the sophomore slump. A band releases that first moving album. A director creates their first visual masterpiece. And a comic brings paint and ink to life from inside that plastic-protected first edition. And then comes the second, and it is nowhere near as impressive as the first. And then, you can only wait in desperation for the third one, hoping to recapture that same magic.
I am pleased to report that this is not the case with Hoax Hunters #2.
Once again, Michael Moreci and Steve Seeley deliver a fast-paced horror action piece helped along by the detailed, colorfully compelling art of Axel Medellin. And fortunately, the mystery pace described in our review of Hoax Hunters #1remains present. For every question answered, two or three more rise up to take its place, including yet another magnificent twist ending even more shocking and exciting than in issue #1. Are there still unanswered questions? Most certainly. But, if you’re like me, you love a good mystery, and nothing is more disappointing than a mystery giving you the bloody answer in the first ten minutes.
There ain’t no cure for the Summertime blues like ice cream! And this happens to be the single most disturbing, uncomfortable, creepy ice cream advertisement in the product’s history. Horror filmmakers, take note. This clip for Little Baby’s Ice Cream is more genuinely terrifying than most feature-length horror films.
Welcome, mortals, to The Weekly Offering. Here, we present our dark gifts in hopes that we please the Ancient Ones, that they might spare us. They are satisfied with our humble sacrifices of news, images, reviews, and commentary through the week, but on Fridays, they desire more. Their weekends, their unholy Sabbath, know no bounds. And so, to satisfy their bloodlust, as well as yours, we bring you these short, savory offerings.
Hide Your Kids; La Llorona is Returning to Universal Halloween Horror Nights
We gave you a taste of what is waiting for you at Universal Halloween Horror Nights this year. And now, we’re bringing you another way you might die in central Florida. Universal has announced the return of one of last year’s most terrifying characters: La Llorona.
Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time living in central Texas, as I have, is familiar with the legend of La Llorona, although you may know her by a different name. La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman, is the story of a young girl scorned by the man she loves who drowns her children in a creek. From here, I’ve heard many different versions. Sometimes, she commits suicide. Sometimes, dies from grief. Either way, she haunts the region, her tortured soul crying out for her lost children.
The maze will take you through a labyrinth of her victims. The intent is to provide a journey through the nightmares of a child’s mind. If my own childhood nightmares are any indication, then this is likely going to be one of the most terrifying haunted houses ever constructed.
It’s a good time to be a Blu-ray collectin’ horror fan. Almost all of the classics of modern horror have gotten solid high-def releases, while classics and curiosities continue to get released in a steady stream that reminds me of the heyday of DVD and companies like Anchor Bay. Kino-Lorber has really stepped up their game with the Redemption line, which I’ve praised before, most recently with the release of the forgotten Marquis De Sade adaptation Justine. The movies are unusual, the special features are robust when offered, and the picture quality of these films is taken from the best possible sources (some fare better than others).
There’s not a real unifying element in the Redemption line, other than the films’ European origins, and I appreciate their grab bag nature. Eight of the fourteen current releases are Jean Rollin films, but there’s also trash like The Virgin Witch and underrated chillers like The Asphyx. Burke and Hare (1972) and The Blood Beast Terror (1968) have only a director in common, Vernon Sewell, but they still feel right at home with the Redemption branding. Both have been forgotten by time, and both are worth viewing by curious horror fans.
I would hypothesize that the answer to that question has changed over time. A thousand years ago, it was stone. Today, it’s concrete and steel. And no, I am not speaking in just a literal sense. When the great societies that we have built begin to crumble around us, how long will it take before we as a species descend into animalistic violence?
If you have to ask that question, you clearly have not been watching enough horror films. Or your faith in humanity is much too strong. Either way, remedy that immediately.
After starting in Washington D.C. nine years ago Horror Movie Night has expanded to include chapters in Austin, Dallas and Chicago. Horror’s Not Dead’s own Brian Kelley is the originator and programmer of this illustrious weekly Wednesday night tradition which features a “classic” horror film. Each week I will be reviewing/commenting on the past week’s selection so do your best to find the film, most of which have not made it past VHS, and follow along. Better yet, start your own chapter!
A creepy house is not an uncommon thing in our beloved genre. Countless films have centered around a horrible building of some sort. Look at the horrors that awaited people in films like Psycho, or the possession which took place in Poltergeist, even all the way back to the silent days and the terrors that awaited the couple knocking on the door to Orlock’s castle in Nosferatu. If there is one thing that all of the victims in these films should have done, it was stay the hell away from those houses! I guess Joseph Ellison decided to take that message to heart when he created his first film (of only two): Don’t Go in the House. You might think it’s your average slasher, but it’s quite a bit different than all that, and definitely much slower.
After starting in Washington D.C. nine years ago Horror Movie Night has expanded to include chapters in Austin, Dallas and Chicago. Horror’s Not Dead’s own Brian Kelley is the originator and programmer of this illustrious weekly Wednesday night tradition which features a “classic” horror film. Each week I will be reviewing/commenting on the past week’s selection so do your best to find the film, most of which have not made it past VHS, and follow along. Better yet, start your own chapter!
And we continue with “Don’t” month in July for Horror Movie Night. This week’s film is Mexican, full of white (or whiteish) people, some nods to earlier slashers like A Nightmare on Elm Street, and overflowing with the ridiculous. Basically a match made in heaven for HMN viewers. Mexican director Rubén Galindo, Jr., who previously made the living dead flick Zombie Apocalypse, is the visionary behind Don’t Panic. What his actual vision was still remains up for interpretation.
Every Halloween season, I make my pilgrimage to any haunted house of repute that I can afford to attend. My ultimate goal is to feel absolute fear, confront it, slay it, and triumph over it. As I get older, and as my mind grows harder to the horrors I face at my day job, it becomes more difficult for anything to scare me. But I always keep my eye out for the next challenge.
And I think I may have found it.
I will admit I have never played any of the Silent Hill games, but I have heard many good things about them, particularly the older ones. I have heard them described as exactly the type of claustrophobic, suffocating, paranoia-inducing, slow-tension-building horror that I am drawn to. And the series does have one other good thing going for it. It is the only video game-to-movie adaptation I have ever thought of as not just a competent film, but also one that I actually enjoyed. The story was formula, but the tone and the imagery was haunting, surreal, and disturbing. And, I’m not gonna lie, I really dug the ending.
And now, Universal Studios is bringing Silent Hill to Halloween Horror Nights. On select dates from September 21st to October 31st, you will be able to visit the most infamous haunted town in digital media. But, remember…
“This is not a game. This is not a movie. This is real.”
After starting in Washington D.C. nine years ago Horror Movie Night has expanded to include chapters in Austin, Dallas and Chicago. Horror’s Not Dead’s own Brian Kelley is the originator and programmer of this illustrious weekly Wednesday night tradition which features a “classic” horror film. Each week I will be reviewing/commenting on the past week’s selection so do your best to find the film, most of which have not made it past VHS, and follow along. Better yet, start your own chapter!
Get ready to head back to childhood where at every turn someone was telling you not to do something. That’s right, it’s “Don’t” month at Horror Movie Night! Each film this month, including the great Christmas in July selection, has a title that starts with the word “Don’t”. Hard not to think of that faux-trailer that Edgar Wright filmed for Grindhouse. It was made for a reason after all.
For our first film of the month, we’re going hiking. Director James Bryan made a quick, low-budget slasher in 1981 by the name of Don’t Go in the Woods. Many bodies are dispatched in fun and gory ways with little to no plot surrounding it, which is was we normally like, right? Sometimes. This, at times, made me smile…and many other times yawn.
I have a tendency to make fun of (read: scream with psychotic rage at) people who watch reality shows. It’s true, folks, the zombie apocalypse is coming. But it won’t be the undead or a virus. It’s going to be the brains poisoned by television. But, I do have my own media vice, and that would be paranormal investigation shows. I know these monsters and ghosts aren’t real (maybe). I know the methods used are juvenile and unscientific. But I just can’t help but hope that one of these charismatic fools will get lucky and catch something on film.
So, what if monsters and ghosts and such were real? And what if a television show attempted to prove to all of us that they were just cleverly constructed hoaxes? And what if the crew of that show had a secret off-screen agenda to hide the truth from the public?
» Dave in Top 10: Horror Film Bloodbaths
Yikes. Outside of TCM everything is modern. Have you not seen any Lucio Fulci films?? Ruggero Deodato?? Umberto Lenzi? Love your site, but this list was a little weak.
