The second wave of titles for this year’s Fantastic Fest are ravaging the interwebs and the Twitters and I couldn’t be more excited.  Not only will this be my first real film festival (I’m not counting the Chicago International Film Festival), but it’ll be my first Fantastic Fest.  From everything I’m hearing, that’s like having your hymen broken by King Kong.  Say it’s going to leave an impression is an understatement.

Click here to remember the past to see the first wave of titles and read on for the second batch of features with further details at the official Fantastic Fest Blog.  Considering there’s still a third list of titles waiting in the wings, I think I may have to upgrade the above analogy from having sex with King Kong to getting raped by the entire girth of that asteroid worm that tried to eat the Millennium Falcon in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Look, over there!  It’s a Weinberg!  It’s a blog!  It’s HorrorSquad.com, a new blog managed by HND friendo and general genre wunderkind Scott Weinberg!  Enjoy.

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Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• SHUTTER ISLAND – Scorsese’s newest burns so good.

Studio News and Attachments

• TRICK ‘R TREAT – Michael Dougherty tells Fango that the forthcoming DVD will be rather bare but the Blu is packed with features and as yet recorded commentaries.
• THE HUNGER – Tony Scott mentions scripting progress for a sequel to his ’83 vampire flick THE HUNGER.
• Eli Roth’s Arcade – Roth’s new production house is producting 1) COTTON, a faux documentary about a shame exorcist who comes across a real possession, 2) PSYCHO KILLER, a slasher ‘from the killer’s perspective’ written by Andrew Kevin Walker, 3) a remake of Tobe Hooper’s FUNHOUSE.
• RED STATE – The Weinsteins, no doubt in an attempt to try to actually make money for once, have passed on Kevin Smith’s horror film.

Remakes

• HELLRAISER – MARTYRS director Pascal Laugier has removed himself from the troubled Barker remake.
• PIRANHA 3D – Carnage and mayhem and apparently Wild, Wild, Wild Girls in these set pics from Aja’s remake look red water fantastic.
• FRANKENSTEIN – Guillermo del Toro is, naturally, casting Doug Jones as the lead in his mad science remake.  No details on whether the lead is alive or undead.
• PREDATORS – Neil Marshall is the first public name of seven to be in line for helming duties on the Rodriguez produced franchise reboot.
• BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER – Joss Whedon was offered the gig to bring (a new) the chosen one to the big screen, but he wisely turned it down, wishing them luck in the process.
• CONAN – Marcus Nispel steps into the fantasy realm to direct the now Ratner-less reboot.  Assume this means that Sean Hood’s SUBTERRANEAN and THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER are shelved for now.
• NOES – Wes Craven tells IGN about the sting of Platinum Dunes never getting in touch with him about their remake of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
• UNSEEN – Sony Screen Gems is once again giving money to PROM NIGHT ’08′s principal creative forces to remake another piece from the past, this time opting for 1971′s BLIND TERROR starring Mia Farrow.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• NIGHTBREED Lost Footage – Clive Barker spilled that 40+ minutes of unseen NIGHTBREED has been dusted off, though no official commitment to implement it yet exists.
• Michael Cunningham – The novelist/screenwriter behind dramas like THE HOURS mentions a pseduo-slasher and monster movie in his pipeline, the former of which has the super original plot of an ugly duckling femme who exacts revenge on all those pesky students who teased her.
• DEADWORLD – David Hayter helping produce a film franchise based on the comic series about zombies with feelings who ride motorcycles…

Non-Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• [REC]2 – Teaser.
• DOGHOUSE – New trailer from EVIL ALIENS writer/director Jake West.
• THE BOOK OF ZOMBIE – Trailer: “A small, sleepy Utah town gets an undead wake-up call when all of the townspeople of Mormon faith suddenly transform into flesh-eating ghouls!”
• SALVAGE – Trailer for this Brit flick about the mysterious contents of a container that washes ashore
• THE CANYON – I always love me a folk stuck in the wild flick and this may just be the first one set in the Grand Canyon?
• MOTHGIRL – Teaser

Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• TERMINATOR SALVATION – Sorry, no actual horror clips abound this week.

Studio News and Attachments

• THE APPARITION – Dark Castle films slates up another, this time the ambiguously titled haunted house’r.
• DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK – Katie Homles is headlining the Guillermo del Toro produced creature feature?
• JEKYLL – Keanu Reeves is now taking on the roles to be written by REVOLUTIONARY ROAD scriptor Justin Haythe?

Remakes

• H2 – Michael Myers is not a Necromancer.  Michael Myers is not a Necromancer.  Michael Myers is not a Necromancer.
• MOTHER’S DAY – Three production shingles, including Brett Ratner’s, are planning a franchise, the first of which will be directed by Darren Bousman.
• CHILDREN OF THE CORN – Is that Officer Dualla with hair growing out of her eyes?

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• DEAD LOSS – Chris Gorak, who made the admirable RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR (review), is directing DEAD LOSS which is basically “DEADLIEST CATCH” with a horror twist.
• David Slade is Diplomatic – And also a liar.
• MANDY LANE – Senator has once again shelved ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (review)from its July 17th release date.  The region free Blu-ray is down to $15.
• [REC] – A US DVD finally comes out on July 14th.

Non-Theatrical Trailers

• THE BECKONING – Spanish ghosts.
• DOGHOUSE – From EVIL ALIENS helmer Jake West.
• BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE – US Trailer
• POSSUM WALK – Teaser.
• IT ATE HIS FACE – Trailer

Last Week in Horror found no shortage of minor announcements, but enough of which excite me in earnest.  In the world of TV, Goyer and “TREK” vet Braga sell an intriguing hour long series premise to ABC, HBO renews the proven cool “TRUE BLOOD” and Sci-Fi orders full the unproven “WAREHOUSE 13″.

A few pieces of remake news, though nothing mind blowing.  And then we get to one of the juiciest nuggets of the week that I think may be a beacon of great things to come.  Two outfits have teamed up to finance four films from a quartet of rising independent filmmakers.  I’ve only seen a few of their earlier films, but all four are names I’ve only ever seen associated with positive buzz, so to know they have a new house over their heads is very cool.

Oh, and does anyone else find this innocent picture of Earth during a solar eclipse as ominous as I do?