Vampyr with Contemporary Live Soundtrack
Vampyr (OST) – Teaser from Chiara KickDrum on Vimeo.The KinoKonzert series brings together a legendary silent film with a contemporary electronic soundtrack: watch Melbourne-based DJ and composer Chiara Kickdrum as she presents her original score live on stage to the German–French horror film Vampyr, directed in 1932 by visionary director, Carl Theodor Dreyer.
21 Sep 2018: Melbourne, ACMI TIX
26 Sep 2018: Sydney, Event Cinemas George Street TIX
28 Sep 2018: Canberra, NFSA TIX
Tales of Halloween
The horror anthology Tales of Halloween boasts contributions from a small army of well-regarded genre directors, an even larger number of terror veterans in its cast, and opening theme music from legendary Bullitt and Dirty Harry composer Lalo Schifrin. The movie, brainchild of writer-director Axelle Carolyn, which Epic Pictures is releasing in theaters and on VOD, Oct. 16 The film has a new poster by Drew Struzan, the legendary artist whose work played such a seminal role in the marketing campaigns of the Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Indiana Jones movies, to name a few.
In a statement from The Descent filmmaker Neil Marshall, who directs one of the 10 interconnected Tales of Halloween segments, he explains how Struzan came to produce the image (turns out it doesn’t hurt to cast him in your movie).
To film geeks and movie poster collectors such as myself, Drew Struzan represents something that often seems to have been lost in recent years; the ART of movie poster design. The ability of someone to capture the essence of a movie in a single painted image and create a genuine work of art you’d be proud to hang on your wall. So it’s an unbelievable privilege for our little film to be blessed by one of Drew’s beautiful paintings. It was incredible enough to have Drew play his first ever cameo (along with his son Christian) in my segment of Tales of Halloween. The poster itself came about when Axelle (Carolyn, my wife and also creator, producer and fellow director of the movie) plucked up the courage to ask him over dinner one night. I suspect though, since Drew is such a thoughtful and generous person, that he might have been upset if we hadn’t asked him. Either way, we’re honoured to have Drew’s incredible artwork grace our movie, and I for one will be making space on my wall for this beautiful poster.
Jinko – By Deane Taylor
I won’t make a more important or inspiring post than this one. Please head over to the indiegogo site to be enthralled the Deane Taylor passion project Jinko, an epic fantasy adventure about an orphaned sea gypsy who brings peace to a hidden world at war… and donate for your chance to be involved in an exceptional Australian adventure and receive some incredible art by Deane.
JINKO CF video from a schuppan on Vimeo. Jinko on Idiegogo HERE Jinko on Facebook HERE
Wes Craven R.I.P
Director Wes Craven died on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. Craven was 76 and passed away at home surrounded by his family after battling brain cancer.
From his first feature film The Last House On The Left as writer, director and editor in 1972, Craven made his mark as a genre-bending, bracingly innovative horror director with a biting sense of humour. Craven also consistently demonstrated that he was a filmmaker with heart. Among the films that followed The Last House On The Left were The Hills Have Eyes and a sequel, Deadly Blessing (featuring Sharon Stone in her first starring role) and Swamp Thing (based on the comic book).
Craven reinvented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the now classic A Nightmare On Elm Street, in which he turned Robert Englund into a cult icon with the role of Freddy Krueger. The movie spawned several sequels, none of them directed by Craven, however, he deconstructed the genre a decade after the original, writing and directing the audacious Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which was nominated for Best Feature at the 1995 Independent Spirit Awards.
In 1996 Craven experienced yet another rebirth in horror with the release of Scream, which he directed from a script by Kevin Williamson. Scream sparked multiple sequels and spoofs.
One of the last projects Craven worked on was MTV’s series adaptation of Scream, on which he served as executive producer. The series was recently renewed for a second season. “Wes Craven was a tremendous visionary whose sensibility for scares has connected with generations of MTV fans,” MTV said in a statement. “We are honored to have worked with him and proud to carry on his legacy with Scream. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.”
Craven took a breather from horror between Scream 2 and Scream 3, when he seized an opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, Music Of The Heart (1999), which earned star Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year he completed his first novel, The Fountain Society, published by Simon & Shuster.
Craven continued to stretch his creative boundaries with the 2005 thriller Red Eye, starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy and Brian Cox. The following year he switched gears again to write and direct a romantic comedy homage to Oscar Wilde featuring Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell as a segment in the popular French ensemble anthology Paris Je T’aime.
He then returned to horror as producer of remakes of two of his earlier films, The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House On The Left (2009). Craven’s most recent written and directed film, My Soul To Take (2010), once again brought together a cast of up-and-coming actors. It marked Craven’s first collaboration with wife and producer Iya Labunka, who also produced Scream 4, which reunited Craven with screenwriter Williamson, as well as with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, joined by newcomers Emma Roberts and Hayden Pannetierre.
Remaining creatively engaged and active until his death, Craven had signed an overall TV deal with Universal Cable Productions. He had a number of projects in development including The People Under The Stairs and We Are All Completely Fine with Syfy, Disciples with UCP, and Sleepers with Federation Entertainment.
Craven also recently wrote and was scheduled to direct the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” segment for The Weinstein Company/WGN’s Ten Commandments miniseries. Additionally he was working on a graphic novel series based on his original idea “Coming Of Rage” for Liquid Comics in collaboration with Steve Niles.
Craven was an executive producer of the upcoming feature The Girl In The Photographs, which will premiere next month the 2015 Toronto Film Festival.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Craven was a nature lover and committed bird conservationist, serving as a long-time member of the Audubon California Board of Directors. A longtime summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard, he had moved there permanently three years ago before returning to Los Angeles for work and health reasons.
R.I.P. Rowdy Roddy Piper
WWE legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper died after suffering a heart attack in his Hollywood home. He was 61.
Piper’s agent Jay Schacter confirmed the news, first reported by TMZ, to Variety. “Rod passed peacefully in his sleep last night,” Schacter said in an email. “I am shocked and beyond devastated.” Piper had suffered a bout of Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2006 but was reportedly deemed cancer-free last November.
Born Roderick George Toombs, Piper joined the WWE in 1984 after getting his start with the NWA in the late 1970s. He and Hulk Hogan met in landmark matchups including MTV’s “The War to Settle the Score” and the first WrestleMania, where Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff took on Hogan and Mr. T.
Not being much of a wrestling fan I loved Piper for his film work, specifically They Live and Hell Comes To Frogtown.
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987) was created by Donald G. Jackson, set in an post apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout and, as a result, the government places a high priority on those that can still breed. Sam Hell (Piper), a nomadic traveler who wanders the countryside is captured by an organization of warrior-nurses, who reveal that they located him by tracking the trail of pregnant women left in his wake. Awesome fun.
They Live follows a nameless drifter referred to as Nada (Piper), who discovers the ruling class are in fact aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed and accept the status quo via subliminal messages in the mass media (way ahead of its time!).
Director John Carpenter wanted Roddy Piper after they met at WrestleMania III earlier in 1987. For Carpenter it was an easy choice: “Unlike most Hollywood actors, Roddy has life written all over him.”
The movie featured Roddy’s now famous line: “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.” R.I.P. Roddy.
F. W. Murnau Skull Stolen From Grave
The skull of director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, best known for vampire classic Nosferatu (1922), has disappeared from his grave in Stahnsdorf, outside of Berlin, German media reports said citing authorities.
The skull was discovered to be missing on Monday and slight damage to the grave led authorities to believe that it had been stolen. The theft is thought to have taken place between July 4 and July 12, according to the reports. Police opened a probe and called on possible witnesses to come forward.
F. W. Murnau died in a car accident in Santa Barbara in 1931 at the age of 42. He was buried back in German, and over the years, his tomb has become a kind of tourist spot for Satanists. His Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans won a two Oscars at the first-ever Academy Awards in 1929.
Sir Christopher Lee – R.I.P.
Sad news just in, one of my all time movie star heroes, for as long as I can remember, Sir Christopher Lee, has died at the age of 93 after being hospitalised for respiratory problems and heart failure.
The veteran actor, best known for a variety of films from Dracula to The Wicker Man through to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, passed away on Sunday morning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, according to sources.
The decision to release the news days after was based on his wife’s desire to inform family members first. The couple had been married for over 50 years.
His film career started in 1947 with a role in gothic romance Corridor of Mirrors but it wasn’t until the late 50s, when Lee worked with Hammer, that he started gaining fame. His first role with the studio was The Curse of Frankenstein and it was the first of 20 films that he made with fellow legend, Peter Cushing.
Lee’s most famous role for Hammer was playing Dracula, a role which became one of his most widely recognised although the actor wasn’t pleased with how the character was treated. “They gave me nothing to do!” he told Total Film Magazine in 2005. “I pleaded with Hammer to let me use some of the lines that Bram Stoker had written. Occasionally, I sneaked one in. Eventually I told them that I wasn’t going to play Dracula any more. All hell broke loose.”
In the 70s, Lee continued to gain fame in the horror genre with a role in The Wicker Man, a film which he considered to be his best… he’s right.
He was knighted in 2009 for services to drama and charity and was awarded the Bafta fellowship in 2011. Lee still has one film yet to be released, the fantasy film Angels in Notting Hill.
The Nightmare – Trailer
A look at a frightening condition that plagues thousands; sleep paralysis. Directed by Rodney Ascher (Room 237), The Nightmare recreates the hypnagogic hallucinations that these people experience… terrifying shadowmen, spectral cats, sudden spiders and menacing spirits…
Own An Original Rick Baker Prop!
Legendary special make-up effects artist Rick Baker
is auctioning off his creations on May 29. The collection includes 417 lots from 50 productions spanning Baker’s career. Its estimated total value is $750,000, and pre-bidding started April 16.
Prop Store will sell the items in a no-reserve auction starting at 11 a.m. PDT at the Hilton Universal City in Los Angeles; bids can be made in person, via telephone (+1 818-727-7829) or online HERE.
An online edition of the full-color catalog features additional images and videos. Follow the link to download the full Rick Baker: Monster Maker catalogue HERE
Here are some of the items available:
-Full-Size Alien Edgar Bug Animatronic Character, Men in Black (estimated value: $30,000 – $40,000)
-Servo Operated Mohawk Mogwai Puppet, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (estimated value: $6,000 – $8,000)
-Michael Jackson Complete Head Lifecast, Michael Jackson: Moonwalker (estimated value: $1,000 – $1,500)
-Incredible Melting Man Zombie Face and Hand Appliances, Michael Jackson: Thriller (estimated value: $400 – $600)
-Mid-Transformation Werewolf Back Mold, An American Werewolf in London (estimated value: $800 – $1,000)
The Strain – Season 1 Blu Ray & Season 2 Teaser
Experience the first creepy, disturbing and completely addictive season of TV’s hottest, most blood-curdling sci-fi series. The Blu-Ray release is packed with behind-the-scenes special features that explore the story’s journey from bestselling novel to hit show.
From Executive Producers and writers Guillermo Del Toro, Carlton Cuse and Chuck Hogan. When a freak virus kills most of the passengers on an airplane, Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll), head of the Center for Disease Control’s “Canary Team,” is immediately called to the scene. The only way to stop the terrifying disease is to face its source – a sinister supernatural creature whose evil intent seems more powerful than any force on Earth.
Let The Right One In – TV Series
So this is a concern… Let the Right One In is in development process for an adapted television series. After a bidding war that involved Showtime and A&E, the latter network has won the rights to develop a Let the Right One In TV series. The A&E series will join the network’s stable of other shows that also jump off from films: Bates Motel, based on Psycho, and The Returned, which is a remake of a French series that was, in turn, a remake of a French film. There aren’t many details on the Let the Right One In series, but we’ve got them below.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Teen Wolf showrunner Jeff Davis and actor-writer Brandon Boyce (Teen Wolf actor; Apt Pupil and Wicker Park screenwriter) are adapting the pilot and series from the Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist that Lindqvist adapted for the 2008 film by director Tomas Alfredson.
Spoilers for Let the Right One In follow. The 2008 film left out some characters, plot points and character history, only alluding to some of the history of the seemingly young vampire Eli as she befriends an isolated boy named Oskar. In fact, one point the original film only engages in ambiguous fashion is that Eli wasn’t born female, but rather is a boy who was castrated by the nobleman who also turned the child into a vampire. With more room to go into character backstories, the TV series may well retain the novel’s original approach.
The US remake of the film, Let Me In, further changed some things in the story as it moved the setting to New Mexico. We don’t know how this TV version might go — the THR piece references Vermont, which suggests that the show will go with the snowy setting of the original novel and film, while keeping it in the US.
The US remake, which was one of the better remakes around, would be more suited to an adaptation than the original. There’s no casting info or potential air date for the Let the Right One In TV series at this point.
VHS Video Cover Art: 1980s to Early 1990s
This looks awesomely tacky… Video cover art is a unique and largely lost artform representing a period of unabashed creativity during the video rental boom of the 1980s to early 1990s. The art explodes with a succulent, indulgent blend of design, illustration, typography, and hilarious copywriting. Written and curated by Tom “The Dude Designs” Hodge, poster artist extraordinaire and VHS obsessive, with a foreword by Mondo’s Juston Ishmael, this collection contains over 240 full-scale, complete video sleeves in the genres of action, comedy, horror, kids, sci-fi, and thriller films. It’s a world of mustached, muscled men, buxom beauties, big explosions, phallic guns, and nightmare-inducing monsters. From the sublime to the ridiculous, some are incredible works of art, some are insane, and some capture the tone of the films better than the films themselves. All are amazing and inspiring works of art that captivate the imagination. It’s like stepping back in time into your local video store!
Check it out at the official publishing page HERE
Famous Monsters Announce Horror Comic Slate
The world’s longest-running entertainment fan magazine Famous Monsters (est. 1958), has announced that it is expanding its publishing division into original comic books.
“It has been a fun and successful seven years of covering some amazing talent while relaunching Famous Monsters back into the mainstream,” says Famous Monsters Publisher Philip Kim. “But I remembered something equally exciting that Forrest Ackerman penned: his own stories. Though we celebrate all Famous Monsters, we are itching to make new ones. It’s time to tell our own stories again.”
Famous Monsters has always featured work in tandem with Creepy, Eerie and most famously, founding FM Editor Forrest J Ackerman’s very own Vampirella. The first releases this year will feature work by Paul Tobin, Darick Robertson, Jeff Johnson, Nat Jones and Steve Niles… now if they could only get Bernie Wrightson to ink a few covers.
Frankenstein Created Bikers
More insanity from the makers of Dear God No! Check them out on kickstarter HERE and read the official blurb below…
FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS centers around the re-animation of the South’s most notorious biker gang, The Impalers. Dr. Marco and his assistant are performing gruesome experiments in their asylum lab and have resurrected the thrill-kill Motorcycle Club to capture a Bigfoot containing a pathogen that will allow them to perform a human head transplant. When news of the gang resurrection draws the attention of bounty hunters, law enforcement and rival gangs, the lofty aspirations of these mad scientist starts to spiral out of control. Things get even worse for the occupants when failed experiments escape from the basement and the lab is attacked by a bomb-happy femme fatale named Val.
Penny Dreadful – Season 2
The new season will see Vanessa (Eva Green) and Ethan (Josh Hartnett) forming a deeper bond as the group, including Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), and Sembene (Danny Sapani), unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them. Meanwhile, Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), the Creature (Rory Kinnear) and Brona (Billie Piper) are all waging battles of their own. Patti LuPone will be as a mysterious character of great importance in Vanessa’s past. Helen McCrory returns as Evelyn Poole (a.k.a. Madame Kali), the seductive spiritualist who will pose a unique threat to our heroes this season, along with Simon Russell Beale, who is back as eccentric Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle. Additional guest stars include Douglas Hodge as a Scotland Yard investigator, Sarah Greene as Poole’s powerful daughter, Hecate, and Johnny Beauchamp as a man with a singular past.
Opus Nightmares – Horror Themes
Soundscapes and alternate horror themes created for your listening pleasure. Inspired by their favourite films such as Hellraiser, Jacobs Ladder, Event Horizon, Evil Dead and games such as Silent Hill, The Evil Within, Siren Blood and re-interpreted in their studio.
Check it out and back them on Kickstarter HERE
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/587513431/opus-nightmare-horror-soundtracks/widget/card.html?v=2
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