Love of Ghost - original title Phi-Sum-Oy – is a 1990 Thai horror film. The poster above, courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art, is the only trace of this rare film we can find online. It’s not even on the Internet Movie Database!
If you have any more information about this obscurity please let us know…
ANNA, previously known as Mindscape, is a 2013 Spanish-American psychological thriller film written by Guy Holmes. It is the debut feature of Spanish filmmaker Jorge Dorado and stars Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story), Mark Strong and Brian Cox. The film was produced by Ombra Films, a production company formed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan; Unknown) and Juan Solá, with the aim of generating English language thriller, horror and fantasy films via emerging Spanish talent.
The world premiere was held at the 46th Sitges Film Festival on October 13, 2013 receiving critical acclaim from audiences. A re-titled version of the movie named ANNA is being distributed in North America via Vertical Entertainment.
Plot teaser:
John Washington (Mark Strong) is a recently widowed man with the ability to enter people’s memories. In the past, John used his abilities to solve criminal cases, but after a stroke during a session gone wrong that leaves him incapacitated and financially broken, he is left a shell of his former self. Desperate for an assignment, John asks his superior, Sebastian (Brian Cox), for a new job. The case he receives is that of a brilliant but troubled and dangerous 16 year old girl, Anna (Taissa Farmiga), to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of trauma. Anna, the daughter of wealthy parents, has gone on a hunger strike, and while John enters her mind to find out why, disparate memories overlap, and it is possible that Anna is not as innocent as she seems.
Reviews:
“An over-the-top B-movie concept, a satisfyingly twisty plotline and an intriguing central tandem are the hallmarks of a sharp-witted film that delivers all the traditional elements but which lacks the flair factor.” The Hollywood Reporter
“You can almost smell the dust on the screenplay, and the scare tactics — doors closing by themselves, mumbled surveillance video testimonies played in reverse, creepy self-portraits that seem to be drawn in blood — are more precious and irksome than frightening. But Taissa Farmiga (sister of Vera) is a marvel in the title role.” Sam Weisberg, Village Voice
“It’s a set-up which, in lesser hands, could easily have subsided into cliché. That it doesn’t is due partly to the strong script and partly to Taissa Farmiga’s refreshingly natural performance as the troubled teenager, which has none of the gloss or smarminess we’ve come to associate with pointedly intelligent characters of this sort.” Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film
Cast:
El pobrecito Draculín (“The Poor Draculin”) is a 1977 Spanish comedy horror film written and directed by Juan Fortuny (Palmer ha muerto; Orloff and the Invisible Man; Crimson).
It stars Joe Rígoli, Josele Román, Víctor Israel (Graveyard of Horror; El jovencito Drácula; Hell of the Living Dead), Conrado Tortosa ‘Pipper’, Ricardo Palmerola, Joan Borràs, Fernando Rubio, Lita Claver, Carlos Otero. Known as Draculín in Germany, the film does not appear to have received an English language release.
Plot teaser:
The son of Count Dracula wakes seventy years after having been buried with his father during the First World War…
Alien: Isolation is an upcoming first-person survival horror stealth game developed by The Creative Assembly, based in West Sussex, and published by Sega. Though the game is set in the future, the technology depicted the game is made to look as if it were designed in the 1970s in order to match the look of the first Alien film. It will be released on October 7, 2014. It will be available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
The game is set in 2137, 15 years after the events of Alien. The game follows Amanda, who is investigating the disappearance of her mother Ellen Ripley. Amanda was transferred to the space station Sevastopol to find the flight recorder of Nostromo. However, an Alien has already infested the station.
The Creative Assembly described Alien: Isolation as a survival horror game as opposed to an action shooter, and to that end chose to style the game more closely to Ridley Scott’s original horror film Alien, as opposed to James Cameron’s more action oriented sequel Aliens. Unlike most other video game adaptations of the Alien franchise, Alien: Isolation features only one Alien throughout its duration that cannot be killed, requiring the player to use stealth tactics in order to survive. Although the game features some weapons, they will be effective only against the human occupants and android “Working Joes”.
Instead of following a predetermined path, the artificial intelligence of the Alien has been programmed to actively hunt the player by sight, sound and smell.The Alien AI was programmed with a complex set of behavioural designs that progressively unlock as it encounters the player to create the illusion that the Alien is learning from its encounters with the player and adjusting its hunting strategy appropriately.This includes the ability for the Alien to investigate “secondary sources” of disturbances; for instance, if it notices a locker or air lock is open, the Alien will search for who opened it.The Alien emits vocalisations which the player can listen for to gain understanding of its current intentions; a scream may indicate that the creature is about to attack, while other sounds may indicate the Alien has seen something, is searching or has lost all trace of its prey…
Watch BBC News report on Alien: Isolation
Wikipedia | IMDb | Official site
‘Savage! Primitive! Deadly!’
Prehistoric Women is a 1950 fantasy adventure film directed by Gregg C. Tallas (Cataclysm; Night Train to Terror) from a screenplay he wrote with Sam X. Abarbanel (Sound of Horror). It stars Laurette Luez, Allan Nixon, Joan Shawlee, Judy Landon and Mara Lynn. Released by Alliance Productions, this low-budget independent Cinecolor film was also titled The Virgin Goddess and is nearly all narrated by David Vaile (who in 1971 played a TV newscaster in Simon, King of the Witches).
Prehistoric Women is seemingly influenced by and is similar to the seminal 1940 prehistoric film One Million B.C. A loose British remake was made in 1967 by Hammer Films starred Martine Beswick (Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde).
Plot teaser:
Tigri (Luez) and her stone age friends, all of which are women, hate all men. However, she and her Amazon tribe see men as a “necessary evil” and capture them for potential husbands. Engor (Nixon), who is smarter than the rest of the men, is able to escape them. He battles a bearded giant After he is recaptured by the women, he discovers fire and drives off a dragon-like creature. The women are impressed with him, including Tigri, their prehistoric queen…
Reviews:
“The truly sad thing about Prehistoric Women is that, as far as these kinds of films go, this is actually one of the better ones. Now, don’t get me wrong here: I’m certainly not making any artistic claims for this thing. Rather, this is my way of observing that amongst these cinematic accounts of primitive man, the bar tends to be set awfully low.” And You Call Yourself a Scientist!
” … limits it’s characters to a handful of primitive words and heavy use of pantomime. Despite the events being easy enough to follow, we’re given a narrator to fill in the blanks. Although he occasionally leaves the soundtrack and lets things unfold as we see them, he spends a lot of time describing what we’re seeing as it happens (like having a charter howl in pain and being told the character howls in pain)! There are times the film comes across like watching a movie with a description-for-the-blind service turned on.” Baker’s Log
Choice dialogue:
Narrator: “It seems that even in those days women were still women”.
Albert Kallis was a professional artist who designed many film posters for American International Pictures (AIP) releases in the 1950s. Kallis’ striking designs elevated the selling of exploitation movies to a new art form in itself. Indeed, AIP’s Sam Arkoff and James H. Nicholson would often have a poster designed first to pre-sell a movie to theatre owners before it even went into production.
Below are just some of the lurid posters that this prolific artist created; they have gone on to be representative of a time when movies could be sold to a potential audience eager for thrills by just an single image alone whilst going on to become key examples of American pop culture iconography in themselves.
In 1958, Kallis also co-founded the IHOP (International House of Pancakes) restaurant chain.
We are indebted to Monster Brains for inspiring this posting and for some of the images above.
‘A blood-dripping brain transplant turns a maniac into a monster…’
Brain of Blood - also known as The Creature’s Revenge and The Undying Brain -- is a 1971 American horror film directed by Al Adamson (Blood of Dracula’s Castle; Dracula vs. Frankenstein; Nurse Sherri) from a story by Samuel M. Sherman and a screenplay by Kane W. Lynn. It stars Grant Williams, Kent Taylor, John Bloom, Regina Carrol, Vicki Volante, Angelo Rossitto, Zandor Vorkov and Reed Hadley. The film is the only Hemisphere (The Mad Doctor of Blood Island; Beast of Blood) production to be filmed in the United States.
Plot teaser:
Amir, the benevolent ruler of Khalid, is dying, but there is hope in transplanting his brain into another body. Freshly deceased, he is flown to the United States where Dr. Trenton, having unwisely put off body acquisition until the last minute, transplants Amir’s brain into the body of the disfigured simpleton assistant who failed in said chore. Dr. Trenton has a few nefarious plot twists of his own in mind, and then there’s the thing with the dwarf and the woman chained in the basement…
Reviews:
“This movie was just crying out for some of Adamson’s signature foibles— some brain-damaging dialogue, some sudden and inexplicable detours through what looks for all the world like an entirely different movie, the unexpected appearance of a coked-up Russ Tamblyn at the head of a shabby and unconvincing motorcycle gang. As it is, Brain of Blood is just too damn close to making sense, you know? Now I’m not saying it wasn’t 87 minutes well-spent in spite of all that, mind you, but with a little less discipline and a funding crisis or two, it could have been ever so much more.” 1000 Misspent Hours and More
“Stunningly bad acting, hilarious stock horror movie music, a midget medical assistant (who torments women in a dungeon during his spare time) and unbelievable special effects make this an almost-classic that has to be seen to be believed The inept, oat-meal-like monster make-up effects are also a riot. Despite the almost total lack of prosthetic technology, the film managed to pull off a mildly gruesome brain transplant scene. Not as funny as some of Adamson’s other works—or most of the material cranked out by Herschell Gordon Lewis (“Blood Feast”). But it’s nonetheless a great bad-movie.” eSplatter
“here’s some truly terrible acting (particularly in the case of Ms. Carroll), silly dialogue, a bit of gore (the brain transplant scene, which is very bloody and fairly well done, goes on for about five minutes), a car chase, a couple of explosions and a Gor flashback that reveals the history of his deformity (a couple of rednecks took his toy away, hit him with a shovel and then poured battery acid in his face). It’s cheap, badly made and overloaded with assorted nonsense. In other words, your standard Al Adamson flick.” The Bloody Pit of Horror
Choice dialogue:
Mohammed: “Amir is a legend in Khalid, without him it would be another poor nation struggling to break out of of centuries of stagnant feudalism.”
Plot keywords:
Muslim | Mohammed | brain | mad scientist | surgery | transplant | gore | dwarf | car chase | battery acid | torture | cellar | chained women | rooftop chase | fight
Wikipedia | IMDb | Image credits: Lost Video Archive
‘The most diabolical pages ever written become the most terrifying motion picture ever created!’
Diary of a Madman is a 1963 horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg (The Mummy’s Ghost; Weird Woman; The Black Sleep). It stars Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, and Chris Warfield.
The screenplay, written by producer Robert Kent, is an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant‘s short story “Le Horla” (“The Horla“), written in 1887. Kent’s rendition is notably divergent from the source material, especially in relation to the religious and moral themes of the film, which contradict not only those of the short story, but Maupassant’s as well.
Plot teaser:
Following the funeral of Simon Cordier (Price), a French magistrate and amateur sculptor, his secret diary is read out by Simon’s pastor friend to a group of people gathered around the table, Simon’s servants, and a police captain. The diary transpires that Simon has come into contact with a malevolent entity. The invisible yet corporeal being, called a horla is capable of limited psychokinesis and complete mind control.
Cordier first interacts with the horla when he meets a prisoner whom the horla drove to commit murder. The horla possesses the inmate and attempts to kill Cordier, who in self-defense accidentally kills the man. The magistrate inherits the prisoner’s troubles as the horla and turns its hauntings toward him…
Reviews:
“Although Diary isn’t considered one of actor’s better 1960s efforts, it’s a tour-de-force performance, with Price given a lot of screen time, a well-developed character and the chance to play good and evil at the same time. Price is given some tender moments, which include a scene where, possessed, he crushes his beloved pet canary, only to come out of his spell to find the poor thing dead. When he’s in possession mode, he’s his usual menacing self, with the evil presence of the Horla represented as a nuclear-green visor-like aura which hovers in front of his eyes.” DVD Drive-In
“The horror elements are very cool but the scenes with supporting cast drag lifelessly. The melodrama between Kovack and Warfield is worthy of the sewer but not the big screen and everyone except for Price (and Harvey Stephens) seems bent on delivering below the watermark. Luckily, Maupassant’s storyline rises above the poor execution to capture the viewer’s attention and hold it through the final act.” Doomed Moviethon
“Diary of a Madman’s most serious shortcoming is that it manages to seem extremely preachy without having any particular sermon in mind to preach. Moments like the scene in which Cordier attempts to kill Jeanne, but is snapped out of his trance by the sight of a cross reflected in the blade of his knife, or like any of the outwardly purposeless arguments between Cordier and Captain Rennedon over the value of criminal psychology, make it seem pretty clear that either writer Robert E. Kent or director Reginald Le Borg had some kind of axe to grind, but it’s hard to imagine what that might be.” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
Choice dialogue:
“Death is a truth, magistrate. Prove it!”
“Oh, love. A man says the word so easily.”
Cast and characters:
Smothered is a 2014 horror film written and directed by actor John Schneider (best known as Bo Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard). The movie stars Kane Hodder (Jason Vorhees in four Friday the 13th films and Victor Crowley in the Hatchet films), Bill Moseley (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; House of 1000 Corpses; The Devil’s Rejects), R. A. Mihailoff (Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), Malcolm Danare (Christine; https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=Pi-aU5vRMIPY8geOy4HYDQ&gws_rd=ssl#q=smothered+film+2014&start=10Popcorn; Godzilla), and Don Shanks (Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers) as several horror icons that find themselves the focus of a murderous hunt.
Plot teaser:
After a convention appearance gig turns out to be wildly unsuccessful and unpleasant, a group of cult horror icons find themselves reluctantly persuaded to haunt a trailer park. Lured by the promise of $1,000 a piece for what should be relatively easy work, the group arrives at the park but soon discovers that there is more to the job than they had initially been led to believe and that their own lives are at risk…
Reviews:
“This is a horror-comedy with some bite. Each of the icons gets a chance to play on their public persona as well as other horror icons and we see some pretty inventive mass-ups. One thing that is great is that though the convention scenes and plight of the individual characters is funny, there is a lot of truth in it as well. Hodder has a chance to play the romantic lead, of sorts, while Moseley is the optimist of the group. Shanks is the bully and Milhailoff is the big lug afraid of his own shadow. Malcom Danare is probably the most relatable of the bunch and his scenes with Shanks are some of the best.” Christopher Jimenez, Shock Till You Drop
“With a well-placed cast and entertaining script, Smothered was able to hide some of its shortcomings. There are a number of effects used, and they are hit and miss at best. A little more attention to the details on the make-up and gory F/X would have gone a long way toward polishing this film. Also, some of the acting is a little stiff in points, but it’s nothing that really bogs things down at all. In fact it’s a little reminiscent of the 80′s horror films thatSmothered is indeed at least partially a tribute to.” Dread Central
“The film is well paced, with the mood changing repeatedly….from slapstick silly to downright scary….without missing a beat. Schneider has clearly spent some time behind the camera (from the final episode of “Dukes of Hazzard” to “Smallville” to made for television films) and that experience and confidence, especially in a genre’ that’s fairly foreign to him, allows him a free eye (and hand) in his story telling.” Media Mikes
Wikipedia | IMDb | Official site | Facebook
Marilyn Monroe: Zombie Hunter is a 2015 American horror film directed by Thomas J. Churchill (Lazarus: Day of the Living Dead) from a screenplay he has co-written with Joe Knetter. The film stars Sarah French (Tales of the Dead; Strip Club Slasher; Shriek of the Sasquatch!; Necrostalgic) as Marilyn Monroe, plus Mindy Robinson (The Haunting of Whaley House; Killjoy Goes to Hell; V/H/S/2), Krista Grotte (The Nightmare Collection Volume 1; Brainjacked), Ken Sagoes (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and 4).
Press release:
“Principal photography is slated to take place in Hollywood, California late 2014 under the Church Hill Productions/Apothecary Entertainment banner. After writing Lazarus: Day of the Living Dead, which will have its worldwide VOD release September 9th (DVD/Blu-Ray release December 9), Churchill stated that his inspiration for Marilyn Monroe: Zombie Hunter was “the concept of this incredible Hollywood icon as a cool samurai sword-wielding, kick-ass assassin summoned by our President to be humanities’ last hope against zombie domination just toyed with me, and I needed to get it out of my head, onto paper and on the screen. The film is going to be a straight-up horror-thriller,” he expounded, “with no room for “cheese.” Horror and Marilyn fans will be proud of the vision I have in store.” Churchill adds the film will be “very much an old-school summer event movie…Kill Bill meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” They will be very surprised and very pleased with the story we are planning to tell.”
For more on Marilyn Monroe: Zombie Hunter project:
Visit: www.facebook.com/marilynmonroezombiehunter
Follow on twitter: @MMZombieHunter. www.marilynmonroezombiehuntermovie.com
For more on Thomas Churchill: www.churchhillproductions.com
IMDb | We are grateful to Sinful Celluloid for info.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (also known as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning or Friday the 13th Part V) is a 1985 American slasher horror film directed by Danny Steinmann (The Unseen; Savage Streets) from a screenplay by he co-wrote with David Cohen and Martin Kitrosser. The film includes 20 deaths (22 if you include the opening nightmare sequence). This Paramount release took $21,930,418 at the U.S. box office.
Plot teaser:
A young Tommy Jarvis stumbles upon a graveyard while walking through the woods on a rainy night, where he witnesses two grave robbers digging up the corpse of Jason Voorhees. Jason rises from the grave and murders the two grave robbers before advancing towards Tommy.
The graveyard sequence turns out to be just a nightmare, and Tommy, now a teenager, awakens from the dream in the back of a van. Tommy has been shifted between various mental institutions after killing the mass murderer Jason Voorhees six years earlier, who attacked him and his sister and murdered their mother. He arrives at the Pinehurst Halfway House, a medical center for troubled teens secluded in the woods. The body count continues…
Reviews (spoilers):
“By the fifth film, fans weren’t looking for anything terribly original. Rather, they were looking for sex, violence and creative kills. This was delivered, including a pretty risqué and quite awesome sex-in-the-woods sequence, which was actually trimmed by the censors of the day. However, even with some plot twists, this movie really was one of the least of the bunch.” Kevin Carr, 7(M) Pictures
“The spiciest entry in the series, it boasts the most T&A, an incredible double homicide, a witty reference to A Place in the Sun, and yokels chopping chickens.” Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
“Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning doesn’t deserve its bad rap. I’d rather watch it than half the entries in the series, and genuinely respect the producers for trying to find an organic way to continue the series without ‘cheating’” Gabriel Powers, DVD Active
Buy Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com
Crystal Lake Mammaries (sorry, couldn’t resist)
“The end is a serious letdown, either because you hadn’t figured out who the killer was and were disappointed when you found out, or because you HAD figured it out and were disappointed to learn you were right. You should know that in the end, the killer’s Jason-like hockey mask is placed in someone’s hospital room, apparently as a souvenir, which is questionable enough already, but really just as an excuse for setting up the “creepy” final shot, which is even more askew. We really should permit only grown-ups to make movies.” Eric D. Snider
Buy Friday the 13th: A New Beginning on Instant Video | DVD from Amazon.com
Choice dialogue:
“You big dildo! Eat your fuck’n slop!”
“And our forecast is sunny in the valleys and snow flurries up your nose.”
Censorship:
There were numerous graphic scenes, all of which were either cut or trimmed for appearing to be “X” by the MPAA, such as:
Joey’s death, which showed an inserted frame of blood splashing seconds after getting hacked with an axe to his back; there was a wide frame shot of Vinnie getting the road flare shoved into his mouth, but the entire scene was ultimately reduced to a brief close-up shot instead;
Pete’s death originally showed the machete slicing across his throat; however, this single frame was excised from the final cut, resulting in a close-up shot of his reaction and the aftermath of his death;
Billy’s death was cut of excessive blood flow from an axe to his skull;
Lana’s entire death scene was cut and recreated; the original scene showed an axe to her chest, followed by her subsequent reaction of horror (which was omitted for appearing as “too real”), ending with a view of her body twitching on the ground;
Farmhand Raymond’s death showed an inserted frame of the knife twisting in his stomach;
Eddie and Tina had extended scenes of sex, all of which were cut, followed by Tina’s death from a pair of hedge shears to her eyes and a gory view of her remains;
Eddie’s head crushed against the tree was deemed “too strong,” resulting in a less intense, trimmed version;
Anita’s death was slightly altered with “version 1″ and “version 2″ in existence; the first version shows a close-up shot of her face and slit throat; version 2 has an additional wide POV shot of her body from inside the outhouse;
Demon’s torturous demise was also deemed as “too strong” and originally showed his subsequent reaction of vomiting blood after being impaled with a tent spike through his stomach;
Ethel’s death scene showed a single frame of the cleaver lodged in her forehead;
Junior’s decapitation originally showed his head bounce and roll along the ground;
This shot includes blood on victim’s face but shot above doesn’t
Jake suffered a violent attack from a meat cleaver to the face; there were additional frames omitted from the original death scene itself, resulting in a brief close-up shot of his initial reaction from the effect.
Robin was impaled with a machete, which entered through her back and emerged from between her bare chest; this single shot was excised entirely.
Buy Friday the 13th: A New Beginning on Deluxe Edition DVD from Amazon.com
Cast:
Wikipedia | IMDb | Related: Fangoria | Friday the 13th films on Horrorpedia
Friday the 13th: No Man’s Land is a 2010 British unofficial fan film tribute to the American Friday the 13th slasher series. Written and directed by David Hastings (Wulf; Halloween: One Good Scare) it features a cast of youngsters, accompanied by two older holidaymakers, being killed by Jason Vorhees when they inadvertently stay overnight at Camp Crystal Lake.
‘She thought she was alone’
Soulmate is a 2013 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Belgian actress Axelle Carolyn (Doomsday), wife of Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers; The Descent; Skull Island: Blood of the King). It stars Anna Walton, Tom Wisdom, Tanya Myers, Nick Brimble, Emma Cleasby, Guy Armitage, Rebecca Kiser, Amelia Tyler, Felix Coles and Anubis. It was filmed in Brecon, Wales and is being distributed by Soda Pictures.
In June 2014, it was reported that British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) have ordered that the film’s opening scene, in which Anna Walton’s character attempts suicide by slitting her wrists be censored because this is ‘imitable behaviour’. Rue Morgue magazine rightly noted that “The backlash on this decision has been very vocal and unanimous on the social media networks, with harsh words for the BBFC from horror fans as well as critics who have actually seen the movie.”
On Yahoo blog Seeing Dead People Ben Bussey commented: “What makes this particularly shocking is, aside from a few moments of moderate violence, there is literally nothing else in the film to warrant the most restrictive UK rating: no sexual content, no drug use, and very little in the way of strong language. Simply put, ‘Soulmate’ is a quiet, character-based drama set in the picturesque Welsh countryside which I’d have no qualms about sitting down to watch with my grandmother. For it to be effectively banned due to one brief and not especially graphic scene seems staggeringly illogical.”
IMDb | Related: Rue Morgue | Seeing Dead People
‘Payback’s an itch’
Mosquito Man aka Sucker is a 2013 American sci-fi action adventure horror film directed by actor Michael Manasseri (Babysitter Wanted) from a screenplay he co-wrote with J.P. Epstein. It stars Manasseri, Kimberley Kates, Jordan Trovillion, Troma‘s Lloyd Kaufman, Ted Myers, Falah Cannon, Ricky Wayne, Greg Trzaskoma, Dana Gamarra, Danny Mooney, Monty Bane.
Plot teaser:
Jim Crawley is having a really bad day. He gets fired from his job at the nuclear power plant, his car is impounded and he discovers his wife having an affair. To make matters worse, Jim gets himself abducted by an evil scientist looking to conduct human testing for a vaccine against a deadly mosquito borne virus spreading across the planet. It turns out that years of exposure to nuclear radiation and rabid mosquito DNA don’t mix very well and Jim transforms into a half man-half mosquito, hell bent on revenge…
Trailer as Mosquito Man:
The Live Ghost is a 1934 film starring comedy team Laurel and Hardy.
One of numerous shorts shot in the 1920s and 30s featuring the comic duo, The Live Ghost is a 20 minute film directed by Charles Rogers and produced by Hal Roach. It opens with a rough sea captain trying and failing to find a crew for his supposedly haunted ship. Desperate, he enlists the assistant of fish shop employees Stan and Ollie to help him shanghai a crew. Stan goes into a bar and provokes a sailor into chasing him outside, where Ollie bangs him on the head, knocking him out – the captain then takes the unconscious man to his ship. This trick is repeated several times until things inevitably go wrong when Stan and Ollie change roles – the captain is hit over the head and in revenge, he knocks the pair of them out and they find themselves joining the rest of the reluctant crew. Any talk of a ‘ghost ship’ is stifled by the captain’s threat to twist around the heads of anyone who dares mention the word ‘ghost’.
Naturally, the shanghaied sailors are none too happy, but as long as they are on the ship, Stan and Ollie have the captain’s protection. Whenever the ship pulls into port, the pair refuse to leave, knowing what will happen to hem if they do. In one port, the captain asks them to keep an eye on a drunken shipmate. Things rapidly get out of control, and the pair think they have killed the drunken man, tossing the ‘body’ overboard. He wakes up, swims to the shore and and falls into a trough of whitewash. When the white figure returns to the ship, Stan and Ollie believe him to be a ghost, and panic. Just then, the captain returns, and when they tell him they’ve seen a ghost, he makes good on his threat.
Not one of the classic Laurel and Hardy shorts, The Live Ghost is nevertheless entertaining stuff, with plenty of absurdity and slapstick comedy. it is one of a handful of ‘horror’ themed Laurel and Hardy shorts that also include Oliver the Eighth, The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case and A-Haunting We Will Go.
DF
Goal of the Dead is a 2014 French comedy horror film directed by Thierry Poiraud and Benjamin Rocher. It stars Alban Lenoir, Charlie Bruneau, Tiphaine Daviot, Ahmed Sylla, Bruno Salomone, Patrick Ligardes, Xavier Laurent, Sebastien Vandenberghe.
Official synopsis:
First half:
For the Olympique de Paris soccer team, this away match scheduled against Caplongue was merely supposed to be one last chore before the end of the professional season. Yet no one could ever have imagined that an unknown rabies-like infection was going to spread like wildfire, turning this small town’s inhabitants into ultra-violent and highly contagious creatures. For Samuel, the former golden boy who is nearing retirement, Idriss, the arrogant wunderkind, Coubert, the team’s depressed coach and Solène, the young ambitious journalist, this will turn into the most important confrontation of their lives.
Second half:
While the rabid supporters prowl about Caplongue, which is in a state of ruin, another nightmare begins for Sam. Barricaded in the police station with other survivors, he has to face the young Cléo, his grumpy father, and Solène, who hasn’t forgotten him this time. Meanwhile, Idriss and Marco, hidden in the stadium and looking for a way to escape, are also settling a few scores along the way…
Reviews:
” … this energetic and well-made genre bender is divided, like a game, into two halves … Originally released in France as separate movies, they’ve now been combined into a single feature that suffers under the weight of all the material, especially for such a throwaway concept. But Goal of the Dead is also a more intelligently realized venture than many a broad Gallic comedy or action flick, and as such deserves some recognition abroad…” Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
The Damned (formerly Gallows Hill) is a 2013 horror film directed by Victor García (Frost Giant; Hellraiser: Revelations; Return to Haunted House; Mirrors 2) from a script by Richard D’Ovidio (The Call; Thir13en Ghosts). It stars Peter Facinelli, Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos, Carolina Guerra.
IFC Films will premiere The Damned in the U.S. on Ultra VOD July 25, 2014, and release it via selected theatrical play on August 29.
Plot teaser:
A widower takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown. En route, the family are involved in an accident and take refuge in a secluded inn, where they free a girl locked in a basement and set in motion a terrifying sequence of events…
‘One crazy night of debauchery and damnation!’
Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned is a 2008 American comedy horror film written, directed and produced by Brian Lindsay Thomson. It stars Joseph Riker, Trina Analee, Gregg Aaron Greenberg, Joe Testa, Rebecca Hodges, Sean Parker, Gelu Dan Rusu, Zoe Hunter (Witchcraft 13: Blood of the Chosen; There’s a Maniac in My House!!!), Afro-American Scream Queen Monique Dupree (Zombthology; Bikini Bloodbath Christmas; Sheriff Tom Vs. The Zombies), Kaitlyn Gutkes and Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman. It was shot for a budget of approximately $10,000 on Long Island, New York.
Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman as “Hot babe”
Official synopsis:
Sammy’s got access to a genuine bungalow in the Hamptons! He decides to throw the ultimate bachelor party for his best friend, Chuck. The only stipulation is that he must invite the house’s caretaker, the prude yet sexually ambiguous Gordon, to the festivities. A trio of gorgeous strippers arrives to give Chuck a taste of the lascivious delights he will soon forego. But just who will taste who and what will happen when Chuck’s fiancé arrives at the doorstep of the damned? The Bungalow may have been free but that doesn’t mean Sammy is getting it for nothing!
Reviews:
“Writer/director/overworked multi-tasker Brian Thomson may well believe, as he sardonically notes in the end credits, that “gaps in continuity constitute the unconscious poetry of the cinema” – but sometimes there’s just no substitute for a well written script with good dialogue, that’s well acted, well directed and well shot. The likeability of Greenberg and the spankability of Dupree apart, Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned has pretty much none of those things going for it. Cheap and it may be cheerful it may be, but that will only get you so far.” Brutal as Hell
” … a horror comedy mash-up that really delivers the goods.” Icons of Fright
“The acting is poor, but Greenberg does his best. The camerawork is perfunctory, often settling for the most obvious shots, but there are some nice stylistic touches (Fish’s introduction, especially). Most of the film relies on natural lighting, with the night-time interiors looking yellow and sickly, and the night-time exteriors (shot day-for-night, by the looks of it) are too dark to really see anything at all.” Mark West, Zone-SF.com
“It’s the horror element that I think misses the mark most of all, because really, when your protagonist is a dude in a club shirt with flaming skulls on it who wears a Fred Durstian backwards red cap even when he’s in a hot tub, there’s not really much reason to not want to see him get brutally murdered.” Chris Sims, Heavy.com
“This is far from a decent low budget vampire spoof movie yet it benefits from Greenberg’s somewhat stoic lead and a few smart one-liners amidst some painfully homophobic dialogue. Where it fails is the inferior lighting and poor effects. But compared to the likes of Bikini Bloodbath Christmas – which also features Monique Dupree and Lloyd Kaufman – this is a trashy masterpiece.” Adrian J Smith, Horrorpedia
Buy on Amazon.com Instant | DVD from Amazon.co.uk
Choice dialogue:
“I know one thing for sure, this dump smells of pussy, we gotta get cleaned up.”
“He’s a vampire! I’m engaged to a vampire?”
Friday the 13th is a 2015 American horror film reboot of the franchise that began with Friday the 13th in 1980. A previous reboot in 2009 by Platinum Dunes (producers of 2003′s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot) was not well received by critics or fans and failed to initiate further sequels, despite taking $91 million at the U.S. box office alone. This 2015 production was originally announced as a sequel but has now become a second reboot. The film will be produced by original franchise owners Paramount Pictures and aforementioned Platinum Dunes. Rumours that it will be a found footage film have dried up and the latest indication is that the film will be in 3D, like 1982′s Friday the 13th Part III.
David Bruckner (The Signal; V/H/S “Amateur Night”) is in negotiations to be the director but no scriptwriters or cast members have been publicly assigned. Furthermore, it is not known whether David Mears will return as Jason Vorhees.
A release date of November 13, 2015 has been announced after earlier dates were cancelled.
Related: Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th | Friday the 13th (1980) | Friday the 13th (2015) | Friday the 13th (video game) | Friday the 13th: No Man’s Land | Friday the 13th Part 2 | Friday the 13th Part III | Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter | Friday the 13th: A New Beginning | Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday | Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI | Freddy vs. Jason
‘A vacation to dismember’
Axeman - originally known as Axeman at Cutter’s Creek - is a 2013 American slasher horror film directed by Joston Theney (Bleed 4 Me) who also stars. The rest of the cast are Tiffany Shepis, Brinke Stevens, Scot Pollard, Elissa Dowling (Dahmer vs. Gacy, Borderline Cult), Jamie Bernadette, Arielle Brachfeld, Erin Marie Hogan, Stephen Eith, Chantelle Albers.
Plot teaser:
Nine vacationing twenty-somethings are hunted by an axe-wielding local legend.
Reviews:
“The kills are fun and totally 80s-ed out, and the set up from one scene to the next is actually done with a lot of skill and love. This campy horror fest takes itself just serious enough to be a real movie, but not so serious that it fools itself into thinking its anything it isn’t. This is a self-aware 80s homage with some updated elements, and a solidly sound technical crew.” Horror Punks
“Finally, the film does several kills with most of them taking place on camera but they are ruined with horrible CGI and visual effects. Overall, Axeman is a film that fails to really deliver on the goods. It does have a few praise points but for the most part it misses the boat. It does deserve at least one viewing but that is it.” Horror Society
” …some of the deaths in the film are pretty inventive, especially the very first kill of the foul-mouthed, sexy frustrated fat guy (a genre cliche that has been a staple of slasher movies since the early 80s). Not all the kills are a success however and there’s often a reliance on out of shot murder with some less-than-stellar CGI blood splatter. But hey, at least the CGI is kept to a minimum, often enhancing what I would think are hard-to-acheive (at least on this films low-budget) kills. Oh and kudos to Theney and co. for the tremendous death of Brinke Stevens, a real black comedy moment in an otherwise “straight” slasher movie!” Phil Wheat, Nerdly
“Axeman is a bad movie, no doubt about it, but it’s knowingly bad. The soap opera-esque, unmoderated couples’ therapy feel of some scenes helps keep things interesting. Those with a taste for cheesy, campy, sophomorically humorous horror flicks should give it a shot. Having recently watched one of the latest “found-footage,” major studio theatrical releases, Devil’s Due, I can honestly say that Axeman was more fun…” Chaz Lipp, Cinema Lowdown
