Here’s the trailer for new comedy horror Suburban Gothic, directted by Richard Bates Jr. and with a cast including Matthew Gray Gubler, Kat Dennings, Ray Wise and John Waters.

More details to follow…

Attack of the Killer Hog is a 2000 Argentine horror film directed and written by Agustín Cavalieri and Marcos Meroni. The film premiered in December 2000 in Buenos Aires and was released also in Germany with an 18 certificate by Epix Media.

Wikipedia | IMDb

Violent Shit is a 1987 micro-budget German horror film written, directed and produced by Andreas Schnaas. The film was shot on a budget of $2,000 with a rented camcorder over the course of four weekends, with a cast of amateur actors consisting mostly of acquaintances of Schnaas. It was released on VHS in 1989 in West Germany. Although the country’s first direct-to-video film, Violent Shit was immediately banned by German authorities for its explicit violence and soon became an underground cult hit.

Two sequels, Violent Shit II: Mother Hold My Hand and Violent Shit III, were released 1992 and 1999, respectively. A fourth film, Karl the Butcher vs. Axe, was released 2010, with Andreas Schnaas co-directing with Timo Rose.

Plot synopsis:

A young boy named Karl murders his mother with a meat cleaver, after she reprimands him for returning home late.

Twenty years later, in the mid-1970s, the imprisoned Karl is being transported to an unspecified location by the police, but manages to kill his captors and escape into the wilderness, somehow acquiring a cleaver in the process.

Over the course of several days, Karl commits a series of murders across the countryside, mutilating and occasionally cannibalizing his victims. After one double homicide, Karl faints and has a flashback to the day he murdered his mother, revealing he had been coerced into killing her by a demon (which a line of dialogue indicates may be his father) he had encountered in the cellar after she had locked him in it.

At one point, Karl also encounters an apparition of Jesus crucified in the forest, which he hacks open, and crawls inside. After this encounter, Karl commits an additional dual murder outside a church, then collapses in a field, where his skin (which had been inexplicably decaying throughout the film) rots off, and he dies ripping himself open, revealing a baby covered in blood…

Wikipedia | IMDb

Pet Sematary is a single by American punk rock band Ramones from their 1989 album Brain Drain.

The song was originally written by Dee Dee Ramone for the Stephen King movie adaptation of the same name. The single became one of the Ramones’ biggest radio hits, and a staple in their concerts during the 1990s. In the music video Dee Dee is shown playing bass. Blondie made a guest appearance.

Pet Sematary has been covered by a mass of artistes in a myriad of styles, from Anorak’s dancey version to orchestral and industrial versions.

Lyrics:

Under the arc of a weather stain boards,

Ancient goblins, and warlords,

Come out of the ground, not making a sound,

The smell of death is all around,

And the night when the cold wind blows,

No one cares, nobody knows.

[chorus

I don’t want to be buried in a Pet Sematary,

I don’t want to live my life again,

I don’t want to be buried in a Pet Sematary,

I don’t want to live my life again.

Follow Victor to the sacred place,

This ain’t a dream, I can’t escape,

Molars and fangs, the clicking of bones,

Spirits moaning among the tombstones,

And the night, when the moon is bright,

Someone cries, something ain’t right.

The moon is full, the air is still,

All of a sudden I feel a chill,

Victor is grinning, flesh rotting away,

Skeletons dance, I curse this day,

And the night when the wolves cry out,

Listen close and you can hear me shout.

Atomic Shark is a 2014 American action/horror film.

At the time of posting, the film is currently in production  at TomCat Films with Ted Chalmers serving as producer

Official synopsis:

General Dale “The Charger” Hamilton has an intriguing plan to become the next leader of America. After hiring terrorist Karl Schmidt the two share an interest in a marine biologist Dr. Mann who has created an electronic device that attracts sharks making them attack anything emitting the signal even ships or submarines, which is precisely why General Dale and Schmidt are interested in the device, along with a huge 23 foot great white shark that Dr. Mann has captured.

Knowing the President of the USA is scheduled to christen a new nuclear submarine General Hamilton has the means to attach Dr. Mann’s invention to the sub. Leaving Schmidt to outfit the Great White with lethal cargo and send it on its mission. All that needs to occur is for the sub to destroyed, emitting a radioactive cloud that will cover all of Washington D.C and most of North eastern seaboard allowing General Dale and his troops to take over the reins of chaos. Controlling the Vice President through blackmail all that really stands in his way are agents Wilkes and Dorcet, who currently have no idea the deadly mission they’re about to face.

Posted by WH

Lake Eerie is a forthcoming 2014 American horror film directed by Chris Majors from a screenplay by Meredith Majors. It stars Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Betsy Baker (The Evil Dead), Marilyn Ghigliotti, Al Snow, Meredith Majors and Anne Leigh Cooper (Stockholm Syndrome).

Cinematography is by David M. Brewer (Insidious), the soundtrack score is by Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th), special effects makeup is by Robert Kurtzman Creature Corps. Lake Eerie is being produced by Savage Beast Films and Solid Weld Productions.

Official synopsis:

A young widow (Kate) moves into an old house on Lake Erie to recover from her husband’s sudden and traumatic death. The lake house has not been lived in for over 40 years. The previous owner (Harrison) was a young archaeologist and explorer. The house is just as Harrison left it in 1969. From the moment Kate moves into the house, she is soon haunted by a dark presence. Kate is taking multiple pills for her anxiety and depression; therefore, she is not sure if she is losing her mind or if the haunting is really happening.

Kate is suddenly enveloped by a whirlwind of tragedy and dark forces, and must decide whether or not she is strong enough to fight back and figure out the evil truth before it’s too late…

IMDb

Orror is an Italian adult comic book (known as “fumetti” in Italy) that was published in two volumes in the late seventies. Initially, twenty one issues were published between June 1977 and May 1978. The second series, published in 1979, consisted of six issues. Some of the cover artwork was obviously ‘inspired’ by film imagery.

We are grateful to Comic Vine for information and images.

‘Screaming young girls sucked into a labyrinth of horror by a blood-starved ghoul from hell.’

Beast from Haunted Cave is a 1958 (released January 1, 1959) horror/gangster/heist film directed by Monte Hellman (Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!) and starring Michael Forest, Frank Wolff (Cold Eyes of Fear; Death Walks on High-Heels) Richard Sinatra, and Sheila Carroll. Filmed in South Dakota at the same time as Ski Troop Attack, it tells the story of bank robbers fleeing in the snow who run afoul of a giant spider-like monster that feeds on humans.

Screenwriter Charles B. Griffith (Little Shop of Horrors) rewrote an earlier screenplay for the film Naked Paradise using the working title Creature from the Cave . A third version of this storyline appeared as the comedy film Creature from the Haunted Sea. It was produced by Roger Corman’s brother, Gene (Attack of the Giant Leeches), and released on a double-bill with The Wasp Woman.

Plot teaser:

A group of criminals, led by the ruthless Alexander Ward (Frank Wolff), hatch a plan to steal gold bars from a vault in Deadwood, South Dakota. Ward sends one of his henchmen, Marty (Richard Sinatra), to set an explosive in a nearby gold mine, the detonation of which will act as a diversion for their heist. Although Marty, accompanied by a local barmaid (Linné Ahlstrand), succeeds in setting the explosive, he encounters a beast (Chris Robinson) in the mine. The beast kills the barmaid, but Marty escapes with his life.

The next morning, the explosive goes off as planned and Marty and his gang succeed in stealing gold bars from the vault. They set off to a remote cabin, led by a local guide named Gil Jackson (Michael Forest), where they hope to be picked up by a plane. Gil is initially unaware of their plans, but he becomes suspicious when he hears reports of the robbery on the radio and discovers that they’re carrying handguns. They reach the cabin without incident, but once there, a violent snowstorm delays the plane’s arrival. Marty’s “secretary,” Gypsy (Sheila Noonan), is taken by the young Gil and tells him that Marty plans to kill him once the plane arrives. Gil and Gypsy take off back to town together.

Marty, who still carries unpleasant memories of his encounter with the beast, has all the while been concerned about being followed. He encounters the beast again during the trip to the cabin, but his companions think he’s losing his mind…

Reviews:

“First-time director Monte Hellman … does an admirable job with the leftovers he’s got to work with, infusing this heist flick/monster movie combo with a touch of French New Wave cinema – dotted with hip ski resort babes, jazzy interludes, moody crooks donning indoor sunglasses and a surprising amount of cinematic wherewithal – a characteristic usually missing from Corman’s budget-tight shooting schedules.” Willard’s Wormholes

“The film spends more time as a low-end crime thriller than a horror item. The monster is not all that scary, and is all too clearly a manipulated marionette made of rags and hair. But the majority of its appearances are well-staged (skipping a few sickly shots of the thing superimposed over the snow) and it retains a certain mystery. Its habit of stashing its victims for later feeding through a sickening tube, is a disgusting detail that would crop up in the later Alien films. The staging of the action is different and interesting, and while not necessarily good, the film is a creditable effort.” Glenn Erickson, DVD Talk

For the Mexican poster, the Beast developed blood shot eyes!

“The beast effects are the typical guy-in-a-costume variety. But that doesn’t matter, because Beast From Haunted Cave uses the beast as an almost minor plot point, despite the film’s title. The scenes inside the monster’s lair, the ëhaunted cave’, remain downright creepy. Pale, half-dead bodies hang cocoon-like on the walls, and Hellman’s use of shadows, whether intentional or not, remain effective and disturbing today.” Rich Rosell, Digitally Obsessed!

Buy Synapse DVD with theatrical and extended TV version from Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb

Horns is a 2013 Canadian horror film co-produced and directed by Alexandre Aja (High Tension; The Hills Have Eyes remake; Piranha 3D) from a screenplay by Keith Bunin, based on Joe Hill’s novel (Hill is Stephen King’s son). It stars Daniel Radcliffe (The Woman in Black), Max Minghella, Juno Temple, Joe Anderson, Kelli Garner, James Remar. Horns is a Red Granite Pictures and Mandalay Pictures production.

The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and is set to have its North American theatrical release in late 2014. The UK release date is for October 31, 2014.

Speaking to Indie Wire in Toronto, Daniel Radcliffe dexcribed the story as having “real horror and slasher horror elements but then has this incredible emotional love story in the middle of it.”

Plot teaser:

Ig Perrish (Radcliffe) is the number one suspect for the violent rape and murder of his girlfriend, Merrin (Temple). Hungover from a night of hard drinking, Ig awakens one morning to find horns starting to grow from his own head and soon realises their power drives people to confess their sins and give in to their most selfish and unspeakable impulses – an effective tool in his quest to discover the true circumstances of his late girlfriend’s tragedy and for exacting revenge on her killer… 

Reviews:

” … a Dogma-style mash-up of grim comedy and religious satire”. The Guardian

“Predominantly a failure of tone, “Horns” has plenty of admirable traits and yet dooms itself from the outset. It’s an admirable conceit stuffed into far less subtle material”. Eric Kohn, IndieWire

“While this all begins as a kind of supernatural black comedy … the tone grows darker with each revelation”. John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter

” … benefits from the helmer’s twisted sensibility, but suffers from a case of overall silliness”. Peter Debruge, Variety

Posted by WH

Wikipedia | IMDb

Dwight Iliff Frye (February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his appearances in the classic horror films Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Invisible Man (1933), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He is frequently seen on-screen as a simple, sometimes deranged, sycophantic assistant to a more intelligent, malevolent character.

Born in Salina, Kansas on February 22nd 1899, after which his parents relocated to Denver, Colorado, Dwight was given voice training and piano lessons, showing signs of a promising career as an accomplished concert pianist. His unusual middle name derives from a character in Tennyson’s poetry cycle, Idylls of the King, one of the few nods towards the arts his parents gave.

An appearance in a school play led to Frye catching the acting bug, to the dismay and alarm of his parents, particularly his mother who was a devout Christian Scientist. Despite their concerns, he followed his dream to Washington, appearing on-stage in a variety of roles, with the ambition of appearing on Broadway.

After a series of successful theatre notices and being described as one of the ten most accomplished stage actors in the country, Broadway did indeed come calling, culminating in a play which opened in 1926 and ran for 165 performances – The Devil in the Cheese. This play is particularly notable, not only for its successful five month run but that it pitched him against two particular actors; Fredric March, best known for his Oscar winning performance in 1931′s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and one Bela Lugosi. Remarkably, the omens did not stop there, Frye appearing a Renfield opposite Frederick (“not very scary”) Pymm in a stage production of Dracula in 1929/30. It was in New York that Frye made his first screen appearance, unbilled in a wedding scene for Universal’s  comedy, The Night Bird (1928). Marrying Laurette Bullivant the same year, his stealthy rise to fame was unexpectedly stifled by the stock market crash of 1929 – however, it was during this period in which he appeared in provincial theatre to make ends meet that he was spotted by a Warner Bros. executive.

Before working for Warner’s, it was Universal that gave him his first major role, that of the fly-eating, wide-eyed, babbling Renfield in Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931). Despite actively campaigning to win the coveted role, the actor who played him on Broadway, opposite Bela Lugosi, Bernard Jukes, was unsuccessful – indeed his career never recovered. Frye’s portrayal became the template for all future portrayals of the character, his high-pitched, hissing voice and the creepiest laugh in film history. Sadly, it also typecast him for the remainder of his career – despite superb notices from the press for his role, he was a new face to most of the watching public and their attention was constantly dragged to the fruity-vowelled Lugosi – Frye was the mental one.

Dwight appeared in the first film version of The Maltese Falcon, (known as Dangerous Female in America), as the neurotic psychopath Gunsel Wilmer, but although some of his scenes, like so many others in his future appearances, ended up on the cutting room floor. Back at Universal, a  brief stop-off in The Black Camel followed, opposite both Lugosi and Charlie Chan-favourite Warner Orland (also seen in Werewolf of London) but it was in another film that Dwight once more found his calling as a subservient lunatic, this time as Fritz in James Whale’s game-changer, Frankenstein (1931). But for Fritz mistakenly swapping over the required brains needed to give life to Frankenstein’s creation, who knows where the film would have gone; it was actually something of a slight role yet Frye captured the ghoulish glee and castle-dwelling torch-wielding of the character magnificently. It says much about Colin Clive and Boris Karloff that they were not blown off the set, Whale having seen his potential and giving the role of Fritz a far more expanded role than the book, for the first time with dialogue. Reporting to the make-up chair of Jack Pierce every morning for his hunched-back and smeared-on mask, his enthusiastic method acting slightly reduces him to comic relief, in a film where Karloff’s portrayal literally had audiences running for the exit in fear. It reinforced his reputation for playing supporting roles of a certain mentality.

In 1933 Dwight was back at Universal for an unbilled role as a reporter in The Invisible Man, primarily as a favour for his friend James WhaleHe had been determined for typecasting not to happen and had taken roles in film genres ranging from comedy to gangster but none had lead to the wide-spread acclaim as his horror roles. Inevitably then, his role as Herman Glieb, the village idiot in The Vampire Bat, returned to gibbering, sound-bites and furtive looks to the camera. The feature was filmed on the Universal back-lot for Majestic Pictures and starred Lionel Atwill as mad scientist Otto von Neimann and Fay Wray. Herman’s fondness for furry bats makes him the number one suspect in a series of ‘bat killings’ that are plaguing the town of Kleinschloss. It’s a brilliant, rather overlooked role, with some wonderfully perverse dialogue:

“Bats…they soft, like cat! They not bite Herman!”

“See? Blood! Herman like you…me Herman! You give me apples, Herman give you nice, soft bat!”

In 1935, a good cast was indeed well worth repeating and Bride of Frankenstein was released, perhaps the greatest film from Universal’s golden period. So enamoured was Whale with Frye’s earlier performance, that he essentially gave him three roles; Fritz, the loyal, disturbed assistant of the doctor; Kark, the village local who murders his family and blames the Monster and an unnamed grave robber who assist Ernest Thesiger’s Dr Pretorius procure fresh corpses. Ultimately these roles were combined into the role of Karl. Note, Frye never appeared in any film as the oft-misquoted ‘Igor’. Some of Frye’s role ended up on the cutting room floor, most famously the scene of him murdering the village burgomaster, (E.E. Clive) but also scenes of him murdering his aunt and uncle, some more background on his character and some more scenes opposite Thesiger. It was perhaps the only vehicle outlandish enough to make Frye’s performance seem appropriate but it was the final nail in his coffin as far as his acting career was concerned – despite putting every last bit of energy into capitalising on his fame, he was destined never to have a break-out role.

He did actually receive top-billing (nearly) in one of his next films, the much over-looked The Crime of Dr Crespi,  alongside acting titan, Erich von Stroheim. Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Premature Burial and sporting the poster tagline, ‘It Starts Where “Frankenstein” Left Off!’, it again features him in the shadows of the medical profession and again with shovel in hand bothering the dead.

For the remainder of the 1930′s, Frye worked tirelessly, both on camera and in the theatre but none of his roles were anything more meaningful than ‘supporting’. A potential return to the ‘big’ time was denied him with 1939′s Son of Frankenstein, in which his role as an angry villager (allegedly) was lost entirely due to studio tomfoolery, being unable to decide whether Technicolour was the way forward – an eventual decision to stick with black and white meant Frye’s parts were unusable. Without the out-of-favour Whale at the helm and with chaotic shooting, the film was, incredibly, a box-office success. Frye was appalled. Ironically, this is the film with Igor (actually Ygor) in it, played by…Bela Lugosi.

Frye did appear in two further Frankenstein efforts, yet another angry villager in Ghost of Frankenstein and a tailor in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. These incredibly reduced roles must have been a real kick in the teeth for an actor so integral to the success of three of the biggest horror films of all time. Frye’s final notable role was that of, yes, a hunchback in 1943′s Dead Men Walk. Low-budget and relatively little-seen, the film echoes much of Dracula and is surprisingly effective. It did little to help either Frye’s career or his ailing health – Frye had secretly being harbouring a heart problem for many years and the stress and toil of his endeavours was beginning to slowly draw the curtain on a frustrating career.

Not only price prevented Frye from attending to medical matters – his faith as a Christian Scientist forbade the intervention of professionals and, alas, it was to cost him his life – Frye died of a heart attack whilst taking a bus journey to the set of a film he was shooting, 1944′s political biopic, Wilson. He is interred at Glendale’s Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, alongside such appropriate luminaries as Forrest J Ackerman, Lon Chaney Snr, James Whale and composer Max Steiner. Frye’s legacy can be both seen and heard – Alice Cooper’s 1971 song, “The Ballad of Dwight Fry (sic)” is sung from the perspective of one of the actor’s creations,

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

‘Terror gets domesticated’

Housebound is a 2013 New Zealand comedy horror film that was written and directed by Gerard Johnstone, and his feature film directorial debut. It stars Rima Te Wiata, Morgana O’Reilly, Glen-Paul Waru and Cameron Rhodes.

The film made its international debut on March 10, 2014 at South by Southwest. In April 2014, Housebound won the audience award at the Dead by Dawn festival in Edinburgh. It also won the H. R. Giger Award « Narcisse » for Best Feature Film at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in July 2014

Johnstone was first inspired to create a horror film after watching Ghosthunters on television and received additional inspiration from classic films such as The Changeling and The Legend of Hell House. Whilst writing the script Johnstone wanted the character of Kylie to be “someone that wouldn’t scare easily. That way, when she does finally fall victim to fear, it’s much more palpable.”

Plot teaser:

Kylie Bucknell is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention. Her punishment is made all the more unbearable by the fact she has to live there with her mother Miriam – a well-intentioned blabbermouth who’s convinced that the house is haunted. Kylie dismisses Miriam’s superstitions as nothing more than a distraction from a life occupied by boiled vegetables and small-town gossip. However, when she too becomes privy to unsettling whispers & strange bumps in the night, she begins to wonder whether she’s inherited her overactive imagination, or if the house is in fact possessed by a hostile spirit who’s less than happy about the new living arrangement…

Reviews

” … sometimes at the festival you walk into a room knowing nothing, sit down, and get your skull punched in by a movie that is calibrated perfectly, that knows exactly what it wants to do, and that seems almost unnaturally confident considering it was made by a first-time feature director”. Hitfix 

“Johnstone maintains a good sense of mystery and, in addition to being able to deliver the laughs, he’s got a firm grasp on what makes a scare gag effective. They evolve as the film progresses, culminating in a fiercely fun and unrelenting finale. And underneath it all, layered beneath the humor and bloodshed, Housebound is a nice meditation on rediscovering family regardless of how quirky or unexpected it can be.” Ryan Turek, Shock Till You Drop

“… neatly carries some universal ideas about throwing away childish indignation and rebellion, and getting to know your parents as people with pasts and personal lives, not just nagging overseers.” Fangoria

“The leading ladies steal the show, both separately and as a duo, and there’s some great support from Glen-Paul Waru as a security guard who helps Kylie search for clues — but a special mention goes to everyone in the sound and music departments on Housebound. Not only is Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper’s score both evocative of horror classics and wonderfully energetic in its own right, but Mr. Johnstone and his aural technicians have taken special care in this department.” Scott Weinberg, FEARnet

Wikipedia | IMDb

Posted by WH

Struggling TV show ‘Scary Antics’ is forced to resort to ever more cruel japes to aid their flagging audience figures. Tensions amongst the production crew begin to fray as the latest episode is set up in an abandoned chemical plant, haunted according to local legend. Their victim is Jacob whose father, hilariously, died in a chemical accident at said factory and perhaps understandably has an unhealthy obsession with the place, his friends deciding that the best course of action is to shock him out of his silly ways. The ‘joke’ quickly goes stale and Jacob is none too impressed, electing to don a radiation suit and arm himself with an axe.

Almost intoxicatingly bad, HazMat (short for hazardous materials) marries many elements which are conspiring to throttle modern horror; much of the action is portrayed via handily -placed CCTV cameras, thus giving as near as damn it the unquenchable quota of found footage effect; secondly, a zany TV show set-up, allowing for copious crippling-annoying twenty-somethings with cheekbones as sharp as Jacob’s axe; finally, a convenient location, a dull series of corridors, all looking identical (in fact, it’s likely to be the same corridor re-dressed) – it was presumably the finding of an available space this large around which a film was constructed. It’s peculiar that when a low-budget production has a cast of bad actors that there is rarely at least one member of the cast who offers some ray of hope – it is very much the case here, everyone is eyebrow-furrowing and as shiny-faced as can be but not a drop of theatre creeps out. The killer is an immediate knock-off of My Bloody Valentine (either of them) but without an interesting or believable enough background nor with victims to kill that you would give your back teeth to help him dispatch. The only positives are a reasonable running time, lack of a ‘surely not?’ ending and moderately acceptable hacking, some severed limbs and a so-so eye gouging. By the way – Scary Antics!?

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Slave Girls (US title: Prehistoric Women) is a 1967 British prehistoric fantasy film written and directed in Cinemascope by Hammer’s Michael Carreras. The film stars Martine Beswick as the main antagonist and stage actor Michael Latimer. Steven Berkoff features in a small role at the end. In the UK, the film was released on a double-bill with The Devil Rides Out.

Plot teaser: 

David Marchant, a British explorer, along with Colonel Hammond and a guide are pursuing a leopard on an African safari. The Colonel takes aim but misses and only wounds the animal. With nightfall warned by the guide, David decides to follow the party back to camp whilst he puts the beast out of its misery.

He passes various trees with a picture of a white rhino but ignores them. Finally, he shoots the leopard, just as the weakened animal attacks him. No sooner is the creature dead, David is ambushed and captured by a primitive tribe. They accuse him of disturbing the spirit of the white rhinoceros, and take him to their leader’s temple. Just as he is about to be killed for his trespassing and disturbing the spirits, David touches a white rhino statue and there is flash of lightning that opens a giant crack in the cave wall.

Marchant makes his escape and finds himself in a lush paradise jungle within a large valley. Hearing a noise, a terrified fair-haired young woman (Edina Ronay) tumbles out of the bush-growth. David tries to help her but the woman bites him and runs off where she entered. Following her, David tackles her to the ground. But they are both attacked by dark-haired women. David is escorted with them to their village whilst the fair woman is bound and taken with them. Entering into the settlement, David finds the fair-haired woman serve the dark haired woman, who they themselves are ruled over the beautiful Queen Kari (Beswick), who immediately takes interest in David an chooses him as her mate, but he is appalled by her cruelty and spurns her advances…

Buy Prehistoric Women on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“…[Beswick] was cast as Queen Kari in the film Prehistoric Women, a sort of follow up to the successful One Million Years BC. As the seductive and deadly leader of a tribe of lost amazons, Beswick had one of the great roles of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the production was plagued by indifferent direction, a low budget, and the fact that it was following up a gargantuan worldwide box office hit …” Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973

“Idiotic Hammer Film in which the Great White Hunter stumbles into a lost Amazon civilization where blondes have been enslaved by brunettes. Honest! Nevertheless it has developed a cult following due to Beswick’s commanding, sensual performance as the tribe’s leader.” Leonard Maltin’s 2010 Movie Guide

” … came along about three years too early than the point when Hammer jumped aboard the Swinging Sixties permissiveness and allowed a much more frank degree of sexuality in their films – it seems to be all but wanting to get its various slave girls naked. As in all of Hammer’s exotica films, there is a slim to fairly silly plot. However, Martine Beswick takes the opportunity to camp the role up to the hilt and gives it her all, be it draped seductively across her bed, commanding cruelties and heatedly debating the idea of equality. It makes what would otherwise be a rather silly film into something rather entertaining.” Moria

“Hammer was often old-fashioned, but what makes its better films so well-loved is that they would find ways to bring them up to date: make them bloody, sexy, exciting, classy, and intelligent.  (Slave Girls was released on a double bill with The Devil Rides Out, which is all of those things.)  Carreras’ film throws everything into the mix except for what it really needs to spark everything to life, and as a result, it tumbles over into unintentional hilarity.  Which might not be such a bad thing.” Midnight Only

“The cheerful silliness of Slave Girls is rather endearing in a way that an over-budgeted, over-long and over-produced behemoth like Avatar could never be. It might have a reputation as one of the worst Hammer films ever made but it is never less than entertaining.” Bruce G Hallenbeck, Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi: British Cult Cinema (Hemlock Books)

Buy Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi book from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

The Hammer Story book by Marcus Hearn, Alan Barnes – Buy from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Cast:

• Martine Beswick as Queen Kari
• Michael Latimer as David Marchent
• Carol White as Gido
• Steven Berkoff as John
• Edina Ronay as Saria/Sarah
• Stephanie Randall as Amyak
• Alexandra Stevenson as Luri
• Yvonne Horner as First Amazon
• Sydney Bromley as Ullo
• Frank Hayden as Arja
• Robert Raglan as Colonel Hammond
• Mary Hignett as Mrs. Hammond
• Louis Mahoney as Head Boy
• Bari Jonson as High Priest
• Danny Daniels as Jakara

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Slasher Classics Collection is a series of Blu-ray releases from British-based “boutique” label 88 Films. The releases were announced on July 16, 2014 and consist of Unhinged (1982); Don’t Go in the Woods (1981), Graduation Day (1981) and Mother’s Day (1980)

Press release:

‘A CELEBRATION OF TEEN-KILL CARNAGE – UNCUT, UNLEASHED AND UNHINGED

Ask any self-respecting slasher buff about the genre’s ‘golden age’ and they will doubtlessly wax poetic about the plasma-packed pot-boilers of the 1980s – the decade of destruction that gave us Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and the transsexual teen-tormenter of the Sleepaway Camp series. Given the label’s name, what better way for 88 Films to celebrate this halcyon era of horror than with a series of numbered and collectible sanguine-splashed shockers from the period of VHS and video nasties?

Hence, 88 Films is proud to announce the launch of a new “SLASHER CLASSICS” line – kicking off with a digitally re-mastered DVD release of Don Gronquist’s notorious censor-baiting backwoods sickie Unhinged (1982). Further fearful fun will be delivered with Don’t Go in the Woods (1981) – the effortlessly enjoyable “hunt ‘em and kill ‘em” epic that once had British authorities outlawing its very exhibition! Directed by James Bryan, Don’t Go in the Woods is a catalogue of splatter-slapstick craziness which lines up a group of campers and crushes them in increasingly comical ways. Take it from us: this maddening mash-up of absurdity and arteries really does have to be seen to be believed!

Following on from this bout of bad-actor bludgeoning will be a new BluRay bow for Herb Freed’s student-filleting frightener Graduation Day (1981), in which high school pupils meet a sticky end from a mysterious stalker in a fencing mask. Adding to the onscreen allure of Graduation Day is a cast of cult veterans that includes Christopher George (City of the Living Dead, Pieces), beloved Scream Queen Linnea Quigley (Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Return of the Living Dead) and future small screen celebrity, and Playboy cover girl, Vanna White.

Finally (at least for now) 88 Films is proud to present Charles Kaufman’s Mother’s Day (1980) – a macabre movie so effective that Hollywood A-lister Brett Ratner (director of the Rush Hour series and this summer’s Hercules) produced a 2010 remake headlined by Rebecca De Mornay. As usual, though, it is the original which packs the biggest punch. Boasting a tone that is both sinister and satirical – Mother’s Day has three female friends accidentally stumble upon the land of the most dysfunctional family this side of Leatherface and his clan. What follows is not for the faint-hearted – indeed, in his original review the late, great Roger Ebert accused this controversial creeper of wallowing in “images of vile and depraved sadism”!!! You can make up your own minds when Mother’s Day arrives on UK Blu-ray in early 2015.

Each release in this very special collection will boast a numbered spine, additional features, a reversible sleeve and an informative new booklet, with writing on each respective film, from author Calum Waddell – the erstwhile producer of such documentaries as 88 Films’ own Slice and Dice: The Slasher Movie Forever. Most importantly, of course, we can promise uncut prints – with each hack em’ up epic looking bloodier and better than ever before!’

Dennis Yates Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was an English author whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world’s best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories.

His work is fairly typical of his class and era, portraying a way of life and clubland ethos that gives an insight into the values of the time. His main characters are all supporters of Royalty, Empire and the class system, and many of his villains are villainous because they attack these ideas.

Dennis Wheatley was born in South London. He was the eldest of three children of a family who were the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College. Soon after his expulsion Wheatley became a British Merchant Navy officer cadet. Following WW1, in 1919 he assumed management of the family wine merchant business but in 1931, after a decline in business due to the Great Depression, he sold the firm and began writing.

During the Second World War, Wheatley was a member of the London Controlling Section, which secretly coordinated strategic military deception and cover plans. His literary talents gained him employment with planning staffs for the War Office. He wrote numerous papers for the War Office, including suggestions for dealing with a German invasion of Britain.

His first novel published, The Forbidden Territory, was an immediate success when issued by Hutchinson in 1933, being reprinted seven times in seven weeks. The release the next year of his occult story, The Devil Rides Out – hailed by James Hilton as “the best thing of its kind since Dracula” — cemented his reputation.

Wheatley mainly wrote adventure novels, with many books in a series of linked works. Over time, each of his major series would include at least one book pitting the hero against some manifestation of the supernatural. He came to be considered an authority on this, Satanism, the practice of exorcism, and black magic, to all of which he was hostile. During his study of the paranormal, though, he joined the Ghost Club.

By the 1960s, Hutchinson was selling a million copies of his books per year, and most of his titles were kept available in hardcover. A few of his books were made into films by Hammer, of which the best known is The Devil Rides Out (book 1934, film 1968).

He edited several collections of short stories, and from 1974 through 1977, he supervised a series of forty-five paperback reprints for the British publisher Sphere with the heading “The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult”, selecting the titles and writing short introductions for each book. These included both occult-themed novels by the likes of Bram Stoker and Aleister Crowley (with whom he once shared a lunch).

Wikipedia

Shivers Down Your Spine is a 2014 American horror anthology film compiled by Dead Lantern Pictures, a micro-budget indie horror outfit based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The film will be released October/November 2014 on DVD and Blu-ray. Extras will include a documentary, blooper reel, audio commentary tracks for all films, and a bonus short film entitled Midnight Kiss.

The tales are:

Out of the Lamp: A man discovers a genie lamp in his microwave. Upon rubbing it, a beautiful genie named Sabiah appears, offering him three wishes. Much to her surprise, he wishes for her to tell him nine horror stories… (wraparound framing device)

Deadbolt: A young girl home alone on Halloween night discovers that the deadbolt on her door is no match for an angry ghost…

Convention Girl: Two best friends try to figure out what to do when one of them believes he staked a vampire hooker at a horror convention. Did he stake a vampire, or a cosplayer?

Birthday Dinner: A mother and father punish their young daughter on her birthday in order to teach her a lesson.

Whispering Board: Three sorority girls attempt to commune with a dead boyfriend using a whispering board with terrifying results.

I Dream of Djinni: Sabiah the Djinn tells a story of how wishes can go horribly awry if you’re not careful with your wording…

Shortly After Nightfall: A creepy motel caretaker pays a hired gun to take out a young woman who is haunting one of his rooms in a ghostly film noir.

A Bad Heart: 2 years after being stabbed in the heart and nearly killed by the serial killer Ray Dean Foster, a young woman decides to get back into the dating game on Valentine’s Day only to find her geeky date may be more dangerous.

Last Breath: A young woman descends into madness and depression after being stood up by her boyfriend.

A Christmas Horror Story: It’s 1987 and a group of teens is cleaning an old movie theatre. Meanwhile, a killer Santa is on the loose and looking to make them his next victims.

Official website

Posted by WH

Avalanche Sharks is a 2013 Canadian horror film directed by Scott Wheeler from a screenplay by Keith Shaw (The Thing Below; Malibu Shark Attack; Ice Road Terror). It stars Kate Nauta (Fear Clinic), Emily Addison, Alexander Mendeluk, Mika Brooks and Jack Cullison.

Following upon the success of Sharknado, Syfy announced a sequel and the internet was flooded with suggestions toward similar fantasy-shark topics. In October 2013, they announced a film with a working title of Sharkalanche as a sequel to Sand Sharks.

Avalanche Sharks debuted on Syfy in the USA on July 1, 2014. It will be shown on Syfy UK on July 28, 2014.

Plot teaser:

After a snowboarder inadvertently starts a major avalanche, the moving snowfield uncovers and wakes a prehistoric “snow shark” which had been trapped beneath. The shark develops an appetite for human flesh and the staff at the Twin Pines Ski Resort begins getting reports of missing people and a strange finned creature moving under the snow.

Fearing financial loss on what is their busiest event day of the year, the Bikini Snow Day, the Twin Pines management tries to hide news of the missing skiers and sightings of strange creatures. Disaster strikes as, one-by-one, the bikini-clad snow bunnies  become meals for the shark. The avalanche has cut off the roads trapping all within the Twin Pines Valley. The local sheriff allies with snowboarders to track down the monster…

Trailer review:

“There are lots of fins sliding weightlessly across the surface of the snow, and lots of women in bikinis getting eaten. The lead actor is best known for playing “Fratboy” in a Twilight film. The whole thing looks as if it was made on a budget of 15p. It’s exactly what you’d expect from a film about sharks in this post-Sharknado world.” Staurt Heritage, The Guardian

More sharks on Horrorpedia: 2-Headed Shark Attack | Cruel Jaws | Ghost Shark | Great White | Jaws | Jaws 2 | Jersey Shore Shark Attack | Jurassic Shark | Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus | Piranha Sharks | Psycho Shark | Sand Sharks | Shark Attack 3: Megalodon | The Shark is Still Working | Shark Week | Sharknado | Sharktopus | Snow Shark | Super Shark | Swamp Shark | Zombie Shark

Cast:

• Kate Nauta as Diana
• Gina Holden as Nurse
• Emily Addison as Jenna
• Charles Evans, Jr. as Operator (voice)
• Abby Francis as Skier
• Richard Gleason as Sheriff
• Benjamin Easterday as Lars
• Eric Scott Woods as Dale
• Kelle Cantwell as Madison
• Jack Cullison as Ted
• James Ouimet as Duffy
• Nicole Helen as Carol
• Michael Dostrow as Mayor
• Mike Ruggieri as Randy
• Erin Ross as Lacy
• Patrizia Cavaliere as Karla
• Mika Brooks as Lola
• Amy Ninh as Hiro
• Jack Cullison as Ted
• Ericka Jordan as Barb
• Eric Scott Woods as Dale
• John Hundrieser as Ross Hamilton
• Haley Stewart as Beca
• Richie Million Jr. as Mike

Wikipedia | IMDb

Annabelle (previously known as The Annabelle Story) is a 2014 American horror film directed by John R. Leonetti (cinematographer on The Woods; Piranha 3D; Insidious and its sequel) from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman (In the Spider’s Web; Bloodmonkey; Swamp Devil). It is a spin-off of The Conjuring.

The film stars Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard, Eric Ladin and Brian Howe.

At the time of writing, the plot line has not been revealed. The film will be released worldwide on October 3, 2014 by Warner Bros and New Line Cinema.

Filming location:

Langham Apartments, Los Angeles

Wikipedia | IMDb

Terror en el tren de la medianoche (“Terror on the Midnight Train”) is an obscure 1980 Spanish horror film (released 1982) directed by Manuel Iglesias from a screenplay by co-written with Antonio Fos (Cannibal Man; A Candle for the Devil; The Vampires’ Night Orgy). Iglesias also composed the soundtrack score. It stars Rafael Hernández, Mary Paz Pondal, José Riesgo.

Plot teaser:

The railway station in a small town in northern Spain is haunted by a ghost train that causes the death of a local resident every time it appears. The local priest tries to calm the local people but to no avail…

Reviews:

Spanish language reviews at La abadia de berzano and Aqui Vale Todo

IMDb | Image credits: La abadia de berzano

The Ballad of the Worms is an American action/horror/exploitation film written and directed by Chuck Conry (Morbid). currently in pre-production and due for release in early 2015.

Plot teaser:

Part of a mystical moon rock resurrects a vengeful soul to go to war with a woman-hating cult in the backwoods of Manchester, Tennessee, yearly home of the Bonnaroo music festival…

IMDb | Facebook | Twitter | Thanks: McBastard’s Mausoleum

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