Category: Horror Movies (Page 13 of 96)

A chat with Greg Nicotero, make-up and effects wizard of “The Walking Dead”

October 30, 2010 / Bob Westal

With 124 make-up credits and 64 effects credits to his name so far, Greg Nicotero is one of the busiest and most respected make-up and effects professionals in Hollywood. Originally inspired to take up special effects after seeing “Jaws,” he broke into the business working for the legendary gore-effects maestro Tom Savini on zombie-master George Romero’s 1985 splatter opus, “Day of the Dead. ”

A few years later, Nicotero had decamped from Romero’s Pittsburgh’s to show-biz’s Los Angeles and formed the multi-award winning KNB Efx Group with friends Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger. Aside from his intimate involvement in such effects heavy films as “Sin City,” “Kill Bill,” “Minority Report,” “Serenity,” “Spiderman 3” and, yes, “Ray,” Nicotero has also branched out into directing, helming the second unit on Frank Darabont’s “The Mist” and making his own short subject, a funny and endearing homage to several generations of classic movie monsters, “United Monster Talent Agency.”

When I met with Nicotero and last Summer’s Comic-Con, however, it was to promote the already highly buzzed new AMC series, “The Walking Dead,” which reunites Nicotero with writer-director Darabont in an adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning comic book series. Premiering Halloween night, the show will be taking a more dramatic look at the cannibal zombie mythos originally created by George Romero in his 1968 “Night of the Living Dead,” combining slow-moving zombies with the kind of in-depth characterization and complex yarn-spinning that’s making the onetime “vast wasteland” of television into something more like the last refuge of classical storytelling.

There’s only one problem. I’m kind of scared to actually watch the thing. You see, much as I admire the craft of someone like Greg Nicotero, I’m not exactly the usual gorehound media-fan for whom the more, and more realistic, cinematic gore he can create, the better. There was no point in hiding it.

Action Movies, Comic-Con, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Interviews, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Andrew Lincoln brain eating brain eating zombies brains Comic-Con Dan O'Bannon Dances with Wolves Dawn of the Dead Day of the Dead Frank Darabont Gale Anne Hurd George Romero Greg Nicotero Greg Nicotero interview Headlines Howard Berger Kill Bill KNB Efx Group Minority Report Night of the Living Dead Ray Rick Grimes Robert Kirkman Robert Kurtzman Serenity Sin City slow moving zombies Spawn Spiderman 3 The Chronicles of Narnia The Green Mile The Mist The Return of the Living Dead The Walking Dead Tom Savini United Monster Talent Agency zombies

The monstrous politics of horror

October 30, 2010 / Bob Westal

Since, as happens every two years at least, Halloween coincides with a crucial U.S. national election, a selection of scenes from a few politically themed horror/monster films feels right. We’ll start with the obvious.

In some ways I think a little overrated, John Carpenter’s science-fiction/action/creepy alien monster flick from 1988 ,”They Live,” seems to me a thorough-going and obvious from-the-left savaging of the Reagan years and the consumerist, bland cultural mentality that went with it. Yet, oddly enough, it’s imagery has been picked up online by some Reagan-worshipping teapartiers. Well, history probably isn’t their favorite subject.

More clips and commentary after the flip

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies

Brandon Hardesty Cold War Dawn of the Dead George Romero Guillermo del Toro Jimmy Carter John Carpenter Latin America Pan's Labyrinth Ronald Reagan Spain Tea Party They Live

Let’s get this monster party started

October 30, 2010 / Bob Westal

Yes, there is end of the week film news tonight/this morning I could talk about — a possible break in the long-running saga of MGM; a surprise presidential departure at Sony; and the disappointing news that the premier of “The Circus” was probably not visited by an aged, possibly cross-dressing time-traveler. Nah. How could I possibly follow an interview with the director “Monster A-Go-Go” with anything remotely sensical? Time for a fairly random movie monster mash to get the Halloween weekend going.

And now Vincent Price, with a little help from John Carradine, gives a disturbing speech (what’s a “hume”?) and brings a disco spin to the actual “Monster Mash” from the movie…actually, I have no idea what movie this is from. Is this from a movie? Did I dream this?

And, remember, “only the weird zombies remain.”

External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

John Carradine Mad Monster Party The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies Vincent Price

A Chat with Bill Rebane (“Monster A Go-Go”)

October 29, 2010 / Will Harris

Although the competition for the honor of being declared “The Worst Movie Ever Made” is one of the strongest in all of popular culture, there are some titles which continue to come up again and again. “Monster A Go-Go” is one of them…and, unlike “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” it’s a film so bad that even the man who directed it is willing to concede that it deserves to take home the win. Premium Hollywood had the opportunity to chat with Bill Rebane, who helmed “Monster A Go-Go,” upon the release of a special edition DVD, and even though 45 years have passed since the film’s original release, he still stands by his position on the matter.

Bill Rebane: Hello, Mr. Harris! How are you?

Bullz-Eye: I’m good! How are you?

BR: Hanging in there!

BE: (Laughs) Same here! Well, it’s a pleasure to speak with you. I actually just finished watching the special edition of “Monster A Go-Go” this morning.

BR: Oh, I feel so sorry for you…

BE: (Laughs) Well, it’s funny: at first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to broach the subject of the film’s reputation, but throughout the special features, you pointedly say that it is the worst movie ever made.

BR: Well, that was my impression when I first saw it. Three years after I gave it to Herschel Lewis to finish, the first time I saw it, I said, “Oh, my God, this is the worst picture I’ve ever seen.” That’s not exactly what we had in mind when we started…

BE: So to jump to prior to “Monster A Go-Go,” how did you get into filmmaking in the first place? Were you a movie buff as a kid and worked your way into the business gradually?

BR: Well, when I came to this country, I was obsessed with movies of that time, the old movies from Hollywood’s golden age, and I went to the theaters and spent maybe half a day…more than half a day…watching movies to learn English. I was a singer and dancer during that time. In fact, I actually started out wanting to make musicals. And then the occasion arose in Germany…I went back to Germany and worked with some filmmakers there, professionals, and learned a little bit, and came back to the States and started making short subjects.

BE: How did you make the move from short subjects to the feature-length?

BR: Well, it was timely. I was a realist. I was acutely aware of the marketplace, what was going, and it seemed very timely to do a science-fiction monster movie at that time for the drive-in theaters. We wrote a pretty cohesive script, a story-oriented project, and I dove into it. But I didn’t know that Chicago wouldn’t… (Hesitates) I made those short subjects with the union, and when they heard that I was making a feature film, they pretty much clamped down on me and said, “Yeah, you’re going to make it union, right?” I said, “Those were not my intentions.” And then they merrily went on to basically confiscate the whole budget, put it in Escrow, and they would take care of it. So we ended up with maybe two hours of good time of shooting, and the rest of it was spent on setting up heavy equipment. There wasn’t much of a break we got in those days. It’s not how independent pictures should be made to begin with. I lost the star, Peter Thompson, a week into production because of time constraints. And then I went on to a second part the same year, actually…1961, ’62…to do the rest of the picture with a non-union crew. And that’s how Herschel Lewis entered the picture. I hired him as a cameraman and a production manager, and we finished all the exteriors and everything that I thought we needed to do, except the actual final ending. We never got to that, which was about 10 minutes or 20 minutes of stuff, again running out of money. Herschel Lewis needed a picture for a double bill at drive-in theaters, and I turned the picture over to him for post-production, not knowing what he would do and what he could do. And about three years later, I looked at it. It was not the same title. It was now “Monster A Go-Go.” It had already run in some theaters in the South. And… (Starts to laugh) …I was more than surprised. I was a bit shocked. I said, “This has got to be the worst picture I’ve ever seen.”

External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Horror Movies, Interviews, Movie DVDs, Movies, Sci-Fi Movies

Alan Hale Jr.Barbara Hale Bill Johnson Bill Rebane Blood Harvest Capture of Bigfoot From Roswell With Love Herschel Lewis June Travis Monster A Go-Go Peter Krause Peter Thompson Ralph Meeker Robert Easton Ronald Reagan The Alpha Incident The Giant Spider Invasion Tiny Tim

A chat with Gale Anne Hurd, producer of “The Walking Dead”

October 29, 2010 / Bob Westal

There aren’t many producers around these days whose name can help sell a movie or TV show, but Gale Anne Hurd is the rare exception. Probably best known as one of the co-creators of “The Terminator” franchise, Hurd has been an important player in numerous mega- or merely major productions, including both “Hulk” and “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Abyss,” “Armageddon,” “The Punisher,” and the underrated 1999 comedy “Dick,” which starred Dan Hedaya as Richard Milhous Nixon and a young Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as a couple of teenagers who wind up bringing down a presidency.

Clearly one of the more hands-on producers around, Hurd is pleasant and businesslike when talking to a member of the show-biz press, but clearly has the gumption to deal with the biggest and most difficult of personalities, which is how I segue into the obligatory mention of the fact that she spent the part of the late eighties and early nineties being married to first James Cameron and then Brian De Palma. Moreover, she began her career working for one the most fascinating and effective producers in the history of the medium, Roger Corman, but more of that in the interview.

Still, nothing she’s done is quite like her current project, the zombie horror drama and comic book adaptation, “The Walking Dead.” The AMC television series, adapted from a series of acclaimed comics by Robert Kirkman primarily by writer-director Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile,” “The Mist”) is currently receiving maximum exposure on the web. The publicity train was only just getting started when I spoke to Ms. Hurd at a mammoth new San Diego hotel adjacent to the Comic-Con festivities last summer.