About six or seven years back, James Wan and his writing collaborator, Leigh Whannell, cooked up the “Saw” franchise and, I suppose, bear some responsibility for the whole trend of horror films that were more about trauma and less about fun — or at least my idea of fun. I can’t talk too much because my infamous squeamishness has prevented me from actually seeing “Saw,” but Wan and Whannell appear to be headed back toward the kinder, gentler and, I understand, even a bit funnier spook flicks that were once the standard.
Kevin Jagernauth may be a skeptic, but as of now I’m looking forward to “Insidious,” which really does look like my kind of horror flick. This trailer indulges in some trendy trickery to pump up the scare-factor, but I can see it’s beating B-movie heart. Oren Peli is one of the producers, hence the “Paranormal Activity” connection.
With the media and political world reeling from the news of Keith Olbermann’s sudden departure from MSNBC and its possible relation to the Comcast-NBC/Universal merger, the Sundance Film Festival starting up, and even the start of Roger Ebert’s new movie reviewing series featuring a veteran critic and a 24 year old blogger who writes for the terrific MUBI site, there’s simply an overwhelming number of things I could be writing about tonight.
However, two movie news items in particular have caught my eye and the link is music and film, though that may not be immediately obvious. First is word that Sacha Gervasi, director of the highly acclaimed comic documentary “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” may be directing a new film about the making of “Psycho” and that Anthony Hopkins may play director Alfred Hitchcock. (The actual terminology at THR is that they are “in talks” to join the film, which I take it is closer to actually working on something that either “eying” or “circling” a project.)
The second is that Clint Eastwood’s next project will be, fascinatingly, the latest version of “A Star is Born,” which will feature Beyoncé Knowles in the lead role. The musical-drama classic might seem like an odd choice, but Eastwood is a serious music fan and he’s even made a rather good musical biopic, “Bird.”
In fact, his debut as a director owed a little something to Alfred Hitchcock and a lot to jazz. I don’t know who edited this video — or why they included subtitles, but this is worth a moment of your time and definitely emphasizes Eastwood’s musical choices. Also, if you thought Jessica Walter was formidable as Lucille Bluth in “Arrested Development” wait until you see her a few decades prior as the spurned antagonist of a swingin’ jazz DJ in Eastwood 1971 directorial debut, “Play Misty for Me.”
Music, of course, played a huge role in “Psycho” and in all of Hitchcock’s films, at least in terms of the way he thought about them. Take a look at this.
“Scream 4” had a trailer that got pulled earlier this, but this one appears to be for realsies.
This looks kind of fun but also way too cute. I liked the “I’ll be right back” joke, but then I’ve never seen the point of repeating this movie idea — indeed, I’ve only actually seen the first one. (I sped through the opening scene with Drew Barrymore, because Wes Craven is a kind of genius and I’m a big fat cinema chicken sometimes).
H/t /Film, appropriately enough. Oh, and my favorite scary movies are probably “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” “The Haunting,” “The Innocents,” “The Bride of Frankenstein,” and “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” are all up there.
Personally, I’m waiting for the ultra-serious, violence filled version of “The Three Little Pigs” or “Goldilocks: This Time It’s Not Just Right” but I guess this will have to do.
So, last night I drove out to my mom’s house and turned on the TV and found the channel turned to TCM. Since it was my mom’s house, there was no “info” button to push as I watched an early sixties Japanese film in which, at some kind of drunken orgy, a man finds his son with his girlfriend and quickly murders her. Then, there’s a non-sexual freaky-threeway of strangulation. The characters died but it wasn’t the end of the movie. In fact, it was barely the beginning.
Time to drag out the computer. Turns out I was seeing a bit of Nobuo Nakagawa’s highly notorious, blood-soaked 1960 horror oddity “Jigoku” which means, you guessed it “Hell” in English. Here’s the trailer. Abandon normal film logic, all ye who watch this.
