Category: Horror Movies (Page 73 of 96)

Zombie movie made for a paltry $70 makes a splash at Cannes

No, that’s not a typo. Director Marc Price made this film for 70 bucks and now he’s generating tons of buzz at Cannes. This is a great story for aspiring filmmakers everywhere.

A budding British director is enjoying success on a shoestring at Cannes with “Colin,” a new zombie feature that cost a scarcely believable $70 to make.

Japanese distributors are currently in negotiations for the rights to the film and buzz around the no-budget zombie chiller has attracted interest from some major American distributors — all of which is a very nice surprise for the team behind “Colin.”

“We were almost fainting at the list of people who were coming [to the final market screening of the film],” said Helen Grace of Left Films who is helping the film’s director Marc Price publicize the film in Cannes. “Representatives from major American distributors — some of the Hollywood studios.”

“When we say it’s a low budget film, people presume a couple of hundred thousand [dollars]. People can’t figure out how it’s possible. What Marc’s achieved has left people astonished.”

It was by advertising for volunteer zombies on social networking site Facebook, borrowing make-up from Hollywood blockbusters and teaching himself how to produce special effects that thrifty director Price was able to make the film for less than the price of a zombie DVD box set.

“The approach was to say to people, ‘OK guys, we don’t have any money, so bring your own equipment,'” the the 30 year-old director told CNN.

With help from a makeshift band of friends and volunteers, Price shot and edited the feature — which ingeniously spins the zombie genre on it’s head by telling the story entirely from the zombie’s perspective — over a period of 18 months while working nights part-time as a booker for a taxi company.

Check out the trailer above – the film looks cool as hell.

Blu Tuesday: A Bug’s Life, Batman and Terminator 2

The wealth of Blu-ray titles being released this week is actually pretty incredible (in fact, most of the month has yielded a nice selection for HD enthusiasts), but you’d be wise to get in on the fun now, because the future is looking pretty dim – at least in the short term. Nevertheless, there are plenty A-list titles to last you through the upcoming drought, and most of them are good enough to warrant headlining their own column.

“A Bug’s Life” (Walt Disney)

It may not be one of Pixar’s most popular films (in fact, it’s curiously missing from just about every marketing campaign of the last decade), but “A Bug’s Life” is still a solid entry in the studio’s 14-year history. A clever reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai,” the film features all of the usual Pixar trappings (humor, heart and charm), not to mention an awesome voice cast including the scene-stealing Kevin Spacey and Richard Kind as the villainous grasshopper and his dim-witted brother, respectively. Oh, and that cute little girl providing the voice of Dot? It’s none other than “Heroes” hottie Hayden Panettiere in one of her very first film roles. What’s ultimately so great about the new 10th anniversary Blu-ray release, however, is that it not only includes the previously released bonus material, but two brand new special features as well. The first is a 21-minute roundtable discussion with co-directors John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton and producers Darla K. Anderson and Kevin Reher where they reflect on the making of “A Bug’s Life” with stories about pitching the idea to Disney and screening the film for President Clinton at Camp David, while “A Bug’s Life: The First Draft” offers a never-before-seen look at the film’s original concept starring a completely different main character. It’s exactly the kind of fan service moviegoers don’t see enough of these days, but when it comes to a company like Pixar, you shouldn’t expect any less.

“Batman” (Warner Bros.)

It’s hard to imagine anyone that wanted a copy of “Batman” on Blu-ray didn’t pick up the anthology box set collecting the first four films when it was released a few months ago, but those holding out strictly for the Tim Burton original will be pleased with Warner’s new digibook release. Though the 1989 film doesn’t quite hold up when compared to Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the franchise, it’s still a solid entry in the history of comic book films that, if nothing else, offers a great performance from Jack Nicholson as a more classic version of the Joker. The set is also jam-packed with all of the special features from the 2005 DVD reissues including a director commentary, an in-depth look at the history of Batman, and hours of production featurettes about the making of the film. The digibook release also features slick packaging with a 48-page booklet filled with essays and a script excerpt, as well as a digital copy for those on the go.

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Blu Tuesday: Taken, Star Trek and Underworld

It’s been awhile since my last Blu-ray column (two weeks ago, I attended a brand retreat in Walt Disney World with Hanes and returned with a non-swine flu), but luckily, I didn’t miss too much. In fact, with the exception of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (which you should definitely pick up, by the way), there were no other major releases last week. This week is a different story, however, with a few A-list titles, a slew of movies from the Paramount and MGM vaults, and an awesome collection that sci-fi fans are going to want to check out.

“Taken” (20th Century Fox)

By far the biggest surprise of the year, Pierre Morel’s “Taken” is a good old fashioned action thriller that doesn’t waste a single minute on pointless exposition or silly subplots. Liam Neeson is excellent as the Jack Bauer-type who jets off to Paris when his teenage daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers, and then proceeds to kick the ass of each and every person involved until there’s no one else left to punish. Though I’ve yet to actually check out the extras on the Blu-ray release, the U.K. edition sported some pretty cool bonus material including a picture-in-picture geographical locator, a making-of featurette, and side-by-side comparisons for six of the film’s key sequences. I’d expect the U.S. version to feature the same, but here’s hoping we get a few exclusives as well.

“Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection” (Paramount)

With J.J. Abrams’ big screen reboot of the sci-fi classic tearing up the box office in its first week in theaters, it’s really no surprise that Paramount would want to take advantage of the hype train by releasing all six of the original “Star Trek” films on Blu-ray for the first time. As we’ve already seen from the Season One release, however, Paramount’s HD reissues are more than quick cash grabs, but rather serious undertakings meant to please the most loyal of fans. The same appears to be true of the “Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection,” a seven-disc box set that includes remastered editions of all six movies (sorry, no director cuts this time around) and an additional disc of bonus material entitled The Captain’s Summit. Suffice it to say, this is a no-brainer Day One purchase for any real “Trek” fan, but at such a great price ($79.99 on Amazon), I’d even say it’s worth it for the casual fan as well.

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Splinter

Independent horror films are a dime a dozen these days (they’re cheap to make and even cheaper to market), but every once in a while, a gem slides through the cracks that makes you wonder how much better it could have been with the proper financial backing. Writer/director Toby Wilkins’ “Splinter” might not feature the world’s greatest script, or even quality acting, but it does have something that the genre is sorely lacking: one of the most original movie monsters in years. Paulo Costanzo and Jill Wagner star as a young couple whose romantic getaway is interrupted when a pair of criminals (Shea Whigham and Rachel Kerbs) steal their car and take them hostage. The rest of the plot is pretty standard stuff, but horror fans will get a kick out of the film’s creepy beast – a prickly parasite that transforms its victims into deadly hosts. Though the filmmakers too often resort to the kind of quick-cut editing that prevents the viewer from ever getting a really good look at the monster, the premise is just cool enough to ensure that you’ll be glued to the screen throughout the film’s brisk 82-minute runtime. It’s not particularly gruesome (except for a brutal amputation à la “The Ruins”), but “Splinter” has just enough going for it that you’ll wish it was given the theatrical release it deserved.

Click to buy “Splinter”

A Chat with “Harper’s Island” Victims #2 and #3

If you’re particularly persnickety about the death count on “Harper’s Island” since its debut last week, then you’re probably grousing about how, although we referred to Uncle Marty – who’s half the man he used to be – as the first victim, he was really the second person to be murdered within the episode. This is completely true, of course, since I think it’s fair to say that we collectively shuddered as Cousin Ben bought the big one at more or less the same moment the boat left the mainland dock and began its voyage to the island. Similarly, there were actually three deaths in Episode #2. So why are we only citing two of the victims here?

Here’s the thing: we’re only counting the people who appear on the list that CBS and the show’s producers have helpfully provided us to use as a scorecard of sorts. If they’re not on the list (which you can find right here), then we’re not counting them in the grand total.

Okay, now that we’re all on the same page about how the victim count works, let’s prepare to chat with Victims #2 and #3, shall we?

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