Among my favorite film books is Michael J. Weldon's two-volume "Psychotronic" film guide. The first was published in 1983 and the second in 1996 (Michael hopes to publish a third at some point). Unlike Leonard Maltin's annual book, Weldon doesn't update an existing guide; each new guide is an entirely new volume. If you want to read about Halloween, you need Vol. 1 and if you want to read about Halloween 4, you need Vol. 2. A "Psychotronic" movie can be fairly easy to define. It's basically any of the "lower" film genres, dealing with the more questionable elements of society: horror, sci-fi, bikers, strippers, superheroes, zombies, kung-fu, vampires, comic books, drugs, sex, action heroes, rock 'n' roll, midnight movies, monsters, witches, cults, serial killers, magic, time travel, robberies, heists, contract killers, gladiators, Spaghetti Westerns, mad scientists, murder mysteries, pimps, voyeurs, etc.

With apologies to Joan Jett for swiping her album title, this week's installment of Trailer Park is about the young folk in one way or another.

Prom Night
It seems like every time a remake is announced there's an angered outcry from the fans of the original. I didn't care much for 1980's Prom Night, and based on this trailer I don't see much to look forward to with this new version. Certain kinds of horror can work with a PG-13 rating, but a slasher film? I don't see it. The trailer gives us a group of irritatingly over privileged teens gathering for the prom. Suddenly the lights go out, people start screaming, and I lose interest. This one hits U.S. theaters on April 11. Here's Scott's take.

Descendents (Solos)
Over at upcominghorrormovies.com they're referring to this one as the first Chilean zombie movie and the first English-language film from director Jorge Olguin. You can't exactly tell from the trailer that there are zombies in this thing, but there's obviously a widespread infection in an urban area with soldiers summarily blowing away the victims of some kind of infection. The story is told from the perspective of a little girl who joins forces with other children to escape the city. It looks bleak and horrifying, just as a zombie film should. So far there's no U.S. distribution planned for this one.

I was going to headline this post with something about 'being there in spirit,' but I decided that's a lame way to start things off. Obviously, I'm being lame anyway by pointing out that I wasn't going to begin that way, while in effect beginning that way. So, why don't we just get to the news about the Independent Spirit Award nominations, shall we?

Todd Hayne's I'm Not There received four nominations, including one each for Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, who are up for supporting actress and supporting actor, respectively, for their semi-portrayals of Bob Dylan. The film was also recognized in the Best Feature category, in which it's competing against Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Paranoid Park and A Mighty Heart, and Haynes was nominated for Best Director, going up against Jason Reitman (Juno), Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) and Tamara Jenkins (The Savages) -- meaning A Mighty Heart's Michael Winterbottom was shut out despite his film's receiving the Best Feature nomination. I'm Not There is already the winner of one Independent Spirit Award, the newly conceived, and appropriately titled Robert Altman Award, which honors the film's director, casting director and ensemble cast. Because of that win, I'm Not There has been labeled the leader of the nominated films, although Juno, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and The Savages all received the same amount of actual nominations as Haynes' film.

Since I haven't seen any of the major nominees (yet), I will take this opportunity to celebrate a few films, which I have seen, that have been deservedly recognized in other categories. First, I'm excited to see that Adrienne Shelly is up for Best Screenplay for Waitress. I doubt she'll win, unless enough voters want to further highlight her posthumous success, but I'm happy to see her included. I'm delighted to see Jennifer Jason Leigh nominated for Margot at the Wedding, considering Nicole Kidman, who wasn't nominated, has been receiving most of that film's accolades. And finally, I am ecstatic to see that Vanaja, which I loved, has been given two nominations, one for Best First Feature and one for Best Cinematography. Overall, we should all be glad that this year's crop of nominees includes few huge stars, Angelina Jolie being the one major exception, in the acting categories. The 2008 Independent Spirit Awards will be presented on February 23.

In the late '90s, Blake Nelson's debut novel, Girl, was turned into a feature film starring Dominique Swain. While the adaptation can be strangely addictive for its utter badness, it was a far cry from its source material -- the grunge, the feeling, the spark were all sapped from it and what remained was a goofy tale about a girl trying to be cool to get the guy. (Although it was one of the only films I liked Tara Reid in.) Gus Van Sant did not have this problem bringing the next adapted Nelson novel, Paranoid Park, to the big screen. The director understands the kids of Nelson's Portland, and they're every bit as grungy and real as you could imagine. Unfortunately, that's just about all the film has going for it.

This adaptation was so bland on the big screen that I actually found myself itching for Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Like Girl, this is a tale of suburban kids looking to shed their comfortable, middle-class living for some street-class cred. Where Andrea visited clubs and wore cow dresses, Alex (Gabe Nevins) heads to the local skateboard park, nicknamed Paranoid Park, with his friend. Alex is mesmerized by rolling skateboarders, but feels he isn't good enough to participate. One night, he goes back on his own and befriends some kids who say they live there. Then, time jumps forward and backward to tell Alex's story. During an interview with a police detective, we learn that a security guard who was found dead near the park might have been murdered. From Alex's actions, it is obvious that he knows something about this crime, and Van Sant ties the strings together slowly.

Tooling around the internet this morning, a number of movie posters from the Cannes Film Festival have somehow found a way invade my computer screen; one of which just happened to be the production poster for Charlie Kaufman's (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as a theater director who, while attempting to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse for a new play, struggles to maintain the several different relationships he has with those of the opposite sex. ( I imagine the poster should make a lot more sense to people now.) Of course, since it's also written by Kaufman, look for lots of weird things to happen along the way. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, Hope Davis and Tilda Swinton also star.

Apart from Synecdoche, New York, we also have posters from flicks like Paranoid Park (the new Gus Van Sant flick), Leo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour (in which he attempts to be as cool as Al Gore), Tenderness (featuring Russell Crowe sporting a wicked mustache) and a new Jessica Simpson film called Major Movie Star (which in and of itself is a major contradiction). She wears an army-style bikini, and I imagine the film will have her joining the military as a dumb blonde -- gee, keep them original ideas coming boys. I don't get it, is it Simpson's goal to only star in films that are either inspired by or based on old 80s flicks and 70s TV shows?

Blake Nelson made a big splash with his first novel, Girl. The story of Andrea Marr transcended the gap between avid teen readers and those with novel disinterest. Every girl friend I had who didn't like to read was lent my copy and for many, it was the only non-assigned book they read. As Nelson once said during the writing process, Andrea was morphed from "clueless mall chick" into an observer. It made all the difference even though the Dominique Swain film version was a large serving of clueless, without the satire.

Nelson, the guy who penned a great book-turned-film flop is now seeing Paranoid Park come to life via Gus Van Sant, as Matt Bradshaw previously reported. I'm a bit nervous about this, because while the director has some great films under his belt, he's also the man who ruined Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. To Die For was better, so it's anyone's guess which side of the scale this falls.

Blake, however, seems pretty happy on his blog, where he offers some good behind-the-scenes shots. You can check out Nelson with Chris Doyle, the man who has shot all of Wong Kar Wai's films, different shots of the cast, and some insight into Van Sant's process as a filmmaker. They're observer pictures, and to me, it really makes the difference. If any of you out there are Nelson fans of any form, I'd love to hear what you think of all this. Are you ruing Van Sant's involvement, or wishing that he was the one directed Girl?

Big fan of Gus Van Sant? Live anywhere close to the fine state of Oregon? Are you a teenager who's slick with a skateboard? If you answered YES to all three questions, congratulations: You're officially a member of a very small demographic, one that Mr. Van Sant would like to hang with.

Portland film critic/blogman Shawn Levy has the full scoop on Van Sant's next project, which will be called Paranoid Park. The film is based on the as-yet-unpublished novel by Blake Nelson, and it tells the story of a skate-kid who accidentally kills a security guard, and doesn't exactly go running to the cops. Van Sant wants the cast to be composed entirely of newcomers, which is why he'll be holding several open casting calls early next month. Check out all the news here, and then check out the Paranoid Park MySpace page.