TadHilgenbrink Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Four months ago I attended an advance screening of The Hills Run Red, a Warner Premier straight-to-DVD film about a group of college kids in search of a cult director and his long-lost horror film of the same name. Long story short, I really didn't like it, but I found myself in the minority, so in the interest of fairness, I spent the next couple of months asking colleagues who saw it why they seemed to like it so much.

Because I never really got an answer that satisfied my lingering questions and criticisms, I decided to watch it again. And while the film's premise – obsessive horror geeks rediscovering a lost horror classic that was banished for being too intense – is a really, really terrific one, director Dave Parker's latest effort is not equal to that premise. A mess of half-considered genre conventions with only a few compelling ideas to connect them, The Hills Run Red is an example of the kind of horror movie that gets a pass from forgiving genre fans, but its clumsy, obvious execution will otherwise not likely entertain (much less scare) anyone else.

Tad Hilgenbrink plays Tyler, a horror fan who is obsessed with The Hills Run Red, an infamous movie directed by reclusive filmmaker Wilson Wyler Concannon (William Sadler) that was removed from circulation because it was branded too intense by the powers that be.

Read the rest over at HorrorSquad!

If it had any other title, Lost Boys 2: The Tribe wouldn't provoke any outrage. But if it had any other title, would anybody give it a second glance? I harbored a ray of hope, but it doesn't take very long to realize that Lost Boys 2: The Tribe was always destined for the direct to video garbage heap.

The 1987 original, photographed by the superbly talented Michael Chapman, was super stylish and jammed with juicy performances, cynical wisecracks, and post-modern tweaks to cinematic vampire legends. The best idea was placing fanged lords of the night in a sun-soaked California coastal town populated by aging hippies and freaks, not to mention a boardwalk, rollercoaster, and great, crashing surf.

As a budget sequel, LB2 has to make do with less attractive, less flattering video imagery and the rockier Canadian coastline standing in for "Santa Carla" * (actually, Santa Cruz, California). The script by Hans Rodionoff makes some half-hearted attempts to tie in the original (antlers and motorcycles, anyone?), but is bereft of any new twists of its own. Director P. J. Pesce makes certain to include the obligatory amount of gore required to justify the so-called "uncut" version, with notable attention to ripped throats and spilled intestines, along with bared body parts displayed by lovelies such as Moneca Delain. LB2 has precisely two good moments -- one in the opening scene, provided by Tom Savini -- stranded within 94 minutes of running time.

Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures and Warner Home Video have announced a new project that sounds pretty cool ... if you're a hardcore horror geek, of course. Production is already underway in Romania on The Hills Run Red, which according to The Hollywood Reporter, is about "a film fanatic whose obsession with finding a complete print of an infamous slasher movie leads him and two friends into the backwoods where the film was shot. They realize too late that filming never ended -- and now they must survive a nightmarish onslaught or become part of the movie forever."

OK, so it sounds like a pretty conventional horror plot in some ways, but here's some good news: The flick will star not only character actor extraordinaire Bill Sadler -- but also the mega-mega-sexy Sophie Monk. (Oh, and Tad Hilgenbrink, soon to be seen in The Lost Boys: The Tribe.) The Hills screenplay comes from award-winning genre specialist David J. Schow, which I consider pretty good news, and the multi-hatted Dave Parker will direct. For more on this project, check out the THR article right here -- and Bloody-Disgusting's initial report from last April right here. And to see why I just drooled over Sophie Monk, click right here.

(Thanks to this site for the awesome Bill Sadler pic. Oh, he's the actor who played Death in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey? "Damn right!")

Whether you're excited or apprehensive, production on the second edition of The Lost Boys is now underway, bringing us the Frog brothers' latest vampiric adventure. (This is one without the infamous co-Corey, as Erik told us in September.) Now Edgar Frog, otherwise known as Corey Feldman, has thrown up a holiday post for his fans that includes tidbits about the production as well as some preview pics for Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. I have been fully expecting to hate this whole production, but I must say -- seeing these two pictures did tap into some of my old Lost Boys fangirl glee. Maybe this could be a good, fun sequel. ...Maybe?

The first pic has Feldman throwing up the serious vampire-fighting finger at Tad Hilgenbrink, who you might have caught in last year's abysmal Epic Movie as Cyclops. The second picture has Feldman armed, poutingly serious, and patrolling a dark tunnel. I'm not expecting a masterpiece, but at least it looks like Corey found his way back to his inner Frog. The actor also threw up a blog post, and in between prayers and chatter for fans, he talks a bit about Warner Brothers' plans for the film. DC Comics will be releasing a 4-issue series to fill in the blanks between the first and second films. (How will they explain away Corey Haim? Did Mama Weist collect them off to a safer city?) And get this -- from the fingers of Feldman: "they are already talking about doing a third... ..;)" The optimist in me wants to believe that this decision is because of how very well production is going, but the pessimist is certain this is just one of those crappy sequel decisions.

In the meantime, there's one more bit of gossip that Corey shared. If you caught the first season of The Two Coreys, and are itching for part two, you might have to hold your breath. It seems that while A&E have ordered a second season, Corey isn't sure he wants to do it because he had a falling out with Haim: "the problems Haim and I have in real life occurred after the show was over and do not have anything to do with the banter from last season. That said, if we do come back, the next season will have to be darker, edgier, and more real because that's where it's at." A dark and edgy Two Coreys? Oh, my!