Yesterday, Eric D. Snider mentioned an interesting exercise by The New Republic's Christopher Orr. Annoyed at the recent glut of trailers that give away the entire film, he decided to write a review of 21 (which hits theaters today) based only on the trailer. Eric thought the "review" was actually pretty accurate, and I agree. I also agree that the trailer is egregiously inconsiderate of people who'd have liked to go into the movie unspoiled at least as to the third act. It's a shame.

But I'm sure you agree that it doesn't have to be that way. Trailers don't have to give away the game, and they don't have to be tacky and ham-fisted either. They're a marketing tool, of course, but trailers are also -- or can be -- an art form in their own right. Sometimes a trailer is such a skillful composition of images, sounds, words and music that it winds up having more of an effect on me than the movie I'm in the theater to see. (Often, too, the trailer turns out to be better than the movie it's advertising, which is always a disappointment.)

So while yesterday Eric asked you for examples of trailers that pissed you off because they revealed too much, I'd like to know which recent trailers you've loved. Not necessarily which ones you think advertised their movie in the optimal way, but which ones have been great in themselves -- scary, rousing, moving, beautiful. Take a look at some of my favorites and sound off after the jump.

Depending on your point of view, this is either very good or very bad news. Shock Til You Drop is reporting that the much-discussed Friday the 13th update will not be a remake of the classic 1980 flick. According to sources, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason) will not be re-writing the original story. Going one step further, Shock reports that the flick would not be an origin story of any kind. Instead, Shock reports that the film will take place, "somewhere between parts two and four". As any horror fan knows, the story of Jason Voorhees and his reign of terror at Camp Crystal Lake is one of the cornerstones of 80's horror, and the thought of a remake had plenty of fans all up in arms. Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Marcus Nispel hopped onboard a few weeks ago to direct.

Just last week Scott had reported that there were still some details to iron out with the script; mainly how they were going to work around the fact that Jason did not really appear in the films until Part 2. As we all know, it was good old Mommy dearest doing the dispatching in the first film. If Shock's sources can be trusted then this means Nispel won't have to worry about how to work in the big daddy of slashers and his trusty goalie mask and they can just start fresh. Stay tuned for any official word on whether or not we will be seeing a "stronger, faster, better" Jason headed our way. Friday the 13th is set for release February 13, 2009.

Seems like everyone wants to take a stab at filming a Stephen King adaptation lately. Although my guess is that the smart money is still on Frank Darabont's The Mist. But that doesn't mean that any other King project is doomed to end up on one of James' lists. Variety reports that Tobe Hooper has been hired to direct the big-screen version of From a Buick 8. This is King's second 'killer car' story, the first being Christine back in 1983. Buick centers on the recollections of the members of Troop D, a police barracks in western Pennsylvania. After *a young boy is is killed, his father becomes obsessed with the origins of a mysterious Buick 8 left in the town one night by a mysterious man in black (is there any other kind?).

But for those of you out there who can't get the ridiculous image of Keith Gordon being chased down the street by a 1958 Plymouth Fury out of your heads, there is no danger of this film going off the rails into camp territory. Hooper tells Variety, "From a Buick 8" will not be "your stock horror film by any means. There's a really cool, layered quality to the story." Hooper is best known for directing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre back in 1974, but this will be a far cry from the blood and gore of leather-face. Actor-writer Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar were in charge of adapting Buick for the screen and the flick will be produced by Chesapeake Films along with long-time King collaborator Mick Garris.

Correction: It is the son who goes looking for his father's murderer, not the other way around.

When the guy who directed The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream decides he wants to share his five favorite horror films with the world, two things are certain: 1. Horror fans should probably sit up, take notice and jot the titles down (if they haven't seen 'em yet), and 2. The news will be carried in (of all places) The Wall Street Journal.

Yes, Wes Craven was asked to list his favorite fistful of fright flicks, and here's what one of the modern masters of macabre had to offer: the original Frankenstein (Craven's going out on a limb already -- although I do give the man credit for not going with the more popular choice of Bride of Frankenstein), Mervyn LeRoy's The Bad Seed (does that include the final scene, Wes?), The Exorcist (another potentially controversial pick), the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (darn good pick -- albeit another fairly obvious one) and Ridley Scott's Alien -- which, as anyone who reads Film Critic Hunk Magazine can tell you, is my very favorite film of all time, horror or otherwise. God I love that film....

And that's pretty much it! Tune in next month when John Carpenter tells us he loves Tod Browning's Dracula, Stephen King expresses some affection for Freaks, and Eli Roth breaks the news that the original Halloween "rocks!!"

German filmmaker Marcus Nispel became acquainted with the horror freaks when he directed the surprisingly solid Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake a few years back. Since then he's been working on his "Vikings vs. Native Americans" epic Pathfinder, which has had more release dates than Mike Tyson. But according to those wonderful monsters over at Fangoria, we now have the scoop on Mr. Nispel's next three projects.

1. An adaptation of American McGee's cult classic video game Alice for Universal, which we're told will star Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role.

2. A subterranean monster movie called Sublevel -- which sounds completely up my alley.

3. Most intriguing of all would be the second collaboration between Nispel and Texas screenwriter Scott Kosar: a Charles Manson movie. Yes, there have been several (including the one everybody's seen: the very well-regarded 1976 TV movie Helter Skelter), but this director seems to have a firm approach to the story: "Almost all of those films are told from a legal point of view, or what you'd hear in a trial. So the thing you have to do is look at it from an emotional angle: Whose eyes are we seeing this through who is not a cop or a judge? Scott found a very interesting point of view from an insider. Personally, I've always been partial to an approach similar to Paul Schrader's Hardcore."

So now let the speculation begin: Whom would you cast as Charles Manson? I'm no casting director, but for some reason Billy Crudup just popped into my head. I'll stick with that pick.

January's still being pretty skimpy with the DVD treats. This week we get another slob comedy, another football movie, another action movie, another slasher flick and another video-shelf sequel to a movie that nobody really enjoyed all that much in the first place. So please, friends, rent before you buy.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning -- So here we have a prequel to a remake of a classic, and the law of diminishing returns is in full effect. What we were promised -- a dark and nasty tale of Leatherface's icky origins -- is relegated to a sketchy prologue, and the rest of the movie is sub-standard slasher fare in every sense of the term. Points to the team for doling out the gory stuff, but with characters like this (and a pace this glacial) there's very little reason to care who gets sliced and when. Still, the mega-rabid R. Lee Ermey is always good for a few goofy laughs. Extras on the unrated edition include a producer/director audio commentary, a 46-minute 'making of' documentary, four deleted scenes and three alternate endings.

So far the company known as Plantium Dunes, which is run by flashy director dude Michael Bay, has produced three movies: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Ah, and they have The Hitcher due in two weeks. That's three remakes and a prequel to a remake ... which I don't really count as an "original" concept.

But according to Bloody-Disgusting.com, Bay and producing partner Andrew Form have a nasty thriller on the way called The Horsemen. In this one, Dennis Quaid will play a detective gone sour after his wife's untimely demise, only to come across some terror of truly "biblical" proportions. (Hint: The (Four) Horsemen ... of the Apocalypse?) Quaid's the man, of course, and the story sounds pretty nifty, but The Horsemen was written by the guy who did Doom and directed by the guy who helmed the patently unwatchable Spun ... so this one's a total crap-shoot. But at least it's not a remake. Plus they got Zhang Ziyi to co-star, and that's always a smart thing to do.

Also on the Platinum docket are something "brutal" called Alone, that oft-discussed remake of The Birds and ... absolutely no chance of another Texas Chainsaw Massacre entry. Which is just fine by me.

[Previous report by Marky B. is accessible right here.]

You know Bill O'Reilly? That stuffed shirt knee-jerk reactionist / sexual harrassment expert? Yeah, that guy. Well, Bill has finally discovered that there's a thing out there called A Horror Movie, and get this: He wants to ban them. Yep, O'Reilley threatens to "look into it" at the tail-end of this moronic video clip in which some wifty psychologist and some puritan author spend about six minutes boo-hoo-hooing over the shameless gruesome nastiness of movies like Saw, Hostel and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Look out, Lionsgate! Bill O'Reilly plans to "look into" horror movies and, I guess, put a stop to the durn things, consarnit! Stockholders beware!

Words like "sickening" are tossed around the studio as the three overwhelmingly ill-informed hand-wringers ramble on, poorly covering a subject that they know nothing about. O'Reilly even states that this type of horror "could never have happened in America ten years ago," blissfully ignorant to the fact that gore flicks have been around since (at least) the days of Herschell Gordon Lewis. (Like, the 1960s!)

Billy's guests are Dr. Virginia Klein, "a psychotherapist," and James Hirsen, the smug author of a book called Hollywood Nation -- a book that has a piece of effusive front-cover blurbage from none other than Michael Medved. (As if that's a person you want praise from.) So obviously Bill is really interested in covering both sides of the Horror Movie argument. Sheesh. Klein seems to claim that the only people who like Saw 3 are those who "are on tranquilizers" or "like toys." (Don't feel bad; I don't have any idea what she's talking about either.) Dr. Klein ends up a total wiffle-ball washout, and here's why: The "psychology" of horror flicks is so simple that I don't even feel the need to explain it here -- but she STILL gets it completely wrong! She blathers and blithers for a few minutes before Billy Boy shoots it on over to Mr. Hirsen, the "Hollywood Insider." Ahem.

Halloween is almost upon us, and you know what that means: People like me are busy compiling their lists of horror films that did something or didn't do something or just plain suck. Not to be left out, I have worked diligently to produce the following list of the seven horror films that I deem the bad of the bad, the worst of the worst and the crap of the crap of all time.

When taking a look at this list, please try to bear in mind that this is my list and therefore reflects my delicate sensibilities (or lack thereof). Plus, as some of you may know, I have an intense dislike for directors who feel compelled to remake, or even worse "re-imagine," classic horror films. Almost without exception these bastard children tend to be pale imitations of their originals. In fact, can we just strike "re-imagine" from the lexicon of cinema right now and have it never be used again?

Also, as I'm sure will be made abundantly clear shortly, this list is by no means complete. Tastes vary as much as Ben Affleck's acting or Lindsey Lohan's choice of boyfriends, so many films that may deserve to appear on this list will not. I know there are more -- and I know you will have your own picks, so limber up those fingers, hit the comments and tell us your thoughts.

Now, come closer to your monitor and let's roll it.

Blood Sucking Freaks (aka The Incredible Torture Show) (1976) - Director (if you can call him that) Joel M. Reed's "film" (if you can call it that) does everything wrong that it possibly could. It's stupid, pointless and on top of that, patently offensive -- even to me and I'm a huge, huge horror fan. Blood and gore don't bother me either, especially if they are used in the right way. Of course "right way" and this piece of crap parted ways long, long ago.

Don't misunderstand me, It's not that I dislike this film, I hate it. Anyone associated with this movie should never be allowed to work in the business again. Plus, all copies of this piece o' shi-ite should be burned in a massive bonfire -- along with every copy of Paris Hilton's Paris. I know, Mr. Reed made one other film after this one -- the equally useless Night of the Zombies. But since then, thankfully, he has not been heard from again. Good riddance, I say, and please take uber-hack Uwe Boll with you. I think you guys would really hit it off.

More of my list after the jump.

With the Halloween season nearly upon us, and with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (the sequel to the remake of the Tobe Hooper classic) about to hit theaters, the timing seems right for the DVD release of this prime slice of 80s cheese. I've never had the chance to see this one, but it was constantly available on tape back in they heyday of VHS. Arriving on October 31, Future-Kill makes its first-ever appearance on DVD from Subversive Cinema.

This 1985 flick is a post-apocalyptic thriller from a time when -- in the wake of the Mad Max films -- the B movie landscape was littered with these types of films. Here's the synopsis from Subversive's website: "A tragic nuclear testing accident has created an entire underclass of affected humans. And a band of unthinking frat boys decide to abduct one such person from the barren ghetto where the victims of nuclear fallout live. However, the violent de facto leader of a mutant gang (Edwin Neal) decides to take advantage by killing his rival and blaming them for the death, forcing them on an all-night run to save their lives and clear their name...and perhaps get a better understanding for how 'the other half' lives."