The Crazies Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Trailer Park: Nightmare Fairies and Crazy Chipmunks
Filed under: Horror », Trailer Trash », Family Films »
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Jackie Earle Haley is the new Freddy Krueger in this remake that seems to be staying pretty close to the original (that shot above ring any bells?). Freddy's got the striped sweater, the hat and of course the claw. We don't see much of his face but there's enough to tell Freddy's sporting a new albeit still burned to a crisp look. Haley was great in Watchmen, but director Samuel Bayer has a resume filled with mostly music videos so I'm not too optimistic. The nightmare begins on April 30.
Tooth Fairy
Dwayne Johnson plays a mean spirited pro hockey player who is sentenced to serve time working as a tooth fairy, complete with wings, shrinking and invisibility. Seriously? I realize I'm not the target demo, but seriously? This will be out on January 22.
Fan Rant: 'The Crazies' Trailer is Not a Melancholy 'Mad World'
Filed under: Horror », Movie Marketing », Fan Rant », Trailers and Clips »
It all started out so well. Timothy Olyphant is the man of the law, the local townsfolk are enjoying the start of the baseball season, and everything is sunny. When one of their own hits the field with a gun, however, he has no choice but to shoot the guy and save the rest. And then more folks start acting strange, things get eerie, people die, the government flies in, and the fight for life begins. It's the classic horror setup.Then there's a quick cut and the music starts with f minor. Softly but surely, the '80s song that was slowed down and made infamous through a montage of tears plays as people run through burning streets, as the military moves in, as people are strapped to gurneys, as they all fight to stay alive. Yes, it might be a "Mad World," but Gary Jules is not suited for it. In Donnie Darko, the song was beautiful, gut-wrenching, and perfect for the tone at hand.
Taking a cue from the song: I find it kinda funny that they decided to go with the recent hit rather than going back to the original. Why? It actually fits. The low, electronic notes that carry the Tears for Fears version are eerie, and if you watch this trailer for The Crazies over at Apple, and start the original song at roughly 1:40, it lines up. Suddenly the increasing chills of the beginning are made creepier. Even some of the action is perfectly synched.
The town fighting The Crazies might be a "Mad World," but there's no room for somber melancholia in a horror trailer -- especially when it's a song already made famous with a perfect cinematic fit.
Movie Marketing Invades Twitter - Do You Even Care?
Filed under: Fandom », Tech Stuff », Movie Marketing »
So, who out there is already sick of hearing about Twitter? I know there are a few people in my life that can't help but roll their eyes when they even hear the word, but I'll totally admit it to being full fledged addict. The number of smart-phone users and people on social networks like Twitter are reaching all-time highs, and in a piece for Variety, Susan Lambert looked at some of the ways in which movie studios are looking to cash in. But the bad news is that nobody is quite sure about whether or not this new style of advertising is a success. Now that four out of the six majors already have Twitter accounts, and poster launches and ARG games are popping up daily, it would seem that everyone loves a new toy -- whether it works or not.If you think back to a year ago, the studios were all about creating viral campaigns (Blame J.J. Abrams if you must) and fans could spend hours pouring over HTML code to find a hidden message that located a secret 'hatch' or a photo of a mutated whale. But the original ARG-style viral campaigns have already faded away, and while there are still a few of them out there, they haven't exactly been a success (case in point: how many of you out there signed up for Emmerich's IHC lottery? That's what I thought). I think the biggest deterrent for fans was that if you wanted to play along, it was going to be an awful lot of work. But with the automation of services like Twitter or a dedicated movie app on your smart-phone, it's a one time deal. If you don't have time to take down Skynet by engaging in a complicated treasure hunt, why not just sign up as part of the Human Resistance and John Connor will do the work for you?
After the jump find out if Twitter is really that different from any other advertising medium...
The Scary Bits: Return of The Scary Bits
Filed under: Horror », The Scary Bits »
I know, it's been a while since I've written one of these gore-soaked missives, but the upside to that is ... we have a lot to talk about! And since I wrote this during a lazy Sunday (happy belated holidays, btw) I figure it's time to break out the candy-coated bullet points! Let's start out with a freaky fistful of upcoming DVD releases:
Currently strewn across shelves are Donkey Punch and Vinyan, two festival-heavy horror films that couldn't possibly be more different. One's about venal young jerks, and the other is about heartbroken (but stupid) parents. Really bad things happen to all of them.
This Tuesday we're getting the old-school-style monster movie Splinter, which is really quite good. If you like prickly monsters, that is. On the same day ... whoa. It looks like someone actually bothered to exhume flicks like Repossessed, Slaughter High, and My Best Friend Is a Vampire. That sound you just heard was my Netflix queue getting fatter.
Come the 21st we get J.T. Petty's The Burrowers, which played (and played well) at last year's Fantastic Fest, and Robert Hall's Laid to Rest, which is sort of like a non-snarky slasher throwback with a hint of Phantasm-style weirdness. Couldn't find a stranger double feature than these two, believe me.
And mark your calendars, gore-lovers, for April 28, because that's when Martyrs finally hits R1 DVD. According to the UK poster, Scoot Weinberg says it "makes Saw look like Sesame Street," which is one of the most shameless blurbs I've ever heard. Even if the guy is correct, brilliant, and really handsome. (Trust me, this is one rough horror movie.) Also on this Tuesday we'll get the unofficial Donnie Darko sequel, and a movie starring Amber Benson called One-Eyed Monster. I leave the jokes to you fine folks.
Casting Bites: Brides, Crazies, and 'Up in the Air'
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Horror », Casting »
Hump day is behind us, the weekend is in sight, and here are some casting bites, courtesy of Variety:We're still waiting to see when on earth The Garden of Eden will hit screens (some, like me, more impatiently than others), but meanwhile, Mena Suvari has picked up a new gig. She (along with Ken Davitian, Kevin Dunn, and Tia Carrere) is joining a new indie project called You May Not Kiss the Bride. The film is said to be a mixture of romance and action (a la Romancing the Stone). IMDb, under the name Wedlocked, says it's about a mobster trying to get his daughter US citizenship by marrying her off to an American photographer. Unfortunately, director and screenwriter Rob Hedden's credits probably won't help you figure out the film's tone. He's responsible not only for Clockstoppers, but also Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Oh, the confidence that instills.
And then we have that little Timothy Olyphant-led remake of The Crazies. The cast now includes Danielle Panabaker (the sweet nature hero from Sky High) and Joe Anderson (the wild brother who gets shipped off to Vietnam in Across the Universe). That cast is just sweet enough to give us a not entirely great but memorable Phantoms phenomenon. Where's Peter O'Toole to top it off?
Finally, Tamala Jones has grabbed a role in the George Clooney-starring, Jason Reitman-written and directed Up in the Air. You might recognize her from gigs like Daddy Day Camp, but she's also part of the annoying girl trio from Can't Hardly Wait who were friends with Amanda. There's no word on who she'll play in the feature, which delves into the life of a man who loves his frequent flier miles.
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The Scary Bits: Raimi's Return, Jason's Resurrection & Some New 'Thing'
Filed under: Horror », The Scary Bits »
So after years of wondering and months of alleged deals, it finally looks like Universal is dusting something off for a remake. SomeTHING I should say, so if you're a fan of Christian Nyby's The Thing (From Another World), John Carpenter's The Thing, or John Campbell's source material Who Goes There?, then you should be suitably elated to learn that Universal has tapped a writer and a director for the new-fangled version. Me, I'm fine with it. But if you come into my house and mess with my The Thing DVD, I may have to cut you. (More from Pete right here.)
Sam Raimi's long-awaited return to horror is called Drag Me to Hell, and while I won't get to see it for a few more weeks (sadface), the early buzz from the L.A. horror hounds is nothing but enthusiastic. I refuse to read ANYthing about this movie, but you can click around Bloody, Shock, and Dread to see what those gorehounds thought.
Oooh, next week we get a bunch of new Friday the 13th DVDs! (I wonder why.) Check out my little report on those platters right here. Directly opposite of next week we have last week, which is when we saw a few new horror flicks at Sundance. Those films were Grace (Snider's review / mine at FEARnet), The Killing Room (mine), and Dead Snow (Snider's / mine), and while it's not horror at all, Moon is just damn cool enough to warrant another mention. Here's James' review and here's mine. (It's old-school science fiction, in that it's about ideas AND technology. How very cool.)
Random bits on: Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods; that remake of The Crazies; the availability of the awesome [REC] on R1 DVD; and our multiple affectons for Sean Ellis' The Broken. (Ooh, the Martyrs DVD cover!)
Radha Mitchell Joins 'The Crazies'
Filed under: Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting », Remakes and Sequels »
It has been almost a year since news first hit of a remake of George A. Romero's classic, The Crazies, but after a long delay, it looks like the project is finally back on track. Shock Till You Drop is reporting that Radha Mitchell (The Surrogates) has just signed to star alongside Timothy Olyphant in the update of Romero's sci-fi horror. Breck Eisner (Sahara) will be directing Scott Kosar's update about the small town that becomes ground-zero for a mutant military virus. Originally released in 1973, The Crazies centered on a small town that is the site of a mysterious military plane crash that turns the locals into homicidal maniacs, leaving the few survivors to fight off their former neighbors. There aren't any details on Mitchell's role in the film, but the smart money has her playing wifey to Olyphant's butt-kicking sheriff -- although if you have seen Mitchell in Pitch Black, then you already know that this gal is usually no 'Mary Sue'.
The project has gone through a couple of writers already, but Kosar and Ray Wright are still being credited as the primary writers for the flick. Kosar has had some experience in horror updates before, having been behind The Amityville Horror and Texas Chainsaw updates back in early 2000's. Eisner is also no strangers to remakes having just been signed to helm updates of Creature from the Black Lagoon and Flash Gordon. But previous experience aside; I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that The Crazies won't be another cult horror that winds up with a PG-13 state of mind.
The Crazies is expected to arrive in theaters on September 25th, 2009.
Timothy Olyphant is 'Crazies'!
Filed under: Horror », Casting », Remakes and Sequels »
If the crazies were to come back and lead to wide-spread bouts of insanity, who would you want to save you? You might say Ben Affleck, since he was "the bomb in Phantoms, yo." Or maybe Joseph Whipp's Sheriff Burke from Scream. But what about the sequel's baddy? (And if that spoils it for you, you were never really intent on seeing Scream 2.)The Hollywood Reporter posts that Timothy Olyphant has signed on toplay sheriff in the remake of George Romero's The Crazies, which Scott blogged about earlier this year. The under-the-radar film focuses on the people of a small Kansas town "who are beset by death and insanity after a plane crash lets loose a secret biological weapon into the water supply." I'd say he's a pretty good man for the job, and after the crappy luck he had on Dreamcatcher, he's due for a good fight.
And is it wrong for me to really, really wish that Josh Brolin directs that fun, camp interest to this project instead?
Is That 'Crazies' Remake Back on Track?
Filed under: Horror », Remakes and Sequels »
I could have sworn I did a little piece on the planned remake of George Romero's The Crazies, but the Cinematical search function seems to believe otherwise. But a while back it was mentioned that director Brad Anderson and screenwriter Scott Kosar (who once collaborated to give us The Machinist) very well might be getting back together for a remake of Romero's 1973 infection thriller ... and then we heard nothing.Odds are that Mr. Anderson has moved on to other projects, but according to gory sources, the remake is not nearly dead. Seems that producers Dean Georgaris and Michael Aguilar have tapped a second writer (Ray Wright) to help the project along. We'll let Mr. Wright's debut (the wretched Pulse remake) slide and look forward to his Case 39, which stars Renee Zellweger and opens on August 22.
When the producers decided to finally ash-can this remake because nobody aside from hardcore horror fans even remember The Crazies (which means the title isn't nearly as marketable as Halloween, Chainsaw or Prom Night), we'll be sure to let you know.
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