Maybe a filmmaker wants to tip their hat to the slashers and psychos who thrilled and chilled them in their youth; perhaps they want to make a post-modern comment on the nature of watching violent entertainment; maybe they just want to scare us good and proper with a moment of sheer blood-curdling terror. Whatever the reason, there are some pretty good horror movies about watching horror movies; here are seven (admittedly skewed towards the modern and the domestic) for your perusal.

1) Scream (1996)

Kevin Williamson's sly, self-referential script exploded every slasher-flick cliché ... and picked some darkly glimmering moments out of the rubble. Starring Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a girl beset by a masked killer, Scream paved the way for a host of imitators, but the original is a surprisingly fresh and remarkably well-structured mystery -- plus, Williamson and director Wes Craven's commentary on the DVD is like a master-class on the history and methodology of slasher film. When the blood-stained climax sees our heroine suggesting our killers have "seen too many movies," the reply comes back fast: "Now Sid, don't you blame the movies. Movies don't create psychos; movies make psychos more creative!" It's a great line -- and you also wonder if it's true. Scream's killer famously asked "Do you like scary movies?" Scream itself asked why you like scary movies, and left you to puzzle over your answer. (Bonus question: How many times did Scream show up on a Cinematical Seven throughout the month of October?)

2) My Little Eye (2002)

Five contestants sign up for a reality-TV-style contest; they spend six months locked together in an isolated home. If you stick it out for the duration, everyone wins a cool million dollars; if one person leaves, though, everyone loses. Much of My Little Eye is shot with distorted web-cams and a you-are-there queasiness -- we're the audience for the "show," and we get to witness as things start to go very, very wrong. Eventually, the truth comes out -- and we feel ourselves becoming a very different kind of viewer, watching something very different than the 'contest' in the film's set-up, seeing the film's events through very different eyes. My Little Eye may not be perfect, but it has one grim, chilling moment that's among the scariest, creepiest scenes I've ever seen in a horror movie.

Since I am a single gal, the very thought of having my own kids is enough to send me into a terror spiral. But, the little darlings on this list aren't your every day kids; nope, these are the kids that nightmares are made of (Like Richard said, "children are almost essential to a real horror film"). But this list just isn't about children in horror movies; it's about when the children are the source of the horror. Now I'm not saying all kids are evil, but if you take this list as an example of just how bad children can get, you will never look at those trick-or-treaters on your doorstep the same way again.

1. The Bad Seed (1956)

If you are going to talk evil children, then you have to give props to one of the baddest in the bunch: Patty McCormack as little Rhoda Penmark. Directed by Hollywood vet Mervyn LeRoy (who was more famous for his sophisticated comedies than suspense thrillers), the film was based on William March's novel of the same name and focused on a little pig-tailed demon who gets away with murder (despite a tacked-on ending that gives Deus ex Machinas a bad name). Rhoda terrorizes her nice suburban mom and tortures the staff while draped in a pinafore and knee-socks. It might not be the scariest flick in the bunch, but you can't deny that she was a nasty piece of work.

2. The Omen (1976)

Sure Rhoda Penmark might have been one of the first, but when most people think of evil kids in horror flicks they're usually thinking of Damien Thorn. Besides, you can't get much worse than being the Anti-Christ. Richard Donner directed the story of an upwardly mobile couple who bring home their bouncing baby boy, and the last thing they were expecting was to have to avert an apocalypse. Throw in some serious overacting on the part of Gregory Peck and the unforgettable scene at Damien's birthday party (if you haven't seen The Omen, I won't ruin it for you), and you get a preschooler that no one in their right mind would want to mess with.

Despite the fact that I love both movies, and despite the fact that they're nothing alike, I often confuse the titles of Don't Look Back and Don't Look Now. Soon I will be able to confuse them with another film, Don't Look Up, which is going into production at the end of this year in Romania and South Africa. According to Variety, the film will be a remake of Hideo Nakata's 1996 horror pic, Joyû-rei. For those not paying close attention to Japanese remakes, this came before even Nakata's original Ringu, which was redone as The Ring (he also did an original sequel, Ringu 2, helmed the remake sequel, The Ring Two, and is set to do The Ring 3). For Don't Look Up, the director is Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan, who is most familiar to Western audiences for his segment Dumplings in Three ... Extremes. Chan possibly hopes to break out bigger with the remake; he told Variety that he's too often considered an art-house director and would like to be considered, simply, a director.

The original Don't Look Up (aka Ghost Actress, as Joyû-rei has also been called in English translations) dealt with a haunted movie studio and focused on the production of a war film. The ghost of a woman begins appearing on the set and even shows up in the dailies (reminds me of that Three Men and a Baby legend). Also, footage from an older film keeps inserting itself into the film. This is all the plot info I could get out of review sites Black Hole DVD Reviews and Flipside Movie Emporium -- the movie is currently unavailable in the States. Variety gives the new version's plot as being about a film production shooting in Transylvania haunted by an old piece of celluloid depicting a woman's murder. Don't Look Up will be produced by Brian Cox (Pulse) and Yôko Asakura. As for the other Don't Look movies, Don't Look Back recently got a sorta-sequel called 65 Revisited, which must be seen, and Don't Look Now is also being remade.

I used to be into in the prophesies of Nostradamus, but for some reason I lost interest in the 16th century seer after watching that boring biopic where he's played by Tchéky Karyo. Anyway, I thought most of the prophesy appeal died out with the event-less turn of the millennium. Seven years later, after the devastation of 9/11, Katrina, the tsunami and other disasters, maybe it is time to check back on Nostradamus' quatrains to see if there's any other upcoming tragedies we might be able to avert.

This idea of making sure Nostradamus's' predictions don't come true is already on the way to comic book racks and movie theaters. Boom Studios' comic The Foundation is about a secret organization, originally set up by Nostradamus himself, which deciphers and investigates the quatrains in order to change the future. That would certainly explain why so many of Nostradamus' prophesies seem to be false. Seeing as how The Foundation sounds like a perfect mix of Quantum Leap, Men in Black and (as Boom's website mentions) The X-Files and 24, it makes sense that Hollywood would be interested before the first issue even hits stores. Paramount has locked the rights to the comic and they've got Boom founders Andrew Cosby and Ross Richie producing.

Cosby and Richie had previously sold the movie rights to two of Boom's other titles, both to Universal. Talent is like the television series Lost except that it deals with only one sole plane crash survivor who seems to suddenly possess the talents of the 148 passengers who perished. Tag is described by Boom as, "spine-snapping horror in the tradition of the movie The Ring!" Boom has only been around for about two years now, but if Cosby and Richie keep developing comics they can compare to TV shows and movies, then I predict the company will have a long life and a lasting relationship with Hollywood.

I've come to notice a trend with the production company Vertigo Entertainment. Even more than they like to make remakes of foreign horror films (The Ring; The Grudge; The Eye), they really seem to favor the recruitment of foreign filmmakers. Here is a rundown of some of the acclaimed directors they've hired: Walter Salles, from Brazil; Alejandro Agresti, from Argentina; Oliver Hirschbiegel, from Germany; French duo David Moreau and Xavier Palud; Yann Samuel, also from France; Swedish duo Joel Bergvall and Simon Sanquist; Victor García, from Spain; Yam Laranas, from Philippines; and Takashi Shimizu, Hideo Nakata and Masayuki Ochiai, all three from Japan. I guess Jim Sheridan, from Ireland, counts too. It is weird, because sometimes a filmmaker is brought out to remake his own film, like with Shimizu and The Grudge and with Laranas and The Echo, and other times a filmmaker will be assigned the remake of someone else's film while his own original film is being remade by another acclaimed director, like with Nakata and Salles and Dark Water.

The sad thing is that many of these great directors have ended up making awful movies for Vertigo. The reason is probably coincidental, and we still have yet to see if Samuel can bring his fantastically romantic vision appropriately to a pic starring Jesse Bradford and Elisha Cuthbert or if the work Hirschbiegel did on The Invasion (before being replaced -- allegedly not fired) holds up to his Oscar-nominated breakthrough. But just in case there is a curse (how fitting) on the company to ruin these foreign filmmakers, then I am glad that the latest recruit, Spain's Daniel Calparsoso, is not actually that widely respected. Actually, I'm not familiar with him at all, but his most recent film, Ausentes, has a super-low rating of 3.9 on the IMDb. Not even The Grudge 2 rated that badly. So, he certainly can't do any worse with his film for Vertigo, a trapped-in-a-loony-bin-during-a-thunderstorm-set horror film called Incident at Sans Asylum (do asylums even exist anymore??). Another thing it has going for it: it isn't a remake. The script is an original, by chef-turned-cinematographer-turned-writer Craig Zahler, who also penned Vertigo's upcoming western The Brigands of Rattleborge. Zahler was also one of Variety's "10 Screenwriters to Watch" last year.

It's easy to forget that there's a whole world of the iconic Alfred Hitchcock beyond Rear Windows, killer Birds and psychos. Sure, he holds the title of Master of Suspense, but he was also a filmmaker and not all his movies were creepy, thrilling nail-biters. Nor did they all have sound, for that matter -- which is, perhaps, part of the reason he could create such stunning films. He also delved into tales of friendship, class, romance and comedy, which Lionsgate has now brought to DVD.

The Alfred Hitchcock Box Set is a collection of some of the director's earlier work, and it includes 5 films -- The Ring, The Manxman, Murder!, Rich and Strange -aka- East of Shanghai and The Skin Game. Since any film isn't complete without a special feature or two, the collection includes Pure Cinema: The Birth of Hitchcock Style, which features interviews with Hitchcock's family, as well as his friend and fellow director, Peter Bogdanovich. I guess one feature is better than none, although this would seem like the perfect opportunity to shower fans in more Hitchcock, since this isn't a box set that everyone will nab.

If you've never delved into the Hitchcock years before The Man Who Knew Too Much, here's a rundown:

• The Ring (1927) -- This silent film is the love story about two boxers who are in love with the same woman.
  
• The Manxman (1929) -- Another romantic triangle silent film, this one deals with a fisherman named Pete and his life-long friend, a lawyer named Philip. Pete goes off to earn money to marry Kate, and asks Philip to watch him -- he does a little more than watch.
• Murder! (1930) -- With sound and one of Hitchcock's early tastes of murder, the movie is about a juror who believes that the actress found near the dead body of her friend is innocent, and aims to find the real murderer before she is put to death.
• Rich and Strange (1931) -- A romantic comedy, this film is about an easily-corrupted couple who become rich after an inheritance, and head off on a cruise to delight in their new-found wealth.
• The Skin Game (1931) -- The film is about two families in the middle of a land quarrel -- the rich Hillcrests and the social-climbing Hornblowers. The latter is building factories around the former's estate, and the Hillcrests try to fight back when they learn that Hornblower's daughter-in-law was a prostitute.

One of my very favorite topics of film-related conversation would have to be that of the infamous "horror remake." Could be a J-horror re-imaganing, a revisit with truly classic material, or a quick-buck PG-13 junkpile that shames the name of its predecessor. (Heck, I posted a similar article last March, and I even went as far as to bang out a master list of horror remakes at my very own website!) Well, apparently the movie geeks over at Premiere.com are also big time horror nerds as well, because they've just posted their list of the 15 Best Horror Remakes.

OK, having just perused their 15 choices, I gotta say: I know it's got to be hard coming up with 15 really good horror remakes, but jeeeeez. Just lower it to a Top 10 and get The Fog, The Amityville Horror and 13 Ghosts OUTTA there. And ... am I on crack or did the Premiere squad neglect to mention Cronenberg's The Fly AND Carpenter's The Thing??? I mean, good job on throwing some love towards The Blob, Dark Water and the 1978 version of Body Snatchers, but come on! You guys omitted the two best horror remakes ever made!!!

(I'll include their full list after the jump, just to incite some discussion, but definitely check out the Premiere article before you dive in, you crazy gorehounds, you.)

Hollywood has many sources of ideas it can turn into movies. Some movies are original ideas that come from the mind of one or more screenwriters. A more recent trend is to adapt hit television shows of the seventies and eighties into films. Of course, one of the most popular places for Hollywood to get ideas is from books.

Adapting books for the screen has a great tradition in Hollywood and has given rise to some of the most popular and successful films of all time. In fact, many of the films that have won the Oscar for Best Picture have been adaptations -- including The Silence of the Lambs, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Gone With the Wind and the recent The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Another book that will attempt to continue this tradition and take its place among these previous adaptations is Jennifer Egan's supernatural novel The Keep. According to a recent article in Variety (via Sci-Fi Wire), rights to the novel were recently optioned by StillKing Films (who's credits include The Illusionist and Doom) and will be adapted for the screen by writer Ehren Kruger (of The Ring and the upcoming John Carter of Mars).

Kruger will also be producing the film, which centers around a woman who is trapped in a haunted castle where she is seduced by a mysterious prisoner, along with Daniel Bobker and StillKing Film's Matthew Stillman. Having Kruger handle the adaptation duties is a good move for StillKing. If they're able to attach a director and cast on the same level as Kruger, the resulting film just might live up to the tradition established by those highly successful prior adaptations. No word yet, however, on who that director or cast might be.

What do you think, does this film have a chance?

The typically maverick filmmaker Lars von Trier is entering more common territory. Following the premiere of his latest "automavision" film, The Boss of it All, at the Copenhagen International Film Festival last Thursday, he announced plans to make a horror film called Antichrist. He didn't give anything away in terms of the plot, but did mention an affinity for Asian films like The Ring and Dark Water. He also said that it would be in English, will feature three main characters, and is likely to begin shooting next summer if financing goes as planned. He added that, "anything can happen in a horror film," suggesting that nothing about the project is definite. According to the report by ScreenDaily, producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen gave away too much plot info two years ago, prompting von Trier to completely rewrite the script and keep most of the details a secret from him.

Von Trier dabbled in horror a bit with his miniseries The Kingdom, which was recently remade for U.S. television by Stephen King, but it was more weird than scary (I know people who disagree with me there), and in that sense it shares with Asian horror the lack of slashing and hacking that is common with the American brand. I would prefer to see what the filmmaker would do with killings more than with hauntings, the latter being too permitting of free-form, surreal randomness, but hopefully he'll have something interesting to add to the genre no matter what he has in store.

As for Wasington, the third installment of von Trier's "America the Beautiful" trilogy (Dogville; Manderlay), which he previously said wouldn't happen, the film is not completely dead yet. He told reporters,"I'm quite sure it will happen one day," but says that right now it is an avoidable project.

If we've learned anything from the collected works of master thespianette Sarah Michelle Gellar, it's this: Gellar + Remake = Cinematic Bliss. Between her remakes and her horror films, Ms. Gellar has graced the universe with entertainments as dazzling as I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2, The Grudge and the impending Grudge 2. (Hell, even Buffy was a remake, if you want to be anal about it.) She also has The Return coming soon, a project that looks as generic as its title.

Convinced she still has a whole lot left to offer the expansive genre of Horror/Remake, Ms. Gellar has signed on to star in Addicted, a "psychological thriller" (which nowadays means "a PG-13 horror film") that's based on a 2002 Korean film called Jungdok. (Screenplay by the man who penned Queen of the Damned.) The plot centers on a woman whose husband and brother-in-law go comatose, but when the latter guy wakes up ... he's convinced that HE is her husband! Dun-dun-dunnnnnnnn!

Not even remotely surprising is that fact that Addicted will come from Vertigo Entertainment, the outfit that jammed American actors and English dialogue in Grudge, Grudge 2, Ring and Ring 2. Because the production house would probably implode from the effort expended on writing an original screenplay. (Don't believe me? Vertigo Remake Inc. also did Dark Water, The Lake House and The Departed, plus they're also working on the remakes of The Eye, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Oldboy, Ikiru, The Entity and Creepshow.)