anchor bay Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hollywood has a long history of showing us charming "golddiggers" in film, whether they're cute Depression-era heroines trying to get a free meal, a trio of Fifties fashion models scheming to land rich husbands, or soft-pedaled prostitutes of either gender. In Spread, the golddigger is a young man, much like Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy if he'd succeeded in his original plans, but unfortunately not debonair or complex enough to overcome the feeling that the movie is more sordid than sweet or sharply comic.

Nikki (Ashton Kutcher) -- and what guy with that name spells it that way? -- wants to live a life of luxury with as little effort as possible. He succeeds nicely by picking up rich woman and sponging off them for as long as he can. He has no car, no home and no savings, even though at least one woman buys him expensive clothes and gifts. Perhaps he just doesn't have a knack for acquiring expensive baubles like Marilyn Monroe's character in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, or more to the point, he has no long-term ambitions.

It's entirely possible I am the only one disappointed by the following news, but bear with me. The latest word on Rob Zombie's dirty lucha libre cartoon, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is that it's headed directly to DVD and Blu-ray. That's the bad news. The good news is that after three years, it will finally see the light of day (or the darkness of night). Zombie's first foray into animated filmmaking has plenty of clever characters doing the voice acting, like Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, Danny Trejo (!), Clint Howard, and Zombie regulars Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, and Sheri Moon Zombie.

Zombie told IGN in an interview this past spring, "It came out awesome... That started off as this little tiny half-a-million dollar direct-to-video movie that expanded into this $10 million animated extravaganza." Except, well, it's a $10 million animated extravaganza that is going direct to DVD.

I have high hopes that it will make an appearance as a midnight movie in my local theater (and yours!) and perhaps get some attention at one of the many horror festivals like Fantastic Fest. Even though I'd like to see in on the big screen, it does look like the type of movie that would make more money on DVD than in theaters, especially with its target audience, which I can only guess is made up of fans of over-the-top cartoons, horror, heavy metal, and Mexican wrestling... or stoners. Not that they're mutually exclusive, of course.

(Courtesy of FEARNet)

I'll keep this short: There's a horror flick coming out later this year called Grace. Lots of people (including me and Eric Snider) like it a lot, such as former Cinematical scribe (and mother of five) Kim Voynar, who went to the Sundance screening after I basically commanded her to. When I saw her later she was both grateful (for recommending it) and angry (for not seeing it with her). Then it hit Austin and earned even more fans -- and not just horror geeks, mind you, although they're the ones who seemed to dig it the most.

The flick is still shuffling through the festival circuit, but Anchor Bay will deliver the DVD before year's end, and it looks like my pals over at FEARnet have scored the first look at the "red-band" (R rated) trailer for Grace. Click right here to take a look at the rather impressive new promo clip, and then come back for some friendly advice. (Pause.) OK, back? Good: This movie is not suitable for pregnant women. Frankly you should spend three years in jail if you show Grace to a pregnant woman. Ten years if you make it a double feature with Inside.

Like several worthwhile movie companies, Anchor Bay began by catering to the horror geeks. The company delivered fantastic DVDs of cult and classic genre flicks, and then began to branch out in all different directions. Over the past year or so, AB has dipped its toe into the theatrical pool, and now it looks like they're about to bring their cinematic output to a whole new level.

According to Variety, the "plan is to primarily acquire finished films it will roll out theatrically on fewer than 100 screens before distribbing them on other platforms like DVD, Starz's pay-TV service, the Internet, pay-per-view and video-on-demand, for example." The article goes on to mention the distributor's early forays into theatrical release -- titles like The Grand, Sex and Death 101, and Surfer, Dude -- but there's no mention of Hatchet, Spiral, and / or Behind the Mask in this story? Coulda sworn they were earlier than those other flicks.

Anyway, good luck to Anchor Bay in their ten-movie-a-year plan. Here's hoping most of their acquisitions are good ones -- and that a few slots are still dedicated to the scary stuff. (I'm betting that Rob Hall's Laid to Rest will be one of AB's early releases, and Erik says the "very funny" Bart Got a Room should also be on that list.) Glad to know that the money I spent on three different DVD versions of Evil Dead 2 is being used wisely.

Where else would you expect to see the world premiere of a comedy in which Matthew McConaughey is shirtless for the entire film? It had to be Austin. Instead of the traditional red carpet, the stars of Surfer, Dude strolled down a green carpet in 90-plus-degree weather last night, as part of a benefit screening for Austin Film Society. McConaughey (who kept his shirt on the entire time, sadly) was joined by a half-dozen of his co-stars, including Woody Harrelson, as well as director/co-writer S.R. Bindler. Bindler's previous film, the documentary Hands on a Hardbody, played at the Dobie in Austin for more than a year back in the late 1990s. Even McConaughey's parents were on the green carpet, although I don't think they appear in the R-rated comedy. The only disappointment was that Willie Nelson, who also has a role in Surfer, Dude, wasn't around.

After the jump, I've included a photo of Surfer, Dude actresses Alexie Gilmore and K.D. Aubert from last night's premiere. Out and About, the Austin American-Statesman's social/entertainment blog, has posted more photos from the green-carpet event as well as a short and light-hearted review. Surfer, Dude is opening on Friday in limited release -- including Austin -- and then will hit more cities on September 12. The film's distributor is Anchor Bay, primarily a DVD distribution company, but in the past year or so the company's started giving its movies a small theatrical release before the DVD rollout.

I caught the very entertaining Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer as part of the Slamdance 2008 line-up -- and I knew I had another indie horror flick on my hands that was worth hyping. (Review here.) Bolstered by a canny script and some strong work from actors Trevor Matthews and Robert Englund, JB:MS is a colorfully scrappy little monster movie with a very sly tongue-in-cheek attitude, and I'm certain it's a movie that the horror geeks will embrace once Anchor Bay unleashes it later this year. And those horror geeks have been pretty patient, so here are a few new goodies.

Under the jump you'll find a brand-new Jack Brooks poster (which is slightly different from the one Bloody-Dee is sharing right here), but there's also a newly-redesigned website for the monster maniacs to click around in. The movie will open in its native land (somewhere called "Canada"?) throughout July, but fest-freaks can meet Jack Brooks when he plays at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival on July 5. As far as U.S. distribution goes, that's up to the merchants of mayhem over at Anchor Bay.

Several months ago I saw a monster movie called Abominable, which is an affectionately tongue-in-cheek throwback flick that reminded me of stuff like Grizzly and Prophecy. And then I stumbled across Hatchet, which would make for a perfect double feature with Abominable, because it feels like an old-school slasher flick that's been hidden on a dusty shelf for the past twenty years. And yes, I mean that as a compliment. If you possess any affection for flicks like Friday the 13th, The Burning or (ha) Humongous, then you'll consider Hatchet a grade-A treat.

The directors of Abominable and Hatchet are just about my age, which tells me that my generation of horror geeks is poised to hit the indie circuit with a vengeance. (The indie circuit and beyond, hopefully.) Hatchet wears its genre love right there on its gore-soaked sleeve, and that's why I had such a good time with the flick. It's funny without being a parody, it's unapologetically gory, and it's packed with actors who are obviously having a real good time with the material.

The plot couldn't be simpler: A chintzy tour of a New Orleans swampland turns into sheer terror as a group of goofballs find themselves haunted and hunted by the legendary lunatic known as Victor Crowley. That's pretty much it, plot-wise.

One night in Austin a few months back I was hanging out in front of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater waiting for my next Fantastic Fest movie to begin, and (as often happens at film festivals) I struck up a conversation with a hardcore handful of horror freaks. I leaned over to introduce myself and one of the guys said "Scott Weinberg? You reviewed my movie!" -- to which I replied "Adam Green? I liked your movie!" Two weeks later, we were married.

Just kidding. Adam and I did, however, become good pals with one very important thing in common: We demand high quality from our horror flicks, whether they're Overpriced PG-13 Studio Remake Part 4 or Tiny Little Horror Indie That Needs Some Love. So with the announcement that Mr. Green's Hatchet will be hitting semi-wide theatrical release (on September 7!) courtesy of Anchor Bay, I figured it was time to nail Green down and demand a few answers from the guy. Here's how our chat went down:

Cinematical: One doesn't write & direct a movie like Hatchet without having some very intensive slasher training early in life. What were the flicks that turned you from a normal New England kiddie into a raving horror fanatic? Did your parents support your twisted habit?

Adam Green: I was lucky enough to have an older brother who shared the splatter flicks with me and I had parents who were cool and involved enough in my life to allow me to see them. I think my folks appreciated that I looked at these movies as a creative outlet ... almost like magic shows if you will. When I would see a knife go through someone, it never scared me as much as it challenged me. "How did they do that?" I was always a good kid and I never really got in trouble or (even worse) became that weird kid who watches horror movies all the time and doesn't talk to anybody. (You know the guy, I'm sure he was in your class, too!) I think if I had ever shown signs of this stuff having a negative impact on me then my parents would have put the kibosh on it. I'm sure now, seeing what is happening with Hatchet, they are glad they supported my horror habit. My earliest memories of horror are Friday the 13th Part 2, John Carpenter's The Thing, Halloween, An American Werewolf in London, and A Nightmare On Elm Street ... and Hatchet is so obviously inspired by those films that I may as well have made it in 1984.

My favorite film from the Tribeca Film Festival this year was Zak Penn's The Grand, mainly because I love spontaneous comedy and this film was filled with it. When I sat down with Penn during the festival, his film hadn't been picked up yet, but Variety tells us today that none other than Anchor Bay Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to the flick with plans to distribute via a platform release (which means it will arrive in a limited amount of cities before expanding depending on how well it does) early next year. It's a bit of a surprise move for Anchor Bay seeing as they're more known for getting behind horror flicks (like recent festival favorites Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and Hatchet) than comedy, but obviously they're looking to expand their repertoire.

Penn is slowly lining up an interesting career for himself. On one hand, he's the go-to guy for comic book adaptations, having penned X-Men 3: The Last Stand, Elektra and next summer's The Incredible Hulk. But then he involves himself with these little passion projects as a director, like the little-seen mockumentary Incident at Loch Ness and The Grand. Starring a lot of people (Ray Romano, David Cross, Werner Herzog, Woody Harrelson and Cheryl Hines, to name a few), pic is a mockumentary which follows a group of people looking to score big at a poker tournament in Las Vegas. If you're a fan of shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm or anything that Christopher Guest puts out, then this flick should be right up your alley. For more, feel free to check out my review of The Grand from Tribeca.