fangoria Tagged Articles at Cinematical
The Thing: The Early Years
Filed under: Classics », Horror », Universal », Remakes and Sequels »
One of the very few near-perfect horror films is John Carpenter's The Thing -- and Universal's been trying to resurrect this bad boy for years now. Whether it was a sequel, a remake, a TV movie (or series) or even the rather cool video game from a few years back, this well-adored mega-monster movie has inspired a lot of new ideas -- most of which never get off the ground.Well, now Fangoria brings word that a prequel is the newest experiment, and you know what -- I actually kinda like the idea. True, there's something wonderfully creepy about the mysteries surrounding the origins of that shape-shifting alien bastard -- but if Uni gets the right screenwriters and doesn't monkey around with backstory too much, heck, a Thing prequel might be a pretty cool movie. Strike Entertainment (The Rundown, Slither, Dawn of the Dead) are the ones behind the project, and apparently they're sifting through interested screenwriters as we speak.
Well-known but fun trivia about The Thing: It opened two weeks after E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which led a lot of movie-writers to assume that "moviegoers preferred nice aliens" back in 1982, thereby explaining The Thing's critical and box office demise. (I say the thing's just too damn gory for general audiences -- even if the effects are now considered the Sistine Chapel of Splat.) The Thing opened against Blade Runner (and Megaforce!), and grossed less than $14 million in total. To put that in some perspective, here are some other 1982 tallies: The Sword and the Sorcerer ($39.1 million), Young Doctors in Love ($30.6 million), The Toy ($47.1 million). Not helping matters: Roger Ebert referred to the film as "a geek show, a gross-out movie," while (if memory serves) most other critics were considerably less friendly than that.
Me, I watch The Thing about twice a year. And it still rocks.
Reminder: Chainsaw Voting Booths are Open
Filed under: Horror », Awards »
A little while ago I shared with you the list of Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations -- and now it's time for your voice to be heard. You can participate in the voting process any time between now and October 13th, at which point the frenzied counting of votes begin. The Chainsaws will be awarded on Friday the 15th, with the awards show broadcast on Fuse TV on October 22nd.I'll leave it up to you to decide who you're voting on, but anyone who shows some love to The Descent, Hard Candy and/or Slither will have my undying respect. Well, not really. But I'll like you.
Original Halloween Negatives Exhumed!
Filed under: Classics », Horror », Fandom »
Between the one with the lenticular cover and the "Network TV" version, I've simply lost count of how many different Halloween DVDs Anchor Bay has released in my lifetime. (I'll guess eight, and that's not including the feature-length Halloween documentary that recently got its very own DVD release instead of being packaged as Disc 2 in a normal Special Edition.) Me, I own one copy of John Carpenter's unquestionable classic (this version, I think), and I've never really felt the urge to invest in any of the subsequent releases.But I may have to change that tune pretty soon.
Don May Jr., the horror-lovin' DVD producer who runs Synapse Films, recently let Fangoria know about a virtual Holy Grail of Horrordom: "What we've got is pretty much all the unused original camera negative from John Carpenter's original Halloween," is what May had to say, and to imply that the guy is very excited about the treasure trove would be an understatement on par with "Dr. Loomis is mildly obsessed with Michael Myers."
Fango Announces Chainsaw Nominees!
Filed under: Foreign Language », Horror », Independent », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Awards », Mystery & Suspense », Remakes and Sequels », Cinematical Indie »
A few days ago, Slither-maker James Gunn mentioned on his MySpace page that his adorably splattery sci-fi horror rom-com was the receipient of four Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominations. My response was "Hey, cool. Where are the rest of the nominations?!?!?" And now, a few days later, here they are. Neat-o.Although Fangoria has been doing their annual Chainsaw awards for over a decade now, 2006 marks the very first time the event will be televised, much to the delight of zombie freaks and slasher geeks all over North America. The event will be held in L.A. on October 15th, although the Fuse Network won't be airing it until the 22nd. (Which means if you want to watch the event "un-spoiled," I wish you luck.) Want to throw your own votes into the tally? Fine. You can vote right here, but only between September 1st and 13th (which is a Friday, mwaahaaa!)
After the jump you'll find a complete list of all the 2006 Chainsaw nominees, plus my own predictions on which flicks would win if the event were called Amazing Geek Weinberg's Horror Awards instead of The Chainsaws.
" ... And the Chainsaw for 'Best Decapitation' Goes to ... "
Filed under: Horror »
Have you ever found yourself wishing that there was a Horror-only version of The Academy Awards? Well, considering how lamely the genre is often treated by the Hollywood Elite, I've thought about it from time to time. (True, Silence of the Lambs won a huge fistful of Oscars, but that was 15 years ago!) The key to such an awards show would be the ability to honor not only the "high-end" horror films, but the ability to recognize quality schlock in a variety of forms. Basically, you'd need an outlet like Fangoria to help run the show.Hey, good news! Fangoria and Fuse TV have decided to put their bloody noggins together and produce the first annual Chainsaw Awards, which will air on the Fuse network this Halloween. The categories will include Scariest Moment of the Year, Best Horror Soundtrack, Best Monster, Best Death Scene, Creepiest Kid, and several others. And of course there will be a "Deathtime Achievement Award," which will be handed out to a different genre giant every year. (I'm predicting John Carpenter for the first one.)
The Fango staff will be on board to help with the nominations (hey fellas, I'm available!) and to keep the blood flowing extra smoothly, and that only makes sense. Not only is Fango the monthly bible for gorehounds, but they kick-started the Chainsaw Awards on their own pages about 15 years ago.
Now all I have to do is convince Comcast Philadelphia to give me the galdurn FUSE Channel!
Remake Report From Horror Con!
Filed under: Horror », Remakes and Sequels »
With The Omen doing big business on its opening Tuesday, and the new versions of Pulse, Black Christmas, and The Wicker Man just around the corner, the Horror Remake Wave doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. (Patience, horror purists: it WILL die down eventually.) And now comes word from Fangoria's Weekend of Horror convention that screenwriter Peter Filardi (Flatliners, The Craft) has his thumb wedged into a whole bunch of remakes, adaptations, and "re-imaginings."Mr. Filardi will apparently be adapting Stephen King's It for a second TV mini-series, which is fine by me because, unlike lots of horror fans, I think the original It mini-series is actually kinda lame. (Sorry!) The writer also plans to shape Whitley Streiber's The Wolfen into a movie, which seems a little redundant since Mike Wadleigh already did that back in 1981. (Again, Wolfen is only a so-so werewolf flick, so maybe a remake isn't such a rotten idea...)
Last (and most intriguing) is Filardi's plan to turn Clive Barker's Coldheart Canyon into a movie ... or a TV movie. Anyway, expect to be hearing a lot from this Filardi guy in the next few years. (He also penned an episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes, which hits the airwaves in July.)
The Remake That Wouldn't Fly
Filed under: Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Remakes and Sequels »
This might be fresh news to many of you, but apparently Fox Searchlight has its heart set on mounting a fresh remake
of The Fly ... only they're not exactly sure what it is they want to re-make. Do they want to head back to the
source and "re-imagine" the short story by George Langelaan? Maybe they'd like a "re-do" on Kurt
Neumann's 1958 adaptation or (perish the thought) David Cronenberg's
1986 remake? Heck, there's even a bunch of lame-duck sequels (Return of the Fly ('59), Curse of the Fly ('65), The Fly 2 ('89)) that are perfectly worthy of
cannibalization.One man who's probably not all that interested anymore is newcomer Todd Lincoln, a guy who's currently banging out a flick called Hack/Slash for Focus -- and who also (along with his partner, Martin Schenk) penned the first screenplay for Searchlight's impending Fly retread. Over at Fangoria, Mr. Lincoln somewhat immodestly describes his script as "a dark, smooth mixture of Val Lewton, Don Siegel and Roman Polanski," before explaining that the plan was to do a new take on Langelaan's original story. No fly head on a man's body, no telepods, no Brundlefly. The guy's screenplay actually sounded pretty cool ... but wouldn't you know it? "Last I heard, the people behind the people at the studio had changed their minds again and are leaning toward a straightforward remake," says Lincoln.
As for me, I say scrap the whole project. Then again, I'm speaking from the perspective of a passionate horror fan, and not of a studio executive who believes "horror remake" is synonomous with "easy money."
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