Don't mess with a man's best friend! I'm borrowing that phrase from our own Eric D. Snider, who used it to describe the plot of Red, a thriller starring the great Brian Cox as a man on a mission to avenge the death of his beloved dog at the hands of a bunch of teenage punks.

As Eric noted, Magnolia Pictures picked up distribution rights for the movie and planned a late summer release. Well, it must be later than we thought, because Dread Central now tells us that Red will be unleashed to theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, August 8, followed by a "slow rollout" to more theaters nationwide.

"An emotionally gripping if slightly overwrought drama," is how Eric described Red in his review from Sundance, where the film premiered. Later he called it "a solid B-minus effort, and Cox's performance makes it eminently watchable." In addition to Cox, the cast includes Tom Sizemore as a bad father, Kim Dickens as a TV reporter, and Robert Englund and Amanda Plummer as white trash parents of one of the juvenile delinquent kids responsible for the death of the titular dog.

I've loved Brian Cox in many roles (Braveheart to Manhunter to 25th Hour to X2: X-Men United to Zodiac), so I have to believe he's a major plus for audiences looking for something a little different in August. How about you? Do you have any interest in seeing the Cox-avenging Red?

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.

In case you weren't sure, Zombie Strippers is exactly what it sounds like: a horror comedy about zombified strippers. And like most zombie movies, it has political subtext, though you don't have to worry about it being headier than something titled Zombie Strippers should be. Sure, it claims to be based loosely on Eugène Ionesco's classic absurdist play Rhinoceros and, sure, it features allusions to a number of philosophers, including Camus and Sartre, but really it's dumb and silly and a heck of a good time. Particularly if you're anything but sober. And if you're just looking for a grindhouse sort of guilty pleasure to pass the time.

Zombie Strippers opens with a montage that sets the scene: it's sometime in the near future, and Bush has just been reelected to his fourth term. Already, we know this movie will be a complete farce, but the ludicrous exposition continues, explaining that government scientists have developed a virus that allows soldiers in Iraq to continue fighting after they're killed. Yes, these super soldiers are zombies, a minor twist on Joe Dante's anti-Bush short Homecoming, which was one of the more critically celebrated episodes of the cable series Masters of Horror, and which featured Iraq War casualties rising from the dead in order to cast their vote against Bush's reelection.

When an established character or film is finding new life in a remake, I find it very, very rare that I'm ever agreeable, let alone impressed, with who the casting honchos come up with. The last time I oohed, it was over Christian Bale in Batman Begins -- because my friend and I had spent one long car ride casting every superhero with their perfect actor/actress counterpart, and Bale was our Dark Knight pick. But this time, I didn't come up with the replacement, and while it's just a very vague rumor, I wouldn't mind it being fact.

A Cinema Blend source says that Michael Rosenbaum has been lunching with Michael Bay. The assumption: this could mean that he's talking with the director about the upcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake. It's a huge guess, but it's one I'd be quite happy with. Oh yeah, and Rosenbaum is the baldie Lex Luthor in Smallville.

While I don't watch the show, I can completely see the actor take over Robert Englund's shoes -- and this is coming from someone who adores the series -- ever since I found my kid self at a Just the Ten of Us taping with a whole slew of Nightmare cast members. I loved the humor mashed in with creepiness and some absolutely ridiculous deaths -- like Brooke Theiss' demise by bug.

I think Rosenbaum could make it work, but what do you think?

If you're anything like me (lord held you), then you just can't resist a movie in which an inordinately large and aggravated animal decides to chew on a bunch of random stupid people. Doesn't matter how many "OMG it's hilarious!" comments I may see on the IMDb boards, nor does it deter me if every genre-friendly film critic stands up and screams "Dude, it's crap!"

If it's a movie about pissed-off animals eating dumb people, I've got 87 minutes to spare.

So a few months back I noticed a strange little label on a few of the more recent "nature sprinting amok" flicks: It was a little black and red skull logo with the phrase "Maneater Series" stuck on there. Oooh, a mystery! What's this "maneater series" of which this DVD case speaks? Where do they come from? Are there other films in the series? Does anyone besides me actually care?

OK, so as far as a very small amount of IMDb / Google research indicates, it looks like there are to be six Maneater Series titles in total. (Or maybe seven.) The suspects? Production company RHI Entertainment, cable network The Sci-Fi Channel, and DVD distributor Genius Products. Let's examine the flicks...

Forget those rumors you heard last week about Robert Englund possibly reprising his role as Freddy Kruger (a franchise re-launch of A Nightmare on Elm Street was confirmed last week). They may not be true. But also forget what you might have read today about Kruger not returning. According to an interview with Englund by Bad Taste, the actor has not been approached ... yet. (Moviehole had said he would be approached). Of course, he may still be asked to suit up in the striped sweater and razor glove (Englund mentions needing to speak to his agent about it), but the actor doesn't seem to think it a good idea. He says he's too old to play Freddy -- apparently he hasn't been following the geriatric casting trends in Hollywood lately -- and joked that the new film's title would have to be "Freddy vs. Viagra" (har har). He did, however, mention that he'd be down for a cameo.

Englund spoke to Bad Taste from Italy, where he's prepping his next directorial effort, The Vij, in which he will also star alongside Christopher Lee and Russian actress Olga Shuvalova. According to Englund, the film is based on a short story by the Russian author Gogol, and will involve, "The Viji [sic], the guardian of the purgatory, who came to Earth." He also stated that it should be in black and white, but it will actually be in color (to appeal to a larger audience) and will be a mix of Kafka, German expressionism, the cinematography of Vittorio Storaro and classic stories like The Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Snow White. According to Variety, the film will be a "dark gothic fantasy" with a plot revolving "around an evil genie who conditions the actions of a young priest, leading him to commit murder and fall in love with an old witch who is actually not what she seems." The evil genie part makes me think of Wishmaster, which also starred Englund and which actually makes The Vij sound better than it probably will be considering Englund also directed 976-EVIL.

The Sundance Flu, The Sundance Cold, The Sundance Fever ... how about The Sundance I Feel Like Complete Sh*t ...

Looks like J.J. Abrams does plan to go all Wonder Years for his Star Trek flick! Coming Soon reports that 11-year-old (about to be 12) Jimmy Bennett has landed a role as Young Kirk in Abrams' upcoming Star Trek film, due out at Christmas. Bennett has played a little kid in films like Hostage, Firewall, Poseidon and Evan Almighty. A young Spock will also be featured, leading this writer to believe both characters will appear in the film and talk about how much they "like, like" Winnie Cooper. Fingers crossed.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed (what was already previously reported) that New Line is in talks with Platinum Dunes to re-launch the franchise that helped secure their name as one of the big players in town, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form will produce, and a writer will be hired once the strike comes to an end. Since it's a full-out re-do, expect Robert Englund to not play Freddy Krueger, though we imagine he'll still have a role in the film (perhaps as part of Freddy's family). God bless the guy they get to fill his shoes; he'll have to convince tons of hardcore fans that he's the real deal. Dunes and New Line are also prepping a re-launch of the Friday the 13th franchise, with Marcus Nispel directing.

And finally, though it's not really a fanboy film (but I needed one more thing to throw in here, so cut me some slack), Moviehole reports that director Phillip Noyce has officially dropped out of that planned Amelia Earhart biopic starring Hilary Swank. MH spoke with Noyce, who gave the following reason for his departure: "I had worked on Amelia for 5 months from July to end of December 2007, finding all the locations and extensively storyboarding the flying sequences - When it didn't appear that the film was going ahead, I had to make a painful decision to move on and returned to a project that had long fascinated me... Mary Queen of Scots. Scarlett Johansson will play Mary in a film to be shot on location in Scotland, England and Ireland during 2008." Apparently Swank is still attached to the film, which we all thought was moving ahead as planned (script issues, maybe), so we'll keep you updated and let you know what happens.

If there is anything to say about this new flick, it's that it sure puts Buffy on the brain. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the Slamdance film Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer has been picked up by Anchor Bay Entertainment for US distribution. So yes, first there's the whole slayer angle -- and while Buffy was called a vampire slayer, she pretty much slayed anything that was evil, so long as it wasn't human. To top that off, this flick deals with an ancient evil, which just makes me think of both Primeval, and Giles' Epiphany in Restless (you can hear it here, the first part of the clip). But enough fangirl...

This slayer is neither slight, nor blonde, and he is certainly not a girl (its Canadian actor Trevor Matthews). But, just like the cinematic Buffy had a big name lurking about (Donald Sutherland), this horror comedy has the nightmare man himself, Robert Englund. According to THR, the film is about "a teen (Trevor Matthews) who is haunted by the murder of his parents. As his rage builds, he accidentally awakens an ancient evil, prompting chaos in the vein of '80s horror-comedy creature features."

Want to know more? Back in September, RvB posted about the film's trailer, which he said: "includes cyclops, African witch doctors, filed-toothed maniacs and something that looks like an evil clown ... all scheduled to be battled with all the weapons in a plumber's toolbox." Hmm... Did Buffy fight all those years with the wrong set of weapons?

You can't keep a good monster dead. Bloody Disgusting is reporting that New Line Cinema is "actively developing another Nightmare on Elm Street movie." Bloody Disgusting broke the news nearly two years ago that New Line was planning a prequel to the horror series that began in 1984; as Scott Weinberg posted, it would have covered "the back-story of the pre-dead Freddy Krueger, his unseemly relationship with numerous small children, and the neighborhood parents who strike back ... thereby creating an undead boogeyman who'll haunt them for the next 8 movies." Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger, and versatile director John McNaughton were attached to the project.

Those plans have reportedly been scrapped. Instead of an origin story, like the recent Halloween "re-imagination" perpetrated by Rob Zombie, the new Nightmare will be ... something else. New Line is throwing around ideas, apparently, without anything being locked down. Of course, with the ongoing writers' strike, they can't write anything down or have any writer pitch them anything. I imagine a roomful of bedraggled execs, some of whom have never seen any of the Nightmare movies, sitting around a big table, drinking stale coffee, and trying to come up with a new story line. "Can we send him into space in the future? How about if he terrorizes a big city? What if we do it from the POV of a bunch of kids with video cameras?"

In related Freddy Krueger news, Bloody Disgusting's source at New Line says that there are no immediate plans for a sequel to Freddy vs. Jason. Note: the emphasis is on "immediate," which sounds to me like they're putting this on the back burner and maybe allowing a few more years to pass before resurrecting the deranged duo.

Sure, it's easy enough to find the up-side of the handsome hunks of horror film. Hunks are easy. They're (mostly) hot, with their nicely whitened teeth and their hair product-styled to perfection, their six-pack abs, their ... sorry, where was I? Oh, right. Hunks versus Slashers. Jeff and Monika have already brought you the hottest hunks and chicks of horror; guess who drew the short straw and had to pick the slashers? (Actually, I volunteered for this one, so I guess that says something freaky about me ... ) My mission: to determine the hottest horror slashers (at least, according to me). These are the bad boys of horror you just can't stop thinking about, the ones who keep popping up in your dreams ... or nightmares. Whether they slash with blades on their fingers, roque mallets, or your basic kitchen knife, these are the boys you don't want to bring home to introduce to the folks over Sunday dinner ... unless you want your family to be the main course.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates (Psycho) My mother always told me: Never date a mama's boy. Little Normie's devotion to his mother was sweet, sure, but his methods of showing it left a little to be desired. But you have to admit, there's something about a guy who might stab you through the shower curtain if the mood strikes that guarantees that you'll never be bored while getting ready for your big date night. Anthony Perkins' striking performance as Norman Bates set the bar for horror slashers for decades -- even after all these years, watching Psycho still sends shivers up your spine. (View the trailer for Psycho or go straight to the gallery!)

Doug Bradley as Pinhead (Hellraiser) Sure, all those nails stuck into his skull give new meaning to the word "hammered" -- not to mention making it a little tricksy to coordinate outfits for those hot dates to movie premieres -- but at least, in his own bizarrely twisted way, Pinhead had a sense of fair play. Of course, if you make the wrong choice, your evening is gonna go downhill in a hurry. There's nothing like giant fishhooks pulling your flesh 14 different ways to put a damper on date night. On the plus side, though, you're probably pretty safe being walked home after dinner by a guy who looks like he had a close encounter with a nail gun, on purpose. (View the trailer for Hellraiser ... or go straight to the gallery!)