storm warning Tagged Articles at Cinematical

You thought that with all the love we've been throwing at Austin's Fantastic Fest we'd probably forget all about good ol' L.A. Screamfest. Not with me on horror watch! The event runs from October 12 to 20, and if you happen to be located anywhere near the legendary Mann's Chinese Theater -- you just might want to duck inside to see what sort of murderous mayhem is going on.

And the Screamfest looks to be starting off on the right foot this year: Last night's opening night film was George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead! After much praise from the audiences at Toronto and Fantastic Fest, the master's latest zombie opus will hit the west coast with much excitement and gore. And the fun doesn't stop there. The festival will also offer Robert Rodriguez's director's cut of Planet Terror (which is awesome) and a 25th Anniversary screening (and cast reunion) of Friday the 13th Part 3. Yes, in 3-D!

Attendees will also get to check out the long-awaited DVDquel Return to House on Haunted Hill, a screening of the great-looking 30 Days of Night (and the video prequels Blood Trails), David Arquette's festival fave The Tripper, and a variety of genre titles of various shapes, sizes and nationalities. Of the Screamfest flicks we've seen, we've already given a strong seal of approval on the quiet but creepy Alone, the robust zest of Wrong Turn 2, the Pakistani lunacy known as Hell's Ground, , the freakishly ferocious Inside, and the apocalyptic awesomeness that is The Signal. Plus I keep hearing that Shrooms is pretty amusing, Buried Alive is gruesome, and Storm Warning is really solid.

Hit-or-miss director Jamie Blanks, mostly known for the somewhat entertaining Urban Legend and the somewhat bad Valentine, has landed a deal with Dimension Films for his latest project -- the horror/thriller Storm Warning. According to an article over at CHUD, the Weinstein-owned Dimension has taken North American, Australian and New Zealand rights to the pic with an eye to a Summer 2007 release.

Storm Warning, written by Everett De Roche and featuring a cast of lesser-knowns including the very cute Nadia Feres, Robert Taylor and Matthew Wilkinson -- who also appears in the upcoming Ghost Rider, centers on a young wealthy couple who seek refuge in an isolated farmhouse during a storm. Once there, they soon realize they're not in the house of their own free will but in reality, have been captured by a group of deranged killers. Man, won't people ever learn -- you never go into an isolated farmhouse during a storm especially with all the deranged killers lurking around.

Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie before once or twice -- or, at the very least, something pretty darn similar. Its not exactly what we in the trade would call "original." Still, Blanks has shown his directing chops before with Urban Legend and I don't really blame him all that much for Valentine -- it wasn't horrible, just not very good. It's also pretty easy to overlook a film's flaws when you're distracted by the beauty of Denise Richards, Marley Shelton and my future wife Katherine Heigl. So, let's just chalk that one up to the well-known "sophomore slump." Besides, everyone makes mistakes and deserves a second (or third) chance, right? How else can one explain Mark Steven Johnson's career? Sorry, was that cynical? I can never tell anymore.