UPDATE: Here's the trailer in Quicktime quality.

Of all the films I'm looking forward to this fall, Blindness ranks fairly high up there. Canadian distributor Alliance has just made available a full trailer that proves to be fairly intriguing, as an optometrist (Mark Ruffalo) and his seemingly immune wife (Julianne Moore) cope with an inexplicable epidemic of sight loss.

I'm a sucker for most anything vaguely apocalyptic, and while this very well could turn out to be akin to watching the first act of Children of Men through a milk-filled mask (which I've done, mind you), the prestige behind the project* says otherwise. We have acclaimed screenwriter Don McKellar adapting Nobel-Laureate José Saramago's novel, with Academy Award nominee Fernando Meirelles directing a cast that also includes Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, and Sandra Oh.

I must say, going off that taste and last spring's teaser, I still like the look, sound, and feel of this one, especially Moore's little retort (you know the one), and that's not to mention that any trailer which employs John Murphy's underrated score from last year's Sunshine to set a rightfully ominous tone is always fine by me. We'll get to see (sorry) what trials and tribulations await the world on September 19th.

*Not to mention Rocchi's review of the film from its Cannes world premiere.

Not three weeks ago, I made first mention of a brief and bland teaser for the forthcoming horror film, Mirrors. Now, along comes IGN Movies with a red-band trailer that, at first, didn't do much for me. Blah blah blah, Jack Bauer as security guard for old department store, blah blah, former guard grew obsessed with surrounding mirrors, blah blah -- look, even Amy Smart is yawning after all that exposition.

Oh, did I say 'yawning'? I meant 'tearing off her own jaw'. Yes, while we still seem to be saddled with a fairly ridiculous premise that's seen better and worse days, there's modest comfort to be taken that the R rating ain't exactly being shied away from. Let's face facts here, people: all it takes sometimes is a couple of nifty death scenes to make movies like this that much easier to stomach (well, some might argue the opposite).

Directed by Alexandre Aja and starring Kiefer Sutherland, you can see Mirrors (bah-dum-cha!) on August 15th.

First there was Date Movie, and it was ... not good. And then came Epic Movie, and it was ... even worse. Most recently we received Meet the Spartans, and it was ... you get the point: By now we're well aware that sophomoric spoof-merchants Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are not even remotely interested in making a good film. Their goal is simply to throw as many current* pop culture references onto the screen so that bored 14-year-olds with more allowance money than common sense will line up to chuckle (feebly) at the duo's desperate antics. (* And if the jokes are this bad when they're "current," what the hell will these flicks look like in ten years?)

But you know what? It's almost creepy how well these things do: For a production budget of about $20 million apiece, Date, Epic, and Spartans made about $84 million each. (That's worldwide box-office, and thanks to Mojo for the numerals.) So Fox essentially gave these guys $60 million and three shots, and they virtually quadrupled their budget each time out. (So why does the IMDb rate these films at 2.6, 2.3, and 2.4, respectively? I have no idea. How many times must a person get smacked on the skull before they start avoiding the hammer?)

Anwyay, Friedberg and Seltzer have moved their parody tent over to Lionsgate, and that's who'll be unleashing the aptly-titled Disaster Movie on August 29. (And people call Saw torture. Ha!) Click right here to enjoy the trailer, and by "enjoy" I actually mean "sit there and subject yourself to amazingly half-assed jokes about clumsy superheroes, pregnant teenagers, and tons of other horrific stuff that I can't believe passes for comedy." And yet I bet it will make about $84 million worldwide and we'll all be sitting here next year, bemoaning the impending arrival of Friedberg & Seltzer's Action Movie.

Despite having one of the worst reputations in Hollywood, it would appear that things are starting to look up for M. Night Shyamalan. You can check out the latest trailer Shyamalan's The Happening above, and it already has me sold on the apocalyptic thriller. Even though I was relatively impressed with the first trailer, this one has definitely amped up the creep factor (caused some serious heebie-jeebies when I saw it in front of Iron Man last weekend).

Mark Wahlberg stars as a meek and mild high school science teacher who lands smack dab in the middle of an end of days scenario. And might I add that it will be nice to see Wahlberg play something other than his usual tough guy role -- I mean, it's been too long since he's really had to act. Zooey Deschanel co-stars as his estranged wife and the criminally underused John Leguizamo, Spencer Breslin (brother to Abigail) and Ashlyn Sanchez play fellow survivors.

The Happening is scheduled for release on Friday June 13th, which will put the thriller in direct competition with The Incredible Hulk for opening weekend supremacy. Between the critics who call Shyamalan a one-trick pony, and the bad buzz for the big green guy, it's going to be a tough call for audiences. I know which film I'm going to see first -- how about you?

The guys over at Twitch know a heck of a lot more about crazy Asian cinema than I do -- so when they posted a rather enthusiastic piece about an upcoming flick called Tokyo Gore Police, I was sufficiently intrigued. And then I watched the 5-minute promo clip, which is all sorts of maniacally insane. Now I officially cannot wait to throw my eyeballs at the flick, which comes from the guys who gave you Uzumaki, Meatball Machine, and many other memorably bizarre imports.

I'd be happy to embed the trailer right here, if only for simple convenience, but since the Tokyo Gore Police clip is all but awash in hardcore gore, violence and random nakedness, I'll just point you towards Twitch for the gooey goods. (This sort of stuff is their specialty, after all.) No word on a U.S. distributor just yet (for all I know the flick's still being finished), but I'm betting I'll come across the Tokyo Gore Police at a genre-flavored festival some time soon. (And again, fair warning: Don't check this clip if you have an aversion towards hilariously over-the-top gore geysers.)

One might accuse the director of Saw 2, Saw 3 and Saw 4 of "playing it safe" with his first three movies -- and that may be true -- but there's little denying that writer / director Darren Lynn Bousman is going out on a big limb with his fourth feature, Repo! The Genetic Opera. Based upon Bousman's own stage play (and short film), Repo tells the story of a futuristic world in which vital organs are sold, bought, traded ... and repossessed. And if the plot isn't strange enough, yep, Repo is indeed a full-bore rock opera. The trailer looks like a cross between Moulin Rouge, Phantom of the Paradise, Hostel and (of course) The Rocky Horror Picture Show -- which means (at the very least) we're looking at one fairly strange concoction here.

Lionsgate has yet to announce their release plans for Repo!, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to report. First off, feel free to pick through the newly-updated official site, which is full of bombastic music, creepy photos, and the aforementioned promo clip. Also, it looks like Bousman recently invited a few horror freaks to take a look at a rough cut, and the early responses have been pretty darn positive. Here's hoping Lionsgate figures out what they want to do with the flick sooner rather than later. It's not every day you get to see a horror musical starring Paul Sorvino, Bill Moseley and Paris Hilton.

We thought it would arrive as part of After Dark's 2007 event, but since unrated flicks cannot screen as part of AD Horrorfest, at least there was a good reason for the delay. And now with the U.S. release of Xavier Gans' Frontier(s) only a few weeks away, it only stands to reason that we'd be treated to a new poster, trailer, and website for the freaky French fright flick.

May 9 is when the stylish horror salad bar will hit the cinemas, but if you're not presently a part of the release pattern, fear not: You can pick up the DVD only a few days later. Click here to delve into the nutty, nasty world of Frontier(s), which is full of dangerous downloads, powerful pictures, and some decidedly violent videos. And then, since you're already hanging out at Cinematical anyway, feel free check out my review of the flick right here. Word is that the DVD will contain some extra goodies for the horror freaks; I shall update this post as soon as I receive an official note from After Dark.

It's tough to know which tone I should take when discussing the latest DTV remakes and sequels. On one hand, I just saw a "remake" of April Fools Day that's so amazingly awful it made my corneas itch -- but on the other, I was pleasantly surprised by titles like Wrong Turn 2 and White Noise 2. So I think I'll just forgo the excited geekiness AND the snarling disdain, and just get with the trailerness:

Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (or maybe it's Joy Ride 2: End of the Road?) is a video-store follow-up to the surprisingly solid 2001 thriller Joy Ride. (Don't even pretend you don't remember the awesome combined power of Zahn, Walker and Sobieski.) The semi-sequel comes from first-time scribe James Robert Johnston and one of the guys who penned Dumb & Dumber. The director is Louis Morneau, well-known to schlock-fans as the man who helmed The Hitcher 2, Bats, and Carnosaur 2.

And get this! The flick is about a bunch of young people who get terrorized by a raving madman! Don't believe me? Check out the trailer at BloodyDee.com and tell me if you'd rent this flick. (I would. Obviously.) You have until October to decide.

We love to do the whole "embed" thing where YouTube trailers are concerned, but since this promo clip for the upcoming horror flick Train has some harsh violence, sweaty sexuality, and two or four bare boobies, we'll just share the link -- and then offer a silly reminder that this trailer is not, as they say, work-safe. (Unless you make horror movies for a living, in which case I'd say this clip is perfectly appropriate. Invite your boss into your office to watch it.)

When we last discussed this project, we were hearing from writer/director Gideon Raff that the flick is technically not a remake of Terror Train, but just a horror flick with a pretty similar plot. I could care less, frankly, if it's a remake or not, but I can say that I'm slightly impressed with the ferocity found in the trailer. Basically it looks like Hostel on a creepy old train, and I do believe that could make for a fairly diverting way to spend 91 minutes. (Or the flick could suck raw eggs, but your recent remake alternatives include Prom Night, April Fools Day and Shutter, so maybe this one looks half-decent by default.)

The Millennium / Nu Image item stars Thora Birch, Gideon Emery and Derek Magyar. No word yet on who'll be distributing the flick, but we'll let you know new stuff when we know new stuff.