Here it is the third week of August, and it’s obvious we’re solidly in the middle of the dog days of summer. Not that it’s especially hot where I am, but from the slow influx of news over the period from August 16-22, 2008, anyone can see that it’s a stagnant time in Hollywood and the rest of the horror community. But a few choice pieces of information did manage to rise out of the general malaise, including:
Tristan started things off with a new 7 Deadly Sinns, an homage to creepy cinematic twins. I was very happy to see The Other included as it definitely had an effect on me as a child watching it, and there are several other great films mentioned as well.
From terrible twos to terrific trios, how about a collaboration among Ray Harryhausen, Edgar Allan Poe, and stop-motion animation? It gets no better, I’d say! A stop-motion version of “The Pit and the Pendulum” will be released on DVD August 25th and was executive produced by Harryhausen himself.
Mixed in with all the remakes the studios can’t seem to get enough of have been some fairly interesting sequel ideas. Deep Blue Sea 2 for instance. Right now it doesn’t even have an IMDB page so who knows what will happen with it. But when it comes to guilty pleasures, the original is high on my list, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
And yes, the volatile remake announced / fans fume scenario reared its ugly head again with confirmation of two more reboots — Child’s Play and Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist. To say the reactions to each were vastly differently would be quite an understatement. Using the amount of comments posted as a guide, it seems that people care about little Carol Anne ten times more than they do poor Chucky. More than likely, though, it’s Mancini’s personal involvement in the Child’s Play redux that has kept the wolves at bay. I’m reserving judgment on Poltergeist until more details emerge. Kripke was involved with Boogeyman too, and he totally redeemed himself with Supernatural. Certainly Snowden and White deserve the same benefit of the doubt.
One subgenre I’m always willing to cut some slack is the vampire realm. But judging from the short film “Ending the Eternal“, that won’t be necessary. It’s fresh and different and surprised me with its great acting and high production values. No wonder it’s being adapted into a feature film called Eternal by the Unstable Ground production house.
Hopefully Eternal will get a bit more respect from its ultimate distributor than Trick ‘r Treat has. Rumors swirled that Warner Brothers dumped it … no they didn’t … yes they did … it’s going to be released direct-to-DVD only by … someone … maybe. This is one fucked up situation. But all is not lost. On October 13th New Yorkers will be able to catch the flick at a free screening. Maybe we Left Coasters will be so lucky as well.
I must say I felt pretty fortunate during last month’s Comic-Con to attend the panel for Dead Space and hear first-hand how badass this concept is. Which is why the Woman’s Story of the Week is: Dead Space: Downfall Trailer Online! If you’re not familiar with what’s going on here, let me fill you in. Dead Space is comprised of a comic book prequel written by Antony Johnston with art by Ben (30 Days of Night, Wormwood) Templesmith, the Downfall animated feature that fills in even more of the back story, and a video game that takes it from there … with dialogue penned by Antony Johnston. It’s all intertwined and interrelated like every epic tale should be. After you’ve checked out the trailer, hit up the details on Anchor Bay’s Downfall DVD release here.
