Looks like it would be fun.
Though I think we are getting over saturated with fake parodies of movie trailers..
But the part I cannot seem to understand: TOY STORY is such a great flick for kids.. and adults have perverted the name of Woody with toys like this.
For God sakes, leave Woody alone! Is nothing sacred!?
$40 MIL?
OR $30..
There are high hopes for horror.. the winds of fear are bringing in October tonight as the movie ANNABELLE finally gets its long awaited premiere.. Those I have spoken to tonight say theaters are crowded and people are screaming. Some are laughing.. others are decrying how ‘bad’ the movie was. All of those opinions are being Facebooked and Tweeted, Tumbled and Instagrammed.
But messages are mixed.
ANNABELLE’s late night debut last night only brought in $2.1 mil–lower than the CONJURING’s $3.31 mil.. It’s also lower than the second installment of the PURGE film.. Good news for ANNABELLE, those other movies were released in the summer.
Time will tell.. By Sunday we will know if horror is alive and well at the box office or if this slump is permanent.
If I had to go out on a limb right now, I’d predict $36 mil based off of all of the information I have currently.
We shall see..
Good luck Annabelle.
A friend of mine posted photographs of herself with blood dripping from her mouth and her limbs hanging off.. it’s not every day you see such things. After an inquisitive message was sent asking where she was able to masquerade in broad daylight as a brain eating zombie, I found out she was an extra in a film called THE SOULLESS. Luckily, I followed a chain of people and was able to interview the director, Chris Eilenstine, of the film.. I am inspired by what he said.
Let me first step back a bit.. Zombie movies are out of control. They are everywhere.. and they are hungry for viewers. Most zombie flicks I have seen featured the same tired and lackluster acts. The dreadful soundtrack along with the blood curdling noises of the dead slurping up cartilage and brains. That gets tired, quickly..
There have been a few gems in heap of trash, but those are far and few between. One such movie that made me scratch my head by yet appreciate the desire to do something different was PONTYPOOL.
The SOULLESS sounds different. It is inventive, and it does not sound one bit like anything I have seen before.
Chris Eilenstine started making movies when he was 14. He has a long history of productions behind him. The movie THE SOULLESS is in post-production.
According to the information, Eilentine’s film is budged at $50,000—a low budget film by any definition. But when you consider the plot, you may want to give it a try.
Eilenstine gave the HORROR REPORT the backstory on the film. The movie is the story of David and Nicole Peterson, a father and daughter who have survived a genetic plague that has turned the majority of the human race into a primitive, animal like race. David and Nicole have a special immunity to these new humans.
Here is where things get different: The main characters are completely ignored by them and can walk amongst them without fear of being attacked.
Eilenstine said that he conceived of this idea while reading an article of the mapping of our DNA and that aging is not decay, but a form of mutation we go through in life. “I wanted to tell the story of a scientist who rewrites our DNA and sends us back to the beginning. He does this believing the human race will destroy itself unless he helps it. So he releases a virus and ‘reboots’ humanity.”
The majority of THE SOULLESS was shot in Monmouth County, New Jersey. That’s where my friend was able to don her best zombie attire to rampage the streets as an extra.
Eilenstine seems intent on recreating the zombie genre, toying with the concept almost like the scientist who rewrites DNA. Eilenstine said,
Eilenstine joked, “There are no shambling, decomposing corpses digging themselves out the grave and eating brains in this series. The ‘zombies’ are all sympathetic characters, some are animals, yes- but still human, still deserving of existence.”
The rules have changed indeed. The idea of a sympathetic zombie is reminiscent of the mellow and mild mannered Frankenstein that appeared on film decades ago. Are we ready for zombies with (and without) a heart?
Eilenstine is no stranger to horror. It’s his favorite genre, along with science fiction. He said that George Romero and Alfred Hitchcock were his inspiration. And it was the movie ALIEN, along with DAWN OF THE DEAD, that moved him enough to make movies himself. He told the HORROR REPORT, “The visual style of Romero’s films influenced me greatly. Today I really look forward to learning more about the independent horror market and the people making them. There is a lot of interesting work being done in this genre today.”
But what scared Chris Eilenstine? Zombies? Slashers? Darkness at midnight hour? No.. not at all. What scares him is what scares me–and what should scare all of us. Eilenstine said, “People who feel that the lives of other people are worthless, and those who believe people who think differently than them deserve to die.”
“They are the true monsters,” he finished, “they scare the hell out of me.”
THE SOULLESS is a trilogy Part One: Z-DAY is scheduled for December 2014 with Part 2: Sanctuary for the late spring and Part 3: Revelations in the late summer, 2015.
2014 has been a pretty lousy year for theatrical horror films. Is it merely a fluke of the calendar, or a sign of things to come?
Maybe a sign of things to come if things to come don’t improve, moviewise.
It’s been a bad year all around for films .. in general. Not just horror, but drama, action, family.. You know the genre and I’ll name the flop, or the film that underperformed at the box office. At least in the United States.
There are a few cultural things happening. China and other nations increasing in wealth are fast becoming the target audience for many movie companies. That’s why China’s censors get such ability in choosing what should be cut from certain films. Even more than that, independent films are just better lately. More imaginative and fresh, less confined and restricted by the red tape and bureaucracy that Hollywood offers filmmakers.
But .. as far as horror itself, Scott Mendelson is correct in his FORBES story.. Horror is taking a hit.
There may be one external factor causing that..
Over the past 12 or so years, movies have ramped up the blood and gore, almost making that the central point of a movie overtop of even the actors or dialogue. And with news headlines and real life events being a hell of a lot scarier than any fiction on the screen, people just aren’t buying it .. What does sell, though, are paranormal tales of demon possession, haunted houses and haunted dolls. The CONJURING did well. I think ANNABELLE will, too..
The audience is evolving, as it does every ten or so years.
This may have becoming a tired saying on my part, but I argue that horror movies and professional wrestling speak volumes about our pop culture at any given time you look at it. In this instance, our world is violent and bloody. So gore doesn’t scare people much more anymore, they frankly are tired of seeing it. What does scare them? The idea that someone dark and sinister is present in the world.
If movie makers can key in on that fear and create new and exciting movies, then it will be a hit.
Finally, I’d dare say that if some movie maker out there created a big studio version of SLENDERMAN, a new series would be born.
Until then… it’s no go for bad movies.
The HORROR REPORT interviewed Chris Eilenstine, the director of a zombie flick named THE SOULLESS.
The movie looks amazing, and the storyline is fresh and inventive.. Eilenstine was kind enough to take some time and discuss the movie and his background.
The HORROR REPORT will have a full story about this, and feature some interesting back story on what makes Eilenstine tick..
Watch for that in the coming days.
Here is a troubling story from across the pond.. A Christian woman of Italian descent was found beheaded in her garden in a London Suburb.. Palmira Silva, 82, beheaded..
Reuters reported that she was elderly and authorities are saying it was not a terrorist act.. So… we’re talking an every day run of the mill beheading as opposed to one of a terrorist nature. Right? Of course we see some more online sources have a bit more of the blanks filled in compared to Reuters.. such as the fact that it was a beheading taking place in the broad daylight.. the machete wielding man was ‘menacing’ others prior to this beheading.
And the other sort of unsaid fact: Edmonton has a higher than usual Muslim population.
While this may not be a terror act, could it not be a terrorist inspired crime?
Oh, and finally, this: Locals in the town told reporters that the suspect beheader converted to Islam last year.
Get ready television watchers. If you still tune into the TEE VEE screen for your nightly entertainment, a new show may soon grace your safe living space: An NBC exorcism program..
The DOME must be dull.. crime shows are saturating the market.. And as for comedy, nothing is funny anymore.
Cue the doom and get the gloom: The exorcist is knocking.
Here are what trade publications are telling us about this new venture into the paranormal and religious: NBC is going to explore demonic possession in a new program. The network handed out a script called THE POSSESSION OF MAGGIE GILL that follows the Gills, an American middle class family who experience frequent paranormal activity within their Eugene, Oregon home.
The program is being produced by Amblin Television–the same that gave us UNDER THE DOME and EXTANT, among others..
Lately, it would seem, evil is selling on the small screen. ROSEMARY had her baby and the gates of hell opened in the Middle East.
Yes, there may be no connection.. it’s all entertainment, baby. But which comes first? The reality or the making of? The chicken or the egg? Which influences which? You can the judge, jury, and exorciser on that.
In the mean time, the power of Christ is compelling our entertainers to give us more of what we want. Apparently we want monsters, demons, and exorcisms. And lots of them.
The show will end after its upcoming fifth season—even though ratings in Canada are high and the show has a dedicated following in the United States. Fans flocked to LOST GIRL and it became a sensation with a cult following who spend time reading and writing fan fiction, and Tweeting live during programs.. The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER reports,
Showcase ordered 16 episodes for season five, to be split into two parts. The first eight episodes will start airing on Showcase on December 7, with the second batch to air in fall 2015. Syfy did not indicate when the fifth season will air on its network.
My wife is also very upset about this…it was her favorite show for four seasons.. The only thing I could say to console her is that I went through the same thing when Art Bell retired. And retired. And retired. And retired. And retired. Good thing for her fangirl series: There will only be one series finale.
And come to think of it…
Maybe I have a few seasons to catch up on..
Recent torture pornographers such as Eli Roth arguably have aligned themselves with 1970s American horror auteurs not only to legitimize their work but to cash in on their rebel credibility.
The NEW REPUBLIC article is an interesting way to follow up on my previous essay written earlier this week about horror movies.. I actually made the point that horror movies, in general, are a lot less scary in our current reality—and even more, who wants to look at torture porn films and slasher gore galore when you can turn on the nightly news and see edited versions of beheading videos and then download the real deal yourself should you wish to..?
The NEW REPUBLIC article follows how the market—and current events—lead to the horror we see in cinema.. Author Yo Zushi writes,
It wasn’t long before horror directors such as Eli Roth were claiming that their work could trace a direct lineage to the “war on terror”. “I really try to load up the films with ideas,” Roth insisted, citing with pride the university seminars discussing his Hostel series as “a post-9/11 response to Iraq and torture”. The ecstatic violence of that franchise at first attracted the scorn of many reviewers, who dismissed it as “torture porn,” but Roth’s articulate justifications for his on-screen cruelties seem to have won over the academy.
This strategy of media management isn’t new—Night of the Living Dead’s George Romero said in 1973 that his pioneering zombie film was intended as “a statement about society,” and its semi-documentary style and black hero, murdered by white authorities, served to corroborate his claim. Yet, presenting Romero with a lifetime achievement award in 2009, Quentin Tarantino characterised his movies as consisting of “heart-stopping violence, explosive bloodshed, undead flesh-eaters and dismembered ghouls.” So does the political content really give life to the films, or is it ancillary to the thrills of gore and suspense? And does the meaning that a filmmaker attaches to his lurid tales ultimately matter?
And more:
Although it would be a folly to dismiss interpretative readings of the horror genre entirely, I am skeptical of the claims of critics and filmmakers alike that a zombie or torture movie is primarily to be approached as political allegory. That attitude seems to conform to an apologetic attitude to art, in which the work serves, at best, a medicinal function: the Hostel series is valid because it negotiates, even purges, society’s anxieties about Abu Ghraib, and so on. Yet Eli Roth is not Noam Chomsky. And who thinks about Nixon or Vietnam when confronted with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
I don’t know if the movies are always set to be political allegory, or if the interpretation comes after to defend the amount of horrific violence that often accompanies torture porn flicks. But I know this, and will defend the notion to the end: Pick any horror movie of any decade and you will get a pretty decent idea of what that time’s people, thought patterns, and headlines were like.
I have a few friends that disavow all things horror—people who avoid the genre at all costs. I myself avoid the torture porn flicks simply because I’d rather a deeper scare than one which simply attacks my sense of decency. But I believe that horror films are from the rough end of town, and they are emblematic of the life and times we are from..
Oh, and wrestling does, too.
The acclaimed vampire spectacle on HBO, TRUE BLOOD, got political this weekend when it featured Senator Ted Cruz..
Here is how RAW STORY summed up the plot:
In the episode, characters Eric Northman and Pam De Beaufort dress up in stereotypical Texan Republican trappings to infiltrate a Cruz fundraising event in Dallas. “Oh my God. I’m a Republic*nt,” Pam remarks after seeing herself in the mirror.
Ted Cruz responded to the show on his Facebook page, saying, “Of all the places I never thought to be mentioned, HBO’s True Blood vampire show would have to be near the top of the list. Sunday night, they aired a misogynist and profanity-ridden episode where Texas Republicans are murdered attending a “Ted Cruz fundraiser.” Well, I’m sorry to have lost the vampire vote, but am astonished (and amused) that HBO is suggesting that hard-core leftists are blood-sucking fiends….”
Here is the scene from the show:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuRXPxvlIAI&w=560&h=315]