News: Two New Child’s Play Movies on the way

According to franchise star and genre icon Brad Dourif there will indeed be two future Child’s Play movies (or Chucky films as they’ve become in resent instalments). Movie Hole is reporting that at a panel talk which included Dourif (the voice of Chucky in all five movies as well as the original human character who’s soul inhabits the doll), Alex Vincent (the child plagued by Cheucky in the original Child’s Play), and Chis Sarandon (hero cop from Child’s Play and all round 80s legend), Dourif confirmed that there will be a remake and a spin-off, and that he is indeed involved in both. Let’s take a little look at these two options:

Movies You’ve probably Never Heard Of #21

‘Three on a Meat Hook’ (1973)

When I first came across this movie the first thing that went through my mind was “this must be a Texas Chainsaw Massacre cash-in?“. However, more fool me as this super grindhouse, exploitation effort, was made in 1973, a full year before TCM. If you don’t see my rationale here by the way, let me expalin. Aside from Letherface and his chainsaw, one of the lasting images from that movie for me was the hanging (alive) of victims upon a meat hook. Could this be another one of those horror examples of a film that was ahead of the curve and doesn’t get the recognition it deserves (is this to TCM what Black Christmas is to Halloween?)? Well, in a way, yes. While the execution lacks TCM’s deft touch, there are more than a few narrative similarities; Family issues, rural farm setting, stranded teen victims, and of course those meat hooks. It’s not a great movie, and boy does its plodding pace expose the wafer thin budget, but it genuinely tries to be profound, just check out the great voiceover from the trailer.., “The only ones left to mourn. The Last witnesses to the execution. Suspended in time by a puppeteer with blood on his hands. Little broken dolls that go on dancing after the music has stopped. Three on a meathook“. Deep!

So who’s seen this gem? Stand up and be counted.

Deadly Movies Vlog: Episode 1

Every second Friday Deadly Movies will bring you a video blog reviewing the highlights from the world of horror, as well as the best from Deadly Movies, from the past two weeks. As this is episode one there’s more than an touch of trial and error going on here, so please, let me know your thoughts and any topics/issues you’d like to see in episode 2. Enjoy.

Do You Remember When..,

.., Reptilicus Eats a Cartoon Farmer in ‘Reptilicus’ (1961)?

Perhaps the only example in the history of cinema where a puppet dragon has eaten a cartoon farmer (the above still is actually taken from the movie). Denmark’s only giant creature movie Reptilicus has a massive cult following, especially in.., Denmark. It is without doubt an awful movie.., whether or not it falls into the so bad it’s good category is a matter of personal taste and blind national pride. You can find a plethora of information online about this movie and its history, such is its notoriety. But today we’re going to celebrate a landmark in movie effects when the US producers (History lesson: Reptilicus was shot in both Danish and English and there are subsequently two cuts containing some visual and plot differences) decided that, in order to up the ante, more gore was needed. One of the ways they bizarrely went about this was to draw (and I mean draw) a cartoon farmer inside (i.e floating around in front of..,) Reptilicus’s mouth during the beast’s assault on a farm. This decision is all the more baffling when you consider that they were actively trying to improve the movie in post. The main problem being that the monster was god awful, and any attempt at layering effects on top of the world’s smallest movie puppet only drew attention to the fact.

The best way to sum up the experience of Reptilicus can bee seen in this photo (left). An old housemate of mine, who, after enduring this Danish landmark, took it upon himself to defile my DVD case and make improvements with post-it-notes. The synopsis of the movie subsequently read: “Discover the true meaning of Danish cinema as a rubber toy from the dollar store brings my brain to its knees. Packed with no plot, dubbed actors, and acid vomit, Reptilicus proves that in Copenhagen any prat can make a movie. In this sub-par creature feature about a cold blooded 90-foot mess who’s time has come to piss me off. Fun Facts: It’s total shit. Special Features: A gun to take your life with.“

UPDATED: Big Things Have Small Beginnings: New Clues in the Second Prometheus Trailer

UPDATE: Below Deadly Movies reported on the release of the second, and first full length, trailer for Prometheus and speculated on what we could expect from the new footage. This past weekend saw the release of a reasonably different UK trailer as well asa new TV spot. See below for a breakdown of all three visual treats:

“Big things have small beginnings“, so teases Michael Fassbender in the the second and rather splendid Prometheus trailer. But what do we learn from all of this? Well there’s a lot more expansion of things we already know: 1) The crew of Prometheus discovers the ruins of something containing the spacecraft which will be discovered by Sigourney Weaver et al in Alien. 2) The space jockey from Alien will have an important part to play in the movie. 3) There are more links to Alien than Ridley Scott will publicly acknowledge. As for new information there are a lot teasers and you could speculate much, so let’s take a look at what my feeble brain expunged from these new 152 seconds. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day: Top 5 Irish Contributions to Horror

St Patrick’s Day – a day when people who hate Guinness drink gallons of the stuff to celebrate a heritage they don’t really have, pour green food colouring into, otherwise, perfectly good beer, and wear a lot of novelty green items (too cynical?). It may surprise many, but Ireland has produced more than just green felt leprechaun top-hats, including its fair share of horror fables, actors, movies, and authors. So join Deadly Movies in a celebration of Ireland’s greatest horror contributions: 

Great Moustaches & Beards in Horror History: 1974

British actor Nigel Davenport is a legend of TV and film, delivering bearded, moustachio’d, and even clean shaven performances in movies like Play Dirty (1969), The Island of Dr Moreau (1977), Zulu Dawn (1979), Chariots of Fire (1981), and Nighthawks (1981 – another great beard movie with Stallone sporting an epic pitch black face rug) to name but a few. But if you’re looking for Nigel at his bat-shit eccentric best, then look no further than Phase IV (1974). The movie itself is far more of a character study than it is traditional creature feature (think of 2006′s Bug if you need a comparison) which allows Nigel to deliver a performance of British grandiose, matched only by a commanding, colonial-esque beard which alone – if the screen writers had known their beards – should have been enough to defeat any pissed-off ants hopped up on solar flairs, or some such sci-fi guff. Nigel plays Dr Ernest D Hubbs, a British scientist who isolates himself (and poor old assistant James) in the middle of the desert, in some kind of metal igloo, in order to wage a personal war no the local ant population. It’s brains against brains as isolation, desert heat, and ant bites make Nigel and his beard get progressively more insane. Dr Nige becomes increasingly consumed with wanting to prove to ants (who haven’t mutated in size by the way, they are still just ants, with some sort of space intelligence) that man is the superior being. It’s actually ridiculous, and only a beard of such greying gravitas could successfully convey this utter madness. Here’s to you good sir, and the man attached to you too.

10 Ways to Restart the Halloween Franchise – As Suggested by Friends of Deadly Movies

With the news that Halloween 3D has been pushed from the Weinstein’s 2012 plans Deadly Movies took to twitter  (you can follow @DeadlyMovies here) to see what our fine friends thought was the best way to restart our beloved franchise. Keep in mind that some of these are serious and well though out ideas, others may be.., less so.

News: No Halloween 3 in 2012 (now there’s a surprise)

Back in June last year Deadly Movies reported that Dimension and the Weinstein’s had slated Halloween 3D for a September 2012 release (see here). The thing is there wasn’t much more to this project than a couple of simple directives from the boardroom; 1) It would be a continuation from Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween 2 (i.e. not another reboot), and 2) It would be in 3D because that’s what the kids are in to these days. Little was know about any creative plans aside from the fact that Drive Angry and My Bloody Valentine 3D scribes Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer had been commissioned to write the screenplay, and had submitted a complete vision. Today comes the news that The Weinstein’s have now pushed the project from their 2012 schedule, with little news as to where (or when) it’s been pushed to (Deadly Movies called this one in our 2012 horror preview). Are we looking at a September 2013 release? Maybe, but don’t hold your breath, especially as the official line is that screenplays are still being considered and sought. It would seem that Michael, along with fellow slasher alumni’s Freddy, Pinhead, and Jason are stuck in remake development hell. As sad as news as this is, perhaps a career sabbatical is the best prescription for Michael; I really couldn’t fathom how you’d bring him back from the finale of Halloween 2 anyway (see an artistic representation below of how a post H2 Michael may look). However, fear not Halloween fans, it’s been three years since Michael’s last killing spree and he’s never spent more that six cinematic years away from Haddonfield.

Movies You’ve Probably Never Heard of #20

Monster From A Prehistoric Planet (aka Daikyojû Gappa – 1967)

Here’s a unique entry in the Japanese giant creature genre. Not so much unique in content (we’ll get to that) but more so in production. This oddity was Nikkatsu studios first, and only, attempt at a giant monster film (unlike fellow Japanese studio Toho, the studio behind Godzilla, the clear inspiration for this attempt at box-office glory). Watching Monster from a Prehistoric Planet would lead you to believe that Nikkatsu had stollen away a veteran Toho filmmaker, such is the competency of Haruyasu Noguchi’s direction. Yet, like the studio, this was the director’s only stab at a large-scale monster movie, which, is rather remarkable when you see just how well some of the set-piece action sequences are done, as well as the multiple effects shots. It’s actually quiet the achievement for a filmmaker of limited experience in 1967 – this could very well be a Toho movie (and they’ve made worse than this).

Deadly Movies Cameos: Frozen survivor Parker O’Neil (Emma Bell) in Hatchet 2 (2010)

Cameos are great, same universe character cameos are even better. Marvel have cornered the market in same universe character cameos; a trawl through almost any Marvel movie of the past decade will uncover cameos from other Marvel cannons. Hatchet and Frozen director Adam Green is a fan’s filmmaker, he knows how to deliver genre pleasing movies. It’s no surprise that his film’s are full of cameos, walk-on’s, small rolls, and significant rolls from some of horror and cult cinema’s most revered faces (Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Robert Englund, Danielle Harris et al). But this particular cameo in Hatchet 2 (2010) is one of my favourites as Green goes down the ‘same universe’ route placing the events of his other 2010 movie, Frozen, into the Hatchet timeline.  Appearing on Reverend Zombie’s (Tony Todd’) TV, Parker O’Neil, the sole survivor of Frozen’s wolf onslaught, tells reporters “I’ll never go skiing again“. The cameo is made all the funnier by the news caption which reads “Settles lawsuit with Mount Holliston“, giving us a little insight into post-Frozen events. Great stuff from Green who made these two movies almost back-to-back and uses this as a loving link between the two. Plus it was likely an easy pay cheque for Emma Bell and her agent too. Everyone’s a winner!

Happy St. David’s Day (The Patron Saint of Wales FYI): Top 5 Welsh Contributions to Horror

Wales; for many, that little bit on the lefthand side of England, home to some 3 million people (that’s about the same amount of people that live in the state of Iowa) famous for singing, rugby (which to be fair was invented in England, but we just care more), sheep, rain, coal and ummmm that’s about it (and there’s me of course, but I wouldn’t say I’m famous, save for in my mum’s eyes). Wales then isn’t an obvious choice when considering a nation’s impact on the horror genre. But don’t count your sheep before you have sex with them (It’s an old saying). Join Deadly Movies to celebrate this year’s St David’s Day with a salute to Wales’s greatest contributions to our beloved genre (in no particular order btw):

News (Updated): Guy Pearce is a Weyland in Prometheus. Continuity Head F**K

 

UPDATE: A new Prometheus viral campaign has landed in which we get our first glimpse of Guy Pearce’s Peter Weyland, you can see the video and play along with the campaign here. In the 3 minute long keynote speech, Weyland (a sort of Steve Jobs meets Prince Phillip) runs us through the history of technological development, teases Alien fans with a couple of lines about AI, and delivers the wonderful closing line “My name is Peter Weyland, and if you’d indulge me, I’d like to change the world“. Of course all of this is glorious buildup to the events of both Prometheus and Alien. We even get a lovely Weyland Industries logo at the end, a precurser to that well know Weyland Yutani logo from the Alien franchise. You can read about the links between Prometheus and Alien, as well as catching up on ALL the Weyland connections and timelines throughout the Alien franchise, below: