Movies... For Free! House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Showcasing classic movies that have fallen out of copyright and are available freely from the public domain (with streaming video!)...


House on Haunted Hill, 1959.

Directed by William Castle.
Starring Vincent Price, Carolyn Craig, Richard Long, Elisha Cook Jr., Carol Ohmart, Alan Marshal and Julie Mitchum.

A low-budget b-movie horror from 1959, William Castle's House on Haunted Hill stars Vincent Price as eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren, who invites five random strangers to attend a party for his fourth wife Annabelle (Carolyn Craig). Loren then offers them a proposal: to spend a night in his haunted mansion - the location of a series of brutal murders - in return for $10,000 each, payable upon their survival. Warning the guests that their host is psychotic, Annabelle soon commits suicide and the strangers begin to experience a series of macabre events with no means of escape from the terror...

Director Castle employed a unique promotional gimmick known as 'Emergo' during the film's original theatrical run, which utilised a pulley system to frighten the audience by dragging a plastic skeleton above their heads. House on Haunted Hill proved to be a huge financial success and prompted Alfred Hitchcock to develop a low-budget horror of his own, resulting in the 1960 classic Psycho, while it was also the subject of a remake in 1999 starring Geoffrey Rush and Famke Janssen.


Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.

Click here to view all entries in our Movies... For Free! collection.

54th BFI London Film Festival: 2010 Award Winners

The 54th BFI London Film Festival drew to a close yesterday with the announcement of the festival's award winners at a star-studded ceremony in London's LSO St Luke's.

The festival jury - chaired by Patricia Clarkson and including Gabriel Byrne, Sandy Powell and Shekhar Kapur - presented Russian director Aleksei Popogrebsky with the Best Film award for his psychological drama How I Ended This Summer, while British filmmaker Danny Boyle was presented with the prestigious BFI Fellowship for his outstanding contribution to film.

Also in attendance was Martin Scorsese, who delivered a special tribute to the work of the BFI National Archive for its 75th anniversary.


A full rundown of the award winners...

BFI Fellowship: Danny Boyle

Best Film: How I Ended This Summer (dir. Aleksei Popogrebsky)

"Tense, moving and universal in its scope, this is a cinematic tour de force." - Patricia Clarkson

Special commendation to Archipelago (dir. Joanna Hogg)

Best British Newcomer: Clio Barnard, director of The Arbor

"Clio Barnard’s genre-busting film The Arbor is innovative, eloquent and emotionally resonant... a stunning debut" - Tony Grisoni

Sutherland Award: Clio Barnard (The Arbor)

"This is a challenging, moving and utterly memorable film and a deserving winner of the Sutherland Award" - Sandra Hebron

Grierson Award for Best Documentary: Armadillo (dir. Janus Metz)

"Armadillo is a touchstone film that will be watched for years to come.” - Kevin Macdonald

We'll be finishing up our coverage of the London Film Festival here at Flickering Myth over the next few days, while highlights of the awards ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Arts 2 HD on November 7th.

Monsters regional tour and 'Monster Making Masterclass' with filmmaker Gareth Edwards

We're still over a month away from the release of British sci-fi flick Monsters but UK audiences can get an early look at the film courtesy of BAFTA with three regional screenings taking place next week in Bristol (Monday 1st at Watershed Cinema), Newcastle (Tuesday 2nd at Tyneside Cinema) and Glasgow (Wednesday 3rd at Glasgow Film Theatre). Each screening is followed by a Q&A with writer-director Gareth Edwards, who makes his feature debut with Monsters after building a name for himself as a visual effects artist.

Meanwhile for those interested in gaining a better insight into the filmmaking process, both the Bristol and Newcastle screenings are preceded by a special free event hosted by Gareth Edwards, "A Master Class in Making Monsters", in which he discusses his experiences of getting his debut feature made and the challenges of creating visually compelling aliens on an incredibly low budget.

To apply for tickets to the screenings / masterclasses, email regions@bafta.org.

"Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures". Monsters begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border."


Monsters is set for a nationwide release on December 3rd.

Paranormal Activity 2 scares away the competition at the UK box office

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th October 2010.

The UK box office chart enjoyed a healthy shake-up this past weekend with half of the top ten occupied by new faces. Top of the pile is supernatural sequel Paranormal Activity 2, which bags top spot with £3.7m, just a shade higher than the original Paranormal Activity pulled in when it opened in second place back in November 2009.

Bruce Willis action-ensemble Red banks £1.6m to take third ahead of last week's number one Despicable Me, which has amassed a decent £7.5m after just two weekends on release. Also on the decline is David Fincher's The Social Network (slipping two spots to fourth), while new Superman director Zack Snyder enjoys a fifth-placed opening for his animated fantasy Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

The bottom half of the chart plays host to remaining newcomers Alpha and Omega (the CG animated family adventure taking sixth despite awful reviews) and high school rom-com Easy A, with Vampires Suck sandwiched between them in seventh, down four places from last weekend. Life As We Know It goes one better and falls five to ninth, while the steepest drop is reserved for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which crashes sixth places to prop the up the chart in tenth.

Number one this time last year: Up

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	Paranormal Activity 2	£3,764,722	1	£3,764,722
2	Despicable Me	£2,589,170	2	£7,585,348
3	Red	£1,662,472	1	£1,662,472
4	The Social Network	£1,538,571	2	£5,359,109
5	Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole	£737,444	1	£737,444
6	Alpha and Omega	£643,425	1	£643,425
7	Vampires Suck	£530,136	2	£2,024,809
8	Easy A	£277,975	1	£277,975
9	Life As We Know It	£263,134	3	£2,919,246
10	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	£258,968	3	£3,698,077

Incoming...

The Saw franchise makes its annual appearance just in time for Halloween with Saw 3D (cert. 18), which hits screens this coming Friday and promises to be the final installment in the series (please!). However, if you're absolutely sick to the back teeth of the franchise then alternatives include a pair of comedy dramas - The Kids Are All Right (cert. TBC) and Donkeys (cert. 15) - along with John Landis' new comedy Burke and Hare (cert. 15), featuring Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, Tim Curry and Christopher Lee.

U.K. Box Office Archive

Thoughts on... A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street, 2010.

Directed by Samuel Bayer.
Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellan Lutz, Connie Britton and Clancy Brown.


SYNOPSIS:

A disfigured killer with a razor-glove invades the dreams of a group of teenagers.


For those few people unfamiliar with the concept of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the basic gist sees the charred, razor-clawed serial killer Freddy Krueger tormenting a bunch of teenagers via their dreams, the catch being that if he kills them in the dream world they can kiss goodbye to graduation. And so it is with this franchise reboot from producer Michael Bay and first time director Samuel Bayer, with Watchmen’s Jackie Earle Haley slipping on the glove vacated by Robert Englund. Taking its inspiration from the plot of Wes Craven’s classic 1984 slasher, Freddy sets out for revenge against the mob responsible for his death by slaughtering their offspring. With their classmates dying all around them, the socially awkward duo of Nancy (Rooney Mara) and Quentin (Kyle Gallner) attempt to unravel the mystery before they fall asleep and become the latest victim of the monstrous child-killer.

It would be pointless to use this review as a rhetoric on Hollywood’s continuing fetish for remaking classic movies at the expensive of original ideas. It’s happening, it’s been happening for a long time, and whether we like it or not, it’s going to keep happening. With that being said it’s also difficult to judge a ‘re-imagining’ purely on its own merits, particularly when the source material is so ingrained in popular culture and its main character is a bona fide icon of the horror genre.

This is the one of the problems facing Platinum Dunes, although in fairness it’s one they’ve had to contend with before. First up was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003, followed by last year’s reboot of the Friday the 13th franchise. Both of these turned out a lot better than they could have (see Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake) but ultimately neither of them managed to match up to their original. A Nightmare on Elm Street continues this trend, but for me the bigger issue here is Freddy himself. Leatherface is a man in a mask. Jason Voorhees is a man in a mask. Michael Myers is a man in a mask. Freddy Krueger is Robert Englund.

Now I’m a fan of Jackie Earle Haley and without a doubt the man has a special talent for playing sinister lunatics. His take on Freddy is infinitely darker than Englund’s wise-cracking joker of the latter instalments and the fact that they’ve went a step further than Craven and made him an out-and-out child-molester helps to make the character just that little bit more grotesque. I really wanted to like his interpretation of the bastard son of a thousand maniacs and while he does a pretty good job, I just couldn’t get around the fact he wasn’t Robert Englund.

It’s pretty easy to harp on about how the film fails to live up to the original but in all honesty is that really necessary? I’m fairly confident that most people – cast and crew included – knew this was simply never going to be the case. That in itself isn’t enough to make it a bad movie and in fact as far as recent remakes go A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the better entries. Blood flows freely, the teen characters aren’t quite as clichéd or annoying as usual and The Kurgan himself Clancy Brown makes an appearance as one of the mob who torch Freddy. It’s certainly no worse than some of the Englund sequels and newcomers to the franchise may suffer a few sleepless nights at the hands of Haley’s sadistic dream demon. At least, that is, until they catch the original.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

Short Film Showcase - 1:42:08 to Qualify (1966)

1:42:08 to Qualify (a.k.a. 1:42:08: A Man and His Car), 1966.

Written and Directed by George Lucas.
Starring Pete Brock.

George Lucas' fourth and final film as an undergraduate student of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, 1:42:08 to Qualify depicts a yellow Lotus 23 sports car as it makes multiple laps of a racing circuit. Inspired by Jean-Claude Labrecque's documentary short 60 Cycles (1965), it is a hugely ambitious project for a student production, with Lucas shooting on 16mm colour film and utilising a friend's plane to capture a number of aerial shots of the racetrack.

Starring as the driver is Pete Brock, who would go on to achieve significant success in the automotive field as team owner of Brock Racing Enterprises, in addition to contributing to the design of the classic American racecar, the Shelby Daytona Coupe. Meanwhile Lucas' interest in fast cars and racing would remain an influence in his later works, featuring in the likes of American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).


Related:

Short Film Showcase - Freiheit (1966)
Short Film Showcase - Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967)

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

Ash vs Freddy vs Jason vs Michael Myers... who wins in a fight?

With Halloween just around the corner we run down the contenders in the ultimate dream match - a four-way-dance between a quartet of horror icons...

Name: Ashley J. "Ash" Williams
Hometown: Dearborn, Michigan
Appearances: 3
Weapon of choice: Chainsaw, boomstick

The hero of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series, S-MART employee Ash (Bruce Campbell) has to contend with unimaginable terror, accidentally unleashing demonic forces when stumbling across the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in a secluded cabin in the woods. After beheading his possessed girlfriend Linda and squaring off against his own hand (which he amputates and replaces with a prosthetic chainsaw), Ash is thrown back in time at the conclusion of Evil Dead II and finds himself forced to defend Medieval England from a legion of deadites in Army of Darkness.


Name: Freddy Krueger
Hometown: Springwood
Appearances: 9
Weapon of choice: Razor-blade glove

Dream demon Freddy Krueger terrorises the teenage population of Springwood in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as he looks to gain revenge against the parents who delivered their own brand of justice on the twisted child killer. Slashing his way through seven more movies in the guise of Robert Englund, the bastard son of a thousand maniacs recently returned to the screen courtesy of Jackie Earle Haley in Platinum Dunes' 're-imagining' of the horror classic.



Name: Jason Voorhees
Hometown: Crystal Lake
Appearances: 11
Weapon of choice: Machete

After witnessing the decapitation of his mother in Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees went on a one-man killing spree, butchering the inhabitants of Camp Crystal Lake until coming a cropper against Corey Feldman in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Only this fourth movie wasn't the final chapter at all and a resurrected Jason returned as an unstoppable monster for a further seven films, including a battle with his Springwood rival in Freddy vs. Jason and a 2009 remake from Platinum Dunes.



Name: Michael Myers
Hometown: Haddonfield
Appearances: 9
Weapon of choice: Machete

A killer without reason, conscience, understanding, and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong, Michael Myers became the original slasher icon when he returned to his hometown to stalk teenage scream-queen Jamie Lee Curtis in John Carpenter's Halloween. Myers continued his rampage for six sequels (with most reconning the events of previous films) before Rob Zombie's 2007 reboot, which was followed by its own critically derided follow-up in 2009.



So, who wins in a fight? Cast your vote now in our Halloween poll to help determine the winner of this epic confrontation...

54th BFI London Film Festival: Carlos (2010)

Carlos, 2010.

Directed by Olivier Assayas.
Starring Édgar Ramírez, Alexander Scheer, Nora von Waldstätten, Ahmad Kaabour, Christoph Bach, Susanne Wuest, Anna Thalbach and Julia Hummer.


SYNOPSIS:

A biopic of the Venezuelan revolutionary and international terrorist Carlos the Jackal.


Before Osama bin Laden became the world’s most wanted fugitive in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, one man was synonymous with international terrorism – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal. A South American revolutionary-cum-mercenary responsible for a number of high-profile attacks throughout the 70s and 80s, The Jackal’s bloody rise to prominence and subsequent downfall serves as the basis for Carlos, an exhaustive 5½ hour biopic from French filmmaker Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep).

Premiering out of competition at Cannes earlier this year, there are currently two versions of Carlos doing the rounds – a truncated 2½ hour ‘theatrical’ cut and the complete ‘trilogy’ version, which was originally developed as a three-part miniseries for French television. While it may have been intended for the small-screen, Carlos’ lavish production values, Assayas’ cinematic pedigree and a strong performance from Édgar Ramírez (The Bourne Ultimatum) in the title role all combine to deliver a hugely-ambitious and impressive take on one of the most notorious figures of the late-twentieth century.

The first part of the film deals with Carlos’ entry into the world of international terrorism as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, building his reputation through a succession of kidnappings, bombings and RPG attacks on Israeli airliners. Forced to flee Europe after the murder of two police detectives, Carlos is given sanctuary in the Lebanese capital of Beirut where he hatches his most infamous crime – the 1975 raid on the Vienna headquarters of the OPEC oil cartel. This raid takes up the majority of the second episode and is masterfully recreated in a riveting sequence that begins with the kidnapping of sixty hostages and murder of three. After negotiating for Austrian authorities to broadcast a message about the Palestinian cause, Carlos and his team demand the use of a DC-9 and look to pull off an audacious escape only to find themselves taxiing between Algerian, Libyan and Iraqi airspace in a desperate search for asylum.

Unfortunately after delivering such an impressive middle-act the film stumbles somewhat in its concluding part, with Carlos' dwindling influence and eventual incarceration drawn out in comparison to the frenetic action of the preceding episodes. As with Steven Soderbergh's two-part biopic Che (2008), there are times during the film - particularly towards the end - when you begin to wonder whether the lengthy running-time is really all that necessary. However, that's not to say this ruins the film by any stretch of the imagination - at its peak it rivals the likes of Munich (2005) and United 93 (2006) for drama and intensity and is certainly one of the best television productions I've seen in a long time.

Carlos received its UK premiere at the London International Film Festival earlier this week in its 'trilogy' form, which by all accounts is far superior to the 'theatrical' cut. Having only seen the former I am unable to offer a comparison myself but I would certainly not want to miss one moment of the gripping OPEC hostage sequence, which really is worth the price of admission in itself. It may lose its way a little towards the end but the first two episodes make the complete version of Carlos a must-see, although your backside will probably thank you for waiting for the home release.

Carlos is currently on limited release in UK cinemas and hits DVD and Blu-ray on November 1st.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

How to get funding for your independent film? Simple, get the fans involved!

Anthony Lane is a British filmmaker who has been passionately working on his first feature, a zombie film called The Invasion of the Not Quite Dead, for a number of years. In the UK film industry funding is very hard to come by so Lane is taking his own innovative approach to raise the money - donations from horror fans.

Wednesday saw the start of his latest stunt - a 72 Hour ‘Tweetathon’. Anthony (on Twitter he goes by @indywoodFILMS) is staying awake for three straight days to encourage fans to donate money for the film to go into production. £20,000 has already been raised and Lane is hoping to boost that amount by a further £5,000.

You can follow his progress and keep up to date with the money raised at http://www.indywood.co.uk/.

On offer to fans is the chance to receive a producer credit and various other opportunities relating to the film depending on how much you can donate. Even just a tenner will get you a downloadable copy of the finished film, access to the Producers Lounge on the website, your photo on the webpage and a Special Thanks credit at the end of the movie.

So go ahead and get involved to support a dedicated indie film maker who is making a film not only for but with the people who matter most - the fans.

Despicable Me beats The Social Network to top spot in the UK box office chart

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 15th - Sunday 17th October 2010.

David Fincher's The Social Network may be enjoying critical success but it wasn't enough to propel the film to the top of the chart in its opening weekend here in the UK. Instead that honour befell Despicable Me, the first offering from newly-created animation house Illumination Entertainment, which banks £3.6m to leave the Mark Zuckerberg biopic settling for second place with a decent return of £2.4m.

Also released this past weekend was Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's latest stake in the heart of the spoof genre, Vampires Suck, taking third place with £1m and pushing last week's top two films - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Life As We Know It - down to fourth and fifth respectively.

In the bottom half of the chart Ben Affleck's second directorial feature The Town falls once place to sixth while Brit drama Made in Dagenham holds firm in seventh. Buddy cop comedy The Other Guys drops four spots (although with the exit of Toy Story 3 this week it is now the highest earner in the chart with £7.7m to date), while the steepest decline is reserved for the Zac Efron drama Charlie St. Cloud, which plunges six places to ninth in only its second weekend. Finally Julia Roberts drama Eat Pray Love props up the chart in tenth but looks about ready for the count with just £153k.

Number one this time last year: Up

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	Despicable Me	£3,664,376	1	£3,664,376
2	The Social Network	£2,486,454	1	£2,486,454
3	Vampires Suck	£1,089,339	1	£1,089,339
4	Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps	£675,549	2	£3,084,007
5	Life As We Know It	£624,367	2	£2,262,970
6	The Town	£343,620	4	£4,445,639
7	Made in Dagenham	£343,222	3	£2,566,304
8	The Other Guys	£332,064	5	£7,785,216
9	Charlie St. Cloud	£314,873	2	£1,299,236
10	Eat Pray Love	£153,276	4	£4,291,302

Incoming...

Horror sequel Paranormal Activity 2 (cert. 15) will be looking to make the same kind of impact as its predecessor when it hits UK screens this coming Friday and will likely fight it out with Zack Snyder's 3D CG-animated fantasy Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (cert. 15) for first place.

Meanwhile 3D family rival Alpha and Omega (cert. U) could also find itself in the mix (although terrible reviews would suggest otherwise), along with action-comedy Red (cert. 12A), starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.

Also arriving this weekend... highly rated drama Africa United (cert. 12A), high school comedy Easy A (cert. 15), children's book adaptation Ramona and Beezus (cert. U), and documentary Chasing Legends (cert. 15).

U.K. Box Office Archive

Forthcoming Attractions - Desperate Measures

If you're familiar with our regular "Short Film Showcase" you may remember a John Carpenter-inspired slasher by the name of Cold Blood that featured on the site earlier this year. Well, Cold Blood director Steve Looker recently dropped us an email to give us the heads up on his latest project, a feature-length thriller entitled Desperate Measures. Here's the synopsis...

"Ross Hadley has been kidnapped and held on a remote farmhouse. A drink and drug addict, his two captors put him through a brutal regime to get him clean. But when he gets clean, Ross finds out the shocking real reasons behind his incarceration."

Currently in post-production, Desperate Measures stars Stephen Lord (EastEnders), Ricci Harnett (Rise of the Footsoldier) and Max Beesley Snr. (Looking for Eric) and is written and produced by Chris Green. If the trailer is anything to go by this could be one to watch out for when it's released next year. Take a look...


Be sure to head on over to the website for more about the film.

Your favourite David Fincher movie is...

Results of our latest poll here at Flickering Myth...

To coincide with the release of David Fincher's latest movie The Social Network (not to mention Trevor Hogg's in-depth three-part career profile Killer Talent), we've been running a poll here at Flickering Myth to find your favourite movie from the director's impressive body of work. So, without further ado, let's take a look at the results...

Fight Club (1999) - 116 (40%)
Se7en (1995) - 75 (26%)
Zodiac (2007) - 31 (10%)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - 18 (6%)
Alien3 (1992) - 15 (5%)
The Social Network (2010) - 13 (4%)
The Game (1997) - 10 (3%)
Panic Room (2002) - 8 (2%)

Of course The Social Network had a disadvantage in that it's only just hit cinemas this month and had it been on release for longer it would surely have managed to overtake Alien3 and Benjamin Button, while possibly pushing Zodiac for a spot in the top three. Nevertheless, it's a decisive victory for Fight Club and although I'd have to go for Se7en myself, it's hard to argue with those kinds of numbers.

All that remains is to thank everyone who took the time to vote, and be sure to check back soon for our next poll!

Short Film Showcase - Oktapodi (2007)

Oktapodi, 2007.

Directed by Julien Bocabeille, François-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier and Emud Mokhberi.
Original Music by Kenny Wood.

A third-year student production from Gobelins L'Ecole de L'Image, Oktapodi is a two-and-a-half minute computer animated short about an octopi couple who find themselves seperated when the male is plucked from their aquarium and hauled away to meet his doom in a delivery truck. The shocked female soon escapes and sets out on a comical adventure to rescue her lover as the truck makes its way through the streets of a Greek village.

Oktapodi took its team of six directors seven months to complete the animation, while UCLA Music graduate Kenny Wood supplied the original composition which features a violin performance from Dorthy Kwon. The resulting film was very well-received, winning a host of awards including Best of Show and the Audience Prize at SIGGRAPH 2008, along with an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009.


Visit the official site here.

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

Thoughts on... ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction, 2009.

Directed by Kevin Hamedani.
Starring Janette Armand, Doug Fahl, Russell Hodgkinson, Cooper Hopkins, Bill Johns, James Mesher and Cornelia Moore.


SYNOPSIS:

The idyllic island town of Port Gamble comes under attack by a horde of flesh-eating zombies, leaving a rag-tag band of rebel stereotypes to fight for their survival.


With a seemingly endless supply of zombie movies clogging the shelves over the past couple of years – many of them bearing the typically unoriginal “of the Dead” monikers – fans of the genre must either be in undead Heaven or thoroughly, thoroughly exhausted. 2009 was certainly a busy time with two notable releases in particular - the rather fantastic Zombieland from first time director Ruben Fleischer and the utterly abysmal Survival of the Dead, the latest stain on George A. Romero’s rapidly-diminishing legacy as the master of the zombie flick.

Tucked away amid the stream of straight-to-video offerings is the low-budget zombie-comedy (or is that zomedy?) ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction, an entertaining if unexceptional slice of gory fun from first time director Kevin Hamedani. Not to be confused with Kevin Grevioux’s popular comic-book title of the same name (which happens to be getting its own big-screen adaptation in 2011), Zombies of Mass Destruction is similar in tone to titles such as Braindead (1992, dir. Peter Jackson) and Shaun of the Dead (2004, dir. Edgar Wright), playing it for laughs while delivering just about enough of the red stuff to satisfy the hardened splatter-fan.

Hamedani really ramps up the social commentary of Romero’s early classics Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) as the film delves into themes of religious hypocrisy, American paranoia and intolerance. In-your-face as opposed to subtle, this really becomes the primary focus of the film and leaves the zombie apocalypse to take a bit of a back seat as it goes on to explore the stories of its intentionally clichéd and stereotyped main characters. It’s probably about half an hour before the zombie fun really starts to kick in, which could be off-putting to those who expect balls-to-the-wall blood-soaked gore from outset, but the plotlines are fairly engaging and the depth of storytelling makes quite a refreshing change from typical entries into the genre.

There are two main protagonists in Zombies of Mass Destruction, both of whom come from minority backgrounds which brings them into conflict with the overly conservative religious zealots and rednecks that occupy the small island-town of Port Gamble. First up is Frida (Janette Armand), a young American girl of Iranian descent who has to contend with ignorance (most of the townsfolk keep referring to her as an Iraqi) and her strict Muslim father (the unfortunately miscast Ali Hamedani, who mumbles his way through the picture like a poor Arabian Al Pacino impersonator and from this point forth, shall be referred to as Ali Pacino). When the zombie outbreak is announced as the result of a terrorist act, Frida immediately becomes guilty in the eyes of bigoted redneck Joe (Russell Hodgkinson), who finds the teenage girl more of a threat than the flesh-eating creatures amassing outside of his home.

Running parallel to this is the weaker (but funnier) of the two stories in which gay guy Tom (Doug Fahl) returns home from the city with his boyfriend Lance (Cooper Hopkins) to announce his sexuality to his mother. Tom’s plans are thwarted by his her death and subsequent reanimation, which forces him and Lance to seek solitude in the only place on the zombie-infested island more dangerous to a homosexual couple – the House of the Lord. Naturally the narrow-minded congregation soon want to throw the couple to the zombies, only for the island’s Reverend Haggis (Bill Johns) to suggest a more merciful approach, showing them the way and ‘straightening’ them out by means of an IV drip and a selection of ‘homo-erotic’ material.

Going from this description it might seem that there isn't too much action on offer and, like I said earlier, the film does take a while to get going. However, from the moment of the first blood-drenched attack on Frida's stoner boyfriend things rarely let up and there are plenty of inventive deaths, flying body parts and cannibalism in the second half of the movie to make it worthy of its title. Even old Ali Pacino gets in on the act, channelling The Evil Dead's Ash as he hacks his way through a swarm of zombies to slightly redeem his inclusion in the otherwise impressive cast.

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction is by no means a bad film; some of the jokes miss the mark and the social commentary is a bit too heavy-handed but there's plenty going on during its hour-and-a-half running time to keep viewers engaged and entertained. As a "zombies on an island" movie I found it far more enjoyable than Survival of the Dead (whether that's testament to Hamedani's skills or an indication of just how far down the crapper Romero's series has fallen is open to debate), and if you're looking for something with a bit more depth to the usual hack-and-slash formula then Zombies of Mass Destruction is certainly worth a shot.

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 18th October, 2010.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

The Hobbit is a go... for now

Fans of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth will be breathing a sigh of relief this weekend with the news that the financially beleaguered MGM have finally reached a deal with New Line and Warner Bros. to cover the estimated $500m needed to bring The Hobbit to the big-screen, as reported by TheWrap last night. The two-part prequel to the hugely successful Lord of the Rings trilogy will see Peter Jackson take over directing duties vacated by Pan's Labyrinth helmer Guillermo del Toro, who remains credited as co-writer alongside Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

"It’s an all-immersive journey into a very special place of imagination, beauty and drama," said the New Zealand filmmaker in a statement released on Friday. "We’re looking forward to re-entering this wondrous world with Gandalf and Bilbo -- and our friends at New Line Cinema, Warner Brothers and MGM."

The announcement hopefully brings to an end question marks over the status of the The Hobbit, which was first revealed back in December 2007 and has seen over $30m already spent on pre-production work, although the Screen Actors Guild could yet put a spanner in the works with their claims that the movie is a "non-union production". Nevertheless for the moment the plan is to start shooting in February 2011 with Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf and The Office star Martin Freeman hotly tipped to secure the lead role of Bilbo Baggins.

Don't look up... Skyline gets a new UK trailer

A few weeks back Momentum Pictures gave UK fans their first look at the upcoming alien invasion flick Skyline, releasing a short trailer that really didn't give too much away in terms of what to expect (barring of course the obvious). Well, now we can get a much better insight into the film with the latest UK trailer, which is very similar to the North American one released a few days back but does contain the odd piece of alternative footage.

Check it out now...


The second feature from AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem directors the Brothers Strause (who are also notable for their impressive visual effects work on a host of eye-candy blockbusters such as 2012, 300, Avatar, The Incredible Hulk and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines via their VFX company Hydraulx Studios), Skyline stars Eric Balfour (24), Scottie Thompson (Star Trek), David Zayas (The Expendables), Donald Faison (Scrubs), Brittany Daniel (Club Dread) and Neil Hopkins (Lost).

Skyline is set for release on November 12th. Visit the official site here.

Forthcoming Attractions - Chronicles of Narnia and Guardians of Ga'Hoole

New trailers for two of the year's big fantasy releases...

As with any good fantasy, you need a colon in the title somewhere and that just happens to be the case with two of this year's upcoming movies, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole, both of which have enjoyed new trailers this past week.

First up is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third in the Narnia series and the first to be released by 20th Century Fox after a dispute between production company Walden Media and previous distributors Walt Disney. Set for release worldwide on December 10th (along with a limited 3D release in the UK and US), the film sees younger Pevensies Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmond (Skandar Keynes) spending a dreary holiday with their cousin Eustace Clarence Scrub (Son of Rambow's Will Poulter). Drawn into Narnia when a painting of a ship on the wall of Lucy’s room comes to life, the three children fall into the ocean to be rescued be the Dawn Treader, where they are greeted by their friend Caspian (Ben Barnes) who has undertaken a quest to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia, as promised to Aslan (Liam Neeson).

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer:



Hoping to launch a franchise of its own, Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole book series makes its way to the big screen courtesy of Watchmen director Zack Snyder, who makes his animated debut with Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, set for a 3D release on September 24th in North America and October 15th here in the UK. Based on the first three books (The Capture, The Journey and The Rescue), The Owl's of Ga'Hoole follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’ Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences, causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones. Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls and find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians — Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole trailer:


More movie trailers here.

Movies... For Free! Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Howl's Moving Castle, 2004.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Featuring the voice talents of Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Billy Crystal, Emily Mortimer and Josh Hutcherson [English dub].


Based on British author Diana Wynne Jones' 1986 childrens' fantasy novel and adapted by legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle is one of the most financially successful Japanese films of all-time (with worldwide receipts of $235m) and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2006 Academy Awards.

It tells the story of teenager Sophie, who is turned into an old woman by the evil Witch of the Waste and finds refuge as a cleaner in the castle of a young wizard, Howl, who is reluctantly preparing for war with the neighbouring realm at the behest of the King. On board Howl's castle Sophie befriends Calcifer, a fire demon bound by a contract to the young wizard, and Howl's apprentice Markl, and together they set about to lift the Witch's curse and bring peace to the kingdom.

The English dub presented here was overseen by Pixar's Pete Doctor (director of Monsters, Inc. and Up), and received a theatrical release in North America courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

For more on the works of Hayao Miyazaki, be sure to check out Trevor Hogg's comprehensive five part profile Drawn to Anime.

Embed courtesy of Google Video.

Related:

Short Film Showcase - On Your Mark (1995)

Click here to view all entries in our Movies... For Free! collection.

Blu-ray Review... Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Season One

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season One Ultimate Collector’s Edition, 2009.

Executive Produced by George Lucas.
Featuring the voice talents of Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Matthew Wood and Anthony Daniels.


SYNOPSIS:

As the Clone Wars rage across the galaxy the Jedi lead the Grand Army of the Republic into battle against the Separatist Confederacy of Independent Systems.


Before we get into the review let me admit something right off the bat – I’m a life-long Star Wars fan and on more than a few occasions I’ve been known to overlook and at times defend the weaker aspects of the franchise. That’s not to say I’m a prequel apologist (while I find them entertaining there are more than a few sections where I’ll happily jump for the remote control) nor am I in love with all things Star Wars (Expanded Universe, Shmuniverse!), but I’m certainly fond of Lucas’ grand creation and have remained so through the bad times and the good.

That being said, I was very apprehensive back in 2005 when the announcement came that Star Wars would be heading to the small screen and with the horrendous theatrical ‘feature’ debut of The Clone Wars (2008) it seemed about time to pack away my lightsaber and head off to a small retirement hut in the Tatooine desert. However, while The Clone Wars put forward a mighty strong case for the absolute worst cinematic experience of my entire life, the Star Wars fan (or masochist) inside of me ensured that sooner or later I’d find myself coming back for more. Although initial forays into the subsequent television series did little to redeem the horrors of the pilot, having had a chance to see the show develop over the last couple of years I have to say I’m glad I gave it another shot.

Let’s face it - one of the main problems with Dave Filoni’s big-screen debut (aside from the travesty of Ziro the Hutt) was that it was never meant to be seen that way. Like any good Hollywood executive, the anti-Hollywood Lucas just couldn’t resist an opportunity to line his already well-lined pockets and quickly cobbled together a few episodes, no doubt thinking his latest cash-cow didn’t look half bad on those swanky Lucasfilm Animation monitors. Well, it certainly wasn’t anywhere close to the standard of theatrical CG-giants such as Pixar and Dreamworks Animation, but viewed the way it was meant to be - and in pristine 1080p Blu-ray High Definition – it would be hard to argue against The Clone Wars being the most visually impressive made-for-TV animation to date.

Okay, so maybe flashy visuals are what got us into this mess in the first place. The prequel trilogy unquestionably suffers from its reliance on computer generated special effects at the expense of story and character, and you could argue that the three movies are little more than high-grade animations themselves. And yes, many of the prequels’ faults remain on display here in the series - at times, even pushed up a notch (I’m looking at you, ‘comical’ Battle Droids) - while B.J. Hughes’ Jar Jar Binks makes me yearn for the a return to the days of The Phantom Menace. But if you can tolerate that (along with the 'cutesy' nicknames such as 'Snips' and 'Sky-Guy'), you will find some genuinely interesting tales sprinkled through-out the twenty-two episodes that are among the best Star Wars offerings since the Saga's rebirth in the early-90s.

The season is comprised of a number of standalone and multi-part stories, the majority of which are centred on usual suspects Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, along with the Sith-to-be's young female padawan Ahsoka Tano (who isn't quite as bad as you'd imagine and actually has a few good moments throughout the season). Of course our heroic trio are supported by a never-ending stream of Clone Troopers as they engage in a series of battles against the likes of Droid leader General Grievous, fallen Jedi Count Dooku and his assassin Asajj Ventress. Into that mix you can through a little political wrangling as Senator Padme Amidala and the Separatist Council vie for control of the galaxy's independent systems, along with a healthy portion of land and space battles and a bit too much comic relief (hey, it is for kids after all).

If you're still traumatised by the big-screen pilot and are yet to give the series a chance, don't be fooled into thinking the episodes that comprised the 'movie' were the pick of the bunch as that's simply not the case by any stretch of the imagination. While most are at the very least tolerable, the show really comes into its own when it steps out of the norm to focus on supporting characters such as fan favourites Kit Fisto, Yoda, and the Clone Troopers themselves. It goes to great lengths to ensure the Clones are far from carbon copies of one another (check out those funky hairstyles!), and some of the best moments come courtesy of these characters as they examine their loyalties and compulsory involvement in the conflict. Similarly the Jedi and their role as 'peace-keepers' is brought into question, blurring the line between good and evil which has always been so overt within the franchise.

So the question remains, is this a worthy purchase for the casual or disenchanted Star Wars fan? Well, as with the DVD releases of the movies, the Ultimate Collector's Edition comes stacked with bonus features including 7 Director's Cut episodes, an individual featurette for all twenty-two installments and a 68-page production journal to accompany the series (the Blu-ray also comes with a 'Jedi Temple Archives' feature, providing exhaustive behind-the-scenes info, artwork and animatic tests). There are also a host of subtle (and not-too-subtle) nods to the original trilogy such as Anakin and Obi-Wan sporting familiar Empire Strikes Back snow-gear and the appearance of numerous OT-era aliens and droids that are sure to please, but if the prequels really have turned you off Star Wars then The Clone Wars will do little to repair that damage. On the other hand if you're a fan of Episodes I - III (or maybe have children who are), then this is bound to prove a shrewd purchase and provide plenty of entertainment from the GFFA. Just forget the 'movie' ever existed.

Gary Collinson

Movie Review Archive

UK Box Office Top Ten - weekend commencing 11/06/10

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 11th - Sunday 13th June 2010.

Hot weather, World Cup football and a lack of major new releases combined to strike a hefty blow to the UK box office this past weekend. Only one film managed to break seven figures with Sex and the City 2 taking top spot for the third week in a row and pushing its total gross towards £17.5m (still some £9m shy of the 2008 original), while romantic drama Letters to Juliet was the biggest new opener in second place with just £793k.

'Brit-hit' StreetDance 3D (which crosses the £10m mark in its fourth weekend) and Disney's underperforming big-budget video game adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time both slip one place apiece to third and fourth, with the top five rounded out by director Antoine Fuqua's latest crime thriller Brooklyn's Finest.

In the bottom half of the chart comedy remake Death at a Funeral and rom-com She's Out of My League are down two spots each from their positions last week (occupying fifth and ninth respectively), while family adventure Tooth Fairy leapfrogs Ridley Scott epic Robin Hood to take seventh. With Iron Man 2 slipping out of contention, Robin Hood has now spent the most weeks in the top ten but tumbles three places to eighth, a feat matched by Brit thriller 4.3.2.1 in tenth.

Number one this time last year: The Hangover

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	Sex and the City 2	£1,489,833	3	£17,418,854
2	Letters to Juliet	£793,425	1	£793,425
3	StreetDance 3D	£715,317	4	£10,227,673
4	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	£507,855	4	£7,373,367
5	Brooklyn's Finest	£468,279	1	£468,279
6	Death at a Funeral	£414,711	2	£1,562,459
7	Tooth Fairy	£367,396	3	£3,053,104
8	Robin Hood	£362,397	5	£14,397,521
9	She's Out of My League	£175,920	2	£893,336
10	4.3.2.1	£132,048	2	£799,634

Incoming...

This may have been the worst weekend in over a year but it could face competition for that dubious honour in the not too distant future...

The big midweek release this week is the Aston Kutcher / Katherine Heigl action rom-com Killers (cert. 12A), which has adopted the "unusual marketing ploy" of relying on social networking sites for promotion rather than preview screenings for critics (director Robert Luketic describes the move as "an experiment we decided to do", rather than just coming out and saying it's wank).

If that's not enough, another two action comedies arrive on Friday - MacGruber (cert. 15), based on the Saturday Night Live sketch character portrayed by Will Forte, and Brit effort Wild Target (cert. 12A) featuring Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Grint.

If you fancy something a bit different, well you're just out of luck for this week I'm afraid.

U.K. Box Office Archive