Tagged: harbinger down

Calling ALL Fans of John Carpenter’s ‘THE THING’!! Sign This Petition!!

I’ve bitched and moaned here about my complete and utter disappointment for the 2011 version of ‘The Thing’, the prequel to Carpenter’s classic 1982 monster movie! To refresh your memory we were originally promised a movie that would not only be a prequel but also give us the same style of mind blowing practical creature effects the awed us way back in ’82. Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ in my opinion is maybe the best creature feature of all time.

Yeah effects wizards at ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics Inc.) spent a ton of time and effort creating some truly astonishing practical creature FX for the movie only to have nearly ALL of them omitted from the final theatrical version of the film. Instead they gave us fans exactly what we DID NOT want, a bunch of slick, fake looking CGI in it’s place. This was a nightmare come true for all fans of the original. Well now it seems that that someone has decided to create a petition directed straight at the CEO of Universal Pictures Ronald Meyer. The petition is asking for what the fans wanted all along, the release of the work print of the 2011 film with all of the original practical monster effects that ADI worked so hard to bring us fans of the original!

This is a superb idea and something i have wondered about for so long. What would that film have looked like in it’s original form? Well now it’s time to demand that we see the film we were promised! If you’ve seen some of the Youtube videos of these FX then you know how incredible this movie just may have been!

So all of you Thing fans out there please take a minute to sign this petition and lets get the version of the prequel we all had been hoping for once and for all you can sign the Change.org petition right HERE! What are you waiting for?!  

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Universal Dork’s Picks for Cool New Movies!

Ok so we all saw Avengers: Age of Ultron, and while I was amused by it, it really to me felt like a bit of a repeat of the first movie. If there’s one thing I don’t need ANY more of is The Movie Avengers fighting giant hordes of shiny clone like CGI enemies in the third act demolishing a big city. Like not ever again. So enuff about that shit and the giant Hollywood Blockbusters, here’s a quick list of some movies I am personally looking forward too that should be hitting theaters soon!

Cooties:

I’m sick and tired of Zombie movies. We don’t need any more at all probably ever again for the rest of eternity. But for some reason this one is a little different than the usual fare. A virus that only effects people who’ve not gone through puberty?! Cooties looks like a great time and funny too!

Forbidden Empire:

This one looks like a total trip and jam packed with neat looking monsters! Basically the tale of a guy who’s dead set on mapping out Transylvania (never a good idea folks) and while doing so discovers a secret forest that holds a ton of creepy creatures! This looks like my kind of flick!

Backcountry:

I think this one is already out in select theaters, though it hasn’t hit my city yet. Anyway I’m a big fan of survival movies and giant crazed grizzly bears! So here we get both! This one looks like it’s got the perfect blend of survival and jaws like terror in the woods! Sign me up for a camping trip in Backcountry!!

The Final Girls:

I’ve been hearing some great things about this one which looks like a total riot. It’s basically the story of a group of teens who are transported into a supernatural slasher movie from the 1980’s! This film stars one of the teen girls mother as the scream queen, so it has a bit of a Back to the Future vibe. She has to team up with her mom in a fight for her life-I hear this one has a ton of laughs and a lot of heart-Still no trailer for this one but we have a neat-o clip! check it!

Harbinger Down:

I’ve been pumped about this all practical effects monster movie for the longest time! It looks like in 2015 we’ll finally get to see this one. It’s basically “The Thing” on a boat!! A kind of redemption for the lackluster Thing prequel we got in 2011-by the same team who worked on the effects that were scrapped for CGI. Can’t wait!

 

 

Blood Glacier: An Old School Style Creature Feature!

I’ve been looking forward to “Blood Glacier” now for quite a while, anything that boasts similarities to John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is always on the top of my lists of flicks I’ve just gotta see. This neat little Austrian film is a pretty fun, gory, watch and really feels like it could’ve been made in the 80’s. It’s plot has the same type of  vibe as ‘The Thing’ as we have a small band of researchers up in the mountains doing research on the effects of global warming and how it’s affecting wildlife. It doesn’t take long to figure out that something sinister is lurking around the mountain sides here, especially when they discover a giant glacier that’s oozing a strange red liquid from within. Soon the team discover that weird mutant hybrid animals are  wandering close to their station and what’s worse is that they’re hungry and pissed off! Yipee!!

This movie has some great characters, in fact the main characters are what really make this one shine.Plus one grumpy older female bad ass scientist even shout’s out one of my favorite movie lines I’ve heard in a long time- “stop eating that banana while you’re crying!!” I had to watch that part a few times! Best ever. I was thinking the same thing right when she screamed that one out! I loved the atmosphere of it all too, a serious sense of dread lingers throughout and the creatures are also pretty inventively savage. I wouldn’t put them on the same level as “The Thing” but for almost entirely practical effects this one made the most of it’s smaller budget.

Much of the monster action here is most effective by what you don’t see and the sounds heard these mutants create while on the attack. I was hoping to be dazzled by the practical effects just a tad more and really could have seen a bit more CG being used to the films benefit? I rarely say that and I guess they kept the vision pretty well focused and consistent, I was just hoping to get a better full view of some of these monstrosities. This one does play like a cool lost 1980’s creature feature and i say that in the best way. You get some cool hybrid creatures, mutated mountain goats, killer mosquitos, mutant hawls and weird insect fox hybrids and one gory ass operation sequence! This one makes me even more pumped to see  “Harbinger Down” which is another upcoming Monster movie also boasting no CGI by special effects wizard Alec Gillis and crew. In the mean time check out Blood Glacier, you can watch it on Netflix streaming to get your monster on!

Here’s a little glimpse into some of the monster making:

Harbinger Down: The Real Prequel to “The Thing”!!

I just checked out the long awaited trailer for a movie I’ve been pumped about for quite some time time now, Harbinger Down! If you follow my blog at all you’ve probably heard me complaining a lot about CGI and how there aren’t nearly enough movies these days that utilize rad practical monster effects like they used to back in the 1980’s. Well Alec Gillis at Studio ADI announced a while back that he planned on making a full on monster movie utilizing all practical effects only using CG to eliminate things like rods or wires.

You see a while back they made a prequel to the classic John Carpenter Monster flick “The Thing” and Gillis and his crew were hired to do the special effects, they were told to use all practical monster effects to keep the same vibe as the 1982 classic. They went hard to work and filmed much of the movie with the effects but at the last minute the studio changed their mind, and CG’d over all of there work, claiming that people these days like their movies to look more like modern video games. The movie was bashed by fans of the original and did little at the box office. So here is Alec Gillis’ response to what happened to them, a movie that bears some resemblance to the premise of The Thing, as if him and his crew is giving the fans the movie that they were hoping for in The Thing prequel. So take a look at the trailer, this one is on the top of my list!!

The Top 5 Most Anticipated Monster Movies That Aren’t ‘Pacific Rim’!

Monster movies, why the hell are they so few and far between? I just can’t get enough of a good creature feature. It seems all the hype is around Pacific Rim if you’re a monster fanatic. I’m excited to check that one out, but still it looks a little too Hollywood Blockbustery. A little too slick and videogamey. I’m sure it’ll be fun as hell but there’s only so much glittery CGI a guy can take in one summer!

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So I figured I’d see what else was out there that could be promising and a bit more under the radar. So here’s five movies that just might please fans of monster flicks like myself! So in no particular order….

1. Dead Shadows

No idea when this French “End of the World” horror movie is going to be released but I’d bet as we are getting ready for a few big Hollywood “End of the World” movies to hit soon I’ll bet this one isn’t far behind! Still it looks like something that could end up being a lot of fun, though seemingly heavy on the CG. This one has a the awesome old “comet crash brings monsters”  vibe to it-check it!

2. Under the Bed

This one looks right up my alley and I’ve already read some pretty good reviews for it. It’s supposed to have a kind of Joe Dante feel to it. To me it’s bringing to mind movies like The Gate and Gremlins, but from what I’ve heard toward the movies third act it amps up the gore with a pretty epic “kids vs. monsters” battle. I mean who doesn’t love seeing kids fight monsters?!

3. Game of Werewolves

This cool looking little Spanish werewolf movie has yet to be released in the United States but it has already got a pretty cool rep building for it. I am a sucker for a fun Werewolf movie and the Underworld franchise just ain’t cutting it! So I have my fingers crossed that this lycan werewolf horror comedy is gonna bring the goods! Supposedly Joe Dante has a new Werewolf film in the works too called “Monster Love” I wish there was a trailer for that one because I’m sure it’ll be awesome!

4. Knights of Badassdom

When the HELL is this thing gonna get released?! It’s been sitting in limbo for long enough and it looks like a delightful Horror comedy. It involves a bunch of LARPERS that accidentally summon and real life demon from an ancient book. They’ll get a shot to try out their real skills in a fight for their life. Lets hope this gets a release date soon becuz it looks like a load of fun!

5. Exists

Why can’t anyone ever make a cool Bigfoot movie? There are a ton of them out there and the best one is STILL Harry and The Hendersons! We came close with ‘Abominable’ back in 2006, which is probably the best killer Bigfoot flick out there, yet still it lacked something. And most recently we got a a few more found footage Sasquatch movies, Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes, Willow Creek & The Woodsman some were decent but none of them left much of a mark. So I am hoping that ‘Exists’ will be worth the wait, simply because it’s an Eduardo Sanchez film. Sanchez is best known for directing the Blair Witch Project so he clearly understands the genre and if you don’t think he can pull of a creature feature then you need to check out his awesome alien flick “Altered”. Expect a trailer soon but in the mean time he gives us the scoop here:

Lastly here’s a call to support “Harbinger Down” a movie in the works by ADI the same people that brought you those magnificent monsters in Tremors amongst others! they’re using all practical effects and using 1982’s The Thing as inspiration, this is exciting!