Tagged: monster movie
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!!
For Fans of John Carpenter’s “The Thing”!
I decided last night to re-watch the more recent prequel/re-boot “The Thing” from 2011 as I thought I may have been too tough on it the first go round. What I discovered is that it was even less impressive the second time. This is due mainly to some rather crappy CG which replaced Studio ADI’s incredible practical monster effects they crafted for the movie. Many were outraged by the fact that their work was CG’d over and with good reason. Had the movie stuck with the original footage it may have made it the perfect companion piece to the Carpenter version, one of my all time favorite movies ever. Anyway it made me long for a real inventive monster movie, I’ve already stated how excited I am for Harbinger Down, which is the upcoming monster movie from the team who’s practical fx were replaced for The Thing reboot. The movie boasts to be a full on showcase for the power of practical monster effects in the age of CG. However there still isn’t a trailer! Hurry it up guys!
Well luckily us fans of The Thing have another movie to look forward to that’s set to release. Blood Glacier, an awesome looking monster movie from Austria set to release May 2nd here in the USA boasts similar claims to Harbinger Down. This one claims to utilize some amazing practical monster effects as well with a little tasteful CG thrown in for good measure. The plot sound quite intriguing as well and carries a message regarding our environment, which is basically to stop fucking with it! Check out the synopsis and the rad trailer!
“The gates of hell are made of ice in this tense horror thriller paying homage to The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13. Four technicians and scientists at an alpine research station discover a glacier of blood high in the mountains. Testing the red liquid oozing from the ice, they discover a new alien organism with the astonishing capability of transforming the local wildlife into horrific hybrids and monster mutations. With the Minister of the Environment hiking to the station for an official visit, many frightening questions must be answered if the confrontational team are to survive and cope with the giant wood lice, the beetle-foxes, crossbred flying predators and much, much worse…”
The Seventh Curse: Indiana Jones….on Acid!
I finally checked out a movie I’d been wanting to see now for the longest time-The Seventh Curse from 1986! This is surely one of the coolest movies that you’ve never seen! This Chinese action/ adventure/ horror movie has got it all and I’d really expect no less from a flick by Ngai Kai Lam. If you aren’t familiar with Lam you’ve missed out big time for a long time. Most famous for “Riki-Oh:The Story of Ricky” from 1991, which is seriously one of the coolest movies ever made, The Seventh Curse is equally as good in different yet similar ways. I guess I’d best have to describe The Seventh Curse as Hong Kong’s fucked up version of Indiana Jones, and I mean that in the best way possible.
This one has it all really, a young adventuresome cop deep in the jungles of Thailand tries to rescue a beautiful girl from being sacrificed by the evil “Worm Tribe”. In doing so he’s captured by an evil witch Doctor who casts seven “Blood Curses” on him, which burst through his legs periodically. When the seventh bursts, it will affect his heart killing him swiftly. Betsy (a strange mane for a member of The Worm Tribe), the hot jungle vixen he saved, stops the curse with an antidote, that she draws from the most peculiar place(trust me).
This however will only protect him for one year, so on the advice of his friend Wisely (Chow Yun-fat) he heads back to Thailand to find a permanent cure. Serious adventure ensues as the cop and his mercenaries battle the evil sorcerer of the Worm Tribe, a ridiculously hideous blood hungry baby-like creature, and finally “Old Ancestor,” a skeleton with glowing blue eyes that’s got some impressive kung fu chops himself and can transforms into something far more sinister!
Sound like fun? You bet it is! Throw in some great 80’s style monster effects, some great sets, jungle adventure sequences, top notch kung fu, some nice gore and a bunch of really bizarro plot twists and you’ve got a true genre classic that is not to be missed by any fan of awesome odd ball cinema. The Seventh Curse is just as cool in my opinion as Riki-Oh and it really makes me want to hunt down down more of Lam’s movies. This one pretty hard to find on dvd, but I’m sure it could be downloaded somewhere on line, or you could buy it on Amazon.com. If you’re craving some wild offbeat 80’s adventure then this one movie NOT to be missed!!!
Five Cool Horror Flicks to Watch Out for in 2014!
Good horror movies are hard to find these days and 2014 is looking a little slim in the way of quality fright flicks! But fear not! I have gotten together five cool movies that I think everyone should be watching out for this year. Seek these out instead of the next tired installment of Paranormal Activity!
1. The Station: “The crew of a remote weather research station in the German Alps find that a retreating glacier is turning the local wildlife into ravenous biological monstrosities, in this timely horror thriller from director Marvin Kren (Rammbock).”
This one has me pretty excited. It’s reminds me a bit of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from the trailer and that’s always a good thing! There’s just not enough good monster movies out these days but this one looks like it might have the chops! Plus Marvin Kren’s first movie Rammbock was pretty damn good too!
2. Almost Human: “Mark Fisher disappeared from his home in a brilliant flash of blue light almost two years ago. His friend Seth Hampton was the last to see him alive. Now a string of grisly, violent murders leads Seth to believe that Mark is back, and something evil is inside of him.”
Sounds pretty rad to me, I’m a huge fan of alien movies and this one has a little bit of “Fire in the Sky” type feel to it mixed with classic 80’s style horror. I am excited alone just by the super radical movie poster!
3. Cooties: “A mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives.”
It seems Elijah Wood has become quite the horror hound recently. I think that’s pretty awesome as Wood is a great actor and delivers some pretty quality films usually. Although this one is a zombie flick, which I must admit normally doesn’t really excite me anymore, it’s got a unique enough plot and strong enough cast to make this one a cult classic! Unfortunately there’s no trailer yet!
4. Sick Boy: “Sick Boy is about a babysitter (Skye McCole Bartusiak) hired to look after a young boy apparently suffering a strange illness—and things only become stranger once she arrives at the house.”
To me this one looks pretty damn freaky. Kids in horror movies are can be incredibly frightening and the thought of this weird ass sick kid in his room downstairs freaks me out. It’s looks like it’s going to be a great installment in the “babysitter’ horror genre. I think this one might already be available as it’s trailer was released back in 2011, so I’ll review this soon hopefully!
5. The Babadook: “A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.”
Knights of Badassdom: The Most Bad ASS Movie of 2014?!
I finally saw Knights of Badassdom last night, a movie that I’ve been waiting to be released for years. It first started filming iway back in 2010. So the question remains, was it worth the long, long wait? You Betcha!! I’ll go ahead right now and say that this flick will easily be taking ranks in my top ten list in 2014. It’s really too bad that this one is getting such a limited release theatrically, because it’s better than half the comedies that are coming out these days and it works incredibly well as a horror movie too. When I first checked it out I wasn’t aware of how much the movie truly dabbled in the horror, genre I thought it was pretty much a straight up comedy, so I was pleasantly surprised when the heads started rolling. Luckily I was able to catch it here in Portland, Oregon in the theater. I tried to see twice over the weekend but both times it was sold out. Finally we bough our tickets online! I was determined!
First though let me say the movie has a great cast, Peter Dinklage, Ryan Kwanten, Summer Glau and Steve Zahn who I always love, serve up nonstop laughs from beginning to end. Dinklage has got to be the movie’s main draw and without him I really wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie nearly as much as I did. I almost wonder if they’ve been waiting to release the movie because of how popular Dinklage has gotten in last few years with Game of Thrones and his upcoming role as the main bad guy in X-men: Days of Future Past?
The plot is ridiculously simple, metal head Joe, True blood’s Ryan Kwanten is dumped by his girlfriend and to cheer him up his friends get him ridiculously wasted and bring him along to their weekend LARPing outing. Joe’s a bit resistant until he notices his guild has the incredibly cute Gwen (Summer Glau) playing as well. To get the games started the Wizard of the group played By Steve Zahn chants a spell from a strange mystic book he found on Ebay and somehow awakens a succubus that greatly resembles Joe’s ex. She doesn’t show up til later though and in between we get a full on play by play from Dinklage of how to kick ass in the game of Live Action Role Playing that’s one of the movie’s finest moments as he continues throughout to steal the show.
The fun really begins once the succubus emerges from the shadows of the forest. Suddenly the movie starts feeling more like The Army of Darkness than a straight forward comedy. Something that I really enjoyed was all of the old school special effects. The movie features a little bit of well placed CG but by the end of the movie you’ll be cheering in your seat as the evil succubus becomes seriously a little less than human!
The movie is all out fun, the perfect Saturday night popcorn flick and it also delivers one hell of an ending that’s more than worth waiting for. It’s jam packed with, laughs, action, monsters, heavy metal and plenty of surprises! This one was directed by Joel Lynch who also did the awesome Wrong Turn 2: Dead End. If you see this playing near you check it out, it’s got a limited theatrical run before it’s released on Feb. 11th via VOD. I also hear this version may have been heavily edited so that’s just a little more incentive to check out the DVD when it drops!
VIRUS: The Most Underrated SCI-FI Monster Movie of the 1990’s!
I had to throw some props out there today for a rad flick that seems to get no love from anyone, “Virus” is a totally bad ass B-movie from 1999 and everyone needs to get down with it already! Chances are you’ve never seen this movie, but I recently watched it again the other night and it’s like ten times more awesome than I originally remembered it to be! The movie was actually hoping to be a big Hollywood hit, but it suffered at the box office and got totally panned by the critics. Apparently we were watching two different movies?!
Virus might be Jamie Lee Curtis’ best movie ever, however she claims it’s her worst and that she’s actually really embarrassed about appearing in it at all. I say totally WRONG Jamie! This is John Bruno’s only feature length movie he’s directed, otherwise he’s only done a handful of Star Trek: Voyager episodes and a Terminator 2 short film with James Cameron that was used at the T2: 3-D attraction at Universal Studios. Yeah I saw this one in person and it was a helluva good time!
To me though VIRUS which is based on a Dark Horse comic of the same title is jam packed with stupid awesome action and a ton of cool ass robotic monsters! I was seriously surprised to find out after watching it that it was actually not made in the late 80’s as the special effects are largely practical and the small amounts of CGI are done pretty damn flawlessly. It goes to prove once again that practical and CG used together can have some magnificent results!
The story is pretty simple and borrows heavily from Alien, attempting at making Curtis the new Ripley. If you’re looking for substance you’re not going to find it here but if you’re looking for some gory gun blazing fun on a mysterious abandoned ship in the middle of the ocean then you’re in for a treat. Also this flick’s got a Baldwin brother and Donald Sutherland lending some of their least inspired acting chops. But actually I don’t know, does William Baldwin have any acting chops to begin with?!
Bottom line here, this movie is rad. I could watch movies like this one all damn day long. It’s a ton of fun and once it gets going you’ll wonder why the hell it’s missing a cult following. So I’m gonna start the cult here today and hopefully make Jamie Lee Curtis eat her words on this one….
Frankenstein’s Army: The Coolest Horror Flick of 2013?!
Do you like cool monster movies as much as I do? If so Frankenstein’s Army looks like a total winner here in this most recent preview just released yesterday! I’m big fan of World War II horror movies and this one could shape up to be one of the best ones yet. To me this movie is looking like a great BPRD story arc filled to the brim with insane Nazi monster soldiers.
It appears that the Nazi’s have their own Doctor Frankenstein that’s constructing creatures with some pretty menacing weaponry melded to their bodies. The trailer is jam packed with action gore and some pretty outstanding fx.
I also read a pretty stellar review on BloodyDisgusting.com so this one is going to the top of my “to see list” pretty rapidly. Opening in select theaters July 26th I’m crossing my fingers this one hits a theater in Portland! Check this shit out!
Wilderness Movie Terror Takes a New Direction With Paul Bunyon!?
Step aside Bigfoot you ain’t the only one in the forest with huge feet anymore! You heard that right, Paul Bunyon has gone evil in the new flick “Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyon”! As bad as this one looks I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s looking more and more like my kind of flick! This ridiculous plot of an evil Paul Bunyon attacking people on a rehabilitation trip in the wilderness sounds like a heck of a lot of fun. From the trailer it Bunyon looks pretty cool too, with a quick shot of Babe the Blue Ox too it seems the giant is on a rampage of revenge!
Maybe what intrigues me most is the fact that Dan “Grizzly Adams” Haggerty is also starring in this one and nobody knows the wood like ol’ Grizzly! Let’s hope he’s got more than a little cameo, I really enjoyed his performance from the late 1980’s schlock Christmas horror flick Elves and hope we get to see him go one on one against Bunyon. A guy can dream at least right?
Anyway check this out if you’re a fan of American folklore icons gone wrong! DVD/VOD on June 18th!
More Monsters Like 1979’s Prophecy Please!
I will admit, yes, I do love horror movies! However not the kind that could actually happen to us in real life or torture porn like “Saw” or “Hostel” in the least bit. No when I say I like horror movies what I’m really saying is I love monster movies! Ever since I was a little kid I have been obsessed with monsters-and still even as an adult (in age at least) I will still admit that I am still obsessed with monsters! The problem is today is that a good monster movie is really hard to come by-and most these days are stuffed to the brim with wretched looking CG. There have been a few exceptions like “Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer”, “Splinter” and “Feast”. However in 2011 I feel it’s important to remind people like myself about some of the lesser known gems that must been seen for the first time or re watched in the monster genre.
Today’s gem is 1979’s monster movie bonanza “Prophecy”! If you call yourself a monster fanatic and you never seen this I’ll come over this evening while you’re sleeping an egg your house! Continue reading
Are you craving a good monster movie??
I must say as far as horror movies go I am a HUGE fan of monster movies!! So any time I see a good one I want to make sure I get the word out there about it. I finally got to see “Splinter” which i somehow missed the first time around when it played in town here last year. Well last tuesday it was released on dvd and I made sure to pick it up! If I would have caught this one in the theater it would have most definaltely made it into my top 10 horror flicks of 2008 list I did a while back.
Universal Dork 