Coming Attractions: The Quiet Ones!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

I gotta tell ya – I’m getting very excited about the upcoming supernatural horror film The Quiet Ones! I’m always down for a good demon/poltergeist film especially with Hammer Film Productions behind it and while I was not a total fan of Daniel Radcliffe’s The Woman in Black I thought the film was solid enough for a Hammer comeback. Plus, Let Me In was a decent remake too of the Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In.

The Quiet Ones has an unorthodox professor conducting an off campus experiment with his students. The experiment is to create a poltergeist by use of the human imagination. But when one of their subjects is pushed to edge of her sanity, the experimenters trigger a supernatural being that won’t let them go so quietly.

The film stars Jared Harris from Resident Evil: Apocalypse and The Ward. Check out the trailer and let me know what you think!

Eon Evil! Robert Rodriguez’s Predators first draft script!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Robert Rodriguez’s 2010 Predators had a much angle than in 1996 when Rodriguez wrote the first draft that was much more a sequel to the first movie than a stand-a-lone movie. Did you know that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character “Dutch” headlines this Predator sequel? But where Dutch makes a reappearance, the story itself is fairly grand, outlandish, and corky – in some scenes.

The story has a badass team of human military bounty hunters in Predator gear to hunt down Dutch and take him to an intergalactic prison planet called Arkus 6 before heading home. Upon landing, the group stumbles into a Predator meat grinder with a deep dark secret that leaves the soldiers expendable and vulnerable against the ultimate race of warriors.

I have to say that I’m not the biggest fan of Robert Rodriguez. His movies are rad riddled with great characters and awesome action sequences, but his dialogue just doesn’t do it for me. This is why I think From Dusk till Dawn is amazing because Taratino penned it and Rodriguez directed and turned out amazing. However, check out the below and this scenario just doesn’t mesh well as far as creating a feasible, more realistic scene.

AN UNDERGROUND HANGAR.
It’s tilled with a few PREDATOR SHIPS but mostly OTHER SPACECRAFT.
Possibly ships belonging to other alien spedes captured on the planet…
What they are looking at though is even more recognizable.
In the middle of the hangar is THEIR SHIP. The cargo door is open and it’s
being loaded up. Loaded up full with PREDATOR GEAR, WEAPONS,
EVERYTHING.
The LOADERS are HUMAN; they must be the prisoners. Only that on doser
inspection you can see that the humans are MODIFIED. Beside the lifeless
/*•*>> haunted eyes suggesting brain tampering, their bodies are ALTERED.
The ones loading the ships for instance have the arms of the MANTIS! Their
arms are fashioned into forklift shapes, which allow them to lift the goods
easily.

But then there are scenes that stand out with spectacular glory which in the Predator world is quite fitting.

EXT. ARENA
The Predator raises his arms, his forearm still streaming that fluorescent
blood, in a gesture of VICTORY.
Hardwick takes a deep breath and leaps up from the ground. She lunges her
weapon at the Predators midsection with the sharp end, running him
through to the hilt of the blade. The Predator lashes out with his arms at
Hardwick. making a wild cry of PAIN.
Hardwick turns the blade around inside the Predator’s guts with her one
good arm.
The Predator tries his last ditch effort by training his SHOULDER MOUNT
GUN at Hardwick s face. She looks pissed he even tried such nonsense and
presses her foot against the SIDE of the barrel, shoving sideways so it now
AIMS at the Pre

We can absolutely vision this sequence and seeing the Predator head explode into mush. The script barely resembles anything like what you see in today’s Predators film. The Predator tied against a makeshift stockade is the sole similarity, but Dutch, the bad ass marines, the conspiracy plot, etc., just doesn’t make the cut and thats a good thing because today’s film is way better in my opinion – worthy to be titled a Predator movie.

Read the entire script here and see how the first draft could have been a reality.

Toe Tagged: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Philip Seymour Hoffman. An actor who may not have contributed much to the genre of horror, exploitation, and experimental, but an actor who gave his all in every performance – A performance that inspired us, that excited, that enlightened us, and that taught us.

Philip Seymour Hoffman died at the age of 46 in his apartment from an apparent drug overdose. A friend found Hoffman in his New York apartment Sunday night with a needle in his arm and an enveloped fill with what police to believe was heroin.

I will always remember Hoffman from some of his more lesser known roles as Dusty Davis in Twister, Scotty J. from Boogie Nights, or Sandy Lyle from Along Came Polly. But others will remember Hoffman for his Academy Award winning performance as the titular character Capote, or the L. Ron Hubbard inspired character Lancaster Dodd from The Master, or as the game master Plutarch in The Hunger Game films.

We hope you find peace, Mr. Hoffman. You’ll be missed.

A Snapshot of Evil. S.L.R. review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

SLR

S.L.R., or Single Lens Reflex, involves a man obsessed with online young girl voyeur porn, but when he discovers photos of his underage daughter being photographed and uploaded online by a shameless and anonymous user named ANORAK, the emotionally compromised man must engage the user while battling his own obsession.

Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham does a phenomenal job as the father searching for his daughter’s mysterious predator. Cunnigham’s struggle between being a voyeur porn enthusiast and a father is delivered systematically once the photos of the daughter, played by Amy Wren, become more frequent. The very plausibility of this happening is more than likely than we want to imagine. I’m sure we see ourselves or our close family as Saints who could do no wrong, but look at Saint Peter and his betrayal against Jesus.
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The short film, written and directed by Stephen Fingleton, also embarks on the question of accessibility of material and how fast the fire can spread online. The beginning of the short shows how an instant snapshot of a woman’s panty from an upskirt angle can be uploaded in two seconds without obstacle. In seconds, the photograph would hit a thousand views because, frankly, people are perverted. In seconds, that very photograph, of a young naive girl, would be the face of voyeur porn and what if that girl was your daughter and she was underage? That’s another question that pops to mind as you don’t really know what the age might be of these girls. Of course, the website hosting photos might describe the girl as a “barely 18 teen hottie.” We easily digest this as we believe anything on the internet as true.

Well delivered as well as the material is disturbing to think about. Fingleton captures a father’s fears, a perverts lust, and little girl’s innocence. The short film is open ended for the viewer to create their own ending; I for one wanted the ending to be more disturbing because porn addiction, like any other addiction, can be a cycle and the father’s vice won’t be suffocated that ease even if his daughter’s pictures were only a temporary obstacle. Check the Best Irish short film below according to Foyle Film Festival.

Get Down With Evil! The Disco Exorcist review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

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Rex Romanski loves the ladies. His swinging disco fever charm dons no rival and the ladies, acknowledging his love’em and leave’em attitude, want his mojo even after he ditches them. But when Rex wines and dines and screws the wrong woman Rita Marie, his nightmare is only beginning. Rita is a black magic priestess with devilish revenge on the mind and Rex’s new play toy, mega porn star Amoreena Jones, becomes the host of an implanted demon to reek havoc among Rex and his groovy friends.

Director Richard Griffin did a decent job with this sleazy decadence of a screen play making the most of the nudity, the blood, the sex, and the utmost offensive nature that is The Disco Exorcist. I’m not too familiar with Griffin, but the native New Englander has been balls deep in horror and exploitation since the early 2000’s and his decade efforts really show the core of his passion. The Disco Exorcist won’t win Academy Awards, but have rock the shit out of horror film festivals including Rock and Shock 2011 and Killer Film Festival 2011 and rightfully so. This homage to the 1970’s includes super fueled drug and sex scenes that are, but probably not, the overboard culture of the 1970’s.

Rex Romanski isn’t a stereotypical hero. In fact, Rex is a bit of a wimp with a big love stick and he just happens to be in the right place at the right time when his ass needs saving. While the The Disco Exorcist wants to portray Rex the all mighty and strong hero, he doesn’t really do anything. Actor Michael Reed who portrays Rex makes you forget how pathetic Rex really can be by using his on camera charm. The guy is likable – what else can I say? Griffin and Reed have worked together previously in Griffin’s older work Nun of That and The Beyond the Dunwich Horror and I imagine their chemistry is similar to that of Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs.
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Ruth Sulterland is another of Griffin’s entourage and her role as the black magic priestess doesn’t spark as much likability as maybe Reed’s Rex does for the sheer fact that there resembles not nearly enough evil in Ruth to conjure any real threat to our hero and heroine. Rita is more in the background playing with her voodoo dolls and placing spells upon the grave to awake all scorn women from their tombs. Rita would have been more convincing if she was more hands on with Amoreena or Rex, but instead Rita resembles more like one of Rex’s whores and is easily forgettable.
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The gore of The Disco Exorcist doesn’t really pick up until almost 45 minutes into the film when the porn shoot goes array with possessed, bare chested roller girls hacking away at the on-set production crew. The first 45 minutes were more about Rex mojo’ing the beaver from various ladies and snorting coke like his life depended on it. The retro fitting of The Disco Exorcist really helps set the stage for the homage to the exploitive films of that represented decade. What doesn’t hurt the film either is the mayhem after that initial cherry popping gore scene which follows up with castration, decapitation, and combustion!
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Tons of fun, tons of drugs, ton of gore, tons of nudity – what is not to like about Richard’s Griffin’s sleazy and funny tale of Rex Romanski? Wild Eye Releasing and MVDvisual bring this film to DVD home entertainment and both companies are super pro-independent and company you can trust to give you a good time. The Disco Exorcist is a prime example of a good time.