Thursday, January 5, 2012

Looking forward to the horror films of 2012

A couple days ago, we took a look at how 2011 ended up.  Now, let's look forward to horror films that are slated for 2012.  Truth be told, there isn't much that's going to blow up your skirt.  Having said that, this is just what's slated for theatrical releases in 2012 now.  More will be added as the year progresses and you can expect lots of quality horror films to not get theatrical releases.  Anyhow, here's how it looks now: 
Jan 20 - Underworld Awakening
Jan 27 - Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes
Jan 27 - The Wicker Tree
Feb 3 - The Woman in Black
Feb 3 - Chronicle
Feb 3 - The Innkeepers
Mar 9 - The Raven
May 11 - Dark Shadows
Jun 8 - Prometheus

Fall and Winter tend to be good for horror and there's nothing on the books now...  also, the Spring and Summer bring some big non-horror films to be excited about, including: Men in Black III, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.  Let's take a closer look at some of the notable films that are slated...

"Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes" is probably going to be an unmitigated disaster, as they're doing this as a "found footage" film.  They do have the producer from "Paranormal Activity" involved, but I just don't see this being a success.  This sounds like an idea that was born out of an executive meeting. 

"The Wicker Tree" is interesting as it's basically a sequel to "The Wicker Man" and it's from the same filmmaker, Robin Hardy.  I say it's basically a sequel because, apparently, it's more like a reimagining.  Wacky religious people seems like a good subject matter these days, I'll bite... and, hey, I liked "Wicker Man". 

"The Woman in Black" is a PG-13 horror, but it stars Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) as a young lawyer that travels to a remote village where he finds a vengeful ghost.  He's done other roles that aren't Harry Potter, but I haven't seen them... a young lawyer?  Hmmm...

"Chronicle" is a found footage style film that I really am interested in, although I'm not sure it needed to be a found footage film.  It's about three high school students that discover they have super powers... and they film themselves.  You need to check out the trailer, very cool. 

"Dark Shadows" could be interesting.  It's a Tim Burton directed and Johnny Depp starring film with an interesting concept - Johnny Depp is a rich, powerful playboy type guy in the 1700's that meets a witch that turns him into a vampire and buries him alive.  He emerges in 1972 and returns to his manor to find it fallen into ruin by his family...

"Prometheus" is probably the film that I'm most looking forward to, as Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi and calls "Alien" the jumping off point for this project.  He goes on to say that "there's strands of "Alien" DNA, so to speak, but the ideas are unique, large and provocative."  Looking forward to that, check out the trailer, it's online.

I'm probably missing quite a bit, but what are you looking forward to?  Is it going to be a good year or is this just going to be another year of sequels and pablum for the masses?   

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