The Weekend Box Office and a Good Week for Horror on DVD

To be honest, I'm not terribly intrigued by anything that went on at the box office over the weekend. Not only was there nothing related to horror out, there were no real stories emerging. I think we all knew that "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" would win the weekend... the original is a classic and the return of Gordon Gekko couldn't be more timely. The financial crisis was basically a long marketing campaign for the original, as I can't count how many times I heard the line, "Greed is Good" over the last 2 years. That and I really like the idea of reviving the character, after he gets out of jail, to alert the financial community of a global economic disaster. Not sure how I feel about Shia LaBeouf, but it's not this film... it's LaBeouf in general. Other than that, "Legend of the Guardians" was a bit of a let down and "The Virginity Hit" had one of the worst opening of all time... fourth lowest grossing for a nationwide release on record. As for the week in horror on DVD, it's pretty good. As usual, you can check out the trailers on our Youtube Page and you can click on the title to be taken to their Amazon Page, where you can read more and/or buy them.

I guess the biggest thing(s) coming out this week are the Fangoria FrightFest films. Fangoria FrightFest is where Fangoria partnered with Blockbuster and Lightning Entertainment to begin a "unique, multi-tiered summer film distribution program". It consists of eight new films; "Pig Hunt", "Fragile", "Grimm Love", "Dark House", "Hunger", "Road Kill", "The Haunting" and "The Tomb". Now, I'm not sure what they mean by multi-tiered and they really couldn't have picked a worse partner than Blockbuster, but... here they are, in any case. Available on Amazon. I never saw these promoted much before this, they weren't in the theaters and I don't recall them having any online presence, so... what the hell are they talking about when they say multi-tiered film distribution? Maybe it was limited releases and, possibly, they were premiered on cable somewhere, I don't know. Really, I have no idea if any of these are any good. For more info, click on each individual title.

When I first heard of the idea behind "Frozen", I wasn't sure it would work. Three skiers get stranded on a chair lift? Could that really hold a whole movie? It's definitely out of the box for Adam Green, who did "Hatchet", "Spiral" and "Hatchet II". Then again, I remember an interview he did after "Hatchet", where he said he wanted to stick with horror, but didn't want to get pigeon-holed as a slasher director. In any case, this isn't a slasher film and this sub-genre seems to be in right now. What would you call it? Isolation horror? "Buried" has a lot of hype and this seems to be in the same vein. What I like about it is that it's tailor made for indie horror filmmakers. Very few actors, very few locations... easy to do.

I'm very intrigued by "Suck"... it's a rock-horror about a loser band that turns into vampires and then takes the world by storm. It's got a decent budget, looks great and has a wicked cast, including Dave Foley, Iggy Pop, Moby, Alice Cooper and Malcolm McDowell. Chances are it's not going to have a lot of gore or anything, but it could have great camp/cult qualities.

Now, "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film" could be a pretty cool documentary. I love horror docs and I don't think I've seen one that concentrates just on American horror. Lance Henriksen hosts and takes you through a history of American horror, from the earliest monster movies to modern-day slashers.

On paper, "Death Kappa" should be everything I'm looking for. It's from the producers of "Machine Girl" and "Tokyo Gore Police", two of my favorite recent Asian horror flicks, and, if you're a regular reader, you should know that I think monster movies are coming back and this is, without question, a monster movie. Having said that, it's a campy, "dudes in rubber monster suits" monster movie, but there's nothing wrong with that. There was actually a bunch of coverage on it in the latest Fangoria, I think. In any case, I'm going to be checking it out.

I can't find much about "Wake the Witch" because, believe it or not, there's various films called the same thing... or something similar. Anyhow, it's apparently inspired by J-horror and is a psychological horror/suspense. Cover art is awesome, wish I knew more about it.

"Late Fee" came out last year, but it's getting a DVD/Blu-ray release this week. It's sort of a low-budget "Tales From The Crypt", as it's an anthology of sorts... only two films, though, with a third story holding the other two together. The main story revolves around how the couple has to return the two films by midnight, as they don't want to know what the late fee's are... I like the idea and I'm always a fan anthologies.

Indie Horror On The Web... plus a few other things

Before I get into all the interesting things that I found in the webtubes, do you remember the interview we did with scream queen, hottie Melissa Bacelar a while back? Well, here's a link to the interview, if you missed it. We talked about the film "Skinned Alive", but she's been in lots of good indie horror, such as "Pink Eye", "Slumber Party Slaughterhouse: The Game" and "The Scream". Now, she's reached out and asked for Dead Harvey's help, as she's in the running for Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors Spooksmodel Contest... So, help her out and vote for Melissa Bacelar! Click here, find her picture and click on it.

This has nothing to do with horror, but if you're an indie horror filmmaker looking to monetize your content, you may want to read this... it's an article from TheWrap.com called, "The Answer to Monetizing Shorts: Branded Content?". Unfortunately, the article concentrates on that show that jumped from being web-based to ABC, "In the Motherhood". However, I do think there's something that can be taken away from this. Here's the thing - A film is supposed to be ad free and make its money by having people pay to see it. The TV model works by having advertisers paying for space during the show, so you can see it for free. However, the line between the two is being blurred and I think advertising is going to play a big part in the future of entertainment. You can still have people pay to see it, but why not supplement that with a bit of ad dollars?

Here's one for all those who are researching a script or story, plus it's kinda funny... So, for starters, here's a link to the International Paranormal Investigators site, they're the guys who sent me this email. I don't know what I signed up for, but I get emails from them every once in a while. I suppose if you're into ghosts and the paranormal, it's a good site to do some research on. Anyhow, here's what made me laugh... here's the body of the email that accompanied that link - Last week I sent out a newsletter about a response I made to a request to answer why I teach ghost hunting. The website International Paranormal Investigators posted my response for others to comment on. Well Ryan sent me back a super positive response and I'm so proud to say that they want me to be on their radio show. The name of it is Raid Radio and it is from Scotland. The topic for discussion will be What is the opinion of having psychics participate on a ghost investigation. Like, there's an argument here... "Hey, psychics, do your own thing and leave the ghost investigation to the Paranormal Investigators". I don't know, made me laugh.

I think that the success of the indie horror scene is going to depend on a few things. One is the development of new distribution methods and the use of the internet to facilitate those methods... VOD, web-based series' and online distribution are all going to be key. Then there's stuff like p2p file sharing and pirating. For Hollywood, this stuff can be a nightmare, but, I think, for indie film, it's going to be a huge blessing. So, check this out and see if it gets your brain juices flowing... "RiP: A remix manifesto" is a documentary film from Brett Gaylor, who happens to be the creator of opensourcecinema.org, a video remix community which supports the production of the feature. (click on that link for more info on the doc) It's an open source film about copyright and remix culture, created over a period of six years and, guess what? It's going on the country's first open-source film tour and you can host a screening. Here's a link - RIP! A Remix Manifesto. I love the fact that the film is a collaborative work, that's cool. However, the fact that the nation-wide screening is all DIY and open source is awesome. Check out the link, see how they're putting it together. It's a great idea...

Film Fest Friday, but this is more about The Oscars...

Okay, so it's a lame weekend at the box office because it's the Oscars... and I'm not a big fan of the Oscars, I think it's a big joke... I mean, it was started BY the industry as a way to legitimize what they were doing and now it's just an excuse to give awards to people because they think they deserve them, but I digress...

We're all going to watch The Oscars, so we might as well have some people to root for. First and foremost, Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" - as much as a fucking weirdo as he's become (see pic), he's still Marv from "Sin City", Johnny Handsome from "Johnny Handome", Harley Davidson from "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man" and Harry Angel from, one of my favorite horror films of all time, "Angel Heart". By the way, yes, I liked "Johnny Handsome" and "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man", so what? I'd also like to see Marisa Tomei get Best Supporting Actress for playing the stripper in "The Wrestler" because, well, I saw a LOT of her in the film. Not only that, it really was a good movie. Go check it out, if you haven't seen it. I'd like to see Heath Ledger get Best Supporting Role for "The Dark Knight", as he kicked ass and so did the movie. I think a lot of people want to see him win it and, guess what, I don't think Robert Downey Jr. will be getting it for "Tropic Thunder". I also hope that "The Dark Knight" wraps up all the other nominal awards, like Sound Editing and all that shit. Otherwise, I only hope for two things... Danny Boyle, who WE all know as the guy behind "28 Days Later", "28 Weeks Later" and "Trainspotting", gets a shit-load of awards for "Slumdog Millionaire" AND for that douche, Sean Penn, to get fuck-all for "Milk".

Okay, what's going on in festival world?

The early bird deadline for the LA Shorts Fest is today and, although that seems like short notice, as long as you have your submission postmarked by today, you're cool. Well, that's still not a lot of time. So, at this point it looks like you're going to have to buck up and pay the extra $10, or whatever it is. Anyhow, the LA Shorts Fest is, obviously, all about short films and they do have a horror category. They're also accredited by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and 33 filmmakers from the LA Shorts Fest have gone on to earn Academy Award nominations... none of which were horror. Actually, one of the very cool things about the festival is that they have a thing called LA Shorts TV and they'll show some of the shorts on the site... "Seat 29E" was awesome, if you head over there.

I was ABOUT to mention the all new Thrillspy International Thriller & Spy Festival until I read that they "promote all categories of thriller films with the exception of Horror or Shock films". Okay, well then... THAT'S a slap in the face.

And for those horror fans in Chicago, you've got the upcoming Fangoria's Weekend of Horror on March 6 - 8. You're going to get some good guests, too. You've got Tobe Hooper, George Romero, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Tom Savani and the list goes on and on... it'll take place at the Wyndham O'Hare. Weekend of Horror will also be in LA in April and New York in June.

That's it... that's all we got for this week. Go get your drink on and we'll see you next week!

Horror Film Fest Updates... More Fantasia, Fangoria's Weekend of Horror and Hollywood Film Fest

Here's a few updates from the world of horror film festivals and conferences... a few big ones this week...

Fantasia is going on as I type this, running from July 3rd until July 21st and I just decided to head over to their site to see which horror films they're screening this year... and they're screening some pretty kick-ass ones. There's a few that I haven't really heard much about, such as "Babysitter Wanted", "Pig Hunt" and "The Objective", but there also screening some of the most anticipated horrors of the year, including "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane", Frank Henenlotter's "Bad Biology", "From Within", "Midnight Meat Train" and "Repo! The Genetic Opera". If you go to the site, then click on "Films + Schedule", you can get lots of information on all the films...

HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL AND FILM THREAT NEED YOUR GENRE FILMS! - This is a big festival and they just announced their call for entries. That link is to an article that was on Film Threat's website, who happens to be a sponsor. They're also sponsored by STARZ!, as well... so you've got some pretty good names behind it and one of them is a distributor. Whether or not you want to enter your film or just attend it, it's worth checking out. Here's a blurb from the article that describes it: "The Hollywood Film Festival, presented by STARZ, will mark its return on October 22, 2008, to the state-of-the-art ArcLight Theatres in Hollywood for a twelfth annual, weeklong series of screenings, seminars, competitions, awards and a special presentation of "Genre Cinema". Together with Film Threat and Chris Gore, the festival announces the "Call for Entries" for this year's Hollywood Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival."

Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors Lastly, Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors 2009 site just went live, you can go check it out at that link there. It travels around to a few cities and you can catch it in Chicago March 6-8, L.A. April 17-19 and New York June 5-7. They promise gruesome guests, vendors, film room, creepy contests, eerie exhibitors... and more.