Freddy Wins The Weekend & The Upcoming Week in Horror DVD's

Okay, I'll try to get everything back on track this week... and what better way to do that than by looking at the weekend box office? And it's a weekend where horror ruled. Yup, that's right, the reboot of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" won the weekend by a big margin. Actually, a big, big margin - sorry, "Furry Vengeance". In fact, it's a personal best for old Krueger, it out-grossed the entire runs of the first, second, fifth and seventh films, but that's not in terms of ticket sales. All in all, a good outing financially. Having said that, reviews were somewhat mixed... a lot of negative reviews came from the older camp. That camp, of course, would be the people that grew up on Freddy and loved Robert Englund... my camp. And, really, we're going to be tough to win over. I have a massive Freddy bust on my desk, as well as a couple of framed Freddy pictures. You're going to have a tough time convincing me that Robert Englund isn't Freddy, but the younger demographic barely knows Englund. So, how many young people went to "Nightmare"? A lot. 60% of the audience was 24 years old or younger. 40% were 18 - 24. The original "Nightmare on Elm Street" is currently 26 years old, so... yeah. Do the math - no allegiance to Englund from a lot of that group. In any case, it's good to see horror back on top. Now, let's take a look at the horror that's coming out on DVD this week. As usual, you can go to our Youtube Page to see the trailers or click on the titles and go to the films Amazon page, where you can read more about it and/or buy it.

"Vampegeddon" looks to be a very ambitious micro-budget film, filled with vampires, lesbian goth girls, gore and sex and it just shot to the top of my 'to see' list this week. If you're into the indie horror scene, watch the trailer and just try not to want to watch this. Some micro-budget filmmakers bite off more than they can chew and their film suffers due to it... and some get ambitious and pull it off. This looks to be the latter.

The trailer doesn't really do the film much justice... in fact, I'd go as far as saying that the trailer sucks ass, but "Dark Nature" did become a big underground hit in the UK last year. It's a dark comedy with some shock and blood and that's really what UK filmmakers excel at, so how bad could it be?

I have to credit "Mother's Day Massacre" with one thing - anchoring the film to a holiday. Tying your film to a holiday or specific date makes your film way more marketable. I mean, "Friday the 13th", "Silent Night, Deadly Night", "Halloween", "Prom Night", "My Bloody Valentine", the list goes on... working a holiday or a known date or time into the DNA of your film gives it a selling point. On top of that, the film looks great. Filled with "semi-retarded hillbillies who have a taste for DIY circumcisions and Peterbilt trucks". I heart hillbilly horror.

There is a definite rise in films that justify the first person camera. I think that's the right way to describe these films. You know, "Blair Witch", "Paranormal Activity", etc... "Meadowoods" throws its hat in the ring and, man alive, do they have a great idea here. It's about three college students that decide to keep a video journal to memorialize a savage and merciless murder that they're plotting... you know, because they're bored and want to do something that leaves a mark. I love the idea, great work.

"Slasher" is a German film and the trailer that I found doesn't have subtitles, but I'm assuming that film will... and, quite frankly, you don't need the subtitles to figure out what the films about. A group of college kids head up for a relaxing weekend in the woods, when... right, the film is called "Slasher". To work this plot, you gotta be over the top, as the story is tired. However, the last 15 seconds of the trailer really piqued my interest. Could be worth checking out.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that "Gatekeeper: Unlock Your Worst Fears" is, in fact, an 8 minute short film. I found a trailer and it looks awesome, but do they really think that people will pay $18 for a short? Wouldn't they be better off just trying to sell it through iTunes for a few bucks or something? I could be missing something here and I'd love to hear the rationale behind this, but... there you go. Either way, the film looks great and I'd love to check it out. Not sure I'd pay $18, though.

Strange Things Are Afoot On The interwebs

We all know who Platinum Dunes is, right? The production company that was formed in 2001 by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form? I'll be honest, when they first came out and made it brutally clear that they'd be basically cherry picking some of the most influential horror films from my past and 're-envisioning' them, I was none too happy. Although I prayed for each film to fail and that Platinum Dunes would close up shop, they didn't. Not only that, I hate to admit that my hatred's softening over time. Don't get me wrong, a bit of me died with each announcement. First, with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in 2003, then "The Amityville Horror", a suspect sequel to "TCM", then "The Hitcher", "The Unborn" and "Friday the 13th". Now, they're slated to remake "Near Dark", they're doing a "Friday the 13th Part 2", "The Birds" and, worst of all, coming out in 2010, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" - which was one of the most influential movies in my life, with one of the most influential characters. By the way, the reason this all came up is because they've picked who's going to play Freddy and, obviously, it isn't Robert Englund. It's none other than Jackie Earle Haley... if that doesn't ring any bells, he played Rorschach in "Watchmen". Here's an article on him getting the role. Anyhow, back to my rant... I'm assuming that you and I are probably on similar pages... like, the movies that influenced you and made you the filmmaker/writer/producer that you are, were made 15 to 25 years ago. You've probably thought, "this new stuff is just not as good as the old stuff" and when a remake comes out, you almost always say, "the original was better". Well, I got to thinking... these remakes aren't really for us. They're for the next generation of horror fans and horror filmmakers/writers/producers. I'll leave out the whole monetary aspect, as that obviously plays a major part, but... consider this: I remember listening to Motley Crue's version of "Helter Skelter", having no idea that it was a remake... then being informed by my father that it was a Beatles song from 20 years earlier and that the original was better. Now, put that experience in the context of me and Platinum Dunes and I'm the old man saying that the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is better. So, I think, in the future, the correct response to someone getting excited about a Platinum Dunes remake should be... "Hmmm... interesting that they're remaking that. You did know that it's a remake, right? I sure hope it's a good movie... You should check out the original when you get a chance and let me know what you think." Then, appreciate the fact that Platinum Dunes is playing a part in keeping horror alive and shaping the horror filmmakers of the next generation. Or is that way too soft?

Here's a link to an interesting article that I read on TheWrap.com called "Coming Soon to Your Flat Screen: Layoff TV". So, what was that movie... or was it just a story? You know... it's in the middle of the Great Depression and the news is all upbeat and fake and it pisses this one filmmaker off. So, he sacrifices everything to make a film with an honest take, with honest characters and after years of sweat, blood and tears, he creates his opus and, when he screens it, everyone hates it. They tell him, "Man, life is depressing enough, we'd rather see some fake, upbeat shit". I'd research that a bit better, but you get the point. There's actually two trains of thought on this. One is, people like escapism during rough times. They want fantastic movies that take them to different worlds and have happy endings. They want to forget about the daily grind and all the depressing things that come with it. The other train of thought is, people don't want to see that shit because they can't identify with the characters. Bad times call for down-to-earth characters with problems and issues. To be honest, this is the type of shit that you need to be thinking about when you're writing - think about your audience (reoccurring theme here, people). Anyhow, this article seems to think that people want escapism on the big screen, while they want realistic, down-to-earth stuff on the small screen. Check it out and think about it when you're writing...

Lastly, I received a very strange link to a video on Youtube, I embedded it below. Check it out...