The Golden Globes and a couple of new DVD's

I'm writing this on Sunday, a few hours before the Golden Globes start, and that means we're at that point of the year that horror fans dread - the start of awards season. So, we get a lot of artsy shit, but there are some good flicks in the mix, too, including "Black Swan", "The Fighter" and "The Social Network". The only thing that's notable for horror fans is Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan", which is, essentially, a horror movie... that's set in the world of ballet. If you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out. I mean, if you're a gorehound, it's not going to blow up your skirt or anything, but if you want to see a horror film that's got the critics talking, it's actually really good.

There is another cool thing about this years festival season... a lot of the directors have indie roots. "Inception" director, Christopher Nolan, started with "Following" and "Momento", two awesome indie films. "Black Swan" director, Darren Aronofsky, started with the micro-cinema film, "Pi". "The Fighter" director, David O. Russel, started with the indie film "Spanking the Monkey". All the films they started with could've been done by any of our readers... there is hope, people.

Anyhow, the point of that wasn't to tell you to check out "Black Swan" or give you a pep talk, the point was that we're in awards season and that means that means art films at the theaters, no horror. So, not much to talk about at the box office. Further, there's not much to talk about that's coming out in DVD, either. Really, there's only two things of note, "Colony of the Dark" and "Nite Tales: The Series"

"Nite Tales: The Series" is from Deon Taylor and is based off of his film, you guessed it, "Nite Tales: The Movie" and Flavor Flav reprises his role as a crypt-keeper type character. I never saw it, but I think it aired on WGN. Each episode was shot in one day on 35mm and budgeted around $20K - $50K. That sounds super indie, to me. I'm almost positive that it only lasted one season, but if you missed that one season... here it is.

"Colony of the Dark" comes from Apprehensive Films and it looks pretty good... shot entirely on Super 8, it's a feature length creature feature and the low budget creature effects are what makes it. You have to check out the trailer, here's a link to it. Also, the film introduced me to Apprehensive Films, which I had never heard of before. I'm going to have to do a post on them soon, as they could be a great distribution partner for a lot of you filmmakers.

The Weekend Box Office, The Golden Globes and The Upcoming Week in DVD Horror

It seems a bit redundant by now, but... if you're interested, "Avatar" won the weekend... again. To date, it's pulled in more than $1.6Billion Worldwide and should easily slide above "Titanic"as the highest grossing film of all time in the next week or two. As for the other films that opened this last weekend, both "The Book of Eli" and "The Lovely Bones" did good business. What's kinda cool is that "The Lovely Bones" actually tanked in its initial limited run, so Paramount retooled the marketing campaign and targeted young females or, as they called them, "the Twilight crowd" and it worked. In other news, if you like to follow the industry, you probably checked out the Golden Globes last night. "Avatar" won Best Feature and won James Cameron the Best Director award and, yes, I think he deserves it. You just can't deny a juggernaut film like that... argue with me if you will, but it'll probably kick ass at the Oscars, too. The other notable film award, for me anyhow, was "The Hangover" winning Best Feature Comedy. I love that flick. As for TV, one of my favorite shows, "Dexter", got the nods it deserves and it was good to see Michael C. Hall win Best Actor, as well as John Lithgow to get Supporting Actor for playing the Trinity Killer. If you're interested, the reason Michael C Hall was wearing that beanie is because he's got cancer or, I should say, he's recovering from cancer. He's on the road to recovery after secretly battling Hodgkin's lymphoma. Elsewhere in TV, I've got a soft spot for Alec Baldwin, so it was cool to see him get Best Actor for "30 Rock". Otherwise, let's take a look at the week in horror DVD releases... which is another fairly weak week. As usual, you can go to our Youtube Page to see all the trailers and you can click on the titles to be taken to their pages on Amazon, where you can read more about them and/or buy them.

They didn't have it under horror on Amazon, but "Pandorum" comes out this week. It's from Overture Films, who are the same guys that brought you the "Resident Evil" franchise. Quite frankly, it's not blazing any new trails in horror/sci-fi, but if you're into films like "Aliens", "Resident Evil" or, I don't know, "Event Horizon", you'll probably get a kick out of it. I liked it, it was a good waste of an hour and a half... and there's a few twists and turns, some good gore and scares. It's definitely worth a watch.

Now, I'm pretty sure that "Haunting in Connecticut" came out on DVD a while ago, but it's popping up as a new release this week. So, I'm assuming it's a rerelease, but I don't know why... it does have some new box art. In any case, you probably know all about it. It's your basic, run of the mill, haunted house story. However, if haunted house stories are your thing, you may want to check out the low-budget "Spirits of the Fall" instead. It's written and directed by Russ Diapper and it's out of the UK. The trailer looks... just alright. Having said that, the reviews are great. So, I'm going to have to go and check this bad-boy out... you should, too.

Other than that, you can get the William Shatner classic from 1977, "Kingdom Of The Spiders", the Spanish double pack - "El Castillo de los Monstruos/Conquistador de la Luna" OR the Blu-ray double feature of "Children of the Corn/Hellraiser" - seems like an odd couple, but I'll bite. They're both classics.