October 2008 - Posts

• The Screengrab Highlight Reel: Oct. 25-31, 2008

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Hello, kiddies! It’s me, Pennywise the evil clown, and I’ve got a bone to pick with the Screengrabbers this week. In fact I just may PICK THEIR BONES CLEAN. It’s bad enough they showed me no respect in The Top 25 Horror Movies of All Time (Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven). But to ignore me completely in the Screengrab 24-Hour Stephen King Marathon (Parts One, Two, Three and Four)? Unthinkable! Just look at these other so-called horror classics they saw fit to highlight this week. The Exorcist? I find chunks of guys like him in my stool! Tenebrae? What does that even mean? Seizure? Seize this! Halloween and Friday the 13th? Those are just days of the week to me. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 05:00 PM with no comments Filed under: stephen king, halloween, star wars, the exorcist, zack and miri make a porno, batman, scott von doviak, friday the 13th, tenebrae, seizure

• Take Five: Halloween

  Posted by Leonard Pierce

  When a franchise has legs, the people who own it whip it so hard that those legs inevitably come off.  That doesn't keep them from flogging its backside, of course; there have been eleven Friday the Thirteenth movies, eight Freddy Krueger flicks, and so many James Bond movies that they're starting to use grocery lists written by Ian Fleming on the back of cocktail napkins as their source material.  The Saw franchise is already on its fifth installment, despite the fact that the first movie opened roughly three weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure they were filming the sixth and seventh movies at the craft table of the set of the fifth one.  Compared to this level of sequel overinflation, you might think that the venerable Halloween franchise is a virtual model of restraint.  That's what I thought, anyway, when I decided to watch every single one of them in a row.  Frankly, I didn't even think there was enough of it to make a Take Five; I was completely convinced that the ultra-bizarre Halloween III had killed the thing off until Rob Zombie decided to bring it back with his 2007 remake of the original.  It turns out there were five more sequels before the White Zombie frontman took a swing at reviving Michael Myers.  A chilling prospect, but lucky you:  this Halloween, you won't have to read my mini-reviews of each one.  The first five will do, but believe me:  simply living in a world that has Halloween 6:  The Curse of Michael Myers in it should scare you more than anything else about the holiday. HALLOWEEN (1978) Often credited as the movie that kick-started the whole slasher-film genre, Halloween doesn't really deserve that title.  For one thing, it's too good.  Tautly directed by John Carpenter, and featuring performances by genuine movie actors like Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance, Halloween was likewise a big-budget picture with a canny script, a plausible if terrifying villain, and actual production values.  The future would belong to movies like Friday the Thirteenth, which would be released a few years later and combine all the low-budget qualities of an indie production with the bloody aesthetic of Carpenter's best work, but none of the smarts or skills.  If it can't lay claim to being the progenitor of the genre, though, Halloween can at least say that it's one of the best; it still holds up years later, and makes what came after that more of a waste. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 02:45 PM with 4 comment(s) Filed under: leonard pierce, take five, donald pleasance, saw, halloween, rob zombie, tom atkins, james bond, john carpenter, freddy krueger, friday the 13th, ian fleming, jamie lee curtis, michael myers, debra hill, halloween III: the season of the witch, dwight h. little, halloween iv: the return of michael myers, halloween II, moustapha akkad, danielle harris, halloween 6: the curse of michael myers, dominique othenin-girard, tommy lee wallace

• Yesterday's Hits: The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin)

  Posted by Paul Clark

  The weeks leading up to Halloween are the most popular time of the year for horror movies, so it was only natural that I would choose one for this week’s Yesterday’s Hits column. But which one? Horror is a popular and relatively profitable genre, in large part because horror movies are generally not too expensive to produce, making it easy for them to turn a profit. Yet there are surprisingly few flat-out blockbusters in the genre. Since 1939, only four movies that might be labeled “horror” have placed among the top five box office hits of their respective years. Two of these were Psycho and Jaws, both of which remain classics not merely of the genre, but of cinema in general. And I wrote about the most recent of the bunch, The Sixth Sense, back in June. This leaves only The Exorcist. But while William Friedkin’s film has been endlessly parodied over the years, it remains one of the most-watched horror movies of all time, a perennial Halloween favorite. In other words, it’s not what I normally look for in my Yesterday’s Hits selections. So, for the obvious reasons, I’ll be skipping over my usual question of what happened to The Exorcist’s popularity because, well, it never really went away. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 03:00 PM with no comments Filed under: paul clark, william peter blatty, william friedkin, the exorcist, yesterday's hits, psycho, the sixth sense, jaws, ellen burstyn, jason miller, linda blair

• The Screengrab 24-Hour Stephen King Marathon: The Final Chapter

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Introduction Part One Part Two Part Three 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. CUJO (1983) My very first published review is lost to the ages. It was a book review I wrote during my freshman year of high school, published in our school newspaper The Schoodic Breeze (derisively known to its detractors among the faculty and student body as The Schoodic Sneeze). The subject was Stephen King’s Cujo, the first of the horrormeister’s books that truly disappointed me. (It wasn’t until many years later I learned King had written most of the book while either drunk or coked-up or both, and had no memory of writing it.) Now, 20-odd years later, I guess I’ve come full circle, writing a review of the movie version of Cujo while too drunk to remember it. (I’m kidding! Maybe.) Here’s the problem: the copy of Cujo I secured (never mind how) turns out to be in Spanish with no subtitles, and there’s no time left to get a new one. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 02:30 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: stephen king, gary busey, drew barrymore, the dead zone, scott von doviak, james woods, american werewolf in london, alan king, the howling, silver bullet, cat's eye, pet sematary, corey haim, everett mcgill, cujo, dee wallace

• Screengrab Review: "Zack and Miri Make a Porno"

  Posted by Leonard Pierce

  NOTA BENE:  My esteemed colleage Scott Von Doviak already reviewed this bad boy when it played at Fantastic Fest, and did a fine job of it.  But that was, like, totally a month and a half ago!  He might as well have been reviewing that French train movie.  So, in the name of second opinions, here we go! With Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Kevin Smith seems to have set himself two goals:  convince people that the raunchy, Seth-Rogen-starring sex comedy isn't by Judd Apatow, and re-establish himself as a scrappy, lovable filmmaker instead of the egomaniacal jerk that half of America loves to hate.  The first part is easy -- despite Apatow's near-domination lately of the dudeflick, Smith got there first.  The real question is, can he establish that he's a talent to watch out for again after having squandered so much goodwill? The answer is...yes and no.  He starts out with a pretty watertight premise:  Rogen and Elizabeth Banks play the kind of platonic roommates that hardly ever exist in real life but are everywhere in movies and TV.  They're struggling artist types -- though robbed of the insufferability of that archetype by engaging performances by both actors --  who strike upon the notion of filming a porno movie as a way to get rich quick.  (Any resemblance between this plot and the actual economic reality of the porn industry is purely coincidental.)  Along the way, this wacky duo discovers that their carnal cash cow may be just the thing to unleash some hidden feelings about each other. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 01:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: leonard pierce, judd apatow, zack and miri make a porno, elizabeth banks, seth rogen, kevin smith, scott von doviak, fantastic fest

• Insufficiently Forgotten Films: "Seizure" (1974)

  Posted by Phil Nugent

  THE MOVIE: This scare picture is set at the country home of a horror novelist, played by Jonathan Frid, the Barnabas Collins of TV's Dark Shadows. The novelist is having a bunch of friends he despises come over for the weekend so they can all get drunk and recoil from each other in disgust, but this fun time is spoiled by the appearance of three malevolent figures who appear to have sprung from the darkest resources of his own fevered brain: Herve Villechaize as a bossy dwarf named Spider, British screen queen Martine Beswick in silky dominatrix gear (playing a character billed as "Queen of Evil"), and a giant hooded bodybuilder who brought along his enormous ax in case the generator breaks down and some firewood needs a-cuttin'. These worthies proceed to organize the weekend activities, which turn into a series of truth games and tests that result in the steady thinning out of the cast (which includes Mary Woronov, Richard Cox, Christina Pickles, and Troy Donahue). At the end, Frid makes the welcome disovery that this has all been a dream. Then the remaining members of the audience, which has also thinned out somewhat since the opening credits, finds out that, oh, no it wasn't. WHY IT DESERVES TO BE FORGOTTEN: Seizure was the first feature directed by the then-twenty-eight-year-old Oliver Stone, from an original screenplay credited to Stone and Edward Mann, the writer-director of Hallucination Generation, Hot Pants Holiday, and Who Says I Can't Ride a Raindbow!, the only film I know of whose cast includes both Morgan Freeman and Skitch Henderson. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 01:00 PM with no comments Filed under: oliver stone, phil nugent, michael caine, mary woronov, marc brendel, seizure, martine beswick, herve villechaize, jonathan frid, the hand' the lizarrd's tale

• Trailer Review: Friday the 13th (Teaser)

  Posted by Paul Clark

  Jason Voorhees: still not that interesting. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 12:00 PM with no comments Filed under: paul clark, michael bay, trailer review, freddy krueger, friday the 13th, texas chain saw massacre, marcus nispel, michael myers

• Dreamworks SK...?

  Posted by Leonard Pierce

  The studio system is long dead, but for over 30 years, David Geffen has been proving that the old-time movie mogul is still a going concern.  One of the richest men in Hollywood history, Geffen is a true multimedia tycoon who's made money in film and music hand over fist and whose personal worth is estimated at close to $6 billion.  Indisputably one of the biggest power players in the industry, he's had a huge impact on almost every studio you can name:  Universal, Paramount, Disney, and the DreamWorks studio he founded with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.  But, having hit 65 -- the age at which most people look forward to a respectable retirement -- is Geffen ready to walk away from it all? Just weeks after engineering a break from Paramount -- which had recently purchased DreamWorks for over a billion and a half dollars -- Geffen continued to wheel and deal like a mogul of old.  He formed a new company with Spielberg and Stacey Snider, backed by money from one of the biggest players in the emergent Bollywood system, and then -- shockingly -- seemed to indicate that he was backing off from production, and perhaps leaving the entertainment industry altogether.  According to an article in the New York Times, even Spielberg is stunned at the possibility:  "I cannot imagine not having David in my professional life.  If that's true, I'm going to have to figure out what to do about it."  Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 10:15 AM with no comments Filed under: leonard pierce, steven spielberg, new york times, dreamworks, disney, jeffrey katzenberg, paramount pictures, universal studios, stacey snider, david geffen

• In Other Blogs: Trick or Treat

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Night of the Living Dead made the top five in our list of the 25 Greatest Horror Movies, but our enthusiasm for George Romero’s seminal zombie film pales compared to that of PopMatters, which has put together an exhaustive tribute in honor of Night’s 40th anniversary. “Love it or hate it, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a recognized cornerstone of American culture and world cinema. After 40 years, Romero’s film remains an influential film that generates a variety of readings and discourses. Furthermore, this horror classic continues to spawn a variety of sequels, remakes, and copycats…Indeed, the magnitude of the cultural significance of Night of the Living Dead is made evident in this massive collection of 30 articles that uniquely analyze, dissect, discuss, and re-appreciate the cultural, political, social, ideological, philosophical, and psychological meanings of this groundbreaking horror film. Here you will find fresh perspectives, appreciations, and theoretical frameworks that bring a new light to the critical examination of Night of the Living Dead.” Spoutblog checks out the sexiest vampire movie of all time: Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 10:30 AM with no comments Filed under: night of the living dead, george romero, miller's crossing, scott von doviak, body heat, murders in the rue morgue, daughters of darkness, bad ronald, arlene francis, scott jacoby

• Snake Plissken Meets Chewbacca

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  So, I didn’t intend this to become a series, but here it is: my THIRD post about supercool and nerdy Star Wars shit I’ve stumbled across on YouTube while looking for other Screengrab stuff. This time around: Plissken. Remember that SNL skit where they had funny fake auditions for Star Wars from the likes of Christopher Walken, Richard Dreyfuss and Walter Matthau? (If not, just click above!) Anyway, today’s gift from the magical land of YouTube is the real Kurt Russell (!) auditioning for the role of Han Solo (!!!!), side by side with a clip from Harrison Ford’s audition. Did Lucas make the right decision? You decide! (And then, y’know, keep it to yourself, so Lucas won’t get the bright idea to go digitally replace Ford with Russell in some new updated Special Edition first trilogy release.) Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 31 2008, 10:00 AM with no comments Filed under: star wars, saturday night live, kurt russell, Andrew Osborne, han solo

• Thursday Poll for October 30, 2008

  Posted by Paul Clark

  And It’s George W. Bush by a landslide! Inspired by the recent release of W., we asked our readers to compare the onscreen presidency of Josh Brolin with his father’s performance as Ronald Reagan on the controversial miniseries The Reagans. In the end, it wasn’t even close, with every single vote going the younger Brolin’s way. Of course, there were only a handful of votes registered by our state-of-the-art polling instruments, which either means that only a few of you have seen either or both of the films, or there was some massive voter disenfranchisement going on. Of course, neither would possibly stand a chance against Terry Crews' spot-on portrayal of President Camacho, but that's a poll for another time. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 07:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: paul clark, josh brolin, terry crews, george w. bush, thursday poll, w., james brolin, the reagans

• Honorable Mention: The Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part Seven)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1933) This is the original screen version of the H. G Wells story that has more recently been filmed and re-filmed under the title The Island of Dr. Moreau. While the Brando-Val Kilmer version is to be respected for its pure freak-out quality, this early talkie is still the most effective in terms of conviction and scare power, mainly because Charles Laughton's performance as Moreau is one of the all-time great prototypes of the mad scientist: a bloated power junkie with Fu Manchu facial hair and a fondness for the whip, he inspires none of the "Gee, he meant well!" sympathetic understanding that, say, Colin Clive's Dr. Frankenstein earns even at his most overwrought and barking mad. It's a measure of how strong a presence Laughton has here that the shop steward of his crew of half-human mutants is played by Bela Lugosi, only two years away from his own screen triumph as Dracula. Years later, after the roles dried up and the drugs took over, Lugosi would be a sadly depleted version of his former self, but at this stage in his movie career, you had to be one convincingly satanic son of a bitch to wade into his turf and start handing him orders. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 06:45 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: leonard pierce, phil nugent, bela lugosi, roger corman, charles laughton, fay wray, time of the wolf, the island of dr. moreau, Andrew Osborne, vincent price, island of lost souls, tomb of ligeia, invaders from mars, the thing from another world, mystery of the wax museum

• Honorable Mention: The Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part Six)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  JAWS (1975) There was some back-and-forth among the writers here at The Screengrab over whether Steven Spielberg’s first blockbuster should be included on a list of classic horror movies. But ultimately, it made the cut because, whether or not it qualifies as a horror movie, the truth is that it’s seriously scary. A far cry from the long-standing King of Hollywood Filmmakers who has become semi-notorious for his inability to satisfactorily end his movies, the Spielberg who made Jaws did so with one thing on his mind -- to scare the ever-loving shit out of the audience. And oh man, did he ever succeed. Much has been made of the technical issues with the animatronic shark “Bruce” forcing Spielberg to find clever ways to make the shark’s presence felt onscreen (who can forget that moment when the dock slowly turns around?). However, the withholding of actual shots of the shark actually makes him more frightening, given all the buildup he’s had up to that point. Along with being Spielberg’s most frightening movie, it’s also his most perfectly structured, divided almost evenly between the attacks on the townspeople and the mission by Brody, Quint, and Hooper to bring down the toothy killer. The first half has plenty of good scares to be sure -- the head popping out of the boat, for one -- but it’s the second hour that makes Jaws a classic. The setup is little more than three men on an old boat, and as the makeshift crew hunts down, then fends off, the shark, Spielberg never once cuts back to the mainland. The claustrophobia that results causes the tension to skyrocket, so that every time the shark returns to take another shot at bringing down the boat, the film becomes ever more Hooksexup-wracking. But for all the brutal attacks we see, nothing in Jaws burrows under your skin quite like Quint’s immortal monologue about his experiences aboard the Indianapolis, in which he shares his first-hand knowledge of just how much damage sharks can do. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 06:30 PM with no comments Filed under: phil nugent, steven spielberg, paul clark, shaun of the dead, george romero, mario bava, jaws, billy connolly, Andrew Osborne, ginger snaps, john zacherle, brain damage, fido, black sunday

• Screengrab Presents: The 25 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part Five)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  5. DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) Fuck a Zack Snyder remake – no other zombie movie, not even by George Romero, will ever surpass the original Dawn of the Dead. How do I love this gory, nasty, and surprisingly moving masterpiece of terror? Let me count the ways. First of all, while it can’t surpass the closed-up creepiness of the original Night of the Living Dead, it opens it up to staggering effect and makes it a truly apocalyptic horror film. Second, Night had always been projected as a one-off; it was Dawn that made zombies into one of the famous monsters of filmdom, that transformed Romero’s dead-eyed flesh-eaters into beings with their own mythology and internal logic. By doing so, it didn’t just launch a franchise – it launched an entire universe, a cultural archetype with as much meaning and possibility as vampires, werewolves – or angels. Third, it’s tight as hell, incredibly suspenseful, and remarkably well-acted, with the technical difficulties of filming something so ambitious on a shoestring overcome in surprising and effective ways. Fourth, like all great horror movies, it gives us an essential human drama at its center; we care about the story because we care about Stephen, Peter, Roger and Francine. Fifth, it’s a deeply satirical exercise, the first attempt – and probably the most successful – by Romero to mock us by showing us the way a lot of people probably see us: zombies as cultural/political metaphors. And sixth…well, it’s about a bunch of flesh-eating zombies running amok in a shopping mall. And, to use the highfalutin language of film criticism, that’s awesome. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 06:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: leonard pierce, zack snyder, paul clark, stanley kubrick, freaks, tod browning, night of the living dead, george romero, dawn of the dead, the shining, alfred hitchcock, jack nicholson, psycho, Andrew Osborne

• Screengrab Presents: The 25 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part Four)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  10. THE FLY (1986) Horror movies, contrary to the claims of highfalutin critics like us, don’t necessarily have to be about anything. If they’re scary and well-made and don’t insult your intelligence, just being a good horror movie is enough. But when they are about something, especially in the hands of a storyteller of the depth and intelligence of David Cronenberg, they transcend genre and become something truly special. Cronenberg took a popular pulp story by George Langelaan, which had been filmed once before as a pretty straightforward monster movie in the 1950s, and remade it as a terrific modern-day horror flick, complete with terrifically suspenseful moments and plenty of nauseating fluids for the grindhouse crowd – but he also infused it with a powerful undercurrent of extremely personal terror. The Fly, carried on the hair-sprouting, wing-bearing back of Jeff Goldblum’s greatest performance, is one of the finest movies ever made about the betrayal of the body: in the story of a scientist who is transformed into an insect-like creature, Cronenberg manages to isolate not only the horror, but also the loneliness, the helplessness, and the frustration of the sick and the dying. When Brundlefly is finally dispatched at the movie’s end, the pervasive feeling isn’t one of revenge, or relief – it’s one of terrible sadness. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 05:30 PM with no comments Filed under: leonard pierce, phil nugent, alien, david cronenberg, ridley scott, david lynch, sigourney weaver, william friedkin, the exorcist, james whale, max von sydow, the fly, jeff goldblum, boris karloff, Andrew Osborne, bride of frankenstein, linda blair, herk harvey, carnival of souls

• Screengrab Presents: The 25 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part Three)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  15. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) Yes, I know you never actually see the witch. Yes, my wife and my father and countless other people got motion sickness from all the whip-pan video camera shots, and many others felt ripped off when the scariest thing in the much-hyped “new horror classic” was a bundle of sticks. And, true, the sequel was a jaw-dropping fiasco. And yet, I defend The Blair Witch Project on many levels. First, it did its job and creeped the bejesus outta me. Now, maybe that’s because I grew up (and later got stoned) in the dark woods of New England, where we used to actually burn witches, and so I’m the ideal audience for a flick about the paranoid possibilities of a forest at night. I also saw the movie on the big screen, after watching the brilliant small screen promotional faux-documentary Curse of the Blair Witch, so I was up-to-speed on all the Elly Kedward/Rustin Parr mythology and ready to be seduced by the film's tone of ominous forboding (rather than waiting to be impressed by gory special effects or whatever the haters didn’t find in the film). Plus, directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez turned a $22,000 budget into a $200 million dollar indie smash and then disappeared without a trace, kinda like the actors from the movie...so maybe there really is a curse. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 05:00 PM with no comments Filed under: phil nugent, audition, brian de palma, invasion of the body snatchers, donald sutherland, carrie, the blair witch project, sam raimi, ringu, the ring, the evil dead, Andrew Osborne, leonard nimoy, eihi shiina

• Screengrab Presents: The 25 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part Two)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  20. RE-ANIMATOR (1985) This 1985 instant-midnight-movie classic just about killed off the concept of the underground-horror-cult-item by being too perfect; a beautifully executed, straight-faced H.P. Lovecraft update with farce timing and gory slapstick, it hit its marks with such stunning aplomb that it's hard to think of a similar film that wouldn't be embarrassed to be compared to it. That includes pretty much every subsequent attempt by the first time filmmaker Stuart Gordon, previously known as founding director of Chicago's Organic Theater Company, to follow it up, though its star, Jeffrey Combs, has managed to keep the spirit of Herbert West alive through his performances in other movies -- especially Peter Jackson's The Frighteners, where his deranged, ghostbusting FBI agent is a scene-stealing fusion of Dr. West, Fox Mulder, and Hazel Motes. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 04:30 PM with no comments Filed under: phil nugent, tobe hooper, george romero, roman polanski, scott von doviak, the texas chain saw massacre, rosemary's baby, eyes without a face, martin, ruth gordon, Andrew Osborne, reanimator

• Screengrab Presents: The 25 Greatest Horror Films of All Time (Part One)

  Posted by Andrew Osborne

  This may be the scariest Halloween in recent memory. Whatever happens in the election, it's going to be a nightmare for tens of millions of Americans. But until then, we’ve got a few days to dress like Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin, drink pumpkin-flavored beer and relax with ghosts, vampires and zombies instead of all those scary talking heads on TV. There was some debate here in the Screengrab Crypt regarding whether this was a list of the BEST horror films of all time or the SCARIEST (or if there’s a difference)...which naturally got us thinking about just what makes a film scary in the first place. When my mother-in-law was a wee little French-Canadian, she went to a screening of Murders in the Rue Morgue where a theater employee in a gorilla suit popped out when the lights came up, sending the audience screaming into the streets of Nashua, New Hampshire...now THAT’S scary. On the other hand, there are some horror movies that skip the gotcha! moments in favor of sheer dread, a creeping mood of hopeless, helpless paranoia that haunts your nights long after the adrenalin rush from the guy in the gorilla suit has faded. I remember squirming my way through all the maggots and vomited intestines of Lucio Fulci’s Gates of Hell as a teenager, but what scared me the most was the Italian film’s pervasive sense of inescapable doom... ...not that I have especially fond memories of the film. Just because it scared me didn’t mean I liked it, in the same way I’d rather read a 700-page grad school dissertation on the cultural significance of the torture porn craze than sit through Saw V. Like comedy, it’s hard to nail down the secret of great horror, but we know it when it lurches up...RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!!! Just kidding. Enjoy the list, and Happy Halloween from your pals here at The Screengrab! Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 04:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: phil nugent, deborah kerr, lucio fulci, night of the living dead, marlon brando, The Mummy, near dark, lance henriksen, the stepfather, terry o'quinn, 28 days later, boris karloff, clu gulager, Andrew Osborne, Bill Paxton, dan o'bannon, kathryn bigelow, danny boyle, saw v, sarah palin, karl freund, murders in the rue morgue, return of the living dead, gates of hell, jenette goldstein, the innocents

• The Screengrab 24-Hour Stephen King Marathon (Part Three)

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Introduction Part One Part Two Noon – 2 p.m. THE DARK HALF (1993) I think we can all agree that writing has been very good to Stephen King, and it certainly seems to be something he enjoys doing for a living, given the fact that he still puts out approximately seventeen books a month. Yet a casual glance at the writer characters in his work reveals a certain, I dunno, ambiguity about the matter. There’s Jack Torrance, the frustrated novelist of The Shining, who tries to bludgeon his family to death. Paul Sheldon of Misery attempts to retire his most famous character and ends up the prisoner of an obsessed fan. And in George Romero’s adaptation of The Dark Half, we have Timothy Hutton as Thad Beaumont, an author of serious but poorly-selling literary fiction who achieves success with dark, violent novels published under the name George Stark. When a blackmailer threatens to out Beaumont to the press, the author takes matters into his own hands, confessing his Stark-ness and staging a mock funeral for his alter ego. The matter seems resolved until George Stark comes to life and goes on a killing spree, for which Beaumont is the prime suspect. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 01:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: stephen king, miguel ferrer, george romero, the shining, the machinist, christian bale, ed harris, scott von doviak, joe mantegna, michael rooker, timothy hutton, thinner, misery, robert john burke, amy madigan, the dark half, needful things, the night flier

• Morning Deal Report: Sam Mendes Meets the Preacher

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  The 75-issue Preacher comic book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon seemed like an ideal fit for HBO, which has struggled to launch a new buzz series since stalwarts like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Deadwood went dark. The projected series fell through earlier this year, however, and it didn’t take long for Columbia Pictures to secure the rights for a feature film version. Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road) will direct the supernatural tale, his second graphic novel adaptation following Road to Perdition, which…kind of sucked. Samuel L. Jackson will play Sho'nuff, the Shogun of Harlem, in a remake of 1985’s The Last Dragon. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 30 2008, 10:00 AM with no comments Filed under: morning deal report, gary oldman, denzel washington, samuel l. jackson, scott von doviak, road to perdition, revolutionary road, sam mendes, the last dragon, book of eli, preacher, hughes brothers

• One Billion Bats

  Posted by Leonard Pierce

  In the Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex blog, Geoff Boucher has a lengthy conversation with Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, whose superhero epic is teetering on the verge of making a billion dollars.  Considering that's just U.S. and foreign box office, and doesn't even take into account merchandising and the vast sums it's going to rake in once it comes to home video, that's the kind of cash that even Bruce Wayne would greet with a low whistle.  Nolan, though, if he isn't exactly taking the news in stride, at least isn't letting it go to his head:  "I can't get my arms around it, to be frank.  It's mystifying.  It's terrific, but at the same time, it's a little abstract, the numbers are so big...there's something liberating in knowing that my next film, whatever it is, isn't going to make as much money.  I don't have to try for years." Wait a minute..."whatever it is"?  Surely it's going to be a third Batman movie.  Surely Nolan isn't going to walk away from a franchise that netted widespread critical acclaim and a ten-figure box office return, right?  The man himself is cagey on the subject, saying that if there's a compelling enough story to tell, he'll be on board, but noting that no such story has yet revealed itself, and asking the very sensible question:  "How many good third movies in a franchise can people name?" Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 29 2008, 03:15 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: leonard pierce, heath ledger, christian bale, the joker, batman, los angeles times, dark knight, christopher nolan, batman begins, geoff boucher, gotham

• The Screengrab 24-Hour Stephen King Marathon (Part Two)

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Introduction Part One 6 a.m. – 8 a.m. CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984) Some would say I’m crazy for undertaking this 24-hour marathon, but I do have my limits. For example, I had briefly considered doing a marathon of every Children of the Corn movie instead. As you may or may not know, there are seven total Corn movies, of which the final five were released straight to video. I find this odd for many reasons, not least of which is that corn isn’t generally considered to be scary. (Creamed corn, on the other hand…terrifying.) Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 29 2008, 03:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: stephen king, twin peaks, the shining, linda hamilton, scott von doviak, ron perlman, Alice Krige, children of the corn, night shift, peter horton, steven weber, mick garris, brian krause, desperation, madchen amick, the stand, sleepwalkers

• Video of the Day: "Walter"

  Posted by Leonard Pierce

  If you know the Screengrab, you know we like a good homemade trailer remix.  And if you know the Screengrab, you also know that we like The Big Lebowski.  So, if you know the Screengrab, you know it was just a matter of time before we got around to posting this thing: Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 29 2008, 12:45 PM with no comments Filed under: leonard pierce, ferris bueller's day off, the big lebowski, video of the day, requiem for a dream, born on the fourth of july

• Trailer Review: Twilight

  Posted by Paul Clark

  So this is "the new Harry Potter"? Okay... Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 29 2008, 12:00 PM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: paul clark, harry potter, twilight, kristen stewart, trailer review, high school musical 3

• Bummercore

  Posted by Leonard Pierce

  We've always been distrustful of the notion that "art film" must always mean "depressing slog".  For that matter, we've always been distrustful of the notion that "depressing slog" must always mean "unenjoyable film".  As Chicago author Amy Krause Rosenthal once wrote, defending her decision to avoid feel-good Hollywood fare, when she sees a movie with a bunch of rich, beautiful people who end up getting whatever they want the most, her own life seems like a failure by comparison, and she ends up being depressed -- but when she sees a movie with a bunch of miserable, unhappy people who just can't get their shit together, her own life seems pretty good by comparison, and she ends up being happy. That said, we can't really dispute the Guardian's Catherine Shoard, who writes  -- inspired by the British opening of the mercilessly grim Austrian arthouse flick Import/Export -- that sitting through some such 'masterpieces' is the cinematic equivalent of an endurance marathon.  Will the movie be more or less depressing than 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days?  Will it be more or less ugly than Rosetta?  Will it have a greater or lesser number of extremely unattractive naked people than Japon?  Shoard then sets forth a checklist of required unpleasantries for any readers contemplating their own arthouse masterpieces, including "kinky yet joyless sex",  inclement weather, feral children, beat-up mopeds, and humor that isn't funny ("a clarinet on the soundtrack tends to signal when it's time to smile").   Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 29 2008, 10:15 AM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: leonard pierce, 4 months 3 weeks 2 days, guardian, rosetta, catherine shoard, japon, import/export, amy krause rosenthal

• Morning Deal Report: Raising Hell Again

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Martyrs director Pascal Laugier is in negotiations to revive Clive Barker’s Hellraiser for Dimension. "This is a dream project for me," Laugier said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I know Clive Barker's work very well, and I would never betray what he has done. Fans are expecting a definitive Hellraiser, and I don't want to take that away from them." So he’s saying Barker’s Hellraiser wasn’t definitive? What a Pinhead. It’s always Sunny and 68 when you’re Vince Vaughn. Wait, did that make any sense? Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 29 2008, 10:00 AM with no comments Filed under: morning deal report, hellraiser, chloe sevigny, vince vaughn, clive barker, scott von doviak, david thewlis, pride and glory, gavin o'connor, rhys ifans, mr. nice, sunny and 68, martyrs

• The Screengrab 24-Hour Stephen King Marathon (Part One)

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Introduction Midnight – 2 a.m. FIRESTARTER (1984) Here’s an inauspicious beginning to our little festival. We can start with the resume of director Mark L. Lester, a career on the fringes highlighted by Truck Stop Women, Roller Boogie and Class of 1984. Then there’s the second-rate source material, seemingly inspired by the question, “What if Carrie got her powers before her first period and had a more supportive parent?” Put them together and you have a shoddy little supernatural thriller starring a puffy little Drew Barrymore as Charlie, the girl who sets fires with her mind. Charlie was born with this ability after her parents Andy (David Keith) and Vicky (Heather Locklear) took part in a medical experiment conducted by the shadowy government agency The Shop. This same agency, headed up by Martin Sheen with an impressively poofy head of hair, is now pursuing Andy (who has that kind of ESP that makes your nose bleed) and Charlie, who they believe will develop the capability of burning down the entire planet. To that end, Sheen brings in John Rainbird, a maniacal child-killer with an eyepatch and a ponytail. Would you cast George C. Scott in this role? Mark Lester did. Terrible performances abound – I’m gonna go ahead and guess that Barrymore started drinking on this set – but at least there’s always a chance that the actors will burst into flames. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 28 2008, 04:00 PM with 6 comment(s) Filed under: terminator, tobe hooper, stephen king, drew barrymore, martin sheen, george c. scott, john carpenter, scott von doviak, robert englund, tangerine dream, The Thing, three days of the condor, heather locklear, class of 1984, roller boogie, ted levine, truck stop women, keith gordon, mark l. lester, bad to the bone, firestarter, christine, night shift, the mangler, david keith

• Reviews By (Sorta) Request: Tenebrae (1982, Dario Argento)

  Posted by Paul Clark

  Note: Due to an untimely Netflix issue, I wasn’t able to watch and review your selected film, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, in time for this week’s Reviews By Request. Instead, I’ve written about the film that received the second-highest number of votes, Dario Argento’s Tenebrae. I’ll be writing about Let Sleeping Corpses at a later date, as soon as I’m able to view it. Thanks for understanding. In addition, I’ll be polling you to determine the film for my November 14 Reviews By Request column. To vote, see the poll at the bottom of this review. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 28 2008, 03:00 PM with 4 comment(s) Filed under: paul clark, brian de palma, dario argento, michael haneke, reviews by request, suspiria, the mother of tears, anthony franciosa, inferno, let sleeping corpses lie, tenebrae

• Gerard Damiano, 1928-2008

  Posted by Phil Nugent

  Gerard Damiano has died, at 80, of complications following a stroke. His major, not-inconsiderable achievement was the creation of what trendspotters in the 1970s called "porno chic," by directing (under the name "Jerry Gerard") the 1972 Deep Throat. That film had modest, mostly unrealized, aspirations, to break the mold in skin flick entertainment value: it had a novel premise--young woman finds that her clitoris is in her throat-- that was inspired by Damiano's discovery of a young leading lady-- Linda Boreman, who he rechristianed "Linda Lovelace"--who, in the words of Nora Ephron, had "no gag reflex whatsoever", and an actor ("Harry Reems", known to his mama as Herbert Streicher) who cavorted like the guy who was voted the funniest member of his high school class doing a bad Groucho impression. Through some combination of a quirk of timing and lucky accidents--as Richard Corliss notes, Lovelace's "inexperience on screen played like freshness, innocence"--Deep Throat caught on big, becoming a cultural phenomenon. At a time when advocates of greater cultural freedom were arguing about nudity and simulated sex on screen, with the 500-pound gorilla (so to speak) of Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris just around the corner, a lot of people began thinking that it might be their duty to pencil in at least one hardcore movie on their schedules, and Deep Throat was the porn movie to see. Another explanation was offered by Norman Mailer in the 2003 documentary Inside Deep Throat: "It was a giggle," Mailer says, "and the worst thing that can be said about Americans as a people is that we'll sell our souls for a giggle." In terms of the ratio of costs (next to nil) to box-office take, there's a pretty good chance that it's the most profitable movie ever made, though hard figures are hard to come by, for the same reason that Damiano would never see any of it: he had gotten his funding from organized crime figures, and it turned out that Mafia bookkeeping made Hollywood bookkeeping look like Scrooge on Christmas morning. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 28 2008, 11:00 AM with no comments Filed under: phil nugent, nora ephron, norman mailer, last tango in paris, richard corliss, deep throat, linda lovelace, story of joanna, georgina spelvin, let my puppets come, the devil in miss jones, gerard damiano, harry reems, marlon brndo, inside deep throat

• The Farting Deal Report

  Posted by Scott Von Doviak

  Now that we know America loves a talking dog, Hollywood is asking the musical question, “How about a farting dog?” Tween sensations the Jonas Brothers, apparently lacking any agents or adult career advisors of any kind, have signed on to star in Walter the Farting Dog. Peter and Bobby Farrelly may direct the story of “a fat dog with severe flatulence. The brothers play musicians whose parents are asked to care for the dog by an aunt just before she passes away…While his brothers play music, Frankie and the gaseous hound get involved in a plot that involves liberating a koi fish and thwarting jewel thieves,” Variety reports. Milk director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Blac will reteam for an adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Oct 28 2008, 10:30 AM with no comments Filed under: morning deal report, gus van sant, zac efron, milk, scott von doviak, footloose, one flew over the cuckoo's nest, tom wolfe, high school musical 3, bobby farrelly, jonas brothers, kenny ortega, walter the farting dog, the electric kool-aid acid test, peter farrelly, ken kesey