VFX icon and “Mad God” director Phil Tippett is working on a new stop-motion feature titled “Sentinel,” which will be pitched for the first time at this year’s Frontières section of Cannes’ Marché du Film.
Variety has been given exclusive access to the first plot details and set images from “Sentinel,” which shares a visual fidelity with “Mad God.” However, in terms of production, things will be very different this time around.
“Mad God” was a project that Tippett worked on off and on for thirty years. A similar timetable isn’t realistic for “Sentinel,” as the director would be over 100 at the film’s premiere. So, Tippett and producer Colin Geddes (Ultra 8 Pictures) say they’re pursuing a more conventional development and production plan with their new project, including a clearer narrative focus. Tippett has already begun filming bits of the film, and his team will be...
Variety has been given exclusive access to the first plot details and set images from “Sentinel,” which shares a visual fidelity with “Mad God.” However, in terms of production, things will be very different this time around.
“Mad God” was a project that Tippett worked on off and on for thirty years. A similar timetable isn’t realistic for “Sentinel,” as the director would be over 100 at the film’s premiere. So, Tippett and producer Colin Geddes (Ultra 8 Pictures) say they’re pursuing a more conventional development and production plan with their new project, including a clearer narrative focus. Tippett has already begun filming bits of the film, and his team will be...
- 5/9/2024
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
This True Detective article contains spoilers for Night Country.
True Detective: Night Country hasn’t been shy about drawing connections to season 1 of the hit crime series, down to the very clear supernatural bent of the new case, which sees Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) investigating mysterious disappearances in rural Alaska during the region’s long polar night. Trailers for season 4 have even teased a familiar swirling symbol, the same one that a pair of odd couple Louisiana detectives followed all the way to Carcosa and the Yellow King back in 2014. In fact, with the premiere of Night Country, it really feels like we’re back in the “good ol’ days” with Rust and Marty.
Danvers and Navarro’s case inevitably leads them to the icy sea beyond the fictional town of Ennis, where they find the final resting place of the scientists who disappeared...
True Detective: Night Country hasn’t been shy about drawing connections to season 1 of the hit crime series, down to the very clear supernatural bent of the new case, which sees Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) investigating mysterious disappearances in rural Alaska during the region’s long polar night. Trailers for season 4 have even teased a familiar swirling symbol, the same one that a pair of odd couple Louisiana detectives followed all the way to Carcosa and the Yellow King back in 2014. In fact, with the premiere of Night Country, it really feels like we’re back in the “good ol’ days” with Rust and Marty.
Danvers and Navarro’s case inevitably leads them to the icy sea beyond the fictional town of Ennis, where they find the final resting place of the scientists who disappeared...
- 1/15/2024
- by John Saavedra
- Den of Geek
This post contains spoilers for the first episode of "True Detective: Night Country."
It has been 10 years since the first season of "True Detective" aired on HBO, kickstarting an unforgettable legacy that still endures. The case at the center of this first season was mired in dark secrets and a unique brand of esoterism, coupled with the horrors of cosmic entities that may or may not have been lurking within the ruins of Carcosa. While the transgressions of the Tuttle cult were unspeakably evil, highlighting the worst that humans are capable of, there is an unmistakeable otherworldly aura to the first season, be it in the form of aerial spirals or visions that told a darker truth. "True Detective: Night Country," the fourth and latest season in the franchise, continues the tradition of dissecting a case that seems grounded in practicality but delves into the ominous supernatural in ways that call back to the original.
It has been 10 years since the first season of "True Detective" aired on HBO, kickstarting an unforgettable legacy that still endures. The case at the center of this first season was mired in dark secrets and a unique brand of esoterism, coupled with the horrors of cosmic entities that may or may not have been lurking within the ruins of Carcosa. While the transgressions of the Tuttle cult were unspeakably evil, highlighting the worst that humans are capable of, there is an unmistakeable otherworldly aura to the first season, be it in the form of aerial spirals or visions that told a darker truth. "True Detective: Night Country," the fourth and latest season in the franchise, continues the tradition of dissecting a case that seems grounded in practicality but delves into the ominous supernatural in ways that call back to the original.
- 1/15/2024
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Amicus Relaunch Bid Smashes Crowdfunding Goal in Less Than 24 Hours: "An ambitious campaign to revive the iconic British horror studio has reached its £60K funding goal in just 11 hours as fans from around the world rally around the project.
Thanks to this hugely successful funding drive, Amicus is now set to return with its first film for decades, ‘In the Grip of Terror’, a portmanteau feature harking back to the company's best-loved titles such as 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' (1965), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972), and 'Asylum' (1972).
Since the announcement last month of the rebirth of Amicus, the team behind the project has received an incredible outpouring of support from the horror community, culminating in the launch of their record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. The team is seeking funds to produce 'In the Grip of Terror', and in return offering various perks, from Collector's Edition physical copies to exclusive merchandise,...
Thanks to this hugely successful funding drive, Amicus is now set to return with its first film for decades, ‘In the Grip of Terror’, a portmanteau feature harking back to the company's best-loved titles such as 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' (1965), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972), and 'Asylum' (1972).
Since the announcement last month of the rebirth of Amicus, the team behind the project has received an incredible outpouring of support from the horror community, culminating in the launch of their record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. The team is seeking funds to produce 'In the Grip of Terror', and in return offering various perks, from Collector's Edition physical copies to exclusive merchandise,...
- 9/20/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
At a time when weird tales were often dismissed by respectable critics — a time in which, sadly, we have never actually stopped living — the anthology series "The Twilight Zone" wasn't just popular, it was widely acclaimed. The show even won three Emmy Awards: two for its creator and writer, Rod Serling, for his many impressive and subversive scripts (Serling wrote 92 of the show's 156 episodes), and one for the show's primary cinematographer, George T. Clemens.
While it's still unusual for media in the weird horror genre to win any mainstream accolades, it's not altogether strange when a popular TV series wins at least some Emmy Awards. It is, however, exceptionally strange when an episode of a television series — any television series — wins an Academy Award. Because, you know, that's an award that specifically exists to honor movies instead of television.
And yet, that's exactly what happened to a "Twilight Zone" episode called.
While it's still unusual for media in the weird horror genre to win any mainstream accolades, it's not altogether strange when a popular TV series wins at least some Emmy Awards. It is, however, exceptionally strange when an episode of a television series — any television series — wins an Academy Award. Because, you know, that's an award that specifically exists to honor movies instead of television.
And yet, that's exactly what happened to a "Twilight Zone" episode called.
- 9/5/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
After decades in the shadows, the legendary Amicus Productions is set for a grand revival thanks to the team at Hex Studios. Their upcoming film, ‘In the Grip of Terror’, seeks to honor the classic studio’s legacy while forging a new chapter in British horror.
Drawing inspiration from iconic films like ‘Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors’ (1965), ‘Tales from the Crypt’ (1972), and ‘Asylum’ (1972), the new portmanteau feature will spotlight four tales rooted in the works of revered authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and E.F Benson. With a central theme of medical macabre, the film promises to be a chilling experience. While the full cast list is under wraps, it will feature UK horror stalwarts like Laurence R. Harvey (Human Centipede II) and emerging stars Megan Tremethick (Ghost Crew) Jonathan Hansler (The Devil’s Machine) and Michael Daviot (Revenge of Innsmouth).
Guiding the ambitious resurrection is the new president of Amicus Productions,...
Drawing inspiration from iconic films like ‘Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors’ (1965), ‘Tales from the Crypt’ (1972), and ‘Asylum’ (1972), the new portmanteau feature will spotlight four tales rooted in the works of revered authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and E.F Benson. With a central theme of medical macabre, the film promises to be a chilling experience. While the full cast list is under wraps, it will feature UK horror stalwarts like Laurence R. Harvey (Human Centipede II) and emerging stars Megan Tremethick (Ghost Crew) Jonathan Hansler (The Devil’s Machine) and Michael Daviot (Revenge of Innsmouth).
Guiding the ambitious resurrection is the new president of Amicus Productions,...
- 8/16/2023
- by Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins
- Horror Asylum
A legendary British film company, known for classics including Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, as well as Scream and Scream Again, The House That Dripped Blood, Madhouse, and The Beast Must Die, Amicus Productions largely operated between 1962 and 1977, and we’ve learned this week that a fresh revival of the company is on the way.
The press release informs us, “After decades in the shadows, the legendary Amicus Productions is set for a grand revival thanks to the team at Hex Studios.
“Their upcoming film, In the Grip of Terror, seeks to honor the classic studio’s legacy while forging a new chapter in British horror.”
Drawing inspiration from iconic films like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Tales from the Crypt (1972), and Asylum (1972), the new portmanteau feature will spotlight four tales rooted in the works of revered authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and E.F Benson.
The press release informs us, “After decades in the shadows, the legendary Amicus Productions is set for a grand revival thanks to the team at Hex Studios.
“Their upcoming film, In the Grip of Terror, seeks to honor the classic studio’s legacy while forging a new chapter in British horror.”
Drawing inspiration from iconic films like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Tales from the Crypt (1972), and Asylum (1972), the new portmanteau feature will spotlight four tales rooted in the works of revered authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, and E.F Benson.
- 8/15/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Horror fans of all ages have wonderful memories of Amicus Productions, who made their name with classic anthology horror films like Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Asylum, and many more! In an exciting bit of news that just came our way, Lawrie Brewster announced that he and Sarah Daly have resurrected Amicus (in collaboration with the family of Amicus founder Milton Subotsky), and will be moving forward with their first project, titled In the Grip of Terror:
After decades in the shadows, the legendary Amicus Productions is set for a grand revival thanks to the team at Hex Studios. Their upcoming film, 'In the Grip of Terror', seeks to honor the classic studio's legacy while forging a new chapter in British horror.
Drawing inspiration from iconic films like 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' (1965), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972), and 'Asylum' (1972), the new portmanteau feature...
After decades in the shadows, the legendary Amicus Productions is set for a grand revival thanks to the team at Hex Studios. Their upcoming film, 'In the Grip of Terror', seeks to honor the classic studio's legacy while forging a new chapter in British horror.
Drawing inspiration from iconic films like 'Dr. Terror's House of Horrors' (1965), 'Tales from the Crypt' (1972), and 'Asylum' (1972), the new portmanteau feature...
- 8/15/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Iconic British horror label Amicus Productions is resurrecting with anthology film “In the Grip of Terror.”
Based at Shepperton Studios, Amicus was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg and was active between 1962 and 1977. The outfit was mainly known for their portmanteau or anthology films featuring four or five horror shorts each, including “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors” (1965), “Torture Garden” (1967), “The House That Dripped Blood” (1971), “Tales from the Crypt” (1972), “Asylum” (1972), “Vault of Horror” (1973) and “From Beyond the Grave” (1974). A galaxy of stars including Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Donald Sutherland, Herbert Lom and Patrick Magee starred in the films.
With a central theme of medical macabre, “In the Grip of Terror” will draw inspiration from “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors,” “Tales from the Crypt” and “Asylum” and will spotlight four tales rooted in the works of revered authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce and E.F Benson.
Based at Shepperton Studios, Amicus was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg and was active between 1962 and 1977. The outfit was mainly known for their portmanteau or anthology films featuring four or five horror shorts each, including “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors” (1965), “Torture Garden” (1967), “The House That Dripped Blood” (1971), “Tales from the Crypt” (1972), “Asylum” (1972), “Vault of Horror” (1973) and “From Beyond the Grave” (1974). A galaxy of stars including Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Donald Sutherland, Herbert Lom and Patrick Magee starred in the films.
With a central theme of medical macabre, “In the Grip of Terror” will draw inspiration from “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors,” “Tales from the Crypt” and “Asylum” and will spotlight four tales rooted in the works of revered authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce and E.F Benson.
- 8/15/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
A few months ago, while covering Hex Studios’ fantasy film throwback The Slave and the Sorcerer, we also mentioned that Hex was also working to “build a new British horror and fantasy studio that’s inspired by the likes of Cannon, Hammer, and Aip”. Now their endeavor has taken a mind-blowing leap forward: Hex Studios has announced they’re working with the family of late producer Milton Subotsky to resurrect Amicus Productions! Hex co-founder Lawrie Brewster is set to be the president of the revived Amicus… and their first project will be exactly the sort of movie Amicus is best remembered for: a horror portmanteau (or anthology) film called In the Grip of Terror!
Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg founded Amicus Productions in the early ’60s, and from 1962 to 1977 they produced nearly thirty films, including Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Dr. Who and the Daleks, The Skull, The Psychopath,...
Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg founded Amicus Productions in the early ’60s, and from 1962 to 1977 they produced nearly thirty films, including Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Dr. Who and the Daleks, The Skull, The Psychopath,...
- 8/14/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
The "life flashing before their eyes" genre of storytelling is usually met with the general criticism of lazy writing. But when it's done well, as "Jacob's Ladder" was in 1990, the result can be disorienting and bleak in the best of ways. Written by "Ghost" scribe Bruce Joel Rubin, the Adrian Lyne-directed psychological drama concerns Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam vet beset by increasingly grotesque visions, plunging him into a hellscape in which the veil between reality and lunacy wears thin. The movie enjoyed mild box office success, but a robust afterlife as a cult masterpiece.
Few are more excited about the film's sustained success than Lyne, who spoke to Coming Soon on the 30th anniversary of its release and compared its experience to that of reading an Ambrose Bierce short story for the first time (which was adapted into one of Lyne's favorite movies):
"There was a...
Few are more excited about the film's sustained success than Lyne, who spoke to Coming Soon on the 30th anniversary of its release and compared its experience to that of reading an Ambrose Bierce short story for the first time (which was adapted into one of Lyne's favorite movies):
"There was a...
- 9/27/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
Night Gallery (Season 1)
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1969/ Color / 1.33:1 / 408 Minutes
Starring Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley, William Windom
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Boris Sagal, Jeannot Szwarc
A modern-day mythologist with a populist bent, Rod Serling fused the cautionary tales of fantasists like Ray Bradbury to the righteous anger of muckrakers like Ambrose Bierce and A.J. Leibling. Add to that mix the never ending run-ins with network honchos and we can assume that the beleaguered Everyman who populated Serling’s most enduring creation was more than a little autobiographical.
Serling began his long journey on October 2, 1959—and while the signpost up ahead may have read “The Twilight Zone”, the world-weary Serling’s real destination was the past. An early entry in that ground-breaking series was the writer’s own Walking Distance, the story of Martin Sloan, a burned-out ad man who, thanks to some homespun hocus-pocus, has a heart-to-heart chat with his own 11-year-old self.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1969/ Color / 1.33:1 / 408 Minutes
Starring Joan Crawford, Richard Kiley, William Windom
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Boris Sagal, Jeannot Szwarc
A modern-day mythologist with a populist bent, Rod Serling fused the cautionary tales of fantasists like Ray Bradbury to the righteous anger of muckrakers like Ambrose Bierce and A.J. Leibling. Add to that mix the never ending run-ins with network honchos and we can assume that the beleaguered Everyman who populated Serling’s most enduring creation was more than a little autobiographical.
Serling began his long journey on October 2, 1959—and while the signpost up ahead may have read “The Twilight Zone”, the world-weary Serling’s real destination was the past. An early entry in that ground-breaking series was the writer’s own Walking Distance, the story of Martin Sloan, a burned-out ad man who, thanks to some homespun hocus-pocus, has a heart-to-heart chat with his own 11-year-old self.
- 1/25/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Prisoners of the Ghostland screenwriter/producer Reza Sixo Safai joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss his wildest cinematic experiences.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Infested (2002)
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary
Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary
Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)
Mandy (2018)
Candy (1968) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer commentary
S.O.B. (1981)
The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary
Robin Hood (1973)
The Story of Robin Hood (1952)
Modern Times (1936)
The Kid (1921)
The Deer (1974)
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Qeysar (1969)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Warriors (1979)
New Jack City (1991)
Colors (1988)
The Whip And The Body (1963)
Blow Out (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary
Porky’s (1981)
Cinema Paradiso (1988) – Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review
Circumstance (2011)
Ninja 3: The Domination (1984)
Flashdance (1983)
Debbie...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Infested (2002)
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary
Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla (1952) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary
Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)
Mandy (2018)
Candy (1968) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer commentary
S.O.B. (1981)
The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary
Robin Hood (1973)
The Story of Robin Hood (1952)
Modern Times (1936)
The Kid (1921)
The Deer (1974)
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Qeysar (1969)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Warriors (1979)
New Jack City (1991)
Colors (1988)
The Whip And The Body (1963)
Blow Out (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary
Porky’s (1981)
Cinema Paradiso (1988) – Glenn Erickson’s Region B Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review
Circumstance (2011)
Ninja 3: The Domination (1984)
Flashdance (1983)
Debbie...
- 11/9/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
The 4K Ultra HD crowd has a treat in store, for Donnie Boy is back for theatrical quality home screenings. Richard Kelly’s dreamy/morbid teen fantasy has gained in stature in the twenty years (gasp) since the nasty bunny-man ‘Frank’ raised his ugly chrome head… and young Donald’s psychic sci-fi ordeal seems more relevant than ever. Arrow’s 4K-only release shows the label once again proving its mettle in the hard media video biz, with full-res encodings of both the theatrical and director’s extended cuts.
Donnie Darko 4K
4k Ultra HD
Arrow Academy
2001 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 113, 133 min. / Street Date April 27, 2021 / Available from Mvd Entertainment Group
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross, Beth Grant.
Cinematography: Steven Poster.
Production Design: Alexander Hammond
Film Editors: Sam Bauer, Eric Strand
Original Music: Michael Andrews
Produced by Adam Fields,...
Donnie Darko 4K
4k Ultra HD
Arrow Academy
2001 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 113, 133 min. / Street Date April 27, 2021 / Available from Mvd Entertainment Group
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross, Beth Grant.
Cinematography: Steven Poster.
Production Design: Alexander Hammond
Film Editors: Sam Bauer, Eric Strand
Original Music: Michael Andrews
Produced by Adam Fields,...
- 5/11/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Severin continues to impress with their incredible box set releases and their latest announcement was an instant pre-order for me: a collection of five remastered Christopher Lee movies and a rarely seen, Christopher Lee-hosted, anthology horror TV series:
(Los Angeles, CA) On May 25th, Severin Films is releasing a box set of buried gems from one of cinema’s most seminal figures - Sir Christopher Lee. He remains one of the most beloved horror/fantasy icons in US/UK pop culture history, but Christopher Lee delivered several of the most compelling, acclaimed and bizarre performances of his entire career in 1960s Europe. The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee brings together five of these Lee classics - the 1964 gothic shocker Crypt Of The Vampire; the 1964 cult hit Castle Of The Living Dead co-starring an unknown Donald Sutherland; 1962's celebrated Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace; 1967's lurid favorite The Torture Chamber Of Dr.
(Los Angeles, CA) On May 25th, Severin Films is releasing a box set of buried gems from one of cinema’s most seminal figures - Sir Christopher Lee. He remains one of the most beloved horror/fantasy icons in US/UK pop culture history, but Christopher Lee delivered several of the most compelling, acclaimed and bizarre performances of his entire career in 1960s Europe. The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee brings together five of these Lee classics - the 1964 gothic shocker Crypt Of The Vampire; the 1964 cult hit Castle Of The Living Dead co-starring an unknown Donald Sutherland; 1962's celebrated Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace; 1967's lurid favorite The Torture Chamber Of Dr.
- 2/12/2021
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
This article contains major The Invisible Man spoilers.
The Invisible Man is an excellent horror film packed with shocks and scares and with a fun ending which contains several twists. But it’s possible director Leigh Whannell might have intended to pull the rug out from under the viewer one last time, offering the opportunity for a very different alternative reading of what actually happens to Cecilia.
In the ending we see onscreen, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) escapes the institution she’s locked in, is cleared of killing her sister and is able to exact a fitting revenge on her abusive husband Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) with the help of her friend James (Aldis Hodge) who finally believes she was being tortured by her invisible ex. It’s a triumphant ending for Cecilia that’s pure wish fulfillment.
But sometimes when something feels too good to be true that’s because it is.
The Invisible Man is an excellent horror film packed with shocks and scares and with a fun ending which contains several twists. But it’s possible director Leigh Whannell might have intended to pull the rug out from under the viewer one last time, offering the opportunity for a very different alternative reading of what actually happens to Cecilia.
In the ending we see onscreen, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) escapes the institution she’s locked in, is cleared of killing her sister and is able to exact a fitting revenge on her abusive husband Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) with the help of her friend James (Aldis Hodge) who finally believes she was being tortured by her invisible ex. It’s a triumphant ending for Cecilia that’s pure wish fulfillment.
But sometimes when something feels too good to be true that’s because it is.
- 3/5/2020
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
The satirist Ambrose Bierce, author of the Devil’s Dictionary, once defined radicalism as “the conservatism of tomorrow injected into the affairs of today.”
What Bierce wittily captured — that today’s radicals are tomorrow’s normies — means that at any given moment, the current political establishment will be fighting off the inevitable.
The Brahmins of today don’t battle with ideas, because as Bierce pointed out, their belief systems are usually regressive and unpopular, only they don’t know it yet. The battle is almost always waged instead over personality,...
What Bierce wittily captured — that today’s radicals are tomorrow’s normies — means that at any given moment, the current political establishment will be fighting off the inevitable.
The Brahmins of today don’t battle with ideas, because as Bierce pointed out, their belief systems are usually regressive and unpopular, only they don’t know it yet. The battle is almost always waged instead over personality,...
- 4/16/2019
- by Matt Taibbi
- Rollingstone.com
Dislocation is something that everyone has experienced in their life, or at least can relate to; be it from friends, family, or co-workers. Sometimes we feel alone, or conversely wish that we were left that way. No horror film captures a sustained sense of isolation and dread better than Carnival of Souls (1962), Herk Harvey’s only narrative film and a low budget miracle.
Released by Herts-Lion International Corporation stateside in September as part of a double feature with The Devil’s Messenger (1961), Carnival of Souls was lucky to have any distribution at all on a budget of $30,000 (!) and it came and went with nary a notice. Until 1989, that is; a critical reappraisal was in order and the film was rereleased for a new generation to discover it through home video, where it rightly holds a place as one of the finest and influential horror films of the ‘60s. Not a...
Released by Herts-Lion International Corporation stateside in September as part of a double feature with The Devil’s Messenger (1961), Carnival of Souls was lucky to have any distribution at all on a budget of $30,000 (!) and it came and went with nary a notice. Until 1989, that is; a critical reappraisal was in order and the film was rereleased for a new generation to discover it through home video, where it rightly holds a place as one of the finest and influential horror films of the ‘60s. Not a...
- 5/6/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Many weird-world genre bending millennial epics have already dated badly, but not Richard Kelly’s sci-fi / horror / satirical mind-trip about a guy given a glimpse of time travel in another dimension. The wit hasn’t faded and the menace hasn’t cooled, and the cast seems hipper than ever: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross. Two versions, two formats, no waiting.
Donnie Darko
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
2001 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 113, 133 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / ( 4-Disc Limited Edition) / Available from Arrow Video 49.95
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross.
Cinematography: Steven Poster
Production Design: Alexander Hammond
Film Editors: Sam Bauer, Eric Strand
Original Music: Michael Andrews
Produced by Adam Fields, Nancy Juvonen, Sean McKittrick
Written and Directed by Richard Kelly
When high school kids get into creative writing...
Donnie Darko
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
2001 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 113, 133 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / ( 4-Disc Limited Edition) / Available from Arrow Video 49.95
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Patrick Swayze, Jena Malone, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore, Katharine Ross.
Cinematography: Steven Poster
Production Design: Alexander Hammond
Film Editors: Sam Bauer, Eric Strand
Original Music: Michael Andrews
Produced by Adam Fields, Nancy Juvonen, Sean McKittrick
Written and Directed by Richard Kelly
When high school kids get into creative writing...
- 4/25/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Cinema Art from Lawrence, Kansas? Industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey comes through with a classic horror gem for the ages. A haunted church organist begins to suspect that her hallucinations are more than just nerves. And who is that ghoulish man who keeps appearing in reflections, or popping up out of nowhere? Carnival of Souls Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 63 1962 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 78 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 12, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison, Stan Levitt, Herk Harvey. Cinematography Maurice Prather Film Editor Dan Palmquist, Bill de Jarnette Original Music Gene Moore Assistant Director Raza (Reza) Badiyi Written by John Clifford Produced and Directed by Herk Harvey
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Herk Harvey's marvelous Carnival of Souls is an anomaly in screen horror, a regional effort that transcends its production limitations to deliver a tingling encounter with the uncanny. Harvey was a prolific producer of industrial films,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Herk Harvey's marvelous Carnival of Souls is an anomaly in screen horror, a regional effort that transcends its production limitations to deliver a tingling encounter with the uncanny. Harvey was a prolific producer of industrial films,...
- 7/8/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
"Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth." -- Louis (Danny Aiello) in "Jacob's Ladder" I first viewed "Jacob's Ladder" on VHS several years after its release in theaters, when it received a lukewarm response from audiences (it grossed around $26 million by the end of its run) and received a polarizing response from critics: Roger Ebert called it "powerfully written, directed and acted" while The Washington Post's Hal Hinson charged it with being "garbled and cliched." My initial reaction to...
- 12/31/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Fear is an intricate emotion, which triggers visible physical reactions but profoundly affects one’s psyche in ways far more destructive. It thrives on uncertainty as it serves to prevent us from facing danger and experiencing pain. It’s because of this that death, the most certain part of our mortal lives, ranks high on the list of things we fear. It can happen anywhere, at any time, for countless reasons, it’s permanent, and yet its aftermath is unknown.
Enthralled by this idea, Edgar Allan Poe explored humanity’s relationship with its fatal destiny by writing fiction that focused on the supernatural, on evil, and alternate realities, attempting to decipher this terrifying concept. “Extraordinary Tales," Raul Garcia's animated anthology, takes five of these stories by revered writer and transforms them into stylistically distinct shorts that are as visually striking as they are spine-chilling.
The Spanish animator became fascinated with Poe and his otherworldly stories at an early age, but worked on an array of projects before finally bringing one of his favorite authors to the screen by simultaneously honoring numerous other artists that have influenced his career. Each of the five segments in "Extraordinary Tales" is inspired by a different aesthetic, which makes for an eclectic showcase of what 3D animation could be beyond the mainstream conventions.
To make the film an even more compelling affair, Garcia was able to recruit some of the most important and iconic voices in genre cinema. Bela Lugosi reappears from beyond the grave thanks to a previously unreleased recording, Christopher Lee returns to horror one final time to narrate one of the episodes, Roger Corman continues to demonstrate his love for Poe by voicing one of the characters, and Guillermo del Toro shows his voice acting talents in an unexpected fashion.
During our conversation Garcia talked about his artistic influences, being an independent animator today, getting to work with his childhood heroes, and the biggest mistake horror films make when trying to instill fear.
How did you fall in love with Edgar Allan Poe's stories? What was the seed that sparked this fascination with his work that compelled you to create this beautiful animated anthology?
Raul Garcia: The seed was planted when I was bout 12-years-old because the firs adult book I read was a compilation of Poe’s stories. That was the first book for grown-ups I read [Laughs]. Then there was my passion as an avid comic book and graphic novel reader. I’ve always leaned towards the dark side, so it was the perfect combination. Since then, I’ve been a fan of horror literature and science fiction and fantasy as well. That first book was the seed that started it all.
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories have been adapted countless because it seems like they lend themselves to interpretation and experimentation. How did you approach the material to make your animated versions distinct from the rest?
Raul Garcia: There are thousands of different film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s works everywhere. Obviously, the ones that most of us know are the ones done by Roger Corman in the 60s with Vincent Price, which were not really adaptations because they only used the titles as an excuse to make a horror film. When I decided to make my version of Poe’s stories, I wanted to respect the original material or to at least get closer to what his stories are really about. Most other adaptations I’ve seen sort of follow the story but they never satisfy me as an audience member or as a reader. I wanted to get closer to the spirit of the stories more than than to the text itself. I didn’t necessarily want to do it verbatim, but there are some lines of dialogue that I’ve taken literally from Poe’s writings. I wanted to make adaptations that distilled the essence of what attracted me about these stories in the first place.
Each segment has a very particular stylistic approach. While they are all beautiful in their own right, each showcases an eclectic mix of textures and influences. How did each visual style originate?
Raul Garcia: Everything started with “The Tell-Tale Heart," which was the first short I made for this project, which originally was supposed to be a one-off. This was a story that I wanted to tell with art inspired by one of the greatest comic book artist there is, Alberto Breccia. He was Argentine comic book artist. It was about adapting his style to this story. Departing from this decision I created a set rules for myself, which I would apply to the rest of the stories. Since for this first story I had used Breccia’s art as the basis, I thought that for the rest of the stories I would try to reconnect with all the artistic influences I’ve had in my life and apply them in a way that had something to do with the spirit of the each story. I searched for things that attracted in terms of artistic styles and I tried to adapt them into the world of animation to make these short films.
For example, in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the idea was for the characters to look as if they were carved out of wood, like if they were figures that belonged to Czech animator Jirí Trnka. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the biggest influence was Egon Schiele and Bruegel. Egon Schiele worked with oil paint, but he used very thin layers of paint which made his works look like watercolors. I tried to resemble that to create moving painting for that’s story. That short is one of my favorites, because in Poe’s original story there is no dialogue except for the line that’s in the short. It’s all very descriptive. This really represented a challenged that allowed me to have fun during the process of creating it. I’ve always tried to find those distinct approaches because this is a 3D animated film and I wanted to stay away from the style that all 3D animated films have today. They are all rendered in the same manner with photorealist textures. I tried to make something much more pictorial, so that the audience wouldn’t know if they were watching something done in 3D, 2D, in oil paintings, or made out of cut-outs.
The segment based on “The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar” looks very much like if it was a 2D animated film. It's interesting to hear it was all 3D.
Raul Garcia Yes. Poe wrote that story as if it was a real case or the study written by a scientist taking notes from an experiment. When it was published people thought that the case in the story actually happened. People though that what they were reading were the notes taken by a scientist that had brought a corpse back to life. Having this in mind, my approach to find the right style was to look at medical illustrations and to make the animation look like if it was taken from a medical journal. However, and because I think I should also tell you about the bad experiences, I have to admit that approach didn’t work. I didn’t like how it looked. It felt very cold and calculated. But then, I reread the story and realized that this story was over the top, very exaggerated. Then I thought about the horror comic books that I read when I was kid, which shared this outrageous and exaggerated spirit.
That’s when I decided to make this story based on the look of horror comic books from the 50s, which were printed on cheap paper and only used four different color inks. They were printed using the Cmyk color model, so the color spectrum used was very small. Colorists, who used to be very underpaid, did what they could with these four colors. Sometimes in one panel a face was blue and in the next one the same face was red, and nobody cared about having any sort of continuity [Laughs]. I applied this color limitation to this story. Besides the fact that the style is very much inspired by those comic books, the animation is also animated as if it was 2D. In computer animation each second is created by 24 frames and each one of these 24 frames is different. In 2D animation, to save time and money, you create 12 drawings and each drawing is used twice. In one second created of 24 frames you really only have 12 frames. I tried to do it this segment using this process as if it was 2D because it gives the animation a different cadence in comparison to the rest of the stories.
Then you have “The Pit and the Pendulum,” which is in a sense hyperrealist even though it still feels like there are elements of fine art in it.
Raul Garcia: That one was interesting because the original story takes place in a prison and there is only one character. When I started thinking about how to make these stories, what I wanted was to experiment with different types of animation and see how far we could get in terms of technology. Initially, I wanted to make this segment using motion capture. At the time I thought that films made using motion capture always looked bad, and I wanted to know why! [Laughs]. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a motion capture team to make it. At that moment the challenge changed, and we decided to make something hyperrealist - something I personally hate [Laughs]. I decided we should make something hyperrealist but with more traditional 3D animation and see how refined and subtle we could make it without using motion capture or any real life references. That’s how the style for this one came about, which I think it’s a blend between Goya and Nicéphore Niépce and the beginning of photography, mixed with those prisons that Piranesi drew in his carvings. What I’ve tried to do is give myself the pleasure and luxury to explore the universes of the artists I admire.
One of the many remarkable qualities of the film is that every segment captures the unsettling tone of the stories. The macabre atmosphere, regardless of which style you are using, is subtle but always present. At times it's truly terrifying.
Raul Garcia: Let’s remember that one of the biggest problems with horror cinema is showing too much. When horror turns into gore, when you show the monster, the killings, and the blood, it loses its suggestive powers. It loses part of what makes a horror film a horror film, which is that the images you see develop in your brain and you become the one imagining what you are not seeing on screen. You give the audience a bit of information, and he or she fills in the blanks with the most horrifying things they can think of. That was a key element I wanted to preserve. I didn’t want to make to make something very graphic, but instead maintain that mental introspection so that the viewer could put himself in that situation and imagine what’s happening.
In terms of the voice cast, you managed to put together and incredible cast including a voice from beyond the grave in a sense. The legendary Bela Lugosi returns thanks to your film. How did you obtain this recording?
Raul Garcia: It was a stroke of luck. I’m originally from Spain, so I’ve always read Edgar Allan Poe’s works in Spanish and at some point I wanted to enjoy the original material in English. For several years now I’ve been collecting narrated versions of Poe’s works. When I was getting ready to make “The Tell-Tale Heart, “ I discovered a recording of Bella Lugosi narrating this tale on Ebay. It was a cassette tape that was a copy of the original. It was the copy of the copy, of the copy, of the copy [Laughs]. When I finally got it the first thing I did was contact Bela G. Lugosi, his son who handles the Bela Lugosi’s state, and I discovered that this recording had never been published or released. Bela G. Lugosi didn’t even have in his archive, as it had been lost. Nobody had heard it and it hadn’t been exploited at all. I restored it as best as I could, but since I made that short in 2006 the technology was probably not as good as it's now. I tried to digitally polish it as much as possible to remove the static sound. But even though I wasn’t completely successful, I think that this static you hear gives the narration an unsettling quality. It sounds like something from another time that has returned after many years.
He was an icon in the horror genre, which makes it even more special for a film like "Extraordinary Tale."
Raul Garcia: Absolutely. This was the first short I did, so when I decided that it would instead be an anthology of several shorts, the bar was very high in terms of the voices that I could use. If the first one is someone as big as Bela Lugosi, who could be next? That pushed me to seek voices that meant something in the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror. The next short I made was “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and evidently Christopher Lee was the number candidate on my wish list.
How did you manage to get Christopher Lee to be a part of the film? "Extraordinary Tales" is the last film project he worked on before, unfortunately, passing away.
Raul Garcia: Unfortunately, as you point out, it's his last film appearance. But on the other hand, we were so fortunate to have his talent because it was really an incredible experience to work with him. It was very emotional for me, I was working with my childhood idol. It was great. When I recorded his voice, Christopher Lee was 89-years-old. He wasn’t very interested in revisiting horror cinema because at the time he was focused on becoming the lead singer of a heavy metal band [Laughs]. He was recording an album that was sort of like a heavy-metal-rock-opera based on the Charlemagne’s life. He was so passionate about it. It was hard to believe that an 89-year-old man had so much energy to do that. When I showed him the artwork he changed his mind and he agreed to do it. It was also funny that he didn’t want to go to a recording studio to do it. We set up a recording studio in his home so he could record it whenever he felt inspired.
Then you have Guillermo Del Toro, who has become Hollywood’s genre master working in horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and more recently in animation. How did he come on board?
Raul Garcia: Guillermo and I have been friends since the time he lived in Spain, and when I was searching for voices that were meaningful and important in the horror and fantasy genres he was high on my list. I know that deep inside Guillermo has a thing for acting, which he never talks about [Laughs]. I asked him to narrate the short and he agreed immediately. Then we had to chase him for a couple years because he has been extremely busy in the last few years, and we could never find the right time to do it. In the end we did it and Guillermo really gave it his all. His narration is very interesting and intriguing because it’s not the Guillermo we know. It’s a different facet of his talent that nobody knew about
Tell me about the process of creating the frame narrative in which Poe, in the shape of the iconic raven, has a dialogue with Death. This conversations connect the five major segments and give insight into the tormented mind of the artist.
Raul Garcia: I wanted to make a feature-length work and I didn’t like the idea of just putting one short after the other. It felt to me like it would look like a shorts program at a festival without any relationship between them, when in fact the relationship between them is Poe and his personal story. These interludes or framing segments where the last to be produced and at that point we were out of money, out of time, out of patience, out of everything [Laughs]. As I was working on each of the shorts the framing story that would unite them changed. Initially I wanted to unite the stories with this epic framing narrative where we would see the last day in Poe’s life as he went drunk from bar to bar until he dies. Then it changed to a story where Poe was lonely walking down the street towards the cemetery and finding different things that would remind him of his stories along the way.
As we got farther into production of the five major segments the framing narrative kept on changing and becoming shorter. In the end it became this dialogue between Poe and Death, which is like Scheherazade and the One Thousand and One Nights, where they tell each other stories. Poe wants to postpone his own death, while Death wants to convince him that if he is so miserable he might be better off dead. The biggest problem I faced, and which was truly a nightmare, is that as a viewer I don’t really like anthology films where there are connecting segments in between the stories, like George A. Romero's "Creepshow." As a viewer, when we get to the interludes or the framing narrative, what I’m thinking is, “Come on, Come, on, start the next story already!” [Laughs]. That’s why I really thought about the rhythm of these segments to try to precent the viewer from thinking, “I don’t want to see this. I want to see the next story.” I also wanted to give the viewer small doses of information needed for the whole story to make sense and for it to have structure.
Why do you think Edgar Allan Poe became so fascinated, even obsessed, with death and the darker and more disturbing aspects of the human condition?
Raul Garcia: Poe lived in a very romantic time. His life was the life of the typical tortured artist. His mother died when he was very young and his wife also died very young. In the Victorian era the health standards and life expectancy weren’t very high, thus death was a constant possibility lurking around. Besides this, his turbulent life turn him into a taciturn man with mental health issues. I think this really had an effect in the obsession he had with death. More than with death in general, he was obsessed with the possibility of being buried alive and discovering that he had to hold on to life even after death.
His work definitely set a precedent in the horror genre and in literature as a whole.
Raul Garcia: He was the first one to write horror stories. Without Poe probably Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t have been written because when Poe wrote the adventures of Dupin, like The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter, he was setting up the basis for what would become the detective novel. In a way Poe was a big influence for Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes. I think he really did influence many artist of the time like Baudelaire, who was a big fan of Poe, and who was the one that brought attention to Poe’s work in Europe. That’s how another generation of writers like Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, and many others were influenced by Poe’s stories.
Besides working in the U.S. you've worked in animated projects in Spain and Latin America, what's the most difficult aspect about creating animation in countries that are not necessarily seen as animation producers or that perhaps haven't fully developed the infrastructure for it?
Raul Garcia: I’ve worked in animation for a long time. I started in Spain and I wanted to make feature films. That desire to figure out how to make animated features brought me to the U.S. to work for Disney. Now things are different, in recent years technology has made it easier to make animated films than it used to be maybe 15 or 20 years ago. This has made it possible for the latent talents that are in countries without a tradition in animation to explore, learn, and create work. The biggest problem in countries that don’t have a tradition in animation or a film industry, is that precisely, that it’s not an industrial activity as it is in Hollywood where there are clear production procedures. Because of this we all become snipers making our films any way we can and crossing our fingers to get distribution so people can see them.
In a certain way working in animation has become very democratic because now anyone with the right technology can at least prepare a project from home in order to attract investors. Some people can even set up a small home studio and start working. Making features is much more complicated and expensive, but on the other hand, and thanks to this ubiquity and the decentralization of animation, anyone even in a small town can work with an animation program, stay in touch with people in other parts of the world, and manage to produce a film. That’s what we’ve done with "Extraordinary Tales,”although the film is a co-production between Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain and the U.S, in the end Mexican talent worked on it, people all over Spain worked on it, and even people in Honduras worked on it doing some modeling. With small teams across the world we managed to unite everyone’s talent to make the film.
"Extraordinary Tales" is finally opening in the U.S. Now that the cycle for this film is getting to its final stage, are you already working on your next project? Are you pursuing another horror writer to adapt into animation?
Raul Garcia: Independence can be tough. Without a studio to back you up, when you finish a feature and want to start a new project you have to start from zero. The next thing I want to do is to bring to the screen a novel by Cornelia Funke, she is also the voice of Death in “Extraordinary Tales.” She is a German author who wrote the novel “Inkheart,” which was made into a film a few years ago. The book I want to adapt is called “Young Werewolf,” but my version would be titled “Bitten." I’m still trying to find the initial financing that will allow me to get started and get things going. Once the initial financing is secured the rest becomes easier, and just like with “Extraordinary Tales,” we can make a film with the cooperation of several small studios. For example, another film I worked on was the Mexican animated feature “El Americano,” which was mostly made in Tijuana but also had teams in Puebla and Los Angeles. It’s possible, but you do have to have the financial infrastructure behind you so this can work. In the world of independent animation there are many projects that are never completed because they lack that structure.
"Extraordinary Tales" is now playing in L.A. at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas and In NYC at IFC Center.
Enthralled by this idea, Edgar Allan Poe explored humanity’s relationship with its fatal destiny by writing fiction that focused on the supernatural, on evil, and alternate realities, attempting to decipher this terrifying concept. “Extraordinary Tales," Raul Garcia's animated anthology, takes five of these stories by revered writer and transforms them into stylistically distinct shorts that are as visually striking as they are spine-chilling.
The Spanish animator became fascinated with Poe and his otherworldly stories at an early age, but worked on an array of projects before finally bringing one of his favorite authors to the screen by simultaneously honoring numerous other artists that have influenced his career. Each of the five segments in "Extraordinary Tales" is inspired by a different aesthetic, which makes for an eclectic showcase of what 3D animation could be beyond the mainstream conventions.
To make the film an even more compelling affair, Garcia was able to recruit some of the most important and iconic voices in genre cinema. Bela Lugosi reappears from beyond the grave thanks to a previously unreleased recording, Christopher Lee returns to horror one final time to narrate one of the episodes, Roger Corman continues to demonstrate his love for Poe by voicing one of the characters, and Guillermo del Toro shows his voice acting talents in an unexpected fashion.
During our conversation Garcia talked about his artistic influences, being an independent animator today, getting to work with his childhood heroes, and the biggest mistake horror films make when trying to instill fear.
How did you fall in love with Edgar Allan Poe's stories? What was the seed that sparked this fascination with his work that compelled you to create this beautiful animated anthology?
Raul Garcia: The seed was planted when I was bout 12-years-old because the firs adult book I read was a compilation of Poe’s stories. That was the first book for grown-ups I read [Laughs]. Then there was my passion as an avid comic book and graphic novel reader. I’ve always leaned towards the dark side, so it was the perfect combination. Since then, I’ve been a fan of horror literature and science fiction and fantasy as well. That first book was the seed that started it all.
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories have been adapted countless because it seems like they lend themselves to interpretation and experimentation. How did you approach the material to make your animated versions distinct from the rest?
Raul Garcia: There are thousands of different film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s works everywhere. Obviously, the ones that most of us know are the ones done by Roger Corman in the 60s with Vincent Price, which were not really adaptations because they only used the titles as an excuse to make a horror film. When I decided to make my version of Poe’s stories, I wanted to respect the original material or to at least get closer to what his stories are really about. Most other adaptations I’ve seen sort of follow the story but they never satisfy me as an audience member or as a reader. I wanted to get closer to the spirit of the stories more than than to the text itself. I didn’t necessarily want to do it verbatim, but there are some lines of dialogue that I’ve taken literally from Poe’s writings. I wanted to make adaptations that distilled the essence of what attracted me about these stories in the first place.
Each segment has a very particular stylistic approach. While they are all beautiful in their own right, each showcases an eclectic mix of textures and influences. How did each visual style originate?
Raul Garcia: Everything started with “The Tell-Tale Heart," which was the first short I made for this project, which originally was supposed to be a one-off. This was a story that I wanted to tell with art inspired by one of the greatest comic book artist there is, Alberto Breccia. He was Argentine comic book artist. It was about adapting his style to this story. Departing from this decision I created a set rules for myself, which I would apply to the rest of the stories. Since for this first story I had used Breccia’s art as the basis, I thought that for the rest of the stories I would try to reconnect with all the artistic influences I’ve had in my life and apply them in a way that had something to do with the spirit of the each story. I searched for things that attracted in terms of artistic styles and I tried to adapt them into the world of animation to make these short films.
For example, in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the idea was for the characters to look as if they were carved out of wood, like if they were figures that belonged to Czech animator Jirí Trnka. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” the biggest influence was Egon Schiele and Bruegel. Egon Schiele worked with oil paint, but he used very thin layers of paint which made his works look like watercolors. I tried to resemble that to create moving painting for that’s story. That short is one of my favorites, because in Poe’s original story there is no dialogue except for the line that’s in the short. It’s all very descriptive. This really represented a challenged that allowed me to have fun during the process of creating it. I’ve always tried to find those distinct approaches because this is a 3D animated film and I wanted to stay away from the style that all 3D animated films have today. They are all rendered in the same manner with photorealist textures. I tried to make something much more pictorial, so that the audience wouldn’t know if they were watching something done in 3D, 2D, in oil paintings, or made out of cut-outs.
The segment based on “The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar” looks very much like if it was a 2D animated film. It's interesting to hear it was all 3D.
Raul Garcia Yes. Poe wrote that story as if it was a real case or the study written by a scientist taking notes from an experiment. When it was published people thought that the case in the story actually happened. People though that what they were reading were the notes taken by a scientist that had brought a corpse back to life. Having this in mind, my approach to find the right style was to look at medical illustrations and to make the animation look like if it was taken from a medical journal. However, and because I think I should also tell you about the bad experiences, I have to admit that approach didn’t work. I didn’t like how it looked. It felt very cold and calculated. But then, I reread the story and realized that this story was over the top, very exaggerated. Then I thought about the horror comic books that I read when I was kid, which shared this outrageous and exaggerated spirit.
That’s when I decided to make this story based on the look of horror comic books from the 50s, which were printed on cheap paper and only used four different color inks. They were printed using the Cmyk color model, so the color spectrum used was very small. Colorists, who used to be very underpaid, did what they could with these four colors. Sometimes in one panel a face was blue and in the next one the same face was red, and nobody cared about having any sort of continuity [Laughs]. I applied this color limitation to this story. Besides the fact that the style is very much inspired by those comic books, the animation is also animated as if it was 2D. In computer animation each second is created by 24 frames and each one of these 24 frames is different. In 2D animation, to save time and money, you create 12 drawings and each drawing is used twice. In one second created of 24 frames you really only have 12 frames. I tried to do it this segment using this process as if it was 2D because it gives the animation a different cadence in comparison to the rest of the stories.
Then you have “The Pit and the Pendulum,” which is in a sense hyperrealist even though it still feels like there are elements of fine art in it.
Raul Garcia: That one was interesting because the original story takes place in a prison and there is only one character. When I started thinking about how to make these stories, what I wanted was to experiment with different types of animation and see how far we could get in terms of technology. Initially, I wanted to make this segment using motion capture. At the time I thought that films made using motion capture always looked bad, and I wanted to know why! [Laughs]. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a motion capture team to make it. At that moment the challenge changed, and we decided to make something hyperrealist - something I personally hate [Laughs]. I decided we should make something hyperrealist but with more traditional 3D animation and see how refined and subtle we could make it without using motion capture or any real life references. That’s how the style for this one came about, which I think it’s a blend between Goya and Nicéphore Niépce and the beginning of photography, mixed with those prisons that Piranesi drew in his carvings. What I’ve tried to do is give myself the pleasure and luxury to explore the universes of the artists I admire.
One of the many remarkable qualities of the film is that every segment captures the unsettling tone of the stories. The macabre atmosphere, regardless of which style you are using, is subtle but always present. At times it's truly terrifying.
Raul Garcia: Let’s remember that one of the biggest problems with horror cinema is showing too much. When horror turns into gore, when you show the monster, the killings, and the blood, it loses its suggestive powers. It loses part of what makes a horror film a horror film, which is that the images you see develop in your brain and you become the one imagining what you are not seeing on screen. You give the audience a bit of information, and he or she fills in the blanks with the most horrifying things they can think of. That was a key element I wanted to preserve. I didn’t want to make to make something very graphic, but instead maintain that mental introspection so that the viewer could put himself in that situation and imagine what’s happening.
In terms of the voice cast, you managed to put together and incredible cast including a voice from beyond the grave in a sense. The legendary Bela Lugosi returns thanks to your film. How did you obtain this recording?
Raul Garcia: It was a stroke of luck. I’m originally from Spain, so I’ve always read Edgar Allan Poe’s works in Spanish and at some point I wanted to enjoy the original material in English. For several years now I’ve been collecting narrated versions of Poe’s works. When I was getting ready to make “The Tell-Tale Heart, “ I discovered a recording of Bella Lugosi narrating this tale on Ebay. It was a cassette tape that was a copy of the original. It was the copy of the copy, of the copy, of the copy [Laughs]. When I finally got it the first thing I did was contact Bela G. Lugosi, his son who handles the Bela Lugosi’s state, and I discovered that this recording had never been published or released. Bela G. Lugosi didn’t even have in his archive, as it had been lost. Nobody had heard it and it hadn’t been exploited at all. I restored it as best as I could, but since I made that short in 2006 the technology was probably not as good as it's now. I tried to digitally polish it as much as possible to remove the static sound. But even though I wasn’t completely successful, I think that this static you hear gives the narration an unsettling quality. It sounds like something from another time that has returned after many years.
He was an icon in the horror genre, which makes it even more special for a film like "Extraordinary Tale."
Raul Garcia: Absolutely. This was the first short I did, so when I decided that it would instead be an anthology of several shorts, the bar was very high in terms of the voices that I could use. If the first one is someone as big as Bela Lugosi, who could be next? That pushed me to seek voices that meant something in the world of science fiction, fantasy and horror. The next short I made was “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and evidently Christopher Lee was the number candidate on my wish list.
How did you manage to get Christopher Lee to be a part of the film? "Extraordinary Tales" is the last film project he worked on before, unfortunately, passing away.
Raul Garcia: Unfortunately, as you point out, it's his last film appearance. But on the other hand, we were so fortunate to have his talent because it was really an incredible experience to work with him. It was very emotional for me, I was working with my childhood idol. It was great. When I recorded his voice, Christopher Lee was 89-years-old. He wasn’t very interested in revisiting horror cinema because at the time he was focused on becoming the lead singer of a heavy metal band [Laughs]. He was recording an album that was sort of like a heavy-metal-rock-opera based on the Charlemagne’s life. He was so passionate about it. It was hard to believe that an 89-year-old man had so much energy to do that. When I showed him the artwork he changed his mind and he agreed to do it. It was also funny that he didn’t want to go to a recording studio to do it. We set up a recording studio in his home so he could record it whenever he felt inspired.
Then you have Guillermo Del Toro, who has become Hollywood’s genre master working in horror, fantasy, and science fiction, and more recently in animation. How did he come on board?
Raul Garcia: Guillermo and I have been friends since the time he lived in Spain, and when I was searching for voices that were meaningful and important in the horror and fantasy genres he was high on my list. I know that deep inside Guillermo has a thing for acting, which he never talks about [Laughs]. I asked him to narrate the short and he agreed immediately. Then we had to chase him for a couple years because he has been extremely busy in the last few years, and we could never find the right time to do it. In the end we did it and Guillermo really gave it his all. His narration is very interesting and intriguing because it’s not the Guillermo we know. It’s a different facet of his talent that nobody knew about
Tell me about the process of creating the frame narrative in which Poe, in the shape of the iconic raven, has a dialogue with Death. This conversations connect the five major segments and give insight into the tormented mind of the artist.
Raul Garcia: I wanted to make a feature-length work and I didn’t like the idea of just putting one short after the other. It felt to me like it would look like a shorts program at a festival without any relationship between them, when in fact the relationship between them is Poe and his personal story. These interludes or framing segments where the last to be produced and at that point we were out of money, out of time, out of patience, out of everything [Laughs]. As I was working on each of the shorts the framing story that would unite them changed. Initially I wanted to unite the stories with this epic framing narrative where we would see the last day in Poe’s life as he went drunk from bar to bar until he dies. Then it changed to a story where Poe was lonely walking down the street towards the cemetery and finding different things that would remind him of his stories along the way.
As we got farther into production of the five major segments the framing narrative kept on changing and becoming shorter. In the end it became this dialogue between Poe and Death, which is like Scheherazade and the One Thousand and One Nights, where they tell each other stories. Poe wants to postpone his own death, while Death wants to convince him that if he is so miserable he might be better off dead. The biggest problem I faced, and which was truly a nightmare, is that as a viewer I don’t really like anthology films where there are connecting segments in between the stories, like George A. Romero's "Creepshow." As a viewer, when we get to the interludes or the framing narrative, what I’m thinking is, “Come on, Come, on, start the next story already!” [Laughs]. That’s why I really thought about the rhythm of these segments to try to precent the viewer from thinking, “I don’t want to see this. I want to see the next story.” I also wanted to give the viewer small doses of information needed for the whole story to make sense and for it to have structure.
Why do you think Edgar Allan Poe became so fascinated, even obsessed, with death and the darker and more disturbing aspects of the human condition?
Raul Garcia: Poe lived in a very romantic time. His life was the life of the typical tortured artist. His mother died when he was very young and his wife also died very young. In the Victorian era the health standards and life expectancy weren’t very high, thus death was a constant possibility lurking around. Besides this, his turbulent life turn him into a taciturn man with mental health issues. I think this really had an effect in the obsession he had with death. More than with death in general, he was obsessed with the possibility of being buried alive and discovering that he had to hold on to life even after death.
His work definitely set a precedent in the horror genre and in literature as a whole.
Raul Garcia: He was the first one to write horror stories. Without Poe probably Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t have been written because when Poe wrote the adventures of Dupin, like The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter, he was setting up the basis for what would become the detective novel. In a way Poe was a big influence for Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes. I think he really did influence many artist of the time like Baudelaire, who was a big fan of Poe, and who was the one that brought attention to Poe’s work in Europe. That’s how another generation of writers like Lord Dunsany, Ambrose Bierce, and many others were influenced by Poe’s stories.
Besides working in the U.S. you've worked in animated projects in Spain and Latin America, what's the most difficult aspect about creating animation in countries that are not necessarily seen as animation producers or that perhaps haven't fully developed the infrastructure for it?
Raul Garcia: I’ve worked in animation for a long time. I started in Spain and I wanted to make feature films. That desire to figure out how to make animated features brought me to the U.S. to work for Disney. Now things are different, in recent years technology has made it easier to make animated films than it used to be maybe 15 or 20 years ago. This has made it possible for the latent talents that are in countries without a tradition in animation to explore, learn, and create work. The biggest problem in countries that don’t have a tradition in animation or a film industry, is that precisely, that it’s not an industrial activity as it is in Hollywood where there are clear production procedures. Because of this we all become snipers making our films any way we can and crossing our fingers to get distribution so people can see them.
In a certain way working in animation has become very democratic because now anyone with the right technology can at least prepare a project from home in order to attract investors. Some people can even set up a small home studio and start working. Making features is much more complicated and expensive, but on the other hand, and thanks to this ubiquity and the decentralization of animation, anyone even in a small town can work with an animation program, stay in touch with people in other parts of the world, and manage to produce a film. That’s what we’ve done with "Extraordinary Tales,”although the film is a co-production between Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain and the U.S, in the end Mexican talent worked on it, people all over Spain worked on it, and even people in Honduras worked on it doing some modeling. With small teams across the world we managed to unite everyone’s talent to make the film.
"Extraordinary Tales" is finally opening in the U.S. Now that the cycle for this film is getting to its final stage, are you already working on your next project? Are you pursuing another horror writer to adapt into animation?
Raul Garcia: Independence can be tough. Without a studio to back you up, when you finish a feature and want to start a new project you have to start from zero. The next thing I want to do is to bring to the screen a novel by Cornelia Funke, she is also the voice of Death in “Extraordinary Tales.” She is a German author who wrote the novel “Inkheart,” which was made into a film a few years ago. The book I want to adapt is called “Young Werewolf,” but my version would be titled “Bitten." I’m still trying to find the initial financing that will allow me to get started and get things going. Once the initial financing is secured the rest becomes easier, and just like with “Extraordinary Tales,” we can make a film with the cooperation of several small studios. For example, another film I worked on was the Mexican animated feature “El Americano,” which was mostly made in Tijuana but also had teams in Puebla and Los Angeles. It’s possible, but you do have to have the financial infrastructure behind you so this can work. In the world of independent animation there are many projects that are never completed because they lack that structure.
"Extraordinary Tales" is now playing in L.A. at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas and In NYC at IFC Center.
- 10/24/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Robert Enrico's literally searing terror tale from the French occupation is not for the faint of heart. Fearing reprisals, surgeon Philippe Noiret sends his wife Romy Schneider out of harm's way of the retreating Germans -- but things go horribly wrong. What follows is an ordeal of vengeance even more brutal than Straw Dogs, fought to the finish in a medieval castle. The Old Gun MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD-r 1975 / Color / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 102 87 min. / Le vieux fusil / Street Date September 8, 2015 / available through Screen Archives Entertainment / 19.95 Starring Philippe Noiret, Romy Schneider, Jean Bouise, Joachim Hansen, Robert Hoffmann, Karl Michael Vogler, Madeleine Ozeray, Caroline Bonhomme, Catherine Delaporte, Daniel Breton, Jean-Paul Cisife, Antoine Saint-John. Cinematography Étienne Becker Film Editor Ava Zora Original Music François de Roubaix Written by Robert Enrico, Pascal Jardin, Claude Veillot Produced by Pierre Caro Directed by Robert Enrico
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some of us can remember...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some of us can remember...
- 9/22/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It appears that Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s English language debut got a longer title for it’s DVD/Blu-ray Release, now known as Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf. An interesting and sometimes successful throwback to a fine tradition of genre cinema, Bogliano owes a great deal of this to Nick Damici, an actor featured prominently in the films of Jim Mickle. Considering the budget, several of the special effects sequences are quite impressive. Premiering at South By Southwest in 2014, a November theatrical release saw a mixed critical reception.
After the surprising critical success of his 2012 title Here Comes the Devil, the Spanish director makes his English language debut with a somewhat droll werewolf exercise paying heavy homage to several notable genre titles from the 1980s. Entertaining but never as funny or thrilling as this concoction sometimes promises, for those familiar with Bogliano’s earlier titles (this marks his eleventh feature,...
After the surprising critical success of his 2012 title Here Comes the Devil, the Spanish director makes his English language debut with a somewhat droll werewolf exercise paying heavy homage to several notable genre titles from the 1980s. Entertaining but never as funny or thrilling as this concoction sometimes promises, for those familiar with Bogliano’s earlier titles (this marks his eleventh feature,...
- 3/10/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Silver Bullet Band: Bogliano’s English Debut Nontransformative Nostalgia
After the surprising critical success of his 2012 title Here Comes the Devil, Spanish director Adrian Garcia Bogliano makes his English language debut with Late Phases, a somewhat droll werewolf exercise paying heavy homage to several notable genre titles from the 1980s. Entertaining but never as funny or thrilling as this concoction sometimes promises, for those familiar with Bogliano’s earlier titles (this marks his eleventh feature, plus a handful of short films), it’s considerably polished in comparison even if it lacks the pizzazz that such a derivative subgenre requires.
A blind war veteran, Ambrose (Nick Damici) has been relocated to a quaint retirement community, deposited unceremoniously by his son (Ethan Embry). Ambrose chats with his friendly neighbor lady Delores (Karen Lynn Gorney), but she, along with his trusty canine, is ripped to shreds later that very night by a lycanthrope.
After the surprising critical success of his 2012 title Here Comes the Devil, Spanish director Adrian Garcia Bogliano makes his English language debut with Late Phases, a somewhat droll werewolf exercise paying heavy homage to several notable genre titles from the 1980s. Entertaining but never as funny or thrilling as this concoction sometimes promises, for those familiar with Bogliano’s earlier titles (this marks his eleventh feature, plus a handful of short films), it’s considerably polished in comparison even if it lacks the pizzazz that such a derivative subgenre requires.
A blind war veteran, Ambrose (Nick Damici) has been relocated to a quaint retirement community, deposited unceremoniously by his son (Ethan Embry). Ambrose chats with his friendly neighbor lady Delores (Karen Lynn Gorney), but she, along with his trusty canine, is ripped to shreds later that very night by a lycanthrope.
- 11/27/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Eraserhead
Written and directed by David Lynch
1977, USA
Midway through Eraserhead, David Lynch’s midnight-black dreamscape, the terror is momentarily interrupted by the hauntingly breathtaking song, whispered by the disfigured chipmunk-cheeked chanteuse, Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near), as if to let the audience in on something indescribable, to give them an out from the ceaselessly tiresome domestic grind.
”In heaven everything is fine,” she sings, willed into form from inside a radiator, in a tone that is both gentle and calm, and touchingly naïve.
While equally as otherworldly as what has been shown before it, it is nestled somewhere that is associative of the limitless bounds of the moving image, looking in from a point at which such problems as family, loneliness and child-rearing live, no matter the reality.
After all, Lynch establishes in this first feature of his, there is warmth, beauty and peace to be found against...
Written and directed by David Lynch
1977, USA
Midway through Eraserhead, David Lynch’s midnight-black dreamscape, the terror is momentarily interrupted by the hauntingly breathtaking song, whispered by the disfigured chipmunk-cheeked chanteuse, Lady in the Radiator (Laurel Near), as if to let the audience in on something indescribable, to give them an out from the ceaselessly tiresome domestic grind.
”In heaven everything is fine,” she sings, willed into form from inside a radiator, in a tone that is both gentle and calm, and touchingly naïve.
While equally as otherworldly as what has been shown before it, it is nestled somewhere that is associative of the limitless bounds of the moving image, looking in from a point at which such problems as family, loneliness and child-rearing live, no matter the reality.
After all, Lynch establishes in this first feature of his, there is warmth, beauty and peace to be found against...
- 10/29/2014
- by Fiman Jafari
- SoundOnSight
1. The McConnaissance has officially hit its peak.
It's now belaboring the obvious to state that Matthew McConaughey has morphed into one of the most interesting actors working today — an unpredictable phenomenon that we can carbon-date back to 2011 and his Rockford Files-esque turn in The Lincoln Lawyer. His career-resurgence modus operandi was simple: kiss off the typical leading-man roles that were slowly suffocating him and go moody (Mud), dowdy (Bernie), psycho-ugly (Killer Joe), or campy, where-are-my-bongos batshit-crazy (The Paperboy). Where once his two modes were open-shirted or altogether shirtless, McConaughey started...
It's now belaboring the obvious to state that Matthew McConaughey has morphed into one of the most interesting actors working today — an unpredictable phenomenon that we can carbon-date back to 2011 and his Rockford Files-esque turn in The Lincoln Lawyer. His career-resurgence modus operandi was simple: kiss off the typical leading-man roles that were slowly suffocating him and go moody (Mud), dowdy (Bernie), psycho-ugly (Killer Joe), or campy, where-are-my-bongos batshit-crazy (The Paperboy). Where once his two modes were open-shirted or altogether shirtless, McConaughey started...
- 3/10/2014
- Rollingstone.com
Culminating a remarkable first season in fine, moving form, True Detective’s finale, titled “Form and Void,” took us to the heart of darkness at the vortex center of its weird fiction — as well as the final stage of its meta-commentary on the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, for better and worse. It was a tale that ripped dark marks on our bellies, then soothed us by “making flowers” on us. So to speak.
We start on the outskirts of the infernal plane. We begin in hell on earth. The ersatz underworld of The Yellow King — a.k.a.
We start on the outskirts of the infernal plane. We begin in hell on earth. The ersatz underworld of The Yellow King — a.k.a.
- 3/10/2014
- by Jeff Jensen
- EW.com - PopWatch
"True Detective" has been a big hit for HBO this winter -- more than 10 million people watch the show each week once repeat airings and multi-platform viewing are counted. It has also been, hands down, the most discussed, dissected and debated show of 2014 thus far.
Expect even bigger numbers and more chatter for Sunday's (March 9) season finale. Want to know what everyone's going to be talking about on Twitter? Don't want to miss out on the office talk on Monday? And don't have seven hours between now and Sunday night to do a series binge? Zap2it is here to help.
In honor of the literary underpinnings of "True Detective," here's a CliffsNotes-style guide to what you need to know ahead of the finale.
The case
The show jumps back and forth in time, primarily taking place in 1995 and 2012, with some scenes set in 2002. In 1995, Louisiana State Police detectives Rust...
Expect even bigger numbers and more chatter for Sunday's (March 9) season finale. Want to know what everyone's going to be talking about on Twitter? Don't want to miss out on the office talk on Monday? And don't have seven hours between now and Sunday night to do a series binge? Zap2it is here to help.
In honor of the literary underpinnings of "True Detective," here's a CliffsNotes-style guide to what you need to know ahead of the finale.
The case
The show jumps back and forth in time, primarily taking place in 1995 and 2012, with some scenes set in 2002. In 1995, Louisiana State Police detectives Rust...
- 3/9/2014
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
“Certain experiences you can’t survive, and afterward, you don’t fully exist, even if you failed to die. Everything that happened…is still happening, only now it’s 20 years later, and what happened is just story.”—from the novel Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto
“Strange is the night where black stars rise.” – from The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
True Detective is many things at once—an immersive character study, a gripping head-trippy murder mystery, a psychological profile of the anti-hero zeitgeist, a tour de force for Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. But simply and deeply, it is...
“Strange is the night where black stars rise.” – from The King In Yellow by Robert W. Chambers
True Detective is many things at once—an immersive character study, a gripping head-trippy murder mystery, a psychological profile of the anti-hero zeitgeist, a tour de force for Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. But simply and deeply, it is...
- 1/13/2014
- by Jeff Jensen
- EW - Inside TV
Though fans of AMC’s Breaking Bad are likely still coming down off a meth-like high induced by the show’s brilliant finale “Felina” (check out our review here) last fall, show creator Vince Gilligan is currently hard at work on an upcoming spin-off series called Better Call Saul, which is set to focus on the misadventures of skeevy criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk).
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gilligan revealed that Better Call Saul may relate more closely to the narrative of Breaking Bad than previously realized. The showrunner hinted in October that the door was open for Breaking Bad protagonists Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to make cameo appearances, and now he has picked one key player from the original series whom he wants to see pop up on Better Call Saul: professional ‘cleaner’ Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks).
Gilligan was...
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gilligan revealed that Better Call Saul may relate more closely to the narrative of Breaking Bad than previously realized. The showrunner hinted in October that the door was open for Breaking Bad protagonists Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to make cameo appearances, and now he has picked one key player from the original series whom he wants to see pop up on Better Call Saul: professional ‘cleaner’ Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks).
Gilligan was...
- 1/2/2014
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
2013 was the breakout year for Breaking Bad. The critically adored meth drama, which had enthralled a fervent yet modest-sized fanbase, went next level with its final eight episodes, rocketing to record ratings while dominating talk on Twitter and around watercoolers. Before the New Mexico dust had settled, the show also scored its first Outstanding Drama Series Emmy. For those reasons and more, Breaking Bad was named as one of EW’s Entertainers of the Year and EW critic Melissa Maerz’s No. 1 TV show of 2013, while season 5′s “Ozymandias” topped our Best Episodes of 2013 list. Series creator Vince Gilligan talked...
- 12/31/2013
- by Dan Snierson
- EW - Inside TV
In town for the UK premiere of his film Motivational Growth (review) at Sheffield's Celluloid Screams festival, self-described "Engine of Delight" Don Thacker gracefully sat down with us for a lengthy chat about the film and his work past, present and future. What's in that head of his?
The Mold knows, Jack. The Mold knows...
Dread Central: What was the motivation behind Motivational Growth?
Don Thacker: Well, the motivation was to make a movie (laughs). No... I'd actually pitched a completely different film called 'Flexure', which is this awesome sci-fi love thriller that I want to make. I'd actually written it, and I spent a couple of years at Fermilab, the National Accelerator laboratories in Illinois and was visiting there a couple of times a week doing research. I have some guys over there who want to be consultants on the picture. It's a story about a guy who...
The Mold knows, Jack. The Mold knows...
Dread Central: What was the motivation behind Motivational Growth?
Don Thacker: Well, the motivation was to make a movie (laughs). No... I'd actually pitched a completely different film called 'Flexure', which is this awesome sci-fi love thriller that I want to make. I'd actually written it, and I spent a couple of years at Fermilab, the National Accelerator laboratories in Illinois and was visiting there a couple of times a week doing research. I have some guys over there who want to be consultants on the picture. It's a story about a guy who...
- 11/6/2013
- by Pestilence
- DreadCentral.com
The Astronauts, a Polish indie triumvirate of ex-People Can Fly founders, crash landed into Videogame World earlier this year by announcing "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter," a weird fiction horror story about a detective with spooky abilities. Today, they've released the mysterious new game's first screenshots.
"Weird fiction" is a term used to describe a type of horror writing popularized at the end of the last century by people like, most famously, H. P. Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce. Think the occult, supernatural beings, cosmic abominations, that sort of thing. Weird fiction often has a kind of scientific or naturalistic feel about it, even as it tends to grapple with incomprehensibly strange subject matter.
In other words, a goat skull in a pool of blood is probably pretty par for the course for "Ethan Carter" -- prepare for weird metaphysics and inter-dimensional cuttlefish deities. Since the game doesn't use cut scenes,...
"Weird fiction" is a term used to describe a type of horror writing popularized at the end of the last century by people like, most famously, H. P. Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce. Think the occult, supernatural beings, cosmic abominations, that sort of thing. Weird fiction often has a kind of scientific or naturalistic feel about it, even as it tends to grapple with incomprehensibly strange subject matter.
In other words, a goat skull in a pool of blood is probably pretty par for the course for "Ethan Carter" -- prepare for weird metaphysics and inter-dimensional cuttlefish deities. Since the game doesn't use cut scenes,...
- 9/19/2013
- by Joseph Leray
- MTV Multiplayer
First off, the cover: Archer and Armstrong riding dinosaurs like horses being fired upon by flying saucers in a fantastic pastiche of North by Northwest. Right away you can tell this comic is a lot of fun – and it is!
The complicated, twisty plot of the rebooted Archer and Armstrong series is too much to summarise briefly in this review (and anyway is summarised neatly in one page in the comic itself) but suffice it to say, Archer is a super-assassin who was raised in an ultra-crazy religious cult (are there any other kinds?) who escaped their brainwashing and is teamed up with Armstrong, an immortal Falstaff-ish figure. Currently, they are in a weird dimension called the Faraway where history’s greatest figures who went missing (and a few dodos too!) wound up and apparently haven’t aged since they got there. In this issue Archer teams up with Amelia...
The complicated, twisty plot of the rebooted Archer and Armstrong series is too much to summarise briefly in this review (and anyway is summarised neatly in one page in the comic itself) but suffice it to say, Archer is a super-assassin who was raised in an ultra-crazy religious cult (are there any other kinds?) who escaped their brainwashing and is teamed up with Armstrong, an immortal Falstaff-ish figure. Currently, they are in a weird dimension called the Faraway where history’s greatest figures who went missing (and a few dodos too!) wound up and apparently haven’t aged since they got there. In this issue Archer teams up with Amelia...
- 9/16/2013
- by Noel Thorne
- Obsessed with Film
“The End of the Whole Mess” by Stephen King Available in the collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, this disturbing piece of literature does not deal with the supernatural or crazed maniacs. No demonic monsters, serial killers or the like cause the horror that makes this story so chilling. Rather it is human error (and perhaps even arrogance) and that's what makes this story hit home. Like much of Stephen King's work, it has been adapted for the screen. I first read this as a teenager, and its frightening conclusion has stayed with me ever since. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce It's a good guess that just about everybody has read this story at least once in school, or has heard about it, or has seen one of the numerous films adapted from or inspired by it. Written in the late 1800s, Bierce captures that sense of...
- 9/5/2013
- by Nancy Greene
- FEARnet
Part of the Tony Scott: A Moving Target critical project. Go here for the project's description, index and links to project's other movement.
This is one "movement" of our exquisite corpse-style critical project, Tony Scott: A Moving Target, which coincidentally begins with a look at Crimson Tide, the same movie that begins the other movement. As outlined in the introduction to the entire project, this project began in my mind, as something fairly simple: a snaking continuum of scene analysis. This is only in part what resulted.
The varied responses I got back from my group—"mine" in the sense that it is the one I participated in, since Gina's contribution closes Movement B—seem to say as much about the participating critics as they do about Tony Scott's films and the overlap between the two: the perception of Scott's films and career. Thus many entries, including my own,...
This is one "movement" of our exquisite corpse-style critical project, Tony Scott: A Moving Target, which coincidentally begins with a look at Crimson Tide, the same movie that begins the other movement. As outlined in the introduction to the entire project, this project began in my mind, as something fairly simple: a snaking continuum of scene analysis. This is only in part what resulted.
The varied responses I got back from my group—"mine" in the sense that it is the one I participated in, since Gina's contribution closes Movement B—seem to say as much about the participating critics as they do about Tony Scott's films and the overlap between the two: the perception of Scott's films and career. Thus many entries, including my own,...
- 11/27/2012
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
This article is part of the critical project Tony Scott: A Moving Target in which an analysis of a scene from a Tony Scott film is passed anonymously to the next participant in the project to respond to with an analysis of his or her own.
<- the previous analysis | movement index | the next analysis ->
In the vast majority of auteurist writing on Tony Scott, his hefty, multi-faceted body of work is split misleadingly into three phases: the early “art films” (One of the Missing, Living Memory, L’auteur de Beltraffio, The Hunger), the proficient, sometimes boneheaded spectacle films (Top Gun through to Enemy of the State), and the later, more abstract films (Spy Game onwards). Around about the time of Enemy of the State Scott’s work underwent a famed aesthetic transformation; taking the core ideas of all of his preceding blockbusters and blowing them up into dense, super-edited mutant hailstorms of sound and colour. Today, a...
<- the previous analysis | movement index | the next analysis ->
In the vast majority of auteurist writing on Tony Scott, his hefty, multi-faceted body of work is split misleadingly into three phases: the early “art films” (One of the Missing, Living Memory, L’auteur de Beltraffio, The Hunger), the proficient, sometimes boneheaded spectacle films (Top Gun through to Enemy of the State), and the later, more abstract films (Spy Game onwards). Around about the time of Enemy of the State Scott’s work underwent a famed aesthetic transformation; taking the core ideas of all of his preceding blockbusters and blowing them up into dense, super-edited mutant hailstorms of sound and colour. Today, a...
- 11/27/2012
- by Christopher Small
- MUBI
The Hollywood director's first films were premiered at the National Film Theatre in London
Tony Scott's short feature One of the Missing (1969), his own adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce story, was one of several films chosen to launch the newly built NFT2 screen at the National Film Theatre (now the BFI Southbank), in London, in 1970. It ran for the opening week. He later wrote, photographed, edited and directed Loving Memory (1971), financed by the British Film Institute and Memorial Enterprises, which we also premiered at the Nft, where I was programmer. After this and his film of the Henry James story The Author of Beltraffio, for the BBC, he shortened his name from Anthony Scott and abandoned "art" movies for advertising and his remarkable career in Hollywood.
Tony ScottBFIBrian Baxter
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is...
Tony Scott's short feature One of the Missing (1969), his own adaptation of an Ambrose Bierce story, was one of several films chosen to launch the newly built NFT2 screen at the National Film Theatre (now the BFI Southbank), in London, in 1970. It ran for the opening week. He later wrote, photographed, edited and directed Loving Memory (1971), financed by the British Film Institute and Memorial Enterprises, which we also premiered at the Nft, where I was programmer. After this and his film of the Henry James story The Author of Beltraffio, for the BBC, he shortened his name from Anthony Scott and abandoned "art" movies for advertising and his remarkable career in Hollywood.
Tony ScottBFIBrian Baxter
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is...
- 8/24/2012
- by Brian Baxter
- The Guardian - Film News
An Academy Award-winning short film produced in France, this dreamy, nearly-silent dramatization of a story by Ambrose Bierce starts with a man about to be hanged over a river. The Twilight Zone, Episode #142: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (original air date Feb. 28, 1964) The Plot: A sentence of death is about to be carried out. On a bridge above a river, a noose is looped over the girders and a man (Roger Jacquet), bound by rope, awaits his execution. The plank on which he is standing is kicked out, he plummets downward, the rope tightens ... ... and then it breaks. Underwater, the man cannot believe he is still alive. He frees himself from the rope that ties his hands and swims...
- 1/17/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Thought #1: contact sports have given us an unusual number of fine actors. George C. Scott's nose testified to his travails in the ring, as did John Huston's. France offers Michel Simon, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Italian emigre Lino Ventura. Ventura, a former boxer and wrestler, is perhaps the least celebrated of this triumvirate, but he is beyond great. Initially typed as toughs, understandably given his squat frame and flattened menhir of a nose, he demonstrated such conviction that he could be cast as an art dealer in Montparnasse 19 and as an intellectual freedom fighter in Melville's Army of Shadows. His combination of muscle and brains makes him a perfect choice to play an engineer in—but wait...
Thought #2: It's remarkable how many truly horrible character Alain Delon has played. Impressive that he'd do that—either he's unusually interested in villainy, or directors just see him that way,...
Thought #2: It's remarkable how many truly horrible character Alain Delon has played. Impressive that he'd do that—either he's unusually interested in villainy, or directors just see him that way,...
- 1/12/2012
- MUBI
Good things come in small packages (or so my wife assures me), and that can certainly be the case when it comes to films. Part of the genius of short films is that when they’re good they are just as entertaining and rewarding as something twenty times the length, and when they’re bad, well, at least they’re over quickly. In all walks of life there’s a satisfying beauty to brevity, and in filmmaking it’s nearly always the case that less is best – as anyone who has sat through Judd Apatow’s self-indulgent snore-fest Funny People can attest (surely Irritating People would have been a better title?).
But I digress – I’m here to praise, not malign, and so below I’ve compiled a little list of what I consider to be among the five best short films of all time. Of course, like a lot...
But I digress – I’m here to praise, not malign, and so below I’ve compiled a little list of what I consider to be among the five best short films of all time. Of course, like a lot...
- 9/16/2011
- by Jez Gee
- Obsessed with Film
I cannot count the number of times that spoilers have been an issue for me, either by ruining -- or at least altering -- my enjoyment of a film or TV show, or by not ruining a story: that is, I’ve seen more than a few movies and TV shows after which I’m glad I knew nothing about it beforehand, for advance knowledge of even tiny details would have significantly altered my experience of watching it. So I doubt the results of a study mentioned the other day at the A.V. Club: Psychologists [at Uc San Diego] recently ran an experiment in which a group of 30 people were given 12 separate short stories they’d never read before, by the likes of Raymond Carver, Agatha Christie, Anton Chekhov, Roald Dahl, and John Updike—some presented as-is, some with an introductory paragraph that gave away the ending, and some with that paragraph incorporated into the text.
- 8/12/2011
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The Big Picture explores a question that has long fascinated readers and writers – the situation of people who disappear from their everyday lives to hide, take on new identities or are never seen again. In real life, the inventor Rudolf Diesel and the writer Ambrose Bierce both disappeared in 1913; in 1920, the ex-Labour MP Victor Grayson vanished in London, possibly abducted to prevent him exposing governmental corruption. In his short story Wakefield, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the mind of a middle-class Victorian Londoner who drops out to hide for 20 years a street away from his old home, and in The Third Man Graham Greene (possibly borrowing the idea from Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios) created an antihero who fakes his own death. In Patricia Highsmith's twice-filmed The Talented Mr Ripley, a villain takes over the identity of a dead man, a device brilliantly used in Antonioni's The Passenger and...
- 7/25/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
“Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate.” - Ambrose Bierce A house might be a home, but it can also serve as an apt metaphor for an entire country. Numerous writers have offered portraits of the changing face of their nation in such condition-of-England novels as Charles Dickens' "Bleak House," Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited," and Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" and "North and South." In the case of Julian Fellowes' extraordinary period drama Downton Abbey, launching January 9th on PBS' Masterpiece Classic, the titular country estate, home to the well-heeled Crawley family, is in turmoil. Great houses such as these are both relics of bygone eras as well as living, breathing organisms of their own right, humming along as they employ a staff of hundreds. Everyone--from the lord and lady to the humblest footman and scullery maid--has their function and their duty to maintain.
- 12/8/2010
- by Jace
- Televisionary
Alright, I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a good spooky, atmospheric ghost story. Not that I mind a gore filled romp once in a while, but nothing is better to me than being afraid to turn out the lights when I finish a story, and Dark Regions’ new Ghost House imprint is releasing just the kind of stories I love.
Dark Regions Press has released the second title in their Ghost House imprint, Quill & Candle by Scott Thomas. The first was They That Dwell In Dark Places by Daniel McGachey which I reviewed here.
Dark Regions has a winning formula on their hands with their Ghost House imprint and hopefully will garner enough fans to keep it going.
“In “Quill and Candle” Scott Thomas invites the reader back to an earlier, quieter time, when travelers relied on horses, when cooking was done over a hearth, and frost nights were illuminated by tapers.
Dark Regions Press has released the second title in their Ghost House imprint, Quill & Candle by Scott Thomas. The first was They That Dwell In Dark Places by Daniel McGachey which I reviewed here.
Dark Regions has a winning formula on their hands with their Ghost House imprint and hopefully will garner enough fans to keep it going.
“In “Quill and Candle” Scott Thomas invites the reader back to an earlier, quieter time, when travelers relied on horses, when cooking was done over a hearth, and frost nights were illuminated by tapers.
- 6/16/2010
- by Peter Schwotzer
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
For a time in California, Alex Cox was Dennis Hopper's No 4 henchman. He recalls the director's brilliance and breakdowns – and how John Wayne once tried to kill him
Two nights ago, I had a wake for Dennis Hopper with my wife, Tod, and watched Giant. I also asked Cecilia Montiel, a production designer who lives on the same street as Dennis, to put some flowers on his gate. When I heard he was dying, I phoned a couple of times, spoke to the people in the office, and asked them to give Dennis my best regards. The last time I called, I talked to a lady who was either a nurse or the maid. She told me he was sleeping.
I'd like to have seen the old man before he went. In the late 1980s, I was Dennis Hopper's henchman, for a while. Dennis had several henchmen; I...
Two nights ago, I had a wake for Dennis Hopper with my wife, Tod, and watched Giant. I also asked Cecilia Montiel, a production designer who lives on the same street as Dennis, to put some flowers on his gate. When I heard he was dying, I phoned a couple of times, spoke to the people in the office, and asked them to give Dennis my best regards. The last time I called, I talked to a lady who was either a nurse or the maid. She told me he was sleeping.
I'd like to have seen the old man before he went. In the late 1980s, I was Dennis Hopper's henchman, for a while. Dennis had several henchmen; I...
- 6/3/2010
- by Alex Cox
- The Guardian - Film News
If you haven't ever read Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," you've surely been exposed to it in one way or another. Maybe you saw a copy of it on Lost or experienced its influence on films like Donnie Darko and Jacob's Ladder. Perhaps you saw Robert Enrico's 1962 short film adaptation, which won an Oscar and a prize at Cannes before being aired on TV as an episode of The Twilight Zone (watch it free here). Other versions include a silent film by King Vidor, an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and now a music video directed by Johnny Depp for the band Babybird, which is basically a short film adaptation of the story if you remove the shots of singer Stephen Jones.
I'm not too keen on the song, but it's great to see more behind-the-camera work from the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
I'm not too keen on the song, but it's great to see more behind-the-camera work from the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
- 4/22/2010
- by Christopher Campbell
- Cinematical
“Woman, n. An animal usually living in the vicinity of Man, and having a rudimentary susceptibility to domestication.” —Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary “I would never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried something, I’d be like, Hey! You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!” —Eric Cartman, “An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig,” South Park...
- 3/17/2010
- Pastemagazine.com
Cinema audiences want to be fooled. Our desire for a juicy twist is surely related to our pleasure in a magician's sleight of hand
Martin Scorsese's latest film has a twist ending. That's all I'm going to write about Shutter Island, because I try to avoid spoilers of recent releases. But I reckon older films are fair game, as are films so stupid they're impossible to spoil, which is why I'm issuing a spoiler warning. If you've been on Mars, you might want to stop reading now.
François Truffaut once said the key to a great film ending was to create a combination of spectacle and truth, and there was a time when audiences would have been satisfied with that. Today, though, we like the rug to be pulled from beneath our feet as well.
Agatha Christie made a career out of wrongfooting readers; the killer in Ten Little Indians...
Martin Scorsese's latest film has a twist ending. That's all I'm going to write about Shutter Island, because I try to avoid spoilers of recent releases. But I reckon older films are fair game, as are films so stupid they're impossible to spoil, which is why I'm issuing a spoiler warning. If you've been on Mars, you might want to stop reading now.
François Truffaut once said the key to a great film ending was to create a combination of spectacle and truth, and there was a time when audiences would have been satisfied with that. Today, though, we like the rug to be pulled from beneath our feet as well.
Agatha Christie made a career out of wrongfooting readers; the killer in Ten Little Indians...
- 3/12/2010
- by Anne Billson
- The Guardian - Film News
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