Lady Sylvia in her Snake Women Guise. With a name like that, I'm scared already
In honor of British director Ken Russell’s passing, this week’s Johnny Brento’s JuJu will be devoted to my favorite of his films, The Lair of The White Worm. Released the same year I graduated high school, 1988, the film was extremely loosely adapted from the novel by Bram Stoker “Dracula“ & starred Hugh Grant, Amanda Donohoe and Catherine Oxenberg.
An archeology student visiting the British countryside digs up an elongated skull he assumes belongs to a dinosaur while excavating the site of a buried convent, now an English bed-and-breakfast run by two young sisters. Lord James D’Ampton, is the boyfriend of one of the sisters, and also the descendant of the legendary D’Ampton who reputedly slew a dragon (the “D’Ampton Worm”) that had terrorized the countryside. The mysterious Lady March returns to her mansion nearby and discovers the skull, after which strange events begin to transpire. Continue Reading…
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago at 3:00 am. 1 comment
Arri Lights- I'll take that one and that one and...
I’ve been thinking about what to focus on this week. After filming this weekend, I am thinking about lighting…so…here are some film lighting tips from various blogs and YouTube. Hope you find these useful!
This week we have a special treat for you! Martin Bowes from the band Attrition talks about his experience scoring the short film Family Fiend for the Tales from Mutantville project.
For those not familiar with Attrition, they are from Coventry, England and formed in 1980. They’ve released 19 albums that you can learn more about on their website. They still write and perform music. I first saw Attrition perform in 1996 when he was touring with Sean from Eden and Sam from Projekt Records was with them as well.
We also ask Martin our patented questions to learn about what type of horror he is into.
Since the big horror box office release this week is the remake of Tom Holland’s 1985 classic vamp film Fright Night, we thought we would honor the occasion by sharing an original vampire film – 30 Days of Night. If you are not interested in remakes – then check out this modern classic from the mind of writer Steve Niles (Mystery Society, Criminal Macabre, Remains). 30 Days of Night tells the story of a small town in Alaska that is plunged into thirty days of night for winter and invaded by vampires who have come to feast.
We had a busy weekend aboard the Mutantville Mothership this weekend. We moved several projects through various stages of production and had a blast doing it. We’re gearing up to get Tales From Mutantville onto DVD and Blu Ray as well as putting the final touches on G.H.O.S.T. to get it ready for the Fall. Lots of fun things are coming down the pipe for MVP and we thank you all for being a part of it!
FINAL DESTINATION 5 STALLS AT BOX OFFICE GATES!!!
The horror season is off to a slow start as Final Destination 5 stalls at the box office gates this weekend with a lowly take of $18 million. Still, $18 million is better than the $11 million that Grindhouse gained during it’s entire theatrical run so perhaps third place at the box office is not necessarily so bad. The movie is out late in the Summer season but early enough in the fall season to still be lurking in theaters and dollar theaters come Halloween. This Halloween season is packed as each weekend becomes a battleground for the horror top spot with Fright Night coming this week, followed by Red State, Apollo 18, Don’t Be Afraidof the Dark and Paranormal Activity 3 over the coming months. Continue Reading…
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 4:22 am. Add a comment
Horror heads back to the the mainstream this weekend as Final Destination 5 opens in the theaters across the nation. Get yourself ready for the show by checking out the trailer below!
Do you like the Final Destination films? Missing any of them?Pick them out below!
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 11:29 am. Add a comment
That’s right, guys and ghouls, Steve Niles’ Remains has been optioned by Chiller Network – and he’s not even dead yet! Steve Niles’ tale of a blackjack dealer and exotic dancer trapped in a Reno of the Undead has been picked up by Chiller Network for adaptation into an ongoing television series. Steve Niles has been a favorite of MVP ever since his modern take on the vampire tale with 30 Days of Night was released as a graphic novel and later as a fangtastic celluloid adaptation.
If you don’t want to wait for the adaptation, then pick up the original graphic novel from Amazon – featuring artwork by Kieron Dwyer:
When the world goes mad, a blackjack dealer and an exotic dancer are mysteriously spared. But now they’re trapped in Reno, surrounded by a veritable army of the undead—and with no idea what might wait for them beyond the city limits if they can escape. Are they the last man and woman on Earth? And if so, how long can they last?
That time is upon us once again, oh true believers. Where it once took decades before the master of modern horror would release another film in his epic zombie series, now over the course of the past five years – George A. Romero has released three new dead films and counting! This weekend, George A. Romero’s latest zombie opus Survival of the Dead opens on VOD, Amazon, X-Box Live and in a limited theatrical run. The Mutantville Players were fortunate enough to catch an early showing of Survival of the Dead during an advance screening premiere at the historic Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC back on April 2nd, 2010. MVP was pleasantly surprised by Romero’s latest zombie yarn as it was a light-hearted departure from the nihilistic overtones of the previous entries in the “Dead” series. Fans expecting another dark and depressing bloodbath will most likely leave the theater disappointed – but fans of enjoyable zombie romps such as Shaun of the Dead, Dead Alive, and Return of the Living Dead should enjoy Romero’s latest zombie pic.
Check out the official trailer on Youtube:
Here’s a nice little sneak peek behind the scenes of the making of George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead. As an interesting side note – MVP was able to view this early footage way back in February of 2009 when George Romero hosted the American Zombie Film Festival here in North Carolina.
Hop on over to Break.com and listen as the master George A. Romero discusses his ideas for his latest effort Survival of the Dead. Romero discusses what has been called his neo-western approach taken in his most recent zombie film.
In case you don’t like George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead, that is fine – we all have different tastes – but if you say some kind of nonsense like Romero needs to stop making zombie films – then you need to stop critiquing movies and in the words of the immortal Captain Rhodes – you should CHOKE ON ‘EM! CHOKE ON ‘EM!!! Haters will hate.
Keep on making zombie films, George. We’ll keep watching!
Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 6:16 am. Add a comment
From Wearemoviegeeks.com: This past weekend, Netflix delivered me a documentary that I have been wanting to see ever since I missed it at SLIFF back in 2007. The film was ‘Spine Tingler: The William Castle Story’. For those of you that don’t know who William Castle is, I implore you to check out ‘The William Castle Collection’ that was recently released on DVD (click here to see it at amazon.com) which also includes said documentary. While the meat of the story is how a man who turned some B-Movies into Grade-A events at movie theaters by offering a thousand dollar life insurance policies to attendees of one of his films if they die of fright. While I have always been a fan of Castle and his gimmicks/promotions, this really made me reflect advertising of film past.
homicidalWhen films really started becoming mainstream, the majority of the films were carried by the actors and actresses who headlined or had top-billing for a film. While Castle never had this courtesy, he knew of a way to get people in the seats. He created gimmicks. Believe it or not, PSYCHO by Hitchcock had a gimmick of – which the documentary points out as well – not allowing anyone after the first 15 minutes of the film has been shown. William Castle’s audience participation gimmicks ended in 1965 with ‘I Saw What You Did’ where seat belts were installed in seats to keep you from jumping out of your seats from fright. His ideas made movie watching a bigger thing. He wanted you to experience the film, to make the film fun. He also showed Hollywood and other film makers on how they could promote a film regardless of the content and quality.
from various blogs and YouTube. Hope you find these useful!
