Midnight Movies

The low-budget horror film “I Can See You” has a plot as old as the hills — or at least as old as “The Hills Have Eyes.” A group of city slickers heads out to the country: trouble, madness and some very nasty bodily harm ensue.

But the twist — and this is a very twisty movie — is that the city folks are Brooklyn hipsters taking digital photographs for use in a marketing campaign, and the trouble they encounter has nothing to do with deranged mutant hillbillies.

What it does entail is open to interpretation. The multitasking filmmaker Graham Reznick (who wrote, directed, co-produced, edited and partly scored the movie) calls his debut “a psychedelic campfire tale,” which is as good a description as any for this elusive, experimental scare flick.

There are intimations of standard horror developments: Ben (Ben Dickinson) is afflicted by unnerving perceptual phenomena; Doug (Duncan Skiles) goes missing one night and later turns up mysteriously traumatized; a woman they meet (Heather Robb) suffers an equally inexplicable fate — and perhaps becomes a zombie.

Yet up to and including an overtly horrific climax, nothing can quite be pinned down, explained or identified. Rife with ominous close-ups, strange superimpositions, surrealistic digressions and a sound design that hints at all manner of inchoate terrors, the movie itself seems to be descending into a fearful, broken consciousness.

David Lynch is the key influence here, and Mr. Reznick proves himself a keen disciple of the master. “I Can See You” heralds a splendid new filmmaker with one eye on genre mechanics, one eye on avant-garde conceits and a third eye for transcendental weirdness.

I CAN SEE YOU

Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan.

Written, directed and edited by Graham Reznick; director of photography, Gordon Arkenberg; music by Jeff Grace; produced by Peter Phok and Mr. Reznick; released by Cinema Purgatorio. At the Cinema Purgatorio at the Kraine Theater, 85 East Fourth Street, East Village. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Ben Dickinson (Ben), Duncan Skiles (Doug), Chris Ford (Kimble), Heather Robb (Summer Day), Olivia Villanti (Sonia) and Larry Fessenden (Mickey Hauser).

Source - http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/movies/29ican.html?hpw

An Apopka company said Tuesday it has sued Universal Orlando, its parent company and two studios, accusing them of stealing its concept for Halloween-themed attractions based on three iconic horror-film figures.

ICC Design Inc. accuses Universal, NBC Universal, New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. of taking plans it had developed for theme-park attractions built around the characters Jason, Freddy Krueger and Leatherface, and using them for the 2007 edition of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal parks in Orlando and California.

ICC said it first approached New Line in February 2005 about plans to license the three characters for new theme-park attractions, kicking off discussions that it said ultimately broadened to include Universal executives.

But it said those talks abruptly ended in November 2006 — only a few months before New Line and Universal announced a deal to feature the three characters during Universal’s seasonal Halloween Horror Nights.

Universal typically adopts a new theme every year for its popular Horror Nights. The 2007 edition was dubbed the “Carnival of Carnage” and designed as an evil circus featuring eight haunted houses.

Three of those houses were devoted to movie characters: Freddy (of the Nightmare on Elm Street movie franchise), Jason (Friday the 13th) and Leatherface (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Universal executives said it was the first time the trio had been reproduced in a live environment.

“Through outright fraud, deception, misrepresentation and ‘back-door’ dealings, entertainment industry giants New Line Cinema, Universal Orlando and NBC misappropriated ICC’s confidential and proprietary business proposal and used such to reap staggering profits,” according to the lawsuit, filed in state Circuit Court in Orlando.

Universal dismissed the allegations. “We’re going to vigorously defend our position,” spokesman Tom Schroder said.

Source  - http://www.orlandosentinel.com

David R. Ellis has been tapped by Mark Ordesky to direct “Humpty Dumpty.”
The 3-D sci-fi horror pic is about a half-human, half-alien creature who embarks on a murderous rampage after his alien mother is abused by two rednecks in the Deep South.

Billy Majestic is writing the script.

Ordesky is producing through his recently-launched Amber Entertainment shingle along with Suzanne de Passe and Madison Jones of iDream and Darry Welch from Instinctive Film. Fabienne Villette is co-producing.

U.K. sales and finance entity Intandem Films is exec producing and handling worldwide sales on the pic, which is slated to go into production in September.

Source - http://www.variety.com

The vampire movie has been pretty much done to “death” by this point, right? Even the good vampire flicks are sort of treading over familiar ground, yes? Longtime fans of the undead bloodsuckers have more or less accepted that the sub-genre has become a fairly anemic wasteland, true? Normally I’d have to reluctantly agree with those assertions, but fortunately I caught a really excellent Swedish film this morning called Let the Right One In. Not only does this fantastic little import add a lot of new color to the “vampire flick,” but it also turns out to be one of the strangest, stickiest, and (yes) sweetest horror movies I’ve seen in ten years.

Oskar is a lonely 12-year-old Swedish kid who gets picked on by bullies at school, but when a strange new girl moves in to the apartment next door, the pre-teens strike up a warm little friendship. Ah, there’s one big problem though: Newcomer Eli (pronounced Ellie) only looks like a 12-year-old girl, when in fact she’s a vampire of indeterminate age. Eli lives with what horror fans know as a “familiar,” a guy who will go out and get his charge some plasma when it’s needed — which of course is pretty often. Eli does all she can to keep her vampirism a secret from her new boyfriend, but the closer they get — the stickier things become. (And while there’s just a bit more to the plot, I’m ending my synopsis right there. Wouldn’t want to chance spoiling anything.)

Adapted for the screen (from his own award-winning novel) by John Lindqvist, Let the Right One In is not only a truly excellent horror movie, but it’s also a bizarrely touching and personal little movie. It’s clear that Lindqvist and director Tomas Alfredson are using vampirism as an accessible metaphor for the myriad problems that face today’s teens — but the movie also feels a lot like a smart horror flick combined with a slice of one of John Hughes’ better movies. Whether the film is focusing on the carnage, the puppy-love romance, or a few side-stories with the local townsfolk, Alfredson presents the movie with an appreciable sense of humor, confidence, and sincerity. And while I was initially a bit skeptical about the flick’s 114-minute running time, once it had ended I found myself wishing it had been just a little bit longer. Surely that’s the sign of a successful movie.

Handsomely shot, very well-paced, and packed with a handful of gruesome surprises for the horror freaks, Let the Right One In is one of those genre imports that gets discovered at film festivals and goes on to live very popular lives on the video store shelves. The lead kids (Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson) are nothing short of flawless, which is especially impressive in a fairly “mature” horror movie like this one, and their chemistry allows a potentially outlandish premise to feel as real and personal as, well, a teenage romance that DOESN’T involve ravenous vampires and horrific murders. Suffice to say that Let the Right One In is a pretty unique beast, and it’s a flick that would NEVER arrive via the Hollywood studio system, seeing as how it deals with hardcore gore, pre-teen sexuality, and some rather nasty kid-on-kid violence. And yet, for a movie that has a lot of dicey components, it sure comes off as a really sweet story. That’s not just good filmmaking; that’s real intelligence behind the camera.

Magnet Releasing (aka Magnolia Pictures) snatched the movie up right quick, because they have pretty fantastic taste in indie and imported genre fare, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see a studio come along and slap together some sort of remake — so please be sure to keep an eyeball out for this one, horror fans. Let the Right One In is very smart, very sweet, very sick, and very special indeed.

Review Source - www.cinematical.com

The horror movie Baghead comes with the cement overshoes of “mumblecore,” a term lazily concocted to describe movies with 99-cent budgets, anonymous actors and palsied cameras.

It’s no real impediment, though, for either the movie or writer/directors Jay and Mark Duplass, brothers who previously teamed for The Puffy Chair.

Given the skill with which the bros build a genuine relationship drama out of an almost risible horror premise, they’re destined for bigger budgets and better film movements. Like Eli Ross with Cabin Fever or Darren Aronofsky with Pi, it’s clear these guys consider Baghead to be a calling card to the majors.

The film is smart enough to satirize the “mumblecore” world itself. The festival unspooling of a truly dreadful skinflick called We Are Naked, which a pretentious director named Jett brags about making for $1,000, leads our four protagonists on the proverbial retreat to a scarily remote cabin, therein to brainstorm their own indie masterpiece.

There are connections and complications among the four.

Brooding Matt (Ross Partridge) and sultry Catherine (Elise Muller) used to be a couple, a romance he considers more in the past than she does. Matt’s lumpy best pal Chad (Steve Zissis) is hot for loopy Michelle (Greta Gerwig), whom he’s invited along in the hopes of getting to know a lot better.

Michelle shuts down sensitive Chad with a lethal curveball (”You’re like my best friend but also my brother”) while also making a brazen play for Matt. Hey, Catherine blew her chance, right?

There’s so much intrigue happening near the sheets it’s almost incidental that a curious blade-wielding figure in a paper-bag mask keeps popping up just outside the cabin windows and possibly in one bedroom.

But maybe he (or it?) is just a figment of booze or hormones – and wouldn’t the whole Baghead thing make for a great cheapie horror flick?

We’ve seen set-ups like this long enough to yawn through them, but rarely does a low-voltage production like this achieve such a fine resolution of character.

We get to know Matt, Catherine, Chad and Michelle well enough to really care about them. The brothers Duplass have a knack for the to-and-fro of modern relationships. Their horror sense is less acute, but at least they understand that when the budget is low, it’s best to keep the villain in the shadows.

Who cares if the couples get their heads chopped off, as long their hearts aren’t too badly broken?

Source - www.thestar.com

Talk about your recurring nightmares.

With the announcement last week that Oscar-nominated actor Jackie Earle Haley was cast to play Freddie Kreuger in an all-new “Nightmare on Elm Street” film, Hollywood studios continued their recent trend of rebooting, remaking, revamping or just recycling horror franchises that had once seemed all but dead and buried.

In the past couple of years, however, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s” chain-saw wielding sociopath Leatherface and “Halloween’s” bogeyman, Michael Myers, were dug up and given slicker, 21st Century makeovers.

Jason, the hockey-masked killer from “Friday the 13th” was reanimated in February – and the reboot scared up a whopping $40.6 million at the box office in its opening weekend. Remakes of “My Bloody Valentine” and “The Last House on the Left” were also released this year.

Can’t a new serial killer get a break in this biz?

“It’s a good thing for horror fans, since it shows Hollywood that there’s money to be made scaring people,” said Tony Timpone, editor in chief of Fangoria Magazine. Wes Craven, the iconic horror director behind the 1972 original “The Last House on the Left” and a producer on director Dennis Illiadis’s remake, said there’s no problem with taking a classic and making it better.

“Bogey’s ‘Maltese Falcon’ was a third remake of an original film, and that film was based on a novel,” Craven said in an email. “The question isn’t whether a remake is by definition an inferior film, but whether that remake is still a powerful film on its own.”

The hulking stuntman who played Jason Voorjees in four “Friday the 13th” movies, Kane Hodder, believes this wave of new versions of classic horror movies shows “how good the original idea was.”

“I just think [Jason] is a great character - he’s silent, he never stops coming,” said Hodder, who is busy at work on a snowbound horror movie, “Frozen”, due out next year. “I have a bad temper and do crazy things anyway, so I could always get into the character of Jason kind of easily.”

“The only thing that can stop Jason is incredibly low box office, and I don’t think that will ever happen.” It may be a dream role, but Haley will have his hands full playing Freddy Kreuger, the wise-cracking, but fearsome killer who haunts victims through their nightmares.

“Fans have responded to Freddy probably because he was one of the first monsters with a personality,” actor Robert Englund, who owned the role for the first eight movies in the franchise, told the News in 2006.

Haley has a big fedora to fill: a big part of the recent success of these horror killer comeback stories can be traced to nostalgic – if slightly fuzzy – memories.

“Fans remember seeing these movies when they were 11-years old and remember them being much better than they really were,” said Timpone.

Source - www.nydailynews.com

Last Friday night, weary from pondering the mysteries of the MPAA movie-rating system (why is the wonderful “Adventureland” rated an audience-shriveling R? “Hostel” was rated R!), I found refreshment at a screening of “Moon,” a wonderful movie itself, in a very different, dark, brain-knotting way.In fact, “Moon” is a terrific sci-fi space film, one that moves the venerable genre forward with a one-of-a-kind story and a striking visual design that in no way suggests its modest budget or its brisk production schedule (it was shot in about a month). The picture has one star: Sam Rockwell. He plays Sam Bell, a space worker nearing the end of a three-year corporate contract overseeing mining operations on the dark side of the moon. The lunar surface has been discovered to contain abundant amounts of Helium-3, an (actual) isotope that, in the movie, has revolutionized energy production back on Earth. The mining is done by machines; Sam is there to keep the operation humming.

It’s tough duty. Sam is the only human being in the cavernous base facility. He spends his time monitoring computers, exercising, and watching occasional video-recorded communications (there’s no live link with his home planet) from his wife and daughter and his oddly jolly corporate employers. His only companion is Gerty, a boxlike and highly mobile robotic attendant on hand to look after Sam’s well-being and provide conversational relief (in the unmistakable syrupy cadences of Kevin Spacey). Sam is desperately lonely, but rotation back to Earth is only a few weeks away – a company ship is already en route to collect him.

But then one day Sam wakes up to find he’s not alone anymore. Another man has appeared inside the base, a guy who looks a lot like Sam. In fact, it is Sam – Sam 2. What, he and we wonder, is going on?

A lot, it turns out, as the serpentine plot unfolds. But let us say no more. The movie’s publicity material gives away more about the story than a potential viewer might want to know. (Avoid early reviews, if possible.) First-time director Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie, a former starman himself) has given the film’s outside sequences on the craggy moonscape a dismal, desolate atmosphere that looks like it cost a lot to fabricate, which it didn’t. (It recalls the godforsaken exteriors of “Alien,” an acknowledged influence on this picture.) And the superb Sam Rockwell, who’s in every scene (many of them twice, you might say), gives a virtuoso performance as the increasingly fearful and ultimately horrified rocket man. He’s a wonder to watch.

“Moon” is an indie knockout. It’ll be screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in a few weeks, but Sony already bought it at Sundance, and will be releasing the film in June. Sci-fi fans aren’t the only people who should be pumped.

Source - http://moviesblog.mtv.com

Two SCI FI Channel Four-Hour Back-Door Movie Pilots from RHI Entertainment

Tahmoh Penikett and Laura Vandervoort Star in Riverworld with Guest Star Alan Cumming

Ryan Carnes Stars as The All-New Phantom

Isabella Rossellini is Guest Star

Production Begins April 6

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The lead roles in Riverworld and The Phantom — two of SCI FI Channel and RHI Entertainment’s recently announced trio of four-hour movie events — have been cast and production on both back-door movie pilots is set to begin Monday, April 6.

Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica/Dollhouse) and Laura Vandervoort (Smallville) star in Riverworld based on the popular award-winning series of novels by Philip Jose Farmer. Penikett stars as Matt Ellman, an American war zone reporter who has witnessed the worst of humanity first-hand yet still grasps on to an optimistic spirit. When a suicide bomber kills both Matt and his fiancée Jessie, played by Vandervoort, they awaken, separated in a mysterious world where everyone who has ever lived on Earth, seems to have been “reborn” along the banks of a seemingly endless river. Determined to locate Jessie, Matt joins forces with a 13th century female samurai warrior named Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen) and American novelist Sam ‘Mark Twain’ Clemens (Mark Deklin). Together they sail upriver in search of its source, and to discover where they are and who put them there. Alan Cumming (Tin Man) guest stars as the mysterious ‘Caretaker.’ Riverworld (Airdate 2010) is produced by Reunion Pictures and is shooting in Vancouver, BC. RHI will distribute internationally.

Ryan Carnes (Desperate Housewives/Dr. Who) has been cast in title role of The Phantom and his alter ego Chris Walker in this re-imagined version of the classic comic book transported to present day. Isabella Rossellini will guest star in a villainous turn as ‘Lithia,’ the head of an experimental mind control program. Also starring are Cameron Goodman as Chris Walker’s love interest, Renny and Sandrine Holt (24/The L Word) as The Phantom’s trusted advisor Guran.

A favorite costumed hero for more than six decades, The Phantom relies on his wits, physical strength and skill with weapons over superhuman powers. Production will begin on Monday April 6 in Montreal with Director, Paolo Barzman (The Last Templar) at the helm. The Phantom (Airdate 2010) is produced by Muse Entertainment. RHI will distribute internationally.

Reunion Pictures (www.reunionpictures.ca) is a Canadian-based company that develops and finances high quality television and multi-platform properties. Launched in 2004 with the partners’ experience of having collectively produced over a billion dollars worth of award-winning filmed entertainment, Reunion Pictures has received multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, and has won Genies and Gemini’s as well as the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Television, a #1 US network mini-series (10.5), and two #1 cable mini-series (Tin Man and Earthsea, both produced with RHI Entertainment for SCI FI Channel).

Muse Entertainment is a leading film and television producer known for its well-crafted and high-quality productions with strong international appeal. Since its founding in 1998 by Michael Prupas who serves as the company’s President and CEO, Muse Entertainment has produced, co-produced or provided production services on more than 100 TV movies and mini-series, television series and feature films. For theatrical release, Muse Entertainment produces its own independent movies and also provides production services for Hollywood and New York studios and independents. For television, Muse Entertainment produces dramatic series, television movies and family programs.

RHI Entertainment (NASDAQ: RHIE) develops, produces and distributes new made-for-television movies, miniseries and other television programming worldwide, and is the leading provider of new long-form television content in the United States. Under the leadership of Robert Halmi, Sr. and Robert Halmi, Jr., RHI has produced and distributed thousands of hours of quality television programming, and RHI’s productions have received more than 100 Emmy Awards. In addition to the development, production and distribution of new content, RHI owns rights to more than 1,000 titles, or over 3,500 broadcast hours of long-form television programming, which are licensed to broadcast and cable networks and new media outlets globally. For more consumer information visit www.rhitv.com.

SCI FI Channel is a television network that fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com). Launched in 1992, and currently in 95 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. SCI FI will become Syfy on July 7, 2009.

Source  - http://www.businesswire.com

Sci Fi Channel has cast the leads in a pair of two-night/four-hour movies that, if well-received, could be developed into series.

For starters, Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica, now on Dollhouse) and Laura Vandervoort (Smallville’s Supergirl) will front Riverworld, says the Hollywood Reporter. They will play a war correspondent and his fiancée who, shortly after dying, awaken in a land populated by everyone who has ever lived on Earth. And you thought the line at Starbucks was long now.

Meanwhile, onetime Housewives player Ryan Carnes has been tapped to star as The Phantom in a mini about the comic-book hero. Isabella Rossellini will guest-star as Lithia, a villainess lording over a mind-control experiment.

Both Riverworld and The Phantom started production Monday and will premiere sometime in 2010.

Source - http://www.seattlepi.com

Pizza Hut has launched an online and limited-freebie pizza promotion with Warner Bros. Pictures supporting the May 21 release of “Terminator Salvation,” starring Christian Bale.

Users can register online until May 4 for a chance to win the grand prize — a VIP trip to Hollywood to attend the movie’s premiere and after-party — and tour Warner Bros. Studios.

Participants also have a chance to win additional prizes, including a life-size replica of the T-600 Terminator from the film; five “Terminator Salvation”-branded X-Box 360 consoles; and 50 prize packs containing a TS-branded video game, T-shirt and collectibles.

On the premiere day, in honor of the movie’s characters, Pizza Hut will also give anyone named Sarah Connor or John Connor (who can prove it with a government-issued ID) a free medium, one-topping pizza.

Source - http://www.mediapost.com