Horror

BILL GUNN SURFACES AT BAM

You could say that Bill Gunn was a man who came before his time, but that leaves you working under the flimsy assumption that a time more hospitable to this man of undeniable talents and mercurial preoccupations would some day come. If you don’t already know this is a weak proposition, you’re not paying attention to the tenor of the times we live in. One can be forgiven for being unable to relate to the struggles of an unorthodox black artist to find proper patrons and an appreciative audience I suppose. Still, it is better to say that Bill Gunn, […]
by Brandon Harris on Mar 31, 2010
Ti West, The House Of The Devil

As a genre that’s all about keeping the audience on its toes, the horror movie naturally needs a regular injection of fresh talent, and writer-director Ti West is the latest to give it a shot in the arm. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1980, West spent his adolescence watching as many movies as he could catch on TV or rent from his local video store. Though he made stop motion movies with his G.I. Joe action figures, he didn’t give much serious thought to filmmaking until he decided to make a short film to indicate to colleges that he had […]
by Nick Dawson on Oct 30, 2009
Milcho Manchevski, Shadows

BORCE NACEV AND VESNA STANOJEVSKA IN DIRECTOR MILCHO MANCHEVSKI’S SHADOWS. COURTESY MITROPOULOS FILMS. Writer-director Milcho Manchevski has only made three features over the course of his 15-year film career, yet the multi-talented Macedonian rarely allows himself a moment to catch his breath. Born in 1959 in the Macedonian capital of Skopje, Manchevski studied History of Art and Archeology at his hometown university before going to film school at Southern Illinois University on a scholarship. Following his graduation, he relocated to New York and began making commercials, music videos, documentaries, shorts and experimental films. In 1992, he won several major awards […]
by Nick Dawson on Jan 30, 2009
Director Darren Lynn Bousman on Repo! The Genetic Opera

Back in 2004, director Darren Lynn Bousman was taking his violent horror script The Desperate to a number of studios, only to be told it was too grisly for mainstream viewers. Enter Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell, who loved The Desperate and immediately contacted Bousman about reworking the script into a sequel to their Saw franchise. This began a partnership that saw Bousman direct three successful Saw films in a row. Taking a break from the infamous horror series, Bousman returns with a long gestating labor of love: Repo! The Genetic Opera, a futuristic horror musical based on […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 6, 2008
Jon Knautz, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

ROBERT ENGLUND AND TREVOR MATTHEWS IN DIRECTOR JON KNAUTZ’S JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER. COURTESY ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT. At a time when horror films are getting ever more brutal, Jon Knautz brings a comfortingly old- fashioned feel to genre filmmaking. The Ottawa-born writer-director, who grew up on a diet of slasher films and 50s creature features, went to Vancouver Film School to pursue his dream of making movies. Knautz’s graduation project, Apt. 310 (2002), a stylish, tightly scripted noir, was the first in a series of shorts that harked back to classic modes of filmmaking. After making the blood-spattered comedy horror […]
by Nick Dawson on Aug 15, 2008
DANGER AFTER DARK 2006

It’s turned into a yearly tradition that I’ve posted early notice of the Philadelphia Film Festival’s “Danger After Dark” program. Programmed by Filmmaker contributor Travis Crawford, the program is inevitably an excellent primer for the past year’s best in cutting edge genre fare. This year, Crawford’s descriptions are briefer than usual — he promises to send more detailed copy soon — but it is good to hear that his catalog proofreader labelled this the “sickest Danger after Dark ever.” The Philadelphia Film Festival runs from March 30 until April 11. A BITTERSWEET LIFE (South Korea): This visually stunning tale of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2006
WHAT IS IT? CLICK HERE…

Actor and director Crispin Glover has a Web site up for his latest feature What is It?, which looks like one particularly bizarre and interesting entry in what seems like a very strong Park City at Midnight lineup. (I’ve seen Old Boy, and it’s pretty great, and while I’ll write more about David Slade’s Hard Candy later, I have a feeling that by fest’s end folks will both be wondering why it wasn’t in Competition and will be shortlisting actress Ellen Page as a future star.) [N.B. the Quicktime movie trailer on Glover’s site doesn’t always work, possibly due to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2005
EIGHT IS ENOUGH

Via press release we learned of producer Effie T. Brown’s ambitious new production and development slate — eight pictures ranging from a horror movie with a black cast to a couple of period dramas. She also announced that her production company, Duly Noted, has a first-look deal with HBO’s Original Programming Department. Brown, who received the IFP Producing Spirit Award three years ago, has been a producer on several HBO movies, including Real Women Have Curves, and The Stranger Inside, and she was also Executive Producer of Jane Campion’s hugely underrated In the Cut, which is on cable a lot […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 5, 2005
THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES

Filmmaker has long been interested in smart modern horror, so check out these two web links. The first is the link to the elegantly eerie teaser trailer for The Ring 2, the sequel to the horror hit which also happens to be the first English language film to be directed by the great Hideo Nakata, who helmed the Japanese original. And then there’s this thought-provoking feature in The Guardian about a three-part BBC series to be aired next week entitled The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear. Written and produced by the documentarian Adam Curtis, the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 14, 2004
THE CINEMATIC BLOGOSPHERE

There’s been a bunch of cool stuff popping up in the film blogosphere lately. Below are a couple of links that have caught my attention; the sites these links are from should be immediately bookmarked! The Movieblog, subtitled “The Official Home of Correct Movie Opinions,” actually isn’t a compendium of hastily scribbled film “reviews” but rather a sharp assortment of interesting movie links with a particular emphasis on Asian horror and art films. Click over there now for stuff like a stylish Japanese website for Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046 and a giant Quicktime trailer of Wes Anderson’s new The Life Aquatic. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2004

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