TWO SISTERS

The greatest Monster movie of the year with the lowest budget

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon reentry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain “the creatures” ... Our story begins when a U.S. journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone to the safety of the U.S. border.

Gareth Edwars made this movie with just 800.000 dollars. Of course, he had computers and VFX programs, but he actually shoot a movie with no more than one camera man, one guy recording the sound and two friends as his main characters. There were no locations chosen before the shooting started. They were just travelling around and once they spotted a nice place to shoot in they would jumped out of the van they were driving and started shooting.

2011 starts with the firts seconds of John Carpenter´s The Ward

I watched The ward back in October, at 2010 Sitges Film festival. I´ll review this movie when it comes out but it was a pretty good movie. It´s not going to reinvent the genre but it has everything to be a good horror movie: chilling atmosphere, crazy girls locked in a mental hospital, possible ghosts... John Carpenter is finally back!

Good Bye 2010; Wellcome 2011

The 2010 is gone. Inception, The social network, Monsters, Toy story 3, the king´s speech, Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass, Scot Pilgrim... 

Pleaase wellcome a new, happy and entertainment filled 201.

From The 13th Floor, 

Happy New year.

the countdown has began

The 44th International Sitges Film Festival will start the sixth of October 2011. We´re already counting the days down to be there again.

Julia´s eyes breaks the spanish box office

Guillermo del Toro´s production has reached 6.770.000 Euros at the Spanish box office, a number that makes the film the most successful Spanish movie of 2010. Guillem Morales directed a movie about a woman (Belén Rueda) who is seeking answers about the mysterious death of her twin sister, who was blind at the moment of death. The movie has been described as a journey to the darkness. Literally, because the farther Rueda´s character goes through that journey the blinder she gets. Finally she will have to face the chilling truth of her sister´s death.

"After the tragic death of his wife and child, famed American author Joseph Crone travels from the United States to Barcelona, Spain to reunite with his estranged brother Samuel and dying father, Richard. However, fate has a different plan for Joseph as his life becomes plagued with strange happenings, and the constant sightings of the number 11. Curiosity quickly turns to obsession, and Joseph soon realizes that this number holds a horrific meaning not only to himself but possibly to all of religion. Isolated in a foreign country with only the support of his companion, Sadie, Joseph soon realizes that 11/11/11 is more than just a date, it's a WARNING!"

Source: 
bloodydisgusting

The french are creepy

Two trailers had just hit the webs with a creepy alternate world and misterious characters. IBC films, one of the leading American distributors of independent and foreign films, have released the trailers to promote these French movies. Two different directors are working with the rules of only one genre, which seems pretty interesting. Limited releases won´t be a problem for those of you who like thrillers and want to check out what the french are up to with these films.

IBC tells us that Black Heaven is directed by an exciting new French filmmaker called Gilles Marchand. The story (featuring a terrifically sexy young cast) follows an innocent young kid, Gaspar (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet of LOVE SONGS), who, becoming enamored with a mysterious/gorgeous girl (Louise Bourgoin, THE GIRL FROM MONACO), is lured into "Black Hole" - a dark, obscure video game world of avatars with deadly serious intentions in the real world. The trailer, as our friends of Arrow in the Head pointed out, looks like a creepy, demented version of Tron: Legacy, with all that neon-tinged look of an alternative world.

Then we´ve got In their sleep, another thriller written and directed by Caroline and Eric du Potet. Again, IBC´s official synopsis tell us that after the brutal death of her 18 year-old son, Sarah's life is in pieces. Late one night, her car accidentally hits Arthur, a young man the same age as her boy, who suddenly emerges out of the forest and onto the road. Wounded and frightened, he is running from a mysterious assailant, hunting him down after Arthur caught him red handed in the act of burglary... Sarah sympathizes with him, taking him in, only to be tracked down by the burglar whose murderous rage towards Arthur forces her to take action. Unbeknownst to Sarah, things aren't quite the way they seem... but by the time she finally realizes, it is too late to turn back.

Black Swan - Production design video

The 13 scariest moments of the decade

Rare exports red band trailer

Rare exports was one of the best movies from this year Sitges film festival. It won not just best director and best movie awards, but  it also won the best cinematography award. The film is quite fun, "original and fresh", according to the jury of the festival and now a new red band trailer hits the web.

Synopsis:

"It's the eve of Christmas in northern Finland and an "archeological" dig has just unearthed the real Santa Claus. But this particular Santa isn't the one you want coming to town. When all the local children begin mysteriously disappearing, young Pietari and his father Rauno, a reindeer hunter by trade, capture the mythological being and attempt to sell Santa to the misguided leader of the multinational corporation sponsoring the dig. Santa's elves, however, will stop at nothing to free their fearless leader from captivity. What ensues is a wildly humorous nightmare - a fantastically bizarre polemic on modern day morality. Rare exports: a christmas tale is a re-imagining of the most classic of all childhood fantasies, and is a darkly comic gem soon to be required perennial holiday viewing".

Video Games - E3 2011

Duncan Jones keeps fighting to become one of the great names in filmmaking world right now. First was that amazing movie called Moon. Now, Jones wants to play with time travel and terrorism. The first Source Code trailer has just hit the web and it looks pretty damm cool. Here is the official synopsis...

When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he's ever known, he learns he's part of a government experiment called the "Source Code," a program that enables him to cross over into another man's identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second, much larger target threatening to kill millions in downtown Chicago, Colter re-lives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack. Filled with mind-boggling twists and heart-pounding suspense, Source Code is a smart action-thriller directed by Duncan Jones (Moon) also starring Michelle Monaghan (Eagle Eye, Due Date), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air, The Departed), and Jeffrey Wright (Quantum of Solace, Syriana).

HAMMER: The art of the myths

Hammer Film Productions is a film production company based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for his series of Gothic horror films. They were low budget but never foolish movies made with passion and love for horror, monsters and dark creatures. The huge success of the company came to an end when it was forced to "close down" after seeing how Hammer movies weren´t successfull anymore. Now, at the end of 2010, Let me in marked the resurrection of a myth, a new era for horror movies. Hammer has began to shoot and produce horror films again, great news for horror fans; almost as good news as the releasing of The art of Hammer, a full coloured book where you can see hammer posters and drawings of the company´s movies. As we can read on Arrow, the book runs at 192 pages and it will be published this month (Nov. 23rd) by Titan Books.

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is a 1960 horror film by Hammer Film Productions. 

It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Paul Massie as Dr. Jekyll, and co-stars Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee and David Kossoff.

It was written by Wolf Mankowitz, based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1962 British film based on the novel by Gaston Leroux.

It was directed by Terence Fisher and stars Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza and Michael Gough.

Guillermo del Toro meets The Hulk

Guillermo del Toro is teaming up with Battlestar Galactica´s executive producer David Eick  to make a comic fans dream come true. Not as long ago ABC annauced that they were trying to make a Hulk TV show and apparently it´s going to happen.

It will mark Marvel’s first series project for ABC Studios since Disney's acquisition of Marvel last year and the launch of Marvel's TV division in June. It also marks del Toro's first TV project. Unlike the two Hulk movies, in which the monster was a pure CGI creation, the show will make the creature mixing prosthetics, puppetry and CGI. Del Toro and Eick will break the story for the pilot script together, while del Toro could direct the pilot subjet to his availability. Eick definided the chance of working with del Toro as a "dream opportunity" to join one of his all-time filmmaking heroes "in a faithful but unique retelling of the primal, emotionally-rich tale" of one of his favourite comic books. 

Del Toro is also working on his all-life dreamed movie, At the mountains of madness, with James Cameron. He is also releasing worldwide The Fall, the second novel in a vampire trilogy of books written hand to hand with Chuck Hogan. The upcoming movies Julia´s eyes and Dont be afraid of the dark are also produced by the mexican director, with whom everyone seems to want to work nowdays.

You can check a great interview concerning his latest projects following this link to denofgeek.

Source: Dead Line

Is Skyline a fail? Dont worry, we´ve got Battle: Los Angeles

Are you in the mood for more?

Are you ready to go back to Silent Hill?

 

The rumors about a next Silent Hill movie have been going around for years. Now, we´ve got an official report claming that the movie will actually happen. Michael J. Bassett (Solomon Kane) will write and direct the movie while Resident Evil: After Life producers Don Carmody and Davis Films' Samuel Hadida are teaming together once again for the next Silent Hill flick, which has scored new title.

The movie will be called Silent Hill: Revelations and will be in 3D: "We have high expectations for this continuation of the franchise with our reunited Silent Hill production team" said Hadida. "Michael was our natural choice to write and direct. He understands the genre, is passionate about the Silent Hill franchise, and will bring his considerable action picture skills to a fresh and thrilling insight of the Silent Hill 3D world." 

The official synopsis tells the story of Heather Mason and her father, who have been on the run, for years always one step ahead of dangerous forces that she doesn’t fully understand. Now on the eve of her 18th birthday, plagued by terrifying nightmares and the disappearance of her father, Heather discovers she's not who she thinks she is. The revelation leads her deeper into a demonic world that threatens to trap her in Silent Hill forever.

"I do it because I have to... To survive"

The video you can check below is a chilling and tremendous deleted scence from Let me in. It´s just another proof of how oustanding these two kids are (Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smith-McPhee). The movie, which is great but not such a masterpiece as the first one, it´s playing now around the world.

Twelve-year old Owen, who is viciously bullied by his classmates and neglected by his divorcing parents. Achingly lonely, Owen spends his days plotting revenge on his middle school tormentors and his evenings spying on the other inhabitants of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor Abby, an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father. A frail, troubled child about Owens’s age, Abby emerges from her heavily curtained apartment only at night and always barefoot, seemingly immune to the bitter winter elements. Recognizing a fellow outcast, Owen opens up to her and before long, the two have formed a unique bond.

When a string of grisly murders puts the town on high alert, Abby’s father disappears, and the terrified girl is left to fend for herself. Still, she repeatedly rebuffs Owen’s efforts to help her and her increasingly bizarre behavior leads the imaginative Owen to suspect she’s hiding an unthinkable secret. 

Source: Arrow in the Head 

Dante, Plaza and Natali are gonna kill you in Paris

JOE DANTE in Sitges 2010 - Picture by Gerard Fossas

Genre masters Joe Dante (Germlins), Paco Plaza ([REC]) Vincenzo Natali (Splice), Xavier Gens (Hitman) and Ryuhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train) have signed up to direct segments of new horror omnibus feature Paris I'll Kill You, which Instinctive Film and Reverence are producing.

Obviosuly this film is in some way a spoof of Paris, Je t´aime, that indi film where filmakers like Coen Brothers, Gus van Sant, Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer or even Wes craven made segments of the movie. The producers are pitching Paris I Kill You as the first of a possible "horror city" franchise, again aping Paris je t'aime producers, who spun off the romantic capitals format with New York, I Love You and planned versions for Shanghai and Jerusalem. Let see what happens with the first one before getting ready the other ones...

Sources: Butaca Preferente 
              Hollywood Reporter
            

SITGES 2010 - The golden age of Spanish films?

A frame from "Secuestrados"

If you take a moment to look back and think about which ones have been the most successfull Spanish movies of the last years you´ll probably notice something: all of them have been genre films, horror films. REC, The orphanage, Pan´s labyrinth, 28 weeks later or Buried. Apparently there is a feeling growing worldwide claiming that Spain is living what they call "The Golden Age of Spanish movies". This feeling has been discussed in the just finished International Sitges Film Fest after watching Spanish movies like Secuestrados (Kidnapped) or The new daugther. 

Ivana Baquero - The new daugther

The new daughter tells the story of a recently divorced man and his two children. Their fragile family situation gets even weirder when the big daughter´s character suddenly changes right after they arrived to their new house. The reasons for this happening? It could have something to do with a mysterious mound in the garden. We were all keeping an eye on director Luis Berdejo. His career in the short film field was insultingly promising and Sitges already considered him a regular in its program. His coming-out in feature is big-time, with a movie starring Costner and based on a story by the master of intrigue John Connolly. Ivana Baquero, the kid from Pan´s labyrinth returns to genre films to prove that her talent goes beyond the innocent character of  that movie. Perhaps was the hand of Hollywood producers but one can´t help the feeling that the movie could be much better with a few changes on the script and the way the story is told. Anyway, the fact that Berdejo’s film debut has been made in Hollywood says a lot about this idea of the Spanish Golden age in horror films, because they are being called to work in Hollywood.

The other big Spanish film of this year´s Fest was Secuestrados (Kidnapped). A wealthy family that's just moved into their new mansion is held up by three hooded men. Right when the criminals appear to have everything under control, one of its member's aggressiveness starts to cause blood to be shed. Miguel Ángel Vivas creates a suspense and violence filled movie, halfway between thriller and horror with realistic overtones. Made with just twelve sequence shots, Secuestrados grabs the spectator by the throat with a surprising and bloodcurdling opening scene and doesn't let go until the shocking, bloody end.

There were more Spanish films such as The possession of Emma Evans, Agnosia or Julia´s Eyes, but we´ll talk about them soon. For now, here it is the trailer of  Secuestrados, the film which won best movie and best director awards at Fantastic Fest 2010.

SITGES 2010 - Santa and a killer rubber against 13 assassins

Santa will never be the same

Well, that was it. Sitges 2010 has already finished. After 10 days watching about five movies per day, after so many press conferences and a few interviews, the 43th fantastic and horror film Festival of Sitges has came to an end. Rare Exports: a Christmas tale was the winner of this year. Jalmari Helander won the best director and best movie awards, but the film also won the award for the best cinematography. The film is quite fun, "original and fresh", according to the jury of the festival.

There were a few movies we all wanted to check out. Monsters, Gareth Edward´s debut on a feature film was one of them. After being sell as The War of the worlds meets Jurassic Park, I would say there´s nothing like that on the movie. Monsters would be much better described as a road movie with creatures hiding in the shadows. A friend pointed out  that Monsters was like Before the sunrise with aliens. And I must admit, he' was right. The film is definitely not what you think it is, but I think you´ll love what it really is. Pay attention to the first sequence of the film, where the director shows something really important for the story and "only 10% of the audience notice it the first time they watch it", told me the director in a quick chat we had after the screening.

If there was a mad movie everyone wanted to see was Rubber. The story of a killer rubber. Crazy, funny, "an homage to the no reason" as one of the characters point out in the first scene of the movie. Not for nothing the movie has won the best movie in Fantastic section by the Carnet Joven jury. It also won the Silver Meliés to the best european movie and the Citizen Kane award to an up-and-coming director for Quentin Dupieux.

The great Hammer productions are also back. At least, that is what they are trying to sell to the audience out there. Let me in, remake of Let the right on in, is the first movie of the new era of Hammer productions. Matt "Cloverfield" Reeves made a really good movie: dark, deep, scary and sweet. The only problem is, the original was made just a couple of years ago and it was such a masterpiece that it still remains in some viewers minds. For all you guys who hasn´t watched the first one yet, Let me in will surprise you as a really great movie. Matt Reeves shoot it perfectly, but it lacks that magical feeling I experienced watching the first one.  The best about Let me in are without any doubt, the actors performances: from Chloe Moretz (this girl is just amazing) to Kodi Smit-McPhee, all the cast is perfect.

This is me with Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee

Takashi Miike´s 13 assassins is the story of an elite group of samurai, each with their own deadly skill, who plots to ambush Lord Naritsugu on his annual journey home from Edo. While the first hour of the film is pretty calm and philosophical about Samurais rules and ethics, the second half of the movie is a bloody festival of action, swords and blood. Almost one hour of never ending swords fights made the film won the Audience Award.

We are the night was described by a fellow in the press room as "sex in the city with vampires" and he had a point. I mean, the film is not as glamorous as the tv show or the movies where Sarah Jessica Parker buys shoes but you actually could see moments which resemble to Sex and the city style. This film is as funny and entertained as you could ever desire. It goes again with the cool vampires style started with Blade but it has some of the orignal problems of vampire myths. The film won the special jury award no without a bit of controversy.

We are the night, and the night is fun

Every year there are a couple of unknown movies that suddenly win a place within the group of the best  movies of the Festival. The perfect host and Kaboom were the good surprises in this 43 Sitges Film Festival. The last one is the story of Smith’s everyday life in the dorms: hanging out with his arty, sarcastic best friend Stella, hooking up with a beautiful free spirit named London, lusting for his gorgeous but dim surfer roommate Thor. Tripping on some hallucinogenic cookies he ate at a party, Smith is convinced he’s witnessed the gruesome murder of an enigmatic Red Haired Girl who has been haunting his dreams. What he discovers as he tries to find out the truth leads him deeper and deeper into a mystery that will forever change not only the course of his young life but the destiny of the entire world. Funny enough to watch it, specially for teenagers exploring their sexuality and looking for adventures to spice their life up. 

The Perfect host tells the story of an ex-con who realizes the robbery he had meticulously planned has wound up being front page news. Desperately needing to hide until things die down he manages to crash a residence where the owner is having a dinner party. A perfect hideout if it wasn’t for the host... If you considered Frasier’s fussy brother to be a charming, harmless character, wait until you see his darkest side in this unpredictable psychological thriller where appearances can be mortally deceptive and surprises come one after another.