Oh goody. There’s just something about Spanish children. They’re creepy. They’re especially creepy in Juan Antonio Bayon’s Spanish horror film, The Orphange. The DVD and Blue-ray editions of this worthy addition to the Spanish horror film canon will be available on April 22nd.

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, where she opens an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.

The listing for the film on Amazon is slim on details so we don’t have a proper link yet to pre-order. It will be presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. The audio will be the original Spanish in Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track and English subtitles will also be provided. The extras will include a When Laura Grew Up: Constucting The Orphanage featurette, a Horror In The Unknown: Makeup Effects featurette, a Tomas’ Secret Room featurette, a still gallery, and more. 

The Band’s Visit is a warm, humanistic “night in the life” story that sidesteps the most obvious sentimental traps. The characters depicted in the film are gentle, sweet, beguiling, and droll. They are people who have survived the years by embracing their own mortality.

The Israeli picture gained a degree of publicity after the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences disqualified it for consideration in the Best Foreign-Language Film category because its “dialogue track” was not “predominantly non-English.” Rules are rules, but this rule in particular highlights how ridiculous the category has become; combined with the failure of the Academy to recognize the acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, along with other historical factors, it’s become crystal clear that the category should be abolished.

Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Classics is steadily rolling The Band’s Visit out across the U.S., finally reaching my current home area in Dallas, Texas this weekend, and I couldn’t be happier.

Director Eran Kolirin demonstrates an exquisite eye for color and composition. My first point of reference was Bent Hamer’s Kitchen Stories, representing the cooler shade of the temperature spectrum: pale blue uniforms set against metallic surfaces with a greenish tint, softly diffused to avoid any hint of arid harshness.

Continue Reading "Review: THE BAND’S VISIT Strikes the Right Chord"...

They aint dead yet. 

Dutch zombie-Nazi picture Worst Case Scenario stirred up a positively huge online buzz a few years back with a pair of absolutely stunning promo videos showcasing some of the most incredibly inventive zombie imagery to come along in years.  Fans were drooling, and why not?  It’s zombie Nazis, and zombie Nazis done perfectly, gloriously right. But then the producers learned a harsh lesson in film economics, the project stalled out in development and generally dropped off the map.

But it’s back.  A new financier is in place and things are rolling along.  Proof?  Their production blog has recently sprung back to life, most recently trumpeting the fact that they’ve managed to pillage the military bunker sets employed by Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book for use in their film.  Sweet.  You can check both promos in the Twitch Player below the break.

Continue Reading "It’s The Best Case Scenario For WORST CASE SCENARIO"...

What the ... it appears that Nicolas Winding Refn’s next film won’t feature vikings after all.  We are big, big fans of the Danish director of the Pusher films in these parts - those films are arguably the finest crime trilogy ever produced, and yes I realize what sort of competition there is out there - and have been anxiously anticipating his next Danish language project, the viking themed Valhalla Rising - since it was first announced.  But while we’ve all been looking over at that one - which is still proceeding towards production in late 2008 - Refn has apparently been prepping for a little something else.

Titled Bronson the film is a bio-pic about real life British criminal Charles Bronson, who has now spent over thirty two years in prison.  It will be Refn’s second English language feature after the critically acclaimed but financially disastrous Fear X and is being backed by Vertigo Films (The UK distribs of Pusher) and Hanover Films, who also have a hand in Jake West’s upcoming Doghouse.  More details as we get them.

We’ve been tracking Kung Fu Dunk - the new Hong Kong actioner combining basketball and kung fu with pop star turned actor Jay Chou in the lead - for quite some time now, at first because we thought it sounded silly but later because the trailers actually looked quite good.  It played to middling box office despite strong reviews - Stefan’s take is here - and the film will be arriving on DVD in Hong Kong March 18th with English subtitles included.  You can check the trailer embedded below the break in the Twitch Player and hit the link below to order.

Continue Reading "Jay Chou’s KUNG FU DUNK Hits DVD March 18th!"...

The Visitor first brought us news of Kelvin Tong’s upcoming cop-horror Rule #1 earlier this month and with the film’s release in Malaysia and Singapore coming up in just a coupel weeks the first trailer has just appeared online.  With Hong Kong star Shawn Yue cast as a cop forced to deal with supernatural occurrences the comparisons to recent Taiwanese effort Silk seem obvious but while that film played up the action angle, Tong’s appears more focused on the horror element.  Seems a sensible choice for Tong, who made his mark with the international hit The Maid and has produced spotty results since, one that may very well restore his name on the international festival circuit.  Yes, the premise is a bit goofy but the execution looks good. You’ll find the trailer below the break in the Twitch Player.

Rookie Sergeant Lee (Shawn Yue) is injured in a shoot-out and is assigned to the dubious-sounding Miscellaneous Affairs Department (MAD). There, he is paired up with Inspector Wong (Ekin Cheng), a jaded and alcoholic veteran who explains that MAD’s role is to answer supernatural calls. Wong explains MAD’s rule number one - there are no ghosts. For every seemingly-inexplicable phenomenon, there is a corresponding scientific and rational explanation. MAD begins investigating a string of bizarre teenage suicides; impossible suicides, unless the victims were possessed. As Lee and Wong follow the clues, they realize something sinister is heading their way.

Continue Reading "Shawn Yue’s Shootin’ Ghosts!  It’s The Trailer For Kelvin Tong’s RULE #1!"...

We’ve been tracking Jorge Olguin’s Solos - the first ever Chilean zombie film - for some time now.  We’ve brought you stills, we were the first to show off the very impressive trailer, and now - fresh off the announcement that the film will premiere at this year’s Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival - director Olguin has passed along a four-plus minute behind the scenes making of video that includes a look at a bit of fresh footage. Very nice.  You’ll find the making of and the trailer below the break in the Twitch Player.

Continue Reading "A Look Beind The Scenes At Jorge Olguin’s SOLOS (DESCENDENTS)"...

Heh ... just spotted news of this one over on Kaiju Shakedown, where it’s got Grady Hendrix ready stab hot pokers into his vial organs and take the rest of humanity down with him.  The cause of his despair?  A new, fifty one episode television series about to air in Japan featuring such A-list directors as Takeshi Miike, Shusuke Kaneko and Mamoru Oshii.  Which you would think would be a cause for celebration, really, but Hendrix is despondent because the whole thing is a glaring piece of extended product placement, really nothing more than a fifty one episode ad for a new cellphone due to release the same day as the first episode.

Titled Cell Phone Detectives it is, surprisingly enough, a detective series following a squad of cops charged with tracking digital network related criminals.  This being a family show they are, of course, helped out by a teenaged kid with a sentient, transforming cellphone.  Which just happens to be the new model being rolled out simultaneously with the show.  Yes, a phone is the hero of the show.

And you know what?  I think this could actually be fun.  I mean, there’s no way Miike, Oshii, Kaneko et al aren’t aware of how silly the whole thing is and I don’t imagine for a minute that they’re not going to have a good time with it.  Plus, I grew up in the era when the vast majority of Saturday morning cartoons were blatant product placements / extended advertisements and while most of them were crap some of them were pretty damn good.  It all comes down to the skills of the people involved and this has some good people. 

After mentioning the upcoming Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, reader “kvdm” correctly reminded me that there is an even bigger festival in the neighborhood before that, and this one has the full program already on display.

He was referring to the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and their website is damn tasty! Indeed it features a total line-up including most of the titles mentioned for AFFF and then some.
A quick grab:

13 Beloved
Dark Floors
Descendants (Chili’s zombie-movie with children)
The Devil’s Chair
Doomsday
Eden Log
Funny Games (US remake)
Machine Girl
Pop Skull
Timecrimes

A helluva line-up, as you’ll agree!
And they have other things going on as well, like bodypainting and cosplay contests.

Damn, I may need to find time to go there…
The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival starts on March the 21st and ends on the 8th of April.

What came across my desk in February? Some interesting and not interesting titles that I’ve done my level best to find something to say about. Free DVDs are nice but reviewing them is lonely business folks and I’m considering doing a lot less of it. Who really has something to say about everything that comes out? Too many folks with too little to say says I. In any event you’ll find my thoughts on Newhart The Complete First Season, Criss Angel Mindfreak The Complete Season Three, Thunderbirds 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition Megaset, The Kingdom Series Two (R1), The Apartment (Collector’s Edition), Two Days in Paris, The Darjeeling Limited, Death At A Funeral and Cops: 20th Anniversary Edition.

Continue Reading "DVD in FEBRUARY"...

We first posted about Albert Arizza’s upcoming serial killer film Ramirez back in December and now we’ve got a fresh batch of stills from the film to share.

Ramirez is an attractive, well-mannered young man, from a good family.  He owns a modern apartment in an affluent part of the city centre.  Although he outwardly presents himself as an artistic photographer, he maintains his high standard of living through his main source of income, which is the lucrative business of dealing and cutting drugs.

Ramirez is a loner and withdrawn.  His regular social contacts are very limited:  a young Chinese girl, with whom he practices Chinese, a language towards which he is drawn; an older man who is a drug trafficker and forger, for whom he acts as a middle-man and drug runner; and another young man who acts as a ‘guinea pig’ for the drugs he cuts.  Apart from these, his relationship with Maria, a young girl who takes care of his sick mother, deserves a special mention.

His daily life is an example of someone whose future is without any specific direction or purpose, although he hardly seems to realise this.  Ramirez spends the greater part of his time driving around the city in his car, listening to music.  Lured by the atmosphere of night life and his pursuit of one-night stands, Ramirez seeks young and not-so-young women to seduce.  Ramirez sweet-talks his victims, undresses them and murders them.  Afterwards he photographs their inert faces.

Ramirez is a perfectionist, he is calculating, he never leaves clues.  He is a cold-blooded killer.

Ramirez is meticulous, always striving to get the best photographic shots and capture the best angles as he photographs the faces of the dead victims.

Undoubtedly, the best face and the best photograph that he could take would be that of Maria, the young girl who works for his family.  Maria takes great care of his sick mother, who lives in a mansion in the old part of Segovia.  But Maria is more than just a beautiful face.  Maria is more than everything.  And he yearns to be with her and to share her time, in spite of the social barriers that separate them.

Arizza has built up a loyal following already for his music video work and his debut feature looks to be a smart, very well shot piece of work ... hti the link below for the stills.

While I tend to run hot and cold on the work of the Scott Brothers - I find their technical skills are not always matched by attention to good story telling - there’s no denying the pair are among the most impressive pure technical film makers in the world and the two show a remarkable willingness to experiment and support other film makers.  They also like to keep busy, continuing to muck about in the world of commercials and short films despite their massive box office successes.  The latest project to come from the Brothers Scott comes from Ridley’s RSA Films banner and producer Rhea Scott - his daughter in law - which has just produced Exquisite Corpse, a series of short films directed by Chris Nelson, Josh Miller, Malik Hassan Sayeed and Phillip Van.  Scott left his film makers remarkably free to choose their own approaches and topics, the one limitation being that each short had to somehow respond to the final line of the previous short.  The result is some interesting work, very much worth a look ...

**Malaysian filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad guest-reviews Yoji Yamada’s Kabei, which she caught at the 58th Berlinale this year. She was there as a jury member for the Generations section, the category in which her Mukhsin won two prizes last year.

Yasmin has always emphasised the importance of human emotion in storytelling, and here’s her personal take on Yamada’s latest, which she says can soften the heart of even the most hardened cinephile.**

Continue Reading "Review Of Yoji Yamada’s KABEI (OUR MOTHER)"...

Fans of nunsplotation and Ken Russel films rejoice! After years of speculations his landmark 1971 horror epic The Devils finally hits DVD in all its unrated glory.
Warner is releasing the (for now) barebones DVD on the 20th of May but fortunately it’s the uncut version that garnered all that controversy in the 70’s. The film revolves around Father Grandier (Reed) who controls a small town in pre-rennaisance France and has to deal with the accusations that he and his nuns are devil worshippers. To say that bodily waste hits the fan is putting it mildly.
I saw this film on VHS many years ago and was completely blown away with its imagery and the performances by Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. It’s vile, disgusting, brutal as hell and looks fucking amazing. I’ve been waiting for this brilliant film to hit DVD and it looks like Warner finally grew a pair of balls and decided to release it after saying often that it would never release such filth. Hopefully the specs aren’t complete and we´ll get some interesting behind the scenes stuff with it. Hopefully this will also be released on Blu Ray because this is one of those films that truly deserves it.
The folks over at dvdactive.com got the scoop and a larger version of the DVD artwork.

*UPDATE*
It seems that Warner’s balls weren’t fully developed and have retreated back for some reason. In record time the DVD has been removed from its release schedule with no word on wether it will appear again. One wonders why.
If they are going to be pussies about this then they should do us all a favor and lease it to some of the smaller cult companies like Anchor Bay or better yet Criterion.
Damn it. Stuff like this really pisses me off.

I can still remember when the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival was still called “The Weekend of Terror”.
Since then they’ve grown a bit: already in it’s 24th iteration, it now takes 12 days to show their full program.

Last year’s AFFF had a fantastic (haha) selection of titles, including not only “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, but also a retrospective of Terry Gilliam’s work including a visit from the man himself.

So of course I’ve been oggling their website (found here) often to see what the AFFF will have in store for us this year!
Lo and behold, the following titles have been revealed:

-Appleseed Ex Machina
-Vexille
-5 Centimeters per second
-Fears of the Dark
-Hatchet
-Jack Brooks Monster Slayer
-Diary of the Dead

Granted, most of these are not exactly new, in fact all of these have already been reviewed here at Twitch.
But it gives a terrific indication of what kind of festival this is: A BLOODY FUN ONE!
And rest assured it’ll turn out they have their fair share of (world)premieres, like every year when the full line-up is revealed…

Can’t wait!
But I will have to: the AFFF starts this year on the 9th of April.