Soon to make its world premiere at the Film4 Frightfest in London, the producer of Wolf Creek will be making waves again with Coffin Rock - the feature debut from writer-director Rupert Glasson.  Here’s how the festival describes it:

In the small coastal town of Coffin Rock, Rob and Jess live an almost idyllic life, their relationship marred only by their inability to have children. In a weak moment Jess sleeps with a stranger and later learns she’s pregnant. But the shocking truth is Evan targeted her the moment she walked into the fertility clinic where he worked. Now Jess’ guilt turns to full-blown horror as Evan begins a petrifying transformation from menacing stalker to unhinged psychopath….

But don’t take their word for it, we’ve got the trailer below the break and it’s truly unsettling stuff!

Continue Reading "Obsession Turns Ugly In Australian Thriller COFFIN ROCK"...

My biggest gripe with animated films in Hollywood today is the lack of mature or edgy content for adults.  Most of the animated films getting produced are driven by slapstick gags and the characters are drawn in cartoony fashion.  Creative studio Nathan Love, in collaboration with Perspective Studios, has completed a three-minute trailer for Blood Trail that utterly go against this convention.  Its a horror piece based on writer Matt Cochran’s screenplay of the same name and its expected to be developed into a feature film, video game and/or graphic novel.  Before you watch this trailer, I must warn you that it contains extreme gore and graphic violence in full CG animated glory.  This is definitely not safe for work so keep your kids away.  What transpire in the last half had me going “oh shit!”.

You’ll find the trailer embedded below after the break.

Continue Reading "Trailer for CG Animated Horror BLOOD TRAIL"...

With the announcement that [REC]2 will be opening Sitges 2009 the PR train is getting rolling with the first in a planned series of behind the scenes videos.  It’s in SPanish only but it does provide a good look on set of the sequel to the hit Spanish horror picture and directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza hard at work.

The Eternal director Justin McConnell just passed along five new teaser posters for his developing vampire flick. He also let us know that at this year’s edition of Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear they will be in the house and hosting a contest for visitors to their booth that weekend. Things are still at the developing stages for Justin’s film but as soon as things start rolling again I’m sure he’ll have more news for us to pass on to you.

The Eternal will be once again represented at this year’s Rue Morgue Festival of Fear in Toronto (August 28 – 30). We urge all attending to swing by the Unstable Ground booth to grab some free swag, meet the crew and lead actor Adam Kenneth Wilson, preview the entire first issue of the graphic novel The Eternal: Final Dawn, and enter to win one 3 of “The Eternal” prize packs.

First Prize - A “one-of-a-kind” painting by co-creator Kevin Hutchinson (www.secondskincreations.net), a copy of the printed limited edition first issue of “The Eternal: Final Dawn” (only 20 of this version of the pressing will ever be made!), a “Final Dawn” T-shirt, and the short film prequel “Ending the Eternal” on DVD.
Second Prize – A “The Eternal: Final Dawn” T-shirt, copy of the printed limited edition first issue, and the short film prequel on DVD.
Third Prize – A copy of the printed limited edition first issue, and the short film prequel on DVD.

And The Eternal film synopsis…

Samuel Gradius has lived too long. In his 500 years on earth he has seen empires rise and fall, changed the course of history with his bare hands and experienced countless revolutions first hand. Samuel Gradius is a vampire, perhaps the only vampire, and he’s had enough. He wants to die. No longer content with the idea of simple suicide, he makes the decision to go out in the ways of old. He wants a warrior’s death. THE ETERNAL follows Samuel on the pursuit of his own personal oblivion, he hopes, at the hands of someone worthy.

To the surprise of pretty much nobody [REC]2 - the sequel to the Spanish zombie hit that spawned Quarantine as an English language remake - has just been announced as the opening night film for the 2009 edition of Sitges.  Sitges was the launching site for the original so expectations have always been that the sequel would take its bow there as well but just because a piece of news is expected doesn’t mean it’s not good.

Check the trailer and clips from [REC]2 below the break!

Continue Reading "[REC]2 To Open Sitges 2009!"...

It is obvious to any Twitchfilm reader who has been around long enough that we are big fans of English director Shane Meadows and his films A Room For Romeo Brass, Dead Man’s Shoes and This Is England. His latest film Le Donk & Scoz-ayz-ee just premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival but he gave Empire the skinny on his next big film, a horror film, and one we’ve known about for a while now, Beware the Devil...

“It’s based on a book of the same name, based on the life of a guy who, by getting involved with Ouija boards and the occult by trying to disprove it, trying to take the piss out of it, got possessed, had to be exorcised, and later became an exorcist himself. The guy it happened to has died, but his son’s a novelist, and he helped him turn it into a book before he passed away, and now I’m working with him to turn it into a film.” Empire also said Meadows described Beware the Devil to us as “making Dead Man’s Shoes look like Play School”

We all know how much man love Swarez has for Fred Dekker and his film Night of the Creeps but I think this little contest that Amazon is putting on to choose the cover for the upcoming DVD release might be enough to put him over the edge and send him on a drunken rampage throughout Iceland, drunk on whatever the Icelandic people get toasted on. And given that Swarez has himself designed some really good posters and DVD covers himself I don’t think the nation of Iceland will sleep well tonight. You’re going to have to see for yourselves.

Here’s the deal. Go to the link below and choose one of the three options at the bottom of the page. The cover with the most votes will be the winner and you’ll know what to look for when you go to buy this DVD when it hits store shelves. I think all three are ugly as sin but it looks like it is a matter of choosing the lesser of three evils. Option # 1, the one I think is the least hideous is the one on the left.

And you will buy it because it is an awesome cult film and you don’t want a drunken Swarez showing up at your door in the middle of the night. Do you? DO YOU!?!

Seventy years later and 1939 is still hailed as a benchmark year for Hollywood cinema.  Celebrating that fact, this evening The Castro Theatre launches its 18-film tribute to 1939, including such classics as Son of Frankenstein and The Man They Could Not Hang, At the Circus and You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man, They Made Me A Criminal and Each Dawn I Die, The Women and Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Destry Rides Again, Wuthering Heights and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Tarzan Finds A Son and Another Thin Man, Gunga Din and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, wrapping up with Golden Boy and Only Angels Have Wings.

If you prefer your home entertainment system to a movie palace, at least 10 of those titles are likewise included in Turner Classic Movies’ 39-film tribute “1939—70th Anniversary of Hollywood’s Greatest Year.”  Each Thursday night through the month of July, TCM will shoot off 1939’s most celebrated fireworks, including all 10 Best Picture Oscar® Nominees (reminding—in the light of recent events—that everything old is new again).  Robert Osborne offers a preview of the festival at Now Playing: The Show and the full schedule can be found at TCM’s website.  TCM’s “39 From 1939” Film Festival also features the premiere of the new Warner Home Video documentary 1939 (2009), which recounts the astonishing accomplishments of Hollywood during this historic film year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has, of course, been screening all 10 Best Picture Oscar® Nominees throughout the Summer, with only four screenings left to go.

Of related interest, at One Way Street Alan Rode angles in on 1939 by way of a sterling portrait of “the incredible twelve month run of film roles by the great character actor, Thomas Mitchell.”

And, of course, no survey of any given year in cinema history would be complete without a tip of the hat to Thom Ryan’s Film of the Year.  He chose Confessions of a Nazi Spy as his focus on 1939.

So, out of sheer curiosity, what is your favorite film from 1939?

Cross-published on The Evening Class.

[Our thanks to Captain Awesome for pointing out a series of fresh stills for this one.  More bio.  More slime.  You know the drill.  Hit the link below to check ‘em out.]

I’ve always had a sweet spot for 1950’s b-grade science fiction and a particular weakness for The Blob and apparently low budget film maker John Lechago feels exactly the same way.  His latest effort, Bio Slime is an obvious nod to the blobby days of yore, albeit a nod filtered through the much more explicit filters of films such as Evil Dead and Braindead.  If you’re a fan of this sort of thing then the plot line shouldn’t matter very much but if you’re curious it revolves around a strange mass of slime released from a mysterious brief case during a drug deal gone bad. 

[Our thanks to Joshua Chaplinsky for the following review.]

I’m a sucker for anything Lynchian, that special brand of weirdness encompassing the dark and bizarre. Invariably, the eponymous term is slapped on as a selling point, and anything described as such is doomed to disappoint. Fortunately for The Forbidden Door, Lynch isn’t its sole influence (despite some obvious nods.) The film is a tasty amalgamation of Lynch, Hitchcock, Hostel, Videodrome, Takashi Miike, The Usual Suspects
and Shakespeare.  That’s right, The Bard himself.

Continue Reading "NYAFF 09 Review: THE FORBIDDEN DOOR"...

Though he’s been brewing his particular brand of madness for a good long while now it wasn’t until the arrival of Machine Girl that writer-director Noboru Iguchi really made an impression here in North America.  But when he did, it was a big one - his fetishized story of a high school girl whose arm is replaced by a giant machine gun becoming a genuine viral phenomenon as it raced through the web.  And how has Iguchi followed up the success of Machine Girl?  With robotic geishas.  Lots of them.

RoboGeisha is the latest collaboration between Iguchi and special effects man Yoshihiro Nishimura - himself the director of Tokyo Gore Police - and it bears all of the now-classic hallmarks of the duo: outrageous special effects, grotesquely hilarious gore and weapons where weapons just should not go.  Machine Girl had the mechanized arm.  Iguchi’s earlier Sukeban Boy had leg and breast cannons.  Nishimura’s Tokyo Gore Police has the infamous penis cannon.  RoboGeisha?  This one boasts what the trailer graciously describes as hip-katanas, though the swords are actually placed considerably lower and more to the rear.  Yes, Iguchi’s latest has ass-swords and women who aren’t afraid to use them.  And that’s not even mentioning the giant robot-building, the transforming geisha-tank or the fried shrimp rammed into eye sockets.

The trailer for RoboGeisha is a virtual compendium of the bizarre and hilarious world of Iguchi, all of it narrated in bizarrely dry style. We’re very proud to have been given the world exclusive of the trailer here at Twitch, passed to us directly from production company TO Entertainment, and you can find it below the break!

Continue Reading "Noboru Iguchi Says ‘Geisha Is Beautiful!  Geisha is Robot!’ It’s the ROBOGEISHA Trailer!"...

  Smash Cut is the dizzying portrayal of ABLE WHITMAN, a trouble filmmaker losing his mind in an extraordinary way.

  After his latest “serious” film is met with gales of laughter, Able decides to drown his sorrows at a local strip club—where he meets dancer GIGI SPOT. Minutes later, he’s convinced the honey dripping sex-pot to star in his next project. Minutes after that, he’s killed her in a drunk driving accident. Needing to dispose of the body, Able stumbles upon the one place nobody would notice a corpse…spread around the set of his new horror film.  When the response to this new footage is praised for its realism, the guilt ridden Able has a complete mental breakdown. Believing he has finally discovered the key to making a great horror film, the director quickly discovers that one human body doesn’t yield a lot of parts, and if he wants to finish, he’s going to have to keep on killing.

  Meanwhile, Gigi’s sister APRIL hires the city’s most celebrated private detective, ISAAC BEAUMONDE, to investigate Gigi’s disappearance. But when the simple missing person investigation turns into a string of stomach turning murders, Isaac realizes he’s found the case of a lifetime.

  With Beaumonde hot on his heels, his sanity unspooling and his collaborators dropping like flies, will Able have the time, focus and resources to complete his magnum opus, or will he simply fade to black?

Yes, kids, we return now to the strange world of Lee Demarbre’s Smash Cut - an intentionally camp tribute to the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis starring David Hess, Michael Berryman and Sasha Grey - with the fifth of a series of six behind the scenes reels from the film.  Reel five brings the money shot, which in this case means Sasha Grey being doused with liberal quantities of blood.  Find it below the break along with the previous behind the scenes reels.

Smash Cut will have its world premiere as part of the Fantasia Festival in July with Demarbre, Hess and Grey all in attendance.

Continue Reading "A Fifth Trip Behind The Scenes Of Lee Demarbre’s SMASH CUT"...

You can do little wrong when you decide to go to Montreal for the Fantasia International Film Festival and this year’s lineup proves to be no exception. Want a taste? David Morley’s MUTANTS, Adam Mason’s BLOOD RIVER, José Mojica Marins’ EMBODIMENT OF EVIL, Tom Shankland’s THE CHILDREN, Park Chan-wook’s THIRST and Satoshi Miki’s INSTANT SWAMP are just some of the titles at this year’s festival.

There is a lengthy announcement after the break. Take your time and we are sure you’ll find some must-sees. Then we’ll see you in Montreal between July 9th and 27th.

Continue Reading "FANTASIA 2009 announces lineup. She be a doozy!!!"...

The brutal, ultra-hard horror film The Collector, which was formerly known as The Midnight Man, is going to be one of the key horror titles of 2009. The film tells the story of an ex-con who plans to steal a rare jewel from a house while the family is away. The only problem is that a masked marauder entered the house earlier in the night and turned it into a gigantic man-trap. Director Marcus Dunstan,who also produced Feast and wrote Saw IV-VI, made the The Collector with hardcore horror fans in mind. The film is set-up like a thriller, but it slyly switches gears after the first act, and turns into an amped-up, non-stop bloodbath.

The Collector is set for U.S. theatrical release on July 31, 2009. The MPAA’s “R” rating should be prefaced by the word “hard.” For those who cannot wait, Fantastic Fest has teamed up with Scott Weinberg’s new Horror Squad site for a special screening at the Alamo Drafthouse on July 22nd, 2009. Information about the screening as well as some still images can be pursued at the links below.

Who’s that in the photo?  Well, three of them (Marc Senter, Amanda Fuller and Noah Taylor to be precise) are the cast of upcoming feature Red, White and Blue.  One of them - the man in the hat - is RWB writer-director Simon Rumley, helmer of award winning films The Handyman and The Living And The Dead.  And the guy in the flammable pants?  That’d be Fantastic Fest and Alamo Drafthouse honcho Tim League, making the move to the other side of the screen and serving as executive producer on Rumley’s latest.  Yep, it came down pretty much the way you’d think - after screening Rumley’s The Living And The Dead - which took home a stack of awards when it appeared at Fantastic Fest a couple years back - League offered to get involved in whatever Rumley did next and this is the result.  Described as a “slacker revenge movie” Rumley promises a controversial blend of sex and violence ... Check the full press release below the break!

Continue Reading "Simon Rumley Teams With Tim League For RED, WHITE AND BLUE"...