Cinematical staff
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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Horror Musicals
Filed under: Horror, Music & Musicals
By Alison NastasiWith the announcement of Carrie making a return to the Broadway circuit after a short-lived disastrous first go-round, I'm left holding my head and wondering, "Why?" Horror musicals are like your socially awkward cousin. You know, the one who talks too much and quite possibly bears an uncanny resemblance to Franklin from Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Is it fair to hold the horror musical to the same standards as the dastardly horror film remakes that seem to be happening in droves? I don't think I can help it. Few horror musicals have been born from an original idea which leaves me with the same funny feeling. I'm well aware that remakes have been happening since the dawn of time but this kind of remake is worse. When you add the word 'musical' to anything it evokes a horrible visceral reaction within many people. Adding it to the word horror just seems like a bastardized and shrieking kind of wrong.
Isn't the comical genius of Young Frankenstein and Evil Dead perfect as is? Young Frankenstein was a parody. So, is a mugging Dr. Frankenstein belting out a song called Transylvania Mania anything other than pointless and silly? The film Cannibal! The Musical, another intentional parody by beloved low-budget Troma Entertainment, has more class by comparison. Even Cronenberg's The Fly has been made into an opera, but they don't have me fooled. Adding the smooth vowel-ridden word to the title doesn't soften the blow. In fact, it's almost more cruel. However, Repo! The Genetic Opera would probably disagree with me.
Read the rest at Horror Squad!
Review: Women in Trouble
Filed under: Comedy, Theatrical Reviews
By Jette Kernion (reprint from 3/17/09 -- SXSW Film Festival)
I'm wary of movies that try to be instant cult/camp classics, with intentionally overdone dialogue and outrageous costumes and actors who are metaphorically winking or even non-metaphorically mugging for the camera. When the characters are in on the joke, it isn't all that funny. And when I learned that the writer-director of Women in Trouble also co-wrote Snakes on a Plane, I grew even more skeptical. But the actresses who populate Women in Trouble tend to play it straight, even when they're wearing assless spandex pants or smoking invisible cigarettes, and that's what keeps this film fun instead of tiresome.
Women in Trouble has a multi-story, anthology-like structure. Writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez said before the SXSW screening that he originally had one ten-page sequence that he wanted to shoot, then thought it might be easy to shoot several of them, all with different actresses, to make a good movie quickly. Apparently it wasn't all that easy, but the result is a large cast of mostly actresses playing a variety of the traditional exploitation "women in trouble." These include porn stars, tag-team hookers (one in a Catholic school uniform, natch), stewardesses (they're not flight attendants when we're poking fun at the exploitation genre), unmarried-and-pregnant women, and a very understanding masseuse.
'Hansel and Gretel' to Get the Nazi Zombie Treatment
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Newsstand
By: Alison NastasiGotta love those dark Germanic fairy tales. They are ripe with strange folklore, the supernatural, and some of the most grotesque creatures ever imagined. These stories are intrinsically woven into the fabric of horror culture. You would think there would be more amazing fairy tale film adaptations, but only a few immediately come to mind: The Company of Wolves, Little Otik, Snow White and the Seven Dwarf and Labyrinth. Perhaps they hold more magic on paper, but it's inevitable that filmmakers will continue to turn to these tales for inspiration.
Earlier this year it was reported that Tommy Wirkola, the Norwegian director behind the Nazi-zombie flick Dead Snow will make his first U.S. feature with Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. The film is being produced by Gary Sanchez Productions--the Paramount company run by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Chris Henchy and Kevin Messick.
Read the rest over at Horror Squad
Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Theatrical Reviews, 20th Century Fox, Family Films
By Todd Gilchrist (reprint from 11/3/09 -- AFI Film Festival)
It's not hard to like any movie that uses the Beach Boys' music, but Wes Anderson makes it especially easy. As Hollywood's foremost purveyor of hipster drama, his pedigree as a reliable selector of appropriately wistful, poignant and all-around unforgettable songs is virtually unrivaled, but Fantastic Mr. Fox exceeds even the work of his earlier films, using "Heroes and Villains," and later, "I Get Around" as populist punctuation that manages to be both specifically relevant and substantively rousing.
As an animated opus, the film is by necessity his most controlled to date, a painstakingly-designed dollhouse where he no longer controls just the music, sets, and costumes, but the performers themselves. Ironically, however, it feels like his loosest as well - a gloriously unwieldy comedy of manners submerged in the minutiae of Anderson's madcap creativity. All of which makes Fantastic Mr. Fox a celebration both of its stop-motion medium and Anderson's aesthetic, while still managing to fully document the spectacular fun in original author Roald Dahl's daffy, distinctive imagination.
'Shazam' Movie Still Has a Pulse at Warner Bros.
Filed under: Fandom, Newsstand, Comic/Superhero/Geek
By: John GholsonScreenwriter John August declared the Shazam feature film completely dead in January 2009, unable to come up with a screenplay that seemed to satisfy Warner Bros. "By "dead," I mean that it won't be happening. I don't think it's on the studio's radar at all, " August stated in a blog post.
I'm happy to report that John August was wrong. Shazam is most definitely on Warner Bros radar, and they've tasked DC Comics scribe Geoff Johns and rookie screenwriter Bill Birch with a new version of the script. Birch spoke to CineFOOLS about the project, "The way the story is shaking out, Geoff and I see this not as 'dark' as Dark Knight but definitely as cool...Tonally, I think it's important to successfully find the balance of comedy and danger in the story. That's a major aspect I'm focusing on. Frankly, hitting the right tone is what's going to either get this made or keep it in development hell."
Read the rest over at SciFi Squad
Danny Elfman Out as 'The Wolfman' Grabs a New Composer
Filed under: Horror, Remakes and Sequels
By Brian Salisbury
As if a massively disappointing delay in release date wasn't bad enough, the upcoming Wolfman remake has suffered yet another setback. Dread Central, by way of Cinemusic, is reporting that legendary film composer Danny Elfman is off the project and Paul Haslinger will be taking his place. Technically the word is that "scheduling conflicts" are to blame, but if you buy that nonsense I have a case of werewolf repellent I would love to sell to you. The film opens in February and I am honestly supposed to believe that Elfman plumb forgot he had a previous engagement? Or that he wouldn't be in the final stages of putting the music together anyway? The damn thing was supposed to come out this week. No, this reeks of studio politics and publicity malarkey.
Read more at HorrorSquad!
Aronofsky's 'Black Swan' Gains More Cast Members
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers
By Alison NastasiDarren Aronofsky's latest film is a thriller with a supernatural twist. Black Swan is currently in pre-production and Slashfilm recently revealed full casting details for the film. It was already announced that Natalie Portman will star as Nina, a veteran ballerina competing against a mysterious rival dancer, Lily, played by Mila Kunis. As the dancers approach an important performance, Nina starts to question if her rival is a supernatural apparition or if she's having delusions and her identity starts to blur with that of her eerily similar competitor. To the absolute joy of fanboys everywhere, the film includes an "ecstasy-induced hungry, aggressive, angry sex" scene between Portman and Kunis. Having flashbacks to Requiem for a Dream yet?
Joining the cast of Black Swan will be Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder and Barbara Hershey. Ryder plays Beth, Nina's frenemie who used to be the star dancer but is nearing the end of her career. Hmm. Cassel is the "handsome but sinister" (love him but no shocker here) Yevna who is the stage director and Hershey is Nina's mother.
Read more at HorrorSquad!
Check Out The Real-Life Men Who Stare at Goats
Filed under: Comedy, Fandom, Trailers and Clips
By: John Gholson
I'm not sure why, but Overture Films has chosen to downplay the "based on a true story" aspects of their high-profile new satirical film The Men Who Stare at Goats. The film finds Ewan McGregor as a journalist looking for a story in Iraq who stumbles across a former member (George Clooney) of a special platoon of psychics employed by the U.S. military. While many moments in the film seem outlandish and ridiculous, they become even more jaw-dropping with the knowledge that the film is based on fact.
Author Jon Ronson first explored the topic of remote viewers and psychic super-soldiers in a three-part Channel 4 television documentary, The Crazy Rulers of the World, the first part of which ("The Men Who Stare at Goats") he turned into a book in 2004. It's amazing to see the very real people behind the First Earth Battalion (renamed the New Earth Army in the film) recounting the bizarre stories that are brought to life on the big screen in the quasi-fictional movie by writer-director Grant Heslov.
It's a must-see if you plan on catching the film, and absolutely fascinating. There's a cynical side of me that would like to assume the members of the First Earth Battallion all are crackpots, but there's too much fact mixed in with the weirdness for me to dismiss it outright.
You can see the first episode of Jon Ronson's original documentary, in its entirety, over at SciFi Squad.
Review: Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Lionsgate Films, Theatrical Reviews
By Eric D. Snider (reprint from 1/19/09 -- Sundance Film Festival)
The premise of Precious is so unsettling and bleak that no one would blame you if you didn't want to see it: It's the story of an obese 16-year-old illiterate Harlem girl who's pregnant (for the second time) by her own father, lives with her monstrously abusive mother, and has almost given up on life. But if you do see it, you'll find that it's compelling and artistic, punctuated with warm humor and masterful performances, and ultimately triumphant and hopeful.
The girl is named Claireece "Precious" Jones (she goes by Precious), and she's played with astonishing rawness by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. Narrating the film, Precious tells us the grim facts. Beyond the ones already noted, she is still in junior high school (where she's dumbly in love with her kindly math teacher); her first child, born with Down syndrome, is technically in her mother's custody but is actually cared for by her grandmother; and her mother, Mary (Mo'Nique), is a welfare-absorbing harridan who abuses Precious in every possible way, hating her daughter for "stealing" her man. Precious did no such thing, of course -- she was raped by her father -- but Mary is not interested in details.
Precious is directed by her principal to an alternative school called Each One Teach One. Her class is populated by other girls who dropped out or were kicked out of public schools for various reasons; it's telling that even in such a motley group, Precious is still the most timid, the most withdrawn, and the most messed-up. The teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), is dedicated to her work, perhaps the first adult to ever take a genuine interest in helping Precious. The other students might be Precious' first friends, too.
Review: The Fourth Kind
Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Universal, Theatrical Reviews
By Todd Gilchrist (reprint from 10/28/09 -- L.A. Screamfest)
I'm not sure exactly what quality it is that real people possess and actors lack, but any time a film pretends to document real behavior, either literally or as a reenactment, something is almost always missing. Sometimes the problem is a deliberate decision to enhance events with artificial emphasis or drama, and sometimes it's simply too great a sense of self-awareness in the actor, who knows he or she is performing. But while there are a precious few movies that nail that authenticity, notably the recent underdog-blockbuster Paranormal Activity, such is certainly the case in The Fourth Kind, a film that purports to build an argument for alien abductions using "actual" footage from case studies.
While much of the movie's so-called source material carries the convincing roughness and deficiencies of homemade, handheld recording, too much of it seems far too calculated, both in its technical proficiency and the performances contributed by its "real" people. Further, its accompanying reenactments by recognizable actors undermine the possibility that audiences can take its case seriously, all of which adds up to thriller that unravels easily even if it nevertheless occasionally qualifies as a scary good time.
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