Published by Madeleine Koestner April 30th, 2011
in HORROR EVENTS.
The Roswell International Sci-Fi Film Festival invites filmmakers working in the science fiction genre to submit their films to be screened at the festival. RISF will be showcasing the latest and greatest Sci-Fi by independent filmmakers in the city that’s been home to some of the most infamous alien landmarks since the 40s, Roswell, New Mexico!
In addition to the film festival, RISF will be hosting an innovative new project, their SCI-FI/FANTASY SHOOT OUT! RISF invites screenwriters all over the world to submit a short science fiction or fantasy screenplay, up to 12 pages, to the Shoot Out screenwriting competition. The winner of the screenwriting competition will have their screenplay adapted into a short film over the course of the Roswell International Sci-Fi Film Festival, in a structured, week-long production. The crew will be assembled in industry standard, and provided with state of the art digital equipment and a grant of $1500. The writer of the winning screenplay will have the option to attend the Shoot-Out and take on the role of Director on their short film. This is a fantastic opportunity for new voices in the sci-fi genre to get their stories out in the movie industry!
Continue reading ‘Roswell International Sci-Fi Film Festival Call For Entries’
Published by Madeleine Koestner February 1st, 2011
in INTERVIEWS.
HYB: Since you just reprised your role from Hatchet in Hatchet II, I imagine you must be a fan of the films, and working with Adam Green. Can you talk to me a bit about what appeals to you about that series? Tony Todd: Well, I love Adam Green, first and foremost. He comes from [...]
Published by Madeleine Koestner January 31st, 2011
in INTERVIEWS.
AJ Bowen is tripping on acid. He tells me he’s coming down now.
But not really, he was just making a joke on twitter to scare off journalists …I think.
He’s gotten in trouble with his publicist before, social media has been a strange thing for him. It seems a lot of people don’t understand when to take a tweet seriously. He’s got a lot of followers, sure, lots are a result of the horror films he’s been acting in over the past few years; House of the Devil, The Signal, and most recently, Adam Green’s Hatchet II and the lesser known A Horrible Way To Die
Lucky McKee’s new film The Woman premiered last night at Sundance, leaving a few viewers extremely upset. Check out the video below to see this guy go on a tirade about rape and violence in the movie after the screening.
Personally, I’ve found McKee to be a pretty feminist director, making films about women, starring women, in which he obviously is relating to them. Not having seen The Woman yet, I can’t be sure, but I can assume from this it has some pretty graphic content. Either way, all I know is this outburst has only made me more eager to see the flick. Way to go, McKee.
Published by Madeleine Koestner November 15th, 2010
in INTERVIEWS.
Peter Podgursky has a sweet mustache and a slew of great ideas. About two years ago he made a short horror film called Cheerbleeders. Cheerbleeders is the story of two High School outcasts, Penny and Devon, who stumble across an ancient vase, that turns Devon into an incredibly popular cheerleader sex-magnet. And then everything goes nuts. Since then, he’s done a lot of stuff, including a web-short called Murder Baby which was screened at last month’s Shriekfest Film Festival. Peter is exactly the kinda of independent filmmaker Horror Yearbook loves; he makes movies that are funny, gory, and perverted. HYB got a chance to sit down with Peter and he gave us a lesson in low budget filmmaking.
Published by Madeleine Koestner November 3rd, 2010
in Horror Games.
The same day I announced Shattered Colony as the best online zombie game of 2010, HYB writer Madeleine pointed out that someone remade the classic elementary school game Oregon Trail with zombies.
Oregon Trail was the only reason I made it to middle school. In 3rd grade our school got an Apple II computer and my life was changed. Our teacher could sign out the computer and two kids would volunteer to roll it back to class. If you finished your assignment, you and a friend could play Oregon Trail. This was enough motivation for me to stop daydreaming and actually do school work! I was obsessed!
I almost feel it is unfair of me to be reviewing the recent remake of NIGHT OF THE DEMONS. For so many reasons, I am not the target audience. I’m a chick, I’m smart, and I generally dislike the idea of remaking horror films, especially when they are the lesser celebrated classic bits of genre. Kevin Tenney’s NIGHT OF THE DEMONS falls into that category in my opinion, as a super low budget gore-fest with some seriously scary practical special effects, hilarious dialogue, and that too cute panty shot of Miss Quigley. Now, I’m not saying it would have been impossible to remake this film as another good horror flick, but this is not that remake.
Published by Madeleine Koestner October 7th, 2010
in HORROR EVENTS.
Weekend of Horrors 2010 returns to Los Angeles area October 15-17.
Headliners will include: Bruce Campbell, Clive Barker, and two stars from television’s goriest hit, True Blood, Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry) and Kristen Bauer (Pam De Beaufort).
Cyrus: Mind of a Serial Killer is another in the run of forgettable “true story” serial killer movies that keep being produced in Low Budget Horror world. A documentary crew, consisting of one female journalist and her cameraman, show up at the house of an old man looking for a scoop on some legendary, yet completely obscure murderer. The old guy, played by respected genre veteran Lance Henriksen, seems to know a hell of a lot about this serial killer, names his as a local man called Cyrus, and after some hesitation, begins telling the story of Cyrus’s life in surprisingly intimate detail. The story is, of course, carried out on screen with Brian Krause (yep, it’s that guy from Charmed!) as Cyrus.
Published by Madeleine Koestner September 15th, 2010
in INTERVIEWS.
At the age of 19, Zach Galligan starred in a horror film, Joe Dante’s Gremlins. Since then, he’s been in tons more horror and sci fi, including Gremlins 2 and both Waxwork films. This week, Horror Yearbook got an opportunity to chat with Zach Galligan about some of his recent work.
Six years ago, Galligan acted in a film called NIGHTBEASTS, a creature-feature from writer and director Wes Sullivan. The film has been in post production since then, and is finally premiering next month as part of the Arpa film festival in Los Angeles.* Galligan plays Charles Thomas, a down on his luck businessman whose lighting company has failed. He goes bankrupt, loses his wife, and is beginning to lose touch with his son. So, Charles takes his son on a retreat in the woods. What’s in the woods? Sasquatches.
Published by Madeleine Koestner June 1st, 2010
in Horror BOOKS.
Hitting shelves today is Bram Stoker Award Nominated author, Gregory Lamberson’s new novel, The Frenzy Way. Leaving the oversaturated vampire and zombie genres in the dust, Lamberson delves into the world of Werewolves in an NYPD horror-thriller with the feel of an 80s splatter film.
After.Life is not a masterpiece by any stretch, but considering the options we horror fans have been given theatrically for the past few years, it is pretty refreshing. It’s actually got some ideas, and in it lies the promise of a better, more interesting feature. The film relies on the concept that the viewer does find death frightening, a kind of terror that hasn’t been frequently sought after in mainstream horror in a very long time. A true terror of unknowning, an actual physical repulsion to the subject matter: the idea of being a corpse.
The charismatic and cunning Spenser Mallon is a campus guru in the 1960s, attracting the devotion and demanding sexual favors of his young acolytes. After he invites his most fervent followers to attend a secret ritual in a local meadow, the only thing that remains is a gruesomely dismembered body—and the shattered souls of all who were present.
Years later, one man attempts to understand what happened to his wife and to his friends by writing a book about this horrible night, and it’s through this process that they begin to examine the unspeakable events that have bound them in ways they cannot fathom, but that have haunted every one of them through their lives. As each of the old friends tries to come to grips with the darkness of the past, they find themselves face-to-face with the evil triggered so many years earlier. Unfolding through the individual stories of the fated group’s members, A Dark Matter is an electric, chilling, and unpredictable novel that will satisfy Peter Straub’s many ardent fans, and win him legions more.
In recent years a string of rather brutal horror films have come out of Australia. Now their ranks will be joined by director Sean Byrne’s debut feature, The Loved Ones. Loved Ones absolutely does not hold back on the brutality, but also stands out as an oddball high school black comedy, which is prime material for a cult audience.
The film has a slow build up, but with serious payoff. The plot is pretty straightforward, focused around an angsty high school boy who is asked to the prom by a strange girl named Lola. He rejects her, as he will be attending with his girlfriend, and Lola’s obsessed father then kidnaps the boy on the night of the prom so that his daughter can have what she wants. Which is to torture him, and boil his brains.
For two decades now, The Toronto International Film Festival has provided an amazing venue for the horror genre with its Midnight Madness series. This year, TIFF’s Midnight Madness kicked off opening night with the most high profile movie in the history of the programme: Jennifer’s Body, penned by the academy award winning writer of Juno, Diablo Cody.
The film starts with a promising first twenty minutes in which I was completely uncertain as to where it was headed. I almost believed I was watching something I had never seen before, it was fast and confusing, and then Megan Fox was suddenly roaring and vomiting. But the build up has no payoff, it quickly devolves into watching high schoolers bicker and tamely experiment with sex in front of their Fall Out Boy posters. The film waits far too long to expose the secret to Jennifer’s oddities, and by the time the characters make the realization the viewer made an hour earlier, it is no longer interesting.
