Category Horror

Jan 2 2012

Top 12 Most Anticipated Films Of 2012

2012 promises to be an exceptional year when it comes to sci-fi, fantasy and horror film releases. These are the top twelve picks (being that it’s 2012 “gulp!”) plus some promising runner-ups. Let’s hope these films live up to the hype.

12. Rise of the Guardians

This animated holiday offering by DreamWorkshas a fun premise; mythical characters like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost join forces to save the world from the evil Boogeyman. Release Date: November 21.

11. Wrath of the Titans

A sequel to the surprisingly good Clash of the Titans remake. Just based on the trailer, expect more heroics, monsters, angry gods, and giant cyclops, oh my! Release Date: March 30.

10. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

It’s astonishing but the placid trailer didn’t really capture the public’s eye except hardcore Tolkien fans. Lots of talking heads and makeup. But being this is Peter Jackson’s follow up to his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, it’s sure to stand up to his previous Middle Earth saga. Release Date: December 14.

9. Chronicle

Another one of the found-footage films; this is about a trio of young men who acquire super powers. The fun they have soon gives way to dread as one of the friends lets the power get to his head. Release Date: February 3.

8. World War Z

This adaptation of Max Brooks’ zombie epic would’ve scored higher on the anticipation scale but the word that it will be a PG-13 film and changes from the novel brought about some caution. (The book is told from the point of view of many people across the world. This film seems to be more linear with Brad Pitt in the lead role.) Release Date: December 21.

7. The Cabin in the Woods

This Joss Whedon-produced film was finished a while ago but sat on the shelf until this year. Promising to turn on its ear the cliché of a remote cabin found by a some young people, the buzz surrounding this film has begun to percolate due to Whedon’s genre clout (i.e. Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly). Release Date: April 13.

6. John Carter

The trailers keep looking better and better, capturing the fantastic swashbuckling feel of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars. Directed by Andrew Stanton (who won Oscars for Pixar’s masterpieces WALL-E and Finding Nemo) the film about a Civil War vet’s adventures on the planet Mars could continue the trend of notable animators making successful transitions into live-action filmmakers (see Brad Bird with his Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol). Release Date: March 9.

5. The Amazing Spider-Man

It’s pretty obvious that Sony is cranking this too-soon reboot to hold on to the lucrative franchise but it looks very promising. Andrew Garfield has an eerie resemblance to Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s mechanical web shooters, the evident back to basics approach and Marc Webb’s distinct visual style makes this film one to keep an eye on. It could be this year’s version of X-Men: First Class. Release Date: July 3.

4. Gravity

Alonso Cuaron who directed the best sci-fi movie of the last decade (Children of Men) as well as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban helms this film about two astronauts (George Clooney and Sandra Bullock) trapped onboard a damaged space station and their efforts to return to Earth. Release Date: November 21.

3. The Dark Knight Rises

Christopher Nolan concludes his acclaimed Batman trilogy with the Caped Crusader’s greatest struggle in a Gotham that has shunned him. Meanwhile Batman’s absence leads to the rise of one of his deadliest villains, Bane and sexiest, Catwoman. Given the runaway success of The Dark Knight, this film is certain to be a monster hit. BTW, Robin (supposedly played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is rumored to make his debut in the film. Release Date: July 20.

2. The Avengers

Any fan boy’s (or girl’s) dream come true. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk team up and portrayed by the actors originating the roles (except for the Hulk). Add in other characters like Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury and that’s a recipe for a blockbuster. While not as dark and serious like The Dark Knight Rises (just wish Marvel Studios would stop with the too-loud rock music in their trailers!), this Joss Whedon super hero mash up could be the big one for the summer. Release Date: May 4.

And the most anticipated film to be released in 2012 is (insert drumroll sound effect)….

1. Prometheus

Ridley Scott returns to science fiction in a big way with this prequel to Alien. Actually while it takes place in the same universe the ugly xenomorphs are nowhere to be found in this film. Not much is known about the plot outside of hints that it deals with astronauts trying to learn humanity’s roots and encountering the alien space jockey’s race (that creature was seen as fossilized remains in the original Alien). Once the official trailer was released, the film’s buzz level reached fever pitch. Release Date: June 8.

Others To Look Out For:

Looper (a time- travel actioner with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt); Men In Black III (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return as Earth’s best illegal alien hunters with a time-traveling twist); The Hunger Games (based on Suzanne Collins’ novel about young people surviving deadly combat games in a brutal post-U.S.); Cloud Atlas (The Wachowski Brothers return with this centuries-spanning story with an all-star cast; significant segments of the film take place in the future); Battleship (big, splashy alien invasion tale with plenty of action, effects and military hardware, thankfully Michael Bay isn’t directing this one); Iron Sky (a zany premise involving Nazis escaping to the moon’s dark side and returning to Earth a few years from now); Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (hey if the trailer has the balls to show Ghost Rider peeing fire, then the film deserves to be checked out!), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (adapted from the best-selling novel); Brave (Pixar’s newest film about a heroic Scottish girl in ancient times);  Skyfall (the next James Bond film is directed by Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig returns as the grittiest Bond); and The Divide (Michael Biehn stars in this claustrophobic apocalyptic thriller).

Remember all release dates are subject to change and add in a few other films (notably Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli’s delayed Area 51 that could debut anytime) that were left off or without official 2012 release dates but may impact geekdom in a huge way.

José Soto

UPDATE: Both World War Z and Gravity have been pushed to 2013. With Gravity’s case, this was due to some reported mixed reactions to a test screening.

Dec 30 2011

Best Of 2011

Short and sweet here’s our rankings of the best (and worst) in sci-fi, fantasy, comics, etc. in film, TV, etc.

Best Sci-Fi TV Show

Fringe, with all the mind-bending twists, parallel universe visits, inter-dimensional funkiness, and John Noble’s brilliant portrayal of half-mad scientist Walter Bishop, this show has outdone The X-Files It’s a shame its ratings are plummeting making a fifth season not guaranteed. Please Fox, if you intend on canceling it, give the creators time to wrap up the show.

Best Horror TV Show

The Walking Dead, just the premiere episode in its second season made it scarier and more terrifying than anything shown in theaters. With many contenders for the title like Supernatural, True Blood and American Horror Story, The Walking Dead ate out the competition.

Best Fantasy Show

Finding Bigfoot–just kidding! Actually it’s a tie between True Blood and Game of Thrones. Sure the latter has many horror elements like vampires and witches, but the entire Sookie and the Faerie angle took the show into the fantasy realm.

Best Documentary/Reality Show

Prophets of Science Fiction, airing on the Science Channel offers viewers involving examinations of the lives of sci-fi literary greats and how their works influenced culture.

Best Cancelled TV Show

Stargate Universe, it’s too bad Syfy got impatient with this program thatdecided to jettison all the cowboy antics of previous Stargate shows and concentrate on the wonder of space travel. One truly got the impression that the people onboard the ancient starship Destiny were out exploring the unknown. Too bad viewers never got a proper series conclusion, which is nothing new with genre shows even on networks supposedly dedicated to them. But that’s another rant.

 

Best TV Character

Walter Bishop (John Noble) in Fringe. His mad scientist antics are very funny while also full of pathos. As stated online everywhere it’s a crime Noble hasn’t been nominated for an Emmy.
 

Most Missed TV Character

Castiel from Supernatural, our favorite deadpan angel sadly bit the dust shortly after the seventh season premiere. His death has overshadowed the rest of the season, even the supposed death of the Winchester Boys’ surrogate father Bobby.

Most Improved TV Character

The Eleventh Doctor as portrayed by Matt Smith in Doctor Who. After a shaky first season, Smith has grown comfortable with the role and showrunner Stephen Moffat has let the wild complexity of time travel define this show.

Best Series Finale

V, technically it was only a season finale but the show was cancelled. Nevertheless, people who still tuned in watched in glee as hated characters,especially annoying teenage son Tyler Evans (who incidently gets the title for Worst TV Character), get killed and the aliens apparently conquered the Earth with some kind of cosmic enrapturing that left most of the populace in a trance-like state of alien worship. Cool, the bad guys won!

Worst Series Finale

Smallville gave fans who waited ten years for Tom Welling a.k.a. Clark Kent the moment to finally put on the Superman suit and the show did not deliver it right. Sure Welling ripped open his shirt at the very end to reveal his S Shield and there were a couple of bad far away CG shots of Superman but that figure could’ve been anyone!

Best Sc-Fi Film

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, a genunine surprise given how disappointing Tim Burton’s 2001 remake was. This emotional film reinvigorated the franchise and took it in a new direction in a way that was better done than most ofther reboot attempts, including J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. Also the year’s best film line was heard in this movie: “NO!”

Best Horror Film

Insidious, made by the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity used many ingredients for a memorable horror movie: creepy kids, demons, haunted houses, ooh time to sleep with the lights on.

Best Fantasy Movie

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II brings the film saga to a spectacular finish. Now the question remains will Potter mania stand the test of time? We think so.

Best Animated Film

TIE: Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Adventures of Tintin, Steven Spielberg gives us another rousing adventure film in the vein of Indiana Jones but using beautiful animation but Kung Fu Panda 2 had more heart in its story of Po the panda trying to discover his roots and inner self.

Best Super Hero Film

Captain America: The First Avenger, everything could’ve gone wrong but instead was a nearly perfect rendition and ode to one of Marvel’s earliest heroes.

Best Super Hero On Film

Captain America from Captain America: The First Avenger, see above and add in Chris Evans’ heartfelt portrayal of an average man who only wants to do good and became someone greater.

Biggest Disappointment

Green Lantern could’ve been so great but it wasn’t. In a summer with a patriotic hero, a larger than life thunder god and retro mutants this film presented a tepid origin story with forgettable villains and the 3D stunk. Unbelievably a sequel is still being planned.

Best Guilty Pleasure/Action Film

Battle: Los Angeles, the basic message of this alien invasion story told from the point of view of grunt marines is KILL, KILL, KILL! But there were many tense moments with great and gritty action sequences. Many claimed it was a mashup of Black Hawk Down and Transformers and they were right.

Best Use Of 3D In A Film

Transformers: Dark of the Moon may be dumb, noisy and be stricly for watching stuff blow up, but the 3D was nearly perfect and added depth to the film.

Best Trailer For An Upcoming Film

Prometheus, seriously we just don’t get tired of seeing this preview about Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe.

Best Comic Book Event

DC’s The New 52, was the game changer for the comic book world. It updated all the DC characters with a comprehensive reboot and the company’s aggressive push into digital online comics could pave the way to comics’ salvation.

Best Comic Book

Justice League, Jim Lee’s vivid art and the restructuring of the team’s personalities and relationships made this a can’t-miss comic.

Best Super Hero In Comic Books

TIE: Superman and Spider-Man, both flagship characters had their ups (Superman updated again but this time the changes largely work and readers are given two distinct versions of the character in his two books) and downs (Spider-Man is still suffering the damage of Marvel boss Joe Quesada’s boneheaded decision to have Spidey make a deal with the devil and erasing his marriage, still the Spider-Island story arc was whacky fun) yet continue to shine no matter their trappings. Honorable mentions go to Batman, The Flash and Captain America.

Nov 13 2011

The Walking Dead March On, Part II

Episode Three: The pre-credits scene of episode three of the second season of The Walking Dead, “Save the Last One”, shows Shane (Jon Bernthal) running water for the shower and shaving his head with electric clippers. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he seems disturbed and somewhat uneasy…

episode-3-shane-otis-hallway-gp[1]Post-credits, in a nightmarish sequence, Shane Walsh and Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) run for their lives from walkers in the school hallway. The walkers –looking Hammer-film ghoulish in the dark, slow-motion scene – chase them into the gymnasium. Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) conversation with his wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) – at their son Carl’s (Chandler Riggs) bedside – provides the narration. Telling of Shane’s icy prowess in getting any job done, he recounts the time Shane stole the high school principal’s car out of the teacher’s lot in the middle of a lesson…

Back in the RV, Carol (Melissa McBride) cries in her sleep, almost certainly over her missing daughter. Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), sleepless, goes on a night search for the girl. Andrea (Laurie Holden) agrees to join, and grabbing flashlights, they set off into the dark, silent woods. Daryl casually reveals his survival skills, telling Andrea of the time he was lost in the woods as a child, alone, for nine days before finding his way home. Their vain search yields only a bite victim who unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree, turning into a walker in the process. After reading his rhyming, darkly humorous suicide note, Daryl – although initially reluctant to waste arrows –kills the gurgling walker. Andrea reveals a morbid outlook, unsure of whether she wants to live or die…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading about Episode Three

funeral

Episode Four: The pre-credits scene of episode four of season two of The Walking Dead, “Cherokee Rose”, shows the survivors re-grouping at the farm, as Hershel (Scott Wilson) tends to a recovering Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs). Later, Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is buried and eulogized in a solemn ceremony. Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) grows visibly uncomfortable as the unknowing Hershel waxes heroic, and has flashbacks to Otis’ final moments. Patricia (Jane McNeill), Otis’ surviving girlfriend, wants Shane to say a few words. Shane initially protests but stammers his way through a falsified version of the fatal event, designed to heroize the dead man’s actions…

Post-credits, the survivors study a map of the area to analyze where to search for the missing Sophia (Madison Lintz). Hershel advises Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Shane that they are medically unfit to participate in the search, so Daryl (Norman Reedus) goes alone. Hershel states his directive that no one carries guns on his property, objecting to an “armed camp.” Despite reservations, Rick and Shane comply, although Hershel permits an armed lookout. Additionally, Hershel breaks the news to Rick that as soon as Carl has recovered fully, and Sophia is found, the survivors are to leave his property, stating that “we don’t normally take in strangers.”

episode-4-glenn-well-gp[1]

Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) and a lucid, recovered T-Dog (IronE Singleton) find a grotesque, swollen, misshapen walker trapped at the bottom of one of five wells on Hershel’s property, sarcastically calling it a swimmer (as opposed to a walker). The survivors want to shoot it, but don’t want to contaminate the well water. Finally, in order to remove it, they resort to lowering in a nervous Glenn (Steven Yeun) as live bait to harness it to a rope and the pull it out. Unfortunately, the bearings holding the tied rope loosen, dropping Glen sharply downward almost within the monster’s grasp. The group succeeds in pulling the screaming, panicky Glenn out of the well. After another try, they pull the swimmer out, this time using a horse for an anchor. As the gurgling swimmer is halfway out, his soft, bloated, squishy body snaps in two. His top half quivers on the ground, spraying blood and intestines while his lower half falls back into the well. A disgusted T-Dog bludgeons the swimmer’s head…

Please click on the link to Deadloggers to continue reading about Episode Four

Evan Rothfeld

Nov 7 2011

The Walking Dead March On, Part I

cast photo

The first season of AMC’s The Walking Dead, based on Robert Kirkman’s hit comic book gore fest of the same name, cleaned up in the ratings and kept fans biting their nails on the edge of their sofas.

Developed by veteran director Frank Darabont, together with Kirkman, the highly anticipated first season premiered on AMC to universal acclaim in October 2010, setting a record audience for a cable show premiere. Albeit way too short (a paltry six episodes, eliciting a collective groan from fans and critics alike) the not-for-the-squeamish show jumped right into the action. Initially sticking close to the comic, it developed characters, themes, and storylines made only for the TV version. episode-1-rick-3[1]The show follows Rick Grimes, a lion-hearted sheriff’s deputy from Georgia, as he got shot in the line of duty, then awakened from a coma in an abandoned hospital. He found his family and then led them and a small band of survivors to safety through the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. The Walking Dead delivered the goods: coming in the wake of Lost, the show helped satisfy fans’ craving for a diverse group (old, young, pre-teen, black, Asian, blonde, redneck, etc.), each with his or her own backdrop story to tell, struggling their way out of a helpless situation. The survivors dealt with infighting, romance, the daily grind of scrounging for food and weapons, and most of all, well…zombies.

male-walker-760[1]Where Lost had the villainous “Others,” The Walking Dead upped the ante and put forth the most horrifyingly evil and dangerous cast of villains ever shown on TV: shuffling masses of brainless, gut-chomping, intestine-ripping “walkers” (called so for their habit of endlessly wandering and being incapable of physically tiring). With outstretched arms seeking live flesh, they are slow, nameless, and deadly. As it seems, a bite from a walker turns a victim into a walker himself.  Over the six episodes, aired back-to-back, the show raised the bar for gore-splattering special effects and makeup as we watched the walkers, in varying stages of decay, feast, or get killed from head-bursting gunshots and blood-spraying decapitations.

By the last episode in season one (“TS-19”), the survivors’ ranks were thinning out due to walkers and suicide. Trapped in Atlanta’s Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) – where they arrived in a futile attempt to find a cure for the zombie plague – the group used a grenade to blast their way out of the fortress-like government center before it self-destructed. They fled Atlanta to begin a nervous, uncertain pilgrimage to Fort Benning in the hopes of finding a safe zone.

Thankfully, for season two, the top-notch main cast signed on to continue. Among them are native Englishman Andrew Lincoln (who should win an award just doing such a marvelously convincing American accent) as the take-charge Rick; Sarah Wayne Callies as his pretty wife Lori; Jon Bernthal as his best friend and co-deputy Shane Walsh (who had an affair with Lori before Rick turned up alive); Steven Yeun as Glenn, the delivery boy turned resourceful street rat; Laurie Holden as despairing Andrea; Jeffrey DeMunn as the elderly and life-experienced Dale; IronE Singleton as T-Dog, an amiable, stocky black guy;  Melissa McBride and Madison Lintz as gentle widow Carol and her pre-teen daughter Sophia, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, a redneck alpha male archer and already a fan favorite; plus Chandler Riggs as Rick and Lori’s pre-teen son Carl.

Please click on the following links to Deadloggers to read more on Episodes One and Two of the second season of The Walking Dead

Evan Rothfeld

Oct 27 2011

Top Ten Sci-Fi Movie Monsters

 

Cloverfield_monster_reveal

When it comes to monsters, the science fiction genre has many worthy contributions. Whether they’re from outer space, developed in a lab or a byproduct of our amok science, sci-fi monsters have thrilled audiences for decades and will continue to do so. Here’s the ten best sci-fi monsters on film.

10. Giant Ants (Them!): Sure they look hokey by anyone’s standards, but that spooky noise the behemoth ants created is memorable and the film (about efforts to destroy deadly gigantic ants created by nuclear radiation) is one of the best examples of giant animal monster movies from the ’50s.

9. The Judas Breed (Mimic): Guillermo del Toro directed this underrated monster movie about a genetically engineered insect (a cross of a praying mantis and termite) that evolves to feed on humans in subways and alleys. The creepy insects do this by appearing somewhat humanoid in the dark to lure their prey. Vicious, deadly and hard to kill, the Breed are a classic.

8. Ymir (20 Million Miles To Earth): An alien egg is brought back by a space expedition to Venus and hatches in Italy. The hatchling soon grows to humongous proportions and goes on a rampage in Rome in this Ray Harryhausen masterpiece.

7. The Creatures from The Mist (The Mist): Yeah the ending was too bleak but the film’s extra-dimensional creatures that plague the trapped shoppers in the supermarket are truly terrifying. An army experiment breaks the seal between dimensions unleashing a mist filled with assorted deadly carnivorous life forms that spit out corrosive webbing, lay eggs on human hosts and are just outright nightmare inducing.

6. Godzilla (Godzilla, King of the Monsters): The ultimate statement of nuclear radiation being bad for the environment as atomic bombs awaken and mutate a gargantuan dinosaur that destroys Tokyo with its atomic breath and destructive might. The original is still the best and most dire film of this genre. Let’s not talk about that abomination put out in 1998 which starred that Ferris Bueller guy.

5. Brundlefly (The Fly): David Cronenberg’s AIDS allegory cleverly updates and amps up the horror in this remake of the ’50s film. Jeff Goldblum’s scientist Seth Brundle has his genes accidently spliced with a fly when he teleports himself, and the result is a hideous amalgamation of the two.

4. T-Rex and Raptors (Jurassic Park trilogy): Let the extinct stay extinct! That message comes across in this Steven Spielberg classic about cloned dinosaurs that break loose and eat people in a soon-to-be-opened island theme park. The effects were groundbreaking then and are still impressive as the T-Rex is shown to be the badass that it was and the velociraptors nearly upstage the tyrant king with their cunning and agility.

3. Frankenstein’s Monster (Frankenstein): Boris Karloff’s quiet and eerie portrayal of the creature created out of dead human body parts by Dr. Frankenstein is still unsettling. Some thanks should go to Jack Pierce’s makeup and the atmospheric directing by James Whale in this classic statement of humanity’s folly in trying to control nature through science.

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2. The Thing (The Thing): John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of Howard Harwks’ film from the ’50s set a standard in moody paranoia and gross creature makeup effects. Not having a defined shape, the chameleon-like alien found by a doomed Antarctic research teams mimicked any life form it encountered. Including humans. But when the movie shows the Thing in-between transformations as its body disgustingly twists and contorts, it strained any viewer’s fortitude.

1. Alien Xenomorph (Alien films): The uber-space monster. Designed by H.R. Giger, this creature truly looked alien with its elongated skull, double mouth, exoskeletal structure and acidic blood. It’s a unique iconic look that few monsters have been able to match. Add to the mix, the fact that it can blend into its surroundings and it’s just plaine frightening.  Of course, what brought the movie houses down was the bloody debut of the serpentine infant alien that literally burst out of poor John Hurt’s chest.

Honorable Mentions: The Cloverfield Monster (Cloverfield),  the alien Predator (the Predator films), Hulk (the Hulk films), the Mutant Bear (Prophecy), the Bugs (Starship Troopers), the Mutant Baby (It’s Alive), Rhedosaurus (The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms), and the Gill Man (Creature From The Black Lagoon).

José Soto