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The distribution company Kino Lorber recently launched an interesting Blu-ray line called Kino Cult, and so far they have released the 1985 sci-fi Western Alien Outlaw, the Bettie Page double feature Teaserama and Varietease, the 1985 horror film The Dark Power, the 1974 drama Drifter, the 1974 Jess Franco horror film Lorna the Exorcist, the 1973 Jess Franco crime thriller Sinner: The Secret Diary of a Nymphomaniac, and the 1985 Clive Barker adaptation Underworld (a.k.a. Transmutations). Now our friends at Bloody Disgusting have learned that five more Kino Cult Blu-ray releases are set for August 20th, and there’s a theme to this batch: they’re all “nature run amok” horror movies! Most of them are movies I love to watch, too. Here’s the line-up: The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Frogs, Squirm, and Kingdom of the Spiders. Each one is available for pre-order on Amazon, and each of these...

Nature will run amok when Kino Lorber unleashes five classic eco-horrors on Blu-ray as part of its Kino Cult line:The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Frogs, Squirm, and Kingdom of the Spiders. Due out on August 20, each title comes with a slipcover and features reversible artwork. Pre-orders are up for $24.95.

1976’s The Food of the Gods is written and directed by Bert I. Gordon, based on H. G. Wells’ 1904 novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth. Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, and Ida Lupino star.

In the film, “On a remote island, a mysterious substance is oozing from the ground. A farmer sees that it acts as a growth hormone and thinks his fortune is made. But when rats, chickens, worms and wasps begin sampling the potent substance, they morph into bloodthirsty giants! Now, it’s up to...

Newly restored in 4K from original, 35mm archival elements, the harrowing, supernatural thriller Tormented (1960) will be available 23rd April 2024 in a must-have collector’s edition loaded with bonus features, on Blu-ray and DVD from Film Masters.

Iconic cult film director Bert I. Gordon (Empire of the Ants, The Food of the Gods, The Mad Bomber, The Cyclops) helmed this terrifying story of passion from beyond the grave, starring Richard Carlson (Creature From the Black Lagoon, It Came From Outer Space), Susan Gordon (Ben Casey, The Five Pennies) and Lugene Sanders (The Life of Riley).

In a tight-knit island community off the coast of California, Tom Stewart (Carlson) is about to marry the woman he loves (Sanders). All is well until Tom’s ex-girlfriend, Vi (Reding), confronts him at the top of the island’s lighthouse, claiming he is hers and hers alone! When a freak accident occurs, he refuses to intervene,...

The B-movie world has lost one of its most iconic filmmakers, as The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Bert I. Gordon – often referred to as “Mr. B.I.G.” by his fans – has passed away at the age of 100. Gordon produced and directed more than twenty films over the course of a career that lasted sixty-one years, from 1954 to 2015. He also wrote most of his movies. His most popular titles include The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, The Amazing Colossal Man, War of the Colossal Beast, Attack of the Puppet People, and Beginning of the End.

Born on September 24, 1922 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Gordon fell in love with filmmaking at a young age, being given his first camera when he was just 9 years old. He started making TV commercials after he graduated from college, then produced the horror adventure film Serpent Island in 1954. He was also the cinematographer on that movie,...

Bert I. Gordon, an American filmmaker and sci-fi director known for his low-budget monster movies in the 1950s and ’60s, died in Los Angeles on Wednesday. He was 100.

His daughter, Patricia Gordon, confirmed the news of his death.

Shortly after WWII, when Americans feared the impacts of nuclear testing and radiation, Gordon created mutated monster movies that wreaked havoc on the world. Despite his many low-budget films, Gordon’s movies featured stars like Ida Lupino and Orson Welles.

Nevertheless, the apocalyptic titles and jarring movie posters weren’t enough to keep them from flopping and receiving negative reviews, according to the New York Times.

Gordon’s career spans over six decades, as he produced, directed, and wrote 25 films. He’s most known for “The Cyclops” (1957), “Village of the Giants” (1965), “Necromancy” (1972), “The Food of the Gods” (1976), “Empire of the Ants” (1977) and “The Amazing Colossal Man” (1957), the last of which was brought...

Bert I. Gordon, an American filmmaker whose low-budget creature features brought super-sized monsters to drive-in cinemas in the mid-20th century, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after collapsing at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 100.

Gordon’s death was confirmed to the New York Times by his daughter, Patricia.

In Atomic Age America, Gordon’s science-fiction B movies manifested the country’s nuclear anxieties as eye-popping apocalypse spectacles. Mostly working under shooting schedules that could total to two weeks and change at most, Gordon produced, directed and wrote more than 25 features over a career spanning six decades, including striking titles like “Village of the Giants” (1965), “How to Succeed With Sex” (1970) and “Empire of the Ants” (1977). His films “Necromancy” (1972)” and “The Food of the Gods” (1976) featured Orson Welles and Ida Lupino, respectively.

As with many cult filmmakers, Gordon’s work was largely met with negative reviews and so-so commercial success...

Bert I. Gordon, the sci-fi director who aimed to terrify drive-in denizens of the 1950s and ’60s with low-budget films featuring colossal creatures, shrinking humans and radioactive monsters, has died. He was 100.

Gordon died Wednesday in Los Angeles of complications from a fall in his Beverly Hills home, his daughter Patricia Gordon told The Hollywood Reporter.

Highlights (lowlights?) on his B-movie résumé include The Cyclops (1957), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), Beginning of the End (1957), Earth vs. the Spider (1958), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), Tormented (1960), The Boy and the Pirates (1960) and Picture Mommy Dead (1966).

In the ’70s, Gordon directed Vince Edwards and Chuck Connors in The Police Connection (1973) and wrote and directed How to Succeed With Sex (1970), Necromancy (1972), The Food of the Gods (1976) and, starring Joan Collins in the muck, Empire of the Ants (1977).

Perhaps as a way to keep costs down, Gordon’s films often were family affairs: His late wife,...

Bert I. Gordon, who was given the nickname “Mr. B.I.G.” by Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J. Ackerman not just because it matched his initials but also because it matched the director’s favorite big-screen subject — giant monsters — died today. He was 100. His daughter Patricia Gordon confirmed the filmmaker’s death to the New York Times.

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Gordon often produced, directed, wrote and created the special effects for his movies, which were shot on ultra-low...

Bert I. Gordon’s career groove of shrinking and bloating various animals and people bottoms out in this trashy drive-in groaner: it’s colorful but nigh-unwatchable. The exploitation target is sci-fi and the teen musical, with incompatible helpings of pre-teen ‘cutes’ and girlie show jiggle for the raincoat crowd. The show apparently did well, but I heard mostly about resentful walkouts. Gordon’s early films have far more charm; this one mostly shows contempt for his audience. For fans that think there’s Camp value here, the Blu-ray transfer is sensationally good, as is the reproduction of Jack Nitzsche’s rock music score. The only thing to call this movie is Poor, but how can that be when I find so much to say about it?

Village of the Giants

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date February 22, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford,...

Don Kaye Nov 27, 2019

John Frankenheimer’s 1979 environmental horror movie comes to Blu-ray, flaws and all. Brace yourself.

The 1979 film Prophecy (not to be confused with 1995’s Biblical horror movie The Prophecy) was very much the last gasp of the 1970s boom in ecologically tinged genre movies. It was a string of titles that included No Blade of Grass (1970), Silent Running (1972) and Soylent Green (1973), but leaned especially heavily on the “nature strikes back” subgenre, which gave us such offerings as Frogs (1972), Night of the Lepus (1972), Bug (1975), The Food of the Gods (1976), Day of the Animals (1977) and other, often low-budget quasi-exploitation quickies.

Prophecy on its face seemed to have more going for it. The director was John Frankenheimer, the man behind masterworks like The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, and Seconds, while the writer was David Seltzer, fresh off his horror classic The Omen. Paramount sunk $12 million into the film, which...

Schlock should never be a dirty word in the world of cinema. Some of my favorite films are utterly devoid of taste and frequently, refinement. The majority of drive-in treasures lie somewhere between perspiration and inspiration, covered in flop sweat and trying desperately to entertain. This is often where you’ll find the films distributed by American International Pictures, and always where you’ll see director Bert I. Gordon’s oeuvre. Empire of the Ants (1977) is no exception.

Released by Aip in July and bringing in $2.5 million, Empire was the follow up to Gordon and producer Samuel Z. Arkoff’s success from the previous year, The Food of the Gods, another “loose” H.G. Wells adaptation, and was an even bigger hit (in B.I.G. terms, anyway—everything’s relative, folks). Naturally dismissed by critics, Empire continues the winning Gordon formula of B stars and groovy, goofy, rear projection grisliness.

Rabid, and Clive Barker's Nightbreed are just a couple of films in the lineup for Shout! Factory TV's 5 Nights of Fear. Prepare thyself. Also in today's Horror Highlights: a new Beistle Cat special edition pin from Creepy Co., details on Horror Movie Night podcast's fundraiser to raise money for FamilyStrong4ALS, and Jasmine release details.

Shout! Factory TV's Five Nights of Fear Details: Press Release: "Scream Factory™ is celebrating five years of fear with the special screening event 5 Nights of Fear airing on Shout! Factory TV. In celebration of the now-iconic horror brand’s fifth anniversary, Scream Factory will present nightly screenings of cult favorite films Nightbreed, Bad Moon, The Exorcist III, Hellhole, and Rabid. 5 Nights of Fear will air from Monday, June 12 through Friday, June 16 each evening at 10 p.m. Et/7 p.m. Pt at http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/, and on Pluto TV Channel 512.

On Monday, the terrifying celebration...

Beginning today, Scream Factory is taking viewers into the creepy confines of Ashland Sanitarium with their high-def release of Pierre De Moro’s Hellhole, and we’ve been provided with three Blu-ray / DVD combo pack copies to give away to Daily Dead readers.

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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray / DVD combo pack copy of Hellhole.

How to Enter: For a chance to win, email contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Hellhole Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on August 1st. This contest is only open to those who are eighteen years of age or older that live in the United States. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

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Hellhole Blu-ray: “Having witnessed her mother’s brutal death, Susan (Judy Landers, Dr. Alien) gets amnesia from a fall while being pursued by the killer, Silk (Ray Sharkey,...

July 26th has an eclectic assortment of horror and sci-fi offerings for fans, including a pair of cult classics—The Boy Who Cried Werewolf and Hellhole—from the fine folks at Scream Factory. Severin Films resurrects Doctor Butcher M.D. and Zombie Holocaust in HD this week, and Karyn Kusama’s superb psychological thriller The Invitation comes home on Tuesday courtesy of Drafthouse Films.

Other notable Blu-ray and DVD releases coming our way on July 26th include Five Miles to Midnight, the Killer Thrillers Collection, Consumption, and Exorcist House of Evil.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Richie Bridgestone’s parents are getting a divorce, but that’s the least of his problems at the moment. Richie is hoping his parents will reconsider and on a visit to his father’s secluded cabin, he witnesses his dad being attacked by a werewolf. Much like the tale of the boy who cried wolf,...

On July 26th, fans of Pierre De Moro’s film can take as many visual trips to Ashland Sanitarium as their little hearts can manage with Scream Factory’s Blu-ray / DVD release of Hellhole (1985). Do a brief stint there now, if you dare, with two Blu-ray clips and the official trailer for the film courtesy of Scream Factory.

Hellhole Blu-ray: “Having witnessed her mother’s brutal death, Susan (Judy Landers, Dr. Alien) gets amnesia from a fall while being pursued by the killer, Silk (Ray Sharkey, The Idolmaker). Awakening in Ashland Sanitarium, she is once again terrorized by Silk, disguised as an orderly. To pry an incriminating secret from Susan’s brain, Silk forms an uneasy alliance with Dr. Fletcher (Mary Woronov, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), a psychotic scientist who has been testing a new lobotomy technique, using helpless inmates as her guinea pigs. These vicious experiments are carried out in the “Hellhole,...

Sometimes in horror, a giant creature will do. It takes us back to a simpler time, I think. A time when an oversized spider, or a massive lizard sparked shuttered eyes at the Drive-In or local theatre. It feels almost like a cleansing; a reset of the scare-o-meter back to the innocent levels of the Saturday matinee. And if you were a kid in the ‘70s, Bert I. Gordon’s The Food of the Gods (1976) fit the bill nicely.

Released in June by Aip stateside, and then rolled out across the world in ’77, Food brought in $1 million at the gate (good revenue by Aip standards) and the reviews were, not surprisingly, as low grade as the budget. But hey, legendary schlockmeister Gordon did not survive the biz on good copy. And what kind of reviews would you expect from a movie that features giant chickens, gargantuan rats, and Marjoe Gortner?...

A sanitarium with a sinister staff and a family with a hairy (and scary) dilemma will get the high-def treatment on July 26th with the respective Blu-ray releases of 1985’s Hellhole (being distributed on a Blu-ray / DVD combo pack) and 1973’s The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. With summer heating up, Scream Factory has revealed the final list of special features for each film, as well as another look at the previously revealed cover art:

Press Release: This July, Scream Factory presents two long-lost cult favorites on Blu-ray for the first time. Hellhole and The Boy Who Cried Werewolf debut in a Blu-ray + DVD combo pack, and on Blu-ray, respectively.

Hellhole

Having witnessed her mother’s brutal death, Susan (Judy Landers, Dr. Alien) gets amnesia from a fall while being pursued by the killer, Silk (Ray Sharkey, The Idolmaker). Awakening in Ashland Sanitarium, she is once again terrorized by Silk, disguised as an orderly.

Neca’s hand-painted three-foot tall foam replica of Slimer from Ghostbusters (1984) will be available this August. Also in this round-up: an update on the Hellhole Blu-ray / DVD and details on Gaming Heads’ BioShock Big Daddy statue.

Neca’s Life-Size Slimer Replica: From Neca: “Add a delightfully spooky touch to any room with a life-size replica of everyone’s favorite non-terminal repeating phantasm!

This actual size foam Slimer replica figure is based on the 1984 Ghostbusters movie and was re-created from original movie molds. The figure measures 3 feet tall and is made of foam rubber and latex that’s carefully hand-painted for realistic detail. Ships in one box, some assembly required.

Release Date: August 2016.”

To learn more about Neca’s life-size Slimer foam replica, visit:

http://necaonline.com/55983/products/collectables/prop-replicas/ghostbusters-life-size-slimer-foam-replica/

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Hellhole: From Scream Factory: “Look what’s back! The 1985 women-in-sanitarium/prison horror hybrid Hellhole is finally slated for a release on July 26th.

Director Greydon Clark is not a name thrown around a lot. Horror fans will know him (probably) for 1977’s Satan’s Cheerleaders. The rest of filmdom need not apply. However, his best film, Without Warning (1980), would end up resonating in such a way as to inspire Predator (1987), Schwarzenegger’s Alien in the Jungle box office smash. And when I say inspire, I mean they stole the concept. But what Without Warning lacks in testosterone and Hollywood bankrolls, it makes up in B movie charm and a winsome personality. You can’t help but fall in love with the damn thing.

Released by Filmways Pictures in New York, in September 1980, Without Warning (Aka It Came…Without Warning) had a scattered release – dribs and drabs in smaller markets, and don’t forget Finland (who could?). Made for a meager $150,000 Us the film was given a real dine and dash release, I’m...

This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of May 26th, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.

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Episode Links & Notes

News

Masters Of Cinema & Eureka in August: Cruel Story Of Youth, Medium Cool, the Town That Dreaded Sundown

Screen Archives Entertainment have some new and exclusive Code Red Blu-ray titles, available now. Guy Magar’s Retribution, Tobe Hooper’s Spontaneous Combustion and Shakma.

Twilight Time new releases for June will go live for pre-order Wednesday, May 27the st 4 Pm Eastern: Absolute Beginners (1986), State Of Grace (1990) , Mississippi Mermaid (1969), The Young Lions (1958) , The Night Of The Generals (1967) the approximate street date is June 9th.

New Releases

Ballet 422 Cannibal Ferox The Confession Da Sweet Blood of Jesus Double Indemnity Empire Of The Ants / Jaws Of Satan...

Tomorrow, Scream Factory's unleashing respective double feature Blu-rays of The Food of the Gods and Frogs, and Empire of the Ants and Jaws of Satan. We've been provided with three Blu-ray copies of each double feature to give away to Daily Dead readers.

The Food Of The Gods

"Legendary director Bert I. Gordon (The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People) – the father of the "gigantic creature" genre – delivers this spine-tingling tale of ecology gone berserk. Based on H.G. Wells' classic horror novel, The Food of the Gods predicts a terrifying future where oversized animals are suddenly at the top of the food chain and ready to take over!

On a remote island, a mysterious substance is oozing from the ground. A farmer sees that it acts as a growth hormone and thinks his fortune is made. But when rats, chickens, worms and wasps begin sampling the potent substance,...

With Memorial Day behind us and summer just right around the corner, the horror and sci-fi home releases are really begin to heat up as we’ve got a bunch of great cult classics and new indie genre films to look forward to this Tuesday. Scream Factory is giving fans a double dose of double features with their The Food of the Gods/Frogs and Empire of the Ants/Jaws of Satan Blu-rays and we’ve also got the latest from Dark Sky Films- Let Us Prey- arriving on both Blu-ray and DVD on May 26th.

Anchor Bay is also bringing home Spike Lee’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus this week, Vinegar Syndrome is giving the cult film Madman a high-def upgrade and Universal is keeping busy as well with their releases of Seventh Son, The Loft and the Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil too.

Animal horror was big in the 1970s, and it’s not just the fault of Jaws. Environmental concerns carrying over from the previous decade were seeping into the American consciousness and, by extension, the American genre film.

Pesticides, pollution and ever-increasing concerns about nuclear power funneled their way into a slew of eco-horror movies in which mankind’s incessant tampering with the environment led Mother Nature to retaliate in the form killer animals, insects and fish, often mutated to gigantic size and always ready to kill. Titles like Grizzly and Night of the Lepus and Kingdom of the Spiders and The Swarm were de rigueur for ‘70s horror, and while the genre has never really gone away — every year sees a few new killer animal films (and that’s not counting the SyFy Channel nonsense like Crocosaurus) — it reached its zenith during that decade. Now as part of their Summer of Fear,...

On May 26th, Scream Factory's unleashing nature-gone-wrong creature features, including the killer amphibians from Frogs, the giant rats from The Food of the Gods, the killer ants of Empire of the Ants, and the creepy king cobra from Jaws of Satan.

The Food Of The Gods

"Legendary director Bert I. Gordon (The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People) – the father of the "gigantic creature" genre – delivers this spine-tingling tale of ecology gone berserk. Based on H.G. Wells' classic horror novel, The Food of the Gods predicts a terrifying future where oversized animals are suddenly at the top of the food chain and ready to take over!

On a remote island, a mysterious substance is oozing from the ground. A farmer sees that it acts as a growth hormone and thinks his fortune is made. But when rats, chickens, worms and wasps begin sampling the potent substance, they morph into bloodthirsty giants!

Long before he co-starred as James Dalton's memorable mentor and friend in Road House, Sam Elliott took on killer amphibians in 1972's Frogs, and with Scream Factory offering up two double doses of nature-gone-wrong creature features, Frogs is invading homes on Blu-ray this May along with the giant rats of The Food of the Gods, the killer ants of Empire of the Ants, and the creepy king cobra from Jaws of Satan.

Press release - "This spring, nature strikes back! On May 26, 2015 Scream Factory presents Food of the Gods and Frogs, two nature-gone-berserk shockers on Blu-ray for the first time. This release comes complete with bonus features, including new interviews with the films’ stars Belinda Balaski and Joan Van Ark.

The Food Of The Gods

Legendary director Bert I. Gordon (The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People) – the father of the "gigantic creature" genre – delivers this spine-tingling tale of ecology gone berserk.

No, not The Food of the Gods. Feed the Gods. It's a new film from XLrator Media that is hitting VOD November 25th and DVD on January 27th. Today, we have a look at the poster and trailer.

Shawn Roberts of the Resident Evil film series and George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead stars in the film for writer-director Braden Croft.

The post Trailer & Release Date for Creature Feature Feed the Gods appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Earlier this week, Scream Factory revealed they are releasing The Food of the Gods and Frogs next summer, and now the distributor has horror hounds looking forward to a creature feature season when school lets out, as four more titles have been brought onto the Blu-ray docket, pitting humans against a prehistoric reptile, a mutated octopus, killer ants, and a devilish king cobra.

From Scream Factory: “Since our announcement earlier this week of our double-bill of Food Of The Gods & Frogs went over so well with the majority, we thought it would be exciting/surprising if we followed it up and revealed Four more “Animal-Creature attack” films coming sometime next Summer for the first time on the blu-ray format! So without further ado…

– Bert I Gordon’s Empire Of The Ants (with “Dynasty’s” Joan Collins battling radioactive insects) will be paired with 1982’s devil-possessed cobra film Jaws Of Satan...

“Shocktober” continues with Scream Factory announcing two more titles they will be bringing to Blu-ray next year: 1976’s The Food of the Gods and 1972’s Frogs. The former (loosely based on an H. G. Wells novel) sees a pro football player take on giant rats, while the latter stars Sam (Road House) Elliot as a photographer evading murderous amphibians. Both take place on islands where nature has taken over.

“Happy Monday! Our month-long “Shocktober” celebration and countdown to Halloween continues with two more films to reveal: We are pairing 1972’s swampy Frogs (starring Sam Elliott) and 1976’s giant animal-ridden Food Of The Gods (starring Pamela Franklin) together on the Blu-ray format as a double-feature! Expect to see the release emerge next Summer.

We still have more films to announce this month so be sure to check back here on our page this month to be the first to see them!

Scream Factory dropped the new of two more releases! Read on for the goods which broke over at the company's Facebook page.

Happy Monday! Our month-long "Shocktober" celebration and countdown to Halloween continues with two more films to reveal...

The post The Food of the Gods, Frogs Will Now Get the Scream Factory Treatment appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Whether it's 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' or 'Kingdom Of The Spiders', movies love showing how nature wants us dead.

This weekend, Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes managed to take control of the weekend box office, raking in $73 million dollars. The film follows a group of super-intelligent apes who take over the world, and a rogue group of surviving humans who are fighting to stay alive.

While people seem to be loving this particular entry into the 'animals destroy humanity' genre, most movies that show the rise of a deadly species are super-campy creature features that are good only because of how wonderfully bad they are.

To get a feel for how well-done DotPotA really is check out these 11 So-Bad-They're-Great Creature Features.

Piranha (1978)

Trying to capitalize on Jaws, the creators of Piranha made the shark a bunch of piranhas (obviously) and then they… well that's...

Godzilla's cinematic return leaves James pondering the power of monster movies and how they give us a sense of perspective...

Feature

Human beings live little lives. We sweat the small stuff. We get bogged down in minor trivialities and teeny-tiny insignificances.

And then, oh my Godzilla, a gargantuan kaiju creature rises up and walks right through it all, stomping all over our little lives and smashing the feeble structures of our civilisation without any difficulty at all. When an almighty entity forces itself into the frame and presents a mortal threat, all the things that are amped up as 'big deals' cease to be 'big deals' as humans get a view of just how altogether small they really are.

By re-adjusting the scales, messing with proportional ratios and shifting paradigms, perspective is wholly altered. This is one of the great things about special effects cinema, or 'tokusatsu' to use the Japanese categorical term.

Wolfen isn’t a werewolf movie. I should make that clear from the start. In fact, Wolfen has more in common with the monster animal genre of films so popular in the 1970’s like Willard, The Food of the Gods, and Night of the Lepus.

And like those movies (and their many nuclear predecessors like Them!, Black Scorpion, Tarantula, and other atomic creatures) Wolfen was, and remains, a movie about predation by things that are bigger, badder and more intelligent than we are. Except that the Wolfen were not created by mad science, atomic explosions or toxic waste. Rather, they evolved alongside human beings. They kill like animals, but they think like humans. And humans are, in fact, their meat animals. They haven’t come to the ghettos because they were pushed out of their environment by some manmade factor, so forget that “going green” message. Rather, the Wolfen follow human migration.

We celebrate the finest hand-painted posters ever created, and the artist that created many of them in recent years, Drew Struzan...

A couple of days ago, a new poster surfaced for Jj Abrams' forthcoming Super 8. Lovingly rendered by hand, it refers back to an earlier age of painted movie posters, recalling the work of celebrated artists such as, Richard Amsel, John Alvin or Drew Struzan.

The Super 8 artwork immediately made me think back to my favourite posters from my childhood and the decades before. Amsel's immediately recognisable work on the posters for Flash Gordon and The Dark Crystal. John Alvin's classic poster for E.T. Or going further back, the striking, graphic work of Saul Bass.

Drew Struzan is undoubtedly one of the most well known poster artists currently working, with more than one hundred-and-fifty movie credits to his name. His enduring fame is due, in small part, to...

Rick Baker. Friend of apes. Maker of monsters. Seven time Oscar winner. And that lucky number seven was for The Wolfman, shared with fellow Efx maestro Dave Elsey. Their on-stage speech was great, but the extended Thank You Cam was even better. Both Baker and Elsey thanked Jack Pierce and Dick Smith for inspiring them. Though there were grumblings online that the Academy clip showed the CG transformation rather then the make-up. It is always a treat to see our own getting the gold.

In the best original music category, Trent Reznor won for The Social Network. But who could forget his rivethead contributions to Class of 1999, Se7en, and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man? And Danny Boyle’s nominated 127 Hours didn’t win for Best Picture, but we will always love him “best” for his bloody crazies in the 28 Days series.

Rounding out the highlights in horror cred are nods to Jason X,...

If you have Netflix and are a horror fan in need of something to watch this Labor Day weekend, one look at this gargantuan list I compiled of the new terror titles Netflix has added for instant streaming in just the first three days of this month should keep you busy until Labor Day next year. You'll find something for everyone, from older titles to recent releases, famous to obscure, classic to not-so-classic, monsters to maniacs - you name it.

For the record, I considered compiling this list in alphabetical order or by year of the film's release, but then I realized I had already spent well over an hour just sorting through the massive catalogue of titles Netflix has now made available for instant streaming and realized Labor Day would be over by the time I finished arranging this list in any kind of order. Ready? Here you go.

Iconic sci-fi/horror filmmaker Bert I. Gordon (The Amazing Colossal Man, The Food Of The Gods, etc.) will be joining the Fango family this summer, reviving the long-dormant “The Pit and the Pen” column. The late writer/producer Alex Gordon (The She Creature, Ed Wood’s Jail Bait) wrote the popular feature for Fangoria magazine during the 1980s, presenting an ongoing diary of his wild and weird war stories from the front lines of the B-movie business during its heyday in the 1950s and ’60s.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area, there will be no better way to spend the weekend before Halloween than at Exhumed Films’ third annual 24-Hour Horror-thon. The event runs from noon to noon on Saturday-Sunday, October 24-25 at Philly’s International House (3701 Chestnut Street).

The Horror-thon will screen 13 fright features in a wide variety of subgenres (slasher, zombie, monster, etc.), largely from the 1970s and ’80s and all from prints. The titles will be kept secret until they’re unspooling, but to give you an idea, the past two editions treated audiences to big-screenings of classics like Halloween, A Nightmare On Elm Street, An American Werewolf In London, Hellraiser, Phantasm and The Return Of The Living Dead, cult faves such as Demons, Alligator, Dead & Buried, Pieces, Blacula and The Food Of The Gods and rarely shown gems like Island Of The Damned (a.k.a. Who Could Kill A Child?...

“I didn’t know how to act,” Bobbie Bresee says of her first big-screen performance on the audio commentary for the film in question, Mausoleum. The assertion is hard to contest, but it’s also inarguable that her recollections of this 1983 schlocker are by far the best part of Bci Eclipse's double-feature disc.

The starring turn by former Playboy Bunny Bresee is far from the only problem with Mausoleum; this is the kind of movie in which the story centers on a clan named Nomed and acts like the audience can’t figure that one out right away, and in which another character knows of their history from a book helpfully titled The Nomed Family. Susan Farrell (Bresee), who once had a frightening encounter in the Nomed crypt when she was a young girl (as played by Julie Christy Murray, daughter of the film’s lighting designer, who looks nothing...