News

Ridley Scott's 2012 "Alien" prequel "Prometheus" has been criticized for its vague lore and screenplay that wraps mysteries inside enigmas. I'm a fan of the picture — and Scott's 2017 sequel "Alien: Covenant" — but I will concede I remain frustrated that the movies didn't dig deeper into the alien Engineers. These ancient and inscrutable beings created us in their image, "Prometheus" reveals with its opening scene, yet now they want to destroy us. The movie doesn't answer why. Did the Engineers always intend humans as Xenomorph breeding stock? Did our ancestors fail their parents (perhaps by killing one of their emissaries)?

"Prometheus" ends with Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and android David (Michael Fassbender) flying off to the Engineers' homeworld, intent on getting answers. "Covenant" doesn't give them, for David wiped out the Engineers with their own bio-weapons and then killed Shaw. Just like the main characters of "Prometheus," I keep wrestling...

On June 13, 1980, Warner Bros. bowed Stanley Kubrick’s psychological horror film The Shining in theaters nationwide. The film, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, went on to gross $47 million and endure perpetually as one of the titles routinely mentioned as among the scariest movies of all time. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

After viewing Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, I find myself wishing that Kubrick, like Graham Greene, would let us know when he’s being serious and when he’s merely providing us with “an entertainment.” The main problem that I had with this Warner release, based on Stephen King’s popular novel, is that I couldn’t decide whether Kubrick was trying to impress the hell out of us with all of his juggling of time, or simply trying to scare the hell out of us as Jack Nicholson runs berserk with an ax. Somehow,...

I love Stanley Kubrick‘s classic Stephen King adaptation The Shining (watch it Here) and would probably have a blast watching the movie at the Timberline Lodge in Oregon – which is the place that stood in for the Overlook Hotel in the exterior shots of the location. (The interior scenes were filmed on sets in England.) Chances are, I’m not going to be able to do that any time soon, but some fans are going to have that opportunity later this year! On Set Cinema has announced that they will be showing The Shining at the Timberline Lodge on Sunday, October 6th! The event details can be found at This Link and tickets can be purchased Here.

King’s novel (available Here) has the following description: Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel,...

The endless revolving door of fantasies in Peacock‘s Based on a True Story leaves some viewers to wonder: Are some of the characters just fantasies simmering inside Ava and Nathan Bartelett’s (Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina) minds?

Alex Alomar Akpobome, who played Ryan, the rich young house hunter said creator Craig Rosenberg flirted with the notion of weaving imaginary characters into the series, similar to how The Shining leveraged ghosts from the past to blur the lines of reality in the story.

“So there’s that scene where Jack’s at the bar and he’s talking to this bartender, and it’s kind of imaginary,” Akpobome told Showbiz Cheat Sheet, referring to murderer/bartender “Lloyd” in The Shining.

“And it was one of the influences behind the character. Because there are scenes with only me and her,” he mused, referring to Cuoco’s character. “So technically he could not be real.

Every year the “In Memoriam” tribute at the Oscars leaves off a few fan favorites and 2023 was no exception: Among those who weren’t included in Sunday night’s video montage were Anne Heche, “Saving Private Ryan” star Tom Sizemore and Charlbi Dean, who appeared in this year’s Best Picture nominee “Triangle of Sadness.”

Fans also noted the absence of Cindy Williams: While she was best known for the ’70s TV sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” she notably appeared in two classic films of the era, George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation.”

And while the tribute included “Goodfellas” star Ray Liotta, who died unexpectedly on May 26, 2022, his costar Paul Sorvino, who died in July 2022, was left out.

Also Read:

Celebrity Deaths in 2023: Hollywood Stars We’ve Lost This Year (Photos)

Also missing from the tribute: two-time Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,...

Sunday’s SAG Awards ceremony will be a streaming event for the first time on the Netflix YouTube channel. One of the highlights each year is the special In Memoriam segment. It’s been a particularly rough year with over 100 deaths of prominent actors and actresses who were likely members of SAG/AFTRA. Show producers typically are able to include approximately 40-50 people in a tribute.

Among that group will certainly be Oscar winners Louise Fletcher, William Hurt and Irene Cara, plus nominees Angela Lansbury (a SAG life achievement recipient) and Melinda Dillon. Emmy champs Mary Alice, Kirstie Alley, Leslie Jordan, Ray Liotta, Stuart Margolin, Robert Morse and Barbara Walters.

SEECelebrity Deaths 2023: In Memoriam Gallery

Here is our expansive list of over 100 people who died since last year’s ceremony, several of whom will be honored on Sunday’s event:

Ralph Ahn

J. Grant Albrecht

Mary Alice

Rae Allen...

Besides maybe "Apocalypse Now," there are very few films with such a well-known and documented history of alternate versions as "Blade Runner." Directed by Ridley Scott, the theatrical version released in 1982 was nothing like the director had wanted, complete with a "happy ending" that didn't flow with the rest of the film. The poorly named Director's Cut, made ten years later in 1992, also didn't have Scott's blessing or much of his involvement. Finally, in the "Final Cut" in 2007, the director could tell the story he wanted of Deckard and his intense and existential experience with rogue replicants. 

Plenty of scenes were removed or added in all these versions of the film. However, there are still deleted scenes and scrapped concepts that have yet to be seen.  One such scene that's not in any version of "Blade Runner" that's been released is an alternate take on a crucial moment between Rutger Hauer...

"Los Angeles, November 2019." These words greet viewers within the first few minutes of Ridley Scott's 1982 dystopian sci-fi, "Blade Runner." The world-building in "Blade Runner" is rightfully lauded for its intricate aesthetics, as the film set a precedent for the science-fiction genre for years to come. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Blade Runner" tells the story of a crumbling metropolis steeped in existential crisis.

Rick Deckard is a retired blade runner who is tasked with "retiring" a group of renegade replicants who have managed to escape off-world colonies. Human empathy has become the litmus test for differentiating between humans and replicants, but this yardstick is a flawed one in a world that is on the brink of moral degradation. Humans have become increasingly machine-like, while replicants have achieved AI singularity, exhibiting genuine psychological depth and empathy that surpasses their programming.

The world...

Kino boosts the third United Artists Stanley Kubrick classic to 4K clarity, bringing out every nuance of the director’s fine B&w imagery. Kubrick’s major career achievement this time was forming a mutually positive relationship with a big star. Their show is an artful anti-militaristic shout that accuses the French officer corps of willful murder. Producer-star Kirk Douglas gets the best grandstanding soapbox of his career, while Kubrick proves he can shape a dozen fine performances into a mainstream movie masterpiece.

Paths of Glory 4K

4K Ultra HD

Kl Studio Classics

1957 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 88 min. / Street Date August 23, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne Morris, Richard Anderson, Joe Turkel, Timothy Carey, Suzanne Christian, Jerry Hausner, Emile Meyer, Bert Freed.

Cinematography: George Krause

Production Designer: Art Director: Ludwig Reiber

Film Editor: Eva Kroll

Original Music: Gerald Fried

Written by Stanley Kubrick,...

This picture looks as modern and radical as anything from Italy in the 1960s, yet it’s a tough-talking take on hardboiled crime caper fiction. In three pictures Stanley Kubrick went from amateur to contender: now he has a like-minded producer, a top-flight cast, and the help of the legendary pulp author Jim Thompson. Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards peg the cynical film noir style, and Kubrick maintains the source book’s splintered chronology for the tense racetrack heist. All Hollywood took notice — at least that part of the industry looking out for daring, progressive storytelling. Now in 4K, Kubrick’s superb B&w images look better than ever.

The Killing

4K Ultra HD

Kl Studio Classics

1956 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date July 26, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen,...

Veteran character actor Joe Turkel, best known for playing the ghostly bartender Lloyd in The Shining and Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner, has died. He was 94. According to Deadline, Turkel passed away on Monday, June 27, at St. John’s Hospital. He was said to have died peacefully with his sons Craig and Robert by his side. Born on July 15, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York City, Turkel joined the US Army when he was 17 and served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. His acting career began in 1948 when he made his first film appearance in City Across the River. He would go on to feature in several movies throughout the 1950s, including Lucky Losers, Man Crazy, and The Beast of Budapest. His television work included The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, where he played the role of young Texas cowhand Jim Rellance. He also appeared in shows such as Bonanza,...

Known to horror fans for his role as Lloyd the bartender in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, we’ve learned the sad news this weekend that veteran actor Joe Turkel has passed away. Turkel was 94 years old, passing away at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California. In addition to his iconic role in The Shining, […]

The post ‘The Shining’ Actor Joe Turkel Has Passed Away at 94 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After feeling “guilt” and being “embarrassed” over the lack of diversity in “Friends,” creator Marta Kauffman is pledging 4 million to the African and African American Studies program at her alma mater Brandeis University.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the television writer said she began understanding the criticism directed at her series — the uber-popular ’90s sitcom that continues to dominate the zeitgeist thanks to syndication and era-specific nostalgia — following the waves of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

“It was after what happened to George Floyd that I began to wrestle with my having bought into systemic racism in ways I was never aware of,” Kauffman said. “That was really the moment that I began to examine the ways I had participated. I knew then I needed to course-correct.”

Also Read:

Travis Scott’s Return to Concert Stage Nixed as Day N Vegas Festival Canceled

The Marta F.

Joe Turkel, a prolific actor who appeared in “The Shining” and “Blade Runner” and boasted more than 100 credits to his name, has died at 94 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

Turkel was a frequent performer in Stanley Kubrick films; in addition to the seminal 1980 horror flick, he acted in 1956’s “The Killing” and “Paths of Glory” a year later. In “The Shining,” he played the ghoulish bartender named Lloyd at the hotel, opposite star Jack Nicholson. Two years later, he embodied another sinister persona as the eccentric replicant founder Eldon Tyrell in the original “Blade Runner.”

A Brooklyn, New York native, he was born on July 15, 1927. He joined the U.S. Army at age of 17, serving in Europe during World War II. Afterward, he moved to California to pursue acting, and landed his first film credit with “City Across the River” in 1948.

Also Read:

Margaret Keane, Artist Who...

Click here to read the full article.

Joe Turkel, who portrayed the haunting bartender in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and the creator of the replicants in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, has died. He was 94.

Turkel died Monday at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, his family announced.

Turkel also appeared in two other Kubrick films: as a gunman in the climactic shootout in The Killing (1956) and as a soldier sent to the firing squad in Paths of Glory (1957), which the lanky Brooklyn-born actor called the greatest film ever made. (Only Philip Stone has appeared in as many as three Kubrick movies.)

For Bert I. Gordon, Turkel appeared as Abu the Genie and as a gangster, respectively, in the 1960 releases The Boy and the Pirates and Tormented. He also played a prisoner of war in Robert Wise’s The Sand Pebbles (1966) and was the real-life bribe...

Joe Turkel, a prolific character actor whose indelible performances included roles as the sinister bartender Lloyd in The Shining and the maker of artificial humans in Blade Runner, died Monday, June 27, at St. John’s Hospital. He was 94.

His death was announced by his family, who said he died peacefully with his sons Craig and Robert by his side.

Turkel was born July 15, 1927 in Brooklyn, and at age 17 enlisted in the Merchant Marines and then joined the United States Army and saw active wartime service in Europe. He moved to California in 1947 to pursue an acting career, and the following year landed his first credited film work in City Across the River (1948).

Perhaps best remembered for his work in two major 1980s films – Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) in which he played the ghostly barkeep serving drinks to a deranged Jack Nicholson, and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), in which he played Dr.

Joe Turkel, the prolific character actor well known for his roles in “The Shining” and “Blade Runner,” died at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. on Monday, a representative has confirmed to Variety. He was 94.

A prolific performer with over 100 credits in various films and TV shows, Turkel is best known for his supporting roles in three Stanley Kubrick films, including his first feature “The Killing,” “Paths of Glory” and “The Shining,” where he played the often-parodied role of the ghostly bartender Lloyd. He also had a prominent role in the original 1982 “Blade Runner,” as eccentric replicant creator Eldon Tyrell.

Turkel was born in Brooklyn in 1927, and joined the U.S. Army at age 17, serving in Europe during World War II. Following the war, he moved to California to pursue acting, and landed his first film credit with “City Across the River” in 1948.

Over the course of the next four decades,...

Author and Tfh Guru Dennis Lehane joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Home Alone (1990)

Mystic River (2003)

Shutter Island (2010)

Live By Night (2016)

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

The Drop (2014)

The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Apocalypse Now (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Apocalypse Now: Redux (2001)

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (2019) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Crying Game (1992)

Diner (1982)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

American Graffiti (1973) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Body Heat (1981) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Blue Velvet (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Raging Bull (1980) – Dan Perri’s trailer commentary

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars: The Special Edition (1997)

Manhunter (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Public Enemies (2009)

Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Miller’s Crossing (1990) – Josh Olson...

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,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Kino Lorber continues its alliance with niche market video label Scorpion Releasing with a Blu-ray edition of the largely forgotten 1969 action/adventure flick "The Devil's 8". The film typifies the kind of movie that simply doesn't exist any more: a low-budget production designed for fast playoff and modest profits. Back in the day, studios depended on movies such as these to be important to their bottom line. It's in stark contrast to today's film industry where seemingly every release is intended to be a blockbuster with production costs so high that some flicks have to gross close to a billion dollars to be considered financially successful. "The Devil's 8" is pretty much what you might expect simply by examining the sleeve. Typical of these types of movies, it presents a cast of reputable character actors who get meatier roles than they usually did in more prestigious productions. The script...

As the first wave of ‘adult’ westerns began to fade, 1959 gave us a burst of genuinely adult stories about the famed lawless towns of the frontier. Henry Fonda is at his moody best in a replay of his earlier Wyatt Earp, de-mythologized as just one more self-oriented opportunist in a land where even lawmen have an angle to play. But Fonda’s gun skills are impressive, and his deadly Clay Blaisedell is halfway to becoming the soulless ‘Frank’ from Once Upon a Time in The West. Edward Dmytryk almost rights his capsized directing career, and Robert Alan Aurthur’s screenplay delivers both an intense drama, & great gunslinging action.

Warlock

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1959 / Colo / 2:35 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / Available from Twilight Time Movies / 29.95

Starring: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores Michaels, Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, Richard Arlen, DeForest Kelley, Frank Gorshin, Vaughn Taylor, Don Beddoe, Whit Bissell,...

Roger Corman’s ferocious gangster epic (more squibs!) bounces back in a UK Region B edition, noisier and bloodier than ever. Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker and a couple of dozen top-notch hoods replay the ugly events that led up to the notorious 1929 gangland slaying — which now almost seems tame — where gun massacres are concerned, today ‘Every Day Is a Holiday.’

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date April 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale, Frank Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Richard Bakalyan, David Canary, Bruce Dern, Harold J. Stone, Kurt Kreuger, Joe Turkel, John Agar, Celia Lovsky, Tom Reese, Jan Merlin,Alex D’Arcy, Reed Hadley, Gus Trikonis, Charles Dierkop, Alex Rocco, Leo Gordon, Russ Conway, Jonathan Haze, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Jack Nicholson, Joan Shawlee.

Cinematography Milton Krasner

Art Direction Philip Jefferies,...

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece is full of doubles, doppelgängers, and alter-egos.

Mirrors, ghosts, doppelgängers, reflective surfaces, repetitions, and perfectly symmetrical frames…these are just a few cinematic devices which Stanley Kubrick uses to create an uncanny atmosphere in his 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining. Sigmund Freud defines the term “uncanny” in his essay “‘The Uncanny’” as something which is familiar yet somehow frightening. The Shining tells the story of a family of three — Jack (Jack Nicholson), Danny (Danny Lloyd), and Wendy (Shelley Duvall) — whose lives are terrifyingly disrupted when they move into the Overlook Hotel for the winter. Family is, by definition, the most familial subject matter, and therefore it is all the more terrifying when one’s family members somehow seem different. The Shining is filled with uncanny doubles, where those who look or act familiar are mysteriously different, which provoke feelings of terror. Kubrick creates this uncanny atmosphere by meticulously crafting a story-world...

Ryan Lambie Apr 10, 2017

What's The Shining really about? We delve into the underlying theme of Stanley Kubrick's horror classic...

Few horror films have been as closely studied and intimately dissected as Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The simple story of a family ripped apart by the effects of a remote, haunted hotel, Kubrick's film has only grown in mystique since its release in 1980. Clearly, there's far more going on below the surface, but what does Kubrick's imagery and symbolism - much of it unique to the film, and absent from Stephen King's source novel - actually mean?

See related  Quiz: Can you recognise these movie cats? Men In Black: David Schwimmer on turning down the lead role

Rodney Ascher's superb 2012 documentary Room 237 pulled together some of the more outlandish theories about The Shining. It's Kubrick's veiled confession that he helped Nasa fake the 1969 Moon landings,...

Jack is back. The BFI have unveiled a brand new trailer for the upcoming UK re-release of the horror classic The Shining, directed by the one-and-only Stanley Kubrick. A full 144-minute digitally restored version of the film will be screening in a few UK cinemas around Halloween - you can find theater listings here. While I assume we've all seen this film and are quite familiar with most of it, it's always fun to watch a new trailer for a beloved classic film. Even Rodney Ascher, director of the Room 237 doc, commented on Twitter: "Impressive new trailer!" The Shining stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone & Joe Turkel. Redrum. "Demands to be seen on the big screen." Here's the new re-release trailer for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, direct from BFI's YouTube: A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where...

Aside from the obvious appeal of this smörgásbord of dirty movie delights, cult director Frank Henenlotter hosts a good history of soft-core film smut, in all its forms. Includes excellent clips and input from one of the 'greats' in this field, David F. Friedman. Remember, it's for educational purposes only. That's Sexploitation! Blu-ray Severin Films 2013 / Color / 1:37 full frame / 136 min. / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 24.95 Starring Albert Cadabra, Gal Friday, David F. Friedman, Frank Henenlotter. Cinematography Daniel Griffith, Brent Kerr, Anthony Sneed Produced by Jimmy Maslon, Mike Vraney Written and Directed and Edited by Frank Henenlotter

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Remember the beginning of the Paddy Chayefsky-Sidney Lumet film The Bachelor Party, where a group of men in a darkened room are watching a film, and we don't know what it is? That's Sexploitation! is a comprehensive documentary about a sleazy, yet strangely innocent, slice of prurient Americana. From VHS through the DVD days,...

Great Party, Isn’t It? Ring in the New Year with Jack, Shelley and The Shining

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining, which stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, Danny Lloyd, Joe Turkel, and Barry Nelson, will be screened at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn, NY. Based upon Stephen King’s novel of the same name, the 146-minute film will be screened on Friday, January 1st, 2016 at 12:10 am (ten ...

Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...

“The man you stabbed in the back is a soldier!”

Two anti-war Wwi films and one wild British propaganda piece made while WWII was still raging constitute the three-film series sponsored by The Mildred Kemper Art Museum next week at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in the University City Loop). This ties into the museum’s current exhibit World War I: War of Images, Images of War, which is on display through January (details on the exhibit can be found Here) http://www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/Wwi

All three films start at 7pm and admission is Free!

All Quiet On The Western Front screens at 7pm Tuesday December 8th

The film series kicks off Tuesday December 8th with All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) — the first major anti-war film of the sound era, faithfully based upon the timeless, best-selling 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, who had experienced the war first-hand as a young German soldier.

To fully believe in life’s most surprising and seemingly impossible events, people often require concrete evidence that the circumstance actually occurred. Whether it’s accepting that the seemingly unscientific incident of seeing ghosts can truly happen, or finally witnessing several of the most celebrated genre actors publicly reunite after living out of the spotlight for several decades, undeniable proof is a crucial element. That’s certainly the case with the iconic movie adaptation of Stephen King’s acclaimed 1977 horror novel, ‘The Shining.’ Not only do the characters begin to believe in the supernatural after witnessing apparitions firsthand, but several of the horror film’s beloved actors, including Lisa and Louise Burns and Joseph [ Read More ]

The post Mile High Horror Film Festival 2015: Lisa and Louise Burns and Joseph Turkel Talk The Shining (Exclusive) appeared first on Shockya.com.

A Kickstarter was launched for the Hollywood Horror Museum which will preserve the history of the genre we all love so dearly. Also in this round-up: details on the Goosebumps screening at Mile High Horror Film Festival, horror survival game Romero's Aftermath, and distribution details for Crabs!

Hollywood Horror Museum: Press Release: "The Nsf just announced the launch of their Kickstarter for the Hollywood Horror Museum. The museum, created by some of horror and Sci-Fi’s biggest names, will be the world’s first educational, non-profit museum teaching the history of horror in films, TV, literature and art, as well as filmmaking, makeup, costumes and special effects, from model making to computer graphics.

The museum coincides with the Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum and will have a permanent home in 2018.

The project goes back to 2012 when writer/fan Huston Huddleston found two Star Trek Enterprise Bridges in the trash at Paramount in 1998 and decided to restore them.

The end of days is nigh in the new trailer for Fire City: End of Days, directed by Tom Woodruff Jr. Also: new programming announcements from the 2015 Mile High Horror Film Festival, release details for Aquarius Season 1 and zombie web comic When It's Over.

Fire City: End of Days: Press Release: "Burbank, CA - Academy Award Winning Creature and Character Effects Designer Tom Woodruff Jr. makes his highly-anticipated directorial debut with Fire City: End of Days, hitting DVD and Digital October 6 from Uncork’d Entertainment.

Set in a world where demons live among us, this exhilarating vitrine of effects and action sees a hard-boiled demon named Vine confronted with the ultimate choice between the salvation of his own kind and the life of an innocent human girl. Tobias Jelinek (Hocus Pocus), Danielle Chuchran (Saga: Curse of the Shadow), Glee’s Harry Shum Jr, and Kristin Minter (TVs E.R) star.

Given to Daily Dead as an exclusive, the Night People trailer shows us that even criminals can spin the creepiest of yarns. Also: details on the 10th anniversary screening of Neil Marshall's The Descent and a look at the short film Tailypo.

Night People: "'Night People' is an Irish Sci-Fi / Horror film which marks the feature film directorial debut of Gerard Lough.

A pair of professional but badly mismatched criminals breaks into a vacant house to carry out an insurance scam. Awkwardly thrown together with an hour to kill, they reluctantly start telling each other tall tales. One concerns two friends who discover a mysterious device that may be of alien origin. The more they learn about it, the closer to the breaking point their friendship is pushed. The other is about an ambitious business woman who provides a dating agency for wealthy fetishists. She attempts...

Bizarre AC II took place June 13-15 at the Tropicana in Atlantic City, and Dread Central went down-the-shore to check it out! Here's our event report plus an overflowing image gallery.

Having traveled to different conventions across the country, I am always searching for that old-school vibe I felt back in the 90’s. I would go to every NYC Weekend of Horrors starting at the age of 14 with my horror-loving father, Joseph Buckley (a man who used to buy Don Post Frankenstein masks from Famous Monsters to scare the kids with in the Heights of Jersey City but would not get the Monster inked on him while in the Navy because he thought it would upset his dad).

Bizarre AC II had that feeling… the feeling of the old ways, the old time when horror was new and everything you saw was not readily available from an online chain store.

War is hell, for sure, but war can make for undeniably brilliant movie-making. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the ten best

• Top 10 action movies

• Top 10 comedy movies

• Top 10 horror movies

• Top 10 sci-fi movies

• Top 10 crime movies

• Top 10 arthouse movies

• Top 10 family movies

10. Where Eagles Dare

As the second world war thriller became bogged down during the mid-60s in plodding epics like Operation Crossbow and The Heroes of Telemark, someone was needed to reintroduce a little sang-froid, some post-Le Carré espionage, and for heaven's sake, some proper macho thrills into the genre. Alistair Maclean stepped up, writing the screenplay and the novel of Where Eagles Dare simultaneously, and Brian G Hutton summoned up a better than usual cast headed by Richard Burton (Major Jonathan Smith), a still fresh-faced Clint Eastwood (Lieutenant Morris Schaffer), and the late Mary Ure (Mary Elison).

Parachuted into the German Alps, they have one...

Stanley Kubrick brings war criminals to justice in his unflinching portrayal of the war, but unfortunately history wasn't as kind

• More Reel history

Paths of Glory (1957)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Entertainment grade: A–

History grade: C

Trench warfare in the first world war (1914-18) involved intense hardship for soldiers and a massive toll of casualties (400,000-800,000 at Passchendaele; between 600,000 and a million at Verdun; perhaps more than a million at the Somme.

Strategy

The film begins on the French front in 1916. (In a rare moment of historical authenticity, Hollywood has resisted making the heroes American. The fact this is set a year before the Us entered the war wouldn't necessarily stop them.) General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) tells General Mireau (George Macready) that he must take a German position known as the Anthill. His reward will be a new star. "I'm responsible for the lives of 8,000 men," Mireau says. "What is my ambition against that?...

Kirk Douglas movies: The Theater of Larger Than Life Performances Kirk Douglas, a three-time Best Actor Academy Award nominee and one of the top Hollywood stars of the ’50s, is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured star today, August 30, 2013. Although an undeniably strong screen presence, no one could ever accuse Douglas of having been a subtle, believable actor. In fact, even if you were to place side by side all of the widescreen formats ever created, they couldn’t possibly be wide enough to contain his larger-than-life theatrical emoting. (Photo: Kirk Douglas ca. 1950.) Right now, TCM is showing Andrew V. McLaglen’s 1967 Western The Way West, a routine tale about settlers in the Old American Northwest that remains of interest solely due to its name cast. Besides Douglas, The Way West features Robert Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Lola Albright, and 21-year-old Sally Field in her The Flying Nun days.

The Shining

Written by Diane Johnson and Stanley Kubrick based on the novel The Shining by Stephen King

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

USA 1980 imdb

Quebec’s only documentary film festival, Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal – Ridm, starts Wednesday, November 7th. One of the most highly anticipated docs is Room 237, a film about the obsessive deep analysis of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film, The Shining. Theories explored in the documentary range from the plausible (The Overlook Hotel was built on an Indian burial ground and the ghosts are manifestations of the dead Indians need for revenge on the White culture that killed them) to the implausible (the film is a Holocaust metaphor) to – well, that’s a stretch (the film is a meditation on the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth) to – wait What? (the film is Kubrick’s coded confession that he faked the Apollo Moon landing...

'Hacking down the door with an axe was easy – all Jack had to do was make the wood crack well'

Jan Harlan, executive producer

Stanley Kubrick thought hard about whether to do The Shining, because horror wasn't his thing. Then Stephen King gave him the go-ahead to change his book, so Stanley agreed – and wrote a much more ambiguous script.

It's clear instantly there's something foul going on. At the little hotel, everything is like Disney, all kitsch wood on the outside – but the interiors don't make sense. Those huge corridors and ballrooms couldn't fit inside. In fact, nothing makes sense.

Stanley didn't travel, so he never went to Oregon where the exteriors were done. Whenever you see actors outside, they're in the backlot of Elstree Studios in London. The snow was made of formaldehyde and salt, while the fog was finely sprayed vegetable oil.

Stanley never considered any other actors for the lead.

For the last few days, the fanboy Interwebs have been buzzing thanks to a Reddit screengrab from the Prometheus Blu-ray (out in stores today) that teases a possible connection between Ridley Scott’s Alien semi-prequel and his other seminal masterwork of sci-fi cinema, 1982′s Blade Runner. It comes in the form of a text-based communique of sorts from Peter Weyland, the man played in Prometheus (and a viral promotional video) by Guy Pearce who bankrolled the expedition at the heart of the film. You can read an excerpt below:

A mentor and long-departed compeitor once told me that it was...

Oh Marvel, what hath thou wrought? Now that their shared universe of superheroes has raked in mad cheddar at the global box office, everyone is clamoring to create their own shared movieverse, be it with DC Comics characters or Tom Clancy novels.

In another example of movie synergy, Collider is reporting that there is an aster Egg on the new "Prometheus" Bu-ray which ties the "Alien" prequel to Ridley Scott's other sci-fi masterpiece "Blade Runner," albeit pretty flimsily.

Amid the special features on the disc fans will find a letter supposedly written by "Prometheus" corporate figurehead Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) in which he clearly refers to his "mentor and long-departed competitor" which could only be Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), CEO of the Tyrell Corporation in "Blade Runner"

Not-so-subtle hints include saying that the man ran his company "like a God on top of a pyramid overlooking a city of angels,...

I have yet to receive my Blu-ray review copy of Prometheus and if Fox Home Entertainment holds true to form it won't arrive until, or after, the coming October 9 release date so I can't add anything extra beyond the word that's already spreading. The "word" I speak of is an apparent Blade Runner tie-in with the Prometheus storyline in that the two worlds co-exist and First Showing has done a good job rounding up the details. First is the screen capture from the Prometheus Blu-ray that was found on Reddit featuring a dictated message by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) that implying an obvious reference to Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) from Blade Runner and his creation of Replicants. The reference to pyramids is another wink. Screen capture from the Prometheus Blu-rayPhoto: Reddit This has caused people to get all excited, but it's not the end of it. Some are wondering...

Well now. We really didn't see this one coming, but apparently the UK SteelBook edition of Prometheus is home to a text-based Easter egg that brings these two epic film universes together. Read on for the skinny.

Screen Crush reports that Reddit user “Huxleyism” caught a glimpse of the below text, written by character Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), which seems to indicate that Weyland’s mentor was a certain replicant-creating tycoon whose creations eventually got the best of him.

Collider eloquently went on to dig deeper into this connection and further flesh out an explanation.

“It’s clear that Weyland is talking about Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), CEO of the Tyrell Corporation, which produces, among other things, synthetic humanoids known as replicants…

Early in the passage, Weyland says his mentor told him to “put away childish things,” a familiar Bible excerpt from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, which...

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Retro-active: The Best From Cinema Retro's Archives (This article originally ran in October 2010)

By Raymond Benson

Often called one of the best, if not the best, anti-war movie ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory solidified the director’s standing in Hollywood as a talent to be reckoned with. The second film in Kubrick’s collaboration with producer James B. Harris (the first was the excellent The Killing), and released in 1957, the picture demonstrated Kubrick’s flair for camerawork, composition, and controversial subject matter. Certainly Paths of Glory stands out among his early works as a monumental achievement.

Based on true events during World War I, the story concerns how three innocent French privates are court-martialed for “cowardice” simply to set an example after a devastating defeat on the battlefield. Their commander (Kirk Douglas, in one of his best performances) must defend them.

One of the many reasons "Prometheus" was eagerly anticipated by so many was the director's track record in the sci-fi genre. Ridley Scott had only made two science fiction pictures before this year's blockbuster, and both are considered classics (and arguably his best two films). The first was 1979's "Alien," the direct inspiration for "Prometheus." And the second? 1982's "Blade Runner," the noirish mystery adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep," which has been one of the most talked about and influential science fiction films of all time, particularly in terms of its grim look at Los Angeles in 2019.

The film, which follows Harrison Ford's "blade runner" Deckard as he's tasked with tracking down four murderous "replicants" (life-like robots) who've escaped from an off-world colony and are hiding out on Earth, wasn't a success when it first arrived, partly thanks to the tumultuous,...

As 2011 winds down, it's time to start planning your horror convention calendar for 2012, and we've got a great one for you to start with. The Mad Monster Party will be held on March 23-25 in Charlotte, North Carolina. A huge list of celebrities is scheduled to attend, and in the most recent announcement festival organizers report that Rutger Hauer will be on hand to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Blade Runner!

Hauer will be participating in a Blade Runner panel as well as a Q&A and will be available for signings. Along with Hauer there are over dozens of additional horrific celebrities scheduled to attend.

Check out the promo video below featuring many of the attendees, and visit the official Mad Monster Party website and the Mad Monster Party Facebook page.

From the Press Release

Join the Mad Monster Party horror convention and meet Rutger Hauer, star of Blade Runner,...

It was recently announced that legendary director Ridley Scott has agreed a deal with Warner Bros & Alcon Entertainment to produce & helm a continuation of his classic 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner, that Hollywood now deem to be a ‘franchise’.

Some two decades after it’s release where it was a relative box office failure, Blade Runner, like Alien, has creatively become a major influence in all kinds of genre’s, most notably in Christopher Nolan’s superhero film Batman Begins or The Fifth Element. A sequel could reinvigorate this inspiration, or alternatively mess everything up, but if there truly has to be another film set in this universe it might as well come from the man who made the original such a masterpiece.

Therefore I have assembled a list of what we should hope for Blade Runner 2 (for lack of a better name) to include in order to give the film...

Was Deckard a Replicant? Was he human? Ridley Scott gave us his opinion on the commentary track and in the special features of the recent Blade Runner: Final Cut release and perhaps he will now explore the idea further. Deadline reports Scott plans to return to the world of Blade Runner, but it's not clear whether the goal is to create a sequel or a prequel to the 1982 film that was loosely based on the Philip K. Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

The original film was set in Los Angeles in 2019 where a man we come to know as Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) is called out of retirement to kill four escaped Replicants--genetically derived androids of great strength, intelligence and nearly-human emotion who serve as slaves and prostitutes on Off-world planets. Led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), these Replicants come to Los Angeles to confront their designer,...

Rutger Hauer in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner Blade Runner Review: Part I But let me step back, so I can provide a concise précis of the film (note: spoilers ahead), with the original elements noted when differing from "The Final Cut": In 2019, androids called Replicants have rebelled at an outer-space colony, and laws back on Earth have made it legal for cops called Blade Runners to execute them on sight. A few are known to have made it to Los Angeles, which resembles a futuristic Tokyo, where an ex-Blade Runner named Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is forced back into service after a fellow Blade Runner is killed by one of the rogue Replicants. The killer Replicant seems intent on infiltrating the headquarters of the corporation that made them, possibly to force their creator, the company's titular founder and CEO (Joe Turkel), to extend their lives, which are...

“Do you know what happens to an eyeball when it is punctured?” asks Rutger Hauer in The Hitcher (1985), sliding a switchblade up to The Kid’s eye, catching a tear on the glistening blade and watching it twinkle in the passing highway lights. This was not in the script and co-star C. Thomas Howell may have had to contemplate the fact that this bear-like Dutch actor might actually show him.

After all, with his manic intensity, reliance on gut instinct and bloody-minded commitment to character Hauer had become one of Hollywood’s favourite psychos. Roles in Blade Runner (1982) and Flesh and Blood (1985) had cemented his reputation as an unhinged cinematic killer – “a one-man slaughterhouse,” as one critic labelled him.

In the 1980s Hauer seemed fearless. Onscreen he was intense and regularly insisted on fucking with his audience (and co-stars) expectations. He claims he put the blade to Howell’s eye because it,...

First off, a word of welcome: this is the first entry in Pajiba's DVD Review section, a new section for which I was recently named editor by our esteemed editor and chief, Dustin Rowles. After nearly a decade of writing about film on the web, it feels like a homecoming to be doing DVD reviews once again (I cut my teeth on them initially and, over the years, I've learned a hell of a lot about the craft---those early reviews are embarrassing in retrospect). In any case, the purpose of this section serves two functions. In some cases, as in this review, we'll (yes, we, there will be a special guest writer who is joining the ranks) be reviewing movies with a fresh perspective while paying particular attention to Av quality and supplemental features. In other cases, when a film has already been reviewed for the site, we'll simply be...