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Entries tagged with 'Lionsgate'
Posted Mar. 18, 2008,
After Dark Horror Fest!
By Dennis Dermody
Out this week is the new After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For. The nice thing about the Lionsgate series (which runs for a week in theaters around the country to make way for its DVD release) is that it’s a good way to package horror films culled from film festivals that might not necessarily find an audience, or a proper release. And while last year’s selections were a lot stronger, I still support the enterprise and look forward to eight more films to die for in my future...
Mulberry Street: It takes place during a heat wave in Manhattan when a rash of rat bites transform New Yorkers into mutating zombies. Director Jim Mickle does a lot right with a low budget. The leads are anachronistic and interesting -- an aging Latino ex-boxer, a black gay friend that lives upstairs, a soldier daughter back from Iraq with the facial scars to prove it... but the 28 Days Later herky jerky camera work sometimes robs scenes of scares which is a problem with a movie that depends on it. And laying on all these political subtexts like Hurricane Katrina, neighborhood gentrification, etc. eventually bogs the film down in a depressing way. Most of my friends really loved this film though so I may be the cheese stands alone here.
Posted Jan. 21, 2008,
Saw IV, The Unrated Director's Cut: "Hard to Follow, but Easier to Watch Than the Last One."
By Dennis Dermody
I watched Saw IV (the unrated director's cut) over the weekend, out on Lionsgate DVD. Missed it in the theaters for some reason. Loved the first two Saw films -- they were smart nasty little chillers with endings that really pulled the rug out from under me at the end. But when I got to Part 3 my patience wore out. It was all about the crafty dying serial killer Jigsaw, aka John Kramer (Tobin Bell) and his accomplice Amanda finally coming to an end, but their deaths haven't stopped the franchise.
Part IV (directed by Darren Lynn Bousman) is so convoluted and filled with so many tricks that it's hard to follow, but easier to watch than the last one. Costas Mandylor plays a cop named Hoffman who's captured by a new nemesis. Buddy cop Rigg (Lyrig Bent) traces clue after clue (encountering many people in elaborate gruesome jerry-rigged traps along the way). One of my favorite new ones is a man that has to push his face through a wall of knives to get out... yikes. I guess this will just go on and on until audiences get tired of them. The thing is they're not bad -- the new ones are just way too over-written and complicated for their own good, but the fans seem to dig that about them. Think you should definitely watch the third one before you sit through this though or you'll be completely lost. But I didn't hate this one... at least it's not as bad as Cloverfield.
Posted Nov. 9, 2007,
L.A. Woman Makes L.A. Times (Courtesy of Tim Palen's GUTS)
By Ann Magnuson
The Fahey/Klein Gallery played host to Lion's Gate marketing genius Tim Palen, who had a quickie week-long exhibit of his gorgeously gruesome photos (fittingly, during this past Halloween season). Tim created the posters and marketing campaigns that helped make the SAW franchise a mind-bogglingly money-making machine. Thanks to Sue Wong and the fancy dress code at the Magic Castle (where we were going after Tim's show) I made the fashion-oriented pages of last Sunday's L.A. Times IMAGE section. (Where do I send the fruit basket?)
Posted Oct. 8, 2007,
Born Killers out on DVD!
By Dennis Dermody
Watched a test disc this weekend of a movie coming out from Lions Gateon DVD in December that was really twisted and dark: Born Killers. It was directed by Morgan J. Freeman, who made the fascinating Hurricane Streets (1997) with Brendon Sexton III. Born Killers is about two brothers: John (Jake Muxworthy) and Michael (Gabriel Mann), who roam the countryside killing people.
In flashbacks we see they were taught well by their psychotic dad (played all too appropriately by Tom Sizemore), who claims most houses are just piggy banks to break into and steal from (not to mention kill their owners). The original title was called Piggy Banks as this trailer shows.
The movie is the damnedest thing -- every time you think it's going to do one thing it pulls the rug out from under you. Most of the murders happen off screen, but it's still pretty deranged. And when John visits his half sister Gertie (Lauren German) things take another turn and get even weirder. I remember liking Lauren German in Hostel 2 -- she has a toughness and yet she's sexy and great to watch on the screen. But this Jake Muxworthy is really something -- he's frighteningly cute and fabulous in the film. I see he's in the new film by Snakes on o Plane director David R. Ellis called Asylum. It's too bad Born Killers never got a proper release but now at least it will be coming out on DVD. It's unusual and kind of terrific.
Posted Sep. 28, 2007,
Brad Pitt, Psycho Killer?
By Dennis Dermody
Any good actor worth his or her salt has a skeleton of an early horror film in their closet. The lovely Naomi Watts was in Children of ohe Corn IV: The Gathering. And before Brad Pitt made his splash in the film Thelma & Louise he made this 1989 body-count teen slasher film Cutting Class. Directed by Rospo Pallenberg -- who wrote screenplays for John Boorman (Excalibar), it's about a series of killings a local high school. Who did it? The pervert Principal (Roddy McDowall), the weird kid just let out of a mental institution for killing his dad (Donovan Leitch) or the hot jock in the red convertible (Brad Pitt)?
The film features lots of attempts at lame black humor and some creative murders -- one teacher gets pushed into a kiln, one has her head bashed into a copy machine, the gym coach gets an American flag plunged through him... But Brad Pitt has star quality to spare even at this young age -- you can't take your eyes off him while he's on screen. Leave it to Lionsgate to unearth this baby....