Results

When I was a kid, The Wolf Man was my favorite monster. I don't know why. I know I wasn't alone. In fact, so fascinated was I by this monster, I'm currently writing a movie about werewolves. With an almost ten year gap filled with pseudo-sequels and suspense thrillers, Universal was due to hit the ball out of the park with another classic monster. This, strangely, was not the first werewolf movie that Universal tackled. 1935 saw "The Werewolf of London" starring Henry Hull and Werner Oland. For whatever reason, after its release...

 

While items on my to-do list this week included: 1) trying to arrange to get carton of Marlboros from a film office in London (in payment for putting together some storyboards for a big-budget short) and 2) craft concept art for "eF" where characters look like the actors who are being courted to play the parts (not as rewarding as it sounds), Zack Snyder's list included 1) gathering the…

 

In 1981 director John Landis made something that was slightly unusual at the time: a comedy-horror film. Sure there had previously been comedies with horrific elements and vice-versa, but never before had a relatively light-hearted film delved so deeply into gore and horror. Previously known mainly for madcap comedies ("Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers"), who knew Landis had it in him? Well, die-hard readers of Famous Monsters in Filmland certainly did; both he and fellow monster fan (master-monster-maker) Rick Baker had numerous mentions within its pages over the years ...

 

After the success of big-budget studio pictures like "Rear Window", "North by Northwest" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much", Alfred Hitchcock took the crew of his "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" TV show, some black and white stock and the backlot of Universal Studios and made a little low-budget picture called "Psycho", which has gone on to become — arguably — the most famous horror film ever made (after all, what sound effect does someone generally make when they jump out to startle you? "Screech screech screech screech!").

 

Motor-vehicular horror. That's what a big chunk of the seventies was inexplicably made of. There was "Duel" (a TV movie directed by a young Steven Spielberg that was considered to good for television), "Killdozer" (about a killer bulldozer, imagine that) and, of course, "The Car". Seems like there was a lot to be afraid of in the seventies: sharks ("Jaws"), bears ("Grizzly"), bats ("Nightwing"), reincarnated native Indians ("The Manitou"), so why not cars? For me, "The Car" was a real drive-in treat...

 

Not technically a horror film I guess, but Jonathan Demme's "Silence of the Lambs" certainly deserves a mention for creating one of moviedom's greatest monsters, Hannibal Lecter. Sure, Brian Cox and Michael Mann had previously brought the character to the screen in 1986 ("Manhunter", later re-made as "Red Dragon"), but it really took Demme and Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins to bring him to life.

 

In recent years, it seems that Hollywood has discovered Japanese horror (or J-Horror as it's sometimes called), but rather than just enjoy it, or try to find ways for it to reach a wider audience, greedy studios have done the only other thing they know how to do: remake the hell out of them. "Kairo" (or "Pulse") was my favorite J-Horror film for the longest time, not only because it had a couple of scenes that scared the crap out of me (not a simple task, I can assure you) but because it was one of the few that wasn't being remade.

 

I have to say, "Let the Right One In" ("Låt den rätte komma in") is one of the best-reviewed upcoming horror movies I've seen hide or hair of in awhile. Now that I've seen the red band trailer (super high-res version embedded below), I think I need to see it even more. The film is directed by Tomas Alfredson, based on the novel of the same name by…

 

Legendary producer Robert Evans took a risk with European director Roman Polanski in offering to him what would be his first North American film, and Mia Farrow, whose only main accomplishment at that point was a lead role on TV's "Peyton Place" and a much-publicized marriage to Frank Sinatra. But the risks paid off and what was delivered has proven to be one of the most effective horror films in the history of film. "Rosemary's Baby" doesn't have a monster (although, I'm sure, in the planned remake, one will be inserted in post) ...

 

"The Mummy" is one classic monster that I don't think all the sequels and remakes have done justice to. The 1999 Stephen Sommers film came closer than the others (I hate to say), at least elevating the "monster" from a shuffling, bandaged zombie, but all the silly adventure and CGI frankly gets in the way, for me anyway. With the success of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein", both based on literary properties, Universal went with a more original idea for their third monster outing ...