Tags: day of the dead

I envy those who receive their television over satellite, because they have some great opportunities to watch horror-centric high-definition channels and all the trimmings such access entails. This year, for instance, Monsters HD is running a marathon of zombie movies over Thanksgiving weekend. However, they've taken pity on those of us who don't receive their channel -- they'll also have an undead two-fer available online. On November 27th, 2008, George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) and Robert Kurtzman's The Rage (2007) will make their MonstersHD.com debuts. Plus, the site will still have its usual smorgasbord of horror movie trailers and MonstersHD original presentations.

Jeffrey Reddick, screenwriter on the upcoming Day of the Dead remake, recently gave fellow horror site Arrow in the Head an update on the project's progress. Said Reddick: "I'm not sure when the movie's coming out. I know they're doing some reshoots very soon..." Reddick will be doing some additional rewrites on the film, as will director Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2 and Part 3, Lake Placid).(read more...)

Sometimes, we get contacted to do an article to coincide with the release of a theatrical film or DVD. Most of the time, we don't do it because we either don't have any ideas or there are no good ideas for that particular movie. The PR folks for Universal's recent remake of The Hitcher (coming out on DVD May 1st -- check the cover art at the bottom of the page) had something different, however -- a good idea. They said, "Hey, guys, we have somebody getting yanked apart by two semi trucks in our movie. What about listing off some other brutal and/or sadistic deaths?" I was intrigued, which is often enough to get me to put fingers to keyboard, so here we go.

The list presented below isn't definitive. These aren't necessarily the ten most brutal or sadistic deaths in a horror movie, just the ones we thought were notable. Your mileage may vary. Each entry is accompanied by a screencap that can be accessed by clicking the thumbnail icon below the film title.(read more...)

They messed with Night of the Living Dead, and it wasn't half-bad. It had a good cast, and didn't change too much of the formula. Then, they provided a "redux" of Dawn of the Dead. It was okay, but Romero's trademark extreme gore and social commentary was lost and replaced by a new, hip, action-oriented formula. But I can deal with that.(read more...)

Zack Snyder, director of the highly mediocre Dawn of the Dead remake, announced earlier this week that he will soon start working on a sequel to Dawn. But here's where it gets cryptic: this sequel will not be based on George Romero's original sequel for the original Dawn, and will instead be a stand-alone film. I suppose this is good news… I mean, I'm all for creativity instead of copying someone else's work, so I can't say that I'm against this sequel, but I have do have my doubts as far as the quality of the actual film is concerned, and they were created by the Dawn remake's inability to truly impress me.

George A. Romero, at one time that name was the yardstick by which independent scary movies were measured. He did not climb on any bandwagon with his first feature, Night of the Living Dead, rather he started the bandwagon! Oh, yes, many people will say "Yes, but Herschell Gordon Lewis not only did explicit gore first, he did it in colour when Romero was still directing commercials." That is quite true, but we must remember that most of these people are speaking with hindsight. H.G. Lewis had audiences in stunned silence with Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, and Color Me Blood Red 5 years before Romero and company were even planning their premiere feature.(read more...)