Haunted Newsreel

In early 2009, one of our British correspondents, Simon Powell, reviewed a fascinating-sounding miniseries called Dead Set. Written by satirist Charlie Brooker, Dead Set mixed a zombie apocalypse with the reality television series Big Brother. Simon gave it a positive review, and I despaired that the show, which made its debut on the UK-based channel E4, would never see make it across the pond to the USA. Well, those worries are now dispelled -- Dead Set is making its American debut on IFC. Starting on October 25th, each of the five parts will air at 12:00AM midnight (Eastern time), with the entire series being shown in a marathon on Halloween night at 8PM Eastern. (read more...)

Kevin McCarthy, an actor famous for his role in Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), died Saturday, September 12, 2010, at the age of 96, according to the New York Times. In Invasion, McCarthy perfectly captured the creeping paranoia of his character, Dr. Miles Bennell, as he discovers that his friends and neighbors are being replaced by emotionless pod people. His wild-eyed cries of "They're here! They're here! You're next!" in the film's prologue are today part of the sci-fi geek patois. In 1978, McCarthy appeared in a cameo in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, yelling the same paranoid warnings. That same year, he appeared in Joe Dante's Piranha, marking the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the actor and director. McCarthy would eventually appear in seven Dante films, the last being 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action.(read more...)

Man, those folks at Shout! Factory really push the nostalgia buttons, don't they? After their releases of Gamera the Giant Monster and Gamera vs. Barugon in DVD special editions, they're returning to the giant turtle with a pair of double features -- Gamera Vs. Gyaos / Gamera Vs. Viras and Gamera Vs. Guiron / Gamera Vs. Jiger . All four films will be presented in their original Japanese versions. Both double feature DVDs will be released on September 21, 2010 and carry a suggested retail price of $19.93 (you can pre-order them from Amazon.com by clicking the set titles above). Below you'll find the film descriptions from the press release to further whet your appetite for kaiju carnage.(read more...)

One of my favorite comedians is Stephen Fry, for his work on the sketch show A Bit of Fry and Laurie as well as the eternally amusing quiz program QI. So it was with much glee that I discovered a little nugget entitled "The Letter", which reveals that Fry had done some work in the horror genre during his time with Cambridge Footlights. Check it out after the cut.(read more...)