Tags: wes craven

Some years ago (before I became fully entrenched in the horror world), my father mentioned The Last House of the Left (1972). He didn't tell me what it was about or whether or not he even liked it. He just told me I should see it. Naturally, Best Friend and I went to the video store post haste. (It is a fervent belief of mine that watching a film like this on VHS is better than watching it on DVD.) We pulled the tape out of its translucent plastic case and popped it into the VCR. And it was an experience unlike any I'd had up to that point.(read more...)

DVD Drive-In reports that MGM will release a Collector's Edition DVD of Wes Craven's controversial 1972 thriller Last House on the Left on February 24, 2009. The new disc will feature a commentary by the lead actors, numerous featurettes, never-before-seen outtakes, and more. Full details are at DVD Drive-In. Last House, ever-so-loosely based on Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring, deals with a group of criminals who rape and kill two young women, then receive the violent reprisal of the parents of one of the girls. Midnight Entertainment has recently completed a remake set to be released in March 2009.

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week. Our next master, Wes Craven, probably needs no introduction. Instead, we'll be posting a full biography for him in our Masters section on Saturday, October 12th. It should be sufficient to note that Craven has directed a number of the best and best-known horror films, including Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.

Shocktober Craven Week Reviews:(read more...)

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week.

The schedule for the month is as follows:

Week of October 1st: Roger Corman
Week of October 8th: Wes Craven
Week of October 15th: Lucio Fulci
Week of October 22nd: Mario Bava
Week of October 29th: Mario Bava continued (through the 31st)

George A. Romero's new zombie film Diary of the Dead will contain cameos by several recognizable names, but don't look for familiar faces. According to a feature in USA Today, Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Simon Pegg, Wes Craven, and Guillermo del Toro will all lend their voices to Diary. Given Romero's focus on media in Diary ("I thought it would be cool to go back to Day 1, when it all starts, and lay media stuff on top," Romero told USA Today), my guess is that we'll be hearing these voices from televisions and radios.

Diary of the Dead makes its world premiere Saturday as part of the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film has no United States distributor yet, but we expect that to change after the premiere.

Warner Bros. has announced the "Twisted Terror" collection, six horror DVDs available as either a set or individually on September 25th. Included in the collection are a number of much-awaited titles making their DVD debut, such as Wes Craven's Deadly Friend (1986), Oliver Stone's The Hand (1981), the Amicus anthology From Beyond the Grave (1973), the John Carpenter TV movie Someone's Watching Me (1978), and Eyes of a Stranger (1981), featuring makeup effects by Tom Savini. The only film in the set that has had a previous DVD release is Manny Coto's Dr. Giggles (1992), although the old Good Times disc has been out of print for some time.

The films should retail for $14.97 individually or $49.92 collected in the box set.

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...)

If you by chance went to see Cursed, let me just apologize to you. Being a victim of the lycanthropic cinematic travesty myself, I can safely proclaim that no living creature should ever have to be subjected to such torture as Cursed dished out (and I DO NOT mean that in a good way). Not only was the movie horrible, but it also signified the uselessness of Wes Craven's (who directed it, for those that don't know) "master of horror" title.(read more...)

-- The Devil's Rejects, Rob Zombie's follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses, has secured an R rating. (bloody-disgusting.com)

-- Wes Craven has signed on as executive producer of The Breed, the directorial debut of his longtime DP (and assistant director on Cursed) Nick Mastandrea. The film involves two estranged brothers under siege by wild dogs. (moviehole.net)

-- A new trailer for Spielberg's War of the Worlds (the horror status of which is still up in the air) will debut during the Super Bowl (waroftheworldsfilm.com)
(read more...)