(Photo by Else Films)
Horror films thrive on their aura of danger, and whether you’re in a darkened theater surrounded by strangers or in your basement rec room with all the lights turned off, the experience can be heightened by the mere suggestion that something might be “off” about the movie you’re watching. It’s a concept that’s so compelling that Shudder recently premiered an entire docuseries dedicated to it; it’s called, rather appropriately, Cursed Films.
In honor of the most recent addition to the canon — the faux documentary Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made — we’re going to pay a little tribute to the “found footage” horror movies that tricked people into believing their authenticity, as well as those urban legend-like “cursed” films that earned sinister reputations because of the unfortunate, disturbing, and sometimes tragic events that were allegedly attributed to them.
But they’re only movies, right?
(Photo by Else Films)
What better way to kick things off than with a movie that is a perfect Venn diagram of both concepts – “found footage” faux-real horror and supposedly cursed films. Antrum purports to be a documentary about a lost 1970s film that was only screened twice, because everyone who watches it dies. The movie opens with an 8-minute documentary detailing the curse around the film, then shows you the “film” itself, which is about two young kids who attempt to dig a hole to Hell to save their recently deceased dog. The filmmakers do their best to make the movie-within-a-movie look authentically ’70s to help sell the whole façade. The fact that Antrum’s release was preceded by rumors and word of mouth among hardcore horror fans (much like the way the controversial 2011 A Serbian Film grew a reputation well before it was ever screened publicly) lent the movie an air of real mystery. Some eager horror buffs even tried to track the “original” Antrum down, believing it to be real.
Plausibility Score: 2 out of 5
Antrum is a nice try, but in the age of advanced search engines, it’s hard to fully convince people that a film with a supposed body count of 60 could truly have been “lost.”
The concept of a “snuff” film – a movie depicting an actual murder – basically started in 1971 when Ed Sanders, the author of a book about the Manson Family, asserted that Charles Manson and his followers had filmed their killing spree (no footage was ever found). Then, just a few years later in 1976, husband-and-wife directors Michael and Roberta Findlay made a cheap exploitation film called Slaughter about an actress and her director who are murdered by a Manson Family-esque clan in South America. Grindhouse film distributor Allan Shackleton bought the film, changed the title to Snuff, and released it under the pretense that it depicted the real murder of the main actress (the tagline was “Filmed in South America…Where Life is Cheap!”). This kickstarted an obsession with snuff films, although none have ever been conclusively unearthed.
Plausibility Score: 4 out of 5
The Manson Family connection and the fact that people still believe in the existence of snuff films even today and really sell this one.
Perhaps the most famous “cursed” movie of all time, the original 1982 Poltergeist, about a suburban family terrorized by a supernatural presence, climaxed with a scene in which the mom (JoBeth Williams) is dragged into a partially dug-out pool and is surrounded by skeletons – the reveal being that the housing development in which they live was unscrupulously built on top of a graveyard. The rumor was that the film crew had not only used real skeletons, but had desecrated graves themselves to get them. Mysterious and untimely deaths of some of the actors in the trilogy, including young Heather O’Rourke (who played the abducted little girl Carol Anne), who died at the age of 12 due to a congenital intestinal issue, and Dominique Dunne (who played oldest sibling Dana), who was murdered by a jealous boyfriend at the age of 22, led to the urban legend that the ghosts of the unwitting skeletal “co-stars” had cursed the films and everyone who worked on them. It’s flimsy, because clearly major players like Williams, Craig T. Nelson, director Tobe Hooper, and producer Steven Spielberg walked away unscathed.
Plausibility Score: 1 out of 5
Although it’s the movie everyone cites when talking about curses, a lot of the supposed connections are pretty thin. Plus, more of the actors and crew survived unhurt than didn’t, and a lot of the “deaths” beyond the two young leads were simply age and explainable illness.
Horror is a great way for young talents to break into the business because, often, what you don’t see is scarier than what you do, so it’s a godsend for indie filmmakers with more creativity than budget. The Blair Witch Project came about at exactly the right time – exploiting the still nascent “world wide web,” it managed to cultivate its own urban legend of supposedly lost cam footage that was recovered after a group of young filmmakers went missing. The conceit of it being filmed on the fly covered over the fact that you don’t really see much of anything, and the clever use of sound effects and the overall naturalistic performances by the lead actors made you think, just for a second, that maybe this was the real deal. Of course, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 came out around a year later to confirm that, yes, this was indeed just a cheesy horror franchise at its core.
Plausibility Score: 3 out of 5
It may have lost some luster since, but at the time? It really had people convinced. And the execution – from the early websites to the film itself – was nearly perfect.
Strap in for this one: Producer Harvey Bernhard claims that the initial idea for the seminal horror classic The Omen came from an advertising exec named Bob Munger. Munger suggested that a movie about the Antichrist would be cool, but that no one should actually make it because “the devil was at work and he didn’t want that film made.” He may have been right. Just a month before filming was to start, lead actor Gregory Peck’s son committed suicide. As he flew to the set, Peck’s plane was struck by lightning, and then executive producer Marc Neufeld’s plane was also struck by lightning on his way to the location. The hotel Neufeld and his wife were staying in then got bombed by the Irish Republican Army. The crew hired a small plane to do some aerial photography, but it was given to another client at the last minute; that plane crashed on takeoff and killed everyone on board. Filming a zoo sequence, the young boy playing the demonic Damien apparently upset the baboons so much they started freaking out, so an animal wrangler was called in to help; the next day, he was mauled by a tiger and killed. But perhaps the most chilling result of this “curse” was what happened to special effects supervisor John Richardson. One of his big FX sequences in The Omen was one in which a character is decapitated by a sheet of glass. While working on his next movie in the Netherlands, Richardson and his assistant were involved in a car accident, and his assistant was — you guessed it — decapitated. Legend has it the accident occurred near a street sign that read “Ommen, 66.6 km.” But it’s all coincidence, right?
Plausibility Score: 4 out of 5
It’s hard to write all of this off as coincidence. Even when people discount some of it – like the existence of the Dutch street sign – there’s a lot more that’s been verified.
(Photo by ©F.D. Cinematografica courtesy Everett Collection)
Not long after Snuff, another film came under fire for allegedly depicting actual murders – and it was an early example of “found footage” horror, to boot. This Italian cult movie was built around the idea that it was footage discovered after an American film crew disappeared in the Amazon rainforest and were killed and eaten by indigenous cannibals. The gore was so intense and realistic that a few days after the movie’s premiere, Italian authorities confiscated the film, director Ruggero Deodato was charged with obscenity, and he was eventually slapped with a murder charge when it was suggested Cannibal Holocaust was, in fact, a snuff film. Although it was later proven that none of the actors were killed or harmed, the film does depict scenes of intense animal cruelty that were real. Fun fact: the fake documentary the crew was working on was called The Green Inferno, which would be the title adopted by director Eli Roth for his 2013 homage to Cannibal Holocaust.
Plausibility Score: 3 out of 5
The rough, grimy cheapness of the film and the addition of actual animal butchery make this feel almost like the real deal.
What’s unique about the “curse” of The Crow is that it isn’t so much about the film as it is an extension of a curse that is believed to have haunted martial arts icon Bruce Lee and his family for generations. Of course, the 1994 horror-tinged comic book adaptation is infamous due to the tragic death of star Brandon Lee, Bruce’s son, who died after a prop gun misfired and a projectile struck him. The film was hampered by setbacks and accidents – the set was destroyed numerous times, most notably by a hurricane that struck its North Carolina filming location – but in general, the problems seem to have been caused mostly by the fact that it was low budget and behind schedule, and corners were cut a little too recklessly. Some even claim that the Chinese mafia assassinated Bruce and Brandon, which is eerie when you think about the fact that Bruce Lee’s last film, Game of Death, seems to predict this. In that movie, Bruce’s character is a martial arts actor who is shot by an assassin posing as one of the stunt crew. Also, the biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story anthropomorphizes the supposed family curse as a physical demon that haunts Lee his whole life, and at one point in the film, the demon goes after a young Brandon. Dragon was released in 1993 – a year before The Crow.
Plausibility Score: 2 out of 5
The idea of a Lee Family Curse is compelling, and it fits in with the whole mystical aura surrounding Bruce. But dig deeper into the on-set events of The Crow, and it all appears to be more a case of negligence and unprofessionalism than a sinister hex.
If the Devil really does exist, he seems to spend an awful lot of time on film sets. Before The Omen tempted fate with each shooting day, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist experienced its own unnerving incidents. Telling the story of two priests battling a demonic presence that has taken hold of a young girl named Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), the film is an undisputed classic of the horror genre, and some of that may have to do with the notion that the film itself was actually possessed. Things got off to a rocky start when the MacNeil family home set – where much of the action takes place – was destroyed by fire. The only room that was untouched by the blaze…was Regan’s. In addition, almost all of the actors suffered injuries during the filming, and televangelist Billy Graham even claimed that “there is a power of evil in that film, in the fabric of the film itself” and suggested that simply projecting it was like opening a door for demons. The movie held its premiere in Rome, during a violent thunderstorm. One attendee even passed out and broke her jaw, later attempting to sue the production because she blamed subliminal messages for her tumble.
Plausibility Score: 3 out of 5
Some of the spookiness experienced on set and at early screenings was likely psychosomatic, but the movie still carries a heavy creep factor regardless.
Why not complete Satan’s own personal trilogy with a supposedly cursed movie that pre-dates both The Omen and The Exorcist? Rosemary’s Baby is rightly credited with redefining the horror genre by taking it away from the campy cobwebs and castles of the old Vincent Price days and legitimizing it as a “real” grown-up art form. Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes star in the story of a young mother-to-be who moves into a New York apartment building that also happens to house a Satanic cult. Producer William Castle – who was infamous in the 1950s and 1960s for promoting all sorts of gimmicks like floating skeletons and rumbling theater seats in an effort to sell the “reality” of his horror movies – believed that real witches had cursed the set. The film’s composer suffered a nasty fall shortly after the movie wrapped and died after being comatose for several days. Castle himself fell ill with painful gallstones that required surgery. And, of course, director Roman Polanski’s wife at the time, actress Sharon Tate, and their unborn child would fall victim to the Manson Family a year after the film’s release.
Plausibility Score: 1 out of 5
It’s easy to think of anything Satan-related as tempting fate when it comes to curses or bad mojo, but most of these incidents seem loosely connected at best.
Just as The Blair Witch Project came along at the perfect time to take advantage of early internet, the legend of Faces of Death is largely a product of the early 1980s VHS boom. Before Blockbuster, video stores were small (often seedy) mom-and-pop stores, and Faces of Death was one of those creepy little oddities you’d find on one of the dust-covered shelves. Allegedly depicting “real” deaths, it served as a badge of honor for anyone who was actually able to get ahold of a copy and watch it. Although the film does contain some real footage – like newsreel clips from an accident where you can see paramedics cleaning up the remains of a cyclist who had been struck and killed by a truck – it was almost entirely faked by writer and director John Alan Schwartz. Yes, even the infamous scene where a table full of diners appear to kill a trapped monkey and then eat its brains.
Plausibility Score: 1 out of 5
If you don’t catch on immediately when you’re introduced to the movie’s “medical professional” host, “Francis B. Gross,” you’ll catch on during sequences like the “real” shark attack that somehow has footage from the shark’s POV as it eats a diver. Did it get a cinematography credit?
(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
The film version of the classic horror and sci-fi television series let four different directors adapt a classic episode: “Kick the Can” by Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark), “It’s a Good Life” by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Innerspace), “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” by George Miller (The Road Warrior, Mad Max: Fury Road), and “Time Out” by John Landis (Trading Places, Animal House). Although some claim the movie is cursed, it’s really just that there’s a sense of morbidity around it because veteran actor Vic Morrow (father of Jennifer Jason Leigh) and two young actors playing Vietnamese children were killed in an on-set accident during Landis’ segment when a helicopter that was part of a sequence recreating the Vietnam War crash-landed on them. None of the other directors experienced any bizarre or unexplained incidents, and all continued to have successful careers. But the tragedy hung a dark shadow over Landis and lends the movie a creepy, all-too-real feel.
Plausibility Score: 1 out of 5
Again, this was one horrible, tragic accident caused by director negligence. The rest of the film (and filmmakers) got on fine with no curse-related incidents.
None of the images from this film are acceptable to show you, so here is a guinea pig pushing a tiny shopping cart. (Photo by Newspix/Getty Images)
Created by artist Hideshi Hino based on his own manga series, the Guinea Pig movies feature the same kind of faux documentary feel as something like Faces of Death or Cannibal Holocaust, and they’re legendary among hardcore horror fans. Without any real plot to speak of beyond “psycho kidnaps women and dismembers them in gruesome fashion while dressed as a samurai,” the movies do feel less like a story and more like some forbidden home video. That said, two incidents lend it a particular air of menace. One is that a copy of Flower of Flesh and Blood was sent to the FBI by Charlie Sheen – yes, Charlie Sheen – because he was convinced it was an actual snuff film (it was not, and all of the deaths and butchery were faked). The other is that a copy of the film was found in the home of a man named Tsutomu Miyazaki, a cannibalistic serial killer known as the Otaku Murderer who was behind the kidnapping and murder of four young girls between 1988 and 1989 in Japan. The film was believed to have inspired him.
Plausibility Score: 3 out of 5
All Hino had to do was not put a title card over the opening “stalking” sequence and it might have worked. The scene really looks and feels like something a creep would record as he follows women down the street. But no real serial killer goes into AfterEffects and adds cool titles and music cues to their murder footage. At least, not that we know of.
(Photo by Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Rounding out or list of horror is… not a horror film, but a movie that is believed to be so cursed it will never be made. A comedy based on a 1963 satirical novel called The Incomparable Atuk by Canadian author Mordecai Richler, the story is about an Inuit poet who travels to Toronto and has a series of fish-out-of-water experiences in the big city (the film version Americanized it by making Atuk a native of Alaska who travels to New York). Sounds pretty basic, right? It might well be, if the movie didn’t seem to kill every actor associated with the lead role. The curse of Atuk is particularly weird because the novel itself isn’t about anything sinister or paranormal. The first man up for the role was comedy legend John Belushi; after his untimely death from a drug overdose, the producers approached comedian Sam Kinison… who then died in a drunk driving accident. So they decided to offer the part to John Candy, who would die from a heart attack a few months after getting the script. Undaunted, the part was then dangled in front of another SNL vet – Chris Farley. He, too, would succumb to a drug overdose. Even stranger, Farley allegedly gave a copy of the script to a friend who he thought might also be interested in the role, namely fellow SNL alum Phil Hartman. Five months after Farley’s death, Hartman was shot and killed by his wife, who committed suicide hours later.
Plausibility Score: 5 out of 5
If this movie doesn’t scream “cursed,” we don’t know what does.
Thumbnail image by Else Films
Hereditary torments viewers with every horror trick and trope in the book. It’s got jump scares, dreadful atmosphere, supernatural goings-on, the occult, spirits and seances, and, yes, creepy kids. You’ll be hard pressed to find a young girl more unsettling at the movies than Milly Shapiro as the forlorn Charlie, who may be channeling her dead grandmother…or worse. But enough tongue clucking: we present this week’s gallery of the 24 creepiest kids from horror movie history.
Halloween is nigh upon us, and ’tis the season for ghoulish celebrations. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a handy list of well-reviewed movies and TV shows you can stream on Netflix right now, in case you want to get a head start on the spooky festivities. Whether you’re looking for a classic slasher flick, a pyschological thriller, a horror comedy, or even something you can watch with the kids, we’ve got you covered. See below for all of the selections.
(Photo by Magnet Releasing)
This follow-up to the 2013 omnibus film features 26 horror segments — one for each letter of the alphabet — helmed by 26 different directors.
(Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX)
Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology series boasts spooky environs, provocative themes, and top-notch acting from Jessica Lange, Dylan McDermott, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Zachary Quinto, and Frances Conroy. Seasons 1-6 are available to stream.
(Photo by IFC Midnight)
Writer-director Jennifer Kent’s Golden Tomato Award-winning horror film tells the deeply unnerving story a widow and her six-year-old who are bedeviled by a storybook monster.
(Photo by IFC Midnight)
This Turkish horror film tells the terrifying tale of a group of cops who stumble into an otherworldly realm.
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Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot, and Olivia Cooke star in this reimagining of Norman Bates’ teenage years — those carefree days before he took over the family business and had to deal with constant nagging from Mother. Seasons 1-4 are available.
Arguably considered the first true horror film, this silent era classic tells the story of a traveling hypnotist with a murderous secret.
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A film archivist discovers that the home he shares with his family was the site of a brutal murder and soon finds himself terrorized by evil visions and a dark presence in this Irish import.
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This Netflix animated series based on the classic video game franchise centers on the last in a long line of monster hunters, who attempts to keep his country safe from a vengeful vampire.
(Photo by Warner Brothers courtesy Everett Collection)
Tim Burton’s first foray into stop-motion animation follows a young groom-to-be named Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) who unwittingly marries an undead woman (Helena Bonham-Carter) while practicing his wedding vows.
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Mark Duplass and director Patrick Brice star in Brice’s psychological thriller about an amateur videographer who agrees to film a man who lives in the woods for a day, only to discover the man may not be all that he seems.
(Photo by Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures)
The latest installment of the long-running horror franchise finds the demonic doll terrorizing a woman in an asylum, while his old nemesis attempts to save her.
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This horror-tinged drama centers on two people who travel to a remote house to experiment with occult rituals.
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While trying to escape their restrictive lives, two teens in a heavy metal band perform a piece of forbidden music that unlocks the gates of hell.
(Photo by Bernard Hunt/IFC Midnight)
After witnessing what she believes is a murder on an internet video chat site, a young grad student decides to investigate it herself and becomes the next victim.
(Photo by IFC Midnight)
Ethan Embry and Shiri Appleby star as a couple who move with their daughter into a new home, where the husband — and a deranged former resident who returns to terrorize them — is haunted by mysterious voices.
(Photo by Mélusine Productions)
Edgar Allan Poe’s dark words come to life in this animated anthology including stories such as “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” narrated by the likes of Christopher Lee and Guillermo Del Toro.
(Photo by Magnet Releasing)
This indie horror film centers on the immensely disturbing life led by a young woman after a shattering act of violence.
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Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood star in Mike Flanagan’s Netflix original adaptation of the Stephen King novel about a woman who is left chained to a bed when a sex game with her husband goes tragically wrong.
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Jack Black stars in this fantasy adventure as author R.L. Stine, whose various Goosebumps creations come to life and terrorize his town. He must team up with his daughter and next door neighbor to stop the madness.
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In this thriller from the UK, a young family moves in to a secluded house, disturbing an ancient evil that resides in the woods nearby.
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Henry Rollins stars in this horror comedy about a grizzled depressive who literally cannot expire.
(Photo by New World Releasing courtesy Everett Collection)
Clive Barker’s 1987 feature debut is a grisly affair that takes full advantage of his twisted imagination and births a memorable villain.
(Photo by Magnolia Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
South Korea’s highest grossing film ever at the time of its release, The Host is director Bong Joon-ho’s breakout film, a sci-fi monster flick that combines scares, laughs, and satire in service of a popcorn flick as entertaining as it is intellectually satisfying.
(Photo by Xlrator Media)
In this horror comedy from New Zealand, a woman sentenced to home confinement discovers her house is occupied by a malevolent spirit.
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Kate Siegel plays a young deaf author living alone who is terrorized by a masked killer (John Gallagher Jr.)… who then turns the tables on her attacker.
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A man accepts an invitation to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife, an unsettling affair that reopens old wounds and creates new tensions.
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Maika Monroe stars as a suburban Michigan teen who becomes infected with a malevolent spirit after a sexual encounter, and it won’t stop pursuing her until she gives it to someone else — or dies.
(Photo by Diyah Pera/The CW)
In this CW series loosely based on the DC comic, Rose McIver stars as Liv, a zombie who helps police solve murders by eating dead victims’ brains and absorbing their memories. Seasons 1-3 are available.
(Photo by Magnet Releasing courtesy Everett Collection)
Scoot McNairy stars in this a low-budget sci-fi thriller about an attempt by the millitary to contain quarantined alien life.
(Photo by Jonathan Hession/Showtime)
Eva Green and Timothy Dalton lead an ensemble cast in Showtime’s gothic supernatural drama, which draws characters from classic literature like Victor Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and Dracula. All three seasons are available.
(Photo by Focus World)
This unusual horror/dark comedy/coming-of-age film centers on a lifelong vegetarian who discovers a taste for raw meat during her first year of veterinary school.
(Photo by Haut Et Court/Canal +/Sundance Channel)
This French series, which aired in the US on SundanceTV and was subsequently remade in English, follows a small mountain community where the deceased begin reappearing, accompanied by unexplained supernatural phenomena. Both seasons are available.
(Photo by Erica Parise/Netflix)
Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant star in this Netflix original horror-comedy about a suburban couple dealing with the wife’s sudden appetite for human flesh.
Tara Reid, Ian Ziering, and John Heard star in this eerily plausible sci-fi adventure about a devastating storm that facilitates a shark attack on Los Angeles.
Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, and Christopher Walken star in Tim Burton’s take on the classic tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.
(Photo by GlassEyePix/IFC Films)
Directed by Jim Mickle, Stake Land is a post-apocalyptic indie horror road movie about vampire hunters that’s brimming with atmosphere.
(Photo by MPI Media Group)
This sci-fi horror hybrid tells the tale of an ambitious actress who is unwittingly enlisted by a sinister organization for a strange performance.
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This wildly popular Netflix original series follows a group of precocious teens in a small Indiana town in 1983 as they attempt to make sense of the supernatural phenomena happening around them. Season 1 is available now, and season 2 is set to drop on October 27.
(Photo by Warner Bros. courtesy Everett Collection)
The demon-hunting Winchester brothers (played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) continue their quest to fight evil wherever they find it in this long-running CW horror series. Seasons 1-12 are available to stream.
(Photo by Weinstein Company courtesy Everett Collection)
Jess Weixler stars in this tongue-in-cheek horror comedy about a teenager who discovers she has teeth in her vagina. Yes, you read that correctly.
(Photo by Gravitas Ventures)
This psychological thriller centers on a man who is convinced the world is on the verge of being overtaken by demons and attempts to hide his fear from a friend. Is he going mad, or is it real?
(Photo by Well Go USA Entertainment)
This apocalyptic action-horror film from South Korea follows a group of passengers on a commuter train fighting to survive a zombie outbreak.
(Photo by Strand Releasing)
This thriller follows a trouble teen fascinated by vampires who meets another outcast and forms a potentially fraught bond with her.
(Photo by Magnet Releasing courtesy Everett Collection)
This Norwegian found footage horror comedy follows a group of college students in pursuit of a suspected bear poacher who instead stumble upon an unexpected discovery.
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This acclaimed horror hybrid from debuting writer-director Babak Anvari is set in war-torn Tehran and centers on a mother and daughter who may or may not be suffering from the presence of a Djinn.
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This horror film centers on the supernatural chaos that erupts after a policeman discovers a dying man and rushes him to treatment at a nearby hospital.
(Photo by Well Go USA)
This South Korean horror drama centers on a small town reeling from a series of brutal murders after the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
(Photo by Frank Ockenfels/AMC)
Thoughtful and gory in equal measure, AMC’s wildly popular action drama follows the lives of a handful of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. Seasons 1-7 are available.
(Photo by Dark Sky Films)
Writer/director Ted Geoghegan makes a strong, stylish feature debut with this horror story about a grieving couple who move to a secluded home after the tragic death of their son; little do they know that their new home has a bloody past.
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Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is a self-conscious meta deconstruction of horror films that also happens to be one of the strongest entries in the Freddy Krueger saga.
As usual, Netflix and Amazon Prime released a whole bunch of new titles at the beginning of the month, so we’ve combed through them to bring you the best of the bunch, from a Christopher Nolan thriller and an animated treat to a horror classic, a modern Woody Allen triumph, and the first three Jurassic Park movies. Read on for the full list.
Vin Diesel, Jennifer Aniston, and Harry Connick Jr. lend their voices to Brad Bird’s animated feature debut, about a large sentient robot who finds himself lost in a small Maine town in 1958 and befriends a young boy.
Available now on: Netflix
Another acclaimed directorial debut, this genre-defining Rob Reiner mockumentary follows an aging British metal band as they embark on a US tour.
Available now on: Netflix
Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and a slew of stars breathe life into Woody Allen’s dreamy romantic comedy about an aspiring novelist who, on a trip to Paris with his fiancée, is transported back to an idealized version of the city in the 1920s.
Available now on: Netflix
Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur extravaganza blew audiences away back in 1993, and Netflix is streaming it now, in addition to its two non-Jurassic World sequels.
Available now on Netflix: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Jurassic Park III
Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss star in Christopher Nolan’s breakout thriller about a man with short-term memory loss trying desperately to piece together the details of his wife’s murder.
Available now on: Netflix
Mel Brooks’ iconic western spoof stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder as a sheriff and gunslinger who work together to save a small town from a greedy opportunist.
Available now on: Netflix
James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams star in this Sundance drama about the friendship between a draft dodger and a gay, black Vietnam vet during the 1980s.
Available now on: Netflix
Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman lead an all-star voice cast in Dreamworks’ wildly successful animated tale about a lowly panda who becomes a martial arts master.
Available now on: Netflix
Rob Marshall’s Best Picture winner stars Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones in an adaptation of the Broadway musical about a pair of dancers who meet in prison and utilize scandal for their own benefit.
Available now on: Netflix
Gregory Peck and Lee Remick star in this classic horror film about an upstanding London couple who discover their young son may be the Anti-Christ.
Available now on: Netflix
Meg Ryan and John Cusack provide the voices for this animated take on the legend about a Russian duchess who escaped the massacre of her family and grew up as an orphan.
Available now on: Netflix
Yet another remarkable directorial debut, Tamara Jenkins indie comedy stars Natasha Lyonne as a teen living in Los Angeles during the 1970s who bonds with her sexually liberated older cousin (Marisa Tomei).
Available now on: Netflix
The late Bill Paxton starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in his own directorial debut, a psychological thriller about two brothers who respond very differently to their serial killer father.
Available now on: Netflix
Jemain Clement and Taika Waititi co-wrote, co-directed, and co-star in this hilarious Certified Fresh, Golden Tomato Award-winning mockumentary centered on four vampire roommates and their eccentric lifestyles.
Available now on: Amazon Prime
Gwyneth Paltrow stars in this adaptation of the Jane Austen novel about a well-meaning woman who takes it upon herself to play matchmaker to those in her life, unaware that she has an admirer of her own.
Available now on: Amazon Prime
This stunning, Oscar-nominated black and white drama is the story a young woman on the verge of joining a convent who discovers a dark family secret.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
This drama follows a group of German children who undertake a perilous escape after their Nazi-affiliated parents are arrested by Allied troops.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star in this Certified Fresh drama about a feuding married couple who spend an eventful weekend in Paris.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
This Certified Fresh documentary from Werner Herzog depicts everyday life in a village in Siberia.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Gregory Peck and Lee Remick star in this classic horror film about an upstanding London couple who discover their young son may be the Anti-Christ.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Vincent Cassel returns as the titular gangster, now in police custody and facing prison, who escapes and reinvents himself as public anti-hero with celebrity status.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Vincent Cassel stars in the first of two films about Jacques Mesrine, a former soldier in 1960s Paris who embraces the criminal lifestyle and quickly moves up the ladder.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston star in Terence Davies romantic drama about a judge’s wife who begins an affair with a Royal Air Force pilot.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston star in this spinoff of the Harry Potter series about wizard Newt Scamander’s efforts to recapture mythical creatures let loose in 1920s New York as a greater threat looms on the horizon.
Available now on: FandangoNOW
Every year, the BAFTA film awards present a trophy for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Introduced in 1978, the award recognises an organisation or a person’s career and influence on the British Film Industry. This year’s recipient, announced today, is Pinewood/Shepperton, two of the British industry’s most important film studios whose contribution to filmmaking has resulted in some of the greatest movies of all time. Under strict instruction not to let anyone working at the studios know about the award, RT spent a day last week touring Pinewood and Shepperton and learning a little more about these stalwarts of film.
The Orange British Academy Film Awards begin on British TV on BBC Two from 8pm, continuing on BBC One from 9pm on Sunday 8 February. A preview show featuring interviews from the red carpet will be broadcast on BBC Three from 7pm.
Our tour begins at Pinewood, and the first thing that catches your eye as you head through the main gates is 007 stage. All but two of the official Bond films have featured scenes shot at Pinewood, and the franchise is a regular cash cow for the studio.
007 stage was built in 1976 for The Spy Who Loved Me, after the production was unable to find a stage big enough to contain the Liparus Supertanker set. At 59,000 square feet it’s the largest sound stage in Europe, and has burnt to the ground twice — most recently after filming had wrapped on Casino Royale in 2006. It’s been the Louvre for The Da Vinci Code, the Chocolate River Room for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and most recently played host to desert scenes and a Persian fort for videogame adaptation Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
One of the more exciting stages on the Pinewood lot is U-Stage, built in 2005 to provide a safe, permanent and controlled environment in which to shoot underwater. Managed by a permanent team of divers and specialists who assist productions shooting underwater footage on the stage, it holds 1.2 million litres of water which is maintained at a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, 87 Fahrenheit.
Windows provide easy views underwater allowing RT to stay suitably dry for these shots as the team demonstrate their underwater camera. They wouldn’t tell us which production the boat belonged to, but we’ll know when the first of the Ant Pirates trilogy is announced any day now (probably).
From the surface, the team are able to feed into the camera from the video village. Scenes shot since the stage was built include the closing scene from The Bourne Ultimatum, Keira Knightley drowning in Atonement and the armada sequences from Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Pinewood’s city street, which can be dressed to look like just about any urban backdrop, is a familiar sight for RT. We were here just a few weeks ago visiting the set of Kick-Ass and the production had dressed the street as New York. The two storefronts in the middle of the picture here were dressed as Atomic Comics, the comic book shop featured in the movie. The interior set was built here too.
Providing a giant blue-screen backdrop, this outdoor tank (empty in the picture, obviously) is an ideal location for any shooting designed to look like it was filmed at sea. As comedienne Dawn French sank to the bottom at the end of the French and Saunders Titanic spoof she complained of a foul taste. Jennifer Saunders explained why: “It’s the old Bond tank. Three Bonds and George Lazenby have peed in this.”
The walls of Pinewood’s main offices are festooned with production art from the many films that have passed through the studio. Icons include the Carry On series, David Lean‘s Great Expectations, Superman, The Shining, Batman and Mission: Impossible. Over the last couple of years Mamma Mia!, Quantum of Solace, Sweeney Todd, The Bourne Ultimatum and Stardust, to name a few, were shot here.
And so to Shepperton, where we’re quickly informed to keep quiet on the two big projects on the go at the studios. Signs for both litter the lot, but announcements haven’t gone out and the management team are keen to respect their tenants’ privacy. Opened in 1931 as Sound Lighting Studios, Shepperton has changed hands many times, with former owners including Ridley and Tony Scott and The Who.
Slightly smaller than Pinewood, Shepperton has played host to a slew of movies including The African Queen, The Third Man, Dr. Strangelove, the Pink Panther movies and Batman Begins. Sir John Mills worked at the studio on Great Expectations and The Colditz Story. “What has always remained with me about working at Shepperton has been the sheer professionalism of everyone, both in front of and behind the camera,” he said.
Aside from being a former owner of the studios, Ridley Scott has returned to Shepperton many times over the years, having shot Alien, Legend, Thelma and Louise and Gladiator here. “From the moment I entered Shepperton, I knew the place was special,” he says. “Anywhere that had had within its walls Carol Reed directing Orson Welles in The Third Man, was going to mean a great deal to me.”
H-Stage at Shepperton was moved from Isleworth Studios in 1948 and has played host to many of the most ambitious sets built on site. A full-scale reproduction of Sir Walter Raleigh’s ship the Tyger was built on hydraulic rams on this stage for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and just a few years ago H-Stage housed the Batcave from Batman Begins. Built over 9 weeks, the set was 250ft long, 120ft wide and 40ft high and 12,000 gallons of water flowed through it every minute, serving a waterfall, a river and the dripping cave walls.
If you have a spare £300,000 hidden down the back of the sofa, you could spend it on your very own version of the Korda Theatre, a state-of-the-art facility for sound mixing. Named after Hungarian producer/director Alexander Korda, whose contribution to British cinema in the 40s and 50s was vast, features mixed here include Shakespeare in Love, Gosford Park and Troy.
Shepperton’s Littleton Manor, known as the Old House, dates back to the 13th Century and houses production offices and facilities. Its corridors doubled for interior shots of the hospital where Damian was born in The Omen while the grounds served as a backdrop for an encounter between Father Brennan and Damian’s father.
It may look like any other overgrown British stream, but this is a fully-fledged river that runs through Shepperton’s backlot. As hard as it may be to believe, this scene doubled as Africa for the Bogart/Hepburn classic The African Queen. One of the studios’ popular legends goes that there’s an unusually large number of parakeets in the area because they were released during the production of that movie.
Built for The Golden Compass, Shepperton now has its very own Western street on the backlot, which marks the last spot on our tour. We’re not entirely convinced the British weather is going to help to complete the Wild West look, but it seemed to be pretty convincing as part of the His Dark Materials adaptation.
Making The Children was simultaneously the most exciting and the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. Kids? Snow? A cat? To say nothing of the fact that I would have to make the audience to root for parents to kill their own kids. I’m not sure I’ll be getting a call from Disney all that soon…There were a lot of people begging me not to make it, but I always had a hunch it could be a fantastic horror film if I could pull it off. Paul Andrew Williams wrote the first draft (which he called Miria – an anagram for a certain horror director, I wonder?) and very generously let me do my thing with it.
The idea of a story in which a lethal virus unleashes all the suppressed aggression that children feel against their doting, confused parents was just too appealing to me. Adults’ fear of children is actually a psychological condition called paedophobia and it haunts great films like The Exorcist, The Omen and The Innocents. This was the primal fear that I wanted to stoke up with The Children. Or maybe it was just revenge on my parent-friends for letting their kids run riot on various holidays and do grievous harm to my hangovers in the process…When I’m thinking about a film – particularly a horror film – I need to feel that there’s a theme in the material that can churn up some primal fears both in the audience and me. The idea that our kids might actually be psychopathic monsters and not the cute, defenceless little angels we wish they were is probably a universal fear.
When ‘the monster’ in your film is a six-year-old kid, the visual approach has to be very different than a story where the menace is a seven-foot tall, leather-faced guy with a chainsaw. Upfront physical aggression from a kid is never going to be that scary – the audience can always imagine that in a straight physical contest, the adult will always win out. It might be disturbing to see a child thrash and flail around (I love the fits in The Exorcist and the fight scene in the car on the way to church in The Omen) but direct aggression from a normal child is never going to seem like a lethal threat to an adult. I didn’t want the kids in the film to have special powers or superhuman strengths. They would always look and sound like the little the innocent darlings their parents loved.
The scares in a film about kids come more from their creepy behaviour, the adults’ blindness to their malevolence, and from as many ‘that’s so wrong’ images as you can load in. It’s all about messing with the audience’s idealised notions about childhood. Just associating children with images and artefacts of violence and blood disturbs us because instinctively we want to protect them from these things. We find it almost impossible to deal with the idea that they might be relishing or, even worse, causing that violence. More ‘psychological horror’ than full-blown ‘slasher’.Half the battle was finding children with the most interesting faces – faces that gazed out at you with a mesmerising ambiguity. Are they cute? Are they malevolent?
Casting The Children really was like The X-Factor. We saw hundreds and hundreds of kids and ultimately found four amazing new talents. William, Raffy, Eva and Jake had done pretty-much nothing before this film. They weren’t necessarily the most ‘dramatic’ kids in the auditions but when you watched the audition tapes back their faces had that exact stillness and ambiguity that I wanted. This ambiguity about children is the thing that haunts Jack Clayton‘s The Innocents – which is such a wonderful and very influential ghost story. Are the children possessed or just precocious and sweet? Ultimately this ambiguity drives poor Deborah Kerr insane.
Every good horror film needs to break a few taboos. Hopefully there are a few ‘Oh my God, they can’t do that,’ moments in the film. Paul Hyett, our prosthetics designer, was great at suggesting ways I could achieve the more shocking, transgressive moments in the film. He built a life-size, fully operational dummy of Paulie/William (above) for us to throw around at leisure. When we tested the film, there is a particular moment in a greenhouse that caused the whole audience to recoil. There’s nothing like being with an audience who are all thinking the same horrified thought.
Having just done my first film, WAZ, as a dark, gritty thriller, I wanted The Children to look and sound very different. When it comes to style I think each story needs its own visual language to express the themes and emotions in it. When I start working with a DP and designer on a film, the easiest way to develop a shorthand for discussing your ideas is to watch lots of films and look at lots of pictures.Nanu Segal is an amazing DP who I knew from the National Film and Television School where, amongst other things, she shot some very lyrical films about children. The combination of a creepily lyrical approach to shooting the kids combined with great suspense was exactly what I wanted for the look of The Children. Nanu was perfect for this.
I thought The Children should look a bit like how a child would imagine a perfect Christmas/New Year. Snow, twinkly lights and so on. Suzie Davies, the designer, thought we should use lots of primary colours. If a child draws a picture of a pretty house in the woods, they’ll always choose the brightest colours in the paint-box. Suzie also made sure that ‘the weapons’ in the film would be very colourful – so the kids would naturally gravitate towards them.
The snow works brilliantly as a frame for this colourful approach to the film. It makes the compositions so much stronger and more graphic. It also invites you to explore interesting angles and ways of telling the story. There’s a crane shot in the film that takes full advantage of the tell-tale clues that blood-trails can leave in the snow. Snow, of course, is a great visual metaphor for our attitude to childhood in a way – a shroud of purity over a mysterious, darker inner world. We were amazingly lucky with the weather and fabulous location. Bright blue skies, snowy fields – a perfect child’s Christmas.
We followed the colour rule through into the costumes. Our designer, Andrew Cox dressed the kids in strong colours and the adults in more muted ones. Casey (Hannah Tointon – above), the teenager, is stranded between the two worlds. Darker colours shot through with purple and blues. Her hair is fantastic – I loved Jacqui Fowler’s idea for the purple streak. I’d have one myself if I had the hair for it. Apart from looking great, the costume, hair and make-up tell a story about each character that goes beyond what the script suggests. The colours of the costumes of the kids become more saturated as the film goes on and the sickness takes a stronger hold on them.
The way the kids lure and trap the adults in The Children is by manipulating the parents’ fears and, of course, their love. The idea that children might use their parents’ love as a weapon against them seemed wonderfully twisted to me. Their MO would be about using their cries and whimpers and their innocent eyes to entrap the parents. The creepy-cute sounds of their toys would also be a useful luring device – sort-of like Hansel and Gretel in reverse. Only when the adults are totally disabled by their instinctive desire to protect the kids, is it the right moment to strike.The aggression in the film evolves organically from the children’s obsessions with things like the effect of impact or ‘where do babies come from?’ There is often a violent subtext in kids’ games that would be terrifying if it was let loose in real life. The murders in the film are all related to the childhood in some way.
This was probably the most fun shoot I’ve ever experienced. That had a lot to do with the kids. They were amazing to work with and made the film set a lot calmer and more entertaining than it can sometimes be. I always wanted them (and their parents) to feel positive and comfortable about this as an experience. Before filming, we took the kids to Paul Hyett’s workshop to get them used to the gory stuff. (A warehouse full of exploding heads and severed prosthetic limbs – what’s not to like?) After a little coaxing, Raffy, who plays Leah, was pretty happy to stab a fake head in the eye.After a morning of fun ultra-violence we all went bowling with their screen parents to get them feeling happy with their pretend mums and dads. I realise now that in some ways we were acting out the theme of the film by trying to keep the youngest kids ignorant of the darkest details of the story – I presented everything to them as a fun game. But the kids had a spy – Eva, the oldest, who plays Miranda – who had managed to sneak a read of the script. I don’t know why we were worried. The kids were delighted by the idea killing lots of grown-ups. If anything, they were most looking forward to the violent scenes.
There are a few films I love watching before I start any project, just to get me ‘in the zone’ of how you can tell a story in cinema. One of them is Vertigo. I always go back to Hitchcock because he demonstrates better than any director that when you abandon a certain level of realism, you can really exploit the full potential of the cinema.For The Children, the specific Hitchcock film I thought about a lot was The Birds. I love how the menace of the birds builds gradually on the edge of the human drama. I love the use of sound and how nothing is really explained. Although, The Children is, in some ways, a virus story, I never wanted the adults to really understand or get a handle on it. They would only have their own emotions and preconceptions to fall back on when the horror kicks in.
Considering the flick’s nearly finished production, I half-expected "Resident Evil: Extinction" to hit theaters sometime in early 2007, but IGNFF informs us that, nope, the third entry in the hotties vs. zombies series won’t hit screens until next September.
From IGNFF: "A release date for the carnage of the next film in the series, "Resident Evil: Extinction," has now been set by the studio: September 7th of next year (2007).
Extinction stars Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, and Mike Epps. The corrupt Umbrella Corporation is once again in the role of the villains, with John Eric Bentley playing an executive bent on hunting down Alice. Unfortunately, Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine in "Apocalypse") no longer seems to be involved with the project."
Wait, WHAT? No more Guillory?? That seriously is a disappointment, as I thought she was one of the only bright spots in "RE2." Darn!
Click here for the rest of the "RE3" coverage.
Moviegoers grabbed their remote controls and flocked to the multiplexes this weekend to see Adam Sandler‘s latest comedy Click which became the comedian’s eighth number one hit thanks to its $40M opening, according to estimates.
Sony launched the PG-13 film in 3,749 theaters and averaged a healthy $10,670 per location. It was the second best opening of the year for a live-action comedy after the $40.2M bow of Scary Movie 4 in April. With this latest film, the funnyman has become the only actor to score $30M+ openings in each of the last five years proving what a consistent box office draw he continues to be. A-listers like Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, and Jim Carrey cannot claim the same feat.
In Sandler’s latest vehicle, he plays a man who gets a magical remote control that gives him power over all others around him. Frank Coraci, who directed the comedian’s 1998 hits The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, helmed this latest pic which co-starred Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, and David Hasselhoff. Sony’s $83M production played to a broad audience. According to studio research, 51% of the crowd was female and 50% were under 25. Sandler has always been a strong draw with young guys, but with his role as a husband and father in Click, the actor was able to appeal evenly across the board to all four quadrants.
Reviews were poor, as expected, but audiences didn’t seem to care. Click is a marketing-driven film and starpower and concept sold it to those looking for some harmless summer laughs. The opening was right in the middle of the $37-43M range that five of Sandler’s previous comedies have debuted in. With the Fourth of July holiday coming up, Click could very well go on to become the star’s seventh $100M blockbuster.
Following its two-week run in the top spot, the animated comedy Cars slipped to second place but displayed solid staying power. The G-rated film eased only 33% to an estimated $22.5M pushing the 17-day total to $155.9M. The decline was smaller than the third-weekend drops experienced by the most recent Disney/Pixar films The Incredibles (47% in November 2004) and Finding Nemo (39% in June 2003). Despite opening weaker, Cars is now holding up better and continues to benefit from word-of-mouth from family audiences. After 17 days of release, Cars is running 12% behind the pace of Incredibles and 19% behind Nemo. Competition for kids from Superman and Pirates in the weeks ahead will be fierce, but the racing toon could still drive to a final domestic haul of over $240M making it bigger than any other film released up to this point in the year.
After a stellar opening, the Jack Black comedy Nacho Libre stumbled 57% and placed third with an estimated $12.1M. Paramount has grossed a solid $52.7M in ten days and is heading for the $70-80M range. Nacho cost $35M to produce.
Tyrese Gibson flexed some muscle with his new actioner Waist Deep which opened impressively in fourth with an estimated $9.5M from just 1,004 theaters. The Focus Features release averaged a sizzling $9,414 per location. Reviews for the kidnapping drama were mostly negative, but audiences responded to the starpower and the action.
Slamming on the brakes, the action sequel The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift suffered the worst decline in the top ten crashing 62% to an estimated $9.2M in its sophomore frame. With $42.6M in its tank, Universal’s $75M franchise pic has been performing exactly like another of the studio’s recent June action sequels – 2004’s Vin Diesel pic The Chronicles of Riddick. That film opened to a similar $24.3M, dropped 61% in the second frame, and generated a ten-day cume of $42.5M before finishing with $57.6M. Tokyo Drift should cross the finish line near the $60M mark as well.
The franchise’s last installment, 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious, performed in the same way tumbling 63% in its second lap so Drift’s huge drop was expected. Overseas, the latest street racing pic remained at number one in the United Kingdom for a second straight weekend and pushed its international gross to $15.6M from a dozen countries. The studio projected number one openings this weekend in Indonesia, Finland, Portugal, Romania, and Trinidad. Japan, expected to be a big market for Tokyo Drift, does not open until September 18.
The Keanu Reeves–Sandra Bullock romance The Lake House enjoyed a reasonably good second date grossing an estimated $8.3M dropping 39%. After ten days, the Warner Bros. drama has taken in $29.2M and looks headed for the neighborhood of $60M. Lake bowed at number two in the U.K. this weekend with an estimated $1.5M from 343 locations. The film’s international roll-out will be spread out over the coming months.
Holding up well in seventh place was another film targeting adult women, The Break-Up starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. The Universal release grossed an estimated $6.1M, off only 38%, for a $103.7M cume. The unromantic comedy became the seventh film of 2006 to cross the $100M mark. Eight films had joined the century club at this point last year.
Fox’s kidpic sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties dropped just 35% in its second weekend and collected an estimated $4.8M. With a mere $16M in ten days, the PG-rated film looks to reach a disappointing $30M domestically or less than half of the $75.4M of its 2004 predecessor.
The year’s two highest-grossing films rounded out the top ten. Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand took in an estimated $4.4M, down 44%, pushing its cume to $224.1M. The Da Vinci Code grossed an estimated $4M, off only 24%, giving Sony $205.5M to date. Collectively, the top five summer films have grossed $861.6M trailing last summer’s corresponding blockbusters by 5% at this same point in the season.
Two summer hits fell from the top ten over the weekend. Paramount’s release of the DreamWorks animated film Over the Hedge grabbed an estimated $2.7M this weekend. Off 37%, the PG-rated toon boosted its total to $144.5M and should reach around $152M by the end of its run. Fox’s remake of The Omen has had no legs and tumbled another 63% to an estimated $2.1M this weekend. The $25M film has scared up a solid $52M and looks to end with about $55M.
Paramount Vantage kept expanding its global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth which widened from 403 to 514 theaters this weekend and grossed an estimated $1.9M. Averaging a decent $3,762 per site, the Al Gore pic has upped its sum to $9.5M and counting. Further expansions are planned for the coming weeks.
Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com
This week at the movies, we’ve got anthropomorphic automobiles not named KITT ("Cars") and a mean little devil named Damien ("The Omen"). Will the critics go along for the ride? Will they give the devil his due?
"Cars," Pixar’s latest feature, is the worst reviewed film in the studio’s history, but it’s still Certified Fresh. Featuring the voices of Paul Newman and Owen Wilson, "Cars" tells the tale of a hotshot race car who gets sidetracked in a small town, and learns a thing or two about friendship and humility in the process. The critics generally agree that while this may be the studio’s weakest effort, it’s still visually groundbreaking and emotionally heartfelt; it entertains even as it mourns the decline of the American small town. At 79 percent on the Tomatometer, "Cars" still provides a lot of kicks (on Route 66, no less!).
This is Paul Newman‘s audition reel for "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift."
Speaking of multiple sixes, as we noted yesterday, "The Omen" has set the all-time record for box-office on a Tuesday (06-06-06!), so it’s probably of little concern to many what the critics thought of it. Still, here goes: while the scribes note that this remake has its share of effectively spooky moments, it’s bedeviled by its adherence to the 1976 original. The film stars Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles as a diplomat and his wife who belatedly discover that they’re raising El Diablo. Lucifer. The Prince of Darkness. You get the idea. At 30 percent on the Tomatometer, this little devil isn’t scaring up many good reviews.
"Get behind me/ Get behind me Satan Yeah!"
Woe: Be gone! Critics say Robert Altman‘s "A Prairie Home Companion" retains the comfortable charms of its source, Garrison Keillor‘s radio show. And since it’s a Robert Altman movie, it’s got a gigantic cast, including Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Tommy Lee Jones. And though it might fall short of Altman’s finest work (dude has five movies at 100 percent on the Tomatometer), at 79 percent, this is one to write "Home" about. It’s Certified Fresh, to boot.
"And now, for our next number, we’d like to do a version of Slayer‘s ‘Raining Blood’…"
Also in theaters this week, albeit in limited release, are "The Heart of the Game," an in-depth documentary about seven years in the life of a high school girls’ basketball program, that currently stands at 93 percent on the Tomatometer, and the cross-cultural music doc "Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul," at 88 percent.
Recent Pixar Movies:
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97% — The Incredibles (2004)
98% — Finding Nemo (2003)
95% — Monsters Inc. (2001)
100% — Toy Story 2 (1999)
91% — A Bug’s Life (1998)
The Omens:
—————-
84% — The Omen (1976)
46% — Damien: Omen II (1978)
21% — The Final Conflict: Omen III (1981)
N/A – Omen IV: The Awakening (1991)
It appears the mark of the beast marks the spot, at least as far as "The Omen" is concerned. The movie’s stunt release date of 06-06-06 made for a devil of a box office return — at $12.6 million, "The Omen" raked in the biggest Tuesday returns in history, beating out "Meet the Fockers" by $4,000, according to Box Office Mojo.
The film, starring Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles, tells the story of a diplomat and his wife who are bringing up a child sired by the Prince of Darkness himself. "The Omen" currently stands at 31 percent on the Tomatometer, with critics saying it adheres a little too closely to the 1976 original (at 84 percent).
As Robert Johnson might say, "The (release) day keeps on remindin’ me/ There’s a hellhound on my trail."
Breathlessly looking forward to June 6th so you can finally get a glimpse of the all-new Damien and his devilish ways? Then head on over to IGN FilmForce and get a gander at three new movie clips from John Moore‘s remake.
"The Omen," from director John Moore ("Flight of the Phoenix," "Behind Enemy Lines"), stars Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Gambon and Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick. Moore directed the film from a script that was penned by original "Omen" writer David Seltzer."
And yes, it opens on 6/6/06. A Tuesday.
The last one was just a moody little teaser piece, but this all-new trailer for John Moore‘s "The Omen" looks … well, it looks pretty darn familiar — perhaps because I’ve seen the original flick about five times and, so far, the remake looks like a shot-by-shot revisit. We shall see. I dig the cast, anyway.
"The prophecy is clear, the signs unmistakable: Armageddon is upon us. A young boy named Damien, the son of an American diplomat and his wife, lives unaware he is destined to become the Anti-Christ – until shattering events reveal the terrifying truth."
Starring Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, and Pete Postlethwaite, "The Omen" opens on June 6th.
JoBlo is kind enough to point us towards an all-new trailer for Fox’s impending Omen remake. Click here to visit a slow-loading Russian website that has the trailer we’ll all get to see in a few days on Apple QT. 
As we all know by now, The Omen (2006) is a remake of The Omen (1976), and is directed by Flight of the Phoenix helmer John Moore, scripted by first-timer Dan McDermott, and starring Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, David Thewlis, and Mia Farrow.
And yes, it opens on 6/6/06. Nifty.
More insights from this year’s WonderCon, as we were treated to a trio of upcoming horror flicks: "The Hills Have Eyes," "The Omen," and "Silent Hill."
One of the day’s biggest panels kicked off with an appearance by frightmaster Wes Craven, who sat down with three stars of his upcoming remake…of his own 1977 classic, "The Hills Have Eyes" — Vinessa Shaw, Aaron Stanford, and Dan Byrd. As with the original, this remake tells the story of a suburban family whose car breaks down on a road trip through the desert, who find themselves battling for survival with a band of unsocialized, murderous hill people.
The 1977 "Hills" was scripted and directed by Craven himself, who now takes a producing credit and leaves the direction and screenplay adaptation to Alexandre Aja. Aja’s French axe-murderer thriller "High Tension" established him last year in the confidences of gore-hounds, and Craven’s repeated endorsements at the panel suggest that the master is very happy indeed with his successor.
After fielding questions (Craven revealed he’d approved dailies remotely during production while on the set of his own thriller, "Red Eye") the panel presented a short scene from "Hills;" short, but the rolling soundtrack, dim atmosphere and, oh yeah, that freaky scary guy that pops up out of nowhere all made the scene incredibly tense. The clip, however, was upstaged by a question from the audience as a fan asked Craven himself for her money back from watching 2005’s "Cursed."
Craven took it in stride, advising her to watch the "Cursed" DVD "to see the movie that [he] made." Then he slyly plotted her demise.
Vinessa Shaw talks about "The Hills Have Eyes"
Aaron Stanford (AKA "X2‘s" Pyro) at the "Hills" panel
Director John Moore came out next to talk about another horror remake: his summer thriller, "The Omen." A trailer screened: a simple pan slowly moving through an empty playground, coming to rest on a young boy on a swing. An EVIL young boy on a swing, that is. It was simple, but effective; see it here.
Moore also presented a few more hilarious teaser trailers (in one, a little girl playing inside hears a noise, wanders to the window and drops her dolly in shock as she sees the ground outside littered with dead birds; in another, a man sits on his porch with his family, constructing cross after cross as his wife nails them frantically to their house).
We were also treated to preview a scene from "The Omen," which has updated the ages and political standing of evil little Damien’s parents to reflect a younger, more upwardly mobile (and professionally hungry) couple than the original. Moore played the birthday party scene (so similar to that in the original that the word "homage" was thrown around), perhaps one of the most notorious parts of the original "Omen," in which a nanny joyfully hangs herself in front of a lavish birthday celebration.
With Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles as the tortured, horrified parents, creepy little newcomer Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien, and an appearance by Mia Farrow as Mrs. Baylock, Moore’s "Omen" just may succeed with a wide audience where the previous four installments ("The Omen" (1976), "Damien: Omen II" (1978), "The Final Conflict" (1981) and "Omen IV: The Awakening" (1991)) had grown increasingly campy and diluted.
Last but not least, actress Deborah Kara Unger arrived to introduce a clip from "Silent Hill," an upcoming thriller based on the bone-chilling video game of the same name. Gore fans will be pleased; of the entire day’s panel, this was the first clip preceded by a warning to parents to shield the eyes of their children, and was it ever warranted. In this clip, central character Rose (Radha Mitchell) is fleeing an unseen terror along with a class full of children and women; one woman falls behind, and is caught by a deadly creature; gasps ensue as the audience collectively recoils in visceral disgust. If that sounds like your kind of thing, this movie is for you.
Variety did a story about Fox’s creative "6/6/06" release schedule for their remake of "The Omen," and in the closing section of the piece, they dropped a little piece of news that should please the slasher fans: Apparently New Line is planning to release a "Friday the 13th" prequel on Friday, October 13th. Yes, 2006.
"New Line is hoping to release its 10th film in the sturdy "Friday the 13th" franchise on — surprise — Friday, Oct. 13. Studio’s launched development of a script about Jason Voorhees’ origins."
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That’s all the news so far, but it should come as no surprise to any horror fans, I can tell you that much.
In a year that promises a whole bunch of horror remakes (some welcome, some not) there’s one that’s sure to cause a bunch of tongue-wagging, and it’s John Moore‘s redo of "The Omen," which opens on a Tuesday just so it can take advantage of the 6/6/06 release date. Clever, eh? Anyway, check out the teaser trailer right here.
Currently known as "Omen 666," this remake comes from the director of "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Flight of the Phoenix," and stars Liev Schrieber, Julia Stiles, Mia Farrow, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon, and Pete Postlethwaite. The scribe on adaptation duty is first-timer Dan McDermott.
The story’s about… well, jeez, if you don’t know what "The Omen" is about, there’s a title you should just toss onto your Netflix queue right now! The 1976 original was directed by Richard Donner, and was followed by "Damien: Omen 2" (1978), "The Final Conflict" (1981), and a 1991 TV flick called "Omen 4: The Awakening."
Not long ago we informed you that John Moore ("Flight of the Phoenix") was hired by Fox to helm their remake of "The Omen," and now comes word (from Variety) that actors Liev Schreiber and Julia Stiles are close to signing contracts to star.
Schreiber ("The Manchurian Candidate") would play the Gregory Peck role, Stiles ("Save the Last Dance") the Lee Remick role.
Working from an adapted screenplay by Dan McDermott, the new "Omen" is set to begin production this October.
Fox has hired director John Moore to helm "The Omen 666," a remake of the 1976 Richard Donner hit about a demonic little kid and the people near him who keep dying.
Variety reports that the fast-tracked project will begin production on October 3rd. Newbie screenwriter Dan McDermott has been tapped to adapt David Seltzer‘s original screenplay.
"The Omen 666" will mark Mr. Moore’s third film, after "Behind Enemy Lines" and "Flight of the Phoenix."
Variety lets us know that DreamWorks is currently mounting a new interpretation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel "Strangers on a Train." Originally turned into a classic 1951 thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, the new "Strangers" is about "a psychiatrist who murders an exec’s clingy mistress and wants him to return the favor by killing the shrink’s sister." First-time (yet award-winning) director Noam Murro has been hired to direct the adaptation, and he’ll be working on the screenplay by David Seltzer ("The Omen") and Rand Ravich ("The Astronaut’s Wife").Murro was recently the recipient of a DGA award for his work on TV commercials.
