Horror Squad, Horror Movies, News, Trailers, and More

Tony is as forgotten as the world he inhabits: the vertical slums of London, the neon thrall of the red light district and the murky channels he wanders when disposing of the bodies he methodically packages like meat. Thanks to Johnson's script and the stellar performance of Peter Ferdinando (someone please give this guy more work), there are plenty of dark, comedic moments in Tony's life. Things like his obsession with violent action films on VHS (he quotes First Blood to a victim moments before ... ), cleverly timed (and often awkward) conversations with people and corpses alike inject levity into an overwhelmingly grim reality. Complementary to this is Matt Johnson's haunting score, which punctuates every moment perfectly while remaining organic and unobtrusive. Similar is the photography which uses the natural light of the city landscape as its focal point. Johnson occasionally contrasts this with a more theatrical tone using the same naturalistic elements (a street sign, an elevator, etc.) and the effect is striking.

I don't care much for Feast and I'm not a fan of the Saw series but writer Patrick Melton and co-writer/director Marcus Dunstan's The Collector is definitely my cup of team and Melton recently spoke with Dread Central about the possibility of a sequel to the home invasion horror flick. He also chatted with Dread about Saw II, 3D technology, the Oscar's awkward nod to horror films and more.

The duo is penning the script for the latest installment in the Saw series (lucky number 7) and director Kevin Greutert is halfway through principal photography after a studio debacle where Lionsgate went head-to-head with Paramount and exercised an option in Greutert's contract to force him off Paranormal Activity 2 and back to the Saw series. Adding insult to injury, this happened literally a few weeks before filming. What kind of film can you expect when the helmer has been unwillingly plopped into a chair just days away from shooting? Melton is keeping the faith:

" ... If anyone can do it, it's Kevin. He's been involved in every single Saw movie, and he directed the last one so he knows the limitations of the crew and the limitations of the resources, and so he's been able to adapt pretty quickly, and it's looking good. Because we are playing with the idea that this may be the last Saw movie and we are trying to wrap things up, it's made it a ton more ambitious."

Cloverfield 2 is starting to remind a lot of Evil Dead 4--it's a movie that comes up in every interview with principles of the first film (Matt Reeves and JJ Abrams) and the answers are always tantalizingly vague, but just intriguing enough to keep everyone talking about it.

MTV caught up with Reeves at SXSW this weekend, and naturally the topic of a sequel to the duo's hugely successful monster movie came up. True to form, Reeves' responses were cryptic but guaranteed to get the fans buzzing about a follow-up yet again.

Reeves tells MTV, "I can tell you nothing, [but] there are these spikes in activity. There are things that we keep talking about and things spike up. It very well may happen."

Yeah, there's your big Cloverfield 2 update. Spikes in activity and "it very well may happen." Not exactly Earth-shattering stuff.

Reeves then goes on to talk about his schedule and Abrams' schedule, and when you read it, it's easy to get the impression that we won't be seeing Cloverfield 2 anytime soon.

What do you think? Still interested in a Cloverfield sequel, or has so much time passed that you just don't care anymore?

SXSW wasn't the only exciting thing going on in the world of geekdom this weekend. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you could have headed out for the Emerald City ComiCon and got your comic geek on.

Amidst all the cosplaying and back-issue-buying came a pretty big announcement (thanks to Shock Till You Drop for spreading the news) for horror fans. Tim Seely's indie comic Hack/Slash is making the jump to Image. A new four issue miniseries entitled Hack/Slash: My First Maniac will introduce my Ms. Hack and her giant guardian Vlad to readers who might have missed her on other publisher's imprints.

My First Maniac will take readers through Cassie's first case and fill everyone in on the backstory of how she had to kill her own mother (a notorious serial killer known as The Lunch Lady) and her current struggles regarding whether she should continue to use her slasher-killing skills to save other innocent people from the monsters all around us, or just try to live a normal life (well, as normal as you can when you've murdered your own serial killer mother...). You don't need a doctorate in English Lit to guess which way this is gonna go...

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac will debut this June. Seely assures fans that the new version will appeal to longtime fans since his entire creative team is making the move with him. Plans for a Hack/Slash film are still in the works as well.

When six Howling movies just aren't enough there's always room for one more and we told you back in November about a new addition to the werewolf franchise that promised to be a "Twilight/Gossip Girl wannabe with some Lost Boys thrown in for good measure." Well, it looks like former studio marketing exec Joe Nimziki who is helming The Howling: Reborn is keeping good on that promise, according to the guys at BD. They have just released the first plot details for the seventh film in the series, which will begin shooting in Montreal, Canada this May.

In The Howling: Reborn "a teenager graduating from high school finally gets the girl he's been pining over for years, but unfortunately for him once he's landed the love of his life he discovers that he's cursed and will transform into a werewolf. Even worse, not only does he have his own internal conflict to contend with, he must also battle an entire pack of werewolves who are hellbent on killing both he and his new girlfriend."

Did I lose you at "teenager" and "pining"?

Joe Dante's original film has a special place in my heart and while I've peeked at a sequel or two, I never got into them the same as the first flick. Even though Dante's is a classic, does it really matter that we have another cruddy sounding sequel after having 5 bad flicks before it? Or do you totally disagree and think this sounds like the makeover the franchise needed?

If you watch a lot of horror movies, particularly in the last few years, you have no doubt grown accustomed to the expectation that low budget horror movies are emotionally vacant, supplanting plot and character nuance for needless gore and brutality. It's as though filmmakers working under these confines lack the confidence to deliver a movie that will be talked about for its scripting, its performances, or for the affecting eye of the camera. In turn, they gaze upon the successes of higher profile films (namely those bearing the unfortunate Torture Porn label), think, "I can top that" and then proceed to default between alternating modes of hate, dialog that would make the cast of Deadwood blush, and boundary-pushing violence, the thought process being that if they can't make a film memorable for the characters, they'll make it memorable solely for how much pain they inflict on them.

If you've seen any of the trailers for Red, White & Blue, the new film from The Living and the Dead director Simon Rumley, chances are good you have these expectations. If you do, promptly throw them out the window. Yes, Rumley's gritty-looking film is low budget, but it bears none of the low-budget trappings that destroy films crafted by lesser talents. It is not spiteful; it is not hateful; but it is beautiful in a supremely unnerving, macabre way. Red, White & Blue does not just get under your skin, it flays it from your very bones.

Shaun Robert Smith's new Nazi zombie flick, The 4th Reich, is moving full speed ahead. Today, Dread Central brings us some exciting casting news--although maybe not quite as exciting as the last announcement involving Doug Bradley playing an SS officer.

Jason Flemyng has been officially cast in the role of Corporal Callow. The actor may not be a household name, but his body of work is impressive and includes appearances in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Mirrors, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons. He joins a cast that includes the aforementioned Bradley, Tom Savini, Sean Pertwee, and Axelle Carolyn.

The film's tale finds the soldiers of a small brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division fighting through the French countryside. Events get stranger with each step of their journey--and eventually they wind up at an abandoned research facility. There, they encounter some of Dr. Joseph Mengele's experimental army of invincible super soldiers.

I was cautiously optimistic about this project when it was first announced, but I'm getting more interested with each bit of casting news. If nothing else, Smith is lining up an impressive cast. If he delivers a compelling story and gory Nazi action, we could be witnessing the birth of a cult classic.

We're still over a month away from The Descent Part 2's American DVD debut (brought to you by the folks at Lionsgate), but that doesn't mean it's too early to make audience's aware of the title. The New York Post's PopWrap blog got dibs on the first trailer for the film--and it looks like it should please fans of the original.

The sequel picks up where Neil Marshall's film left off. Lone survivor Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) escapes from the caves but is forced to return with a rescue team. Naturally, this new group runs afoul of the subterranean mutants that populated the first film. It's like going back for a second helping at the human buffet! The creatures appear to be a little more feral and savage this time out.

This film is bypassing theaters in favor of a direct to DVD release on April 27th. Extras haven't been officially confirmed yet, but I posted the tentative list almost a month ago. You can peruse that article by clicking here.

Jump past the break to check out the official trailer for The Descent Part 2

Joaquin Phoenix is either crazy, brilliant or crazy brilliant. Proving that there is no such thing as bad publicity, he abandoned his prolific acting career in favor of a wild beard, dark shades and a rap career that went as quickly as it came. His final film was 2008's Two Lovers, a romantic drama that I never knew existed until just now. After two years of Joaquinless cinema, Shock TIll You Drop has brought to our attention the news that Mr. Phoenix will apparently lose the crumb catcher and ditch the sunglasses for his newest role as the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe.

The film will be an adaptation of the novel "The Beautiful Cigar Girl" by Daniel Stashower. The book weaves together the story of Mary Rogers, a clerk at a tobacco store frequented by popular writers who was found horribly mutilated in the Hudson River, and Edgar Allan Poe, who used the events surrounding Rogers' murder to pen his story "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt."

Not much is known about the film, as no writer or director has been attached, but the book seems like one Hell of a read, one that follows in the footsteps of The Devil in the White City, a pseudo-novelistic and historical account of the relationship between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the country's first serial killer, H. H. Holmes.

The only bit of information we have so far comes from the India Times, which reports that Resul Pookutty, who won an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for Slumdog Millionaire, will be doing the sound for the film.

Since most of our staff is attending the SXSW festival this weekend, the Horror Squad Movie Club is taking a break, but will be back in full force on Friday, March 19. It's Luke's turn at bat and he'll be talking about The Signal, a horror flick with an apocalyptic, sci-fi twist told in three parts. You can find it on Netflix Watch Instantly or DVD and Blu-ray, so you have no excuse not to join us!

You can watch the trailer for The Signal after the jump to get you in the mood for next week.