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

If you're a fan of Tooth & Nail, one of the better selections After Dark Films has picked up for their past Horrorfest slates, take notice: director Mark Young has a new film on the horizon that you should keep an eye out for. The Killing Jar, starring Michael Madsen, Harold Perrineau, Amber Benson, Kevin Cage, Jake Busey, and Danny Trejo will be making its way to theaters in New York and LA this Friday, March 19th, with 7 other markets to follow later.

Horror Squad recently got a chance to volley some questions off of Young regarding The Killing Jar, which is about a handful of diner patrons held hostage by a psycho, only the psycho might not be as dangerous as the secret one of the patrons may or may not be hiding. Don't worry, this is all spoiler free.

Horror Squad: I'm curious where your starting point for The Killing Jar was in regards to the setting. Did you know you wanted to make a film set in one location and then wrote around that? Did you know that you wanted to tell this story and then decided it would work best set in one location?

Mark Young: I had this story in the back of my head; a handful of ordinary people trapped in a roadside diner by a mysterious man with a shotgun - sort of an Edward Hopper painting gone berserk. I had limited access to funds and a paltry budget, and knew intuitively that shooting in a single location would translate into an economical production. So I wrote to that. Midway through the writing process, I really started to embrace the novelty that the audience's point-of-view never leaves the diner. It adds to the claustrophobia.

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.

I like Jaume Blaguero and Paco Plaza's [REC] so much that I wish I disliked Quarantine, the beat-for-beat American remake, more, but I just can't bring myself to it. Sure, it's unoriginal, but because it hems so close to the magnificent [REC] it ends up being actually pretty decent despite the remake stigma. But what of Quarantine 2, you ask? How will it fit into the [REC]-verse?

Shock 'til You Drops' source tells us Sony's Screen Gems has just hired Ghost Ship writer John Pogue to both write and direct the Quarantine sequel. However, it looks like Q2 is not going to be a remake of [REC] 2. The first films may have been almost identical, but it looks like horror fans are in for a breath of fresh air on both ends as the two projects have nothing to do with one another. [REC] 2 takes place immediately after the events of the first film and is, for the most part, still confined to the same virus-infected apartment building, only it ups the sequel ante considerably with some characters and twists and turns that are best left unsaid.

Quarantine 2, on the other hand, is going to break free from its title action with a jump from the apartment building to an airport setting. I actually think that's a pretty cool idea (especially since it's not a remake) as I can imagine the larger area to be quarantined could make for some really great set pieces. There's only one problem, though. Shock also reports that Q2 is being shaped as a straight-to-video film. That obviously doesn't mean it'll be an inherently small, but grand production design isn't exactly what STV films are known for. Either way, put me down for 'mildly interested.'

I've always been a staunch, non-ironic supporter of the Syfy channel, but I'm well aware that I'm in the minority on that. Well, now all you Syfy-mockers should get down on your knees and give thanks to the Sharktopus and Dinoshark gods for Syfy's newest gift, Red, a re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood starring the adorable Felicia Day. Don't be alarmed, that strange sound you hear is thousands of geeks simultaneously sighing at the thought of Day idly wandering a dark forest in a, well, little red riding hood.

How does Felicia Day casting news get any better, you ask? SCI FI Wire explains, "In the action-packed Red, Red (Day) brings her fiancé home, where he meets the family and learns about their business - hunting werewolves. He's skeptical until bitten by a werewolf. When her family insists he must be killed, Red tries saving him. Red also stars Kavan Smith (Stargate Atlantis) and Stephen McHattie (Watchmen). Red is produced by Angela Mancuso and Vesuvius Productions in association with Chesler Perlmutter Productions."

Felicia Day...hunting werewolves...with the star of Pontypool? You are far to kind to the legion of fans who love to hate you, Syfy.

View all Austin events on Eventful

Poor Solomon Kane. Not only did he make a pact with the devil that if he ever murdered again his soul would be hellbound, but he can't even get a proper showing here in the United States. Michael J. Bassett's very cool, very slick, and very violent dark fantasy epic made the festival rounds last year (I caught it at Fantastic Fest and thoroughly enjoyed it) to overall positive critical acclaim, but sadly no US distributor has stepped to the plate to give the film the wide release it deserves. That's why the producers of the film are attempting to help drive up awareness of the film using the same Eventful Demand it! platform that Paramount leveraged so effectively for Paranormal Activity.

The above widget is for the Austin, TX area (it makes me sad that, as of this writing, only four people in the home of Fantastic Fest have demanded it), but clicking right here should take you to the Eventful site where you can demand it anywhere in the US of A. If you're still not sure whether 90 seconds worth of clicking and typing is worth your time, I've included the Solomon Kane trailer below. If it doesn't convince you it's worth checking out, please see an eye doctor.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of independent horror. That said, having spent the last few years optimistically wading through the highs and lows of low-budget horror filmmaking in the hope of finding diamonds in the rough has, in all honesty, kind of jaded me. I have nothing but respect for anyone who picks up a camera and tries to making something to call their own, but, let's face it, more often than not low-budget amateur horror flicks remain relegated to the obscure world of the horror movie convention tradeshow floor not because they're unlucky in distribution, but because they're just not very good.

So when fellow Cinematical/Sci-Fi Squad writer John Gholson asked if I wanted to drive three and a half hours to attend the Pretty Scary Bloodbath Film Festival, a team-up between the Texas Bloodbath Film Festival and Pretty-Scary.net designed to honor independent, female voices in horror, I had a few trepidations. But the more than reasonable ticket price of $15 for 3 features and 8 short films won me over and I've got to say that I'm really glad it did.

I had a lot of fun at the Pretty Scary Bloodbath; more than expected, actually. It delivered exactly as advertised: a fine showcase of indie horror movies made by women. Below I've done a brief rundown of everything the fest had to offer, so read on to see if there were any hidden gems to be found.

Horror Squad pal John Gholson has an eye for collectibles. I'm not exactly sure how he is constantly coming across objects I would never know existed otherwise, nor am I sure I actually want to know. I think we're all better off assuming that the link to his latest find, a collectible Dagon figure, came to him in a fever dream and that he awoke in a cold sweat, scrawling the url onto a notepad before instantly forgetting he ever knew it.

Okay, so maybe he stumbled across the Lovecraft-inspired nightmare from SOTA Toys on Figures.com. But since that doesn't exactly fit the madness mold that makes Lovecraft so wonderful, let's pretend it was the fever dream. Anyways, the 12-inch statue will run you $225, which may seem steep to those outside the collecting world, but it's actually a fairly standard price point. Here's the official description from SOTAToysOnline.com:

"SOTA Toys introduces the latest addition to the "SOTA Nightmares" product line, H. P. Lovecraft's Dagon. This 12-inch tall statue features incredible detail in its horrific presentation of nameless things that crawl on the ocean's slimy bed; Dagon. Made of high quality resin and special "flex-resin" in key parts, this limited edition collectible will be a prized addition to any collection highlighting H. P. Lovecraft, monsters, and, as Lovecraft stated, "gigantic, tenebrous, ultimate gods.""

So if you're interested in owning this awesome, foot-long oddity, head over here to get in your pre-order at a 10% discount.

Just the other day I was talking to a friend about a co-worker of his who is not only a conspiracy nut, but who seems to be categorically incapable of separating the fiction of films from the non-fiction of the real world. For example, upon watching Transformers he questioned whether or not it was based on real events and between the time it took for said friend to first laugh and second answer his ridiculous question, this conspiracy nut had already convinced himself that the government was hiding shape-shifting war robots from the public.

So if something as quite clearly fake as Transformers can have that effect on the man's psyche, I wonder what the book trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seth Grahame-Smith's follow-up novel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, will do to his perception of the sixteenth President of the United States. If a movie can convince him of government cover-ups, I can only imagine that a book will be all the more effective.

As for the trailer itself (embedded below, of course), I actually really like it. I never got around to reading PaPaZ mainly because I lost interest after hearing Grahame-Smith's contributed only about 15% original material, but as far as I know Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a completely original creation. I'm not sure I'll be rushing out to my nearest bookstore March 2nd to pick up a copy, but I imagine it'll make for fine in-flight reading some day.

Sometimes you just come across a film's synopsis and know that it's going to be a good time. Sure, you're interested in the principal talent behind the project, but description is so far into the left field that you can't help but peel an eye out for it. Well, the latest eye-catcher for me has been Won Ton Baby, starring Suzie Lorraine, Debbie Rochon, and Gunnar Hansen, which has a new teaser trailer for your perusal. But before we get to the teasing below, it would be wrong to skip over this part of the official description:

"When the fetus is removed, it is not only alive, its mutated umbilical cord soon leads the way to mischievous and, ultimately, flesh-eating, gore-filled antics. The baby's mass murdering and eating of the locals forces the Madam to confront not just her deformed child but also a secret from her past that she's hidden for years. But can the Madam solve things before it's too late? Or has she sealed her family's fate thanks to the release of the child?"

Oh, man, mutated umbilical cords that cause mischief and fatal mayhem? Where do I sign up?

With the March 19th release date for Repo Men fast approaching, Universal has seen fit to kick the marketing up a notch for their Jude Law and Forest Whitaker-starring genre hybrid about a future in which life-saving organ transplants can be repossessed if a customer gets behind on their payments. Their campaign includes a run of posters advertising the fictional organ donation conglomerate, ominously titled The Union, and today the Moviefone network (of which Horror Squad is a part) has been given four of their artificial organ advertisements to unveil.

And, honestly, I do dig the mood they're going for here (I'm also a big fan of posters that don't actually have the film's title on it). It's clear from the trailer that Miguel Sapochnik's film had a twisted sense of humor, but these new posters, combined with the real website for the fake Union corporation, are sure driving that tongue deeper into the cheek. Check out the "Guys Won't Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses" variant in full below and head over to Inside Movies, Cinematical and Sci-Fi Squad for the other three.

Oh, and if you're looking to make some cash, keep your eye out for an upcoming team up between Universal, Repo Men, and Wired that will give four lucky nomads a chance at $10,000 grand if they can stay hidden off the grid for about a month.