NeilMarshall

Just the other day Dog Soldiers and The Descent director Neil Marshall had his name attached to a new bit of British horror he was executive producing called The Ghost of Slaughterford. Details were a bit nebulous at that point however, so Marshall reached out to Empire to clear up a few of the finer points.

It looks like Marshall will be re-teaming with Axelle Carolyn (pictured), an actress who popped up in both The Descent 2 (Marshall executive produced) and Centurion (Marshall directed), for Slaughterford. Carolyn will be taking on not on the starring role, but the duty of screenwriter as well. It'll be her first produced screenplay, but considering she was a one time writer for Fangoria and recently wrote It Lives Again: Horror Films in the New Millennium, it's probably fair to say she knows her genre pretty well.

As for the substance of the movie, specifics are still in the shadows, but Marshall was happy to clear up the tone. From Empire, "It's very much in the tradition of classic British horror, from Dennis Wheatley to Hammer via Amicus. There's humour, certainly, as well as romance, horror and tragedy. But mostly it'll be scary as hell."

So, a throwback to Hammer Horror as ushered in by Neil Marshall, eh? Sounds interesting and I'm hardly the biggest fan of the man's body of owrk. Now if we could just get confirmation on a director...

So far everything I have seen about Neil Marshall's highly anticipated sequel, The Descent: Part 2, looks like the first one. I guess that means it won't completely suck? I enjoyed the original, even though I had issues with some of the character development, but the claustrophobic feel and the nightmarish glimpses of the creatures were quite effective.

Part 2 follows lone survivor Sarah (Shauna MacDonald) after an all-female caving expedition goes horribly wrong. She is forced back into the caves to accompany a rescue crew and face the humanoid crawlers that slaughtered her friends. The film also stars Gavan O'Herlihy as Sheriff Vaines who is convinced Sarah's psychosis stems from a dark secret. Krysten Cummings plays his partner Rios and the rescue team consists of Douglas Hodge, Joshua Dallas and Anna Skellern.

The Descent: Part 2 will be premiering in the UK this Friday, December 4. For the rest of us sad saps, Bloody-Disgusting has a 'blood-soaked' clip on their website. You should also check out this amusing but thought provoking debate with Horror Squad's Peter Hall and Brad McHargue about The Descent.

Marshall has stated that the film won't be a rehashing of the first, but since that the creatures have been revealed and we're back in the cave do you think the sequel will have the same kind of tension?

When The Descent came out, everyone fell in love with it. The follow-up to Neil Marshall's wonderful werewolf flick Dog Soldiers, The Descent is considered one of the best horror films of 2006, gracing a number of top tens from that year, and with good reason. It was scary, fun, well-acted and excessively bloody and violent. After my first viewing I fell in love with it, and it went on to become one of my favorite horror films of all time.

But as always, you just can't please everyone. Enter Horror Squad's own Peter Hall.

The vehement indignation in Peter's voice throughout this debate is merely a testament to his long-standing hatred for this film, which began with his review three and a half years ago. My favorite quote of his comes not from the review, but from a response he made to a comment by Cinematical contributor Will Goss, which says: I would rather watch a slideshow of all the Saw posters for 90 minutes than THE DESCENT.

After reading his review, I felt Peter would be the perfect person with which to debate the merits of the film, a task I should have spent more time preparing for. I love the film, but not nearly with the same amount of passion with which he hates it. Joined early on by the bearded wonder Luke Mullen, episode three of Dead Wrong is filled with fun, excitement, and for some reason a lot of science lessons.

As always, start the debate when the marker reads 00:00 on the movie and you should be good to go.

The use of 3D in horror needs to be carefully chosen. The recent bit of news discussing the acquisition of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre rights by Twisted Pictures from Platinum Dunes revealed that the newest entry will be in 3D, leading me to believe that 3D technology is being applied willy-nilly to horror films. Although I object to 3D horror films in general, I am looking forward to see the application of the technology to Burst 3D.

According to Bloody-Disgusting, Lionsgate, in association with Ghost House Pictures, has announced that Neil Marshall will replace Daniel Calparsoro in the director's chair for the horror/thriller written Gary Dauberman about a group of strangers stranded in a lodge begin to explode one-by-one, presumably by an unseen malevolent force; which gives us a visual quite appropriate for the 3D technology.

The film will be produced by Sam Raimi and longtime collaborator/producer Rob Tapert, the two men behind Ghost House Pictures, and comes hot off the heels of the success of My Bloody Valentine 3D, another Lionsgate production. The announcement was made in part by co-Chief Operating Officer of Lionsgate Joe Drake, who was also a co-founder of Ghost House Pictures with Raimi and Tapert.

Hey Scott,


I finally have my Internet access again! The cabin was out in the middle of nowhere, and not even the iphone was getting a signal.

The trip hasn't gone so well. When I got to the cabin, everyone was already here, and a bit wasted. I felt a bit out of place – I really only know Rebecca of the bunch, and I haven't seen her since I was in London two years ago, the rest of them I've only met once or twice. Apparently, plans changed while I was on my way out here, and they decided to go caving instead of camping. Everyone's a hardcore climber, and I guess they thought that since I was born and raised in the Colorado Rockies, I must be too. But I told them my only experience with mountain climbing was watching The Eiger Sanction and Cliffhanger. My inexperience pissed off Holly and Juno because, you know, it's all my fault. So, needless to say, I didn't go caving. I didn't even get a chance to really reconsider going, as by the time I got up, they had all left, and there was a note from Juno asking if I'd have dinner ready for when they got back. Even though I was freezing and more than a little depressed at being all alone, I made the most of it, and explored the woods a little bit. It's really pretty out here. It looks just like The Last of the Mohicans.

Anyway, no one showed up for dinner, but I figured they decided to drive into town to celebrate or something. It must have been 9 or 10 when I finally heard the car pull up. Here's where the story gets creepy – no one came in. The car just sat out there, lights on, running. Finally I went outside to see what the hell was up.