SamRaimi

Alright, there's going to be spoilers from the get-go, but if you're a good Horror Squad reader, you likely caught Sam Raimi's so-called "spook-a-blast" in theaters or recently on home video (and enjoyed the, um, heck out of it).

So this entry could go one of two ways. We could concern ourselves with Christine (Alison Lohman), whose gypsy-spurning behavior results in a three-day-long curse. She is bashed around her house, given the mother of all nosebleeds, forced to kill her kitten (and for naught, it turns out), embarrassed before her potential in-laws, driven to pawn most of her possessions, whacked with a sizable gravestone, and then -- in spite of all her best intentions and elaborate schemes -- dragged down to hell for some good old-fashioned eternal damnation.

OR we go with Christine's boyfriend, Clay (Justin Long). He is forced to see his love fall prey to forces that he -- the psychiatry major and eternal skeptic -- fails to comprehend, embarrass herself before his parents (who weren't so keen on her to begin with), and then see her dragged to hell before his very eyes. How do you explain that away? How do you even live with that? Is that not an equally damning Fate Worse Than Death?

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.

I think Sam Raimi and Guillermo del Toro are in a secret competition to see who can be involved with the most projects simultaneously. del Toro may have him beat in the feature film department, but when you factor in Raimi's TV shows (ugh, "Legend of the Seeker") and the Ghost House theatrical and straight-to-video arms, it may actually push the Evil Dead magnate into the lead. And Now we can add a rampaging Yeti (!) to Raimi's already-crowded producers docket.

The film, Refuge, will be directed by an aspiring UK filmmaker by the name of Corin Hardy. The Hollywood Reporter doesn't explain how the unknown Hardy won the attention of Raimi's Ghost House Pictures production outfit, but whatever they've seen has convinced them to throw in with Mandate on giving the film a helping hand. THR describes the project succinctly:

"Refuge centers on a remote town terrorized by a Yeti, the mythological creature native to the mountains of the Himalayas. Hardy will direct from a script by fellow British writer Tom De Ville; both are repped by Paradigm's Marc Helwig and Trevor Astbury. Meanwhile, Blum's Blumhouse Prods. will finance a short film with the same premise as the "Refuge" feature. Hardy and De Ville will work on that as well. The idea is to offer a teaser that can help Hardy refine his vision even as the script is being developed."

That's about it on the details for now. Will it be as awesome as Abominable, one of many, many, many movies people give me crap for loving? Doubtful, but any story about our friendly, hairy hominids in the woods is a story I'll keep an eye out for.

By Monika Bartyzel

The long-in-gestation feature trek for World of Warcraft has been slow, and even after we learned that a script was still in the works last year, it's been a quiet trek. But now the lid might be blown sky-frakking-high, and maybe silence was the best policy!

According to AICN, there's a director attached to the film -- and it ain't Uwe Boll. No, it's a whole lot better -- Sam Raimi. And with that, the whole potential for this adaptation was thrust into a whole different universe. According to Harry Knowles, this deal is set and will hit the trades sometime in the next week or so. "Sam is going to make a huge budget fantasy bit of unf**kingimaginable coolness -- and it will be yanked from the World of Warcraft."

More at Cinematical!

By Todd Gilchrist -- 5/28/09 -- Cinematical

As encouraging as it must be for a filmmaker to be recognized or associated with just one iconic film or franchise, Sam Raimi is the creative force behind two of them. He launched his eclectic career almost 30 years ago with the original Evil Dead, a horror classic that spawned two sequels and countless imitators, and then established himself as an A-list adaptor of comic book material with Spider-Man, which also begat sequels, and perhaps more importantly, several billion dollars or so in worldwide grosses. His latest film, Drag Me to Hell, is a return to the genre material that helped make a name for himself, albeit with the sensibility of a guy who survived one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, and took a few lessons away from the experience to boot.

Cinematical recently sat down with Raimi to discuss his new film, and the director demonstrated that in addition to being a hit machine with the mind of a born moviemaker, he's also a smart, generous, and remarkably humble fellow. While discussing his work on the film, he took time to respond, and kindly, to folks who both love and hate his legacy, before deconstructing his acrobatic cinematic style, and finally, digging deep to find a few films that meant something special to him as a young cineaste. And while he managed to pick consummate summer movie experiences that, quite frankly, didn't actually happen during the summer, the convenience of a Google search and the forgiveness of a grateful nation lying in wait for his films more than makes up for his lack of seasonal accuracy.

Read the rest right here!

The old-school Sam Raimi fans are having a ball this weekend (I hope) with the director's long-awaited return to horror, the very cool Drag Me to Hell. And of course all of you know Mr. Raimi as the director of the Evil Dead trilogy and / or the Spider-Man trilogy, but it's easy to forget that this filmmaker has one rather impressive batting average. Doubly so if you're into good-time matinee-style genre flicks! So here's a chance to look back over some of the man's other films, mostly ones you've heard of (and probably seen by now), but flicks that are certainly worth a fresh look every now and again. I'll start with one of my true favorites ...

The Quick and the Dead (1995) -- Raimi's ode to the old-school western is an addictively entertaining mixture of A) a great ensemble, B) tons of nifty visuals, and C) tongue-in-cheek affection for the old-fashioned western tales. Plus it's not every day you see Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio shoot it out amongst themselves. And if you're a fan of character actors, this movie is an all-you-can-eat buffet of colorful performances: Keith David, Kevin Conway, Lance Henriksen, Tobin Bell, Pat Hingle, Gary Sinise, and on and on it goes. Great fun, especially if you love westerns.

Darkman (1990) -- Long before he was handed the keys to Spidey's cinematic web, Sam Raimi was already thinking about superhero movies. And he didn't even bother going with an established character! He and his brother just created one called Darkman! Just about everything that works so well in the Spider-Man series is included here, from the playful tone and stylish action to the crafty compositions and strong performances. Liam Neeson as a faceless vigilante! How can you not love that?

More at Cinematical...

By Peter Martin -- 3/16/09 -- Cinematical

Don't f*** with old ladies, especially if they have bad teeth and an evil curse up their sleeve. If there's anything new to be learned from Drag Me to Hell, director Sam Raimi's return to horror, it's that loan officers will have hell to pay if they dare to foreclose on your mortgage. It's a lesson that should make everyone stand up and cheer.

The film screened as a "work in progress" late last night at the completely packed Paramount Theater in Austin to a loud, raucous reaction. Some of the finer technical points clearly remain to be tweaked (sound, visual effects, maybe a little editing here and there) and end credits need to be added before its wide theatrical release on May 29. And in its present version, the ratings issue is still cloudy -- PG-13 or R?

But this much is clear: Raimi has made a joyful romp through his personal horror playground and come up with a very entertaining horror-comedy that gets back to the basics. By that I mean creepy shadows on the wall and things that go bump in the night: all the odd, unexplained sights and sounds that keep anxious children awake at night, hiding under the covers. Any inkling that Raimi's soul might have been irretrievably chewed up by the Hollywood studio machinery -- a well-founded concern after the disappointing Spider-Man 3 -- quickly evaporates once the story gets underway.

Read the rest right here!

By Jessica Barnes

There's nothing quite like the phrase 'straight to DVD' to kill a film's chance of a little dignity, is there? The first thing that usually crosses my mind is, "It must be pretty bad if they aren't even willing to put it up on the big screen" -- which might be a tad unfair of me, but no one ever said gut reactions were fair. Hopefully this time I'll be proven wrong, because in a conversation with MTV Steve Niles (co-creator of the original graphic novel, 30 Days of Night) confirmed that a sequel to the 2007 vampire flick was already in the works, and that it would most likely be going direct to DVD.

According to Niles, a script has already been submitted, and he is hard at work on the project with Ben Ketai (director of the 30 Days webisodes). The sequel will be based on the comic book follow-up Dark Days, and the story centers on "the character of Stella Olemaun [who] heads to Los Angeles after surviving the vampire attack in Barrow, Alaska. She intentionally attracts the attention of the local vampire population in order to avenge the death of her husband, Eben, during the Barrow incident."

After the jump find out how Sam Raimi got involved and the possibility of a 30 Days franchise...

The first clip from Sam Raimi's upcoming horror flick Drag Me To Hell has arrived online via Moviefone (watch it there or down below), and in it star Alison Lohman has what appears to be a frightening encounter with ... a breeze. Yeah yeah -- what's so scary about wind? Well, when the wind begins to take the form of some freaky monster, then, um, something tells me we'd all be cowering in the corner. Unfortunately I didn't have the pleasure of watching Drag Me To Hell when it screened (as a "work in progress") at this year's SXSW Film Festival, but a whole bunch of Cinematical writers really dug it, and why wouldn't they: Sam Raimi has done wonders with this genre in the past (Evil Dead movies, anyone?), and he's a natural when it comes to massaging in the creep factor.

From Peter Martin's SXSW review: "But this much is clear: Raimi has made a joyful romp through his personal horror playground and come up with a very entertaining horror-comedy that gets back to the basics. By that I mean creepy shadows on the wall and things that go bump in the night: all the odd, unexplained sights and sounds that keep anxious children awake at night, hiding under the covers. Any inkling that Raimi's soul might have been irretrievably chewed up by the Hollywood studio machinery -- a well-founded concern after the disappointing Spider-Man 3 -- quickly evaporates once the story gets underway."

Check out the clip below; Drag Me To Hell drags its freaky ass into theaters on May 29.