Lovecraft finally done right

Deadline reports that Guillermo Del Torro will finally be able to complete his vision of the H.P. Lovecraft masterpiece, At The Mountains of Madness.  Del Torro has had this on his wish list for quite some time but the effing pussy Hollywood Studios wouldn't touch it because there is no love interest or happy ending.  It's an EFFING HORROR FILM YOU MYOPIC BEAN COUNTERS!!!  GET A FRIGGIN CLUE.

Anywho, it seems like none other than James Cameron stepped up to lend his producing muscle to the project in order to make this happen and appease the risk-averse accountants- er studio heads.  Now I'm no big Cameron fan, but this is easily his single best achievement since...  well, since Terminator.

Del Torro is the perfect creative genius to helm this project - a true Lovecraft devotee and a true visual master.  In his hands, this should finally be the Lovecraft movie done right!  For those who haven't read it (and please go and buy a Lovecraft collection immediately - what's wrong with you?) At The Mountains of Madness is a seminal piece of horror fiction that has spawned such classic movies as The Thing and Alien.  It is one of his finest stories, along with Call of Cthulu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Shadow Out of Time and The Whisperer in Darkness.

I can't wait to see this tale finally brought to the masses - the Old Ones would be proud.

Enter The Dark

Ok folks, we have a winner...

If you haven't already... check out the opening scene of my new horror short, Enter The Dark. 

Final touches (color correction, sound mixing, end credits) are being made as we speak and festival submissions will start in a couple of weeks. Look for it playing in a festival near you!

Name my Movie!

Ok dear readers... time to get to work.

I've completed principal photography on my horror short movie that up to this point I've been calling Spook Hunt.
After finishing the first rough cut, it has become obvious that the title is not doing the movie justice.

I need another title.

Here is where you come in.

First, read the following synopsis of the movie, watch the new opening scene, and then look over the list of possible names.
Let me know what best matches the feel of the movie and also grabs your attention.

Spook Hunt is a short film that takes you into the dark recesses of a haunted house and the even darker fathoms of the human soul.

Charles has a problem.  There's something in his house scaring his family and it just won't leave them alone.  They've all heard voices, seen dark shapes moving in the shadows, felt that uneasy sensation of being watched.  Finally Charles captures something on his audio recorder that proves they're not all going crazy.  He decides to make a stand, enlisting the help of his long-time buddy, Rob Tupper, to delve into the mystery of his unwanted guest and hopefully send it on its way.  If they can somehow figure out what the entity is and what it wants, maybe they can all finally have some peace.

Rob's worried about his buddy.  He's been acting really strange lately ... well, even stranger than usual.  Rob knows that things have been rough for Charles - struggling to make ends meet in a down economy, dealing with the unexplained disappearance of his brother-in-law, Marcus, and now these claims of some ghost harassing his family.  Rob is skeptical that there's anything paranormal going on, but he agrees to help his friend out if only to find out the real nature of the problem.

With the lights out, they are led on an adventure of paranormal encounters: cold spots, an eerie talking children's book, unexplained apparitions and a final mystery that leads to an unforgettably disturbing ending.

Ok, now to the possible titles:

Elemental Fear
Primal Darkness
Up From the Dark
From the Darkness
Enter the Dark

Turn Out the Lights
Out Go the Lights
The Disembodied
 
Deliver
Deliver the Darkness
Among the Darkness

Among the Shadows

Alone in the Darkness
Don’t Fear the Darkness
Don’t Dread the Night

Dread the Night
Dread of Night
Into the Dead of Night
Into the Dark of Night
Whispers of Dread

Night of the Abyss
Abyss of Night
Into The Abyss
Repossessed
The Inhabitant

Alright, now get to work and VOTE!

Check Out the Updated Spook Hunt Website

We're in the homestretch of shooting Enter The Dark and it was time to give the website an update in preparation for the movie's premiere (hopefully at this year's Screamfest).

There will be more to come as I edit and post the trailer and add some more content throughout.

M. Night Shyamalan and the Career Arc of a Director

No, I haven't seen The Last Airbender yet.

And I'm not gonna.

Know why?  Two words - The Happening.

I loved Sixth Sense - liked Unbreakable - loved Signs - tried to like The Village - was totally unimpressed with Lady in the Water.

I figured I'd give M. Night one more chance with The Happening.  But do you know what happened at The Happening?...  He took my 10 bucks and spit in my face.

Really.

That movie is an affront to filmmaking - either one of the worst, most tone-deaf movies made in the last 30 years, or the most brilliant satiric self-immolation ever put to film.  I seriously thought he was trying to purposefully trash his career so he could get out of his current contract by making the worst movie ever.

Then he made The Last Airbender... and it's getting even worse reviews.  I don't need to see it.

How can this be possible?  How can the same guy who made Sixth Sense and Signs, two of my favorite movies of the last decade, slide steadily into absolute dreck? Has he totally lost his mind?  Does he not care anymore?  Did someone else write and direct his first three movies for him?

I wanted to see just how bad it really was, so I did what I always do...

I made a chart:

This chart shows the ratings (per Rotten Tomatoes) for every M. Night directed movie.  As you can see, it looks like a big ol' slide to wretchedness.

That got me thinking... What do other director's charts look like?

Daybreakers - The King of Teal and Orange!

Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have a winner!!

 I just saw Daybreakers and it is by far the most extreme version of Teal and Orange ever!  It wins by way of knockout over the former title holder, Transformers 2.

Now, the interesting thing is that even though every single scene is drenched in shades of teal and orange (ok, and the occasional RED too), I can actually accept it for this movie because it makes sense within the context of the story - a world in which vampires are the norm and humans are an ever-dwindling endangered race.

(Ethan Hawke - Yawny McYawn)

As to the movie itself... well I wish they had spent as much budget on character development as they did on art direction.  The main problem is the characters, especially the lead, Ethan Hawke, are incredibly flat and boring.  You really don't care what happens to any of them - stay vampire, turn back human, die, blow up - I really couldn't be bothered.

(ok - Willem Dafoe isn't bad.  If the whole movie had a bunch of Dafoes running around, it wouldn't entirely suck)

Also, the story really isn't a horror film at all - it is more a corporate/political thriller that happens to be set in a world of vampires in business suits.

The vampire mythos is about sex, seduction and eternal life - not cornering the market on near-blood.

Yawn.