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I saw this Wes Craven-produced flick about a week ago. Directed by Robert Harmon, it follows four young adults who all had night terrors as children. One of their number, Billy, commits suicide; like Billy, the remaining three discover they now bear a mark left on them by something that attacked them in the dark. The main character, psychology student Julia Lund (Laura Regan), gets plenty of support from her hunky boyfriend (Marc Blucas, familiar as Riley from Buffy The Vampire Slayer), though he believes her fears are just symptoms of stress.

We never really see the creatures that are after Julia and her friends. We get vague glimpses of them in the dark, and hear the unsettling sounds they make. We also don't get a clear view of the violence they do. For me, this actually made the film scarier -- it stimulated my imagination.

I enjoyed the film -- it made me jump several times -- though there was a period about halfway through where it really dragged for awhile, then picked up again. But it had a lot of clever misdirection followed by surprises that made it effective, and a very creepy ending. It was well worth seeing.

So what have you watched lately?

So can I see a mirror already? I still don't get why you had to give me anesthesia for a makeover.

Last week we learned that Stephen King's brand new book Under The Dome, about a town sealed off from the rest of the world, is getting a miniseries. Now Steven Spielberg has stepped in to make sure it's a success.

DreamWorks TV and Spielberg will executive produce the miniseries based on the 1088-page book. And it's good that they are trying for a miniseries, because this novel is big and full of characters. There's no way it could be a one-night affair. Under The Dome takes place in a little Maine village which is quickly and forcibly sealed off by an invisible force field.

Synopsis:
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when - or if - it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens - town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing - even murder - to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

[Variety]

Here's an insidious website with lots of practical tips.

view link

Found this interesting article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper (also online). Thought this might be of interest.
By Christopher Quinn, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Being a vampire is boring compared with the young, beautiful and powerful bloodsuckers appearing weekly on TV and movie screens. Merticus, an organizer of the 4-year-old Atlanta Vampire Alliance, said vampires are mostly like anyone else.

“We could be the model-train group down the street from you,” he said. Except the model-train group depends on electricity as a power source. Atlanta vampires believe they drain energy from people and some, yes, drink a bit of human blood to get the boost they need.

See 1st response for Rest:


Joseph Laycock's book came from a paper he did on the Atlanta group's survey.

Ad image for one of director Ryan's previous films

BY Robert Dominguez
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, November 18th 2009, 11:41

The kidnapping of the California girl who was held captive for 18 years by a convicted rapist is being turned into a movie - by a horror director whose credits include such low-budget films as "Amateur Porn Star Killer" and "Romance Road Killers" - and she and her loved ones are outraged.

The family of Jaycee Dugard, who was found alive this August after having been snatched off the street at age 11, expressed their strong objections to the filmmaker's plans through a representative.

"There is only one true and factual story to be told," said spokeswoman Nancy Seltzer according to etonline.com. "If and when Jaycee and her family think it is appropriate, their story will be told by them, in a forum of their choosing with the respect and thoughtfulness they so deserve. Anyone else speculating about the details of such a personal hurt, for financial gain, is exploitive, hurtful and breathtakingly unkind."

The film maker, Shane Ryan, said he planned to begin shooting the movie next month. Titled "Abducted Girl, An American Sex Slave," the story will reportedly focus on the relationship between Dugard, now 30, and Phillip Garrido, who is accused of raping her and fathering the girl's two children while she was held captive in a decrepit compound of shacks and tents in Garrido's backyard in Antioch, Calif. Garrido's wife, Nancy, has also been charged.

"We want to capture how sad this story is, but also how interesting," Ryan told a Sacramento TV station. "We're trying to figure out a way to do that so it's not exploitative."

Read more: view link

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NOTE FROM PT: This fellow Ryan has also made a film called "Warning! Pedophile Released". I read another article about him in which he stated that he made his film "Amateur Porn Star Killer" in one day for only $20 and got national distribution. I don't know whether his other films are based on real life events (I hope not). I'm curious to hear people's opinions -- I can certainly understand why Jaycee and her family are upset that this little vulture is turning their suffering into entertainment. On the other hand, isn't censoring a film a bad precedent to set? What I'd say to Ryan is -- why can't you make another cheesy flick about something fictitious? Why do you have to do something that will hurt living people?

Christmas/Kwaanza/Solstice/Channukah gifts for Fans

Found a couple of wonderful calendars at Borders today.Calendars are low energy/ reasonable cost gifts for folks.

Horror Film Classics 2010 - Uses the old movie posters, and gives you 4 DVDs inside with:
The Brain that Wouldn't Die, Night of the Living Dead, Teenage Zombies, Dementia, House on Haunted Hill, The Terror, The Devil Bat, Nosferatu, Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein's Daughter, Revolt of the Zombies, and White Zombie.

SciFi Film Classics - Same outfit as above, gives you
Atom Age Vampire, The Atomic Brain, Planet Outlaws, Killers From Space, Phantom From Space, Teenagers From Outer Space, The Amazing Transparent Man, Indestructible Man, Metropolis, Attack of the Giant Leeches, The Phantom Planet, and The Wasp Woman.

You can see them at Calendars.com (no connection to me).
While I was looking for them online so I could give the details, I also found:
Cult Attack, Cinema Noir, and Vicious and Delicious, all using the old art, and featured on the website above.

All right, Renaldo! I admit it! I ate the last three Milano cookies! It's not like you need them with that complexion!

Goodbye cigarette-smoking, martini-drinking admen—hello bloodsucking, garlic-hating vampires!

Marti Noxon, writer-producer on the critically acclaimed Mad Men, has been hired to script a remake of Fright Night for DreamWorks, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But before you get all WTF, remember that Noxon was also writer-producer on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, so it's actually a return to her roots.

The original Fright Night, released in 1985, starred Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall and William Ragsdale, with Ragsdale playing a teenager who discovers his neighbors are vampires.

We'd normally be worried about tampering with a horror classic, but since Noxon has entertained us with both teens and vampires before, consider us cautiously hopeful.