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JA from MNPP here, wondering who else is ready for Fall? I was just in the drug-store and they've got all the Halloween candy out - mmm Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins! - and besides making me momentarily panic over not having figured out a costume yet (any suggestions?) it's got me more than ready for the Scary Movie Season. I know the horror genre's not Nat's usual cuppa but tis the season, ya know? I figured we could take a look at the horror movies coming out over the next few weeks, liven the spirits if you will, mwah ah ah.
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September 30th Dream House - The movie that introduced future marrieds Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, this is Jim Sheridan's remake of a recent Hong Kong chiller about a family moving into a haunted house (has that story ever been told before) that has all kinds of secrets in its hair. The original is supposedly well worth seeking out (I haven't seen it yet), but if you've seen this here remake's trailer don't you feel as if they gave all of the game away?.
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - This horror-comedy has been playing On Demand for several weeks already but it gets a limited release in theaters this week. It does for redneck horror (think Deliverance or The Hills Have Eyes) what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies, or at least tries to. Alan Tudyk, always welcome, and Tyler Labine star as a pair of hillbillies with heart who get mistaken for slash-crazed psychopaths by a bunch of dumb college kids, with gory results. It's fun, stupid stuff.
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October 14th The Skin I Live In - This is one Nat's actually covered here already, although with trepidation - Pedro Almodovar forced his hand! Just how horror-y the film is we're not quite sure yet (those of you in countries where it's already been released please share in the comments) but the story it's based on is apparently fairly horrifying, with the insane plastic surgeon kidnapper angle.
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The Thing - This is one of those "Is it a prequel or is it a remake?" line-blurrers that're so popular these days - since it's focusing in on the group of doomed scientists that kick off John Carpenter's classic 1982 film it is technically a prequel, but the trailer for the film is laid out in such a way to make it seem an exact copy, only with shoddy CG effects instead of the best practical horror special effects ever put on film in the earlier version. No, not the Howard Hawks one, the other one. This here updated version has got a good cast - Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead leading a pack of Swedes - and the director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. was thisclose to being given the Alien prequel/sequel/whatever thing that Ridley Scott's currently making before Ridley grabbed the reins of it himself..
Texas Killing Fields - Had enough Jessica Chastain yet? This thriller hopes not, since it stars her and her Debt co-star Sam Worthington as detectives on the trail of a serial killer who apparently decide to use Chloe Moretz as bait. Not being a fan of Moretz's there are a lot of ways I could take this from here, but I'm just gonna move right along...
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October 21st Paranormal Activity 3 - If the second film in this series didn't kill any goodwill you might have had for it (hell I know plenty of people whose goodwill was killed by the first film), then here be more of the same, only this time vintage! We swoop back to the golden age of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and crack cocaine, 1988, to see what horrors happened to the little girls who grew up to be eventual screaming sisters Katie and Kristi. This time directed by the dudes who made the divisive whatumentary Catfish!
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And then there's what I like to call the Goodtime Indie Cult Power-Pack (I've never called it that before) - Martha Marcy May Marlene and Kevin Smith's Red State, which are both out in limited release on this day, and both apparently have to do with cults, and I imagine they amount to very different beasts in the end. MMMM's been getting festival buzz for awhile now, with special attention paid to other-Olsen Elizabeth as a girl who escapes from the sinister influence of the always fascinating John Hawkes. Red State got some buzz when Kevin Smith made a spectacle of it at Sundance and then toured it around the country for a couple of months, but reactions have been mainly negative - it's been playing On Demand with little fanfare for weeks. I say the edge goes to Martha in this battle..
I have to say, save the artier fare of Almodovar and Martha Marcy May Marlene, there's not a whole lot psyching me up for All Hallows in this lot. Where's the good ol' fashioned thrills and chills? There's not even a horror movie opening on Halloween weekend, for goodness (badness?) sake. I guess I'll just end up cooped up at home watching Christopher Lee chase bosomy virgins around, again. Well there are worse fates!