And the winner of the AN EROTIC WEREWOLF IN LONDON DVD is Ethan Poirot! Congratulation!!

----- July 3rd, 2008 -----

** THE GOON: It was announced yesterday that THE GOON has been optioned by acclaimed director and producer David Fincher and Academy-Award nominated Blur Studio to develop as a CG animated feature film, according to TheGoon.com. The Goon is a comic book series created by Eric Powell in 1999. The story is about the adventures of the Goon, a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for the feared mobster Labrazio. The Goon (and his sidekick Franky) often get tied up in other machinations, often in relation to the evil zombie gangs under the command of the Nameless Zombie Priest. No word yet on how involved Fincher will be. (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com)

** REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA: Lionsgate has set a November 7 date for REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA, the much-awaited horror musical by the SAW sequels’ Darren Lynn Bousman. The movie will only be going - originally slated to open this past April - seems to have a secure berth. Fans who live in or can get to Montreal this month will have a chance to see the film early when it plays Friday night, July 18 at the Canadian city’s Fantasia festival. (thanks to Fangoria.com)

** The Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off its 12th edition on July 3rd with the World Premiere of TRUFFE, Kim Nguyen’s hotly anticipated vision of the future. An epic cinematic celebration unlike any other on this continent, Fantasia will continue until July 21st, making for an 18-day blow-out of audacious and unique visions of the fantastic from every conceivable culture, many being shown for their first time, with hordes of international filmmakers coming to town to attend their screenings. This year’s lineup contains over 100 feature films, a multitude of shorts, several thematic spotlights and a string of outdoor projections. The festival will also showcase a parallel event, LE FANTASTIQUE WEEKEND DU COURT-MÉTRAGE QUÉBÉCOIS, geared around local genre film productions, complete with informative panel discussions, screenings galore, even a stage play!

Audiences looking for Eastern thrills will have their hands full when it comes to choices in our opening week of programming. There will be Takashi Miike’s indescribable Japanese Western SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, Studio 4˚c’s brilliant Japanese animated anthology film GENIUS PARTY and, in its first-ever North American screening, Yang Hea-hoon’s South Korean revenge thriller WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR, which has already been compared to the best of Park Chan-Wook. Also from South Korea, you’ll find Jeon Yun-su’s delicious culinary combat comedy LE GRAND CHEF, it too having its North American premiere, and Jeong Beom-sik & Jeong Sik’s arthouse horror anthology EPITAPH, making its Canadian debut. Acclaimed Hong Kong filmmaker Johnny To (who visited Fantasia nearly a decade ago, well before his work began being showcased at Venice and Cannes) will have a trio of new works screening here – MAD DETECTIVE, TRIANGLE (co-directed with fellow HK auteurs Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark) and getting its Canadian Premiere, THE SPARROW, a wildly cinematic journey through the sleight-of-hand universe of pickpockets.

On the European/North-South American side of things, don’t miss the North American premiere of Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s award-winning Spanish assault [REC], which launched at the Venice film festival and is already widely recognized as being one of the most frightening films made in the past 25 years. The hype is true! Also from Spain, we’ve got Nacho Vigalondo’s astonishing time-travel thriller TIMECRIMES, winner of numerous awards on the international festival circuit. Last but not least, we have F. Javier Gutiérrez’s apocalyptic nail-biter BEFORE THE FALL, making its North American debut here after wowing audiences at the Berlin Film Festival.

A recent prize-winner at the Tribeca Film Festival, Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish vampire chiller LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a poetic and provocative masterpiece of modern horror. Many consider it to be the best vampire film made in the past decade. Canada’s own JACK BROOKS MONSTER SLAYER, from director Jon Knautz, is a comedy horror creature feature that won awards at Slamdance and Sitges, and boasts a surprising slapstick performance by Robert Englund! Screening on the same bill will be another Canuck comedy/horror freakout – TREEVENGE – an outrageous piece of work from the makers of HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (the beloved fake trash film trailer that screened in front of GRINDHOUSE last year)! If you’re hungry for insightful noise and fury, look no further than Rodger Grossman’s extraordinary Germs Biopic WHAT WE DO IS SECRET, featuring a mind-blowing performance by Shane West as punk’s original revolutionist Darby Crash!

In the ANIMATED AUTEUR VISIONS spotlight, you’ll encounter (alongside the above-mentioned GENIUS PARTY) the Canadian premiere of Bill Plympton’s surrealist social satire IDIOTS AND ANGELS and the incredible experimental omnibus film PEUR(S) DU NOIR, in which some of today’s most cutting edge cartoonists and animators were given free reign to do short films related to the theme fear of the dark. We’re talking work from Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti and Richard McGuire.

This year’s DOCUMENTARIES FROM THE EDGE section kicks off with the South by Southwest favorite SECOND SKIN, a disturbing look at World of Warcraft gamers who lose their lives to their all-consuming habit.

In an altogether different vein, we have Reynald Bertrand’s wonderful French comedy LA CRÈME. Imagine Woody Allen and Roman Polanski collaborating on an ironic comedy with fantasy leanings! Finally, don’t miss the Canadian Premiere of BLAIR WITCH PROJECT co-director Daniel Myrick’s politically-charged supernatural drama THE OBJECTIVE, which is set in Afghanistan… circa October 2001.

And these are just some selected highlights from the first week! For more check out the official web site.

----- July 2nd, 2008 -----

** FRIDAY THE 13TH: The first trailer for the upcoming remake will have its premiere at this year's Comic Con in San Diego. (thanks to DarkHorizons.com)

** RESIDENT EVIL 4: Director Paul W.S. Anderson confirms that he's just started talking to Sony Pictures about doing a fourth RESIDENT EVIL, but for now its not moving forward fast as he doesn't have an interesting story hook for it (does he think he had for the first three films?!). (thanks to DarkHorizons.com)

** HOSTEL PART III: It looks like producer Scott Spiegel is tipped to direct the direct-to-DVD third installment in that franchise. (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com)

** Dario Argento's GIALLO: Here's two teaser posters for the upcoming film from the Italian master of the macabre. I seriosuly hope that none of them will be used... especially the one on the right! (thanks to FilmZ.ru)

** Alexandre Aja's MIRRORS: A Red Band trailer is now online! (thanks to IGN.com)

** CHILD'S PLAY: Here's the cover of the upcoming 20th Anniversary Edition. (thanks to ShockTillYouDrop.com)

** Anchor Bay has assigned a September 30 DVD release date for no less than four of its genre titles. Coming on that day are Seth Landau’s BRYAN LOVES YOU, John Suits’ BREATHING ROOM, Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen’s FIVE ACROSS THE EYES and Matthew Hope’s THE VANGUARD. Complete specs are coming soon on all these discs, which will retail for $19.97 each. The Bay has also released art (see it below) for its DVDs of Don Coscarelli’s PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION which streets August 26, and the no-frills release of the Starz vampire-film documentary BLOOD SUCKING CINEMA, out September 23. PHANTASM retails for $14.98, while CINEMA is $19.97. (thanks to Fangoria.com)

** Agnès Merlet's DOROTHY: French production house Mars Distribution have just uploaded the trailer and poster for Agnès Merlet's taut, atmospheric, and scary as hell looking psychological horror film. Although this is the French trailer, the actual film is in English. The film stars Carice van Houten, Gary Lewis, Eamonn Owens, Gavin O'Connor, Niamh Shaw and Charlene McKenna. Dorothy Mills is suspected of assaulting a young baby in a contemporary but timeless rural village. She is visited by psychiatrist and outsider, Jane, who discovers that Dorothy may not be responsible for her actions and may be possessed by a horrifying and malevolent force. As she helps Dorothy, Jane is confronted with her own past tragedies - and starts to unravel another terrible secret hidden by some of the local villagers. The film opens in France in August and for those Stateside that like the looks of it, keep a watch out. Word is the Weinstein Compagny have already picked up the U.S rights to the film. (thanks to 24framespersecond.net)

----- July 1st, 2008 -----

** Dario Argento's GIALLO: Here's the first official pix from the upcoming film from the Italian director. (thanks to DarioArgento.it)

** WRONG TURN 3: Declan O'Brien will be directing the third installment and Fox Home Entertainment has officially begun casting. (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com)

** TRICK 'R TREAT: Mike Dougherty's film is still without a distributor eve since Warner Bros. dropped it. “The struggle continues. There’s interest from another distributor so negotiations have begun. Keep your severed fingers crossed!” (thanks to DreadCentral.com)

** CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST II: At the recent Weekend of Horrors convention in New Jersey, Italian director Ruggero Deodato took a few moments to give Fango a quick update on CANNIBALS (a.k.a. CANNIBAL METROPOLITAN), his upcoming follow-up to his notorious 1980 gorefest CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Scripted by Christine Conradt, with Imagination Worldwide backing it and veteran Canadian genremeister Pierre David on board as executive producer, the movie should be going before the cameras this fall. “I believe it will be in October, shooting in the Philippines and Ottawa in Canada,” Deodato told Fangoria, adding that the film is not a direct sequel to HOLOCAUST: “It’s another story with new cannibals.”

Suggesting that CANNIBALS may wind up even more brutal and shocking than its predecessor, Deodato notes that this project largely won’t emulate its vérité found-footage style. “There will be some parts of it” done this way, he says, “but the story will be more fiction-oriented; it’s not connected as much with the original’s documentary style. Most of all, I will follow the changes that have happened in the world in the last 30 years. The world has become more violent, more cruel, and that’s what I will present.”

Casting has yet to be finalized for CANNIBALS - “But one thing’s for sure, it will have unknown actors” - and as for the makeup FX creator, “Maybe it will be Sergio Stivaletti, maybe someone else.” No doubt the result will be pounced on by HOLOCAUST fans, and Deodato enjoys the fact that his taboo-breaking shocker continues to attract attention today. “I’m very, very happy about that, about all the success the movie has had, the influence it had at the time,” he says. “The one thing I regret is that we earned less money than we could have earned today with that movie!” He also speculates on why the jungle flesheater genre seemed to be a unique one to filmmakers from his home country: “It’s probably because the Italian people are very curious and they were looking for something exotic, something strange, and directors wanted to create films for the audience to satisfy that curiosity.” (thanks to Fangoria.com)

** Dave Neabore was one of the four lucky winner of the Gorezone tickets giveaway for the Fangoria's Weekend Of Horrors last weekend in New Jersey. Dave made a cool clip available on YouTube of the event, enjoy!

** Guillermo Del Toro's FRANKENSTEIN: On the red carpet at the premiere of HELLBOY II THE GOLDEN ARMY, Del Toro made a cool announcement. "For the monster I would love to have Doug Jones," he revealed. Jones has worked for the director as a creature performance since MIMIC and plays Abe Sapien in the HELLBOY films. "I think he can do a fantastic job. Ron looks seven feet tall in Hellboy, but he's not. I think we could do that with Doug, but I would love to do it with him. The only vision of the Frankenstein monster I've ever latched onto is Berni Wrightson's. He's lanky and long and it's gorgeous in a tragic way. Doug has all of those qualities."

Later, the Shock Till You Drop web site caught up to Jones and revealed the good news, "You've just made my day! I never knew that!" Jones expressed with his jaw on the floor. That said, who's performance of the monster has he admired the most? "Boris Karloff, no question. I respect that man so much. Every time his name is brought up in the same sentence as mine, I'm honored and I don't want to belittle his name with mine." Del Toro is in the early stages of prepping two HOBBIT films for executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, an endeavor that will require him to put Frankenstein on the backburner for now. "I think it's going to have to be developed very carefully over the next four years," he chuckles. "Look, I would never attempt to recreate the Whale Frankenstein, but I do think there is an alternate story that could be told about the Frankenstein mythos." Like? "It's more like a fairy tale, a strange, weird fairy tale."

Asked who his ideal Victor Frankenstein would be, Del Toro simply smiled and said, "I won't say anything 'cause then you would know what I'm doing." The director says he's been bouncing back and forth to London lately for the Hobbit films. There are no scripts yet, however, "We already started notes and underlining and e-mailing back and forth. A few lines have been written here and there, but we will have the big pow-wow [soon] - bad pizza, take-out food in a sort've a pressure cooker [meeting] in about two weeks." (thanks to ShockTillYouDrop.com)

** Tartan Films UK is no more: Variety reports that Britain’s recently troubled Tartan Films has officially closed its doors, following the shuttering of its U.S. division earlier this year. Founded by Hamish McAlpine in 1982, Tartan was a champion of the horror genre on both sides of the Atlantic, and produced such films as ED GEIN, TED BUNDY and the English-language remake of FUNNY GAMES. But the company truly made its mark as one of the foremost distributors of Asian fright fare in English-language territories, bringing the likes of the RINGU films to British DVD and issuing dozens of Japanese, Korean and Thai chillers on U.S. disc. Tartan’s Stateside video line closed down with numerous announced horror titles - among them the Thai ghost film P, Italy’s HATE2O and a new edition of TETSUO II - yet to be released. Palisades Media Corp. bought the American rights to the company’s library, but distribution plans for those movies have yet to be announced. (thanks to Fangoria.com)

----- June 30, 2008 -----

** SAW V is due in theaters October 24th, 2008. Directed by David Hackl, the fourth sequel finds forensics expert Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) on the hunt to protect the fact that he is the latest to carry on Jigsaw’s legacy. Below is the very cool first and certainly not last teaser poster. (thanks to DreadCentral.com)

** REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA: The very cool trailer is now online!

** VINYAN: The trailer is now online for the French horror film VINYAN, which was directed by Fabrice Du Welz (CALVAIRE). (thanks to TwitchFilm.net)

** PUMPKINHEAD: MGM Home Entertainment released the early word about what to expect from the 20th Anniversary DVD of PUMPKINHEAD that it releases September 9 through Fox Home Entertainment. The disc will include audio commentary by co-screenwriter Gary Gerani and creature FX creators Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis, moderated by Scott Spiegel, seven all-new featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage and a still gallery. Full details and cover art for this title, as well as the CHILD’S PLAY 20th Anniversary DVD that also streets on the 9th, are coming shortly. (thanks to Fangoria.com)

** Dario Argento's THE MOTHER OF TEARS will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in France on September 16th according to www.alapage.com. It will only have french and italian dolby 5.1 soundtracks. (thanks to DarkDreams.org)

** Midnight Media recently issued the third volume in its SLASH HITS series, amusingly subtitled MULLET MASSACRE. Writer Steven West and editor/designer Paul J. Brown here cover the grisly years of 1983-1987, when stalker films ran the gamut from franchise flicks (the FRIDAY THE 13TH and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series) to nasty envelope-pushers (SLEEPAWAY CAMP and SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT) to modern gialli (Dario Argento’s PHENOMENA and OPERA) to bottom-of-the-barrel schlockers (no names, please) and everything in between. Each movie is reviewed in varying levels of depth, and rated according to blood and boobs content; the digest-sized tome is profusely illustrated with gory stills, rare posters and more.

** No DUSK WATCH: It seems now that the sun has definitely gone down for DUSK WATCH, the third entry in Timur Bekmambetov’s popular NIGHT WATCH series of films that was initially announced for release in 2009. Questioned about the project at the press junket for his latest film, WANTED, the Russian director appears to no longer count DUSK WATCH among his future plans. “I don’t think so -for me, WANTED became my DUSK WATCH,” says the director, who also notes that it would be pointless to make what in essence would be his third film from the same material (Sergei Lukyanenko) in a row. “I don’t know what to do for now,” he adds. “We’ll see.”

Bekmembetov wouldn’t say whether the film could still be made without his involvement. The closing chapter in the proposed trilogy of films, DUSK WATCH would have followed up the successful second installment, DAY WATCH, which was in turn based on the second and third parts of Sergei Lukyanenko’s best-selling NIGHT WATCH novel - rather than in its follow-up, a book also titled DAY WATCH. The author’s third novel in the series was also titled DUSK WATCH (or TWILIGHT WATCH in the English-speaking world), but it was unclear whether that tome’s events would serve as the basis for the film.

But Bekmambetov isn’t leaving supernatural creatures behind, and shared some info on THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, the horror/fantasy set during the Crusades that he’s expected to produce, also for Universal (see previous item here). “It’s a story about the Knights Templar and vampires,” he says. “The vampires are trying to be human again, and they’re looking for the Holy Grail. I think it’ll be very good - a very touching, romantic story about the undead.” (thanks to Fangoria.com)

** THE HILLS RUN RED: Mike Straub, Ewan Bailey and Danko Jordanov all join the previously announced Sophie Monk, Tad Hilgenbrink and William Sadler in Dave Parker's THE HILLS RUN RED for Dark Castle Films and Warner Premiere. The story centers on a film fanatic whose obsession with finding a complete print of an infamous slasher movie leads him and two friends into the backwoods where the film was shot. They realize too late that filming never ended -- and now they must survive a nightmarish onslaught or become part of the movie forever. (thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com)

** IKIGAMI: A full length trailer is now available to see on the newly updated official site for Tomoyuki Takimoto’s J-horror, IKIGAMI (DEATH NOTICE). Based on the manga series created by Motoro Mase, the film tells the tale of a future Japan run by a government determined that citizens should have “productive” lives. Citizens identified as unproductive are randomly selected for death and issued ‘ikigami’ (Death Notice). The period of notice, just 24 hours. The film will follow the story of some of the victims, but also that of Matsuda, whose grim and reluctant task it is to deliver the Ikigami. A cheery tale then! Ikigami opens in Japan in September. (thanks to 24framespersecond.net)

** Stuart Gordon's STUCK: Image Entertainment announced Stuart Gordon's film will arrive on DVD and to Blu-ray October 7th. The latter presentation will be presented in 1080p video and accompanied by a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Starring Mena Suvaria and Stephen Rea, the film enjoyed a limited theatrical run last month through ThinkFilm. Stay tuned for cover art and special features. (thanks to ShockTillYouDrop.com)

** Fox has just officially revealed the Blu-ray Disc release of THE OMEN (1976) and THE OMEN Collection, as well as NIGHT WATCH and DAY WATCH. All will street on 9/9, as we've reportedly previously. What's new here are official details on these titles, as follows:

NIGHT WATCH, DAY WATCH and THE OMEN (1976) will all be released on BD-50 discs. The other discs (in THE OMEN Collection) will be BD-25s. All will feature DTS-HD audio, save for Night Watch, which will include Dolby TrueHD. Each title will SRP for $39.98, while the collection will sell for SRP $129.98.

THE OMEN (1976) will include the previously-released DVD extras, among them an introduction by director Richard Donner, audio commentary by Donner and editor Stuart Baird, a second commentary with Donner and screenwriter Brian Hegeland, the "dog attack" deleted scene with optional commentary, 5 featurettes (666: The Omen Revealed, The Omen Legacy, Curse or Coincidence?, An Appreciation: Wes Craven on The Omen, Jerry Goldsmith on The Omen Score and Screenwriters Notebook), the film's theatrical trailer and a still gallery. Also included will be a number of BD-exclusive features, such as the Richard Donner on The Omen featurette, The Omen Revelations BonusView viewing option with trivia track, a third audio commentary with film historians Lem Dobbs, Nick Redman and Jeff Bond, and the film's score in Dolby Digital 5.1 as an isolated audio track.

THE OMEN Collection will include THE OMEN (1976 - with extras listed above), DAMIEN OMEN II (with audio commentary by producer Harvey Bernhard and the theatrical trailer), OMEN III THE FINAL CONFLICT (with audio commentary by director Graham Baker and the theatrical trailer) and THE OMEN (2006 - includes audio commentary with director John Moore, producer Glen Williamson and editor Dan Zimmerman, the Revelations 666 and Abbey Road Sessions featurettes, extended scenes and the BD-exclusive The Devil's Footnotes trivia track).

Meanwhile, NIGHT WATCH will include audio commentary with director Timur Bekmambetov, subtitled commentary by novelist Sergei Lukyanenko (in English, French and Spanish), 3 featurettes (The Making of NIGHT WATCH, Characters, Story and Subtitles and NIGHT WATCH Trilogy), 7 deleted scenes with commentary by Bekmambetov, an extended ending, poster and comic book still galleries, the film's theatrical trailer and D-Box compatibility.

And DAY WATCH will include audio commentary with Bekmambetov, The Making of DAY WATCH featurette, original Russian TV spots, theatrical trailers and D-Box compatibility. (thanks to TheDigitalBits.com)

** STEEL TRAP: Direct from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company, the upcoming Dimension Extreme title, STEEL TRAP, snaps onto DVD July 15. From Chicago Underground Film Festival Award-winning director, Luis Cámara, comes the gruesome story of a vengeful masked killer hosting a unique party game that turns out to be deadly. Five pseudo-celebrities bored with a New Year’s Eve celebration on the top of an abandoned skyscraper jump at the chance of attending an exclusive V.I.P. party on the 27th floor but when the party is crashed by a vicious maniac, they quickly realize they will not be ringing in a new year with a smile. Full of puzzles, twists and blood-splattering terror, STEEL TRAP is a gore-filled horror film in the vein of SAW and HOSTEL.

** THE WICKED: Satanism has become illegal in the United States. Grace, Queen of a Satanic cult is faced with betrayal within her coven while dealing with a mounting assault from the descendants of the Knights Templar who vow to destroy her. Written and Directed by Sal Ciavarello (HARDCORE POISONED EYES). The DVD will be released on Amazon.com in August. DVD special features include 10 mins. of Bloopers, Gags, and Practical Disasters! With Funny Behind The Scenes Footage of the Infamous "Jackie The JokeMan" Scene recently exposed on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite Radio. You can check out the teaser trailer and the official web site.