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It’s Trickery! 10 Cool Posters for 10 Very Bad Movies!

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Movie posters have always been underappreciated as pieces of art, dismissed by virtue of the fact that they’re advertising a “product” for consumption rather than made expressly to be looked over and discussed by discerning members of the artistic community. Luckily, a few savvy collectors early on managed to look past all the upturned noses and recognize some of these posters (also called “one-sheets”) as genuinely inspired creations in and of themselves. In fact, throughout cinematic history posters have often transcended their source material entirely, living on past the run of their respective films to become something lasting and worthy of aesthetic reconsideration. This is especially true of posters advertising horror films, a genre that through the decades has been the home of arguably the greatest amount of artistically stunted, cookie-cutter material ever to grace the silver screen but has also inspired a treasure-trove of memorable one-sheets. Some of these one-sheets are hand-drawn masterpieces; some are artful photographs; more recent ones are often marvels of digitally-enhanced innovation. All of them have the distinction of communicating something above and beyond what was required, be it through a deceptively simple central image or a richly detailed visual landscape. Following, then, are the Ten Best posters inspired by lackluster horror films. It’s beauty and the beast….
Note: I apologize in advance for my use of groan-inducing words such as “exquisite”, “dazzling”, and “sumptuous”.

10. Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Tagline: “Whoever wins…we lose.

All the one-sheets for this (shitty) movie were cool, but this one is definitely the best – highlighting the striking forms of the respective monsters in all their seductive and elegant detail.

9. Pulse (2006)

Tagline: “Some frequencies we were never meant to find.

This ingenious poster, with its sea of reaching hands and eerie silver light, is like a bad dream come to life; the movie itself was just a nightmare to sit through.

8. Sleepwalkers (1992)

Tagline: “They feast on your fear – and it’s dinner time.

This written-directly-for-the-screen Stephen King effort is absolutely terrible – but the poster is a sumptuous marvel, with those slinking cats and ominous dusky backdrop.

7. Black Roses (1988)

Tagline: “Turn up the volume, turn out the lights, but don’t watch it alone!

The one-sheet for heavy metal horror movie Black Roses is an exquisitely-rendered feast for the eyes; the film is just cheese.

6. Children of the Corn (1984)

Tagline: “And a child shall lead them…

Those who consider Children of the Corn a classic of the genre probably haven’t seen it since they were, oh, twelve years old – but the theatrical one-sheet is iconic, and loads more suggestive and horrifying than the actual film.

5. The Astro-Zombies (1968)

Tagline: “Dismembered bodies…transplanted organs are used to create the Astro-Zombies.

Obviously the creative inspiration for Astro-Zombies was all used up on the poster; the eye-popping color scheme and unique hand-drawn artwork is dazzling, but the movie isn’t, shall we say, up to the same artistic standard.

4. Psycho (1998)

Tagline: “Check in. Relax. Take a Shower.

The marketing campaign for Gus Van Sant’s shot-by-shot remake was ingeniously simple, with that brilliant tagline and its sensual central image of a woman behind a shower curtain; too bad the movie was a derivative bore.

3. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 2 (1985)

Tagline: “The man of your dreams is back.

While the theatrical poster for Part 2 is as beautifully-rendered as the rest of the Elm Street one-sheets, I chose this one in particular because it’s the one entry in the franchise that can genuinely be called a cinematic stinker.

2. Garden of the Dead (1974)

Tagline: “Death was the only living thing…

This movie about murdered chain-gang convicts who return from the dead in order to get high off of formaldehyde one last time (don’t ask) was blessed with this beautiful, morbidly atmospheric poster that makes you want to reach out and feel the texture of its gloomy world.

1. Squirm (1976)

Tagline: “This was the night of the CRAWLING TERROR!

Squirm the movie is a dreadful piece of garbage about killer earthworms (seriously) and has been long-forgotten for a reason, but the one-sheet is a genuine work of art that should be hanging in a museum; never has the chasm of quality between a film and its attendant poster art been wider.

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‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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