Editorials
2011 HORROR MOVIE PREVIEW: VARIOUS FILMS
My favorite of the preview pieces is always the random studio releases. This year there are so many crazy films getting limited releases, courtesy to IFC Films and Magnet Releasing/Magnolia Pictures. Then we’ve got Mother’s Day and the remake of Fright Night from other studios, not to mention 11-11-11, The Troll Hunters, A Horrible Way to Die, The Howling Reborn and MANY more! What are you most excited for?

–VARIOUS FILMS 2011 HORROR MOVIE PREVIEW–
PARAMOUNT / UNIVERSAL / DIMENSION / RELATIVITY / VARIOUS
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Dates Subject to Change

When a massive power blackout causes the population to inexplicably vanish, a small handful of survivors (Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo) band together inside a desolate tavern struggling to survive as the darkness hones in on them. From director Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist, Transsiberian) comes an apocalyptic thriller with a terrifying vision of our world’s end and a story that wrestles with the nature of existence itself.

Medieval England has fallen under the shadow of The Black Death. In this apocalyptic world, filled with fear and superstition, a young monk called Osmund is charged with leading a fearsome knight, Ulric (Sean Bean) and his group of mercenaries to a remote marsh. Their quest is to hunt down a necromancer – someone able to bring the dead back to life. Torn between his love of God and the love of a young woman, Osmund discovers the necromancer, a mysterious beauty called Langiva. After Langiva reveals her Satanic identity and offers Osmund his heart’s desire, the horror of his real journey begins….

When a spell is cast on a handsome egocentric young man (Alex Pettyfer) that physically transforms him into everything he despises, he has one year to find a young woman (Vanessa Hudgens) who will love him despite his hideous form or the spell will last forever.

Hilary Swank plays a doctor who moves into a Brooklyn loft. Becoming suspicious that she’s not alone in her new home, she discovers her landlord is a stalker.

From Saw II-IV director Darren Lynn Bousman, three brothers on the run from the law head for home, only to discover that their mother lost the house in a foreclosure. Mother ingeniously orchestrates her sons’ escape, teaching the house’s new owners and their guests a few lessons along the way.

Described as an origin story, Apes is set in present day San Francisco and deals with the aftermath of man’s experiments with genetic engineering that lead to the development of intelligence in apes and the onset of a war for supremacy. Franco will play a driven scientist who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes.

Senior Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) finally has it all going on: he’s running with the popular crowd and dating the most coveted girl in his high school. In fact, he’s so cool he’s even dissing his best friend. But trouble arrives when Jerry (Colin Farrell) moves in next door. He seems like a great guy at first, but there’s something not quite right–but everyone, including Charlie’s mom (Toni Collette), doesn’t notice. After observing some very strange activity, Charlie comes to an unmistakable conclusion: Jerry is a vampire preying on the neighborhood. Unable to convince anyone, Charlie has to find a way to get rid of the monster himself in this Craig Gillespie-helmed revamp of the comedy-horror classic.

From Saw II-IV director Darren Lynn Bousman, on 11-11-11 a gateway will open and something from another world will pass into ours.

42 high school students are forced to kill each other on an uninhabited island.

Sarah is starting life over. After her last relationship ended with a revelation that sent her boyfriend, Garrick, to a life sentence in prison, Sarah had no choice but to leave her past behind. Now that she’s been relocated to a small town and given a new identity, Sarah’s embracing the opportunity to start life fresh. Unfortunately for Sarah, the past won’t let go. Garrick escapes prison and discovers Sarah’s new location, then blazes a violent trail across the country to track her down and disrupt her seemingly perfect new life.

When the lights go down … The Moon will rise … And a Legend will be REBORN. On the eve of his high school graduation, unremarkable Will Kidman finally bonds with the girl he has long yearned for, reclusive Eliana Wynter. But he also discovers a dark secret from his past… that he is about to become a werewolf. Now, in an effort to fight destiny and save their love as well as their lives, they must battle not only Will’s growing blood lust but an army of fearsome beasts bent on killing them… and then, us all.

A hard-boiled thriller, I Saw The Devil stars Choi Min-sik (Oldboy) as a psychopathic serial killer up against Lee Byung-hun as a special agent whose fiancée becomes one of his victims. Lee’s cool-headed and intelligent character in turn becomes a monster in order to avenge the killing.

Shot in a vérité style, The Troll Hunter is the story of a group of Norwegian film students that set out to capture real-life trolls on camera after learning their existence has been covered up for years by a government conspiracy. A thrilling and wildly entertaining film, Hunter is said to deliver truly fantastic images of giant trolls wreaking havoc on the countryside, with darkly funny adherence to the original Norwegian folklore.

One family left destitute when her father and leader, from the time his three sons and his widow facing a storm. The four will have to face him his worst nightmare: getting food into their own hands. Continue with its rituals is vital to eat human flesh to survive. Now, by decree, the eldest brother, a teenage misfit, must lead his people to preserve their cannibalistic tradition, unaware that, in the attempt, will have to sacrifice their own lives.

A 12-person centipede. The only information IFC Films and the producers are revealing is that this time there is a new villain on the scene named Martin, and that the premise is 100% medically inaccurate!

Cheng Lai-sheung, a young, upwardly mobile professional finally ready to invest in her first home. But when the deal falls through, she is forced to keep her dream alive — even if it means keeping her would-be neighbors dead. Pang Ho-Cheung’s disturbingly imaginative violence unfolds against a backdrop of lifestyle fetishization and the housing market crisis in this metropolitan spin on Guignol horror.

A group of kids encounter a crazed preacher (based on Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church) who gives a whole new meaning to the term “extreme fundamentalism.

Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison), a lonely, withdrawn child, has just arrived in Rhode Island to live with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) at the 19th-century mansion they are restoring. While exploring the sprawling estate, the young girl discovers a hidden basement, undisturbed since the strange disappearance of the mansion’s builder a century ago. When Sally unwittingly lets loose a race of ancient, dark-dwelling creatures who conspire to drag her down into the mysterious house’s bottomless depths, she must convince Alex and Kim that it’s not a fantasy–before the evil lurking in the dark consumes them all.

An American Werewolf in London director John Landis’ Burke & Hare is a comedic take on the true story of the 1828 Edinburgh body-snatchers William Burke (Simon Pegg) and William Hare (Andy Serkis). These two Irish entrepreneurs discover that a dead body can fetch a hefty price when the demands of the leading medical professors Dr. Knox (Tom Wilkinson) and Dr. Monroe (Tim Curry) reach beyond that of the local supply.

The Woman in Black follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, and his unease grows when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black.

Milosh, a retired porn star, now leads a normal family life with his beautiful wife Maria and six year-old son Petar, in tumultuous Serbia, trying to make ends meet. A sudden call from his former colleague Laylah will change everything. Aware of his financial problems, Laylah introduces Milosh to Vukmir – mysterious, menacing and politically powerful figure. A leading role in Vukmir’s new production will provide financial support to Milosh and his family for the rest of their lives. Milosh is hesitant at first because the contract insists that he know nothing about the script before they shoot. But finally, he agrees. From then on, Milosh is drawn into a maelstrom of unbelievable cruelty and mayhem devised by his employer, ”the director” of his destiny – Vukmir, relentless in his attempt to make an ultimate artistic porn film. Vukmir and his cohorts will stop at nothing to complete his vision. In order to escape the living cinematic hell he’s put into and save his family life, Milosh will have to sacrifice everything – his pride, his morality, his sanity, and maybe even his own life.

The pic is centered around the final two employees working in a haunted hotel before it goes out of business. After over one hundred years in business, The Yankee Pedlar Hotel is about to close its doors for good. The last remaining clerks, Claire (Sara Paxton), a twenty something that has come to terms with her lot in life, and Luke (Pat Healy), a computer-smart loner, are convinced that the hotel is haunted and are determined to prove it. As time ticks down to the final days of operation, mysterious guests check in including Leanne Rease-Jones (Kelly McGillis), a former TV actress turned psychic, and an old man insistent on staying in room 353. As several strange occurrences begin to add up, both Claire and Luke must make the crucial decision on what to believe and what not to believe…

Shortly after moving into their ideal new home, a couple grows concerned when their young daughter begins encountering mysterious strangers that no one else can see. The couple’s greatest fear is realized when they themselves begin to witness terrifying phenomena in and around the house, providing clues that could unlock a chilling mystery that has remained a closely guarded secret for generations.
Editorials
‘The Vampire Lestat’ Concert Event Launches New Season With The Ultimate Expression Of Fandom
There are thousands of passionate fans decked out in gothic chic and champing at the bit like feral creatures. They’re screaming for Lestat, a legendary vampire-turned-rock star, as if the entire crowd has been glamored into submission.
The entire experience is magic, but not because some supernatural thrall has been activated. What’s going on is even more special. It’s the power of the effusive fandom that’s been authentically assembled by AMC’s sublime Immortal Universe, namely Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, now, The Vampire Lestat.
The Vampire Lestat is far from the first Anne Rice adaptation, and it’s not as if there’s been a lack of erotic vampire material for audiences to sink their teeth into. On June 2nd, during a one-night-only spectacle, New York City’s prestigious Beacon Theatre shook from Sam Reid’s bravado performance and an audience full of adoring fans who had already memorized Lestat’s songs.
It’s clear that The Vampire Lestat just hits differently than its predecessors. It’s become more than just a TV series at this point, and this opulent display of ego, swagger, and pure sex is the perfect way to premiere the new season and give back to the fans who helped make Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat such a breakout success. It’s exactly the sort of hyperbolized hedonism that would make Lestat cackle.

For all intents and purposes, AMC has successfully created the illusion that this concert/premiere is just one of the many destinations on Lestat and his band’s 54-stop tour that is simultaneously playing out on this season of television. It’s such a sophisticated and thorough level of interactive fan engagement that the audience doesn’t just understand, but also manages to accentuate through its involvement.
It’s a level of seamless synergy that’s not unlike the give-and-take relationship of vampire and victim.
Before the concert started, “LeStans” were sitting in the Beacon and flipping through a fake Rolling Stone issue with Lestat emblazoned on the cover, complete with interviews with the undead frontman inside. Other fans were admiring the vinyl pressing of Lestat’s EP as they walked past a section of undead band merch. Fandom and fantasy blur together, and it all becomes this elaborate, immersive experience. Fan celebration, erotic gothic fantasy, and a lavish rock concert transform into one beautiful thing.
To this point, AMC Global Media’s Chief Content Officer and President of AMC Studios, Dan McDermott, introduced the event by reiterating to fans, “You are the heartbeat of the series.” That’s abundantly clear on nights like this as that heartbeat collectively pulses to this performance. In terms of how AMC engages with The Vampire Lestat’s fans, it’s as bold a reinvention as the season itself.
This intuitive gamble speaks to AMC’s creativity in this department and a fandom that is eager to seize such opportunities. It’s the same innovation that led to zombie walks for The Walking Dead and real-life Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant pop-ups from Breaking Bad. It’s a great way to pump up the audience for The Vampire Lestat and then maintain that enthusiasm for the whole season.
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For most series, a rock ‘n’ roll concert just doesn’t make any sense as a promotional tool. The Vampire Lestat finds itself in a very unique position where it can deliver an excellent concert at an iconic theater, but also use it to showcase The Vampire Lestat’s music by Daniel Hart (who was shredding on stage alongside Reid and the rest of their band) and, more than anything, Sam Reid’s endless charisma.
The way in which Reid feeds off of the crowd’s energy, modulating his performance and giving different sections of the Beacon life, is a perfect distillation of the series’ thoughtful relationship with its audience and how it’s become such a breakout success for AMC. AMC Studios President Dan McDermott emphasized that the fans are the reason that the show is still here and why an event like this is even possible. It’s rare to see a series in which every single cog in the machine is so perfectly attuned to its fans. Reid’s fans already cheer whenever they see him, so why not translate that to a concert setting?
It’s clear in this season of television that Reid was born to be a rock star, but it’s surreal to see him effortlessly command the stage — and the audience — at every step of the concert. He recites Shakespeare monologues and bitches out Armand between songs, all while the audience screams in support. For the duration of this concert, Reid is Lestat, and he’s given thousands of fans a memory that’s as immortal as any vampire.
Now bring on the encore and get this show on the road!

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