Well, if you’re reading this, I assume by now you’ve seen my post that had a You Tube video embedded in it of the first sick, creepy, and fun five minutes of American Horror Story: Asylum (if not, click here). Tuesday evening (well, Wednesday morning, it was definitely after midnight), the only link to the new five minutes was on Facebook, and guess what? It didn’t work (turns out I was not alone)! I was ready to turn in around 5:00 AM, but ended up staying up till after 8:00AM fiddling around with the goddamned thing to get it to work. I finally got so sleepy I decided to say the hell with it and grab some shut-eye. When I logged in today, I wasn’t really expecting anything, but ta-dah! Thus the aforementioned post. That was a pretty cool way to start the day.
Though some people didn’t like Adam Levine and what happened to him (he’s NOT DEAD, upset Adam Levine fans, he’s signed for the whole season) everyone lost their got-damn minds (all at the same time, apparently, judging from the various messages/boards almost bursting into flames. about the new opening title credits sequence. They –and I — LOVED it. You probably noticed some quick blink-and-you-miss-them moments; flashes of raw, visceral images. I was curious and ended up getting screencaps for as many of those as I could for you to enjoy (I do NOT own them, nor do I own the copyright, they’re here for entertainment only) There’s a few clues –and verification of hints we already got– in there… if you’ve read anything about the upcoming season, you probably noticed them too. If you have theories, share them in the comments section. These filled in a few blanks for me too, I’ll post on it later–nothing that’ll spoil the thrills, though. More to come!
Having sex in all twelve of them? Where 46,000 people died in this last stop alone? Purposely in the most evil, ghastly spots, does anyone really think that’s a good idea (especially on American Horror Story)? Are they TRYING to rack up the worst karma possible?
First things first! Watch the first sick five minutes of American Horror Story: Asylum below – including the disturbing new opening credits! Same soundtrack, new hideous images. If you weren’t quite sold before, if you’re a horror fan, these sick (in the best way) five minutes will sell you. They actually make the first five minutes of Season One look tame (and the first five minutes of American Horror Story Season One weren’t too shabby. But this, THIS stuff, is terrifying and twisted and dirty and disturbing and extremely NSFW, and I love every freaky minute of it. There, I said it. Somebody had to say it! So, check THIS crazy, scary, and fun footage out — what are you waiting for? We’ve been waiting all year!
Last stop on the “haunted honeymoon tour”. 46,000 people died there? Her ideal honeymoon is having sex with her new husband in the twelve most haunted places in the world? I wouldn’t even want to go NEAR them, except maybe during a guided tour in the daytime. The closest we got on our honeymoon was The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.*
Having sex in all twelve of them? Purposely in the most evil, ghastly spots, does anyone really think that’s a good idea (especially on American Horror Story)? Are they TRYING to rack up the worst karma possible (and that’s at best, assuming none of these places are really haunted, and there’s no squatters or any kind of cult living there). Yes, having sex on an old electroshock therapy table and laughing about it, then sticking your hand into a slot in the cell wall where the most ‘famous inmate’, a notorious serial killer who liked to skin his victim’s faces (yes, I know what his bride’s little reward for that was), even though it’s pitch black. How could THIS go wrong? Enjoy that kinky sex while you can, happy young couple, because something tells me it’s going to be the last time you ever have fun again…
HOAH! They’re not screwing around in the title credits this season.
I’m working on a gallery from the opening credits. But I know one thing. If I could pick one word to describe what this season is going to be like for horror fans and fans of the show, that word would be:
Fun FUN! Oh, baby…
*Uh, I should clarify …NO, we did not have sex in, on, or around The Haunted Mansion. Not only would we probably get arrested and never get to go on the ride again, but it would have been hard to look around and see all the awesome Haunted Mansion sights. Also, it’d be hard enough to manage sex in a “Doom Buggy”, but with the Haunted Hitchhikers in there, it’d definitely be too crowded!
Whenever a movie’s tagline could be replaced with “It’s Just So Wrong,” it goes on my watch list (Inbred‘s actual tagline: They Came In Peace But Left In Pieces).
Alex Chandon pitches things perfectly between gory homage and something a little bit different from what we’ve seen many times before. The big difference adding freshness to the material is the way in which the onscreen horror is turned into a bit of a show by the villagers, adding a surreal aspect to proceedings. It’s like seeing a chamber of horrors being touted by P. T. Barnum.
Check out the latest red band trailer*, which was actually age-restricted when I first saw it on Dread Central. No such restriction on You Tube, though!
OK, I’ve actually done more than watch trailers. I’ve read plenty of print media giving Inbred reviews ranging from glowing to raving. Online, they’ve also gone the extra mile to promote the film everywhere, including personal responses to my questions (most of my questions are usually a more polite, articulate version of “WHEEEEEENNNN???”) on the official Facebook page, and a pretty impressive official website I’ve been following since I found it. I’d recommend joining the Inbred ‘group’ on Facebook for the most up-to-the-minute news; combine that with the enthusiastic Inbred website and you’ve got pretty much everything a fan could want. Once I read the ‘Director’s Statement’ on the site, I was 100% in, especially when he described Inbred as “the film I would love to sneak in and see aged 14 and feel very naughty doing so. It’s very wrong but very right.”
Done and DONE!
The first teaser trailer, which I literally saw around a year ago as of this writing (soon after Inbred’s debut at the London Frightfest in August 2011), had me sold off the bat at the very memorable image below:
It’s not just the gore. Oh, don’t get me wrong, that’s a big part of what got my attention, I’m just saying there’s other aspects. That initial trailer had little-to-no dialogue, which made me curious. what… the… FFFUUU— What was that, a gunshot wound to the head? Was it an accident, or deliberate? Is the guy turning around because he was going to retaliate, or just in shock? Is he going to stumble blindly around for awhile, or drop to the ground the second after what we saw ends? I’m kind of hoping it was a horrible mistake in a string of shocking events that makes whatever situation the protagonists are in even worse, but I want to know! Do you know how hard it is for a recovered spoiler-whore(you’re talking to one right now) to avoid spoilers for an ENTIRE YEAR? Three months before the Spatartus: Revenge season premiere on STARZ and I was falling off that wagon, shamelessly typing “Spartacus Season Two Spoilers” into the Google search box during weak moments.
The plot description/synopsis (that I read a year ago) as soon as I followed the URL from the trailer also gave me a good gut feeling about the movie. Here is the latest, from the official Inbred site:
A disparate group of young urban offenders and their care workers embark on a community service weekend in the strange, remote Yorkshire village of Mortlake, which prides on keeping itself to itself. A minor incident with some local inbred youths rapidly escalates into a blood-soaked, deliriously warped nightmare for all involved. This is a demented horror film with nowt taken out.
Better, check out this official background, also from the site; it really told me all I needed to know…
INBRED is the warped brain child of UK writer/director Alex Chandon, who is responsible for the independent cult feature films CRADLE OF FEAR (2001) and PERVIRELLA (1997) as well as numerous award winning shorts and music promos. The script was written in 2009 and it immediately piqued the interest of New Flesh Films, who were looking for a strong feature to launch their company’s slate of productions. Private investors loved the INBRED script and decided to back the movie and so the wheels were set in motion. Alex developed a few drafts of the script and the final draft is co-written by his long time collaborator Paul Shrimpton, who lives in Yorkshire, where the film was eventually set. It was while staying with Paul that Alex decided that Yorkshire was the perfect location for the film; Paul’s hometown of Thirsk has some stunning locations and a community untouched by film-makers and so they were all eager to help and get involved. Producer Margaret Milner Schmueck previously worked on the production of Alex’s CRADLE OF FEAR and had in the interim period produced a body of award-winning shorts. Her strong connections with northern crew and talent sources made an interesting fit for INBRED so when Alex invited her on board as delegate producer to head up the production, Split Second Films (splitsecond-films.com) the Midlands based independent production company which Margaret co-founded became the UK production company. In early June 2010 an 8 week pre-production period started for a 4 week shoot through August 2010. INBRED had a successful 26 day shoot and then the long post production stage went into progress. INBRED has over 170 shots that require some sort of digital visual effects. This process was undertaken by Alex Chandon and a select crew of talented artists and took 6 months to complete. INBRED premiered at the prestigious FRIGHTFEST FILM FESTIVAL in London, UK in August 2011 to rave reviews and then played at a select few European festivals in late 2011, which also generated great positive feedback, which resulted in Darclight Films becoming the sales agent for INBRED at the very end of 2011. So we all hope that 2012 is indeed the year of the INBRED!
That’s looking like a distinct possibility! Inbred finally has a UK DVD/Blu-Ray release date of October 15th, a UK theatrical release on September 21st, and best of all, a US release confirmed for this year. Many fans on various boards are so excited they’re buying a copy, sight unseen (hell, since I have a region-free player, I’d do the same thing if I wasn’t on such a low budget). When a movie is compared favorably to Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive by multiple critics and reviewers, I start to pay attention really fucking fast. Did I mention Alex Chandon is also a genre fan also grew up in the 80s horror boom?
Wait. What’s that? You’d like to see ‘The Inbred Song’, AKA ‘EE BY GUM’, as (apparently) performed in the actual movie? Well, okay! It’s worth it for the lyrics alone.
Say, that banjo player looks a little familiar, did he happen to have a memorable moment in most of the trailers?
*Oh, and they’re right, it IS harder to hold my breath for thirty seconds than I assumed (it’s either the subject matter, me being more out of shape than I thought, or a combination of the two).
You’re a very troubled little girl. -William (John Waters)
(Raising her hand to calmly ask a question in Anatomy Class) Can you contract an STD from having sex with a dead person? -Pauline, Excision
Okaaay! Uh… wow. I remember seeing a piece on this movie somewhere; I think the movie might have been in production (or post) at the time. I recall hearing that there weren’t just walk-outs, there were actual PASS-outs, when it played at the 2012 Sydney Film Festival (and one or two other showings). At some point I added it to my IMDB Watch List. When I saw the image above, it came back to me. Today I finally saw the full-blown intense Red Band trailer below. I know I hadn’t seen it before, because I would have remembered John Waters showing up in it (for one).
You might want to put down anything you’re eating before you watch this..
The official website for the film has some lush, vivid stills so twisted I didn’t even consider putting them here; at least one of them, anyway, grossed me out just to look at. If/when you look at the “Stills” section of the elaborate website, you’ll know the one I mean as soon as you see it. Gah. There’s a ton of media, both stunning and grotesque, and news galore on the official site. There’s less NSFW content –but loads of updates– on the official Facebook page for the movie.
If you’re looking forward to seeing Excision as much as I am (hey, why are you looking at me like that? Don’t judge me!) then you’ll be happy to know the release date for the DVD and Blu-ray is coming up faster than Pauline’s lunch in the trailer you watched. OK, maybe not that quickly, but soon! Here’s the official Press Release:
On October 16th, Anchor Bay Films presents the harrowing coming-of-age horror film, and instant cult classic, Excision, from writer/director Richard Bates, Jr., which the Sundance Channel deemed, “Without question the most mind-blowing grotesque film to screen at this year’s fest.” Boasting an impressive and eclectic cast including AnnaLynne McCord (The CW’s “90210,” Transporter 2, Fired Up, FX’s “Nip/Tuck”), Traci Lords (Blade, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, Cry Baby), Ariel Winter (ABC’s “Modern Family”), Roger Bart (Hostel Part II, Law Abiding Citizen, American Gangster), Malcolm McDowell (The Artist, A Clockwork Orange, Rob Zombie’s Halloween, HBO’s “Entourage”) and cameos including Ray Wise, director John Waters, and Academy Award® winner Marlee Matlin, Excision comes to Blu-ray™ for an SRP of $24.99 and DVD for an SRP of $22.98.
Excision turned critics’ stomachs as well as heads, garnering much attention at festivals this past year. Noel Murray of AV Club calls it, “One of the damnedest ‘adolescent misfit’ movies you’ll ever see — for those who can stomach the splatter, that is,” and Chris Bumbray of JoBlo exclaims, “While it’s more than a little sick, and will likely leave you queasy by the time the credits roll, Excision is nonetheless a truly unique horror ride into the scariest of all place:s the mind of a teenaged misfit.” Excision holds a 94% “want to see” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Based on a short film of the same name, Excision follows a disturbed and delusional high school student, Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord), who, with aspirations of a career in medicine, goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother (Traci Lords). While dealing with being an outcast teenager and obsession over curing her sister’s cystic fibrosis, Pauline becomes continually deranged as her fascination with surgery and the human flesh grows into something abysmal and demonic.
Bonus feature on the Excision Blu-ray™ and DVD: audio commentary with writer/director Richard Bates, Jr., and AnnaLynne McCord.
Thanks, Official Press Release (and Anchor Bay)! Nice to start the week with some good news. I have no idea how they got stunning AnnaLynne McCord to look so terrible; when I watched the trailer I didn’t recognize her until her credit came up. In some of the freaky dream sequences/fantasies I can recognize her, with all the glamour make-up on and fetish costumes. I’m confident she call pull it off; in addition to some of the rave reviews her acting in this movie is getting, she played a teenaged, breathtakingly gorgeous but vile, sick little bitch on Season Five of FX’s Nip/Tuck who, among other malignant things, taught an eleven-year-old girl how to make herself throw up to keep her weight down, because 80 lbs was ‘too fat’.*
I’m also tweeting the first clip that was released. Remember when you’re watching it that A. that is not an actual dead bird, it’s only a movie and B. not to watch while you’re eating anything …or feeling queasy already, because it even made me wince a little. I’m tweeting it too, though, mainly because the clip’s title is “Bird Surgery” and maybe I can come up with some corn, hack-y joke.
Whoop! Sorry, I seem to have accidentally posted some images of the lead actress in an upcoming unrated French horror movie instead of… no, wait, I was right the first time, these *are* in fact some images of the lead actress from “Excision!”
*which she did sheerly –and successfully– out of spite, because she hated the girl’s mother (for sleeping with HER mother, mainly …longer story than you’d probably care for right now). Her horrible character also banged the girl’s father for the same reason. Oh, I’m looking forward to posting my list of Ten F*cked-Up Things That Happened On Nip/Tuck. That piece just wrote itself (if anything, I had trouble narrowing it down to ten)!
Well, I think that title is pretty clear. Why don’t we just jump right into it, here? At least one is obvious-if you saw the movie, you WILL remember it. Firstly:
Bleh- but I LOVED that scene in the movie!
This one is the third movie in a series of three… this shot was in the red band trailer!
and the next one will DEFINITELY be obvious if you’ve seen the movie–mostly main-stream, got a great theatrical release. We jaw saw it in the theater and I screamed VERY loudly at least twice. This scene is one of those horror movie moments in the theater when something so spectacularly and unexpectedly gory happens that they entire audience’s reaction is to yell “HOAH!” in unison. Do not look at this one if you have TMJ! Or if, you know, some demonic spirit trapped in a mirror caused your entire lower jaw to tear itself free from your head while you were trying to relax in a nice warm bath.
Put your guesses in the comment section! Enjoy your Sunday…
Quick note about the header: lately, there’s an influx of pretty awesome Red Band trailers, Indie trailers, and just plain cool trailers. So many, in fact, that I’ve had trouble sticking to one “Red Band Trailer of the Week” and one “Trailer of the Week”. This time of year is when horror movie ad campaigns begin to ramp up the Coming This Halloween advertising. So this way, I don’t have to whittle the choices down to two ‘Trailers of the Week’, which means I do not have to keep bumping certain ones even though I really want to feature them all before too much time passes (yay).
So, here we go. I saw the title to this movie and got interested; even more so when the filmmakers described it as ‘a cross between Cabin Fever and The Mist‘. I thought the comparison to The Mist would include some really cool, creative, even B-movie monsters, but it seems to be less monster-ish and more …literal. Click the link to check out this NSFW trailer for Hank Braxton’s Chemical Peel on Vimeo!
Official Synopsis: A bachelorette party turns into a nightmare when the women are trapped in their secluded home while the wilderness around them burns. Eeeeek. The official website is sort of skimpy, but worth checking out. The trailer also evokes the frightening flashback scenes in Tobe Hooper’s Masters of Horror gut-punch of an episode Dance of the Dead. If you haven’t seen that entry, by the way, it’s one of the best in the series. The trailer for that is below (embedded this time) and included bits of those scenes (especially the beginning of the trailer):
And yes, it is as fucked-up and horrifying as it looks! That’s another piece, though. Chemical Peel looks like it has serious potential, and I hope the filmmakers make good on their promise to deliver us the flick by Halloween 2012!
OK, I checked this out last week after a recommendation. It was way too hot for me inside, and actually just as baking-hot outdoors. I didn’t notice the heat for at least ten minutes after I read this web-comic ghost story, written and illustrated by Horang.
The comic made the rounds in Korean first, and I’m pretty sure it was still scary as hell that way, it’s much more effective being able to know the actual story–much, MUCH creepier. If I say too much –well, just go in clean. That is, if you’re feeling brave. You’ll find the link (very clearly labelled by me, so no-one accidentally clicks on it) below…
A screen shot from the South Korean web comic Bong-Cheon-Dong. A shadow stretching towards her, out of the blue, on what was a deserted walkway. Creepy enough for you? It gets better!
Watch it with either headphones on and the sound turned medium-to-loud, or (like I did) with the volume setting on my laptop medium-to-loud. And no, this isn’t one of those cheap “scary maze game” or “if you look closely enough at this photo for at least 30 second, you may be one of the people who sees the suggestion of a ghost” jumps. Yeah, those work the first time; anyone can make someone jump with a loud blast of noise and a representation of Samara Morgan suddenly appearing while you’re focusing on something else*. Real artists earn their scares, and this is one of them. After you click the link below, scroll down as you read the web-comic, get into the unsettling (at best) story, and let it wash over you… and see what happens.
If you’re prone to panic attacks or anxiety, I’ve officially (if sort of retroactively) warned you about watching/reading after dark! Seriously, I don’t want anyone to start hyperventilating and pass out like Tony Soprano used to. OK, it’d probably take a lot of other scary things going on in your life to cause you to collapse to the floor in a dead faint, but still. I don’t even want to think how it would have affected my mood and insomnia if I hadn’t been mentally healthy and feeling fairly cool, calm, and collected when I read it! Keep the sound on, turn the lights down, and check out Boncheon-Dong. After people have had a chance to read it, I’ll go into the background. I actually want to find more from this comic series, because (unsurprisingly) the artists/writers know how to scare the living shit out of everyone …with finesse, might I add.
Let me know when you’ve read it… and pleasant dreams! Did I mention this is an urban legend, but supposedly based on a true story? I’m a little hesitant to look into the background, even though I know it’s probably just an urban legend, because I may find more information than I need.
Update, 8/19/12: Showed this to my husband last night (yep, after dark), with the volume cranked, and as he was casually scrolling through, realized I was doing my Pilates/yoga breathing, a technique I learned not just to do doing a workout, but to calm down if I can feel myself starting to get jumpy or see red. Guess my body was ahead of my brain. This is a man who saw Insidious with me in the theater and barely changed his facial expression while at least half of the audience screamed in panic at over half a dozen BIG jump scares. If he did flinch, it was due to the fact he was sitting inches away from the loudest scream queen in the theater (me). Bongcheon-Dong made us both jump twice (and I knew what was coming) and prompted him to comment on the freakiness after the first jump and swear loudly the second. In fact, I had to nudge him a little to get him to finish reading the entire story. So yeah, that’s his endorsement …and shortly after we finished and he fell asleep, I left more comfortable after I turned the fan down from the “High” to “Low” setting.
*By the way, have you seen (among the ton of ‘Funny Reaction to Scary Maze, Lol!’ videos on You Tube), the ones where they trick a kid clearly so young they were probably in Kindergarten at the time into watching it? And it’s usually one of the parents that gets the clever idea not only to scare their small child but RECORD it for laughs? I have a rule of thumb not to judge others on their parenting skills since it’s none of my business, but what the fuck is wrong with them? You deliberately frightened your kid to the point of tears? You think that’s a good idea? Really? If I put links up to any reaction videos to Bongcheon-Dong, it’s going to be of grown men (and there’s no shortage of those) who filmed themselves reading it. Now THAT is some funny shit.
Have you ever been doing some housekeeping on your computer, then run across an image that not only do you not recall downloading, but that you cannot identify at all?
Does this help? No?
Well, I am pretty certain that this shot is in fact from a horror movie. Possible a gooey sci-fi/horror hybrid. I can’t tell what the hell it is, though. I am going to guess… um… that it isn’t human, due to what I believe is a long tooth poking out, but then again, I can’t even find the face. If it IS a face. Could be a shattered mangled accident victim’s limb, but I doubt it. Dead body? Monster? Dead body of a monster? Your guess is as good as mine.
Does looking at a smaller version help? No? Damn.
I’m usually good at identifying images from horror films, but this one? No clue. Your guess is as good as mine. Ay takers, please comment below! Hell, I’ll even take wild guesses at this point.
Check out the “featured image” above and take a stab at it (as Your Old Pal The Crypt Keeper would say)!
HORROR BOOM 