Gareth Evans is already knee-deep in the blood and bullets of The Raid 2: Berandal, but even though we’ve already seen some set pics, it’s nice to see further evidence of the brutal violence to come. Especially when it involves a guy’s cheek ripped raw. The above image is directly from the director’s Twitter feed: Frame grab from yesterdays filming of a shoot out… not for kiddos #theraid2berandal twitter.com/ghuwevans/stat… — Gareth Evans (@ghuwevans) April 1, 2013 Evans is still keeping the plot a secret, but the sequel opens a mere two hours after the destruction of the original, and it’s an odds-on bet that the plot will only be as thick as it needs to be to set up a baker’s dozen fight sequences. After all, it’s not like it needs an intricate story or anything; it needs two sides fighting each other. And it needs more images like this (with make-up fx work from Kumalasari Tanara). Not for kiddos! No joke.

We’re not alone in having a certain affinity for the work of Gareth Evans, director of Merantau and The Raid: Redemption. The Welsh director who makes his living in Indonesia, where he has spent years crafting his own brand of brutal martial arts films, just speaks to us on that most special of levels. His films are pure adrenaline shot right into one of those thick veins in your arm. And he’s making more of these films, much to the excitement of everyone who has seen either of his first two films. In a new press release this week, PT Merantau Films and XYZ Films announced the start of production on The Raid 2 (Indonesian title The Raid 2: Berandal). If that’s not enough, there are also pictures from the set that we’re more than happy to share.

Reactions were understandably mixed to last year’s horror anthology film V/H/S, but there was enough of a positive response to encourage the team to move forward on a new incarnation. No, it’s not time for Laserdisc yet (maybe next year), but in its place we have the forgotten future of video tape…  S-VHS. In addition to changing out most of the writers/directors from the first film (only Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard remain) they’ve also, wisely, shortened the experience by sticking to four shorts (plus wraparound) instead of five. This time the “story” that brings the shorts together involves a pair of inept private eyes investigating the disappearance of a college student. They break into his ratty house and decide their investigation would be best served watching the unlabeled videotapes strewn about the living room. The four stories that follow are a mixed bag quality-wise, but thankfully there are none as bad as the “dumbasses in the woods” segment from the first movie. The concept remains that everything we see was filmed entirely on personal cams to give a POV sensation. If they do share a theme with each other it’s more laughs/fewer scares — which I gotta say is kind of odd for a so-called horror movie.

What the hell is that? And that, horror fans, is the best way to leave your audience salivating for more when it comes to premiering a first trailer for the newest entry in your burgeoning horror anthology film franchise. Over at ShockTillYouDrop, the first trailer for S-VHS has popped up mere days before the film premieres at this week’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s a slim little number, but it kicks off with a slice of what I’m guessing might be my favorite section from the new film – a child’s birthday party at what looks to be a family’s cabin in the woods, interrupted by something that likes to screech like a combination banshee and T.Rex. Banshrex. T.Shee. Either way, I can’t wait to meet it. This time around, the directing talent behind the anthology film includes Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Edúardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evans, and Jason Eisener, so yes, there’s probably going to be something here for everyone. I saw and reviewed the first VHS at last year’s Sundance and flipped for it (and screamed and cried and tried to hide in my sweater and scarf to no avail), so my hopes are quite high for this next entry. Ready to see some of what the next chapter in the VHS franchise holds? Take a look at the first trailer for S-VHS after the break. Have your sweaters and scarves at the ready.

What is Casting Couch? It’s the movie news column that’s easing into Christmas with a cup of coffee and some casting reports. Let’s take this one step at a time. Marvel Studios is on such a roll now that any movie they make that ties directly into their upcoming Avengers 2 is going to be a big deal—even if it’s based off of a comic book that nobody’s ever heard of like Guardians of the Galaxy. So, the competition among young actors to get cast as the Guardians’ leader, Star-Lord, is pretty fierce. According to Variety, that competition has been narrowed down to two guys. The trade reports that Jim Sturgess is the sole survivor of the original crop of five actors the studio screen tested for the role, and Zachary Levi impressed so much playing the smaller role of Fandral in Thor 2, that Marvel is looking to give him a larger role in their universe by maybe making him the half-human, half-alien leader of this ragtag crew. Who would you find more believable commanding a gun-toting space-raccoon?

As we all know, S-VHS stands for Super VHS, so either the filmmaking team behind V/H/S has gotten marketing savvy and is dipping into the comic book genre, or they’re sticking with cleverness over craven name-recognition by picking S-VHS as the name of their sequel. See if you can spot any capes in this first image – which comes from the segment from Gareth Evans (The Raid) and Timo Tjahjanto (Macabre). No? No capes? Just a creepy blood-covered man wearing an adult diaper from the POV of someone wielding what looks like a used paper towel roll? Well, fine then. The project will also see short installments from Eduardo Sanchez (Blair Witch), directing with his producer partner Greg Hale; Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun); Adam Wingard (who directed the wrap-around for V/H/S); and writer Simon Barrett directing for the first time. Rumor has it that all the filmmakers will dress like this guy for the red carpet premiere.  [Twitch]

Recent horror release V/H/S was kind of a mixed bag, but that’s to be expected from anthology films that combine shorts from different filmmakers into a loosely connected whole. Regardless of which segments were your favorites, or which you thought didn’t work, it’s still pretty cool that V/H/S took little known filmmakers like the guys from Radio Silence and let them present their work alongside much-loved directors like Ti West and Joe Swanberg. So, good news for horror fans and horror creators alike, V/H/S/2 is already in the works, and it’s already signed up some top notch directors.

If you got the chance to catch Gareth Evans’s Indonesian martial arts film, The Raid: Redemption, at any point over the last year, or even happened to read any reviews of it, then you know that it was pretty much the most butt-kickingly bad-ass movie that’s come around in a long time, and action fans the world over must be keeping themselves up at night wondering what awesome project Evans is going to add his stylish flare to next. Good news: we don’t have to wait for the info any longer. Deadline Tual is reporting that Universal has acquired a drama called Breaking the Bank in the hopes of using it as a directing vehicle for the filmmaker. Originally developed by Darren Aronofsky and most recently written by Kerry Williamson, Breaking the Bank is based on the life of former MMA fighter Lee Murray, who went from choking people out for money to masterminding the biggest cash heist in history back in 2006. The details of Murray’s life that the film’s script co-opts are said to come from both Howard Sounes’ book “Heist: The True Story of the World’s Biggest Cash Robbery” and a Sports Illustrated article written by L. Jon Wertheim called, funnily enough, “Breaking the Bank.”

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly column about movies and television and things that are said about movies and television. Sometimes it’s full of news. Sometimes it’s weird. It’s always worth reading. We begin tonight with a fact that should be well known to readers of this column. If not, you’re not paying attention, and you should feel shame. I enjoy reading the work of Pajiba’s Joanna Robinson more than I enjoy reading my own work. Which is a lot to say, as I find myself to be downright brilliant. That said, the supremely talented Ms. Robinson has written a list all about 5 Kickass Female Characters You Wouldn’t Want to Meet in a Dark Alley – including Thor‘s Sif, as played by Jaimie Alexander and seen above. The only problem is that I want to meet all of these women in a dark alley. But not in a combative manner. Unless they’re into that sort of thing. What can I say? I’m flexible.

In this week’s edition of our new favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon, otherwise known as Scenes We Love, we celebrate the fact that ActionFest is happening this weekend. And while coverage of that event will be streaming in from our BBQ-fed dynamic duo of Brian Salisbury and Luke Mullen over the next few days, we thought it appropriate to get your week kicked into gear with a bit of action that, if you haven’t seen the movie it’s from, will leave you in a bit of bone-crunching awe. Long before director Gareth Evans was asked to bring his breakout hit The Raid: Redemption to this year’s ActionFest, his debut action feature Merantau was there winning the festival’s inaugural award for Best Film. Starring Iko Uwais, Merantau delivered unto the world the splendor of Silat Harimau and told the simple story of a country boy who comes to the big city and takes down a major sex trafficking ring run. And the film’s final scene — a thirty-odd minute fight scene that will take the air right out of your lungs — is still one of the most impressively choreographed sequences we’ve seen in a long, long time. So impressive that it’s our action-oriented beloved scene this week. Well, the first two and a half minutes of it, at least. Consider that: this mayhem continues well beyond what you see here.

As someone who lives and breathes for the genre, I think it’s fair to say that action movies have gone soft. Well, that is, American, big studio action films have gone soft. The fight sequences are mostly shot in tight close-up with a volley of cuts that dilute all semblance of impact. Thankfully, foreign filmmakers are still bloodying their knuckles and breaking their backs to bring us action films that leave us as bruised and fighting for air as the sundry characters lying demolished on the floor by the time credits roll. One such actionteur is Welsh director Gareth Evans. That’s right, one of the burgeoning authorities on martial arts action films is from Wales. In 2009, Evans brought us Merantau, the heroic tale of a young man on a journey of self-discovery…who kicks plenty o’ ass along the way. Filmed in Indonesia, with a local cast, the film utilizes the fighting style Silat, indigenous to the island nation. But if we thought we’d seen the full extent of Evans’ talent with Merantau, we were so very, very wrong. This week, Evans will unleash his latest film The Raid upon unsuspecting audiences nationwide. I when I say it will be unleashed, I mean that the intensity and relentless pacing of its violent fight sequences will have you reevaluating the value of human life. The Raid, after garnering huge buzz during Toronto and Sundance, has now been picked up by Sony for both theatrical distribution and remake rights. It’s also been

If you’ve been rocking back and forth with anticipation for The Raid: Redemption, your wait is almost over. It hits theaters this weekend (alongside another certain highly-anticipated movie), and to whet your appetite, we talk with writer/director Gareth Evans who dissects an action scene for us. Plus, Kate Erbland and Rob Hunter join us for the Movie News Pop Quiz and to share their favorites from SXSW that will be coming to your neck of the woods. Download Episode #126

What is Movie News After Dark? After a whirlwind of SXSW action, it doesn’t even know anymore. Something about movie news. Interesting links, maybe. There may also be some fart jokes, but we’re trying to keep it classy. Hi, Mom! Also, tonight’s edition will prove how much this column’s author has been watching Cougar Town lately. Like Community‘s Abed Nadir, he would like to live in Cougar Town. We begin tonight with a picture of Katee Sackhoff in Riddick 3 (ooh, la la — for the Battlestar Galactica babe, not another Riddick sequel). She will apparently play the baddie in the Vin Diesel-led film, some sort of alien bounty hunter who is more than meets the eye. Random thought: When are Katee Sackoff and Busy Philipps (Cougar Town reference #1) going to get together and do a sexy twins buddy cop movie? Strong female leads, people. Come on, Hollywood!

Expectations are a funny thing. For a critic, they are the worst thing to have. Going into a film with any kind of expectations, good or bad, can color one’s ultimate perception of a film and sway a review one way or another. Our goal should be simple: review the film as is, with no outside influence from hype or marketing. When it comes to Gareth Evans’ sophomore feature The Raid: Redemption, I’ve been a very bad critic. Not only did the trailer — with all of its glorious violence — get to me, but the words of others have been rattling around in my head since the film exploded onto the scene at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. It was dead-set in my wheelhouse, a hyper-violent movie from a director whose last film is a personal favorite. It was difficult to be anything but excited. Almost impossible to have anything but lofty expectations. But that’s the funny thing about expectations. Sometimes you have big ones, and a film comes along and exceeds them. Then you know that you’ve got something special on your hands. And The Raid is something special, indeed.

Most title changes brought upon by studio marketing decisions don’t make much sense. At least not to those of us who buy the tickets and write articles about it. Changing the title of Gareth Evans’ highly anticipated actioner The Raid to The Raid: Redemption falls right in line with that theory — there’s really no reason for the change. Some, including BAD’s Devin Faraci, theorize that it’s a bit of pandering to the art house crowd, as this new trailer also calls upon the namesake of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Hopefully that will dupe some snoots into seeing this one, but the rest of us should remain unconcerned. The movie — complete with a new soundtrack from Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda — is still the high-flying, ridiculously cool wonder that it’s been from the beginning. As proven by this new trailer.

Welcome to Day Two of Kate Christmas. Yesterday, the 2012 Sundance Film Festival announced their first wave of programming, featuring twenty-six titles that will be screening in competition. While the arrival of those titles was enough to send me into a tizzy I have still not recovered from, today the festival has only piled on the pre-holiday goodies with the announcement of their Spotlight, Next, Park City at Midnight, and New Frontiers films. A few titles of note to get your juices flowing – Gareth Evans‘ The Raid (also known round these parts as “oh, hell yeah”), Andrea Arnold‘s take on Wuthering Heights, Katie Aselton‘s second directorial outing Black Rock (scripted by her husband Mark Duplass), Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, Mike Birbiglia and Seth Barrish‘s Sleepwalk With Me (based on Birbiglia’s hilarious book), and Lynn Shelton‘s Your Sister’s Sister. Again, that’s just a taste, so check out the full list of Spotlight, Next, Park City at Midnight, and New Frontiers films after the break.

Lets not beat around the proverbial bush here. I’m excited about Gareth Evans‘ latest film, The Raid, for a number of reasons. One is that Evans delivered one of my favorite films — not action films, or foreign films — favorite films of the last 5 years with Merantau. Then came the first trailer for The Raid, which sent me through the roof with excitement. Then came word from the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness screenings that The Raid was, in fact, everything it was promised to be. Now I just can’t stand it. If I knew there was someone within driving distance of me who had a copy of this movie, I would most likely drive to them and take it by force if absolutely necessary. Not the kind of force displayed in this trailer, mind you, as all of this is so brutal that it’s very illegal, but force nonetheless. So watch this trailer, damn you. It’s the most badass thing you’ll have a chance to see until Sony Pictures Classics releases The Raid (complete with a new soundtrack from Linkin Park) in Spring 2012. Also, if you’re holding on to a screener, you’d better watch your back.

There’s a movie out there that’s on a collision course with you, me and everyone we know. It’s called The Raid and it’s from director Gareth Evans, the guy who brought us the excellent martial arts film Merantau. He rocked the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness crowds a few months back and lit the internet on fire with a rockin’ trailer (which I just so happen to have included after the break). It’s been the most anticipated movie on my indefinite calendar since the project was announced. Now there’s a bit more definition in this journey, as Sony Pictures Classics will now distribute the film in the spring. According to Deadline Jakarta, The Raid may make a pit-stop at Sundance in January, complete with a new soundtrack from Linkin Park, then debut sometime in the spring. After re-watching the trailer again (see below), I’m convinced that spring can’t come soon enough.

Merantau was an astonishing achievement in martial arts storytelling. It displayed incredible hand-to-hand combat work while managing to have a compelling story with solid acting. Go figure. Essentially, it made a lot of other action filmmakers look like amateurs, and it looks like Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais are returning with a stripped down flick to repeat the feat. The Raid is currently enjoying praise coming out of TIFF with hyperbole and review titles featuring exclamation points aplenty. Does it earn the hype? The trailer offers one clue, and you can check it out for yourself (if you’re old enough):

This martial arts flick coming out of Indonesia is, wait for it, far better than Ong Bak. Let that sink in, and then let me explain why inside.