So, here’s something that totally exists. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has taken a horror film and slapped the Hostel moniker on it. To be fair, the movie does deal with people getting nabbed against their will and tortured for sport, but the high concept similarities end there. For example, this time around, we’re in Las Vegas, there’s no hostel to be found, and the torture seems to be more of a live game show than an intimate affair. Enjoy the trailer for yourself with more than a little cheese on top:

We continue our journey through a month of frightening, bloody and violent films. For more, check out our 31 Days of Horror homepage. Synopsis: Hipster scientists Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) have humanity’s best interest in mind as they try to genetically engineer animals that can revolutionize medicine. After their would-be humanity-saving experiments tear each other apart, Clive and Elsa create a new creature with human DNA. Thus the couple begins a downward spiral of bad decisions with the best of intentions. Miraculously, this new creature doesn’t die, so they secretly keep it alive in the lab, hoping it can lead to medical advancements. Silly hipster scientists. As the experiment (which they’ve affectionately named Dren, which is “nerd” spelled backwards) matures, Clive and Elsa soon realize they are in way over their heads… and maybe a little turned on.

So it’s October and that means only one thing – it’s Anytober at Subway, where any regular Subway sub is just $5. Wait, we’re not sponsored by Subway? Fuck that then, it’s October and on AMC that means the return of the critically acclaimed series The Walking Dead, based on the tremendous Image comic series. I say critically acclaimed because most critics don’t really enjoy horror movies and for some reason they can stomach The Walking Dead and are celebrating it. As a dyed in the wool horror fan (blood red), I’m not afraid to say that The Walking Dead on AMC is tremendously boring, not good horror, not good zombie action, and not even close to being a good adaptation. To fans of the graphic novels, what’s transpiring on the screen is bordering on being offensive. AMC has made a lot of great television, but this ain’t it.

Doing homage well is a difficult enough task, but creating a new film that harkens back to a certain genre or timeperiod provides a whole new set of issues. While there’s been a onslaught of grindhouse homages in the wake of Rodriguez and Tarantino’s double-feature Grindhouse, giallo has also seen a few entries. Perhaps the best or at least most widely recognized title was the Belgian film Amer, a fever-dream of a movie told in three parts. While Amer nailed the framing, lighting, color and soundtrack that epitomized Italian giallo films, it did so at the expense of story, featuring a fractured, blurred narrative. It’s a case of style over substance and while the style is certainly impressive, the substance is certainly missed. Last Screening is another film that wears its giallo influences on its proverbial sleeve, but it does so in service of the story being told. Sylvain (Pascal Cervo) is a bit of a loner. He spends his days working in a small cinema as a sort of one man band selling tickets, working the projection booth and acting as general manager. His nights are dedicated to more sinister passions, hunting down young woman and murdering them, taking a very specific item as a souvenir. Unfortunately, the theater isn’t doing so well and the owner has decided to shut it down. Sylvain takes almost no notice of this, continuing on as if nothing is happening, assuring the theaters’s few loyal patrons that the rumors about closing are untrue and [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

We continue our journey through a month of frightening, bloody and violent films. For more, check out our 31 Days of Horror homepage. Synopsis: After a young girl is brutally attacked, Postmaster Otis P. Hazelrigg does what any good Postmaster would do – acts as judge, jury, and executioner when he organizes a lynch mob (shoot mob?) to exact justice on the suspected killer: the young girl’s mentally retarded friend, Bubba Ritter. Founding him hidden inside a scarecrow the mob extracts their ‘justice,’ only to learn horror rule number 37: never kill an innocent handicapped man, because vengeance and death soon follow.

Why Watch? Earlier in the week, a short from Trick ‘r’ Treat director Michael Dougherty called Making Friends got a bit of notice, but this isn’t that film (although they share DNA). This beautifully crafted movie from Marvin Suarez tells the story of an 8-year-old boy plagued by a stutter who is left by himself on Halloween and decides to make a few new friends. Some of the acting is a bit clunky, but there’s no denying the great visual creepiness and unsettling nature of it all. Plus, the kid can carve a mean pumpkin. What does it cost? Just 11 minutes of your time. Check out the trailer for Making Friends for yourself:

We continue our journey through a month of frightening, bloody and violent films. For more, check out our 31 Days of Horror homepage. Synopsis: A small town becomes ground zero to an alien invasion, which reaches Earth in the form of alien slugs on a chunk of space rock. After the meteor lands in the woods, a local big shot Grant Grant (Michael Rooker) becomes infected with the alien parasite, which controls his body and memories. It’s a story we’ve seen many times before, and understandably so. Director James Gunn creates a loving homage to movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Blob and Night of the Creeps, in which the small-town sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) must battle an onslaught of infected, zombified humans while trying to stop the spread of the parasite to the rest of the world. Helping the sheriff is his long-time crush and girl next door Starla (Elizabeth Banks), who also happens to be married to patient zero.

Welcome back to Junkfood Cinema; we’re so metal we can’t get through airport security. Every week during the month of October we will be showcasing the shockingly schlocky, the horrifyingly horrible, and the most terrifyingly terrible horror films we can get our claws on. We will drive a lampooning stake through the film’s heart and laugh maniacally as it takes longer to die than Paul Reubens in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But then, because we learned nothing from The Evil Dead, we will resurrect the film by reciting passages from the necronomicon of pure adoration. To complete the blood ritual, we will pair the film with a insidiously delicious snack food item in the hopes that we can create for you a completely interactive horror film experience by actually shortening your life. This Week’s Beast: Black Roses The basic story here, and I do mean basic, is that a very popular rock band called The Black Roses has decided to begin their world tour in Mill Basin, Ontario, Canada USA. The kids in town are all super psyched, but the parent groups seem to have their collective undergarments in various stages of entanglement. They feel that The Black Roses is a group that promotes evil and the corruption of youth. Eventually, the parents see the error of their ways and let the band play all four (?) of its consecutive shows. Turns out they were right because much evilness and corruptitude ensues.

Anyone who has seen a horror film knows the cue for when a scare is right around the corner – the music begins to draw out the tension before a percussive boom reveals whatever monster or villain (or in this case, shape shifting alien) has made a sudden appearance on screen. Because it is not just the image that is terrifying, it is the sound leading up to its reveal that contains the real fear. Ever watch a scary movie on mute? The scares on screen become almost comical without the music or sound. Even just listening to the music from a horror film (without the accompanying visuals) instinctively puts you on edge. (And yes – I listened to these scores with the lights ON, thank you) John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) took us to a remote research station in Antarctica where the sudden appearance of a seemingly stray snow dog and a low flying helicopter bring us into a world of extreme weather, extreme isolation and a lot of questions. This year, director Matthijs van Heijinigen Jr. is bringing The Thing back to theaters as a prequel to Carpenter’s film. Heijinigen’s film works to explain how things came to be at the start of Carpenter’s tale and the scares and score have been amplified along with it. Famed composer Ennio Morricone created the haunting, but minimal score for Carpenter’s film while composer Marco Beltrami has created a more “traditional” horror score for Heijinigen’s prequel.

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis The sardonic millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) is throwing a party for his fourth wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), but this isn’t just any party. He’s invited five strangers into an ancient mansion with a troubled past, a ton of ghosts, and a few people bent on murder. Whoever survives the night gets $10,000 and their life to take home with them.

Why Watch? This is just a bit of hellish fun. There’s no pretense to this short film. It’s a recipe stewed together to create something creepy, cobbled together from comedy and horror films of all kinds. The off-putting old toy? The busty blonde in her sleeping gear? The idiot going down to check a noise in the middle of the night? It’s no big surprise what happens here, but there’s something deeply satisfying about it all. It’s almost like writer/director Nick Everhart is slamming his fist down on the table with a smirk here to prove he knows how to construct a classic slasher with an absurd killer. What does it cost? Just 5 minutes of your time. Check out the trailer for Slash-In-The-Box for yourself:

By now, most die-hard movie fans have seen the YouTube video of the man storming out of a screening of Lucky McKee’s film The Woman at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but not very many people have had a chance to see the film and why this guy left in such a huff. This coming weekend, dead in the middle of October, McKee’s new and controversial film opens in limited release, the first theatrical run the director has had since May released in 2003. May helped propel McKee into horror film stardom, so much so that with just this film under his belt, he was dubbed a “master of horror” by Showtime, who invited him to direct an episode of their series of the same name. The Woman is a sequel to the horror film Offspring, about a group of cannibals who live in the woods. The leader of this group, a feral woman (Pollyanna McIntosh), returns as the victim in The Woman. While on a weekend hunting excursion, the father (Sean Bridgers) of a rural family discovers she’s living in the wild. He then captures her, chains her in his cellar, and tries to make her civilized in the most uncivilized ways. McKee took some time to chat about his new film, why it makes people so uncomfortable, and how he’s not afraid of being labeled a horror director.

I may be a tad biased towards films that work equally on celluloid as they would as a stage performance. It could be because I don’t go to the theater often and so I can kill two art birds with one 90 minute-sized stone. I tend to like pictures that take place within a very short time span where the setting is subjected to one or two locales and most character elements are observed and learned either through exposition, or stories being told about character history during the film’s downtime. The pictures are usually very small, but very focused when they’re done well; and The Devil’s Business is one done well. A pair of hitmen have been hired to murder a man in his home late one night upon his return from an opera. The two killers are opposite ends of the paradigm with one being the experienced, cold veteran while the other a talkative, annoyingly inquisitive youngster out on his first hit job. While waiting patiently for their victim to arrive the two men trade stories, though hesitantly from the older gentleman who would much rather remain quiet, professional and enigmatic. While their at the home the two men hear a sound outside in the backyard they initially believe to be their target, only to come to find out after searching the grounds and discovering a dark tool shed that they may be in for something slightly more sinister than they signed up for.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we talk with Lucky McKee about his disturbing new horror film The Woman. Plus, we launch a new feature for the month of October where horror filmmakers discuss a favorite horror film. This week, A Horrible Way To Die and You’re Next writer Simon Barrett praises an obscure modern classic. As if that weren’t enough, FSR Associate Editor Rob Hunter goes mano a mano with Film.com‘s Eric D. Snider in a test of wits and movie news acumen. Download This Episode

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis The Others begins with a scream when Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman)awakens from a nightmare. Grace and her children Anne and Nicholas live in isolation in a fog shrouded house on the Jersey Islands in 1945. She and the children had been living under German occupation, but even though the war has ended and the occupation is over life is still fraught with tension. The children are so photosensitive they will die if exposed to sunlight. The windows are shrouded in blackout curtains leaving them in darkness only relieved by candlelight or gas lamps. Grace’s husband Charles is missing in action and she’s on her own struggling to keep her children safe. Grace’s struggle to maintain an orderly life is disrupted by the arrival of three mysterious servants. The secretive trio arrives out of nowhere, but good help is hard to find so Grace hires them, leading them from room to room, instructing them on how to keep the children away from sunlight. It’s Anne who is aware of the others [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Why Watch? A suggestive thriller that will leave you freezing in your own shower. Writer/director Joby Stephens has created a film that oscillates between a beautiful girl lying in a bathtub (an image that can physically drop your core temperature by its design) and a frolicking night out at the clubs. It’s a dreamy twist on a simple fear – something we all keep in the back of our minds whenever we go out. The music does almost as much heavy lifting as the inevitable, but it’s perfect for a quick feeling of unease and a semi-voyeuristic look into two very different bathrooms. What does it cost? Just 7 minutes of your time. Check out the trailer for Skin Deep for yourself:

We’re in the middle of October, the month of Halloween, and the scariest new DVD release this week is The Zookeeper. But no one’s seriously planning on renting that film, are they? That leaves possible drinking games for Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer (and honestly, what third grader is going to try that?) or The Tree of Life, and a drinking game for that would get me into more trouble than my review did. So considering it’s the month for scares, and the remake/prequel/reboot/reimagining of The Thing comes out at the end of this week, plenty of folks are revisiting John Carpenter’s 1982 classic. So pour your Jim Beam into your Chess Wizard computer and crack open a Coors. It’s time to go drunk retro with this film, available on DVD, Blu-ray and Netflix Instant.

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis From the brilliant mind of Shane Meadows, Dead Man’s Shoes is a vengeance-soaked slasher, told from the perspective of the slasher, and as raw as an exposed nerve in places. It focuses on Richard (played by the inimitable Paddy Considine), who returns from seven years military service to his hometown in a town within Meadows’s particularly grim version of modern Britain. His intentions become clear very quickly, as he seeks to confront a gang of locals who have committed some unspoken attrocity on his mentally disabled brother, Anthony (Toby Kebell), who follows him around as he stalks and terrorises those responsible with increased ferocity. The film is underpinned by a piquant and ominous dread, as the secret of what happened to Anthony is slowly revealed, as Richard’s venom intensifies, and his vengeful acts of retribution cut a bloody swathe through the Midlands landscape.

When the calendar page turns to October, we Rejects have only one thought: horror. To celebrate this grandest and darkest of months, we’ll cover one excellent horror film a day for the entirety of the month. That’s 31 Days of Horror and 31 Films perfect for viewing on a dark, chilly, October night. If you, like us, love horror and Halloween, give us a Hell Yeah and keep coming every day this month for a new dose of adrenaline. Synopsis: The greatest fear any woman has comes to fruition when author Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler) moves to a quiet Louisiana town to complete her novel before its deadline. She took her first misstep five minutes into her supposedly pleasant stay when she brushed off the advances of the town’s young lothario Johnny (Jeff Branson) at a gas station. Johnny would not stand for this type of treatment, especially in front of his two equally twisted friends Stanley (Daniel Franzese) and Andy (Rodney Eastman). After they discover the simple-minded, puppy dog of a man Matthew (Chad Lindberg) had not only been in Jennifer’s rental home to fix a leak but also received a thank you peck, the men and the sexually twisted Sheriff Storch (Andrew Howard) take it upon themselves to terrorize the young woman until she breaks. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea of true, brutal terror.

Previously, on Boiling Point… I bitched about Hollywood not releasing enough horror movies in October. This week, I’m taking aim at them for not releasing any monster movies – pretty much ever. I’ve come to ask where all the monsters have gone. Monster movies have a special place in any horror fan’s heart. Whether you’re a fan of giant mutated ants, hybrid beasts, strange aliens, or any crazy old weird thing someone dreamed up that crawled out of a swamp and raped a cheerleader, monsters are awesome. The bigger, badder, and bloodier the better. It seemed for years that even if you weren’t looking for a monster, one would come out of the darkness and tear your face off. Nowadays, you’re hard pressed to get your shit packed in by a mythical beast even if you go defecating on Native American burial grounds.