We continue our journey through a month of frightening, bloody and violent films. For more, check out our 31 Days of Horror homepage. Synopsis: Jack Finney’s novel “The Body Snatchers” gets its second film adaptation by Philip Kaufman in 1978. This time, the setting is changed from a small California town to the teeming metropolis of San Francisco. Donald Sutherland plays Matthew Bennell, a health inspector who stumbles across reports of people claiming their loved ones are not themselves. His colleague Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) faces similar stories and even suspects her live-in boyfriend Geoffrey has been infected. After conferring with Matthew’s pop psychology guru friend David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy), they settle on mass hysteria as a cause. However, when Matthew’s other friends (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright) discover a mysterious body in the back of their spa, the group soon discovers an insidious alien force has come to earth with the ability to duplicate people.

With the entire original run of The Twilight Zone available to watch instantly, we’re partnering with Twitch Film to cover all of the show’s 156 episodes. Are you brave enough to watch them all with us? The Twilight Zone (Episode #80): “A Quality of Mercy” (airdate 12/29/61) The Plot:  A zealous officer is anxious to kill, kill, and then kill. The Goods: Deep in the jungles of the Pacific theater of World War II, a Lieutenant (a very, very youthful Dean Stockwell) joins a ragtag bunch that’s used to hunkering down, waiting things out, and opting for comfort over protocol. Lieutenant Katell is a fire-breather, a young gun who claims that he has experience killing, but probably doesn’t. He has an axe to grind against an enemy he knows nothing about except that they’re the enemy. Thus, instead of moving around a small encampment, he wants to cut through it and kill everyone with a Japanese uniform. That is, until The Twilight Zone intervenes.

I realize that I am one out of millions when I say how much influence the original Star Trek series had on my life when it premiered in 1966. I was four years old then, had an older brother of seven and we were hopelessly addicted to the adventures of the USS Enterprise and her crew. When Star Trek conventions started popping up in New Orleans in the very early 1970s, I even put together a “Gorn” costume (the lizard creature from the episode “Arena”) and won an honorable mention. When Star Trek disappeared from television, it was a bit shocking for us young fans, and it would be a few years before it reappeared in syndication, at least in New Orleans. When Star Trek: The Motion Picture opened, I was in High School. Already tainted by the adventures of Luke Skywalker and pals in Star Wars, I was a bit less enthusiastic by this big screen effort. However, when I saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in college a few years later, I knew that Star Trek was back on track! I was a fan again. Getting the call from make-up effects artist Richard Snell was one of the early highlights of my career. I had worked with the bay-area artist on House but our paths had diverged since. I knew that the Star Trek IV job was “floating” around Hollywood because I had done some bid sketches for James Cummins who was also pursuing the project. [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]

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s interested only in providing you with movie news, it does not seek to earn your affection. Alright, maybe not your affection, but definitely your obedience. So be a good little soldier and read it every night before you lay your head down to sleep. We open tonight with a peek at the French poster for Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, which may or may not be debuting in the UK right before it opens at the Cannes Film Festival. All I know is that I’m interested to see it, because reports have been all over the place. And all over the place usually isn’t a bad thing when it comes to a Terrence Malick film.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Leonard Nimoy, but he’s a veteran actor that has been around the scene for quite a while. I’m told he’s famous for playing something called A Spock in one of the Star Wars movies, but personally I can only place him as being the guy who played Paul McGuire on a 1983 episode of T.J. Hooker. Anyways, fans of all things science fiction have been given reason to rejoice as Inside Movies is reporting that Nimoy has signed on to voice the character of Sentinel Prime in Michael Bay’s third film in his Transformers series. Sentinel Prime is the robot that led the Autobots before Optimus Prime, and whose wreckage we saw astronauts exploring in the film’s stylish teaser trailer. Neat. No matter what you feel about Michael Bay or his movies, if you grew up watching Nimoy and playing with Transformer action figures, then this has to give you at least some sort of nostalgic tingle in your geek heart. Huge Transformers fans probably already know that Nimoy voiced Galvatron in the 1986 animated Transformers: The Movie, so the nostalgia thing is working on multiple levels here. When talking about why it has taken until the third movie to get Nimoy on board this franchise, Michael Bay was quoted as saying, “I was too scared to ask him. Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful. I’ve met him at family functions. [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]

In celebration of today’s release of Star Trek on Blu-ray and DVD, Paramount held a special event in Los Angeles last night in which director J.J. Abrams and various members of the cast were on hand to present some of the cool special features to a group of fans and journalists.

Reviewing Star Trek on Blu-ray was such an all-encompassing, enjoyable experience, I had to fight to find the right words to describe it. Luckily, about 1600 of them just popped into my head.

There are few sure things in this world. In the world of film, there are even fewer sure things, but one can usually “put five on” the fact that any project J.J. Abrams is involved in will turn out fairly well – critically, commercially, or both.

This week Culture Warrior asks, just how ‘new’ is the new Star Trek, anyway?

If you missed this past weekend’s Justin Timberlake hosted Saturday Night Live, you certainly missed out.

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: Star Trek and Next Day Air.

It might have been a while since you’ve seen an episode of Star Trek. In fact, you may have never seen one at all. And for those of you who feel out of the loop this week, resident old guy Kevin Carr is here to help you out.

It may seem inconceivable, but there are a large number of folks in the world who just don’t know anything about Star Trek. I know, I know—tough to believe. But, guess what? I’m one of these people. So for all my fellow Star Trek virgins, I would like to present the top ten things outsiders just don’t understand about Star Trek.

I’d elaborate, but the headline seems to really capture the essence of what I’m trying to say. Tune in to watch Neil get excited about Star Trek and to wish that you were seeing Layla Kayleigh instead of Neil.

Gather ’round my friends for the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen updates that never end. Well, at least until about a month after the film comes out, that is.

The folks over at Ain’t It Cool News have scored a pretty nifty exclusive this afternoon, uncovering a second, slightly extended version of the Star Trek trailer. What’s different? NIMOY!

This evening our own Cole Abaius had the opportunity to join a small group of journalists in New York City for a special presentation by director J.J. Abrams. The footage: four big clips from Star Trek. The result: an “epic” and “awesome” experience. Check out the full report inside.

You’ve heard about this trailer and have probably seen the bootleg, but now we have it in glorious high definition!

Zachary Quinto is Spock. You know that already. Now you will know what he looks like with pointy ears…