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It is a truth universally acknowledged — nay, undeniable — that Margot Robbie is one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. From The Wolf Of Wall Street to The Suicide Squad, and from Barbie to Babylon, the multiple-time Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominated former Neighbours alumni has more than earned her status among Hollywood's elite. And now, per Variety's reporting, the Aussie actor may be about to become an even bigger star — literally — as she circles the lead role in Tim Burton's upcoming Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman remake at Warner Bros.

We first learned of Burton's plans to deliver a fresh take on the 1958 B-movie classic — last readapted by Christopher Guest back in 1993 with Daryl Hannah — last February, with reports at the time confirming that Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn would be tackling the script for this one. Having penned a first draft however, Flynn...

A big star is circling the even-bigger title role of Tim Burton's next project. Margot Robbie is in early talks to star in Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman, a remake of the 1958 drive-in cult classic of the same name. It would be the first collaboration between the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice director and the Wolf of Wall Street star. Variety reports that Robbie is looking to produce the project, as well as star in it.

The actor is no stranger to genre material, and even has some experience being "larger than life": the allegorical opening scene of Barbiefeatures Robbie as a version of the title doll colossal enough to block out the sun. After her star turn in that billion-dollar blockbuster, Robbie is next set to appear with Colin Farrell in the romantic fantasy A Big Bold Beautiful Journey this fall, and then in Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights next year.

Fresh off the success Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, acclaimed filmmaker Tim Burton has been the subject of speculation surrounding his next film project. It's been widely reported that Tim Burton is set to helm a re-imagining of the 1958 cult classic Attack of the 50 Foot Woman for Warner Bros. However, during a conversation at the Marrakech Film Festival (via Deadline), Burton shared that he has, "no real projects at the moment," casting some doubt on his potential involvement.

He elaborated:

"One thing I learned very early on is that until I’m on the set doing something I don’t know if I’m doing it. I’ve had projects, I was doing a Superman once, I did another project that I worked for a year upon, and it didn’t happen. When those things happen, it’s quite traumatic, it’s quite emotional. So, I’m very protective of myself."

Of course,...

The success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has set up one major problem for Tim Burton's next movie, as it's unlikely that Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman will meet the level of success his $450 million sequel has garnered. Not only has the long-awaited sequel almost tripled its budget, but Beetlejuice 2 has hit several box office milestones during its time in theaters. The reception to Burton's work has been inconsistent for over a decade, with films like Dark Shadows and Dumbo performing poorly among critics. However, Beetlejuice 2 has changed this, and his remake of the 66-year-old sci-fi now faces high expectations.

Attack of the Fifty Foot Women must buck Burton's trend of disappointing remakes if his comeback after Beetlejuice 2 is to be successful. With that in mind, Burton's enthusiasm for sci-fi is key to Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman's remake, but it highlights the uphill battle...

Tim Burton already has a follow-up movie to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in the works, though his next film now has a bigger challenge to succeed after the enthusiastic response to his 2024 horror-comedy. While Burton had already begun his exciting comeback with Wednesday season 1 on TV, Beetlejuice 2 is the gothic fantasy horror auteurs big cinematic return after the mixed reviews and box office disappointment of 2019s Dumbo. His sequel to the 1988 horror movie Beetlejuice officially proves that classic Burton is back, with Beetlejuice 2s stellar reviews and box office performance providing his biggest hit in over a decade.

Even before his hit 2024 movie was released in theaters, it was announced that Tim Burton was attached to direct the upcoming remake of 1958s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The classic sci-fi horror movie is right up Burtons alley, harking back to his dabbling in the genre with Mars Attacks! in 1996 and...

The studio once known as 20th Century Fox is a younger entity than the other major Hollywood Studios. It was founded in 1935 out of the ashes of Fox Film, compared to Warner Bros (1923), Universal Pictures (1912), Paramount Pictures (1912), Columbia Pictures (1923), and Disney (1923) — the latter being the new parent company of 20th Century Studios.

Still, Fox waited only seven years to take home the top prize at the Oscars. At the 14th Academy Awards, held in 1942, Fox's film "How Green Was My Valley" won Best Picture, presented to Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck. That wasn't the only prize "Valley" won that night: it also got Best Director (John Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Arthur Miller), and finally Best Art Direction -- Interior Decoration, Black-and-White.

One of the films that "Valley" beat that night was "Citizen Kane" (which got only Best Original Screenplay for director Orson Welles and his co-writer Herman J.

Tim Burton's sci-fi movies have had mixed success at the box office and with critics, with films like "Mars Attacks!" and "Planet of the Apes" receiving a mixed reception. The upcoming remake of "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman" could be a chance for Burton to break his sci-fi genre streak and create a highlight in his career. The collaboration between Tim Burton and writer Gillian Flynn could result in a fresh and modern take on the retro sci-fi tale, with potential for notable actors to join the cast.

Tim Burton is officially directing a remake of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, which could break an underwhelming streak surrounding his sci-fi movies. Nathan H. Juran's 1958 original movie was just over an hour long and followed a wealthy woman named Nancy who sought revenge on her cheating husband after she transformed into a giant following an alien encounter.

Welcome to the Burtonaissance, friends! After blowing up Netflix charts with the delightfully binge-able Addams Family series Wednesday and debuting the title and release date for the long-anticipated Beetlejuice sequel, Tim Burton is ready to announce another project! According to Deadline, Tim Burton is teaming up with Warner Bros. Pictures to reimagine the sci-fi horror classic Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman!

Former Entertainment Weekly reporter and novelist Gillian Flynn is penning the script, with Tim Burton lined up to direct. In the 1958 Nathan Juran-directed classic, an abused socialite, Nancy Fowler Archer (Allison Hayes), grows to gigantic size because of an alien encounter and a scrapped murder attempt. After rising to an alarming height, Nancy pursues her cheating husband with revenge coursing through her veins. Prepare yourselves for death and desire! A rampage of destruction and a new high in terror!

Tim Burton returns to the ’50s for this...

The classic B-movie title Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is getting a remake from Tim Burton and Gillian Flynn. Burton is attached to direct the movie from a script by the Gone Girl scribe.

Warner Bros. is behind the project, which will be a re-imagining of the 1950s genre film. The succinct logline for that earlier film reads: “Turned into a giantess by an alien, a woman (Allison Hayes) finds her husband (William Hudson) in a bar with a floozy (Yvette Vickers).” Nathan Juran directed the pic, which was released by Warners.

Burton is also set to produce the project with Andrew Mittman and Tommy Harper. Kai Dolbashian will executive produce.

Burton was last in theaters with Dumbo, which failed to preform at the box office, but he most recently found success with the Netflix series Wednesday and recently wrapped on a Beetlejuice sequel for Waenrs. He is repped by WME.

Science fiction movies often come with a coating of dazzling special effects, and are invariably sold with spectacle in mind. And yet, the best science fiction stories are about ideas far more than visuals, and they tend to hold up much better, even when their effects age. That, in turn, gives the genre a bumper crop of underrated gems: films that didn't quite fit the zeitgeist upon release, but have aged like fine wine.

Some such movies find their audience and deserve acclaim along with that. A sterling example is Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which was dismissed upon release, but now ranks among cinema's unquestioned masterpieces. Not all of them enjoy such late-inning comebacks, leaving them for genre aficionados to uncover.

Related: 10 Ways Blade Runner Subverts Science Fiction Cliches

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is one of the most influential science fiction novels of the 20th century,...

Mill Creek’s latest disc collection gathers three Columbia Sci-fi faves and throws in a Blu-ray debut for a fourth. It’s a good selection: two giant Ray Harryhausen monsters, one marginal bad-taste Sam Katzman zombie epic, and a quirky Lou Costello comedy with Dorothy Provine doing a wholesome take on Allison Hayes’ biggest role. Do these encodings measure up to fancier editions? We give them a spin.

Sci-Fi from the Vault: 4 Films

Blu-ray

Creature with the Atom Brain, It Came from Beneath the Sea, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock

Mill Creek Entertainment

1955-1959 / B&w / 303 min. / Street Date February 14, 2023 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 29.99

Starring: Richard Denning; Kenneth Tobey & Faith Domergue; William Hopper & Joan Taylor; Lou Costello & Dorothy Provine.

Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Sidney Miller

Disc collectors are now tempted weekly by plenty of interesting disc releases...

Elizabeth Banks' new film "Cocaine Bear" was indeed inspired by true events. In 1985, a drug smuggler dropped a duffel bag containing $15 million worth of cocaine from a plane into the woods below. There, it was found by a 175-pound black bear, who proceeded to consume the cocaine. Unlike in Banks' movie, where the bear eats the cocaine and goes on a killing spree, the real-life bear wasn't known to have killed anyone. The bear simply died of a drug overdose. Because it was so well-preserved, the bear was taxidermied and subsequently passed around among various owners, not all of whom knew its cause of death. Waylon Jennings owned the Cocaine Bear at one point. These days, one can visit the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Ky, and visit the bear's taxidermied body. Its current owners, Whit Hiler and Griffin VanMeter, have cleverly named their prize "Pablo Escobear."

Banks' film is refreshingly uncomplicated.

Only once in a generation do we behold a classic such as this! The ’embiggened’ adventures of Nancy Archer lack technical sophistication, but good direction and a very direct story — female revenge writ large — grab us every time. Let the absurdities pile up, because Allison Hayes cuts a mean fifty-foot figure in that white two-piece, and saucy Yvette Vickers really warms up the clientele down at Tony’s place. It’s a terrific piece of late ’50s exploitation anti-art. The fantastic Reynold Brown poster is a key expression of the monsterrific worldview.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 65 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date December 6, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers, Roy Gordon, George Douglas, Ken Terrell, Otto Waldis, Eileene Stevens, Michael Ross, Frank Chase, Nelson Leigh, .

Cinematography: Jacques Marquette

Film Editor: Edward Mann

Original Music: Ronald Stein...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products released each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Creepshow: From Script to Scream from Titan Books

Creepshow: From Script to Scream will serve as the official behind-the-scenes compendium on the Shudder series, exploring its origins, development, production, special effects, and more.

The 240-page coffee table book is written by Dennis L. Prince and features a foreword by Stephen King and an afterword by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett. Creepshow showrunner Greg Nicotero serves as executive producer.

Publishing on December 13, it’s available to pre-order in hardcover (49.99) and e-book (24.99) via Titan Books.

Halloween III Action Figures from Trick or Treat Studios

Trick or Treat Studios has launched pre-orders for a set of Halloween III: Season of the Witch 1:6 scale action figures. Priced at...

The Brain from Planet Arous

Blu ray

The Film Detective

1957 / 1:33:1, 1.85:1 / 71 Min.

Starring John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller

Written by Roy Buffum

Directed by Nathan Hertz (Juran)

In 1957, Screen Gems released 52 of Universal’s classic horror films to television in a package called Shock! Typically broadcast around the midnight hour on Friday nights, the show was a late night epiphany for third graders who raced to the local bijou in search of more monsters—and sent theater owners scrambling for more product. They found it overseas and across the border.

To mollify the playground crowd, those imports—a mix of art house fare and boilerplate exploitation—were dubbed, retitled, and shorn of most dicey material; France’s Les Yeux Sans Visage became The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, and Italy’s Lycanthropus appeared in local listings as Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory. The thrillers produced at...

Early science fiction movies presented mind-bending possibilities for audiences who were new to the idea of alien invasion. Made five years after the July 1952 Washington, D.C., “Big Flap” UFO sightings, The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) presented a more thoughtful takeover: alien possession. Gor, an evil intergalactic brain, invades the human body of an atomic scientist, with plans to conquer the world. The cult classic has been restored with a 4K transfer by the best minds at the Film Detective for a special edition Blu-ray and DVD.

The low-budget, independently produced feature was directed by Nathan Juran, the genre master who gave us The Deadly Mantis (1957), Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), produced and photographed by Jacques Marquette, and released by Howco International. The Brain from Planet Arous stars John Agar, a consummate B-movie favorite as scientist Steve March. Joyce Meadows is his analytically grounded fiancée Sally Fallon.

Hello, dear readers! We’re back with a brand new edition of our rundown of this week’s home media releases, and it’s definitely a good time to be a Nicolas Cage fan as we have two different films featuring the iconic actor headed to various formats - The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Vampire’s Kiss which is receiving the Special Edition treatment from Mvd Visual. We also have some killer new horror movies headed home today too, including The Cellar and You Are Not My Mother, and one of my favorite ‘90s sci-fi/horror movies is also headed to Blu-ray today courtesy of Scream Factory as well: Fire in the Sky.

Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for June 21st include Uncle Sam 4K, The Initiation of Sarah, The Brain From Planet Arous, Forced Entry and Monday Morning.

The Brain From Planet Arous: Special Edition

When Gor,...

New Featurette: Take a look inside The Black Phone with Ethan Hawke: "The phone is dead. And it’s ringing.

Director Scott Derrickson returns to his terror roots and partners again with the foremost brand in the genre, Blumhouse, with a new horror thriller. Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.

Starring four-time Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke in the most terrifying role of his career and introducing Mason Thames in his first ever film role, The Black Phone is produced, directed, and co-written by Scott Derrickson, the writer-director of Sinister,...

Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.

Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.

Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.

The Criterion Channel’s stellar offerings are continuing next month with a selection of new releases, retrospective, series, and more. Leading the pack is, of course, a horror lineup perfectly timed for Halloween, featuring ’70s classics and underseen gems, including Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer (pictured above), Tobe Hopper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, early films by David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, and Brian De Palma, Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess, and more.

Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.

It’s big, it buzzes, and it screams like a banshee. So why is the Mantis monster so ho-hum? Universal-International tries to squeak out another boffo big bug epic, but 1957 screens were already crowded with grasshoppers and scorpions — and the screenplay is derivative — and somebody allowed producer William Alland to throw in every stock shot that wasn’t nailed down.

The Deadly Mantis

Blu-ray

1957 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / 27.99

Starring: Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, Donald Randolph, Pat Conway, Florenz Ames, Paul Smith, Harry Tyler.

Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter, Clifford Stine

Film Editor: Chester Schaeffer

Original Music: Irving Gertz, William Lava, Henry Mancini

Written by Martin Berkeley, William Alland

Produced by William Alland

Directed by Nathan Juran

I grew up partly in the Mojave Desert. Our red ants were aggressive (and they stung!), our grasshoppers big and strong, and our scorpions were as scary as the...

Not enough love is set aside for this ambitious, under-budgeted Lost Civilization epic. John Agar and Cynthia Patrick find love in an ancient albino race that worships a Death Ray and enslaves a race of Subterranean Humanoid Underground Dwellers — Mole Men, what else? It’s unconvincing and the production lacks polish, but it’s also got clever story gimmicks and sympathetic monsters, so it gets a warm reception at CineSavant Central.

The Mole People

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1956 / B&W / 1.85:1 + 2:1 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date February 26, 2019 / 27.99

Starring: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva, Phil Chambers, Rodd Redwing, Robin Hughes, Frank Baxter, Eddie Parker.

Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter

Film Editor: Irving Birnbaum

Mask Maker: Jack Kevan

Special Photography: Clifford Stine

Written by László Görög

Produced by William Alland

Directed by Virgil Vogel

“Mole Hole, Mole Hole — A land of renown!

Iraq is Up and Sumeria’s down!

“From the land beyond beyond…” — oops, wrong movie. Kerwin Mathews battles Torin Thatcher once again, with Judi Meredith in a stunning double role as both a delicate heroine and her evil counterpart in a magician’s mirror. Plus more stop-motion monsters than one can throw a ten-league boot at! Boy, we’re coining phrases left and right here.

Jack the Giant Killer

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1962 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 94 + 91 min. / Street Date June 12, 2018 / Special Edition / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Kerwin Matthews, Torin Thatcher, Judi Meredith, Walter Burke, Don Beddoe, Barry Kelley, Dayton Lummis, Anna Lee, Roger Mobley, Tudor Owen.

Cinematography: David S. Horsley

Film Editor: Grant Whytock

Special Effects: Augie Lohman (practical), Howard A. Anderson (optical composites), Tim Baar, Wah Chang, Lloyd Vaughan, Gene Warren, Bill Brace, Jim Danforth, Tom Holland, Phil Kellison, David Pal (stop-motion animation).

Original Music: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter

Original Music Alternate musical version: musical...

Here’s something odd: the formative feature in Roger Corman’s proto- career. Roger gets credits for Story and Associate Producer, and learned what he needed to learn to produce two movies of his own in the same year. The modest crime thriller sees Richard Conte involved with three women during a chase on dusty desert roads: noir star Joan Bennett and young Wanda Hendrix are a suspicious pair, but special guest Hot Number Mary Beth Hughes all but steals the show.

Highway Dragnet

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 70 min. / Street Date March 20, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Richard Conte, Joan Bennett, Wanda Hendrix, Mary Beth Hughes, Reed Hadley, Iris Adrian.

Cinematography: John Martin

Film Editor: Ace Herman

Written by Herb Meadow, Jerome Oldlum from a story by U.S. Andersen, Roger Corman

Produced by Jack Jungmeyer, William F. Broidy (executive), A. Robert Nunes & Roger Corman (associates)

Directed by...

Indicator follows up The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Volume One: 1955-1960 with, wait for it, Volume 2: 1961-1964, featuring three of Harryhausen’s most ambitious productions. Good news for fans, the UK company delivers another robust box set with beautiful transfers and an abundance of extras including newly produced interviews, a small treasure trove of promotional ephemera and a limited edition 80-page book with essays from Kim Newman and Tim Lucas. The set is region free, playable on Blu-ray devices worldwide.

The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Volume 2: 1961-1964

Blu-ray – Region Free

Indicator/Powerhouse

Street Date November 13, 2017

Starring Herbert Lom, Joan Greenwood, Niall MacGinnis, Nigel Green, Lionel Jeffries, Edward Judd

Cinematography by Wilkie Cooper

Produced by Charles Schneer, Ray Harryhausen

Directed by Cy Endfield, Don Chaffey, Nathan Juran

Raging thunderstorms and a tempestuous score from Bernard Herrmann kick off 1961’s Mysterious Island as a water-logged crew of Union...

Since the early days of home video Ray Harryhausen’s films have been a lightning rod for companies eager to one-up the competition with bigger and brighter releases of the beloved animator’s work. Located in the UK, Powerhouse/Indicator is the latest to jump on the bandwagon with lavishly appointed blu ray sets each featuring three of his films. Though all these movies have been previously released through other companies, Powerhouse has upped the ante with fresh transfers and a broad slate of new extras.

The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Vol. One: 1955-1960

Blu-ray – All Region

Powerhouse/Indicator

2001 / 1:85 / Street Date September 25, 2017

Starring Kenneth Tobey, William Hopper, Kerwin Matthews

Cinematography: Henry Freulich, Irving Lippman, Carlo Ventimiglia, Wilkie Cooper

Film Editor: Jerome Thoms, Edwin H. Bryant, Raymond Poulton

Produced by Sam Katzman, Charles H. Schneer

Music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Bernard Herrmann

Directed by Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Jack Sher

It Came from Beneath the Sea...

“The gods of Greece are cruel! In time, all men shall learn to live without them.”

Sunday, May 7 marks the 4th anniversary of the legendary visual effects guru Ray Harryhausen’s death. Read what We Are Movie Geeks thinks are Harryhausen’s top ten films Here

To celebrate this master of illusion, Comet TV (www.COMETtv.com) is running a Ray Harryhausen Marathon of movies on Sunday, May 7 beginning at 11:30am Est/8:30am Pst. The complete marathon will run as follows:

11:30am Est / 10:30am Ct / 8:30am Pst – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

In many ways the ultimate combination of stop motion animation, adventure, and overall production quality, 7th Voyage Of Sinbad is still one of Harryhausen’s most popular works. It was also a turning point for Harryhausen, establishing the framework for not only his other Sinbad films, but all animated adventure films in general...

Yes, it is a perfect title for a horror picture, but it belongs to an early film noir -- or as we discover, a murder thriller that previews the classic '40s noir visual look. Victor Mature is the man on the spot for a killing, Betty Grable and Carole Landis are a pair of sisters in danger, and Laird Cregar is the creepiest police detective in the history of the force. I Wake Up Screaming Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 82 min. / Street Date November 1, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, William Gargan, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook Jr. Cinematography Edward Cronjager Art Direction Richard Day, Nathan Juran Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge, Harold Barlow Written by Dwight Taylor from the novel by Steve Fisher Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

My,...

"The Furniture" our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber

Filmmaking is often an art borne of flexibility. Tim Burton built Sleepy Hollow from scratch when he couldn’t find just the right town in the real world. Vincente Minnelli was forced to make Brigadoon indoors in Hollywood, because the studio wouldn’t pay for an expensive production in Scotland. Both films are likely better for it, too.

The same is perhaps true for How Green Was My Valley, which premiered 75 years ago this week. John Ford wanted to make shoot it on location in Wales, but World War II intervened. Instead, the production team built an entire mining town in the Santa Monica Mountains. This condensed and idealized version of the setting of Richard Llewellyn’s 1939 novel is among the most emotionally resonant sets of its era.

The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Art Direction.

As someone who has always considered the werewolf to be his favorite movie monster, it has long been disheartening to see just how few truly good werewolf movies exist. Opinions may vary, of course, but I’d put the number somewhere between 10 and 20. While it’s not without its own charm, 1973’s The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, new to home video from Scream Factory after years of being unavailable, probably won’t be making that list.

A unique hybrid of monster movie, children’s fantasy, and 1970s domestic drama, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf finds young Richie Bridgestone watching the marriage of his parents dissolve. While on a trip to the family cabin with his dad (Kerwin Mathews), the pair is attacked by a wolf that bites his father. Before he can say, “I’m pretty sure my dad is a werewolf,” Richie’s dad becomes a werewolf and starts killing people.

July 26th has an eclectic assortment of horror and sci-fi offerings for fans, including a pair of cult classics—The Boy Who Cried Werewolf and Hellhole—from the fine folks at Scream Factory. Severin Films resurrects Doctor Butcher M.D. and Zombie Holocaust in HD this week, and Karyn Kusama’s superb psychological thriller The Invitation comes home on Tuesday courtesy of Drafthouse Films.

Other notable Blu-ray and DVD releases coming our way on July 26th include Five Miles to Midnight, the Killer Thrillers Collection, Consumption, and Exorcist House of Evil.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (Scream Factory, Blu-ray)

Richie Bridgestone’s parents are getting a divorce, but that’s the least of his problems at the moment. Richie is hoping his parents will reconsider and on a visit to his father’s secluded cabin, he witnesses his dad being attacked by a werewolf. Much like the tale of the boy who cried wolf,...

Scream Factory unleashes full moon frights on July 26th with their Blu-ray release of The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973), and we’ve been provided with three copies to give away to Daily Dead readers.

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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.

How to Enter: For a chance to win, email contest@dailydead.com with the subject “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on July 31st. This contest is only open to those who are eighteen years of age or older that live in the United States. Only one entry per household will be accepted.

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The Boy Who Cried Werewolf Blu-ray: “Richie Bridgestone’s parents are getting a divorce, but that’s the least of his problems at the moment. Richie is hoping his parents will...

Richie witnesses his father being attacked by a werewolf while spending a weekend with him at a secluded cabin. Will the townspeople believe that his father will turn into the beast beholden to the moon? Check out these clips and the official trailer for Nathan H. Juran’s (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973) before its Blu-ray release on July 26th from Scream Factory.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf Blu-ray: “Richie Bridgestone’s parents are getting a divorce, but that’s the least of his problems at the moment. Richie is hoping his parents will reconsider and on a visit to his father ’s secluded cabin, he witnesses his dad being attacked by a werewolf. Much like the tale of the boy who cried wolf, no one in the town will believe Richie’s claims that his father will change into a werewolf at the next full moon.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

Release the Kraken! They're only now releasing this Blu-ray in the U.S.. The patron saint of every special effect fan gets the royal treatment in this career overview capped with industry testimonials and rare film items from a cache of 35mm outtakes found packed away in Rh's storeroom. Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan Region B Blu-ray Arrow Video Us 2011 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date June 28, 2016 / 19.95 Starring Ray Harryhausen, Peter Jackson, Nick Park, Phil Tippet, Randy Cook, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Tony Dalton, Dennis Muren, John Landis, Ray Bradbury, Ken Ralston, Martine Beswick, Vanessa Harryhausen, Caroline Munro, Guillermo del Toro, Joe Dante, John Lasseter, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Henry Selick. Original Music Alexandre Poncet Produced by Tony Dalton, Alexandre Poncet Written and Directed by Gilles Penso

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The time has long passed that Ray Harryhausen was merely a cult figure. By the release of Golden Voyage...

A sanitarium with a sinister staff and a family with a hairy (and scary) dilemma will get the high-def treatment on July 26th with the respective Blu-ray releases of 1985’s Hellhole (being distributed on a Blu-ray / DVD combo pack) and 1973’s The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. With summer heating up, Scream Factory has revealed the final list of special features for each film, as well as another look at the previously revealed cover art:

Press Release: This July, Scream Factory presents two long-lost cult favorites on Blu-ray for the first time. Hellhole and The Boy Who Cried Werewolf debut in a Blu-ray + DVD combo pack, and on Blu-ray, respectively.

Hellhole

Having witnessed her mother’s brutal death, Susan (Judy Landers, Dr. Alien) gets amnesia from a fall while being pursued by the killer, Silk (Ray Sharkey, The Idolmaker). Awakening in Ashland Sanitarium, she is once again terrorized by Silk, disguised as an orderly.

Richie (Kerwin Matthews) witnesses a werewolf attack his father, but who will believe him?! Nathan Juran’s The Boy Who Cried Werewolf will be released on Blu-ray on July 26th courtesy of Scream Factory.

From Scream Factory: “Last week we announced the werewolf film Bad Moon and now we have even more to howl in joy about: 1973’s long-lost The Boy Who Cried Werewolf will be making its home video debut on the Blu-ray format on July 26th and will sport a brand-new HD transfer! Pre-order begins on our site first @ https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-horror/the-boy-who-cried-werewolf

Synopsis: Richie Bridgestone’s parents are getting a divorce, but that’s the least of his problems at the moment. Richie is hoping his parents will reconsider and on a visit to his father’s secluded cabin, he witnesses his dad being attacked by a werewolf. Much like the tale of the boy who cried wolf,...

Germany's Explosive Media company has a serious itch for American westerns, and they have a trio of new releases. One is a minor Hollywood classic with major graces, from the late 1950s. A second sees an American producer based in England filming in Italy with a rising international star, and for the third an established American star goes European  to stay in the game. The best thing for Yankee buyers? The discs are Region-free.

Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders, A Man Called Sledge Three Westerns from Explosive Media Blu-ray Separate Releases 1958-1970 / Color Starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter; George Maharis, Telly Savalas; James Garner

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

The majority of American studios now choose not to market their libraries for digital disc, and license them out instead. Collectors unwilling to settle for whatever's on Netflix or concerned about the permanence of Cloud Cinema, find themselves increasingly tempted by discs from Europe,...

A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.

It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...

'Hold Back the Dawn': Olivia de Havilland behind Charles Boyer and Paulette Goddard 'Hold Back the Dawn' 1941 movie: Olivia de Havilland steals show as small-town teacher in love Olivia de Havilland shines in Mitchell Leisen's melodrama Hold Back the Dawn, a sort of opening bracket for the director's World War II-era films. Adapted by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett from Ketti Frings' semi-autobiographical story, Hold Back the Dawn stars Charles Boyer as George Iscovescu, a Romanian dancer unable to enter the U.S. from Mexico due to immigration quotas imposed at the onset of the European conflict. Paulette Goddard is his scheming former partner, Anita, who marries an American to gain entry into the country only to immediately leave the duped husband. George adopts the idea – a naïve small-town schoolteacher visiting a Mexican border town is his prey. As the unsuspecting teacher, Olivia de Havilland radiates understanding and sympathy.

Humankind’s collision with otherworldly life forms can make for unforgettable cinema.

This article will highlight the best of live-action human vs. alien films. The creatures may be from other planets or may be non-demonic entities from other dimensions.

Excluded from consideration were giant monster films as the diakaiju genre would make a great subject for separate articles.

Readers looking for “friendly alien” films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), It Came from Outer Space (1953) and the comically overrated Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are advised to keep watching the skies because they won’t find them here.

Film writing being the game of knowledge filtered through personal taste that it is, some readers’ subgenre favorites might not have made the list such as War of the Worlds (1953) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

Now let’s take a chronological look at the cinema’s best battles between Us and Them.

by Gerald Beanery, MoreHorror.com

There have been numerous films with ‘Deadly’ in the title. In 1957 Nathan Juran brought us a movie called The Deadly Mantis, about giant praying mantis, who voraciously preys on American military. In 1974 Doris Wishman brought us a movie called Deadly Weapons, about a busty woman who goes after mobsters for killing her boyfriend. In 1984 Charles E. Sellier Jr. brought us a movie called Silent Night, Deadly Night, about boy who goes on a murderous rampage dressed as Santa. In 1986 Wes Craven brought us a movie called Deadly Friend, about a robot named "Bb” whose brain gets implanted into a human girl. In 2014 Jared Masters is bringing us a movie called Deadly Punkettes, about a teenage girl band that gets terrorized by a former member’s ghost.

Frolic Pictures has confirmed wrapping principle photography and moving into post-production. The film was shot in Hollywood, California and will be released next year.

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away last month at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson,...

Ray Harryhausen dies at 92: Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years B.C. special-effects ‘titan’ Long before the computer-generated imagery of Jurassic Park, Avatar, The Avengers, and Iron Man 3, there were special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen’s painstakingly created stop-motion models, which graced dozens of movies from the late ’40s to the early ’80s. Earlier today, Ray Harryhausen died at age 92 in London, where he had been living since the early ’60s. Among his movie credits are Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years BC, and the original Clash of the Titans. Born in Los Angeles on June 29, 1920, Harryhausen became interested in cinema’s visual effects after watching Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s 1933 blockbuster King Kong, featuring stop-motion effects by Willis H. O’Brien. "I came out of the theater awestruck," Harryhausen would reminisce to the Chicago Tribune in 1999. "It was such a totally different, unusual film.

The Film That Changed My Life | Argentine Film Festival | Daniel Day-Lewis | Jameson Cult Film Club

The Film That Changed My Life, London

A simple idea to mark the centenary of the Critics' Circle: 14 well-known film critics introduce their favourite movies, and try to change your life. Understandably, most the movies are classics, from Kate Muir's choice (and Martin Scorsese fave) I Know Where I'm Going! to If… and The 400 Blows. From the Guardian/Observer stable, Peter Bradshaw goes for Raging Bull, Philip French Bad Day At Black Rock, and Jason Solomons Annie Hall. For something more alternative, the Evening Standard's Derek Malcolm presents Ship Of Theseus, an acclaimed Mumbai drama made just last year, while Empire's Kim Newman offers an obscure 1960s double bill from Nathan Juran: First Men In The Moon and East Of Sudan.

Barbican, EC2, Fri to 2 May

Argentine Film Festival, London

Cinema won't settle the Falklands/Malvinas dispute,...

The fine folks at the MGM Limited Edition DVD-r dove deep into their vaults to present a groovy sixties ghoulfest on DVD for all you fear fans. Doctor Blood’S Coffin was a staple of late night TV and horror hosts for several decades ( Chicago’s Svengoolie featured it 1998 ). It’s bright color photography made it a valuable asset to stations wanting a break from the black and white classics. Of course Coffin may owe its existence to the success of Hammer Films’ color fright fests of the late 1950′s. After the box office numbers generated by these new takes on Frankenstein and Dracula, many other British studios wanted a piece of the growing thriller audience. Caralan Productions even went as far as hiring the beautiful ( and buxom ) Hazel Court ( Peter Cushing’s doomed love from Hammer’s hit The Curse Of Frankenstein ) as the leading lady. Perhaps due to budgetary constraints,...

Movies from the “golden age” of black and white films (approximately the 1930’s through the 1950’s) almost invariably contain well-written dialogue and strikingly subtle humor, making them a favorite among many fans of cinema. The horror movies of this more subtle period in film history are therefore of a cerebral nature, primarily relying on the viewer’s imagination to generate the true sense of horror that modern movies generate through more visual means. It is these oft-ignored horror movies that will be the focus of a series of articles detailing the reasons why true fans of horror movies should rediscover these films.

Here we are with the 10th component in the Forgotten B&W Horror series. With this installment, we continue to look at movies that blur the line between horror and science fiction – a blurring that occurred with many sci-fi movies of the 1950′s.

The Deadly Mantis (1957) regales us...

Jack The Giant Killer

Stars: Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher, Walter Burke, Don Beddoe, Barry Kelley, Dayton Lummis | Written by Nathan Juran, Orville H. Hampton | Directed by Nathan Juran

Every now and then you get a film with a title so cool you just know it’ll never live up to all of the spectacular scenes your mind has just concocted upon seeing the painted DVD cover. It’s largely the fate of ’70s B-movies like Blacula and The Thing With Two Heads which relied on exploitative posters and gimmicky concepts to reel their audiences in, but occasionally you’ll get a couple from the mainstream.

Jack The Giant Killer, alas, is one such movie. A slight and inoffensive 1962 fantasy adventure produced in the heyday of the classic Ray Harryhausen claymation monster movies like Jason and the Argonauts, the film has an interesting set-up (boy saves princess from giant,...

Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky, Audrey Hepburn, Clara Bow Movies: Packard Campus May 2012 Schedule Friday, April 27 (7:30 p.m.) Solaris (Magna, 1972) An alien intelligence infiltrates a space mission. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. With Natalya Bondarchuk and Donatas Banionis. Sci-fi psychological drama. Black & White and color, 167 min. In Russian and German with English subtitles. Saturday, April 28 (7:30 p.m.) To Kill A Mockingbird (Universal, 1962) A Southern lawyer defends a black man wrongly accused of rape, and tries to explain the proceedings to his children. Directed by Robert Mulligan. With Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Brock Peters and Robert Duvall. Drama. Black & white, 129 min. Selected for the National Film Registry in 1995. Thursday, May 3 (7:30 p.m.) The Little Giant (Warner Bros., 1933) A Chicago beer magnate about to lose his business with the repeal of Prohibition, moves to California and tries to join society's upper crust, but his gangster origins prove tough to shake.

We know the greats; movies like Metropolis (1927), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977).

And there are those films which maybe didn’t achieve cinematic greatness, but through their inexhaustible watchability became genre touchstones, lesser classics but classics nonetheless, like The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), Them! (1954), The Time Machine (1960).

In the realm of science fiction cinema, those are the cream (and below that, maybe the half and half). But sci fi is one of those genres which has often too readily leant itself to – not to torture an analogy — producing nonfat dairy substitute.

During the first, great wave of sci fi movies in the 1950s, the target audience was kids and teens. There wasn’t a lot in the way of “serious” sci fi. Most of it was churned out quick and cheap; drive-in fodder, grist for the Saturday matinee mill.

By the early 1960s,...