News

Blu-ray.com reports that Scream Factory has announced that they’ll be bringing four horror movies to 4K in February – and each one of these is a cool title that a lot of genre fans will be picking up. Scream Factory’s February 4K line-up consists of Ghosts of Mars (2001), Humanoids from the Deep (1980), Galaxy of Terror (1981), and Sick (2022)!

Directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay he wrote with Larry Sulkis, Ghosts of Mars is one of the least popular films in Carpenter’s filmography… but still, it’s Carpenter, so that means a 4K release is going to be a must-buy for a good number of fans. Here’s the synopsis: Long inhabited by human settlers, the Red Planet has become the manifest destiny of an over-populated Earth. Nearly 640,000 people now live and work all over Mars, mining the planet for its abundant natural resources. But one of those...

Movies get made for a million reasons: Artistic ambition; the allure of a perfect story intersecting with a receptive brain; the urge for two passionate creators to collaborate on something great. And, of course, for money. The pursuit of blockbuster dreams, films that fill thousands of theaters, the adulation of...

Before Tom Cruise was driving motorcycles off cliffs, clinging to planes, and fighting bad guys atop moving trains in the name of "Mission: Impossible," the franchise had its humble beginnings in the form of a very '60s CBS series. The original "Mission: Impossible" was a spy series with a rotating cast of characters created by Bruce Gellar, who died in a plane crash just five years after the show ended. Several key cast members have passed away in the years since then, including Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Martin Landau, Steven Hill, and, of course, Leonard Nimoy.

"Mission: Impossible" was a huge success when it aired, winning 10 Emmys throughout its seven-season run and producing 171 episodes. The show inspired an '80s revival series, but "Mission: Impossible" really took off when Cruise (and Brian De Palma) got a hold of the franchise in 1996. The near-superhuman character Ethan Hunt was created for the movies,...

Bridget Fonda is the daughter of Peter Fonda, the granddaughter of Henry Fonda, and the niece of Jane Fonda, so it only seemed natural that she would become an actor. She started appearing on stage as a girl and appeared in "Easy Rider" with her father when she was only five years old.

Fonda would go on to study method acting at the famed Lee Strassberg Theater. She started appearing in films only two years after graduating at NYU. Acting was in her blood and it seemed like she never considered doing anything else. From 1988 to 2002, Fonda appeared in dozens of high-profile Hollywood films, and was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy. She retired unexpectedly in 2002 and hasn't been seen on screen since. Throughout the 1990s, however, Fonda was something of a cinematic "It" girl, appearing in raucous comedies, dramatic indies, intense crime films, and a few of Sam Raimi's productions.

It's absurd to consider, but early in his career Jack Nicholson had a difficult decision to make. The New Jersey son of a showgirl had a shot at being an animator for Joseph Hanna and William Barbera in the 1950s, but the then teenager had his heart set on acting. This was not the difficult decision. That would come years later when, after a string of prominent roles in Roger Corman-produced B-movies, Nicholson wrote a well-regarded screenplay called "The Trip." It was so good that it left burgeoning movie star Peter Fonda in tears. This reception was ecstatic enough to convince Corman to direct it himself. And while Fonda was ultimately displeased with the final result, Nicholson immediately landed another screenwriting assignment collaborating with Bob Rafelson on the script for the absurdist Monkees comedy "Head."

In a 1985 interview with Film Comment, Nicholson revealed that his success as a writer...

Last month, legendary drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs hosted a double feature of Friday the 13th movies on AMC, and now it has been confirmed that his next Shudder (and AMC+) special is going to air on a Friday the 13th! That is December 13th, and the special is called Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage.

Shudder shared the following information: Snow is falling and the bodies are piling up for Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage, when Joe Bob and Darcy host two holiday horror flicks featuring so much bloodshed that Santa will think twice before coming down this chimney. Details on the two movies that are going to be shown are likely to be kept under wraps until Joe Bob introduces them on the show.

The special will premiere live on Friday, December 13th and will then be available on demand as of December 15th. It will be available in the United States,...

In 1984, no one could have guessed that an independently made movie about an unstoppable cyborg assassin would become a hit, launch a still-growing franchise and, arguably, predict the future of artificial intelligence.

Producer Gale Anne Hurd and co-writer/director James Cameron realized they had a hit on their hands when it topped the box office the first weekend, because as Hurd recalled, “Orion told us it was a down-and-dirty exploitation film, that word of mouth would be so bad that we wouldn’t be in theaters after the second weekend.” How wrong they were.

Looking back 40 years later on “The Terminator,” Hurd marveled how the discussion around AI has moved from being considered “science fiction and fantasy,” to front page news and how the movie helped usher in the age of female action stars.

“The Terminator” is about the dangers of AI dominance at a time when it wasn’t very high-tech,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSQueer.Mubi has canceled its annual Turkish film festival—Mubi Fest Istanbul—after the Kadıköy District Governorate of Istanbul barred a screening of the opening film, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer (2024), citing its “provocative content.”During Warner Bros. Discovery’s quarterly earnings call, CEO David Zaslav waxes optimistic about Donald Trump’s reelection, arguing that it “may offer a pace of change and an opportunity for consolidation that…would provide a real positive and accelerated impact on this industry that’s needed.” Meanwhile, other industry execs share concerns about the impact of high tariffs on the international film market.Multiple cinematography organizations have condemned an op-ed penned by Marek Żydowicz, the founder and CEO of Camerimage, the Polish film festival.

Stars: Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey, Elizabeth Peña, Joe Morton, Stephen Mendillo, Oni Faida Lampley | Written and Directed by John Sayles

A major figure in independent filmmaking, writer/director John Sayles began his career working with the legendary Roger Corman and is now considered one of the greatest screenwriters in film history. One of his best-regarded works is his tenth feature, Lone Star, a masterpiece which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. Despite such glowing reviews, lacking availability made this film a struggle to watch for the longest time, although that has thankfully been rectified due to a Criterion release. As part of Cinema Rediscovered on Tour, this film was available to see on the big screen across the UK and Ireland, and it is thanks to FilmBath that I received the opportunity to see this for myself.

Opening in the desert, two off-duty sergeants find their...

Most people think of retirement as one of life's rites of passage, something akin to graduating from school or getting a promotion at a job. While some people have careers that treat retirement in this manner, there are many others for whom retirement is more of a state of mind than anything else. This is certainly true of an artist; some never seem to want to stop or slow down (may I remind you that The Rolling Stones just finished their latest tour this past July), while others feel that they don't wish to wear out their welcome. Then there are other factors, such as changing cultural norms as well as the waxing and waning of opportunities as they dwindle with age. Of course, age itself can be a factor; bodies do inexorably decline, after all.

For Jack Nicholson, one of the greatest actors of his generation, his reasons for...

Is it hot in here, or is it just the recently announced re-release of three classic sexploitation films from nudie maverick Russ Meyer?

With a legacy rivaling Roger Corman’s, Meyer burst onto the film scene in the 1960s, establishing himself as a B-movie maestro with a penchant for big action and even bigger…well…you know. He would eventually garner wide acclaim for cheeky comedies like “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” and “Beneath the Valley of the Dolls,” the latter of which was scripted by renowned film critic Roger Ebert. However, as a fierce independent, Meyer maintained ownership of all his films until his death in 2004, making it difficult to produce physical copies for wide distribution.

Severin Films is changing that. Partnering with the Russ Meyer Charitable Trust, they are now set to release new editions of “Vixen!,” “Supervixens,” and “Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens” on DVD, Blu-ray, and Uhd.

Kerem Bürsin never planned to be a Turkish megastar.

Though he was born in Istanbul, he spent his formative years living internationally and attended high school in Texas, where he began acting in theater productions. He then set off for L.A., where he worked with the legendary Roger Corman, but still “kept coming across the matter of my nationality,” as he tells Variety.

“Some agents were telling me, ‘I have to change your name,'” he says. “I would ask them why, and they would say: ‘Because you don’t look Turkish, you don’t sound Turkish and you’re pretty much American. So it’s just not going to work.'”

Eventually he returned to his home country — which turned out to be the right decision, as lead roles in globally exported TV shows “Waiting for the Sun” and “Love Is in the Air” have made him one...

Jonathan Haze had over 40 screen acting credits to his name, with many of those credits being earned on Roger Corman productions – and the one credit that stands out among all others came when Haze took on the role of Seymour Krelborn in Corman’s 1960 man-eating plant classic The Little Shop of Horrors. We lost Corman earlier this year, when he passed away at the age of 98. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that we’ve lost Haze as well. His daughter Rebecca informed them that Haze passed away at his home in Los Angeles this past Saturday at the age of 95.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was born with the name Jack Aaron Schachter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1929. He worked the stage for Rich and was Josephine Baker’s stage manager for two years before he got into acting. He hitchhiked to L.A. and got a...

When James Cameron wrote ‘the future is not set’, he wasn’t kidding. The year was 1982 and Cameron — then a Roger Corman-schooled production designer, art director, effects guru and general Jim of all trades — was in Rome, directing a few ill-fated days on Piranha II before getting the boot, when a vision came to him in a fever dream. It was a hellish image, of a chrome skeleton, an unstoppable robot that Cameron decided was from the future. He called it, and the movie it inspired, The Terminator.

When he got back to Los Angeles, licking his wounds, Cameron started writing the screenplay for a movie in which that unstoppable robot travelled back in time to try to kill the mother of the leader of a future resistance. It included that line, ‘the future is not set’. Which, for Cameron, wasn’t so much a line, more a mission statement.

Jonathan Haze, who starred for Roger Corman as the flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn in the original The Little Shop of Horrors, just one of two dozen films he made with the B-movie legend, has died. He was 95.

Haze died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Rebecca Haze, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was a valuable and versatile member of Corman’s repertory company from 1954 — when he acted in The Fast and the Furious and Monster From the Ocean Floor — until 1967, when he appeared in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and served as an assistant director on The Born Losers.

In one of his more noteworthy turns, Haze portrayed one of the three teenagers who stumble upon $250,000 worth of heroin and become dealers in Warner Bros. drama Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), the first feature directed by Irvin Kershner.

The Pittsburgh...

Jonathan Haze, a B-movie legend who originated the character of Seymour in the cult horror classic The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), has died at the age of 91. His daughter, Rebecca Haze, shared the news with Deadline on Monday, November 4. According to that release, he “died peacefully” on Saturday (November 2) at his home in Los Angeles, California. She did not provide a cause of death. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1929, Haze was working in a gas station when he caught the attention of director and horror legend Roger Corman. They collaborated on nearly 20 films, including The Fast and the Furious (1955) and the western Five Guns West. Their other collaborations included Apache Woman, Day the World Ended, Gunslinger, The Oklahoma Woman, It Conquered the World, Swamp Women, Naked Paradise, Not of This Earth, Rock All Night, Carnival Rock, and The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.

Jonathan Haze, who originated the Seymour role in cult classic 1960 horror comedy The Little Shop of Horrors during a long collaboration with its director Roger Corman, has died. He was 95.

His daughter, Rebecca Haze, told Deadline that he died peacefully of natural causes on November 2 at his home in Los Angeles but did not provide a cause.

Jonathan Haze and Dorothy Malone in ‘Five Guns West,’ 1955

Born in Pittsburgh on April 1, 1929, Haze was discovered working in a gas station by Wyott Ordung, who gave him a role in Monster from the Ocean Floor, which Corman produced. That same year, he cast Haze in The Fast and the Furious and then as Billy Candy in the 1955 western Five Guns West, starring John Lund and Dorothy Malone.

They were the first of nearly 20 movies they made together, including 1955’s Apache Woman and Day the World Ended; 1956’s Gunslinger, The Oklahoma Woman, It...

Francis Ford Coppola’s projects may be few and far between nowadays and his most recent film, passion project Megalopolis was a flop with audiences and critics (our own Chris Bumbray gave it a 5/10), but the guy still has a staggering presence and remains one of the most respected and influential filmmakers of his generation. As such, the industry is prepared to honor Coppola with the AFI Life Achievement Award next year.

In a statement, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, said, “Francis Ford Coppola is a peerless artist – one who has created seminal works in the canon of American film, and has also inspired generations of filmmakers who now embody his artistry and his independent spirit. AFI is honored to present him with the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award.”

Like so many, Francis Ford Coppola came up through the Roger Corman system, delivering...

To celebrate Halloween, join Bloody FM’s The Horror Show as they cover Idle Hands with director Rodman Flender.

Sean and Joe are joined by Rodman Flender in this special Halloween episode of The Horror Show. Flender speaks of the movies that inspired him as a child and discusses being an undergrad in film at Harvard. He goes on to tell how a short-film he made while in the program had staff whispering about his potential expulsion, and how this led to him getting his start in horror and being taken under the wing of the late Roger Corman.

He also recounts how one of his first projects was frankenstein–ing The Terror (1960) and the ways that working with Corman influenced his entire career. He touches on directing the infamous episode “The Scare” of Dawson’s Creek and the inadvertent multiverse he and Kevin Williamson share.

When Joe asks Flender about...

Horror fans in the UK are in for a treat this November as Nyx UK, the dedicated horror TV channel, unveils an exciting schedule packed with fourteen channel premieres. From cult classics to modern horror favourites, the line-up promises thrills for every taste. Notably, this month’s programme includes supernatural tales, slashers, and a special tribute to horror legend Boris Karloff on his birthday.

Leading the premieres on 6 November is Spookt (2023), the latest supernatural horror from Tony Reames, starring Eric Roberts. Airing at 9 pm, Spookt follows a group as they grapple with terrifying paranormal events that push them to the edge. Another highlight this month is Stage Fright (2014), a darkly comedic fusion of horror and musical directed by Jerome Sable, featuring Minnie Driver and the late Meat Loaf. This unique slasher-musical airs on 22 November at 9 pm, promising an unforgettable blend of scares and songs.

For fans of genre-bending horror, Justin Benson...

This week on the Film Stories Podcast Network, our array of film and TV chats cover 1960s comedy, B-movie science fiction and more. Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Den of Ten

Sam Stokes regularly unpacks people’s favourite top ten’s in popular culture, today being joined by Geoff Owen to discuss their Top 10 Gaming Systems…

The Magic Box

A possible language barrier this week between Kurt North and guest Carl Sweeney as they discuss Lost 1×06 ‘House of the Rising Sun’…

At the Movies in the 90s

The first of a series of bonus episodes coming over the next month sees A. J. Black talk to Perry Constantine about Roger Corman’s 1990 sci-fi horror Frankenstein Unbound…

ChuckyVision

Mark Adams and Dev Elson continue their odyssey into killer doll territory, joined by Violet Hammond to discuss, err… Heartstopper Season 3. Good old tenuous links, eh?

Britcom Goes to the Movies

Not only Peter Cook,...

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Every comedy team needs a straight man. Lou Costello had Bud Abbot. The Marx Brothers had Margaret Dumont. The Three Stooges had everyone they came in contact with. And while it may not sound like a good deal of fun to be the person setting up the funny folks for laughs, it does take a lot of skill to do it proficiently. And any comedian worth their weight in yuks knows the better the setup, the bigger the laugh.

This applies to many sitcoms, where the cast of zanies needs a steadily turning planet around which to wildly orbit. If you're really good at it, there could be multiple Primetime Emmys coming to you (e.g. Ed Asner won three for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"). And if you happen to find yourself on "Gilligan's Island," while there might not...

A mutant stalks the Earth when the body of a dead astronaut is used as an alien incubator … Meanwhile, people are being attacked by giant leeches … It doesn’t get any more revolting (or entertaining) than that in this ‘50s creature double feature from producer Roger Corman and Emmy-nominated director Bernard Kowalski (Hot Car Girl).

Night of the Blood Beast (1958)—with an extensive restoration, a new 4K scan from original 35mm archival elements—and Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)—newly restored in HD—will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on 12th November 2024, in a special collector’s two-disc edition from Film Masters.

Night Of The Blood Beast (1958)

Astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) dies upon returning to Earth following a space mission, but mysteriously comes back to life! As the scientists at a remote space research station investigate Corcoran’s revival, they discover that a parasitic, alien lifeform is utilizing...

A mutant stalks the Earth when the body of a dead astronaut is used as an alien incubator … Meanwhile, people are being attacked by giant leeches … It doesn’t get any more revolting (or entertaining) than that in this ‘50s creature double feature from producer Roger Corman and Emmy-nominated director Bernard Kowalski (Hot Car Girl). Night of [...]

The post Film Masters’ 4th Roger Corman special collectors set—a creepy creature double feature on Blu-ray & DVD, 12th November 2024 first appeared on Horror Screams Video Vault - Supporting Independent Horror.

Spoilers for "Smile 2" follow.

By necessity, "Smile 2" remixes director Parker Finn's original film. "Smile" concluded with lead Rose (Sosie Bacon) succumbing to her curse; the smiling demon possessed and murdered her, passing itself onto Rose's ex Joel (Kyle Gallner). After a cold opening resolving Joel's fate, "Smile 2" jumps to our round two antiheroine: pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott).

The original "Smile" was about a therapist's own mental health unraveling. By switching protagonists, "Smile 2" takes on a new theme, but one also as old as the movies: the psychic torture of fame. It's impossible to watch Skye and not think of real female celebrities like Britney Spears who were chewed up and spit out by tabloid media and impossible expectations.

Even before the smiling demon shows up, Skye is feeling uneasy, as if she's balancing on the top loop of a spiral. A recovering addict...

There’s a popular idiom often attributed to Picasso about how good artists copy and great artists steal. Naturally, this isn’t referring to plagiarism, but rather the idea that it’s better for an artist to reproduce something directly from the source instead of simply regurgitating it as-is. The way I see it, this sentiment also applies to creative rip-offs, as I’ll take an unlicensed cash-grab over endless sequels any day of the week.

After all, this is how we got beloved franchises like Friday the 13th (the original film was an attempt at capitalizing on the success of Halloween) and even Star Wars (A New Hope was meant to be a cheap Flash Gordon knock-off). And in honor of all the rip-offs that continue to feed the ouroboros that is popular culture, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six spooky Mockbusters that are actually worth your time.

Exclusive: We have the finalists for the 2024 Latine List.

The partnership between the Latin Tracking Board, Nalip and The Black List have selected 10 projects that represent some of the best rising talents in Latin-e/a/o/@ storytelling in film, TV and theater.

Following the List’s core mandate, this year’s selected scripts probe the scope and depth of genres and voices — past and present.

“This collection shines a spotlight on Latine characters, settings and narratives that capture the intriguing complexities of our culture,” the Latin Tracking Board said today. “Each script offers a unique perspective, celebrating the originality and richness of Latine experiences.”

In fact, several writers on this year’s Latine List have received pervious industry praise and recognition for their work.

Rebecca Iliana Kahn was selected for the 2024 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive. Christian Moldes was in this year’s Sundance Screenwriters Lab, as well as awarded the Sundance Institute...

For over fifty years, Francis Ford Coppola has been a towering, and often controversial, figure in American Cinema. His filmography is one of the most legendary of all time and includes some of the greatest movies ever made like The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), and more. It also includes wild swings—One from the Heart (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)—which sometimes paid off, but sometimes did not. This year, his forty-year-in-the-making passion project Megalopolis finally hit screens for the general public after a festival run that provoked a mixed critical response to say the least. It is a gigantic movie made on a huge budget with vast, and sometimes impenetrable, ideas. His very first film, however, was a much more modest project, made on a minuscule budget, and…it was a horror movie.

Dementia 13 (1963) is very much a...

Back in 1983, legendary producer Roger Corman brought the world a sword and sorcery film with an awesome title: Deathstalker. It was so successful, it paved the way for three sequels: Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987), Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell (1988), and Deathstalker IV: Match of the Titans (1991). The franchise went dormant for more than thirty years, but earlier this year we learned that it’s being revived by filmmaker Steven Kostanski – whose previous credits include Manborg, Father’s Day, The Void, Leprechaun Returns, Psycho Goreman, Frankie Freako, and episodes of the short-lived Day of the Dead TV series. Kostanski is writing and directing a Deathstalker remake that has Daniel Bernhardt (John Wick) playing the title character… and now that the project is in post-production, the filmmakers recently revealed that the theme song composed for the remake is a collaboration between legendary musician Slash, composer Bear McCreary, and Deathstalker II composer Chuck Cirino!

Film Masters, a group of historians and enthusiasts who seek to keep old films from falling into disrepair, have repaired another one. Night Of The Blood Beast, one of director Roger Corman’s many, many schlocky B-movie bills, has been remastered in 4K and will be available on Blu-Ray this November. If you’ve heard of this at all, it’s because it has its own MST3K episode — well, that’s actually on the disc, along with the restored original, a full commentary track by Tom Weaver and The Weaver Players, and even the silent 8Mm cut for home projectors (that was once a thing!) Astronaut John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) dies upon returning to Earth following a space mission, but mysteriously comes back to life! As the scientists at a remote space research station investigate Corcoran’s revival, they discover that a parasitic, alien lifeform is utilizing his body...

The 1960s saw the release of many classic horror films, including Psycho, The Birds, and Carnival of Souls. My favorite 1960s horror film is more over the top than any of those. It’s also possible that the movie in question had an impact on the world of religion.

My favorite 1960s horror film makes an Edgar Allan Poe story even darker

During the 1960s, director Roger Corman made a series of Gothic horror films based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Almost all of these films starred horror icon Vincent Price. One of the most famous is The Masque of the Red Death. The original story is about Prospero, a prince who hides in a castle with his court while a disease known as the “Red Death” ravages the countryside.

The film version faithfully follows the broad strokes of the story — with a twist. In the movie, Prospero...

As a follow up to the excellent "Bram Stoker's Dracula Starring Bela Lugosi" graphic novel, Kerry Gammill and El Garing return for “Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Starring Boris Karloff." A new adaptation that remains faithful to Mary Shelley's original novel, the graphic novel features Boris Karloff's in a new vision for Frankenstein's Monster, and Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff, served as an executive consultant on the project. I had the pleasure of catching up with her recently to talk about the graphic novel, her thoughts on the 1931 film and Boris Karloff's performance, and her favorite films that star her father. We also have an 8-page preview you can check out below.

What excited you about getting involved in the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein graphic novel project?

Sara Karloff: Having seen the wonderful work they did on the Dracula [graphic novel].

One of the things that really stood out to me,...

With the release of The Substance, in which Demi Moore’s fading celebrity seeks to create a younger version of herself, we rate the 10 best films about turning back time

The ageing face of a cosmetics CEO (the tragic Susan Cabot in her final film role) is blamed for falling sales, so she injects herself with an experimental wasp enzyme and sheds 20 years in one weekend. Unfortunately, it also turns her into a homicidal wasp monster in this low-budget creature feature directed by the B-movie maestro Roger Corman.

This weekend is The International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards, commemorating the 175th anniversary of Poe's death in Baltimore. Taking place from October 4th - 6th, the event also celebrates a big milestone: the 60th anniversary of Roger Corman and Vincent Price's The Masque of the Red Death.

The event includes a panel of special guests to talk about the film and its legacy, including Victoria Price, whom I had the pleasure of speaking with to talk about the importance of the film, Vincent Price's lasting impact, and her Halloween celebrations.

The festival will have a 60th anniversary screening of Roger Corman and Vincent Price's The Masque of Red Death, which is a personal favorite of mine.

Victoria Price: Me too! Roger was one of those people I thought was going to live forever, so it's strange to not have him here.

He left such an impression on the people he interacted with.

A while back, C​ocaine Bear surprised everyone with its box office haul. For fans of animal attack movies, this is not a shock. People love animal attack films and can’t get enough of them. I’m not sure if it’s the man vs. nature theme of the films, the animals themselves getting revenge on humans, or just the all-around fun these films bring. No matter what, they are enjoyable for audiences in theaters. T​here has been a long history of animals attacking humans on film. Some films that are classified as ‘classic’ cinema fall into the animal attack category. We can always use more movies of animals rampaging through humans on the big screen. What are some of the best animal attack movies?

G​rizzly (1976)

S​ince bears seem to be on everyone’s brain this weekend; then we might as well start with this classic.

October 25 will mark 62 years since the release of the first film directed by Francis Ford Coppola: “Come on Out” (later retitled “Tonight for Sure”), a re-edited feature version of three different shorter nudie films he made while a film student at UCLA. It debuted in 1962, right in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis.

With “Megalopolis” opening, he likely has the longest feature film directorial career ever, ahead of Manoel de Oliveira (61 years), Jean-Luc Godard (58), Jerzy Skolimowsky (58), and Frederick Wiseman (56). Clint Eastwood, whose latest film “Juror #2” premieres next month, spans a mere 53 as a director.

To sustain a career that long necessitates a lot of success, which Coppola has had, led by “The Godfather.” But it has been a perilous journey, elongated (“Megalopolis” the most extreme) by his willingness to spend money to keep directing. Of note, his last studio-financed film was “The Rainmaker,” 27 years — and nearly half his career — ago.

Since the 1980s, director James Cameron has pushed the limits of visual effects in his blockbusters, from the Terminator and Avatar franchises to The Abyss and Titanic. The innovations that made these movies possible have also made him a beloved, acclaimed, and very wealthy artist. But his latest technological jump has rubbed many fans the wrong way: Cameron this week officially joined the board of the artificial intelligence company Stability AI, which created and operates the generative text-to-image model Stable Diffusion.

Today, our CEO, @premakkaraju, announced that legendary filmmaker, technology innovator,...

Ron Howard's acting career was part of a family legacy, as his father, Rance, was already a prolific performer when he was born in 1954. Howard's first professional acting credit is for the 1959 feature "The Journey," with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. That same year, the five-year-old Ron infiltrated TV, appearing as precocious moppets in multiple hot shows.

More notably, beginning in 1960, Ron -- credited as Ronny -- began starring on "The Andy Griffith Show," playing Opie, the son of Griffith's character. Howard would appear in 243 of the show's 249 episodes, over the course of eight seasons. While appearing on "Andy Griffith," Howard would continue to be a TV presence, appearing in dozens of additional hot shows, as well as several notable B-pictures.

Even in his teen years, Howard continued to act, proving that he was no mere child prodigy. He appeared in George Lucas' nostalgia film "American Graffiti," and...

If you're hoping to discover that Russell Johnson, the level-headed, boundlessly inventive Professor Roy Hinkley from "Gilligan's Island" lived a life riddled with scandal, prepare to be sorely disappointed. Aside from his 1948 divorce and the time he entered the Burbank Post Office parking lot through the exit lane because he was running late for a Kiwanis Club dinner, there's not so much as a speck of dirt on this guy.

Born in 1924, you won't be surprised to learn that he served in World War II. But you might be interested to learn that on his 45th bombing raid in the Pacific Theater, his B-25 was shot down, forcing him to ditch the aircraft off the coast of the Philippines. His co-pilot was killed, while Johnson broke both of his ankles. Johnson received a fistful of medals, was honorably discharged, and used the G.I. Bill to study performance at the Actors' Lab in Hollywood.

Director Max Minghella wears his cinematic influences on his sleeves with sophomore feature effort Shell, a body horror dark comedy written by Jack Stanley (The Passenger).

Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man) finds herself embarking on a scary new beauty treatment as aging actor Samantha Lake. She quickly befriends Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson), CEO of health & wellness company Shell. When their patients start to go missing, including starlet Chloe Benson (Kaia Gerber), Samantha realizes Shell may be protecting a monstrous secret.

The escapist love letter to ’90s cinema leans into dark comedy, but embraces everything from Paul Verhoeven to Soapdish, Species, and Sliver, if that’s any indicator of genre range here. Bloody Disgusting spoke with Minghella, who made his feature directorial debut with 2018’s Teen Spirit, about the genre-bender out of TIFF, where the film had its World Premiere.

The filmmaker revealed more about his influences, but mores o his...

Gremlins may have stopped at only 2 movies and a recent animated TV show, but a lot of its imitators went on to make a killing in the sequel market. Sure, we had one offs like Munchies from Roger Corman and Goobers from the mind of Charles Band which should have rightfully stayed one and done but others wanted in on that franchise action. The Gate would have 2 entries as would Hobgoblins. Troll would get a few sequels, kinda, if you want to go down the rabbit hole of strange Italian sequels in name only that are just called that to capitalize on the profits of other movies and Ghoulies would somehow, miraculously, get 4 films although if I’m being honest, I actually enjoy watching that series. Critters also had 4 (initially) but has a much stronger legacy in terms of enjoyment and interesting background including the fact that even though it came out after Gremlins,...

While “Megalopolis” was in pre-production in 2021, Francis Ford Coppola presented Amazon with a unique idea: the director asked if the company would create a customized version of Alexa to be used in specific theaters. As Coppola told The Telegraph in a new interview, audiences would have the opportunity to ask Adam Driver’s character a question about what had transpired in the movie so far — and Alexa would choose the most relevant answer from a pre-approved list.

“Imagine!” Coppola said. “You could see ‘Megalopolis’ five times in its opening week and it would be different each time! It would have been the future of the movies and ancient theater rolled into one!”

Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out due to layoffs at Amazon that resulted in thousands of jobs cut from the Alexa team, including those working on the project for “Megalopolis.” Coppola didn’t plan to move forward with...

In the pantheon of 1960s B-movie filmmakers whose work later became reappraised and celebrated for its progressive themes, Russ Meyer has the kind of legacy that rivals Roger Corman. Best known for a series of sexploitation films like “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,” Meyer’s pornographic filmography is now viewed by many as boundary-pushing work that brilliantly encapsulates many of the changing social norms of his generation.

Meyer was fiercely independent and maintained ownership of all of his films until his death in 2004, and quality copies of all but his most famous works have been hard to come by in the 21st century. But thanks to Severin Films, fans will now have a chance to own three iconic Meyer films on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Uhd. The distributor has partnered with the Russ Meyer Charitable Trust to release new editions of his trilogy consisting of “Vixen!,...

A World of Timeless Musicians Since long before the days of film, there have been countless great composers throughout history; people who have a true ear for music and have been able to write and produce melodies that have gone on to be remembered for generations to come. Such individuals include Beethoven, Georges Bizet, Krzysztof Penderecki, Ennio Morricone, and John Williams. However, today I’d like to honor a composer that was taken from us far too soon, a man by the name of James Horner. Background James Horner was born on August 14, 1953 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Harry Horner had previously moved to the United States to work in theater as a set designer and art director. Meanwhile, his brother Christopher Horner, born two years later, would go on to write and film a few documentaries, including a 2004 feature titled ‘The Disappearing of Tuvalu: Trouble in Paradise.’ As for James Horner himself,...

Producers for the 76th annual Emmy Awards have been editing the special “In Memoriam” segment to be featured on Sunday’s ABC ceremony. Since the most recent ceremony was delayed until mid-January, there are only eight months of TV legends who have died instead of the typical 12 months.

We have assembled a list of people below who might be selected. Members of the academy’s TV Hall of Fame are host and producer Phil Donahue, anchor and journalist Robert MacNeil, lighting designer Bill Klages and actor and comedian Bob Newhart. Some of the previous Emmy winners and nominees include previous academy president Leo Chaloukian, actor Bill Cobbs, actor Dabney Coleman, actress Shelley Duvall, actor and writer Joe Flaherty, director Jerry Foley, actor Louis Gossett Jr., actor Bill Hayes, actor James Earl Jones, host Peter Marshall, actor and comedian Martin Mull, actress Gena Rowlands, actor James B. Sikking, actor Donald Sutherland and actor Carl Weathers.

Earlier this year, Shudder renewed The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs for a supersized sixth season that was designed to make sure Joe Bob Briggs would be an even more consistent presence on the streaming service throughout the year. Normally, a season of The Last Drive-In would see Joe Bob hosting double features every Friday for ten weeks straight. This season has taken a different approach, having Joe Bob host a single movie every other Friday. Following a special Roger Corman double feature on March 15th, season 6 officially got started on March 29th – and it’s going to wrap up with a six movie marathon called The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon (with special guest Rhonda Shear of USA Up All Night!) this Friday, August 30th. But before we get to the end of season 6, Joe Bob has taken to social media to announce that Shudder has renewed The Last Drive-In for season 7!

Joe Bob said,...

Exclusive: Alexander Payne has lambasted a report from earlier this year that the script for his five-time Oscar-nominated film The Holdovers, which he directed from a script by David Hemingson, was plagiarized.

“It was the stupidest thing in the world,” Payne told us at the Sarajevo Film Festival when asked about the Variety report earlier this year, which dropped on the eve of the Oscar ceremony.

In the piece, Luca screenwriter Simon Stephenson accused The Holdovers script of being plagiarized from his 2013 Black List screenplay Frisco.

“It was irresponsible of Variety to report on that without having read the scripts and comparing them themselves,” claimed Payne. “Do you think The New York Times would have done that?”

He added: “I haven’t heard anything more about it and I wish him [Stephenson] well but there was just no merit to it. I mean, I didn’t even pay attention to...

One of the earliest Alien rip-offs was made for US television. We take a look back at 1981’s The Intruder Within.

Much like Jaws, Star Wars and Mad Max before it, the success of 1979’s Alien prompted studios and producers the world over to make their own hastily-made rip-off movies. Thanks to – shall we say – enterprising filmmakers like Roger Corman and Norman J Warren, we got cheap and cheerful fare like Barracuda (1978), Battle Beyond The Stars (1980) and Inseminoid (1981).

One of the earliest Alien clones to emerge like a shambling monster, though, was The Intruder Within – a low-budget TV movie that cheekily borrowed all sorts of ideas from Ridley Scott’s hit, but transplanted the entire thing from a spaceship in the future to an oil rig in the post-energy crisis early 1980s. As you can probably imagine, it isn’t a lost classic, but it’s fascinating to revisit, both...

When “Boulevard Nights” opened in early 1979, it was one of several major studio films — along with “The Warriors,” The Wanderers,” and “Over the Edge” — to take on gang violence as its primary subject. After the movies inspired a handful of violent incidents at theaters, Paramount doubled down on the marketing of Walter Hill‘s “The Warriors” and turned it into a box office hit; unfortunately for “Boulevard Nights” director Michael Pressman, Warner Bros. went in the opposite direction and pulled their film from the venues where violence had broken out, essentially abandoning the movie.

“Warner Bros. said, ‘We’re very proud of this movie, don’t get us wrong,'” Pressman told IndieWire, “‘but we’re not about to risk lawsuits.'” Over the years, however, “Boulevard Nights” has found the audience it always deserved via repertory screenings (it’s a perennial favorite at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema...

In Hollywood's eyes, before James Cameron became a household name for directing things like "The Terminator," "Titanic," and "Avatar," he was just another guy who had worked for low-budget producer Roger Corman and directed the little-seen stinker "Piranha II: The Spawning." Few people were paying much attention to Cameron at that point, but apparently, one industry veteran who had his eye on the up-and-coming filmmaker was legendary director Steven Spielberg.

During a tribute to Spielberg that took place at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles back in 2011, directors Michael Apted, J.J. Abrams, and James Cameron interviewed Spielberg in front of a sold-out crowd, and Cameron shared a story about a note Spielberg gave on Cameron's idea for what would become the 1986 sci-fi action classic "Aliens."

"I tried to get you started, you know," Spielberg told Cameron on stage, recalling that he offered Cameron the opportunity to direct...