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Rob Zombie has been one of the most polarizing figures in the horror community since making the leap from musician to filmmaker. He made his feature writing and directorial debut with House of 1000 Corpses in 2003 — after being purchased by Lionsgate when its original studio, Universal, shelved it three years prior due to fears of it receiving a dreaded Nc-17 rating.

Corpses fell victim to many issues faced by first-time directors — Zombie was seemingly unsure if he’d ever get the opportunity to make another movie, resulting in an anarchic mélange of ideas and influences — but the end result remains potent all these years later. Despite the troubled production and a largely unfavorable critical response, the film turned a healthy profit, giving Zombie the sinister urge to make a sequel as his sophomore effort.

Released 20 years ago today, The Devil’s Rejects is decidedly more grounded in reality than its heightened predecessor.

You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman: The Ongoing Halloween Saga―13 Movies and Counting will be published in hardcover and e-book on August 7 via Bloomsbury Publishing.

Written by Wayne Byrne (Welcome to Elm Street: Inside the Film and Television Nightmares), the book is a cultural and critical examination of the Halloween franchise, considering the style, themes, and development of the series within temporal and industrial contexts.

Through candid conversations, a variety of directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, composers, and actors from across the 13 Halloween films offer exclusive insights into their careers, their unique aesthetic approaches, and their experiences of working on one of the most celebrated horror franchises of all time.

Interview subjects include: actors Gloria Gifford, Marianne Hagan, and Brad Loree; directors Tommy Lee Wallace, Dwight H. Little, and Dominique Othenin-Girard; writer Daniel Farrands; cinematographers Dean Cundey, Peter Lyons Collister, Rob Draper, Daryn Okada, David Geddes, and Phil Parmet; and composers Alan Howarth,...

Horror Obsessive founder Andrew Grevas will publish Horror in Haddonfield: The Untold Stories of Halloween in paperback and e-book on October 7 via Tucker DS Press.

The 250-page book unmasks the secrets behind all 13 Halloween films. Combining essays and interviews with the casts and creative teams, Grevas uncomplicates complicated timelines, dishes on unmade films, and reveals never-heard-before stories about the making of the movies.

Halloween franchise actors Danielle Harris, Scout Taylor-Compton, Ellie Cornell, Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Marianne Hagan, Lance Guest, Dee Wallace, Kathleen Kinmont, Jefferson Hall, Sandy Johnson, Daniel Roebuk, Chris Durand, and Brad Loree are among the interview subjects.

The book also features insight from directors Dwight Little and Dominique Othenin-Girard, writers Alan McElroy, Shem Bitterman, Daniel Farrands, Robert Zappia, and Paul Brad Logan, cinematographers Dean Cundey, David Geddes, and Phil Parmet, and more.

The post ‘Horror in Haddonfield: The Untold Stories of Halloween’ Publishing in October appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!

Among the many American independent films made in the ‘90s, few reflect the climate better than “In the Soup.” Director Alexandre Rockwell’s black-and-white comedy, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, follows wannabe New York filmmaker Adolpho Rolo (a young Steve Buscemi) as he attempts to turn his 500-page screenplay into a movie starring his next-door neighbor Angelica (Jennifer Beals). Adolpho’s ambitions are exploited by the mysterious Joe (Seymour Cassel in one of his most endearing performances). The alternately charming and confrontational cigar-chomping raconteur proclaims his desire to produce Adolpho’s movie, while forcing him into a series of strange criminal antics, as Adolpho’s project drifts further away from his original intentions.

The scrappy movie resembles the indie-filmmaking energy at the time — not for nothing does Jim Jarmusch make a cameo — and remains a charming statement on the conflict between artistic passion and...

Next week sees the arrival of New York’s 17th annual Tribeca Film Festival, running 18th-29th April, boasting a vast array of film and TV screenings, starry anniversary reunion events, concerts, on stage interviews and discussions, as well as a focus on games and Vr experiences. Below are just some of this year’s highlights, for the full lineup and to purchase tickets for films and events visit the official Tribeca website: https://www.tribecafilm.com/

Stars and filmmakers set to attend this year’s festival include Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Rockwell, Alec Baldwin, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Spike Lee, Brian De Palma, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Viola Davis, Thandie Newton, Saoirse Ronan and Tribeca Co-Founder Robert De Niro.

Opening Night

2018 Tribeca Opening Night ‘Love Gilda’

The 2018 edition opens with the World Premiere of documentary Love, Gilda, directed by Lisa D’Apolito, saluting the career...

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Alexandre Rockwell‘s landmark indie In The Soup, which is currently crowdraising funds for a badly needed restoration and re-release. We’re happy to share this interview with Rockwell, conducted by Factory 25’s Matt Grady. Click here to learn more and check out the Kickstarter campaign, and here for a video interview for more from Rockwell. What’s so unique about how you made In the Soup? One of the most defining things about In the Soup is its look. The stellar cinematography of Phil Parmet comes across in a rich, high-contrast look, deeply saturated blacks and brilliant […]...

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress, as presented by the creators themselves. At the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

Raisin’ Cain: The History of Cain’s Ballroom

Logline: “Raisin’ Cain” will be a cinematic journey told through the music and artists that have made this Tulsa music venue legendary. It will celebrate its 92 years, exploring the ties between Cain’s, the Tulsa Sound, and a myriad of musical genres.

Elevator Pitch:

We hope to preserve the storied history of the legendary Honky-Tonk, Cain’s Ballroom. “The Home of Bob Wills” has hosted 3 generations of Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Wanda Jackson to the Sex Pistols, The Police, U2 and many others. The film will tell...

Hello, and welcome to The Best Of Number Two here at The Liberal Dead. We haven’t done any kind of theme for a long time, so I thought I would reach out to some some talented people from other sites, and see if we can put something together. I decided it would be a theme about the best second films in a franchise/series. Expect discussion about Metamorhosis: The Alien Factor, The Devil’s Rejects, C.H.U.D. II, Blade II, Sleepaway Camp II, Amityville 2, Island of the Fishmen, The Dark Knight, Final Destination 2, House II and more.

Rob Zombie is a polarizing filmmaker, to say the least. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny is his ambition. The longtime musician made his feature directorial debut with House of 1000 Corpses. Although filmed in 2000, the movie didn’t hit theaters until 2003. Corpses fell victim to many issues that first-time directors face,...

Chicago – The Duplass Brothers recently told me that they avoid making movies blatantly modeled after the work of other filmmakers because they often end up “derivative and bad.” Jake Goldberger’s debut feature “Don McKay” is living proof of this principle. It is a monumentally awkward rip-off of the debut feature from the most well-known filmmaking team of brothers in modern cinema.

I’m referring to “Blood Simple,” the 1985 neo-noir by Joel and Ethan Coen that is not merely a great film, but the type of picture guaranteed to generate excitement about the art form. The structure of the movie is so meticulous and the diabolical dark humor is so infectious that film lovers can’t help hanging on every last frame. One of the most memorable aspects of the picture is its utilization of the Motown hit, “It’s the Same Old Song,” which first emanates from a jukebox,...

By Wrap Staff

IFC Films has acquired North American rights to "Mercy," the closing-night film of the 2010 Gen Art Film Festival.

Patrick Hoelck makes his directing debut on the romantic drama, written and produced by Scott Caan.

Caan also stars, along with his father, James Caan, and Wendy Glenn, Troy Garity, Erika Christensen, Alexie Gilmore, John Boyd, Dylan McDermot and Whitney Able.

Vince Palomino and Phil Parmet also produce.

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Restored Archive Review, Originally Posted on 9/6/07

Given how ’70s-inflected his previous features House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’S Rejects were, it was perhaps inevitable that Rob Zombie would become involved in the current trend of reduxing low-budget horror’s golden age. And if Halloween had to be remade—which was sadly inevitable under the circumstances—Zombie was inarguably among the best choices for the job. The good news is that his take on John Carpenter’s 1978 classic demonstrates a far greater affinity for the material than the makers of the clueless Assault On Precinct 13 and The Fog remakes. The bad news is that his attempts to simultaneously explore different avenues of the story and stick to the trail forged by Carpenter ultimately cancel each other out.

For about the first 45 minutes or so, the new Halloween engenders a reaction echoing that which greeted Stanley Kubrick’s film...

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In recent years, riding on the popularity of the Saw franchise, Lionsgate has come up with a veritable assembly line model for horror film marketing. That's not to say they haven't been surprisingly selective in the kind of material they put out; High Tension, Open Water, and The Descent have all been relatively well-received and have found a decent audience, particularly Neil Marshall's nerve-racking cave-dweller horror film. The Burrowers, a straight-to-dvd release from the studio, is a surprise, in that it offers not only a novel setting but also more than competent acting and eye-catching cinematography.

A horror western is a unique concept that requires a masterful balancing act, utilized to great effect in Alex Turner's disturbing Dead Birds, released in 2004. Whereas Dead Birds focused largely on a single location and functioned as a psychological thriller, The Burrowers is much more in vein of a western,...

Scary creatures can invade any time or place, such as outer space, a cave or your innocent daughter’s upstairs bedroom. And horror can come from anywhere—even underground. Such is the case when strange flesheating monsters invade the Old West in writer/director J.T. Petty’s The Burrowers, coming on Lionsgate DVD April 21, and Fango visited the set to dig up the details.

John Ford’s Western films, especially 1956’s The Searchers, served as a template for this creature feature, set in the Dakota Territories in 1879. Petty and his team are putting an emphasis on open spaces, dark moodiness and the broody nature of a Western-era posse. Add in subterranean lifeforms, alien-like but born of the Earth, that hunt and prey on humans, and you have a film (see our reviews here and here) that initially sounds a bit like Tremors in the cowboy era. But it’s not,...

Rob Zombie is replacing the director of photography of his last two features - Phil Parmet ( The Devil's Rejects and Halloween ) - with Brandon Trost for Halloween 2 . They commence shooting on the sequel in Atlanta, Georgia on February 23rd for Dimension Films. Trost has amassed a sizable list of credits in the cinematography and special effects departments. In the latter, he has worked as an FX assistant on Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and Scream 2 . As a director of photography he shot Rob Hall's Lightning Bug , Jake Kennedy's Days of Darkness and, most recently, Crank 2: High Voltage . Zombie has stated that this new sequel is going to be, when compared to the 2007 remake, different in the same fashion The Devil's Rejects is to its predecessor House of 1000...

Glass Eye Pix announced this mont that they have wrapped production on Red Earth, a series of short films by horror fave Jt Petty (Soft For Digging, Mimic: Sentinel ) to promote his forthcoming feature The Burrowers from Liongate. Cinematographer Phil Parmet (Halloween, The Devil's Rejects) was on hand to shoot with a crew culled from the recent Glass Eye production I Sell The Dead. Red Earth was produced by Peter Phok and co-produced by Brent Kunkle; production design by John Vogt, Fessenden doubles as producer and cowboy. Read on for a little behind-the-scenes photo. The Burrowers will premiere at the "Midnight Madness" segment of the Toronto International Film Festival.

PARK CITY -- The land of Goshen, namely the barren burg in Indiana, is the grim setting for this tale of despair and renewal. In these biblical terms, it's the story of the prodigal son as Jim, an apathetic 27-year-old, trudges home to dwell with his parents.

Etched in subdued hues and featuring a terrific indie cast of Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place and Seymour Cassel, Lonesome Jim may find most hospitable company as a cable offering, as well as a DVD possibility for the indie connoisseur.

Director Steve Buscemi's hand is alternately edgy and mushy as Lonesome Jim meanders from the darkest recesses of the spirit to an atonal, feel-good finale. Indie fans who usually associate Buscemi's acting with a creepy cynicism will be mystified by the film's uplifting, studio-ish resolution. Jim, however, might be most noteworthy for the finely nuanced scripting of writer James C. Strouse, who kindles a resonant spark from the bleakest of settings and circumstance. In the end, Buscemi seemingly pushes the film's aesthetics, especially the strummy upbeat music, beyond the story's succinct philosophical duality.

Set in the gray of the post-Christmas holidays, Goshen is a netherworld that looks like neither winter or spring. Similarly, Jim's family is devoid of vitality or distinction. They are a sorry, if somewhat well-off lot: Dad (Cassel) owns a ladder-making factory, while Mom (Place) busies herself selling snacks to workers and doting on her two sons, including the newly returned Jim (Affleck) and ever-present Tim (Kevin Corrigan). All are weary, and none are happy; in fact, Tim has repeatedly tried to kill himself behind the wheel. Even by Midwestern standards, they are laconic and uncommunicative.

Permeating this flat family tract is the overall philosophical question: What is the point of going on with lives so drab? Aspiring writer Jim papers his walls with mugs of the most celebrated of the distressed writers -- Platt, Hemingway, Beckett, et al. No one connects, and Mom's incessant chirpiness and neediness only alienates them further. In this world, we never expect to see the spring.

Under Buscemi's overall smart direction, the acting is terrific. Affleck brings credible fiber to a weak-willed loser, while Tyler is warm as a small-town nurse with no hopes. Veteran indie players Place and Cassel are terrific as a husband and wife who ignore and alienate one another. Place is particularly sympathetic as a woman who tries too hard to find love and goodness within her sad-sack family. As a skull-collecting druggie, Mark Boone Junior is a blast of manic energy and evil.

Technical credits are apt and accomplished. Cinematographer Phil Parmet's stark compositions and pallid hues clue us to the characters' inner emptiness, while Chuck Voelter's Midwestern gothic production design is a deadening blend of kitsch and emptiness.

LONESOME JIM

Plum Pictures

Producers: Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Jake Abraham, Gary Winick, Steve Buscemi

Director: Steve Buscemi

Screenwriter: James C. Strouse

Executive producers: Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, John Sloss, Reagan Silber, Anna Waterhouse

Co-produce: Derrick Tseng

Associate producers: Saxon Eldridge, Emily Gardiner, Mandy Tagger

Director of photography: Phil Parmet

Editor: Plummy Tucker

Productionj designer: Chuck Voelter

Costume designer: Victoria Farrell

Casting directors: Sheila Jaffe, Georgianne Walken

Cast:

Jim: Casey Affleck

Anika: Liv Tyler

Sally: Mary Kay Place

Don: Seymour Cassel

Tim: Kevin Corrigan

Ben: Jack Rovello

Rachel: Rachel Strouse

Sarah: Sarah Strouse

Evil: Mark Boone Junior

Running time -- 87 minutes...

"Hey, baby. Walk nasty for me". This low-voiced, seductive lead-in is the gateway to endless jokes about an extremely long penis in this serviceable showcase for stand-up comic Craig Shoemaker, a winner at this year's American Comedy Awards.

Directed by first-timer Michael Goldberg (co-writer with partner Tommy Swerdlow of "Cool Runnings" and "Little Giants"), "The LoveMaster" is distributed by Rocket Releasing and boasts small roles and cameos played by Farrah Fawcett, Kurt Rambis, Karen Witter and Courtney Thorne-Smith. Its theatrical life should be brief, but Shoemaker's fans will discover "LoveMaster" in the video rental market, where it should do brisk business.

There's a nominal plot about comedian and impersonator Craig Shoemaker) trying to work out his personality problems with a therapist (George Wendt), including amusing flashbacks with the lead as a young boy (Kyle Thomas) and teen (Andrew Starnes). But the real attraction is Shoemaker's onstage talents and R-rated material, captured in a 1995 concert at the Improv in Tempe, Ariz.

With a gift for facial contortions to go along with his perfect vocal mimicry, Shoemaker knows how to work a crowd into hysterics with a combination of Baby Boomer nostalgia and raunchy sex jokes. His Don-Knotts-as-Barney-Fife shtick is inspired, while caricatures of his pot-smoking grandmother and an effusive gay man are engagingly exaggerated.

Shoemaker has fun with young audience members who may not get all his 1950s- and '60s pop culture references. He's most exciting when he changes personality mid-joke, but too often he returns to the titular LoveMaster. It's a very funny bit but limited to variations on how one can use a member comparable to an elephant's trunk to impress the ladies.

THE LOVEMASTER

Rocket Releasing

Rocket Pictures presents

A Coleman/Breen production

A Michael Goldberg film

Director Michael Goldberg

Producer Tom Coleman

Executive producers Alan David, Mark Breen

Directors of photography Phil Parmet,

Jeff Zimmerman

Production designer Gary Randail

Editors Richard Currie, Jeremy Kasten

Music Michael Skloff, Giorgio Bertucelli

Costume designer Maud Kersnowski

Color/stereo

Cast:

Craig Craig Shoemaker

Therapist George Wendt

Young Craig Kyle Thomas

Teen Craig Andrew Starnes

Running time -- 84 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

Dennis Hopper gives one of his best performances in years in "The Last Days of Frankie the Fly," a sobering and insightful character study of a small-time hood that won audience affection at the recent Santa Barbara (Calif.) International Film Festival.

Also featuring Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen and Kiefer Sutherland, this "Fly" could certainly swat down a respectable following on the art house or select-site circuit for a savvy distributor.

In this tight and sympathetic scenario, Hopper stars as Frankie, a petty thief who has reached that stage in midlife when most professional men have some sort of identity crisis. Indeed, Frankie feels he's never made his mark, never scored big enough; the only thing he seems to have is his big, vintage T-Bird convertible that he somewhat vaingloriously tools around in.

He's regarded as somewhat of a joke by the local hoods, a semi-pathetic figure trying to impress a shady lady (Hannah) with his posturings and nutball ambition to perpetrate an identity-fulfilling crime.

The highlight of this tightly woven character piece is Dayton Callie's perceptive, realistic screenplay, which offers a keen insight into the psychology of a man whose life has been unfulfilled.

With Hopper's subdued and shaded performance as the desperate Frankie, the film achieves a natural human resonance, touching our hearts for this guy.

Other players are well-cast, including Madsen as a threatening, sadistic hood and Sutherland as a shady wacko. Director Peter Markle gets the most from his cast, with measured and disciplined performances delivered all around.

Technical credits are similarly lean and eloquent, particularly cinematographer Phil Parmet's gritty lensing.

THE LAST DAYS OF FRANKIE THE FLY

Nu Image

In association with Phoenician Films

An Elie Samaha production

in association with Blueline Prods.

A Peter Markle film

Producer Elie Samaha

Director Peter Markle

Screenwriter Dayton Callie

Executive producers Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson

Line producer Tom Wright Jr.

Director of photography Phil Parmet

Music George S. Clinton

Casting Geno Havens

Editor David Campling

Supervising editor Stephen Rivkin

Production designer James Newport

Costume designer Judy Truchan

Color/stereo

Cast:

Frankie Dennis Hopper

Margaret Daryl Hannah

Sal Michael Madsen

Joey Kiefer Sutherland

Vic Dayton Callie

Thug Charles Carroll

Jack Jack McGee

Running time -- 96 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

PARK CITY, Utah -- "In the Soup'' drew howls of appreciative laughter from the in-the-biz audience here Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival. An inside, off-the-wall slant on independent filmmaking, this dark and daffy movie -- the Grand Jury Prize winner in the Dramatic Competition -- should be a winner on the art-house circuit but seems unlikely to crack into mainstream venues.

In screenwriters Alexandre Rockwell and Tim Kissel's screwy scenario, filmmaker wannabee Adolpho Rollo (Steve Buscemi) places a classified ad in a New Jersey rag offering his 500-page spec script for sale.

What kind of nutty amateur would pull such a naive and desperate stunt -- well, just the type of unwary doofus who could get into "financing, '' figures one crazy Joe (Seymour Cassel) who has not only a flair for larceny but a yen for immortality. Joe wants to leave something behind, and although he can't make head or tails of Adolpho's screenplay, he figures its the kind of high-falutin' art that could be cemented in the ages.

Holding promises of a $250,000 budget in front of the suddenly-inspired Adolpho, Joe sucks the anxious filmmaker into a series of quick-cash production revenue-raising ventures -- ripping off a crooked cop's Porsche, and other sundry illegal, money-raising activities. There's more to making movies than beavering away on a script, Adolpho comes to appreciate; he even develops a taste for the finance end of the biz as well, especially since it allows him to send flowers to the Latin lovely next door (Jennifer Beals).

While this sly silliness is not, admittedly, going to touch every funnybone, Cassel's slap-happy performance as the nervy "financier'' is howlingly funny. His heel-kicking portrayal is the highlight of this production. His audacious antics are complemented nicely by Buscemi's straight-man portrayal as the dweeby filmmaker. Beals' saucy performance as Adolpho's "Dark Angel'' appropriately keeps Adolpho utterly aflutter.

Technical contributions in this black-and-white ribtickler are pleasingly balmy: cinematographer Phil Parmet's weird compositional slants and Mader's flowery musical bursts mesh perfectly in this well-stirred silliness.

IN THE SOUP

Cacous Films Inc.

Producers Jim Stark, Hank Blumenthal

Executive producer Ryuichi Suzuki

Director Alexandre Rockwell

Screenwriters Alexandre Rockwell, Tim Kissell

Director of photography Phil Parmet

Music Mader

Production designer Mark Friedberg

Casting Walken & Jaffe

Black-and-white/Stereo

Cast:

Adolpho Steve Buscemi

JoeSeymour Cassel

Angelica Jennifer Beals

Dang Pat Moya

Skippy Will Patton

Monty Jim Jarmusch

Barbara Carol Kane

Running time -- 93 minutes

No MPAA rating

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...