News

This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies. Some selections reflect a specific day or event in June, and others were chosen at random.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings include a Japanese slasher, a dark tale about family, a Scandinavian haunting, a terrifying coming-out story, and an aquatic creature-feature.

The Attic (1980)

Directed by George Edwards and Gary Graver.

Fathers are usually depicted as unkind and cruel in horror, and the one in The Attic is no exception. Carrie Snodgress plays the dutiful Louise who has sacrificed her own happiness for far too long. When she tries to turn her life around and do something about her loneliness, which entails adopting a chimpanzee, her tyrannical father (Ray Milland) is quick to stomp out her ambitions.

Bloody has the first trailer from Crawlspace director Justin Dix‘s next horror film, Blood Vessel, which stars Nathan Phillips, Alyssa Sutherland, Christopher Kirby, and John Lloyd Fillingham. The film takes place somewhere in the North Atlantic, in late 1945. A lift raft adrift at sea, and in it, the survivors of a torpedoed hospital ship: With no food, water, or […]...

Anthony Hayes.

Anthony Hayes will direct and co-star with Sam Worthington in Gold, a thriller about two guys who discover the world’s biggest gold nugget in the Australian desert.

Due to shoot in South Australia in September, the film will be produced by Deeper Water Films’ John and Michael Schwarz and Hayes’ Rogue Star Pictures.

Hayes co-wrote the script with his partner, former costumer Polly Smyth, her first writing credit.

The plot sees the men hatch a plan to excavate the gold as one leaves to secure equipment while the other stays behind to protect the discovery.

Saboteur Films, which reps Kriv Stenders’ Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan produced by Red Dune Productions’ Martin Walsh and the Schwarz brothers, is pitching the project at the Cannes film market.

Hayes tells If: “Polly and I wanted to come up with a smart film with few cast and one location.

Just based off his looks alone no one did creepy better than Klaus Kinski, even when he played a good guy; those bulging, searing eyes and cracked smile never made anyone feel at ease. So when he was given a role that went all in on villainy, he usually picked up the blade and ran with it. In the case of Crawlspace (1986) however, a creepy character study in obsession and escalating madness, he eases up on the throttle a little and in turn offers up one of his most memorable performances.

Produced and released by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures in late May stateside, Crawlspace wasn’t a success with critics or audiences; many found the subject matter of stalking and voyeurism tacky and distasteful (an Empire Pictures film distasteful? Never!) but did allow faint praise for Kinski’s work in the film. The praise should be more than a...

Brian DePalma’s Carrie (1976) has cast a very wide shadow since it hit theatres. Many horror films have used the trope of telekinesis for the greater bad following its release, including Jennifer, The Fury, Patrick, The Medusa Touch (all ’78), Scanners (’81), and several more. (You can’t make me mention Friday the 13th Part VII. Oh. Dammit.) Of course, television is anything if not inclusive, and the networks scrambled to come up with their own takes on teenage angst. However, ABC’s The Initiation of Sarah (1978) took a slightly different tact and sent the girl off to college – and ended up serving a strong dose of female empowerment.

First broadcast on Monday, February 6th, Sarah had her work cut out, not so much from NBC, who provided their own Monday Night at the Movies, but from CBS’ juggernaut of M*A*S*H/One Day at a Time. Regardless of ratings,...

Reviewed by Kevin Scott, MoreHorror.com

Venus in Furs (1969)

Written by: Jess Franco, Malvin Wald, Milo G. Cuccia, Carlo Fadda, Bruno Leder.

Directed by Jess Franco

Cast: James Darren (Jimmy Logan), Maria Rohm (Wanda Reed), Klaus Kinski (Ahmed Kortobawi), Margaret Lee (Olga), Barbara McNair (Rita)

This may be the oldest film that I have reviewed thus far for More Horror. I had almost forgotten that in was in my Netflix roster, and through some celluloid serendipity, or more specifically, me forgetting about updating my snail mail DVD queue, Venus in Furs comes in the mail. There are two names attached to this surreal piece of erotic horror. Jess Franco which is quite expected, and then James Darren. What? I only remember him from the Shatner show “T.J. Hooker”, but I think my mom really liked him. She might have even considered him “dreamy”. I looked him up and sure enough,...

Charles Band remembers making a movie with one of cinema’s most notorious performers. Back in 1986, when Empire Pictures was at their peak and thriving in Rome, Italy, studio head Charles Band steered a kinky little Klaus Kinski effort called Crawlspace (currently distributed on Blu-ray via Scream Factory) to screen. Directed by Tourist Trap and…

The post Interview: Charles Band Remembers Klaus Kinski in Crawlspace appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Having issued definitive collector’s editions of a number of high-profile horror classics of the ’80s and ’90s, Scream Factory often turns to smaller and more obscure titles to remind fans of some of the gems that once lined video store shelves. Lately they’ve been killing it with HD releases of Charles Band’s old Empire Pictures titles, several of which are appearing on home video for the first time since VHS (like their recent release of Ghost Town, for example). While both Cellar Dweller and Catacombs got a DVD release in 2013 as part of an “All Night Horror Marathon” four-film collection (the DVD debut of both movies), this new double feature Blu-ray is the first time either can be seen in high-def.

After a mostly unnecessary prologue that features Jeffrey Combs (presumably so that the movie can prominently bill a genre star as part of its cast...

It is fitting that Tourist Trap came out in 1979. This was a year of variety in horror with everything from Ridley Scott’s Alien to Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. From space creatures to the walking dead and all points in between, this was the end of a decade and Tourist Trap couldn’t have been made at any other time. It’s magnificently weird.

Released in March by Compass International Pictures, Tourist Trap was not a commercial or critical success. That’s a real shame because it possesses a unique ability to get under the skin of the viewer with the oddest of fears: Mannequins. Have you ever been shopping and felt the dead eyed gaze of these department store statues? Ever felt they were watching…and waiting? Well sit back and strap in as things are about to get strange.

In a nutshell: A traveling group of young adults...

Stuart Gordon shot his first film, 1985's much beloved gorefest Re-Animator, in Los Angeles but then decamped to Italy to shoot Dolls, his second movie and second terror tale. While there, Gordon was also taken down a peg, or 12, by a local craftsman. "They didn’t shoot sound in Italy, they weren't used to that," says Gordon, whose other directing credits include From Beyond, Castle Freak, and 2005's William H. Macy-starring Edmond. "I remember there was one day when I was shooting something and there was a carpenter hammering in the background, working on another one of our sets—hammering and sawing.

Re-Animator, The Beast Within and Camp Dread are among the horror films to appear on DVD and Blu-ray this month. Nick takes a look...

Feature

Wow. Just a month in and this regular post dedicated to the - shall we say - more idiosyncratic, less delicate of movies (or shall we just say “gory horrors and not-quite-b-movies”) has the splendid fortune of getting to review Stuart Gordon’s tongue-in-cheek classic, Re-Animator.

Produced by Brian Yuzna, the warped individual behind the brutal class satire/mutant cannibalism jaunt Society, and starring that rubber-faced icon of the midnight movie, Jeffrey Combs, this remains one of the crowning glories of 80s cult film-making. Re-Animator's essentially an outlandish, sillier take on Hp Lovecraft’s spin on the Frankenstein mad-scientist story, and Combs, who you’ll undoubtedly know from such box-office juggernauts as Doctor Mordrid and Cellar Dweller (reviewed here next month), plays brilliant-if-misguided medical student Herbert West.

​Josh Stolberg's directorial effort Crawlspace makes its premiere on Hulu Plus on Thursday, June 5th. Stolberg previously penned Piranha 3D and Sorority Row. The film went into production in early 2012 under the title Hideaway before it was retitled to its current moniker. You won't find the ghost of Klaus Kinski lurking in the vents of this thriller; this film's cast includes Steve Weber, Jonathan Silverman, Lori Loughlin, Nicole Moore and Sterling Beaumon.

The post The Trailer Debut for Josh Stolberg’s Crawlspace appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Stars: Raleigh Holmes, Lori Laughlin, Jonathan Silverman, Sterling Beaumon, Steven Weber, Paul James | Written by Josh Stolberg, Nick Taravella | Directed by Josh Stolberg

Writer Josh Stolberg, who penned Alexander Aja’s Piranha 3D and the Dane Cook vehicle Good Luck Chuck, turns his hand to both writing and directing with his take of the formulaic “hider in the house” story, entitled The Attic (aka Crawlspace).

In a charming and quiet suburban town, Tim (Jonathan Silverman) and Susan Gates (Lori Loughlin) have found their perfect new house, and their lively daughter Kayla has just returned home from college to help with the big move alongside her brothers, Shane and Taylor. But behind the picture of suburban bliss is an altogether more sinister story. During the move, Tim reluctantly reveals his knowledge of the house’s dark past – the story of two small children who drowned in the pool and the parents...

As reported late last year, Lesbian Vampire Killers' director Phil Claydon has scored the New Line horror Crawlspace for his next gig, under the watchful eye of producer James Wan. As production gets nearer the cast is now starting to come together, and the first announced is Erin Moriarty, lately to be seen as Woody Harrelson's daughter Audrey in HBO's brilliant True Detective.Gary Dauberman (Conjuring spin-off Annabelle) has written the script, which finds a family moving to a new house and discovering, of course, that it’s full of creepy energy from mysteriously killed previous inhabitants, and that the dark secret of the place is still lurking within. Seriously, kids, just don't ever move house. Moriarty's role hasn't yet been specified, but we're guessing she's a daughter in the relocated clan.This Crawlspace is nothing to do with the other Crawlspaces that already exist. It's not a remake of the 1974 TV-movie,...

Scream Factory, ever busy preserving horror’s cinematic legacy, recently released another pair of cult classics on Blu-ray, The Beast Within and Crawlspace. Today, we have another double review taking a look back at these two often overlooked genre films.

The Beast Within: The Beast Within is the first theatrical screenplay by now genre vet, Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play). It follows a sickly 17-year-old named Michael MacCleary (Paul Clemens), who, as it turns out, has the misfortune of being the offspring of a violent encounter between a murderous swamp beast and his mother (Bibi Besch). And as Michael begins awkwardly transitioning into a man on the eve of his 18th birthday, he’s also forced to deal with the terrifying evil growing inside that he must overcome. Because, if he doesn’t face his true nature, Michael may forever be lost to his swamp beast lurking...

One of the key components to a successful horror film is a memorable adversary for the protagonists. Often, the villain is human, or once was. Sometimes the foe is a possessed home, or a revenant that just won’t die. In rare cases, the monster is something a little more… unusual. As evidenced in the list below, we sometimes discover the enemy is more bizarre than we could ever dream: evil objects, demonic playthings, even malevolent pastries... monsters come in many forms. With that said, it’s time to take a walk down memory lane and look at ten more of the most unconventional monsters in horror cinema history. [Check out our first ten here.] Note: To avoid a list that features nothing but SyFy Channel originals, we are only considering films that premiered in a medium other than cable television. Dolly Dearest The Child’s Play franchise is hands-down better than Dolly Dearest, and we...

The first All Night Horror Marathon was pretty damn fun. What’s the Matter With Helen, The Outing, The Vagrant and The Godsend were on the bill, and I was shocked to find that there were still older horror classics that I could fall in love with in much the same way as some of the B favorites with which I became enamored as a kid. The Outing and The Godsend are must see movies focusing on schlock and kid horror respectively. With Volume 2 of the same series from Scream Factory there’s an added bonus; we get to enjoy Empire era horror from the 80’s and early 90’s. This collection features The Dungeonmaster, Cellar Dweller, Contamination .7 and Catacombs. Let’s talk about why you absolutely must pick this quad-horror built for sleepovers is the perfect (and cheap) pick up. We’ll talk about each one briefly in a review...

Later this month, 1972′s The Beast Within and 1986′s Crawlspace will be getting the Blu-ray treatment, courtesy of Scream Factory and they have released the original trailers:

The Beast Within: “Some boys have raging hormones…but his are absolutely furious! 18-year-old Michael MacCleary – the progeny of an unholy union between his mother and a swamp beasty – is on the verge of becoming a man…Eater! And as the inherited evil in his blood gnaws at his soul, Michael must return to the swamp to uncover the terrifying secret identity of his father – before his nasty natural tendencies force him to make jambalaya out of the locals! Starring Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, and Paul Clemens.”

New Audio Commentary by director Philippe Mora and actor Paul Clemens New Audio Commentary by writer Tom Holland Theatrical Trailer

Crawlspace: “Renter Beware! Psychotic landlord Karl Gunter wants to charge you an arm and...

December brings some more horror-loving holiday joy our way from the Scream Factory as they've just dished the details on two of their upcoming releases: The Beast Within and Crawlspace! Read on!

From the Press Release

Scream Factory invites you to embrace the chills this December with two stalk-and-slash cult horror favorites, Crawlspace and The Beast Within, making their debuts on Blu-ray!

On December 17th, 2013, bring home the Klaus Kinski starring Crawlspace, the story of a demented son of a Nazi surgeon who runs an apartment house for women. His tenants, however, are unaware the house is equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and devices for torture and murder!

Also available on December 17th is the terrifying coming of age tale The Beast Within, the story of 18-year-old Michael MacCleary, who experiences growing pains of a most shocking sort!

Available for the first time on Blu-ray, each movie collection boasts original theatrical key art,...

December welcomes Crawlspace and The Beast Within onto Blu-ray for the first time, thanks to Scream Factory.

On December 17th, 2013, bring home the Klaus Kinski starring Crawlspace, the story of a demented son of a Nazi surgeon who runs an apartment house for women. His tenants, however, are unaware the house is equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and devices for torture and murder!  Also available on December 17th is the terrifying coming of age tale The Beast Within, the story of 18-year-old Michael MacCleary who experiences growing pains of a most shocking sort.  

Head inside for the bonus features...

Read more...

The 1979 horror flick, Tourist Trap, was re-released on DVD not so long ago and the film will soon be available on Blu-ray. If you haven’t seen Tourist Trap, here’s the official synopsis:

“An eerie and deserted wax museum, Slausen’S Lost Oasis, is the site for spine-tingling terror where four unsuspecting young travelers (including Tanya Roberts from “Charlie’s Angels”) are lured into a very deadly “Tourist Trap.” Slausen, (Chuck Conners) is the reclusive and bizarre owner of this attraction, which is actually more like a macabre chamber of horrors. The grotesque and frightening mannequins in this sordid side-show are only the beginning of the murderous mayhem and nightmarish madness to come.”

Tourist Trap stars Chuck Connors, Jocelyn Jones, Jon Van Ness, Robin Sherwood and Tanya Roberts. The movie is directed by David Schmoeller, who later went on to direct Crawlspace and Puppetmaster. The movie will be released...

Scream Factory announced a few months ago that The Beast Within and Crawlspace will be coming to Blu-ray sometime this year. The Horror Show is also set to join them, and we have all the details on the special features included and those all-important release dates.

The Horror Show (1989)

“Detective Lucas McCarthy finally apprehends “Meat Cleaver Max” and watches the electric chair execution from the audience. But killing Max Jenke only elevated him to another level of reality. Now Lucas’ family is under attack, his sanity in question, and his house haunted. Aided by a disreputable college professor, can Lucas reclaim his mind, house, and family? Starring Lance Henriksen, Brion James, Dedee Pfeiffer, Aron Eisenberg, Lawrence Tierney and Terry Alexander ”

New Commentary with producer Sean S. Cunningham New Interview with Stunt Coordinator Kane Hodder and actress Rita Taggart Theatrical trailer

The Horror Show will be released as a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack on November 26th.

Scream Factory has given us official release details for their August titles: X-Ray, Schizoid, Q The Winged Serpent, and Dark Angel:

“This August, loyal fans are invited to combat the summer heat with a quadruple dose of 80s high-camp horror classics when a double feature presentation of Boaz Davidson’s X-ray (aka Hospital Massacre), starring former Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton, and David Paulsen’s Schizoid, starring cult film favorite Klaus Kinski (Crawlspace), debut on home entertainment shelves together in a double-feature Blu-ray™ + DVD combo pack on August 20, 2013; Larry Cohen’s creature terror classic Q The Winged Serpent, starring Michael Moriarty Law & Order), Candy Clark (American Graffiti), David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft); and Craig Baxley’s Dark Angel starring Dolph Lundgren (The Expendables) arrive on Blu-ray™ for the first time on August 27, 2013. Available for the first time on Blu-ray, each movie collection boasts original theatrical key art,...

Okay, kids! Time for the goods on Scream Factory's Schizoid / X-Ray double feature Blu-ray as well as Q The Winged Serpent and Dark Angel, which was better known here Stateside as I Come in Peace.

From the Press Release

This August, loyal fans are invited to combat the summer heat with a quadruple dose of 80s high-camp horror classics when a double feature presentation of Boaz Davidson’s X-ray (aka Hospital Massacre), starring former Playboy Playmate Barbi Benton, and David Paulsen’s Schizoid, starring cult film favorite Klaus Kinski (Crawlspace), debut on home entertainment shelves together in a double-feature Blu-ray™ + DVD combo pack on August 20, 2013; Larry Cohen’s creature terror classic Q The Winged Serpent, starring Michael Moriarty Law & Order), Candy Clark (American Graffiti), David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft); and Craig Baxley’s Dark Angel starring Dolph Lundgren (The Expendables) arrive on Blu-ray™ for the...

To celebrate their 1-year anniversary, Scream Factory announced that they’ll be bringing The Beast Within and Crawlspace to Blu-ray later this year:

“We’re so thrilled to be celebrating our 1-year anniversary today that we thought we’d treat you guys and reveal two cult favorites we have planned for Blu-ray releases before the end of this year: 1982′s The Beast Within and 1986′s Crawlspace! No details to provide at this time but more will become clear on them in late Summer.”

For those that are unfamiliar with the movies, here are some brief plot details:

The Beast Within (1982): “Some boys have raging hormones…but his are absolutely furious! 18-year-old Michael MacCleary – the progeny of an unholy union between his mother and a swamp beasty – is on the verge of becoming a man…Eater! And as the inherited evil in his blood gnaws at his soul, Michael must...

Today Scream Factory celebrates its one-year anniversary so the label revealed some new goodies for the masses! Check out all the latest here!

First up came this announcement...

We're so thrilled to be celebrating our 1-year anniversary today that we thought we'd treat you guys and reveal two cult favorites we have planned for Blu-ray releases before the end of this year: 1982's The Beast Within and 1986's Crawlspace! No details to provide at this time, but more will become clear on them in late summer.

The Beast Within

Directed by Philippe Mora

Starring Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Paul Clemens, Don Gordon, and R.G. Armstrong

Eli and Caroline MacCleary are on their honeymoon driving through the middle of nowhere in Mississippi when their car gets a flat. Leaving his wife with the car, Eli hikes off to find a tow truck. While he's gone, a mysterious creature attacks and rapes Caroline.

Today let's dig into a more obscure entry in the giallo genre, a sleazy and totally weird thriller starring the legendary Klaus Kinski. While many fans of classic horror know Kinski for his career-defining performance in the title role of Werner Herzog's amazing 1979 version of Nosferatu, he's appeared in tons of other horror films including Crawlspace, Creature and Jack the Ripper; he's played Renfield, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Marquis de Sade, and often appeared in the films of Jess Franco. He was also totally insane, and his reputation as a wild man and notorious womanizer often overshadowed his prolific film career, a genre-spanning body of work which ran the spectrum from classics to crap. His resume also includes a few giallo titles, like this oddball 1971 production (originally titled The Cold-Blooded Beast, also Asylum Erotica) from director Fernando Di Leo, best known for the 1972 crime thriller The Italian Connection.

Note: The film I'm about to review is not a remake of the obscure 1986 Klaus Kinski psycho thriller Crawlspace. I feel silly even having to mention this, but Hollywood has remade The House on Sorority Row, The Crazies, and The Toolbox Murders, so I don't even know what qualifies as "obscure" anymore.

  If you combine the phrases "Australian," "science fiction," and "horror" into the description of a new movie, I'll be the first guy in line to see it. Attribute my affection for Aussie cinema to childhood screenings of films like Patrick, Razorback, and Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior), but I've always appreciated the indie Aussies' approach to mood, tension, action, and enthusiasm for car chases, fist fights, gun battles, crazy monsters, and violence with an outback attitude. I say all this because the most recent export from Australia's genre department is more or less a disappointment. The...

Horror fans everywhere should recognize the name “Leslie Simpson” from such favorites as Dog Soldiers, where he played Pvt. Terry Milburn, The Descent where he played one of the horrific Crawlers and Doomsday where he was Carpenter, one of the soldiers that were to escort heroine Eden Sinclair into the “Hot Zone”.

Well, forget about those excellent performances because Simpson has gone one Much better in his role as The Lone Man in writer/director Ad Barker’s A Reckoning (aka Straw Man). Whether the film is post-apocalyptic or the tale of a man who has taken himself out of society or simply the story of a man going insane, Simpson’s performance is nothing short of breath-taking. And the sad thing is is that so very few people have seen this film, to date. Hopefully That oversight is being corrected and quickly because A Reckoning Needs to be seen.

Crawlspace is the kind of film that just misses. What is worse is that it wastes the talents of Klaus Kinski. He does as much as he can in a role that isn't quite up to snuff for an actor of his caliber. The issue with the character ends up being one of the ones with the film. While the voice over is well written too much of what we know about our lead is learned through it, such that it renders more nebulous than necessary the one motif it leaves as mostly visual. The set up is well and good, to an extent. Things are little vague but you do get a quick kill and a sense of the mania...

If you have Netflix and are a horror fan in need of something to watch this Labor Day weekend, one look at this gargantuan list I compiled of the new terror titles Netflix has added for instant streaming in just the first three days of this month should keep you busy until Labor Day next year. You'll find something for everyone, from older titles to recent releases, famous to obscure, classic to not-so-classic, monsters to maniacs - you name it.

For the record, I considered compiling this list in alphabetical order or by year of the film's release, but then I realized I had already spent well over an hour just sorting through the massive catalogue of titles Netflix has now made available for instant streaming and realized Labor Day would be over by the time I finished arranging this list in any kind of order. Ready? Here you go.

The first Troll film concerned the magical adventures of a teenager named Harry Potter. The second, according to a new documentary, is the Best Worst Movie ever made. And no one seems sure if there even was a third movie. In this special report EW examines the twisted, crazy, and frequently so-bad-it's-hilarious world of... Troll! Next: “I don’t think Troll 2 is the worst movie of all-time. I think Transformers 2 is the worst movie of all time.” On a beautiful Brooklyn evening last July, Michael Paul Stephenson took part in a question-and-answer session following an outdoor screening of the 1990 horror movie Troll 2.

The Alamo Guide

for February 12th, 2010

February! You Are Still Rainy And Cold! I Hate It! Where’s the sun? This is like, the most unromantic weather, February. Why don’t you live up to the holiday you’re known for and show us some freaking love! Nevermind… we’ll just stay inside. Suck it.First of all, we’re opening The Wolfman this Friday at The Ritz! If you wanna see a really hairy, muscley Benicio Del Toro, then this movie is for you! All of our Valentine’s Day Feasts are Sold Out! And if you hate love, even our Love Bites Sing-Along on Valentine’s Day is sold out too. All the more reason for you to proclaim that you “don’t believe in Valentine’s Day because you should love your partner all the time!” and “it’s just a holiday created by Hallmark!” and...