News

Fantastic Pavilion, the genre business hub launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, announced a slew of deals closed at the venue this year, with L..A-based Severin Films, a boutique Blu-ray and DVD label, inking a pact to release eleven Special Edition physical discs of the most popular Originals and licensed features from horror subscription streamer Shudder and IFC Films.

Initial titles include Joko Anwar’s “Satan’s Slaves”; Brandon Cronenberg’s “Antiviral”; Can Evrenol’s “Baskin”; Franck Khalfoun’s 2012 remake of “Maniac”; Douglas Buck’s 2006 remake of “Sisters” and André Øvredal’s “The Autopsy of Jane Doe.”

The deal was brokered by Severin Film’s co-founder-ceo David Gregory, Shudder’s Vice President of Programming Sam Zimmerman, and AMC Networks Director of Content Sales Lucas Verga.

“The work done at Severin Films is astounding,” said Zimmerman, adding: “They are directly responsible for some of the greatest home video releases ever...

Despite being hailed by Martin Scorsese as one of the best Italian films of the 1990s, Cemetery Man is criminally underseen. Also known as Dellamorte Dellamore, the 1994 cult classic has been hard to come by in the US since Anchor Bay’s 2006 DVD went out of print, but Severin Films has revived it with a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray edition.

Dario Argento protégé Michele Soavi directs from a script by Gianni Romoli, based on the 1991 novel Dellamorte Dellamore by Tiziano Sclavi — itself a precursor to Sclavi’s influential Italian horror comic Dylan Dog. Rupert Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding), on whom the Dylan Dog character was visually based, takes on the lead role as Francesco Dellamorte.

As he explains in the noir-esque opening narration, Dellamorte is the watchman for a small town cemetery wherein “some people, on the seventh night after their death, come back to life.” He and his slow-witted but genial assistant,...

Thanks to the continued dominance of the home video market and digitization of cable TV, horror’s identity in the ’90s was doomed to be tricky to nail down, thanks to the vast sea of options beyond theatrical releases. For every Candyman or Scream released in theaters, there are dozens more of straight-to-video or made-for-cable horror movies.

This week, we’re diving a little deeper into the ’90s catalog, spotlighting underseen ’90s horror movies that flew under the radar. These streaming picks run the gamut in style and tone, from esoteric extreme French horror to gonzo Hong Kong cinema and beyond.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Baby Blood – AMC+, Kanopy

Well before the rise of New French Extremity horror, there was 1990’s bizarre Baby Blood. Yanka is a circus performer stuck in an abusive relationship until a...

When Italian horror comes to mind, it’s the unholy trifecta of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, and Mario and Lamberto Bava that dominate the discussion. However, Michele Soavi is another essential – albeit underrated – Italian horror savant from the ‘80s and ‘90s who cut his teeth as Argento and Fulci’s apprentice, before ascending to become their peer through formative films like StageFright and Dellamorte Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man). Soavi has a flair and appreciation for immersive and complex camera visuals, intimidating antagonists, and gruesome gore, all of which are on display in the director’s most polarizing film, The Church, which now celebrates its 35th anniversary.

This cinematic achievement began as Demons 3, the third film in Argento and Lamberto Bava’s popular supernatural horror series. However, the horror sequel soon pivoted into an original project early on in its production after Bava walked and Soavi took over and completely rewrote the script.

Fourteen years have gone by since director Vincenzo Natali’s sci-fi horror film Splice (watch it Here) reached theatres – and now Fangoria has broken the news that Splice is finally getting the novelization treatment! This novelization has been written by Claire Donner, “New York City and online branch director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, who has written essays for Severin Films’ releases of Michele Soavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore, The Sect, and The Church“, and is coming our way from Encyclopocalypse Publications, the company that’s also behind such novelizations as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Redneck Zombies, Re-Animator, Wishmaster, Fright Night, and more.

Scripted by Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, and Doug Taylor, Splice had the following synopsis: Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by splicing animal DNA to create hybrids for medical use at the company N.E.R.D. (Nucleic Exchange Research...

Screambox has revealed the new films that are joining the horror streaming service in January 2024, including modern classics Horror in the High Desert and its sequel Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva, as well as Lamberto Bava’s Demons 1+2 and the Screambox Exclusive Underground.

But first, a cultural crusader strikes in L.A. Slasher on Screambox January 5. The black comedy stars Mischa Barton (“The O.C.”), Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), Danny Trejo (Machete), and comedian Andy Dick as the voice of the killer.

Screambox Exclusive Underground streams on January 9. Inspired by true events, the found footage nightmare finds a bachelorette party trapped in a World War II bunker complex.

Horror in the High Desert and its new sequel, Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva, join Screambox on January 16. The unsettling found footage franchise delves into mysterious disappearances in the Nevada wilderness.

Now available as part of the company’s Black Friday Sale, Michele Soavi‘s Cemetery Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore) makes its 4K Ultra HD debut courtesy of Severin Films.

It’s been called “stylish and gruesome” (Washington Post), “grotesque and touching” (Av Club) and “an experience unlike any other” (Bloody Disgusting). Now this magnum opus by director Michele Soavi – “the best Italian horror film of the ‘90s” (Fangoria) – can be experienced fully restored in Uhd for the very first time.

Rupert Everett stars as cemetery watchman Francesco Dellamorte, tasked with dispatching the recently deceased when they rise from their graves. But when he falls in love with a beautiful young widow (Anna Falchi), will his resurrected lust for life become greater than his bond with death?

François Hadji-Lazaro co-stars in the finest erotic romantic existential black comedy zombie gorefest of our time, with a Soavi-approved 4K scan from the Cinecittà...

Beyond Fest returns with an eclectic mix of films that will have you racing to pick up tickets! With over 55 films, there's something for everyone, including early screenings of The Toxic Avenger, a 10th anniversary screening of Pacific Rim with Guillermo del Toro in attendence, a screening of The Wicker Man with Britt Ekland in attendance, and more. Here are all of the details from the press release:

Beyond Fest, the highest-attended genre film festival in the US, is excited to announce its complete slate of 2023 programming comprising 55 features, including 5 world premieres, 3 North American Premieres, 7 US premieres, and 18 West Coast Premieres. After entertaining over 19,000 guests in 2022, Beyond Fest returns for its 11th edition from September 26th - October 10th. Built in partnership with the American Cinematheque and presented exclusively by Neon, Beyond Fest will screen at the Aero Theatre, Los Feliz 3 and Regency Village Theatre with all ticket sales going...

The 2023 Beyond Fest lineup is set. America’s biggest genre-focused festival is returning this month with a 55-film slate that includes a Roger Corman career celebration, special screening of The Abyss with James Cameron, the world premiere of Rlje Films/Shudder’s It’s a Wonderful Knife and much more.

The 11th edition of the fest runs from September 26-October 10 in at the Los Feliz 3 in Los Angeles, the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and Regency Village Theatre in Westwood. See the full lineup below.

Beyond Fest 2023 will open with Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi epic The Creator from 20th Century Studios and close with Kristoffer Borgli’s A24 pic Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage. It also will feature the world premieres of It’s a Wonderful Knife, Welcome Space Brothers, History of Evil and the 4K restorations of Cemetery Man (1994) and The Church (1989).

Other highlights include Legendary’s new remake of Troma classic The Toxic Avenger,...

Ahead of Insidious: The Red Door releasing in theaters next month, James Wan and Patrick Wilson took part in an Ask-Me-Anything session over on Reddit last week. During the chat, Wan and Wilson answered various questions from fans about the Insidious franchise and beyond, but one answer from Wan in particular really caught our attention.

When asked if he has any dream project that he hopes to someday bring to life, James Wan brought up The Call of Cthulhu, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s classic short story.

Of particular note, it sounds like Wan has already been low-key toying with a potential adaptation of Lovecraft’s tale, which was first published in Weird Tales in February 1928.

Wan teases during the Reddit Ama chat, “My dream project, that I have been secretly cooking away on the down low for the last 5 years, is The Call of Cthulhu.”

Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu...

It’s time for a new episode of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw video series, and in this one we’re looking back at the 1994 Italian horror comedy Cemetery Man, a.k.a. Dellamorte Dellamore. To find out all about Cemetery Man, check out the video embedded above!

Based on the novel Dellamorte Dellamore by Tiziano Sclavi, Cemetery Man was directed by Michele Soavi from a screenplay by Gianni Romoli. The film has the following synopsis: Something is causing the dead to rise from their graves as flesh-eating zombies, and cemetery custodian Francesco Dellamorte grows tired of killing them all for the second time. However, the town politicians won’t listen to him, so Francesco is on his own. One day, he falls for a beautiful woman whose husband has recently died — but their affair is tragically interrupted by zombies, sending Francesco into a tailspin of madness and woe.

There are plenty of disturbing films in the world. One of them is a 1990 release, directed by Paul Schrader and written by Harold Pinter in an adaptation of the book by Ian McEwan. The film in question is The Comfort of Strangers, the latest disturbing film I'm trying to wrap my head around, and it's out this week on Blu-ray and DVD from the Criterion Collection. Mary and Colin are a well-bred couple that seemingly have no issues...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

David Crow Oct 18, 2019

In honor of Zombieland: Double Tap, we rank all the movies that mixed yuks with human chunks in the zombie comedy subgenre.

For those old enough to remember a time before The Walking Dead premiered on AMC, it’s strange to admit we’ve reached a zombie saturation point. Believe it or not, there was a moment where you were not inundated with zombie movies, zombie TV shows, zombie video games, and zombie memes. Rather the undead were a cult novelty that allowed indie filmmakers to speak truth to power… via allegories involving lots of brain-munching and disembowelment. What could be better?

Now it’s hard to take a single step in the pop culture landscape without landing on a reanimated corpse with a belly full gray matter—not that this should be treated as the end of the world. Indeed, as you’ll see in many of the movies below,...

Stenio is a morgue attendant in Sao Paulo who can communicate with the dead. He uses his supernatural gift to solve crimes and, eventually, attempt to change the circumstances of his own rather desperate life.

The debut feature from Dennison Ramalho, The Nightshifter is a film with an intriguing premise, and early scenes in which grisly corpses come to life before Stenio's weary eyes hit target in a Guillermo del Toro sort of way. At its best the film is reminiscent of Michele Soavi's Cemetery Man, its tone projecting a similar sense of sadness and ennui - Stenio has not asked for this horrible gift. Unfortunately, after around half an hour, things become oddly tedious, and ultimately the film fails to deliver on its early promise. What begins as an interesting set-up actually...

Even before the Italian-language teen drama “Baby” was released on Netflix, director Andrea De Sica was responding to criticism that the series promoted sex trafficking: “That was the most delicate thing and issue about doing this series,” he said. “For us, the real story just was to spotlight one of the important neighborhoods of Rome, which from the outside world gives the image of a perfect world, but was something dark, with something happening beyond the facade. It moves from this very rich world that is frustrated about getting real relationships, love, and then getting onto this path of transgression, where two of these six main characters give into prostitution.”

Inspired by a real-life scandal involving underage prostitution, “Baby” explores the lives of high school students in one of Rome’s wealthy districts and how pressures, disillusionment, and failed relationships lead the teens to choose dangerous paths. Two of them...

You’ve done every film related job from producer and actor to cinematographer and editor. Was directing always the goal?

Poverty dictates…I would just take any position I could and figure it out from there, especially when I made The Queen Of Hollywood Blvd. where I just didn’t have the budget and had to take on as many positions as I could. Directing was always the ultimate goal though. Funny enough, the genesis of Hell came from a job I had done years before when I was camera operating on a feature film The Ganzfeld Experiment. It was a crazy production, and my dad was the director. The line producer of Ganzfeld was Julio Hallivis. We became friends and stayed in touch. Cut to five years later, I show Julio my first film The Queen of Hollywood Blvd. and he says “Hey man, I got a script I think you will dig.

In a sense, one could point to the 1991 film The Sect as the link between Jamie Lee Curtis and giallo master Dario Argento, but only considering he co-wrote and co-produced this bizarrely flavored B-grade genre title which starred her lesser known sister, Kelly Curtis. Filmed in Germany (which accounts for the appearance of notable German co-star Herbert Lom), Argento protégé Michele Soavi (Cemetery Man, 1994) helms this thriller about a lonely kindergarten teacher with a pet rabbit who discovers a terrifying secret in the basement of her home, which makes her an object of interest to a murderous cult.… Read the rest

Continue reading...

Last month Scorpion Releasing, in partnership with Doppelganger Releasing, put out a pair of Italian horror gems on Blu-ray from director Michele Soavi, and it's a great time to rediscover this filmmaker and the early work that led to one of the greatest horror films of the '90s, Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man). Before partnering up with Rupert Everett, François Hadji-Lazaro, and Anna Falchi to create that supremely romantic horror nightmare, Soavi worked as an assistant director to Dario Argento in the early '80s on films like Phenomena and later on Lamberto Bava's Demons. These jobs led to his first feature film as a director, Stagefright, which remains a classic of '80s Italian horror. Less well known are the two films that followed, The Sect and The...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, there was no episode last week. In an attempt to show you we still love you, this week we’re bring you an extra sweet episode! Originally we were going to record an episode on Matt’s favorite movie of 2017 Tragedy Girls; so this week we’re doing Tragedy Girls and Cemetery Man! […]

The post Who Goes There Podcast: Ep 153 – Tragedy Girls & Cemetery Man appeared first on Dread Central.

Late last year, we brought you news that Dario Argento’s Opera would be hitting Blu-Ray courtesy of Scorpion Releasing. It was also rumored that The Sect and The Church (films that have been released in the UK by Shameless) would also be coming as well. With 2017’s final month approaching, what better time than now to not only announce, officially, that these three films are coming but they are being distributed by Music Box’s Doppelgänger Releasing after teaming up with Scorpion Releasing. Read the press release below:

Chicago, Il (November 3, 2017) Music Box Films has entered a distribution deal with specialty label Scorpion Releasing to distribute select Scorpion titles on Blu-ray and DVD. The first titles will be three classic horror films presented by legendary Italian filmmaker Dario Argento: Opera (1987), The Church (1989) and The Sect (1991).

Music Box will release the titles through its Doppelgänger Releasing imprint, which was...

Every Halloween, when you want to check out a horror movie to get your heart racing, or a hilarious scary movie send-up to celebrate the holiday with laughs, everybody seems to cycle back to some of the same old classics.

While the slasher movies we've all come to know and love are classics for a reason (see: Halloween, I Know What You Did Last Summer or Scream), it’s fun to dive a little deeper into the realm of obscure horror, where some of the truly great fright flicks hide in the shadows.

Check out Et’s suggestions for some of the great lesser-known gems of spooky cinema with this year's alternative Halloween viewing guide:

Vampire Movies

Typical Fare: Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Lost Boys, From Dusk Till Dawn

Alternative Option: Let the Right One In

This thoughtful Swedish horror tale, directed by Tomas Alfredson, is an entirely unique take on the well-trod territory of vampire...

Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn started his career working in the horror genre. A couple of the films you're probably familiar with are Dawn of the Dead (2004), which he wrote, and, of course, Slither (2006), which he wrote and directed.

As you'd imagine, Gunn was obviously influenced by certain films in the horror genre. Well, now we know what kind of horror films that James Gunn likes because he recently shared his 50 favorite horror films of all time on his Facebook page:

It's actually a pretty great list of films! There are films that you'd expect to see on a favorite horror film list and a few unexpected films. Look through the list below and let us know how many of the films on the list you've seen.

As for the films you haven't seen, it's the Halloween season and the perfect time to watch some good horror films that you've never seen!

It’s telling that the first feature-length film to come out of Italy was Dante’s Inferno (1911). Because of course, what else would it be? A silent, 68-minute adaptation of the classic poem that, quite memorably, features Satan munching on the souls of the damned. I suppose you could consider this film a tone-setter for the sort of genre films that would come out in Italy over the next hundred-plus years. The film is violent, demonic, and packed with full-frontal nudity. But most importantly, it was all about Hell.

Now, I know it should go without saying, but Italy is pretty big on that whole Catholicism deal. According to a survey conducted in 2005–2006, 87.8% of Italian citizens considered themselves to be Catholic. It should be no surprise, then, that while religious horror is prevalent in the United States, nobody can quite deliver a satanic panic like the Italians. And in the...

Also known as The Devil's Daughter, the 1991 horror film The Sect (helmed by Cemetery Man director Michele Soavi) is coming to Blu-ray this spring, and Scorpion Releasing has now revealed the official cover art and special features for the release.

According to Blu-ray.com, The Sect Blu-ray is expected to be released in May, and we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated as more details are divulged. In the meantime, check out the official bonus features and cover art below.

From Scorpion Releasing: "Here is our custom cover art for Michele Soavi's The Sect. done by artist Wes Benscoter.

The special features on the disc will be: New 2k scan with extensive color correction. English and Italian track with english subtitles New exclusive interview with the maestro himself, Dario Argento Interviews with Michele Soavi, screenwriter Gianni Romoli, actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice, composer Pino Donaggio, set designer Massimo Antonello Geleng,...

Given just how lousy with zombies our current pop culture climate has become over the last decade or so, it’s hard to remember that the walking dead were out of favor as recently as the 1990s. The decade had a few bright spots (Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive, aka Braindead is a stone-cold classic, as is Michele Soavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore, aka Cemetery Man), but on the whole there weren’t a lot of memorable zombie movies coming out of the Clinton decade. Well, along comes the new Vestron Video Collector’s Series Blu-ray of Brian Yuzna’s Return of the Living Dead 3 to remind us that at least one more terrific zombie movie did come out in the ’90s, but many horror fans slept on it. Hopefully that changes now.

Pretty much a sequel in name only, 1993’s Return of the Living Dead 3 bears almost no...

On this week’s episode of The Girls In The Back Row, Kate & Tab continue their month-long series on Italian Horror with a look back at Michele Soavi’s Cemetery Man! The petrifying pair are joined by Jon Rutledge of What is Showing Next? and Fat Samurai Reviews to talk about the film and how it mixes black humor with Italian […]...

The early 1990’s sucked for horror movies… I mean, really sucked. Movies like Dr. Giggles (1992), Man’s Best Friend (1993), and Cemetery Man (1994) failed spectacularly, for me, to scratch the itch unlike the 1980’s or the 1970’s. Sure, we had The Silence… Continue Reading →

The post The Making of The Blair Witch Project: Part 1 – Witch Pitch appeared first on Dread Central.

Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them. – Pauline Kael.

The above quote from the late, legendary American film critic Kael was most certainly not referring to Lamberto Bava’s Demons (1985), but a lot of films in our beloved genre bow to this description. Demons is great trash – it wants nothing more to assault your senses with a barrage of images and sound for 88 minutes before you even know what hit you, and does so while breathing that rarified Italian air.

But I’m sure she was referring to a film like Demons – one made with a ton of style, by a filmmaker impassioned with his chosen topic, as ridiculous as that plays on the screen. And make no mistake, Demons is ridiculous; as a matter of fact, it starts there before rapidly ascending to the sublime.

The late ‘80s signaled the end of my first golden age of horror. Which is to say two things: adulthood beckoned, and horror films – especially slashers - were running low on inspiration (remember the early ‘90s wasteland? Brr.). However, looking across the waters, some veteran Italian filmmakers weren’t throwing in the towel yet. Michele Soavi’s Stage Fright (1987) stands apart from the crowd because it proved that not only was the beaten and flogged sub-genre alive, it was still capable of surprising fans with enough fresh blood pumping through its weary veins to make you sit up and notice. Just when you thought you couldn’t survive another hack ‘em up, Stage Fright made you a believer again.

Stage Fright, Aka StageFright: Aquarius, Deliria, and Bloody Bird, whatever you’d like to call it – is a triumphant call back to a half decade earlier when slashers were full of kinetic energy,...

Special Mention: C’est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog)

Written by André Bonzel, Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux and Vincent Tavier

Directed by André Bonzel and Benoît Poelvoorde

France, 1992

Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, and Benoît Poelvoorde set out to make their first feature film with little resources and little money. In the tradition of filmmakers who can’t afford much film stock, the trio settled for a faux-documentary-style approach – the result is a high-concept satire of media violence that would spoof documentaries by following around a fictitious sociopath named Ben as he exercises his lethal craft. While the cinematic tradition of presenting villains as suave, charming, attractive, and intelligent individuals is nothing new, Man Bites Dog was still ahead of its time. Much like the great Hitchcockian villains such as Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt, Ben is a man of action and ideas. He expounds on art,...

40. Road to Perdition

One of the more surprising and lesser-known facts about Sam Mendes’ second film, Road to Perdition, is that it’s actually adapted from a graphic novel of the same name by Max Allan Collins. The plot follows Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), an Irish mob enforcer as he goes on the run with his son Michael Jr. after Jr. witnesses a murder and their family is killed in an effort to cover up any witnesses. There’s many great things in this film that standout, such as Jude Law’s creepy performance as assassin Harlen Maguire, one of Paul Newman’s final and finest performances as mob boss John Rooney, and Hollywood got an early look at the talent of Daniel Craig as the unstable Connor Rooney. However, it’s the climax that remains the most memorable thing in it, featuring some of the most iconic work from...

In 1989, Italian director Bruno Mattei made an amalgam of Aliens and The Terminator. We look back at a wonderfully bad film...

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then a 1989 Italian film called Shocking Dark pays James Cameron the ultimate compliment: it openly steals from not one but two of his 80s hits.

Now, it’s no secret that B-movie filmmakers have long taken ‘inspiration’ from hit genre movies - Star Wars, Alien, Jaws and Mad Max are some of the most imitated films of the 70s and 80s, spawning such cult B-movies as StarCrash, 1990: Bronx Warriors and Contamination.

Shocking Dark, on the other hand, occupies its own special place in movie history. We’re not just talking about an attempt to evoke the general atmosphere of a successful film here - we’re talking about the wholesale recreation of entire sequences. As an example, consider the following...

Darren Lynn Bousman and company's Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival screening tour in the U.S. will commence this August in Los Angeles. Also in this round-up: details on The Charnel House and U.S. release details for the Morituris Blu-ray / DVD.

Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival: In 2012, director Darren Lynn Bousman and his team hit the road and took Lucifer with them, bringing The Devil's Carnival film and accompanying live entertainment to cities across America. Bousman and company are now back to raise a lot of hell and a little heaven in Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival.

Featuring David Hasselhoff, Paul Sorvino as God, and Terrance Zdunich as Lucifer, Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival kicks off its U.S. theater screenings tour on August 11th in Los Angeles. For tour and ticket info, visit:

http://www.thedevilscarnival.com/tickets

"After triumphant collaborations on 2008's Repo! The Genetic Opera and 2012's The Devil's Carnival: Episode One,...

From anime to pitch-black thrillers, here's our pick of the underappreciated movies of 1987...

Sometimes, the challenge with these lists isn't just what to put in, but what to leave out. We loved Princess Bride, but with a decent showing at the box office and a huge cult following, isn't it a bit too popular to be described as underappreciated? Likewise Joe Dante's Innerspace, a fabulously geeky, comic reworking of the 60s sci-fi flick, Fantastic Voyage.

What we've gone for instead is a mix of genre fare, dramas and animated films that may have garnered a cult following since, but didn't do well either critically or financially at the time of release. Some of the movies on our list just about made their money back, but none made anything close to the sort of returns enjoyed by the likes of 1987's biggest films - Three Men And A Baby, Fatal Attraction...

Jason Voorhees, the living dead of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the librarian phantom from Ghostbusters, the reanimated dead of Cemetery Man—these memorable horror movie characters and many more came to life onscreen due in large part to the talented hands and crafty eyes of FX legends Tom Savini, Steve Johnson, and Sergio Stivaletti.

Tate Steinsiek, an FX artist who also has an impressive résumé, teaches Ill Willed FX Workshops around the world, and on his international tour this summer, he's bringing in the aforementioned talented trio to offer their priceless advice in select sessions, with Savini joining the Amsterdam series, Johnson coming in for the Dublin series, and Stivaletti set for the Rome series. Also included in our latest round-up are details for Dark Horse's Plants vs. Zombies: Bully for You #1, the first issue in a new comic miniseries debuting in June, as well as...

There’s nothing like it, Michele Soavi’s surreal horror comedy Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man), based on the novel by Dylan Dog author Tiziano Sclavi. The film has long been a cult favorite—it’s a stellar one, alternately and perhaps incongruously grotesque, dreamy and harshly satirical—but seems to rarely make big screen appearances and is currently out of print on…

The post Shock Till You Drop Presents Cemetery Man at the Cinefamily appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

One of the many things I got into during my time here at Shock was helping program a some films, first at the New Beverly then at The Cinefamily. Even though I'm moving on into a new chapter of my career, I still want to help the fellas at Friday Night Frights from time to time. We've teamed up on titles like The People Under the Stairs, Critters 2, Night of the Demons and more...and we've found our next venture:

Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore aka Cemetery Man.

The post Los Angeles! Cemetery Man is Returning to the Screen! appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Locked inside a theater overnight with a murderous madman, a musical’s cast will have no trouble portraying real fear, but this type of method acting could be the death of them all. In 1987′s StageFright, the actors unknowingly performing beside a murderer in an owl mask could break a lot more than a leg in perhaps their final performance on this earth. The Blu-ray upgrade of StageFright‘s uncut and uncensored camera negative is making its Us debut this fall from Blue Underground.

Available to pre-order starting on August 12th and officially hitting shelves on September 23rd, Blue Underground is coupling StageFright‘s high definition transfer with a host of bonus features and some glass-shattering cover art.

“While a group of young actors rehearse a new musical about a mass murderer, a notorious psychopath escapes from a nearby insane asylum. But when the show’s director locks his cast in the theater overnight,...

Lesleh Donaldson with Cinema Retro columnist Todd Garbarini.

By Todd Garbarini

Richard Ciupka’s unfairly maligned 1983 horror film Curtains was screened recently as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies 7 exhibition that also included screenings of Lucky McKee’s new film All Cheerleaders Die, Michele Soavi’s highly regarded Cemetery Man (1994), Eli Roth’s new film The Green Inferno, John D. Hancock’s ultra creepy Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971), the New York premiere of Clive Barker’s 1990 film Nightbreed - the Cabal Cut, and Peter Carter’s brilliant Rituals (1977), better known as The Creeper, which stars Hal Holbrook and Lawrence Dane in a film that is clearly influenced by John Boorman’s Deliverance (1971) but easily stands on its own as a strong piece of independent filmmaking.

Appearing in person at the Curtains screening was actress Lesleh Donaldson who played Christie Burns, the ice skater in the film.

Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time for one reason: the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. I am including documentaries, short films and mini series, only as special mentions – along with a few features that can qualify as horror, but barely do.

Come Back Tonight To See My List Of The 200 Best!

****

Special Mention:

Wait until Dark

Directed by Terence Young

Written by Robert Carrington

USA, 1967

Directed by Terence Young,...

Beginning on Halloween night and running through November 7th, New York's Lincoln Center is once again playing host to a horror film festival called Scary Movies, which will see both world premieres of new horror films as well as screenings of genre faves from the past.

With oodles of filmmakers in attendance, and tons of movies being shown, it looks to be another can't miss event. Read on for all the details!

From the Press Release

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual horror fest Scary Movies returns for its 7th edition featuring several U.S. and New York City premieres among its lineup of highly anticipated horror films and thrillers, genre rarities and fan favorites. Appearances include filmmakers Eli Roth, Andrew van den Houten, Cliff Prowse and Derek Lee.

Among the nine U.S. or NYC premieres are; Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson’s high school horror-revenge film...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 17 Oct 2013 - 06:29

Here are 25 more great, unsung films - this time, from the year 1994...

Yes, 1994. The year cinemas were dominated by such whimsical wonders as The Lion King, Forrest Gump, The Mask and, erm, True Lies. It was also the year Gump dominated the Academy Awards, and Four Weddings And A Funeral loomed large at the Baftas.

As ever, there was so much more to the year's cinematic landscape than Tom Hanks' park bench ramblings or Hugh Grant mithering from beneath his gorgously crafted hair. To prove it, here's a list of 25 films that, in our estimation, are among its most underappreciated. There's much horror, drama, tears and laughter, plus a couple of classic documentaries, too.

25. Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead

The Phantasm series was quite unusual, in that writer and director Don Coscarelli made all four of them. This means that,...

Tonight we suggest a real treat for ghoul fans everywhere Michele Soavis Cemetery Man (1994). Francesco Dellamorte is a cemetery caretaker with a little more to handle than most who undertake such a mundane lifestyle. Several of the dead in his cemetery have a tendency to rise from the grave and venture out to assault the living (usually on the seventh day after internment). Dellamorte puts them down nightly and refuses to make a fuss to anyone in authority as he doesnt want to risk his only source of income.

Tiff’s Midnight Madness program turned 25 this year, and for two and half decades, the hardworking programers have gathered some of the strangest, most terrifying, wild, intriguing and downright entertaining films from around the world. From dark comedies to Japanese gore-fests and indie horror gems, the Midnight Madness program hasn’t lost its edge as one the leading showcases of genre cinema. In its 25-year history, Midnight Madness has introduced adventurous late-night moviegoers to such cult faves as Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. But what separates Midnight Madness from, say, Montreal’s three and half week long genre festival Fantasia, is that Tiff selects only ten films to make the cut. In other words, these programmers don’t mess around. Last week I decided that I would post reviews of my personal favourite films that screened in past years. And just like the Tiff programmers,...

Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) (Demons ’95) (Of Death, of Love)

Directed by Michele Soavi

Written by Gianni Romoli

Italy / France / Germany, (1996)

Let’s just get this out of the way. Michele Soavi’s Cemetery Man is one of the three best Italian horror films ever made. Based on the wildly popular Italian comic book Dellamorte, Dellamore from Tiziano Sclavi’s Dylan Dog series, Cemetery Man is compelling, bizarre, and downright entertaining from start to finish. Technically a zombie film, but not really, Soavi’s avant-garde gothic flick weaves in so many unexpected directions, that it is quite unlike any horror film made before or after. This surreal fantasy from the director of Deliria (1987) unfolds like a very weird dream and never stops moving, twisting and turning its way to a beautifully rendered existential climax. You can take it as a horror picture or a black/comedy or a story about friendship,...

There are a handful of directors I would do anything to see working again. I'm not necessarily talking about retired filmmakers, but those who appear to be floating in the ether. Don't Look Now and Performance director Nicolas Roeg is one of them. His movies still haunt. Michele Soavi is also on that list. There are moments in the filmmaker's body of work that threatened to trump the Italian horror masters — directors he actually worked with, including Dario Argento (on Tenebrae, Phenomena and Opera) and Lamberto Bava (on A Blade in the Dark and Demons). Soavi even made the crossover to mainstream cinema as second unit director on Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. As Soavi came into his own as a director, he edged closer to brilliance. The Church was an atmospheric twist on Lamberto Bava's Demons series, but his 1994 film Cemetery Man (a.

True Blood Episode 607

“In The Evening”

Written By: Kate Barnow

Directed By: Scott Winant

Original Airdate: 28 July 2013

In This Episode...

Eric leaves Willa in the vampire prison so she can warn Pam, Tara, and Jessica about the tainted Tru Blood. He promises to return for her, and takes Nora to Bill. He flat-out begs Bill to give Nora his blood, but Nora doesn’t want it and Bill doesn’t want to force it on her. As Nora becomes sicker, Bill finally forces some of his blood into her, but it doesn’t help. Eric begs again, and says that he believes Bill is divine. He tells Eric of Warlow and how his blood allows him to walk in daylight, and promises to bring back some more Warlow blood. (Wouldn’t any fairy blood do?) Bill doesn’t make it back on time, and Nora dies in Eric’s arms.

Earlier this week we paid a visit to Dr. Terror's Blog of Horrors for a segment entitled “8 Bits From Hell,” in which Dr. Terror worked with artist and graphic designer Frank Browning (already a FEARnet fave for his work on all those horror ice cream flavors) and electronic musician Sean O'Connor to design vintage-style packaging, screenshots, instructions and 8-bit musical themes for imaginary early '90s-era Nes games that horror fans would have totally killed to possess. At that time we showcased a sweet game mockup based on Lucio Fulci's 1979 classic Zombie, but as we mentioned, that was only one of many splatter flicks to get the 8-bit treatment. Their second round of wish-fulfillment includes an homage to Lamberto Bava's Demons, and the distinctly '80s look of that film lends itself perfectly to the retro game vibe – all the way down to O'Connor's recreation of the main...

Dario Argento’s name may not be well-known to American moviegoers, but horror movie enthusiasts would recognize him as the master Italian horror movie director. Starting his directing career in the 1970s with “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,” Dario has since directed 18 feature films. And like all iconic horror film directors, people tend to view his early films as being representative of his best work. This tends to leave a lot of fans celebrating the director’s early work, while desperately ignoring most things that have come after the '90s. However, the documentary below takes place in the mid-80s, which allows us to exist in a time period where horror was in its prime and directors like Argento had nowhere to go but up. “Dario Argento’s World of Horror” arrived in 1985 and is especially notable as it marked the directorial debut of Michele Soavi, the same...

From most accounts World War Z is more action flick than horror movie so we thought we'd take a quick look back at the "Evolution of the Zombie" from 1932's White Zombie all the way up to today's offerings like Wwz and Warm Bodies.

The below video was compiled by Film.com, and from slow and shambling to insanely fast and everything in-between, it shows how Hollywood’s favorite horror movie monster has changed throughout the years. Along with the films mentioned above, represented here are such classics as Night of the Living Dead (1968), Zombie (1979), Return of the Living Dead (1985), Cemetery Man (1994), Shaun of the Dead (2004), and Zombieland (2009) along with many others. It's a sweet walk down memory lane for us fans of the undead.

Related Story: World War Z News Archive

Read our World War Z review here! The film, which opens everywhere on June 21st, stars Brad Pitt,...