The Top 10 Scariest Paintings of All Time

I'm doing something a bit different tonight. Since The Vault of Horror is devoted truly to all things horror, and not just movies and TV, I thought I'd take a look at the world of fine art, and how horror has been best represented there. With that in mind, I give you the most frightening works of art ever created! Continue on, if you dare, and enjoy the dark products of man's twisted imagination!

10. Guernica. Pablo Picasso, 1937

9. The Great Red Dragon. William Blake, 1811

8. Biomechanoid. H.R. Giger, 1974

7. Death and Life. Gustav Klimt, 1911

6. The Nightmare. John Henry Fuseli, 1791

5. The Scream. Edvard Munch, 1893

4. Garden of Earthly Delights (The Hell panel). Hieronymus Bosch, 1500

3. Death and the Maiden. Egon Schiele, 1915

2. Saturn Devouring His Sons. Francisco de Goya, 1824

1. The Triumph of Death. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562

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2009: The Year in Horror, Part 2

OK, I finally had the opportunity to sit down and put together the second and final part of the VoH's hotly anticipated 2009 horror preview. This time out, I'm taking a look mainly at those upcoming projects that do not yet have a hard and fast release date attached to them. Let's take a look:

...Of the Dead: For the sixth installment of George Romero's 40-year cinematic obsession with zombies, the lauded director decided give up even trying to come up with a clever name. I guess "Brunch of the Dead" just didn't cut it. Although his last two chapters have been met with mixed reactions from fans, I won't be missing this. Most likely direct-to-DVD.

Resident Evil 5: This is the video game series, not the movie series. Fans have been waiting on this one all through 2007, but it looks like it will finally reach U.S. shores this year. Right now, it's slated for 3/13.

Bloodrayne 3: Against all semblance of rational thinking, the infamous Uwe Boll plans to excrete this one upon the masses via a DVD release.

The dreaded Val Lewton remakes: A while back, RKO horrified legions of fans by announcing it had licensed the rights to remake its classic collection of Val Lewton-produced films from the 1940s. I'm talking Bedlam, The Body Snatcher, Isle of the Dead and I Walked with a Zombie. Possibly others.

Children of the Corn: A TV remake this time. Sounds like a Sci-Fi Original if ever there was one.

Dead of Night: Brandon "Superman" Routh plays monster hunter Dylan Dog, from the same Italian comic book series that inspired 1994's Cemetery Man.

Frankenweenie: A full 25 years later, Tim Burton returns to his first live action film, remaking it as a feature-length film. Expect this irresistible tale of a little boy who reanimates his dearly departed dog next December.

Giallo: Dario Argento returns to English-language film-making with this serial killer flick starring his daughter Asia and Oscar-winner Adrien Brody.

The Host 2: Even as talk of an American remake to the Korean original continues (I thought that was Cloverfield), a sequel to the giant monster favorite is in the works.

Hatchet 2: Color me completely apathetic, but for those who appreciated Adam Green's 2006 tribute to bad slasher flicks, it appears there's more to come.

I Spit on Your Grave: This time the remake mongers have gone too far. Mighty Jove, hurl thy thunderbolts upon the offenders!

Last House on the Left: In an effort to keep an open mind, I'm willing to entertain the notion that this might be good. The early trailer has generated some positive buzz, and I've loved Garret Dillahunt since his brilliant work on Deadwood.

Saw: The Game: Another long-awaited video game, this one hits on Halloween, just in time for the sixth installment in the movie series.

Scanners: For the first time, the remake train reaches Cronenberg's body of work (unless you count the Dead Zone TV series).

Stigmata 2: Winner of the "Sequel Absolutely No One Was Asking For" award.

The Tingler: I can only hope that this remake of the William Castle chiller also brings back the electric buzzers in the theater seats.

Wrong Turn 3: The 21st century take on the whole "backwoods cannibal psychos" subgenre continues, once again on DVD.

[REC] 2: In brazen defiance of the instant American remake that was churned out last year, Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza return for the sequel to their amazing Spanish-language original. Already wrapped, expect this one sooner rather than later.

Well, that's it for my little peek into the next 12 months. Definitely too many sequels and remakes than I care to see, but what else is new? On the bright side, we have projects from Romero, Argento, Balaguero & Plaza and Burton to look forward to.

Check here for Part 1 of my 2009 preview.

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Neato Poltergeist FX Podcast

Hey Poltergiest fans! Bummed about the inevitable remake trudging our way? Well, can't do much about that, but I can direct your attention to this terrific podcast over at the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) website.

Cinematographer Matthew Leonetti and visual effects supervisor Richard Edlund discuss the techniques used in Tobe Hooper's 1982 fan favorite. You can download it either as an iTunes podcast, or an mp3 audio file.

Oh, and sorry for publishing that mondo groady shot from the movie. That moment was responsible for more childhood nightmares than I care to count. I just had to share it.

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Another Ill-Advised Remake Bites the Dust!

Following the recent news of the Rosemary's Baby and The Birds remakes getting flushed down the developmental toilet, I can't say I'm not pleased to report that Sony's planned remake of Tom Holland's '80s vampire sleeper Fright Night has also been deep-sixed.

According to Ryan Rotten over at Shock Till You Drop, the inability to cobble together a script that pleased the execs is the reason being cited for shelving the project. It had been in development for nearly two years.

Seems to be a growing trend. And for all those who tend to be more "open-minded" about these remakes, I'll say this: No, they're not all bad. Dawn of the Dead was very good, for example. But for every one that's decent, we get five others that tarnish the name of the originals on which they're based, obscure those originals in the minds of new potential fans, and represent cowardly, unimaginative bottom-line thinking at its worst.

Here's to original ideas!

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I'm proud as a peacock to announce that The Vault of Horror has been nominated for best horror blog of 2008 by TotalFilm.com, the website for the UK's Total Film magazine. It's part of their overall 2008 Movie Blog Awards, which should be up on the site sometime next week. Keep an eye out!

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Finally, the Horror Film Doc We've Been Hoping For

If there's one thing that immediately strikes you while watching Joseph Maddrey and Andrew Monument's Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, it's that Lance Henriksen has got a future in voiceovers. The haggard actor's grim, resonant baritone instantly captivates as he takes the viewer on a journey through the history of the American horror film, from Edison's Frankenstein right to the present day.

And what a journey it is. Based on Maddrey's 2004 book, this as-yet-undistributed doc, produced/written by Maddrey and directed/edited by Monument, is a potent, jam-packed study of the fright flick in the context of the United States' evolution over the course of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Obviously, a movie can't cover all the material that a book can, but Maddrey does a fine job of condensing the most important stuff into a little over 90 minutes, which is no mean feat. Ideally, a project like this could have been expanded into a three-part miniseries, as it feels rushed at times. But in fairness to Maddrey and Monument, an impressive job is done of covering as much ground as possible within the time limitations.

More than a century of cinema is discussed, and there were bound to be some omissions. I was surprised to see The Shining get almost completely glossed over, and was expecting a bit more on Vincent Price, the genre's most iconic star. Due to the American focus of the film, you won't find much on stuff like Hammer or the Italians, although there is a discussion towards the end of the rise of foreign horror as a powerful alternative for U.S. fans.

What is covered is handled quite well. We get a series of titled chapters, a la Kevin Burns, covering everything from the golden age of the Universal monsters to the post-9/11 torture porn boom. Engrossing commentary is provided by the likes of George Romero, Roger Corman, John Carpenter, Darren Lynn Bousman, Larry Cohen, Brian Yuzna, Tony Timpone and the ever-engrossing John Kenneth Muir, who gets so much screentime, I was expecting his name to be above the title (I kid John, I kid!).

As in his book, Maddrey's script attempts to match up the development of the American horror movie with the history of the country itself. At times, this works quite well, such as when Carpenter rails against the evils of Reagan's 1980s, and how that was reflected in the films that he and others were making at the time. At other times, however, it feels like Maddrey is trying a bit too hard to establish an ongoing narrative from what are often unrelated and random events, such as when we are told that horror in the 1940s was headed in a softer, less serious direction, and then the next stuff we see is the incredibly intense films of Val Lewton, which contradict this thesis.

Due in part to the interview subjects chosen, the movie is weighted a bit toward the movies of the 1970s and 1980s, which for many fans represents something of a modern-day golden age anyway, so I was happy to see the narrative slow down a bit during this period to provide a more detailed discussion. We get a hilarious slasher movie montage that spells out the moral ground rules upon which that subgenre operated. There's also a direct comparison of President Reagan to Freddy Krueger, which is sure to send conservative horror fans into fits.

I've often wondered why no one had stepped up to do a really comprehensive, all-encompassing history of horror in documentary form, and so I'm grateful to Maddrey and Monument for being the first to give the genre this kind of treatment. It's a fascinating watch for both passionate and casual fans, made by people who really seem to care about their subject matter. It's a travesty that it has yet to find a distributor, as this is easily something I could imagine airing on networks like Bravo, SciFi or AMC, followed by a spiffy DVD release full of extra interview footage.

Hopefully, that problem will be changed soon, as this is a compelling piece of work, with a lot to say about our culture and how it's reflected in how we choose to entertain ourselves.

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Yes, This Is a Real Book

And you can get it here. Effing brilliant.

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Pat Hingle 1924-2009

We start off the year with the loss of a prolific character actor, best known for playing Commissioner Gordon in the PolyGram Pictures Batman movie series of 1989-97. In fact, he was one of only two actors to play their roles in all four movies. But Pat Hingle's resume included roles in countless other films and TV shows, including several notable horror appearances.

Most notably of all, he starred in the 1963 Twilight Zone episode, "The Incredible World of Horace Ford". He also played in Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, and the 1997 TV remake of The Shining.

In addition to his work in horror and B-flicks, Hingle co-starred in a plethora of major motion pictures, spanning the 1950s right up to recent years, including On the Waterfront, Splendor in the Grass, Hang 'Em High, Sudden Impact, Brewster's Millions, The Grifters, The Quick and the Dead, and Talladega Nights. He had a recurring role on Gunsmoke, and was Col. Parker in John Carpenter's 1979 TV movie Elvis.

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2009: The Year in Horror, Part 1

It's that time of year again, when the VoH takes a look into the proverbial crystal ball to see what the brand new year has in store for us fans of the gothic and macabre. I'm breaking up my preview into two parts. Tonight, I'm focusing on those projects which already have a set release date.

1/9
The Unborn: This comes to us from writer/director David S. Goyer. He gave us the new Batman flicks, the Blade movies and the underrated cult classic Dark City. He also gave us Kickboxer 2 and that Nicky Fury TV movie with David Hasselhoff.

1/16
My Bloody Valentine 3-D: Had enough of the endless horror remakes? OK, well here's another one, except... it's in 3-D! Rock on!

1/20
Boogeyman 3: Direct to video, as it should be. Wait... there was a Boogeyman 2?

1/23
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: This medieval prequel charts the origins of the ages-old feud between the vampires and werewolves. Translation: No Kate Beckinsale.

2/6
Coraline: Cool dads everywhere will be taking their kids to see this long-awaited stop-motion animated film from Neil Gaiman and Henry "Nightmare Before X-Mas" Selick.

2/13
Friday the 13th: The most anticipated remake of them all. 'Nuff said.

2/17
Dead Like Me: Life After Death: All those who felt crushed when the criminally under-recognized Showtime series got yanked will finally get a shot at some closure with this direct-to-video production.

3/20
Lesbian Vampire Killers: Much like Smuckers, with a name like that, it has to be good.

3/24
The Grudge 3: At long last, the direct-to-video trigger is pulled on the Grudge franchise. This time Shawnee Smith of Saw fame stars.

3/27
Monsters vs. Aliens: I'll admit that this looks like a gem of an animated comedy, and it's got Stephen Colbert as the voice of the President. But I'm given pause that it's brought to us by the directors of Shrek 2 and Shark Tale.

5/15
The Descent: Part 2: I wasn't aware of this one, but given the tremendous popularity of the original, there's sure to be a lot of interest here.

5/29
Drag Me to Hell: Sam Raimi's triumphant return to the horror genre. Think of it as a breather before he rolls up his sleeves and tries to save the Spider-Man series.

8/21
Final Destination: Death Trip 3-D: In the time-honored tradition of Jaws, Friday the 13th and The Amityville Horror, the FD series makes that ultimate horror desperation move. It was supposed to happen more appropriately with the third one, but this time they finally made it happen.

8/28
Halloween 2: Rob Zombie's sequel to his 2007 remake is on the fast track as we speak.

9/18
Jennifer's Body: Diablo Cody, she of the pretentiously affected Juno, penned this horror comedy, in which Megan Fox will not appear topless.

9/25
The Crazies: Apparently this is the one remake that has no one upset, since George Romero's original has so many detractors.

10/16
The Stepfather: Christopher Meloni of HBO's Oz fame picks up the mantle of the heavy in this remake, while his new wife will be played by Sela Ward, who happens to be married to the guy who played Bub in Day of the Dead.

10/23
Saw VI: Yep.

11/6
The Wolf Man: Here's my personal most-anticipated flick of 2009. Can't wait to hopefully witness Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins do Lon Chaney and Claude Rains proud.

11/20
New Moon: The first of the three inevitable sequels to Twilight. If you're already a fan, rejoice. If not, brace yourself.

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House Explodes in Amityville

No, not that house. That would've been awesome (provided the house was empty, of course), but still, I couldn't help but take note of Newsday's report last Monday of a home mere blocks away from it that was blown to bits by a gas leak. Wonder if it was anything like the end of Amityville 3-D?

Plus, I'll take any excuse to publish that photo to the right. Awesome, isn't it? Better than the movie, I'd say.

Anyway, in case you're concerned, the family that lived there smelled the gas and was able to phone 911 and escape shortly before the house exploded. And if you're wondering how close to the infamous Defeo residence the house is, here you go:



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Here's to 2009...

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