Swedish Vampires and the King of the Zombies

I've got a couple of great trailers to share with you shameless horror hounds today, both of which can be found on the excellent movie trailer blog, Gnolad.
First off is Let Me In (a.k.a. Låt den Rätte Komma In), a Swedish (yes, Swedish) film about a little boy who befriends a little girl who turns out to be a little vampire. Of course, there'll be no chance of this getting a U.S. theatrical release, but it comes out in Sweden in April, so get your plane tickets now! I guess the best we can hope for is DVD. First [REC], then Descendents, now this. Is it just me, or does it seem lately that with all the shlock being passed off as horror movies in the American market these days, filmmakers in other countries are taking advantage and co-opting the genre? Hey, fine with me--whatever leads to quality output.

And the other trailer is for a documentary by the superbly named Rusty Nails (any relation to Dusty Rhodes?), all about our favorite ghoul auteur, Mr. George A. Romero. The film is Dead On: The Cinema of George A. Romero (I probably would've gone with "Director of the Dead"), and is currently in the final stages of production, with no release date set. Nails includes comments from the likes of Quentin Tarantino (who, as an unknown, used to claim on his resume that he was the sidecar biker in Dawn of the Dead), Ed Harris, Robert Rodriguez, Stephen King, Rob Zombie, Danny Boyle, John Carpenter, John Waters, Roger Ebert (who hopefully will explain why he bemoaned NOTLD for ruining America's youth in 1968, then lauded praise upon DOTD ten years later), Dario Argento, John Landis, Tom Savini, Glenn Danzig, plus cast members from many of Romero's films. Looking forward to this one.

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Speaking of Romero, just wanted to give kudos to that loveable pussbag Bub for winning the "Favorite Zombie" poll. I should've known there really was no other choice, although Tarman made a respectable showing. Check back tomorrow for a new poll.

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Wolf Man Update: Cloverfield Director to Step In?

Looks like Universal was watching the box office results of two weekends ago, when Cloverfield cleaned house after a successful marketing blitz that took up most of 2007. According to Ain't It Cool News, Matt Reeves--who helmed the giant monster flick--is currently one of two directors the studio is eyeing to take the place of Mark Romanek, who split the Wolf Man project two days ago over creative differences.
Reeves is also attached to the now-confirmed Cloverfield sequel already in the pre-production stages, so he may not be available to take over the remake, which will star Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt.
The other director being considered is one Breck Eisner, who had previously been attached to Universal's Creature from the Black Lagoon remake.
As for those "creative differences," Ain't It Cool is reporting that Romanek may have been hoping for a greater budget than the $85 million he had been given.

**1/31 UPDATE ** AICN is now reporting that Brett Ratner has been assigned the gig. Now I know he ain't too popular with most fanboys due to his Schumacher-ing of the X-Men franchise, but I'll not lose hope yet. Ratner did direct Red Dragon, which I feel is one of the most wrongfully overlooked thrillers of the decade.

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Confirmed: New Nightmare Flick Will Be a Remake!

In Variety's second major horror news break of the day, it has been confirmed that the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie announced a few weeks ago will not be a sequel or a prequel, but will, in fact, be a remake of the 1984 Wes Craven original.
New Line Cinema has assigned the task to Platinum Dunes, the company that produced the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Amityville Horror remakes, and is also in charge of the new Friday the 13th "re-imagining". Oh yeah, and Platinum Dunes is also working on the Near Dark remake for Rogue Pictures, as well as the Birds remake for Universal. So anyone who's pissed about the rash of horror remakes--you now know who to rail against.
No word on whether Robert Englund will be reprising the role of Freddy Krueger, but with the project now being a remake, smart money says the role will be going to someone else this time around.

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Wolf Man Director Walks Out!

Variety just dropped two major bombs today, so let's get right into it.

Firstly, it was announced that Mark Romanek has dropped out as director of Universal's Wolf Man remake. Reportedly, Romanek left the project last night due to "creative differences," leaving Universal to pick up the pieces.

Universal is claiming that the project is in good shape, and that a new director will be found right away. They're also saying that a new writer will be brought in to retool the script as soon as the writers' strike is resolved.

Just when it looked like the most promising horror movie of 2009 was back on track, this happens. We can only speculate as to what constituted the creative differences, or whether the announced February 18 start date still stands.

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For a Change, Something for Texas Chainsaw Massacre Fans to Be Happy About

Seems there's a very intriguing project currently in the early stages, and you can count me on board from now. Vern at Ain't It Cool News has a fascinating interview up with Christopher Garetano, a young director who is pitching a script for a movie called South Texas Blues.
An ardent TCM fanatic, Garetano has written a screenplay all about the making of Tobe Hooper's original 1974 classic. Not a documentary, mind you, but a fictional movie based on the making of the film (think Shadow of the Vampire or Ed Wood). Further, he plans to include a lot of fantasy or magical realism moments as well (think The Big Lebowski or The Fisher King), making this a very unique concept indeed.
Part of what interests me is Garetano's casting ideas. For instance, he happens to be good friends with Ed Neal, who played the deranged hitchhiker in the original movie, and is considering casting him in the role of Jim Siedow, the actor who played his older brother in the original. And in a particularly inspired move, for the role of Neal he's hoping to cast Ray McKinnon, who played the preacher on the first season of HBO's superb Deadwood. Anyone who's a fan of that show should understand how perfect McKinnon is for the part.
It's a pretty in-depth interview, so I'd suggest checking it out to get the full idea. Garetano seems like a bit of a flake at times, but then, most great thinkers are, so I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be quite a piece of work.
Here's a little featurette Garetano put together for potential investors in the film. I know if I was an obscenely rich producer, I'd certainly risk a couple mill on it:
Online Videos by Veoh.com



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Almost forgot, I find it necessary to acknowledge the box office triumph this week of Meet the Spartans. This is the strongest evidence I've gotten in years to support my long-held hypothesis that most people are stupid.

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Horror Goes to the Oscars

The Academy Award nominations were announced last week, and it was a thrill to see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street get some of the recognition it deserves. Although the film did not get a Best Picture nom, Johnny Depp was singled out for his performance in the title role, a Best Art Direction nomination went to Dante Ferretti (a previous winner for The Aviator), and a Best Costume Design nomination went to long-time Tim Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood (a previous winner for Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago).

Remarkably, Depp is only the fourth man in the history of the Oscars to snag a Best Actor nomination for performing in a horror movie. Perhaps not so remarkably, since horror films have been woefully under-represented as a rule. Out of curiosity, I did a little research, and came up with the following list of all the men and women who have ever been nominated for performing in a fright flick:

Best Actor

1991 - Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) *

1991 - Robert DeNiro (Cape Fear)

1931 - Fredric March (Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde) *

Best Actress

1991 - Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs) *

1990 - Kathy Bates (Misery) *

1976 - Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

1973 - Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist)

1956 - Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed)

Best Supporting Actor

2000 - Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire)

1999 - Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense)

1973 - Jason Miller (The Exorcist)

1962 - Victor Buono (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?)

Best Supporting Actress

1999 - Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense)

1991 - Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear)

1976 - Piper Laurie (Carrie)

1973 - Linda Blair (The Exorcist)

1968 - Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby) *

1960 - Janet Leigh (Psycho)

1956 - Eileen Heckart (The Bad Seed)

1945 - Angela Lansbury (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

* winner

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For those who may be interested, this happens to be The Vault of Horror's 100th post. I started up this site in mid-October and it has been growing ever since. These days, I get seven times the daily visitors I averaged that first month, and three times as many as I got just one month ago. Thanks to getting picked up by BlogBurst, The Vault of Horror has gotten more than 93,000 headline impressions in places like Reuters, USAToday and Fox News--just in the past week alone. Thanks to everyone who's been reading.

Onward and upward!

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Diary of the Dead Theater Listings Announced

They're promising this is just a partial list with more to come, and I certainly hope so. I realize that George Romero's Diary of the Dead is only getting a limited theatrical release, but there's got to be at least one moviehouse out here in the wiles of Fairfield County, Connecticut that'll be showing it.
Yesterday, the film's official MySpace page released this set of domestic listings, so check below to see if the flick will be coming to a theater near you in three weeks:

NEW YORK CITY
AMC Empire 25
(212) 398-3939

City Cinemas Village East
(212) 529-6998

LOS ANGELES
Landmark Nuart
(310) 281-8223

Mann Chinese (opening 2/22/08)
(323) 464-8111

SAN FRANCISCO
Landmark Lumiere
(415) 267-4893

Landmark Shattuck
(510) 464-5980

PHILADELPHIA
Landmark Ritz - Bourse
(215) 440-1181

AMC Neshaminy
(215)722-4AMC

AMC Cherry Hill
(856) 486-7420

DENVER
Landmark Starz Film Center
(303) 820-3456

BOSTON
AMC Boston Commons
(617) 423-5801

Landmark Kendall Square
(617) 621-1202

DALLAS
AMC Mesquite 30
(972) 724-8000

HOUSTON
AMC Gulf Pointe 30
(281) 319-4AMC

PHOENIX
Harkins Arizona Mills
(480) 820-0387

ATLANTA
Paulson Plaza Theatre
(404) 873-1939

Regal Hollywood 24
(770) 936-8235

SEATTLE
Regal Meridian
(206) 622-2434

AMC Alderwood 16
(425) 921-2985

MIAMI, FL
Brand Dolphin Cinema 19
(305) 591-9380

DETROIT
Center Uptown Palladium
(248) 644-3456

SAN DIEGO
AMC Palm Promenade
(858) 558-2AMC

LAS VEGAS
Cinemark South Point 16
(702) 260-4061

BALTIMORE
Muvico Egyptian 24
(443) 755-8992

PITTSBURGH
AMC Waterfront
(412) 462-6923

CHARLOTTE, NC
ACME Carolina Theatre

Check myspace.com/diaryofthedead for more info.

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I'm proud to announce that beginning with this week, The Vault of Horror will be taking part in the weekly Horror Roundtable over at the aptly named and always insightful Horror Blog. Check it out here.

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Pinhead No Match for the Writers Strike

Bad news today for all you Cenobite fans. Box Office Mojo is reporting that MGM's remake of Clive Barker's 1987 classic Hellraiser has been temporarily derailed. Originally slated to come out in September, the Weinsteins' produced flick has now been bumped to an undetermined 2009 release.
The delay in production would appear to be a result of the ongoing WGA strike, which has also reportedly stalled Eli Roth's next project, Trailer Trash.

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The issue with the Dawn of the Dead music tracks from yesterday's post has been resolved. Feel free to check them out!

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Want Some More Dawn of the Dead Music?

Early last month, I posted half of the tracks from the hard-to-find Dawn of the Dead soundtrack CD put out by Trunk Records in 2004. Well, it's taken me a little while to get around to it, but here are the remaining six rare tracks of incidental music from the DeWolfe Library (not the Goblin tunes). Click on them to take a listen, or right-click to save them for yourself. Enjoy:

1. Cosmogony
2. Desert de Glace
3. Dramaturgy
4. Figment
5. Sun High
6. Mall Montage

Get the rest of the tracks here.

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Mulder and Scully to Tangle with a Werewolf?

That seems to be what would be indicated by the spoilerific spy pic below, snapped by a sure-to-be-in-trouble-soon photographer near the Vancouver set of X-Files 2, and sent in yesterday to JoBlo.com:

That's creator/director Chris Carter on the right surveying the special effects handiwork. I was never that into X-Files, but I do recall there was a lycanthropy-themed episode or two during the show's original 1990s run. If that is the direction in which Carter is going, there are going to be a lot of X-heads plenty upset that there will be no continuation/resolution of the epic alien invasion saga, I can tell you that.

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