Exclusive: Director of Stark New British Thriller CRUEL SUMMER Speaks; Trailer Revealed

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Exclusive: Director of Stark New British Thriller CRUEL SUMMER Speaks; Trailer Revealed

Chilling British drama CRUEL SUMMER unveils new trailer; director speaks.

Echoing the gritty horrors of films like 1986’s harrowing THE RIVER’S EDGE, but with a decidedly contemporary Welsh twist is director Phillip Escott and Craig Newman’s new, fact-based dark British drama CRUEL SUMMER, a picture that riffs on the sad truth about human evil: that it is often born of simple boredom and fear.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Autism sufferer, Danny, escapes the inner-city and out to the country as part of his ‘Duke of Edinburgh’ award scheme. Little does he know, that bitter yob Nicholas (Danny Miller) is hunting him, stemming from a lie created by the enamored and envious Julia (Natalie Martins ). With the help of new boy Calvin (Reece Douglas), the three youths close in on Danny. As Nicholas’ behavior grows erratic and increasingly more violent, tensions rise within the trio, forcing Julia and Calvin to decide if they are capable of going through with Nicholas’ deadly plan.

SHOCK asked co-director Escott to tell us more about why he pursued the project:

“With Cruel Summer, Craig and I looked to examine an act of -seemingly -random violence. We were gripped by an horrific crime that took place here in the UK, a crime in which the perpetrators had no motive for their actions and it was this lack of reasoning that haunted us, ‘how did that day end up the way it did?’ we thought, and that’s the question that drove us to create CRUEL SUMMER. We wanted to explore how, over a 24 hour period, the impact of one’s actions can have harrowing consequences, as the inevitable tragically creeps closer and closer…”

With a haunting score by Josef Prygodzicz that gently references Clint Mansell’s work in THE FOUNTAIN, CRUEL SUMMER looks to be a sophisticated, emotional horror film, one that doesn’t need masked slashers or shambling ghouls to paralyze its audience.

Have a look at the trailer below and stay tuned to SHOCK for more details as we get them.

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Beefcake Clip From New Erotic Sci-Fi Horror Film OTHER HALVES

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Beefcake Clip From New Erotic Sci-Fi Horror Film OTHER HALVES

New indie film blends erotic horror and evil apps.

Lauren Lakis and Mercedes Manning (who appears in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM director Darren Aronofsky’s new flick ZIPPER) star in the paranoid new indie psycho-sexual horror film OTHER HALVES, an erotic, satirical and techno-savvy film laced with more than just a drizzle of Sci-Fi.

And while the film is currently uncoiling its festival run, SHOCK got our sweaty paws on a new clip from the, er, body of the film.

Have a look:

The film is co-written (with Kelly Morr) and directed by Matthew T. Price. Here is the official synopsis:

“Synopsis: A team of programmers develop a revolutionary new dating app called Other Halves. On the night before the app is set to launch, they discover it causes strange side effects: users lose all self-control, becoming amoral, lascivious, violent, evil. They consider shutting the app down, but… evil is profitable.”

Evil apps. I do believe that is something new…take that for what it is…

For a full list of OTHER HALVES festival run and for more about the film visit the official site.

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Steve McGinnis Premieres DRACULA A.D. 1972 Art For New Hammer Doc

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Steve McGinnis Premieres DRACULA A.D. 1972 Art For New Hammer Doc

Monster artist Steve McGinnis presents new painting for Hammer doc campaign.

Two weeks ago, SHOCK announced that the fine folks at DIABOLIQUE Magazine had Kickstarted a killer campaign to mount the mother of all Hammer documentaries, one that will chart the rarely explored history of Hammer’s longstanding production partnership with Warner Bros. Films.

Among the many perks guaranteed for those who donate, are a series of gorgeous film posters by artist Mark Spears.

Now, SHOCK is excited to reveal another poster, that of the latter period Hammer Dracula classic DRACULA AD 1972 painted by one of our favorite artists, Toronto-basedSteve McGinnis (McGinnis created the header for our SHOCK TREATMENT and THE DISC THAT WOULDN’T DIE headers).

Says McGinnis about his involvement in the project:

“As a kid of the 70’s I grew up on Hammer Horror films and Christopher Lee was my Dracula. Being asked to create this poster was a dream gig. I took a few days of sketching out the way I wanted to lay it out.  I had to include the fight on top of the runaway coach at the beginning, so I made them ghost like coming out of the mist and clouds above. The center image of Dracula impaled on the wheel is an iconic image and I had to make that one the main visual. The rest just fell together around it. I hope Hammer fans enjoy this  as much as I liked creating it.”

So feast your eyeballs on McGinnis’ poster below and get over to the HAMMER HORROR: THE WARNER BROS. YEARS page to donate!

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Chris Alexander’s SHOCK TREATMENT: In Praise of 1978’s THE SHOUT

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Chris Alexander’s SHOCK TREATMENT: In Praise of 1978’s THE SHOUT

In this ongoing SHOCK column, editor Chris Alexander muses on classic and contemporary films worthy of a deeper discussion.This round…it’s 1978’s THE SHOUT.

Whether it be a low, wet, growl coming from deep within in the dark, a disembodied whisper from behind a long locked door, or the skin-tightening timbre of a terrified woman’s pre-knife stuck scream, the use of sound has been manipulated since the dawn of horror cinema as a highly effective tool to terrify those lucky enough to be blessed with relatively good hearing. Sound fills in the blanks, giving audible life to seemingly benign tableaux; people, objects and events are transformed. Sometimes sound is used to create tension, to provide the aural punch line to an unbearable set up and sometimes sound is even used to lull the viewer into a false sense of calm before unleashing whatever beast the filmmaker has heretofore kept under wraps. But in Polanski pal and DEEP END director Jerzy Skolimowski’s little discussed 1978 tone poem THE SHOUT, sound is used for even more aggressive purposes: to maim, to harm, to inflict agony and eventually, to kill every living thing in its path.

What’s that SHOCK reader? Never heard of THE SHOUT? You certainly aren’t alone. This dark, abstract sliver of arthouse weirdness has never before been available legitimately on Blu-ray or DVD on these shores (a UK DVD was released a decade ago, poorly transferred and with an altered, inferior sound design and an excellent, feature-filled British Blu-ray was released quietly last year) and the ancient, Columbia Pictures US VHS release is a highly sought after collectible.

I first encountered THE SHOUT the same way I first encountered many of my favorite films: alone, on late night television. This strange, dark and slowly paced film marked me the deepest and not a day went by that I didn’t think about it in some way shape or form. My fixation on it later amplified when I realized that basically no one I knew had ever seen it, let alone were aware of (or cared about) its existence and it felt as though it were mine, a secret slice of cinema whose fan club sported one member: me.

Imagine my delight one day, while sifting through the delete rack at Toronto’s Queen Video in The Bloor street Annex, I found that very same aforementioned discontinued Columbia videocassette, lying there, faded, moldy and battered at the bottom of the shelf, being sold off for a lousy dollar. Money immediately changed hands and within seconds THE SHOUT was mine.

But, per usual, I get ahead of myself. Let me tell you a bit about the film itself…

Church organist and erstwhile experimental music composer Anthony (the great John Hurt, he of David Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN, Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, Jim Jarmusch’s ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE and so many other wonderfully eccentric turns) and his comely wife Rachel (the dearly departed Susannah York) live a quiet, idyllic yet sexually vacant life in the English countryside. Into their pleasant but unremarkable home comes a brooding, ruggedly handsome, hirsute wanderer named Crossley (the late, notoriously self destructive British actor/boozer Alan Bates) seeking refuge and a hot meal, which the young couple skeptically oblige. It’s not long before this belligerent, sneering animal of a man begins slowly, methodically manipulating and controlling Anthony and Rachel’s lives, both physically and mentally. Turns out Crossley isn’t just your run of the mill raving psychotic narcissist, but rather is a kind of an aboriginal warlock, a dangerous outback -dwelling monster who claims to have murdered his children in order to learn the ancient art of psychic vampirism and the ever useful skill of killing by shouting. Taking the disbelieving Anthony onto the moors one night, Crossley crassly proves his case by simply opening his mouth, drawing in air and letting loose a lethal primal shriek from the very chasms of Hell. Things get very nasty and, needless to say, do not end particularly well…

Told as an extended flashback to ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW vet Tim Curry, THE SHOUT is the kind of lyrical, intelligent, enigmatic and frustrating work of psychological horror that the Brits were once so very fond of producing in the 1970’s and that are simply, and sadly, not being made at all anymore. Filled with deranged, politically incorrect sex (fans of the lovely York take note), haunting nightmare imagery and an aura of icy, inevitable doom, the picture plays like the bastard offspring of THE WICKER MAN, Nick Roeg’s DON’T LOOK NOW and vintage Luis Bunuel; a movie of surreal, shocking, confusing, terrifying and occasionally blackly humorous power and the kind of eyeball spinning head scratcher that stays with you for weeks (in my case, a lifetime), requires multiple viewings and asks far more questions than it provides answers to. Driven by a powerful score by GENESIS alumni Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks, this is truly a living, breathing nightmare committed to celluloid and I beg, nay command you to seek out a copy, like, yesterday. Do it, or I’ll scream.

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Sound SHOCK: The History of BLUE OYSTER CULT’s ‘(Don’t Fear) the Reaper’ in Horror

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Sound SHOCK: The History of BLUE OYSTER CULT’s ‘(Don’t Fear) the Reaper’ in Horror

SHOCK takes a look at BOC’s hard rock hit ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ and its use in horror films.

Mention the name of seventies rock juggernaut Blue Oyster Cult, and several notions likely pop instantly to mind: The thudding intro to their hit ‘Godzilla’, stomped out by a shaggy quintet clad in bellbottom jeans while a stadium audience trips out on the psychedelic lasers flaring around them. BOC were originally hyped by their manager as the American answer to Black Sabbath, but the band evolved into something spacier and more progressive, stamped with their trademark mysticism and dense sci-fi lyrics. Less apparent to casual B.O.C. fans is the band’s long association with horror cinema—while B.O.C. dove in to the genre directly by writing the music to Charles Band and Ted Nicolau’s hilariously dated alien D.J. flick BAD CHANNELS (1992), the band is perhaps better remembered by some of horror’s biggest names adopting the band’s biggest chart hit, 1976’s ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’, for their films.

First appearing on Blue Oyster Cult’s fourth full-length album AGENTS OF FORTUNE and released as a single that peaked at number twelve on the Billboard charts, ‘(Don’t Fear)The Reaper’ was penned by lead singer and guitarist Donald Roeser (a.k.a. Buck Dharma) as a hopeful declaration that love can endure past the natural closure of death—not as a romanticizing of suicide pacts, as how the song is frequently misinterpreted. From the picked riff that drives the song, the lilting Byrds-like quality and the soft layered vocals, ‘Reaper’ doesn’t exactly transmit feelings of terror or dread. That didn’t stop John Carpenter from briefly featuring the tune in his stone classic HALLOWEEN (1978). Most of HALLOWEEN’s standout musical moments are derived from Carpenter’s own lean synth score. However, “Reaper’ is placed in as a source cue when Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) cruises in her friend Annie’s car and indulges in a little herbal relaxation. The song’s appearance is brief and played under dialogue (and Laurie’s coughing fits), but the subtext is obvious as Carpenter presages the murderous return of Michael Myers to Haddonfield. It’s a subtle, almost throwaway use of a tune that was still somewhat current in 1978, its presence in the film belying HALLOWEEN’s notoriously skimpy budget—though this was the era before music publishers saw the licensing of songs for films as a one big distended udder filled with cash, just begging to be milked. Lucky for us, Carpenter’s team secured the rights on the cheap and ‘Reaper’ became forever entrenched in horror film lore.

Apart from HALLOWEEN, Stephen King cites ‘Reaper’ as part of the inspiration behind the writing of his first mammoth novel THE STAND, with an excerpt of the lyrics used as an epigraph to kick off the book. When director Mick Garris assumed the titanic task of adapting King’s swollen tome into a T.V. miniseries in 1994, he honored the source material by having an edited cut of the song play over the first episode’s opening credit sequence, which was an eerie swoop through the underground laboratory from which the ‘Captain Trips’ flu bug escaped—its hallways and chambers now littered with heaps of white-coated corpses.

SCREAM would see director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson lovingly crib a number of elements from Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN for their 1996 slasher revival, but none are slipped in as slyly as ‘Reaper’. Played while Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) makes his bedroom plea to Sidney (Neve Campbell), SCREAM’s version of the tune is an acoustic cover by singer-songwriter Gus Black (billed in the credits as simply ‘Gus’), and adds cello and female vocals to accentuate a mournful flavor that isn’t much present in the original version. It’s a wink to SCREAM’s forebears and an understated telegraphing of the danger that Billy will eventually present to Sidney, not to mention that Black’s cover sounds fantastic.

The same year would see ‘Reaper’ once again revived in a cover version. Peter Jackson closes out his underloved ghost-caper THE FRIGHTENERS with a version by fellow Kiwis The Mutton Birds, and the song continues to play over the end credit crawl. Unlike the distinctive film that houses it, the Mutton Birds cover is blandly straightforward and sounds much too close to the original to be at all memorable.

Speaking again of elements taken from HALLOWEEN, those that Rob Zombie transposed from the original to his 2007 remake are still a matter of heavy fan debate. ‘Reaper’ was thankfully carried over to the update, but bumped back and also forward in the proceedings—Zombie now uses the song to underscore the post-coital doom faced by both Judith Myers (Hanna Hall) in the film’s prologue, and Lynda (Kristina Klebe) in the moments before Myers redecorates the walls with her unfortunate paramour Bob. In this more obvious context, the appearance of the song is clumsy (as is the use of The Misfits’ HALLOWEEN II moments prior), but credit to Zombie for acknowledging ‘Reaper’ as integral to the legacy of the HALLOWEEN films.

‘Reaper’ would surface again in 2009 when a quick snippet is played in the comedy hit ZOMBIELAND, as the traveling zombie killers puff away on a hookah (shades of Laurie Strode?) alongside their host Bill Murray. And, while not in the genre realm, any discussion of ‘Reaper’ would be remiss to omit the song’s retrofitting as comedy fodder—mocked for its copious clicking cowbell in a famous SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch with Will Farrell and Christopher Walken. No matter, as the laughs can’t dull ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’s’ status as a classic track, and be sure to inform any young comedy fans that that horror got to it first.

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Empire Pictures Double Bill Comes to Blu-ray

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Empire Pictures Double Bill Comes to Blu-ray

Two classics from the Empire Pictures vaults come roaring onto Blu-ray.

Hot on the heels of our recent announcement about filmmaker Daniel Griffith’s epic new documentary about Albert and Charles Band’s beloved Empire Pictures imprint, comes the news that Scream Factory will release two of Empire’s craziest flicks.

On December 15th, Scream Factory will roll out the Blu-ray debuts of Charles Band’s insane omnibus THE DUNGEONMASTER (aka RAGE WAR) coupled with his even wilder Andrew Prine actioner ELIMINATORS. Of special note is that the version of THE DUNGEONMASTER will indeed be the same unrated version Shout! Factory previously released on DVD, complete with extra boobies for those who demand extra boobies in their B-movies.

Special Features on this disc will include:

• NEW Interview with ELIMINATORS director Peter Manoogian
• New High Definition Transfer (ELIMINATORS)
• Theatrical Trailer (THE DUNGEONMASTER)

Check out the trailers for this pair of Empire classics below:

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Interview: Joe Dante Reflects on His ’80’s TWILIGHT ZONE Episode, ‘The Shadow Man’

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Interview: Joe Dante Reflects on His ’80’s TWILIGHT ZONE Episode, ‘The Shadow Man’

Horror legend Joe Dante remembers his chilling ’80’s TWILIGHT ZONE episode “The Shadow Man”.

Even considering how poorly Warner’s 1983 theatrical attempt to revitalize the house that Rod Serling built fared at the box office (not to mention the tragedy that unfolded behind the scenes), CBS nevertheless dipped back into THE TWILIGHT ZONE well and green-lit a prime time return of the series, this time to be filmed in full color and to be creatively propelled by some of the biggest names in dark fantasy entertainment.

The first season of the revamped THE TWILIGHT ZONE premiered on September 27th, 1985 and, from the opening credits on in, it was clear that this TZ was going to be a serious immersion into thoughtful – and terrifying – science fiction and horror. The theme music was an experimental wash of dread, only gently referencing the classic theme by Marius Constant, that was composed and performed by 60’s cult band THE GRATEFUL DEAD; key episodes were written by heavy-hitters like Harlan Ellison (“Shatterday”) and Stephen King (“Gramma”) and were directed by genre icons like Wes Craven (“A Little Peace and Quiet”, “Wordplay”), William Friedkin (“Nightcrawlers”) and, of course…Joe Dante.

Dante’s sole contribution to the 1985 TZ came in the shape of “The Shadow Man”, a tender tale of pre-teen angst and supernatural revenge. In it, a kid (Jonathan Ward) who is bullied and put-upon, discovers one night that an inky, humanoid phantom lives under his bed; a faceless, fedora wearing boogeyman who drifts into the room and, in a deep, sinister voice says, “I am the Shadow Man and I will never harm the person under whose bed I live.”

More fascinated than terrified, the boy watches the spectral intruder slink out his window and into the night, only to learn the next day that a fiend matching The Shadow Man’s description had assaulted some of his classmates after dark. Night after night, the ghoul returns and the attacks continue, but our hero is nonplussed. In fact, as he is the lone child in the school unafraid of the nocturnal spook, he becomes empowered, is seen as brave and, in turn, goes from zero to hero.

But, this being THE TWILIGHT ZONE, all does not end well; there is a dynamite twist in the tail end of Rockne S. O’Bannon’s script that is beyond chilling and one that many now-grown children of my generation still shudder over.

Dante’s installment of the aforementioned TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, a riff on the classic TZ episode “It’s a Good Life” called “Anthony”, was one of the highlights of a middling film, though in it, the director seemed more interested in indulging his ever-present obsession with vintage Warner Bros. cartoons than in going after anything resembling stark terror. Here, however, Dante does indeed get dark; less Serling and more EC comics. “The Shadow Man” has a dose or two of typical Dante mirth, but by and large, the episode is the stuff of nightmares, with the central villain being, in essence, an omnipresent predator, one whose focus on children is singular and sinister.

After rediscovering “The Shadow Man” recently and exposing my own children to its chilly charms, I knocked on Joe’s door to jog his memory about the now 30 year old short film he made for a series that doesn’t get nearly enough respect.

SHOCK: Was “The Shadow Man” shot before or after EXPLORERS?

JOE DANTE: After. That’s why EXPLORERS’ wrong-side-of-the-tracks kid, Jason Presson, plays the bully…

SHOCK: You were riding a commercial high after GREMLINS so was there any trepidation about diving into TV, however briefly?

DANTE: None, because I’d already done two episodes of POLICE SQUAD!, which was my first DGA (Directors Guild of America) job. And I’d already done an episode of AMAZING STORIES too, which made the new THE TWILIGHT ZONE look like poverty row.

SHOCK: You’re obviously a fan of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. But unlike in TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, you weren’t shackled by the expectations of remaking any existing episode. Was there any conscious attempt to lock the spirit of Serling or were you simply making a Joe Dante short film?

DANTE: The 80s ZONE revamp was a different animal entirely from the Serling original, which was economically produced but benefited from the availability of the MGM backlot and studio gloss. The new series was shot very quickly at the former Republic Studios lot in Studio City, which only had a tiny backlot. Producer Phil DeGuerre was notorious for post-production tampering and this was one of the first TV series edited on videotape. This allowed for much editorial mischief, as evidenced by director Gil Cates’ complaint that his “Paladin of the Lost Hour” episode was botched by DeGuerre in cocaine-fueled editing and when televised, was officially credited to the fictitious DGA nom de plum “Allen Smithee”.

SHOCK: The Shadow Man himself is terrifying and obviously a visual nod to the character of The Shadow, yes?

DANTE: Certainly in his costume, which was quite difficult to photograph by the way, as a black shadow against the sets.

SHOCK: There is mention in the story of The Shadow Man harming the children, but never killing. The ending of episode (SPOILER ALERT) sees Jonathan Ward dangling in a choke-hold…do you think the boy dies?

DANTE: You bet he does!

SHOCK: Did you have your pick of scripts when you came on board or were you assigned “The Shadow Man”?

DANTE: As I recall, Rockne’s existing script was pretty much a take it or leave it proposition. I don’t recall much effort to enlist the directors in choosing material, although I can’t believe that Friedkin just happened to end up with “Nightcrawlers”, which may be the best episode of the series…

SHOCK: Your Director of Photography on “The Shadow Man” was Bradford May, a TV guy through and through. The short is very atmospheric and cinematic. Do you have any memories of the man?

DANTE: This episode was made in record time, just a few days and I do remember Brad as accomplished and confident. He ended up directing, which I think is where his heart was.

SHOCK: The music for “The Shadow Man” is effective. It was composed by Merl Saunders, who played with Jerry Garcia (of THE GRATEFUL DEAD) often. Did you work with Saunders closely?

DANTE: No. Once you hand in a TV episode, your involvement is pretty much over. I never met any of the music guys, who were hired long before I was.

SHOCK: The series really hold up…I had forgotten how many incredibly strong episodes there were in that first season…

DANTE: There were some very nice episodes. I only regret that because they were shot on film but edited on tape, no film record exists. Don’t look for any HD or Blu-ray releases, because this technology only degrades when copied. It’s quite likely that eventually, the ‘80s series will not exist in 20 years, since it can’t be upgraded. Luckily, the Serling series exists on film and can be preserved pretty much forever.

SHOCK: Speaking of that, which is your favorite classic Serling episode?

DANTE: “Walking Distance”. 1959. Season one. Pure Serling. Pure sentiment. Pure Bernard Herrmann…

And for those of you with 20 minutes to spare, please feel free to indulge in THE SHADOW MAN, running in its entirety below, thanks to our good friends at YouTube…

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