Tag Archives: red band

Horror Trailer: V/H/S (Red Band)

Posted on by Arleigh

This film has already been making the film festival circuit so for genre fans it’s nothing new, but for the general public are probably still not aware that it even exists.

V/H/S is another one of those “found footage” films that everyone either hates or loves. I’m sort of straddling the fence between the two. I can dig well made ones, but some have been awful. From what I’ve been hearing about this horror anthology the reactions seem to run the gamut of it being good to almost great. I keep hearing and reading that despite flaws and unevenness in the way the five stories were told (each with it’s own filmmaker directing the segment) the film overall should satisfy genre fans everywhere. Like having so many different segments with a different filmmaker and storytelling style should give at least someone watching one good thing to like if not more.

The one thing about this film that has me interested in making it one of my must-see for this October is the fact that one of the filmmakers doing a segment in the film is none other than Ti West. His horror work has been sparse but eah one he’s released has become favorite of mine. Here’s to hoping his segment in V/H/S is not one of the flawed ones.

Trailer: Cockneys vs. Zombies (Red Band)

Posted on by Arleigh

What better way to kick-off Through the Shattered Lens’ tradition of the horror-themed month of October than a trailer that brings my favorite horror monster of all-time: the zombie horde.

Most zombie films try to be of the horrific and social-conscious variety. Let’s call this the Romero-effect. The grandfather of this horror subgenre was and is known to inject a dose (both subtle and heavy-handed) of social commentary to the scenes of apocalyptic gore and horror that others have tried to copy, mimic and emulate his style of varying degrees of success or failure. Then there are the zombie films that goes for the funny bone in addition to the usual gore and flesh-eating. This first started with the initial Return of the Living Dead film during the 80’s which spoofed the zombie genre without sacrificing the horror and gore. This type of zombie film is even more rare until the arrival of Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead during themid-2000’s. Since then the success of this zombie-comedy there’s been more and more of this type of zombie film and most of them, to be honest, stinks to high heaven. It does make the adage that doing comedy is ultimately much harder to do than drama.

One such zombie-comedy that looks to be cashing in on the success of Wright’s film even now is another release from our cousins across the Pond with Cockneys vs. Zombies. It had made an appearance at this year’s Fantastic Fest and the reaction to the film has been quite positive and with this crowd of genre superfans with discerning taste this means just very good news for fans of the zombie genre looking for something new sink our teeth into.

While this is the type of film that never truly gets a wide release in the US I think it’ll be good for people to check it out once it comes out on video and On-Demand. I mean it has the geriatric and young bank robbers fighting zombies.

Trailer: The Man with the Iron Fists (Official)

Posted on by Arleigh

One thing that seemed destined the moment RZA (with his hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan) arrived on the scene in the early 1990’s was him finally making a martial arts film. Not just a martial arts film, but a wuxia kung fu film that he and the other in the Wu-Tang Clan had watched as kids and cotinued to obsess over as adults. RZA’s own brand of hip=hop was infused with many sound bites and track beats from the classic kung fu flicks of the 70’s and 80’s. Even the group’s name was taken from one of those very kung fu classics, Shaolin and the Wu-Tang.

Now RZA has teamed up with genre filmmaker Eli Roth to make his dream to a reality with the upcoming martial arts film The Man with the Iron Fists which RZA has directed from a story written by both him and Roth. It also stars RZA (making him a triple-threat in this production) with Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, Rick Yune, Jamie Chung, Daniel Bautista and MMA fighter Cung Le. The fight choreography was handled by renowned martial arts fight choreographer Corey Yeun.

The first official trailer has now been released and it’s in awesome Red Band which shows just a hint of how ultra-violent the film will end up being. All I can say is that near the end of the trailer we get eyeballs!

Trailer: Maniac (Red Band)

Posted on by Arleigh

Last November I posted news about plans to remake William Lustig’s classic grindhouse slasher flick, Maniac, and how the most unexpected choice of Elijah Wood for the role of the serial killer Frank.

The film had it’s premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and the response to the film by filmmaker Frank Khalfoun seem to be positive. Horror remakes have always been hit-or-miss. If such positive reactions are to be believed then 2012’s Maniac may just be the horror hit of the year.

The film hasn’t been picked up by a North American distributor so any sort of release date for the US is still up in the air. Until then enjoy the first trailer of the film and a good red band trailer to boot.

Trailer: The Raid: Redemption (Official and Red Band)

Posted on by Arleigh

I wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to attend last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. If I was there I have a feeling that a little Indonesian action film would’ve been the highlight of my time at TIFF 2011. The film is The Raid (it will get the Redemption added for it’s American release) and from the look of these two trailers it just speaks the language of awesome.

All I can say is that it should put the Indonesian martial arts style Pencak Silat on Hollywood’s map the way Ong Bak did for Muay Thai a decade ago.

Trailer: Shame (dir. Steve McQueen) Red Band

Posted on by Arleigh

Shame looks to be the film of 2011 which may just be one of the most talked about. This is no mean feat considering earlier independent films such as Drive has been the talk of the town whether one loved or hated the film.

The film stars Michael Fassbender who has been having quite the year with exceptional roles both in mainstream and the arthouse circuit (X-Men: First Class and A Dangerous Method). It also stars Carey Mulligan playing the younger sister to Fassbender’s 30ish yuppie who has issues with his addiction and urge when it comes to sex. The film has been given by the MPAA the dreaded NC-17 rating, but instead of railing against this system it looks like filmmaker Steve McQueen will embrace the rating and release the film as is.

I find this decision refreshing. The film is for adults and mature audiences and should be seen by only those old enough as allowed by the NC-17 rating. One thing for sure is that the film has been getting major hype and buzz due to Fassbender baring it all and on more than one occasion. Will this titillating aspect of the film be the biggest draw for audiences or will the performances, direction and writing by the creative minds involved in the film be it’s biggest seller. Either way should be good since in the end the film will be seen.

Shame is set to have a December 2, 2011 release in the United States…just in time for awards season.