In any film fans cinematic history they will no doubt have seen at least one great science fiction movie. Some of these movies will have released in their lifetime, while others needed to be sought out. But no matter what era they are made in, or how they became a part of our film lexicon, the best ones still have that sense of awe and magical wonder about them that makes them something quite special.
As a fan of the genre myself, I am always looking out for videos that give me that aforementioned buzz. So when I came across this unique mash-up video, the Sci-Fi nerd in me was doing cartwheels of joy (figuratively not literally, I am much too heavy for that). World Wide Interweb, the creators of the video in question are no strangers to the mash-up and compilation video it seems. Their Daily Motion page has over a hundred of these videos, all covering various aspects of entertainment.
Christmas is almost here, and its time to celebrate the holidays by taking a look at some of our favorite Christmas curmudgeons!
Many a holiday tradition involve annual viewings of various holiday classics that embody the spirit of Christmas. These films almost always feature a heroic character who perseveres through hardship or learns a valuable lesson due to the spirit of the season, and countless families have bonded over these classic films for years.
But where would these heroic characters be if not for the Christmas villains who threaten the merry holidays time and time again? And by villains, we mean a bit more than a warm breeze that takes out Frosty or the frozen pole that tantalizes youthful tongues. No, we will be taking a look at the vilest of the villains that we watch each and every year to celebrate the holidays.
Buying presents for friends and family at Christmas time can be tricky. Each person wants something unique and it can be tricky to get just the right gift. This can be even harder when your pal is a diehard horror nut. But don’t worry, Grizzly Bomb has you covered with this selection of collectible releases.
There are some old favorites here as well as some new sellers. Though not all of them are festive based, they are sure to bring a smile to any horror fan on Christmas day.
Hollywood does not seem ready to discard its obsession with remakes and re-imaginings quite yet. For every original concept or literary adaptation you can be sure, hot on its tail, is a modified version of someone’s cherished cinematic memory. When it comes to remakes it seems that the ’80s horror movie genre always takes a huge hit. TheHitcher, Stepfather, Dayof the Dead and TheFog are just a handful of ’80s classics (well maybe classic is a bit strong) which have gotten a new coat of paint that they never really needed. If we are lucky these films will entertain, but more often they become another in a long line of soulless cash grabs.
People love nostalgia so the reasons behind these remakes are quite clear, people will pay to see them. But people will also pay to see these franchises resurrected in a slightly different way. Direct sequels can be hit and miss, but at least we recognize the characters and mythos involved. The other way to go is to structure the feature around a different format instead. Hannibal and Bates Motel (though originally novel adaptations) are two examples of films turned into TV shows. Warner Brothers seems to be going this route, with its digital production division Blue Ribbon announcing that one of the many projects it has under development is a new series based on those extraterrestrial flying fur balls, Critters.
Critters was a New Line Cinema franchise which started in 1986 and has four films in its cannon. It involved some rather nasty little alien creatures called Krites, who whizzed around the room like Sonic the Hedgehog and had a tendency to shoot their quills, as well as their teeth, into people. As well as having a slightly disturbing element to them, the Critters movies are most fondly remembered for the sense of humor that accompanied all the mayhem.
Now relatively little is known so far about Warner Bros Digital return of the Krites, but the news did spark off a reaction with the fans, like Jordan Downey (Thankskilling). Downey decided that he wanted in on this new Critters return and he left quite an inventive calling card to grab people’s attention A short movie called Critters: Bounty Hunter, which is a simple tale of hunter vs Krite, that you can watch below. This shows that you can continue a franchise successfully without reformatting it…
As you can see the short retains the spirit of the first two Critters movies with keeping the action contained in one small, recognizable location. The action is fast paced and quite tense in places, but the trademark dark humor remains (nothing better than hearing an alien swearing in his native tongue!). The attention to detail is superb, with the bounty hunter design looking very much like it did when it was first seen way back in 1986, and the Krite itself looking just as menacing as ever. Below is an extract from Jordan’s YouTube channel telling us a little about the production of the short.
Critters: Bounty Hunter was completed from start to finish in under two months with a small budget and an even smaller crew. All in, a total of six people worked on the movie: Myself, Kevin Stewart, Ricky Fosheim, Nick Soole, Troy Smith and Gina Luciani. We shot for two nights at a house in Mammoth Lakes, California. The Critter puppet was built by Troy Smith who worked with us on both ThanksKilling movies. Our crew handled everything from building the bounty hunter costume, learning the VFX required to pull off the glowing head, scoring, title cards, sound design, etc. We’re proud of what we pulled off with limited resources and can’t wait to share this with everyone. Turn up the volume and hit HD – We hope you enjoy our fun little take on Critters!
Sacha Feiner did a similar thing a few years ago with his great short movie – taking the cue from the reality break in Gremlins2 – creating movie segments with Gremlins interference.
Sacha’s work was done as a fan project much like Jordan’s project. Now whether this plan works for Jordan and his crew with regards to getting him a job is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure. He has certainly gotten the respect of Critters fans worldwide, and even if nothing comes of it, we will always have this short.
Images: Jordan Downey, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros.
Film posters are amazing. Not only do they help advertise to people quickly and easily the content of any film, they also are truly stunning pieces of art in themselves looking great displayed on our walls. However, this is not always the case. Some posters confuse us, so a bad film is made out to be good, while some don’t really tell us anything about the movie and others lose the plot entirely showing us random images or awful art and leave us thinking about what mental state the artist could have been when they devised this monster of a poster. For some reason some of the best examples of these types of poster come from abroad in non-English speaking countries and this is what I want to focus on here, those posters that with out the internet’s help would be lost in a trash can for all time. This week we focus on the Horror genre.
From reading the title of this piece, I am going to take a guess that you have had two responses to this news. One must be a response of absolute joy, because there is a chance Gizmo and co will be back on our screens. The rest of you may be thinking “In what form?” Well it is a valid question and one that you might not like the answer to.
Vulture have reported that Warner Brothers Pictures and Amblin Entertainment (Steven Spielberg’s company) are trying to get a reboot of the franchise off the ground. Apparently Spielberg has had this in mind for a while, but his budget estimates were considered too costly for anyone to take a chance on. The film is certainly not something that is 100 percent confirmed right now, but Vulture’s sources say that there is a good chance this could get the ‘go ahead’ soon.
Is this a good thing however? Most fans of the original movies are going to want to see Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates reprise their roles, as well as strictly puppet Gremlins with no CGI. However reboots do tend to like to ditch the original casts (aside from a little cameo here and there) and go with younger actors, so they can cater their story to a younger, youthful market that has never seen the movies. Also I have horrific visions of a CGI Gizmo leaping out of our screens in poorly put together 3D, but this could just be me. This is also yet another remake in a cinematic sea already full to the brim with retreads and re-imaginings. What is wrong with having a good old-fashioned sequel?
Positives though include the fact that Spielberg seems passionate about this, and if he is involved in a producer role again, then that gives us older fan boys and girls hope that he can infuse this with the same magic he and Joe Dante did with the original. Maybe there is a place for Zach and Phoebe t0o, as the parents of a child that gets a Mogwai perhaps? If CGI is needed then hopefully it will be as good as movies like Ted, where the CGI was seamless. Very little is known for sure, so watch this space for more information when we get it.
Grizzly Bomb 