T2 Trainspotting Trailer Arrives: Better Late Than Never

I believe the expression is: 'there are no words'. The trailer for Trainspotting 2 has given me 'all the feels'. Finally, the sequel to one of the greatest movies of all time, and probably my favourite British movie ever, is here. And it's pretty much everything I could have hoped for.

T2 Trainspotting will be arriving at your cinematic station on January 27th 2017. Here's the poster and trailer:

28 Days Later: In the House, In a Heartbeat

London is a hectic place. Normally filled with more traffic and pedestrians than seems humanly possible, people crammed this close together tend to get edgy. What if a terrifying virus got unleashed that turns the inhabitants of the UK into rage fuelled running zombie monsters known as the ‘infected’? Before imagining the UK as a green and pleasant isle of wonder for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, Danny Boyle cleared the streets of London to envisage a truly shocking zombie apocalypse.

Recently roused from a coma, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) checks himself out of a deserted hospital and finds London completely empty. The bustle of the city is dead, left only with an eerie stillness. This is what London will look like when the apocalypse comes. Desolate, forsaken and forgotten. The survivors are hiding out of sight. The Infected appear from nowhere like rabid dogs intent only on attack. The film later has Jim and other survivors shop in empty supermarkets and travel down empty motorways all in search of an army base that promises hope. But when the world goes to hell, is it really the army we should be turning to for help?

John Murphy’s entire soundtrack is a master class in atmospheric horror scoring, but as all hell breaks loose at the climax of 28 Days Later, his In the House, In a Heartbeat climbs to an explosive crescendo over six minutes of beautifully shot, visceral violence. 

Our three surviving characters (a man, a woman and a teen girl) have dodged death at the hands of rage infected super-zombies, only to find themselves in the ‘safety’ of an army base populated by aggressive male soldiers who have a scary attitude to women.

As hero Jim escapes the soldiers’ clutches and begins a rage-fuelled rampage with the help of some unleashed Infected, Murphy’s music builds and builds; quiet and calm at first with just two piano notes, then joined by mounting acoustic guitars and climaxing with drums crashing, electric guitar pounding and the visuals on screen becoming more and more terrifying as the deadly mixture of frightened soldiers, vicious Infected and one angry protagonist face off in the confines of the dark mansion. This is music to gouge out eyes to.

Listen:

Before Steve Jobs: A Danny Boyle Retrospective

Director Danny Boyle's latest film Steve Jobs (read my review here) may not have set the box office alight (currently sitting at a $24 million gross off a $30 million budget), but it has been a hit with the critics and should snaffle a few big awards over the coming months. You never know quite what you're going to get next from Danny Boyle, as a look back at his wonderfully varied career shows.

Starting out in TV movies, mini-series and episodes of Inspector Morse from 1987 to 1993, it took Danny Boyle’s gripping debut feature Shallow Grave in 1994 for anyone to take notice of the mild-mannered Northerner before he would go on to become a national treasure last year. His career has gone from the controversy baiting Trainspotting about a group of Scottish junkies to be being the pride of Britain with his stunning marvel, the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. With Trance about to hit cinemas, we take a look at just what it is that makes Danny Boyle the best of British.

Danny Boyle’s debut feature film arrived in 1994 with the frenetic, energetic and deeply dark Shallow Grave. Putting Boyle and McGregor close to being on the map rather than slap bang in the centre; it nevertheless introduces many of the themes, stylistic traits and collaborations that would colour Boyle’s career. From its opening voiceover (not nearly as cool as Trainspotting’s) to its mistrust between friends, betrayal over a suitcase full of money and its collaboration between director Boyle, writer John Hodge, producer Andrew Macdonald and star Ewan McGregor, there are many signs of great things to come.

Three friends sharing an apartment in Scotland find a new housemate to join them in their spare bedroom. After spending his first night there, the new guy drops dead leaving a suitcase stuffed with cash for the three friends to decide what to do with. When they decide to dump the body and keep the cash, things turn swiftly sour. Greed, betrayal and brutality soon follow as gangster types show up for the lost money and the three friends finally turn on each other. Boyle’s mobile camera is wonderful to watch, the soundtrack pulses and Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston bring two very different characters to the central triangle, leading to a thrilling and clever final act.

However 1996 was the year that Boyle really got noticed. Trainspotting is his masterpiece, based on the book by Irvine Welsh and telling the tale of Scottish junkies trying to kick the habit; failing, fucking and finally trying to go straight after one big score. Ewan McGregor stars as Renton but the ensemble cast of Ewan Bremner as loveable Spud, Robert Carlyle as psychopath Begbie, Johnny Lee Miller, Kelly Macdonald, Kevin McKidd and Peter Mullan are all on finest form. Working again with writer Hodge and producer Macdonald, the filmmaking triumvirate produce the most iconic and best British film of the 90s.

Renton and his ‘buddies’ should be despicable low lives but Boyle and his collaborators keep all these junkies believable and most importantly sympathetic… except maybe Robert Carlyle’s mini-madman Begbie. It was accused of promoting heroin chic, a fashionably scrawny look still modelled by Kate Moss, and of glamorising heroin use. It does neither, giving a brutally honest account of the degradation and danger of heroin addiction but still managing to give some character’s an almost happy Hollywood ending. The soundtrack, the ‘choose life’ monologue and the iconic marketing not only put Boyle on the map but also Britain and set McGregor off on his journey to Star Wars.

odge and Andrw Hodge

How can you follow a film like Trainspotting? Unfortunately it’s very difficult and some might say you just can’t. Boyle took the lure of Hollywood dollars with his next production; keeping McGregor, Hodges and Macdonald in tow but producing the ambitious, surreal but fatally flawed misstep that is A Life Less Ordinary. Released only a year after the success of Trainspotting it was bound to be a disappointment but even on its own terms this tale of angels and kidnapping fails to elicit much of a response, emotionally or intellectually. It feels rushed, miscast and too silly for its own good. Cameron Diaz joined the cast as a spoiled rich girl who allows herself to be kidnapped by Ewan McGregor’s loveable oaf, but the chemistry, the comedy and the supernatural interference of two of Heaven's angels fail to gel and offer a satisfying whole. If there is one film in Boyle’s career to avoid, this is it.

Three years later Boyle returned with another shot at the blockbuster; this time starring Leonardo DiCaprio in a role that was promised to Ewan McGregor but then snatched away due to studio interference. It caused a riff between Boyle and McGregor that is rumoured to have only recently been resolved. It’s also a huge shame as Boyle’s adaptation of Alex Garland’s incredible book The Beach feels like one big bucks compromise after another. Richard, the hero of the book, is British and would have been a better fit for McGregor and his unrequited love for the girl he couldn’t have is a high point of the novel. Instead the film makes the most of Leo’s heartthrob status and has him shagging his away around the beautiful, idyllic island hideaway of the title.

Lots of Boyle’s fun and funky stylistic traits are there and Leo isn’t bad as Richard but the film had a huge mountain to climb to be anywhere near as brilliant as the book. Shooting in Thailand and making the most of beautiful locations, the ending was also changed from the novel in an exciting direction. More interestingly, the collaboration between Boyle and McGregor came to a close, but it opened the door to a new collaboration.

After the critical shrug towards The Beach, Boyle retreated to television to complete a couple of television movies in 2001. Feeling refreshed and ready to take on a feature film again, Boyle resisted the studios and offers of big budgets and decided instead to film a zombie movie that would redefine the genre forever. 28 Days Later marked his second collaboration of sorts with writer Alex Garland. Whereas Garland wrote only The Beach novel with Hodges penning the screenplay, 28 Days Later was Garland’s first film script.

Featuring Cillian Murphy (who would later appear again in Sunshine), 28 Days Later is the story of a virus that spreads throughout Britain turning people into blood-spewing rage-filled savages, the Infected. Giving the zombie genre a vital shot in the arm by unleashing basically what amounted to sprinting, extra-terrifying zombies, its digitally shot, low budget thrills are just what the British horror film needed and also sent Boyle in a new direction, sticking with lower budgets to enhance his creative and bold visions. 28 Days Later feels like Boyle back to his roots; low budget, British characters and setting, gritty, brutal, but stylish and subtly commercial enough to attract the American audience. It also marked the start of his collaboration with director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle that would continue through Millions, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Trance and his collaboration with composer John Murphy that would make more music together through Millions and Sunshine.

Sticking to home turf, a small story and returning to a narrative that spins around an ill-gotten bag full of money (see also Shallow Grave and the final act of Trainspotting), Boyle’s next film introduced him to the wonders of working with children, which he would again do in Slumdog Millionaire. Millions feels a little like an anomaly in Boyle’s career though. It is the utterly charming and completely surreal tale of two little boys who come across a large amount of money as Britain prepares to convert to the Euro. It’s alt-universe where England has decided to go with the common currency is far from the strangest things about it. One of the little boys sees saints everywhere and even converses with them. There is a strong spiritual element throughout with stars in the sky, a pivotal nativity play and Jehovah’s Witnesses all featuring heavily.

Though that all might bring back unwelcome memories of A Life Less Ordinary and its not so heavenly angels, Millions is far smarter and more surreal, but also much more emotional than Boyle’s earlier misfire. Its ending is completely bonkers but Millions is worth a look to see Boyle at his weirdest. Incredibly, it manages to balance family drama and laughs and with smart scripting and intelligent themes.

In 2007, Boyle returned to Alex Garland for his next script, the science fiction scorcher Sunshine. Infinitely smarter than many examples of the genre, it’s not quite Danny Boyle’s 2001: A Space Odyssey but it is an outstandingly shot, edited, scored and special effects dependent intellectual blockbuster. Though it may sound more like Michael Bay than Stanley Kubrick with a crew of scientists sent to kick start the dying sun with a nuclear weapon, it is smarter than the average mission to save the Earth stupidity.

With its beautiful and haunting score from John Murphy, incredible special effects and gorgeous cinematography, it is worlds away from anything Boyle had directed before, despite the presence of Cillian Murphy, returning after their collaboration on 28 Days Later.

Danny Boyle’s next two films were both written by Simon Beaufoy, the writer who until then had been best known for The Full Monty. Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours were both adaptations of books, something Boyle had not attempted since the success of Trainspotting and the relative disappointment of The Beach. Slumdog Millionaire gained Boyle real international recognition and acceptance as it scooped eight Academy Awards. Its success not only reflected Boyle’s incredible directing talent but also the spot on selection of his collaborators from Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography to Beaufoy’s screenplay to his editing and music teams.

Slumdog Millionaire also confirmed Boyle as a director at his best working with budgetary constraints and with a vibrant culture to capture and put up on screen. His work with the young Indian non-professional actors recalls his eliciting of wonderful performances from the boys in Millions.

Boyle then took restraints to new limits with his adaptation of Aron Ralston’s incredible survival tale Between a Rock and Hard Place. Sticking James Franco down a canyon and trapping him under a rock for 127 Hours meant the real star of the film was not just Franco and his desperate, determined performance but also Boyle’s signature kinetic style. For a film so limited to one location (and a claustrophobic one at that), 127 Hours is a speedy, zippy, film-making tour de force with whizzing camerawork, split screens and choppy editing all amounting to a highly emotional and cathartic cinematic journey.

It is not only a great tale of survival, like a real-life Saw film, but 127 Hours also brings together many of the themes of Boyle's film career to date. From Trainspotting’s opening sprint through the Edinburgh streets set to Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, Danny Boyle has created memorable characters whose life-affirming stories really do show a strong desire to survive from Renton kicking heroin to Ralston cutting his own arm off. There are elements of the spiritual present with Franco’s hero finding hope in premonitions of his future son. Angels, saints, hope and visions of paradise have all featured in Boyle’s films of the past and Ralston is forced to question his morals and values while trapped in the canyon. Danny Boyle’s films have always questioned moral choices over money, drugs and the value of human life.

He is a director who has traversed genres like few others. Not content with this, Boyle recently directed his own version of Frankenstein at the National Theatre and quickly and conscientiously silenced the cynics by putting on one of the greatest Olympic Opening Ceremonies the world has ever seen.

Trance sees him work with James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel for the first time in a trippy art-heist thriller that also sees him reunite with writer John Hodge and director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle. With the news that the long-awaited sequel to Trainspotting will now be arriving in 2017 with the original cast intact, it looks as though Danny Boyle’s lust for a life in filmmaking is set to continue long into the future. 

Side By Side vs Sound City

I had a fascinating double bill of two documentaries on Sunday; Side by Side followed by Sound City. One has Keanu Reeves asking the greatest living directors in cinema all about their thoughts on film vs digital formats and the other has Dave Grohl reminiscing on the studio where Nevermind was recorded back in his Nirvana days.

Both these documentaries dealt with the technologies of creative media production in accessible but differing ways. Side by Side is concerned with film and looks to the future more than the past and Sound City is concerned with making music and mostly looks to the past. Both offer a history of producing entertainment/art with Sound City focusing only on artists that have recorded at the legendary but now defunct recording studio. Side by Side focuses on Hollywood and American independent filmmakers mostly and gets a fairly balanced look at the differing opinions of many filmmakers on the digital vs film debate.

Both documentaries feature a roll call of famous talent from their respective mediums; Side by Side has Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Richard Linklater, Danny Boyle, David Fincher whereas Sound City has Paul McCartney, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor, Stevie Nicks and many more.

Side by Side details the history of film and the encroaching spread of the use of digital technology from sound to editing to cameras. Sound City details the history of the studio before Dave Grohl collects together an array of musicians to record an album on the old Sound City production board. Both the films seems to mourn the passing of a more traditional way of making their arts.

I was in awe of both of these documentaries and their stunning access to major players in both the music and film industries. If you have any interest in films or rock music, you will most likely be enthralled by both of these films. They are not just a testament to a bygone age and a consideration of the modern technologies and what has been lost and gained, they are also a unique chance to hear many legends speak their mind about their passions.

Sound City trailer:



Side by Side Trailer:

Movies in March Round-up

I haven't watched or reviewed quite so much this month. In 2013 I have now watched a total of 50 films for the first time and 15 re-watches. I blame all the TV shows for the slow down this month. I've also been doing quite a lot of work on my thesis on found footage movies so that has been keeping me busy. Anyway without further ado, here's a round up of what I have been watching and writing this month:

Robot and Frank
Sinister
Killer Joe
Tape 407 (Terrible, terrible found footage)
Baise-Moi
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Sleep Tight
The Lords of Salem (review imminent)
Trance
The Liability (out in May, review currently embargoed)
Side Effects

I didn't review many of these but The Lords of Salem and The Liability will be reviewed soon at Filmoria. I also started Game of Thrones series 1 and Breaking Bad series 4, both ace so far. I feel like this series of Breaking Bad could possibly be the best yet. Game of Thrones has grabbed me and I'm just waiting for more discs from Lovefilm! I was worried the boobs might put off my wife but we're in the clear so far, two episodes in.

My reviews of Stoker and Broken went up at Filmora this month. I also wrote for Filmoria about who I think should direct the next Bond film, James Cameron and his carbon neutral Avatar sequels, and some news stories about the following:

Roman Polanski's Tess released on Blu-ray
The Lords of Salem new poster and pictures
Rebellion new trailer

I re-watched Shallow Grave, Sunshine, Millions and 127 Hours in preparation for my Danny Boyle retrospective at Filmoria. And I re-watched Terminator 1 and 2 with my Film Studies class at college so that we could talk about genre analysis and feminism analysis in films. We are studying Fight Club in another of my classes so I have been writing about Fight Club a bit and I also tried my first video essay.

I've been doing more writing for Yahoo about all sorts of strange things from praying to dog attacks to the Iraq war. Other stuff I've been writing about here are music videos and job roles in the TV and Film Industries. Overall it's been a fun month. Best films: (apart from re-watches) Trance and Side Effects. Worst film: Tape 407.

What' s been your best and worst films of the month?

Director Retrospectives: Part 2 Danny Boyle

In the continuing series of director retrospectives over at Filmoria, my latest is on the career of British director Danny Boyle, ahead of the release of his new film Trance. I'm seeing Trance tomorrow at a preview screening and cannot wait! It's got James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassell and looks like it might be a hypnotic blast. Early reviews are looking very good, no surprise after Danny Boyle wowed the world with the London Olympics Opening Ceremony last year!

 In advance of some of the biggest and best film releases of 2013, Filmoria writers are all contributing retrospectives of many directors' work. We have all chosen six directors who have films being released in 2013 and the idea is that in the week leading up to the new film, we will write and publish a retrospective look at that director's body of work.



The six directors I picked are some of my very favourites and others that have significant films to make their body of work worth revisiting. I take tasks like this very seriously and would like to get through all the films of each particular director before I write the pieces. I started out with Quentin Tarantino as my first director and that retrospective was published back in January ahead of the release of Django Unchained.


In the meantime other Filmoria writers have been tackling the likes of:


Sam Raimi

Pedro Almodovar
Steven Soderbergh
Walter Hill
Kathryn Bigelow
Judd Apatow
Robert Zemeckis

and many more!

I've been re-watching all of Boyle's films over the last couple of months in order to reappraise them and give this retrospective of the great director's work the respect it deserves. You can check out my Danny Boyle retrospective at Filmoria here. In case you didn't know this is the guy who gave us the likes of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. He's easily one of my favourite directors and definitely my favourite British director, responsible for two of the greatest British films of all time in my opinion. Please go check out the retrospective to find out more about the man and his films.

If you aren't uncontrollably dribbling and desperate to see Trance by the end then I will consider myself a failure and hang my head in shame. Choose Life! Choose reading my retrospective!

Weekend Screenings: The Lords of Salem, Trance, The Liability

I've got three wonderful screenings lined up this weekend; two for Filmoria and one just for me (though I may end up reviewing it for Filmoria too). Rob Zombie's new horror The Lords of Salem stars his good old wife Sheri Moon Zombie again and looks far more interesting than his other films so far, particularly those last two Halloween remakes. From the trailer below, it looks very atmospheric and almost like it is going for a slightly more mature style than his earlier films. Less all out gore and brutality and more of a focus on a single female character who may or may not be going crazy perhaps? Perhaps it's even fair to say The Lords of Salem looks like Rob Zombie has been studying the likes of Dario Argento and Roman Polanski. Perhaps.



Trance is Danny Boyle's first film since 127 Hours. Danny Boyle is one of my favourite directors for three reasons: Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and 127 Hours. He may have been busy with a theatre version of Frankenstein and the small matter of the London Olympics Opening Ceremony (which I have still yet to see as I was on honeymoon in Costa Rica), but he is back with a great cast, a very interesting and trippy, twisty sounding premise and one of my favourite actors Vincent Cassell. I literally cannot wait to see this film. Though Boyle has had the odd misfire, I think this looks like a good one. My Danny Boyle Retrospective is going up on Filmoria tomorrow so please check it out. I've been going through his entire back catalogue which has mostly been a pleasure.



I'm not sure what to think about this next one. The Liability is a British hit man thriller. It's got a great cast with Tim Roth, Peter Mullan and Jack O'Connell and despite the silly macho voice over in this trailer, looks like quite a bit of fun potentially. I'll watch Tim Roth in anything and Jack O'Connell is bound to be a very big star eventually. He was great in Tower Block and is already set for bigger things with the upcoming 300 prequel.



Any of these films take your fancy?

Most anticipated 2013 Movies (Jan-March)

2013 is looking like it will get off to a sound start judging by what I've been reading about upcoming releases in the first quarter of the year. John McClane returns in the fifth of the Die Hard franchise, a guy called John Dies at the End of his movie, Danny Boyle gets back to making films after fussing over Frankenstein and the Olympics, Leatherface saws up screens in 3D and the fourth deadliest natural disaster of the last century gets a cinematic rendering.

I originally intended to do a post on the films of 2013 that I'm most looking forward to but found so many to excite me just in the first three months that I thought it best to stop there. No doubt the summer will have its blockbusters including Star Trek Into Darkness, World War Z and Man of Steel and December will bring another round of hobbit adventures but for now here's my top 10 films to look out for in the first three months of 2013.

10. Side by Side
 

A documentary that will finally help me to get the differences and the pros and cons of shooting on film or digital. Produced by Keanu Reeves, it takes an in-depth look at the digital revolution in filmmaking. 'Through interviews with directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, technologists, editors, and exhibitors, SIDE BY SIDE examines all aspects of filmmaking — from capture to edit, visual effects to color correction, distribution to archive.'

9. Texas Chainsaw 3D

I shouldn't get too excited. It's not going to be better than the original. While I enjoyed the remake, I don't remember a thing about the prequel that followed it. The trailer looks trashy as hell with sexy looking model-types getting semi-undressed and all that crap but I can't help hoping that the return of Leatherface and his trusty tool will get me buzzing with excitement once again. Yikes that sounds dirty.

8. Trance

Danny Boyle directs a fantastic cast including I Love That Film favourite Vincent Cassel. Say no more.

7. Compliance

Sounds disturbing and intriguing: 'When a prank caller convinces a fast food restaurant manager to interrogate an innocent young employee, no-one is left unharmed. Based on true events.'

6. John Dies at the End

It's got Paul Giamatti and it sounds mental. 'A new street drug that sends its users across time and dimensions has one drawback: some people return as no longer human.'

5. The Bay

Found footage gets a kick in the ass by Barry Levinson in this sick looking shocker. 'Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.'

4. Gangster Squad

I'm currently reading the book and it promises to be a great gangster flick. Love the look of the cast and director Ruben Fleischer showed real promise with Zombieland. 'A chronicle of the LAPD's fight to keep East Coast Mafia types out of Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s.'

3. Django Unchained

I thought this was going to be released in 2012 and with an even better cast than it has now. Unfortunately lots of great cast members dropped out and the film is now set for a January release but early reviews have been great and I'm still very excited to see what could be one of Tarantino's last films if his retirement goes ahead as planned.

2. The Impossible

I'm a sucker for a real life tragedy, as sick as that sounds. Titanic and United 93 reduce me to a tearful wreck every time and I know The Impossible will do the same. While I'm gutted the filmmakers have decided to focus on just one family and then change them from Spanish to English for some reason, it still looks epic, tragic, and ultimately uplifting. However there were over 200,000 lives lost in the Boxing Day tsunami and a film about the local people affected must be made in the future and I hope the producers of this film give a lot of money to the people who are still struggling with the consequences of the disaster.

1.  A Good Day to Die Hard

I love John McClane. The original Die Hard trilogy are some of my favourite all time action films, particularly the first one. I thought Die Hard 4 was a major misstep but I can't help but hope that this will see McClane back on form cracking wise and cracking skulls.

There's my list of January to March UK releases. What are you most looking forward to in 2013?

28 Days Later: The Music and why it's a Must-See Movie

A while ago, I was asked by Jessy at the Filmoria team to contribute a bit of writing on my favourite use of music in horror.  I wanted to avoid all the obvious choices like The Exorcist or Psycho and dabbled with the idea of doing Texas Chainsaw, A Nightmare on Elm Street and some others.  But after re-watching Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, I decided it had to be the use of John Murphy's In the House, In a Heartbeat at the climax of that film.

So today I would like to offer you a look at two more pieces I have written for Filmoria's 10 Days of Halloween.  The first is my argument for 28 Days Later being a must-see horror movie.  If you haven't seen this British nightmare, then really you must!  It introduced us to running zombies, possibly the best horror creation ever.  The 'Infected' are rage-fuelled, blood spewing psycho monsters that are absolutely terrifying.

Check out why I think 28 Days Later is a must-see movie at Filmoria here.

Then I take a closer look at the music used in the climactic scene as all hell break loose.  It is one of my favourite scenes in horror cinema and the music is the perfect complement to the frighteningly visceral visuals.  Other contributors to the most effective music in horror feature chose films like Gremlins and even Halloween 3 to discuss. 

Check out the most effective music in horror feature at Filmoria here.

Here's the scene I'm banging on about:



Anyone out there not like this film?  What's your favourite horror movie music?

Filmoria's 10 Days of Halloween

You got to love this time of year.  The days might be getting shorter.  The shops might be getting be ready for Christmas already.  And worst of it all, it's getting colder and wetter (unless you are reading this from the southern hemisphere).  But on the other hand it's the run-up to Halloween and every film blogger is getting into the spirit by talking horror, horror and more horror!

So Filmoria are going all evil and scary over the next 10 days and it's given me all the excuse I need to watch as much horror as possible.  Some new, some old but all scary as a dark night in the woods all alone with only a masked psycho with a huge machete to keep you company!  Now that's what I'm taking about.

So over the next 10 days, look out for the following:

Today I review the not very scary but pretty damn funny London based comedy horror Cockneys vs Zombies.

On Tuesday, there's a killer kids feature that includes that loveable Macauley Culkin in an even more sadistic role than he had in Home Alone.

On Thursday, the Filmoria team discuss the most effective music in horror films.

On Friday, I take a look at the must-see movie, Danny Boyle's rage infected 28 Days Later.

On Saturday, I take a look at the top 10 best films in found footage horror.  And yes there really are some great examples of the technique being used out there.  Trust me.  I'll also be taking a closer look at The Blair Witch Project as another must-see horror movie.

On Monday I cut open the original Saw film to reveal the bloody brilliant contents.

Finally on Halloween, the Filmoria team come together for another epic horror feature to argue over which film deserves the title of the scariest horror film ever made! 

There's going to be loads more over the 10 days and I'll also be doing a special Halloween I LOVE THAT BLOG POST where I'll be sharing the best of the horror-related stuff that I've read between now and Halloween.

So if you're not a horror fan, grab the pillows and hide under the sheets but if you love a good scary movie, then join Filmoria in celebrating the wonderful world of the malicious, the macabre and the downright terrifying!

Cult Movies - 28 Days Later

In 2002, writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle developed the most terrifying update to horror imaginable. In 28 Days Later, running zombies were unleashed.

When is a zombie movie not a zombie movie? When it’s Danny Boyle’s digitally shot post-apocalyptic nightmare featuring new horror monsters The Infected. If, like me, you have a strong affection for the zombie horror sub-genre, the thought of running zombies could go either way. Some will cry it’s not necessary; that zombies are meant to shuffle and the scares take a back seat to the social commentary. Others, me included, saw Boyle’s sprinting Infected as the logical evolution of the sub-genre and slapped our collective foreheads. Why had no one come up with this before?

When I saw the trailer for 28 Days Later with its promise of speedy zombie-style Infected people in over-run Britain, I leapt at the chance of the thrills that would no doubt ensue. Not only is this a zombie film set on my home turf, but these ‘zombies’ actually looked bloody terrifying with the emphasis on the bloody...

Read more of my 28 Days Later review at Static Mass Emporium.