Bigfoot lives! In a couple new movies that is

Shawn and I are completely biased in our opinions. And in our opinion there's not enough movies about bigfoot. Well, leave it to filmmakers Corey Grant and Eduardo Sanchez to tell us to shut the fuck up, bitches!

Grant is the director of The Lost Coast Tapes, a new found footage film about a cynical journalist who sets out to prove the discovery of a dead bigfoot is nothing more than a hoax. You can guess what happens next. Sanchez, co-director of The Blair Witch Project, helms Exists, which has a pissed off bigfoot stalking a group of twentysomethings when they take a vacation in the woods.

Both sound pretty good to us. As long as there's a bigfoot stomping on people, we're happy. That was the case with the exceptional Abominable and Shawn and I both came away with smiles on our faces. We'll keep you posted on these projects as they develop.

Jason and Shawn review: Rubber

Rubber

Jason: Rubber is a slap in the face to Hollywood and all the sheeple who flock to the mass-market garbage movie studio's make. As long as the sheeple keep watching movies like that, Hollywood will keep making them. That's what Rubber is about, but it's also about a killer tire named Robert. To say Rubber is witty as hell and twice as funny would be an understatement. It's ballsy and has something to say. People will either groove on that or hate it. I grooved on it, and it's getting a Good in books.

Shawn: I'm still processing this movie in my mind. There are so many ideas at work here that I can't turn my brain off. I didn't want to see Rubber because it looked like another dumb comedy like Scary Movie or Vampires Suck. It's not that kind of movie at all. Rubber says a lot about Hollywood and the people who watch Hollywood movies. I can't stop thinking about this movie. Some people will hate it, others will love it. I'm giving it a Good! FYI: Stephen Spinella's Lt. Chad is one of the best movie characters ever.

Next on the chopping block: Rubber

While nothing original seems to be coming out of Hollywood, we in The Basement can always count on the French to come up with something completely different. And, in this case, different = Rubber.

When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession. Sounds like Rubber, from writer/director Quentin Dupieux, is a send up of the Hollywood monster movie doesn't it? Well, it is. Kinda. But it's so much more. How much more? Find out when the June Special lands Sunday at 6 p.m. PST on iTunes, Facebook, podOmatic and right here on the blog.

Our special episodes are stripped down versions of the radio show. Just a review and some lively banter. If you miss our hour-long episodes tune in Fridays at 4 p.m. at 92.5FM CFBX Kamloops, Shaw Cable 106.1 and www.thex.ca for archived Season One episodes.

And we'll be back in The Basement Oct. 7 at 10 p.m. PST for all new episodes with Season Two. Stick with us!

And now a preview of coming attractions:

RUBBER: Movie Trailer. Watch more top selected videos about: Stephen Spinella, Ethan Cohn

Retro Review: Fright Night

I first saw this movie back in 1985. It's the first horror film I watched in a theatre and it scared the crap out of me. Now it's just a great funhouse ride of laughs, scares and gruesome, but fun, visual effects. Chris Sarandon is just awesome as the vampire and Roddy McDowall is a joy to watch as Peter Vincent: Vampire Killer. This was made back when horror movies, and movies in general, were a lot of fun and it shows. I find it hard to believe the remake will have anywhere near the energy and wit writer/director Tom Holland put into every frame of his movie. A Good for me.

Shark Night 3D gets a PG-13 rating . . .

. . . and interest wains. Not that we in The Basement mind PG-13 flicks. There's a tonne of great ones out there within in the horror, action, and sci-fi genre. Jaws comes to mind. The Grudge. Live Free or Die Hard. But when you've got a movie about sharks eating people from the director of Final Destination 2 and Snakes On A Plane, you kinda expect more.

More gore that is. And boobies. Mature, I know.

The film is rated PG-13 for violence and terror, disturbing images, sexual references, partial nudity, language and thematic material. All of which could translate into good carnage, but still. The concept of a 3D shark movie makes me think of Piranha 3D, and that wouldn't have worked in PG-13. R-rated all the way baby.

Despite our disappointment, Shawn and I will eventually check out Shark Night 3D because we're weird that way. The Film hits theatres Sept. 2 and stars the hotness that is Sara Paxton (see above pic). The film's trailer sits below.

Halloween 3D gets a release date

There was a time when news of another Halloween film would have filled me with a dark kind of joy. Given that Halloween 3D is supposed to be a continuation of the story Rob Zombie ended in his Halloween 2 and will contain the component of three extra dollars, I'm less than jazzed.

Empireonline.com is reporting that the film is slated for an Oct. 28, 2012 release. No word yet on if director Patrick (My Bloody Valentine 3D and Drive Angry) Lussier and screenwriter Todd Farmer are still involved. The two were attached to the project a year or so ago but moved on to Drive Angry instead.

The plot, according to Lussier talking to MTV last year, picks up right after Zombie's Halloween 2 and strips the character back to his John Carpenter roots, whatever that means. And again, what's the point given Zombie's interpretation was finished.

This project stinks of pure greed on the part of the producers and studio, Dimension Films. I love the Halloween series, but feel Carpenter's and Zombie's stories have been told. Leave it alone.

But you know, if it does get made, I will be compelled to watch it like a moth drawn into the light.

Retro Review: Darkness Falls

Upon first viewing Darkness Falls back in early 2003 Mike S and I found it to be a chilling little horror film featuring a great and unexpected villain in The Tooth Fairy. It's almost a decade later and the film is showing its age. The Tooth Fairy herself is awesome and there are some creepy moments, but the obvious trimming on the part of the studio to meet a PG-13 rating does detract from one's enjoyment. There's some nice atmosphere and Darkness Falls is technically well made and passably acted. Too bad they didn't aim for something a little rougher. A Bad for me.

Harry Potter director buys rights to Troll Hunter remake

Even before the film is released in the U.S. some A-hole American director has to go and buy the remake rights for alleged-to-be-brilliant Norwegian horror film Troll Hunter.

And by alleged I mean Shawn and I have yet to see the critically praised film and by A-hole American director I mean Chris Columbus, who is likely a very nice person. However, Columbus has been stated as saying on the Interwebs that he wants to introduce International audiences to this amazing film by remaking it.

I've got a great idea Chris, why not distribute the original film to a mass audience instead? Oh right. Sorry. I forgot. Mainstream audiences don't like to read subtitles. Silly me.

Columbus's 1492 Pictures will produce the film. We in The Basement intend to get a copy of the original Troll Hunter and review it early next season, therefor negating the need to watch the U.S. version unless we so desire.

Here's the preview for Troll Hunter.

Micro Review: The Rite

Decent acting and interesting ideas do not a good movie make. I'm not saying The Rite is bad, because the performances of Anthony Hopkins and Colin O'Donoghue are too good for the movie to fail. Plus I defy any genre fan to not like a story about exorcisms. But we've seen a lot of this stuff before and little actually happens until the third act. There are some minor scares thanks to Hopkins's performance and some nifty visuals, but the film is too long and kinda dull. A Bad for me on The Rite.

Jason and Shawn review: Black Death

Black Death

Jason: Black Death is exceptionally well made and acted, but it's not a lot of fun to watch. Most of the blame has to fall on Dario Poloni's script, which needed to be tightened and given more direction. There's some good scenes, and a great fight about 30 or so minutes in, but everything falls apart once the heroes reach the village. This is director Christopher (Triangle, Severance, Creep) Smith's weakest film. Three out of four ain't Bad, but that's what I have to rate Black Death.

Shawn: This movie was so beautiful to look at and so well acted that I was pretty disappointed by how much the story let me down. There was so much potential for this to go off into so many cool directions, but it doesn't go with any of them. The "demon slayer" guys get way too easily duped by the villagers to be believable and Sean Bean was basically just playing the same character he did in The Lord of the Rings. This is a Bad movie for sure. Nice to look at, but there's not enough to hold my attention again.

Micro Review: 8213 Gacy House

Say what you want about The Asylum, but those dudes know their place in the film business. You want a knock-off of a blockbuster Hollywood movie? They will give it to yah. Here the studio has produced their answer to Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, making a found footage horror flick about a documentary crew investigating the home of notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The film actually starts off OK, but falls apart in the last 30 minutes with a silly, over-the-top finale. Still, if you want some cheap scares, a hottie or three and some T&A, you could do a lot worse -- annoying psychic aside. A Bad on this one.

Next on the chopping block: Black Death

The first of our Summer Break monthly specials records tonight, with Shawn and I stepping into the time machine and heading back . . .  waaaaaaaayyyyy back . . . to medieval England during the bubonic plague for the horror/thriller Black Death.

Director Christopher Smith helms the picture, and he's directed some solid genre pieces with Creep, Severance and a Basement fave, Triangle. No two Smith movies are alike, so it will be interesting to see how this film, which stars the great Sean Bean, adds up. You'll find out when the podcast goes live Sunday night!

Our special episodes are stripped down versions of the radio show. Just a review and some lively banter. If you miss our hour-long episodes tune in Fridays at 4 p.m. at 92.5FM CFBX Kamloops, Shaw Cable 106.1 and www.thex.ca for archived Season One episodes.

And we'll be back in The Basement Oct. 7 at 10 p.m. PST for all new episodes with Season Two. Stick with us!

And now a preview of coming attractions:

Trailer Alert: Shark Night 3D

Two days ago we showed you the poster for David R. Ellis's Shark Night 3D. Tonight we bring you the first teaser trailer for his tale of a shark-infested lake and the poor bastards who go vacationing in it.

The preview doesn't show much more than beautiful people and beautiful sharks . . . although it does hint at beautiful shark carnage.

We here in The Basement are hoping for a fun and gory B-movie along the lines of similar-in-theme Piranha 3D. Nothing more, nothing less. We'll know more when the movie, which will cost you three extra dollars to see, opens Sept. 2.

But enough of the jibber jabber, here's the trailer. Apologies for the ad at the beginning.

Hot Chick + Big Shark = Must See

I know, two posts about posters in a row (say that 10 times fast) but hey, it's a slick looking poster. And it's about sharks . . . and hot chicks . . . possibly being eaten by sharks.

We've talked about David R. Ellis's Shark Night 3D before and now we've got the poster for this bad boy, which is due out later this summer. We here in The Basement love movies about sharks. Open Water. Deep Blue Sea. Jaws. Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus. If it's got sharks in it, we'll watch it.

The poster below looks pretty slick. It even generates a chill or two. Hopefully the movie can live up to it! Here's the plot:

Arriving by boat at her family’s Louisiana lake island cabin, Sara (Sara Paxton) and her friends quickly strip down to their swimsuits for a weekend of fun in the sun. But when star football player Malik (Sinqua Walls) stumbles from the salt-water lake with his arm torn off, the party mood quickly evaporates. Assuming the injury was caused by a freak wake-boarding accident, the group realizes they have to get Malik to a hospital on the other side of the lake, and fast. 

 

But as they set out in a tiny speedboat, the college friends discover the lake has been stocked with hundreds of massive, flesh-eating sharks! As they face one grisly death after another, Sara and the others struggle desperately to fend off the sharks, get help and stay alive long enough to reach the safety of dry land.

Poster Alert: John Carpenter's The Ward

The summer movie season just got a titch more interesting now that horror master John Carpenter's The Ward is landing July 8. It's Carpenter's first film in almost a decade and, athough buzz on this is mixed, it's a new Carpenter movie dammit! We have to care.

So gaze below at the new one sheet for the film, featuring star and hottie Amber Heard getting snatched by something evil. The film is described as follows:

Kristen, a beautiful but troubled young woman, who finds herself bruised, cut, drugged, and held against her will in a remote ward of a Psychiatric Hospital. She is completely disoriented, with no idea why she was brought to this place and no memory of her life before being admitted. All she knows is that she isn't safe.

The other patients in the ward, four equally disturbed young women, offer no answers, and Kristen quickly realizes things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets, and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and frightening sounds. It appears they are not alone.

One-by-one the other girls begin to disappear and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before she, too, becomes a victim. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Sounds fine to me. We'll know more when the movie is released in about six weeks. And yes, Shawn and I will have our reviews ASAP!

Micro Review: Vanishing on 7th. Street

One of director Brad Anderson's weaker efforts, but still packs a punch or three. Actually, what makes Vanishing on 7th. Street so disappointing is that some of it is so good and scary that I couldn't help but be let down by the rest of it. This is a movie that runs out of steam before it ends. We're supposed to hang on and enjoy the ride, but there isn't enough here to do that. Anderson doesn't disappoint; he still knows how to make a scary movie. It's the script by Anthony Jaswinski that doesn't hold together. A Bad from me on this one.

Trailer Alert: Final Destination 5

Some might groan at the prospect of yet another entry in this long-running franchise. Not I. In fact, I dig the Final Destination flicks more than the Saw films or any other current horror series. Sure they're redundant, and the last film was pretty terrible, but the other entries have been gold as far as cool and clever kills are concerned.

The Final Destination films are the Friday the 13ths of the new millennium. As long as the quality holds up and people keep going to see them, Hollywood will keep churning them out. And I will be there watching.

Below is the preview for the latest entry, and it looks damn fine. It's nice to have Tony Todd back and, for the most part, the filmmakers appear to have avoided the cheap looking CGI that sank the last film. We'll know for sure when Final Destination 5 lands in theatres later this summer.

Until then, push play and sound off!

Micro Review: House of Fears

For a no-budget, under-the-radar horror film, this isn't bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. A group of friends decide to break into an elaborate carnival funhouse after hours only to discover the attractions have come to homicidal life. The cool premise is hindered by the filmmakers' lack of imagination when it comes to executing the scares and the PG-13 violence. But the cast is better than average and everything moves along at a fast enough pace to make one almost forget this isn't as good as it could have been. Worth the watch once, so it's a Bad from this Basement Dweller.

Micro Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray

This is a movie that Hollywood could look back at to figure out where they have gone wrong. For a film made in 1945, it manages to hold you in suspense better than anything in the last few years. It follows the story of a man's immortality and his actions he takes to keep it a secret. It stars George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed and Angela Landsbury. Yes, Angela Landsbury. She's kinda hot in this one. What I am more impressed with is that this story was written by Oscar Wilde in 1891. 1891! Come on! Do I really have to go this far back to see good ideas! Anyway's, this film is definatley worth a watch to any fellow movie lover and I recommend they see it soon. This is definately a Good in my books. This is A.M. Bosa with a Micro Review for the Basement.

Horror in Absentia

We in The Basement love us our underground cinema. And no genre of underground cinema turns our collective cranks like horror does. Hatchet. Behind the Mask. Session 9. Trick r Treat. The Loved Ones. Dog Soldiers. Gems all!

And along comes Absentia, a creepy looking flick earning vast praise on the festival circuit. And, judging from the trailer below, it looks like a winner . . . at least as far as previews go.

The story is as follows: “Tricia’s husband has been missing for seven years. Her younger sister Callie comes to live with her as the pressure mounts to finally declare him “dead in absentia.” As Tricia sifts through the wreckage and tries to move on with her life, Callie finds herself drawn to an ominous tunnel near the house. As she begins to link it to other mysterious disappearances, it becomes clear that his presumed death might be anything but “natural.”

No word yet on when or if this will hit a wide release, but you know we'll be reviewing it down the pipe. We'll keep you posted, as always. Check out the official site for more on Absentia.