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Posts with tag TheSignal

'The Signal' (Finally!) Touches Down Tomorrow


(Dan Bush, AJ Bowen, Jacob Gentry, David Bruckner)

The very best part of my job (aside from all the sex with actresses, I mean) is when I get to see a small horror flick early and then spend 14 months reminding the genre fans that, yes, it's still on the way. (Like that freaky French one about the terrorized preggo woman. It's coming, trust me!) It was about 14 months ago when I first saw (and really enjoyed) an Atlanta-made indie genre flick called The Signal -- and then I ran into the Signal gang again a few months later at SXSW. The film was received quite enthusiastically at both festivals.

Directors Jacob Gentry, David Bruckner and Dan Bush were in Philadelphia recently as part of a promotional tour for the film. Along with head baddie AJ Bowen, I took the guys to have their very first Philly Cheese Steak, and then we headed back to the theater for a Q & A session with the audience -- but not before we stopped at the Philadelphia Art Museum and the knucklehead quartet did their Rocky Balboa sprint up the steps. (See photo!)

So yeah: I liked the flick long before I liked all the goofballs who made the movie, so I thought it would be nice to offer a quick little reminder: Magnolia Pictures is releasing The Signal tomorrow (at these theaters), so if you're a serious horror fan who likes to whine and moan at all the studio-backed PG-13 horror crap that hits the screens every month ... here's your chance to support a smaller flick. You'll have a good time and you'll feel good about it, too.

Trailer Park: I See What They're Doing Here



How many times has a film come out and you found yourself saying, "what were they thinking?" This week we're looking at trailers where Hollywood's logic is fairly apparent.

Hancock
As of January 2, I Am Legend has pulled in $209.5 million, so the decision to release this teaser trailer now for Will Smith's Hancock shows some pretty sound reasoning. Smith plays a superhero whose hard living ways have caused the public to lose faith in him. The bit were he drunkenly attempts to save a beached whale is definitely a highlight, and the presence of Jason Bateman as Hancock's PR guy shows promise. Always hard to tell from just a teaser, but I'm looking forward to this one. Jessica mentioned the poster for this one a few days ago.

The Bank Job
While it wasn't my cup of tea, you can't deny the earning power of Ocean's 11 through 13, so you can see why the caper film would seem like a good idea. Jason Statham stars in this bank heist tale based on an actual robbery that took place in England in the early 1970s. The heist goes off successfully, but along with the loot the thieves make off with some incriminating photos linking the royal family to a sex scandal. The trailer moves at a break neck pace and the film looks like it should have box office appeal, although personally I've never been a fan of Statham's work.

Continue reading Trailer Park: I See What They're Doing Here

The 'Signal' is Back with a Creepy New Trailer

It's been almost a year since we got acquainted with the rather excellent indie horror flick The Signal at Sundance, and I bet you kind of forgot all about it. (How irritating is it when a distributor purchases a film you really want to see ... and then that's the last you hear of it for a year?!?!) But I know for a fact that Magnolia Pictures is more than gung-ho about the Atlanta-made and entirely cool movie; I suspect they were just writing for the right time to go theatrical. (As of this very second, February 22 is the release date. Just a little while longer, unless they bump it again.)

Anyway, you know I wouldn't bring the movie up and then not follow up with something juicy, so if you're a fan of the nasty stuff, click your mouse here to enjoy the all-new theatrical trailer for The Signal. Enjoy.

Directed by three different guys in three separate chunks -- but it's NOT an anthology piece -- The Signal tells the story of an electricity-borne infection that causes people to wig the hell out and kill whoever has the misfortune to be within whacking distance. And while you'll be able to see a few differences in each of the three sections (sorry, "transmissions"), I was surprised at how well the segments fit together.

And to the teenagers who only go to see horror movies with big-name actors (like, um, that chick from Buffy?), I can promise that you'll dig this newcomer cast. The Signal boasts two "dreamy" guys (the evil A.J. Bowen and the heroic Justin Welborn), some weirdly excellent comic relief from Scott Poythress and Cheri Christian, and a lead actress who's as surprisingly commanding as she is girl-next-door hot. (Her name is Anessa Ramsey, and she's plenty hot.)

Oh, and the flick's really creepy, grimly amusing, exceedingly violent, and strangely kinda ... touching, too. But I don't want to spoil it...

Shoreline Buys The Rights To Horror Comic ' The Living Corpse'

Since I am hardly an expert on the matter, it's no surprise that I had never heard of the latest comic book to earn the big-screen treatment. Variety reports that rights to the indie-comic The Living Corpse have been secured by Shoreline Entertainment. The series, created by Ken Haeser and Buz Hasson, centers on a zombie who suffers from flashbacks of his former life while staying busy making sure that his fellow "living challenged" friends stay dead and buried.

Haeser provides the illustrations, while Hasson writes the story, but there is no word on whether either of them will be involved with the feature film version. Already slated to write and direct the live-action film is Justin Ritter, who's only other credit is the horror flick KatieBird *Certifiable Crazy Person, about a serial killer who discovers she is part of a long standing family tradition. The film was released back in 2005, but, Ritter has mostly worked in television since.

Recently, Shoreline was behind the Douglas Copeland adaptation Everything's Gone Green, but they also have some experience with the horror genre. Their last, The Signal has been garnering some buzz since its premiere at Sundance back in January. The film was picked up by Magnolia and is set for release this September -- and after reading Scott's review, I'm already hooked. Considering Corpse's indie beginnings, the film version is probably not going to be a big budget affair either. But, the amount of undead the story requires will probably account for a pretty hefty special F/X budget. When you consider the sheer volume of comic book movies on the way, Shoreline is going to have to make sure that Corpse doesn't get lost in the shuffle.

Sundance Review: The Signal




Within less than five minutes of The Signal, you already care about the main characters. They're adulterers, but they're obviously in love, which makes everything that follows a lot more engaging. It's a character-based (and very well-acted) science fiction horror flick that's got a solid sense of humor, an admirable air of dread and a 50-ton vat of ultra-gooey gore: Cool. Admirable enough for simply being a true treat of a genre flick, The Signal is also noteworthy for how it was made. Although it's not an anthology film, The Signal is the work of three different directors: David Bruckner for Act (or "Transmission") One, Jacob Gentry for part two and Dan Bush for the final third. Whether or not this unique approach is actually a good (or necessary) thing is up to you, but I can tell you this: The Signal is one viciously fun little genre flick.

Continue reading Sundance Review: The Signal

Sundance Midnight Selections Distressingly Horror-Free

Well, wow. That's pretty disappointing.

I speak of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival "Park City at Midnight" selections. In previous year the PCM program introduced me to the wonderful horrors of The Descent, Hard Candy, High Tension, May, Saw and Three Extremes.... But next year's line-up seems alarmingly short on the scary stuff. Obviously I cannot make any judgments about the program before I see the films, but going only on the genres and the plot synopses, it seems that next January's Midnight picks are much more comedic in nature. Well, comedies and general weird stuff is what it looks like. Here's the breakdown:

Fido -- Andrew Currie's "Romero meets Sirk" farce earned a small amount of positive buzz at Toronto, which is where James and I sat together and had a really good time with the flick. (Kim liked it too!) Lionsgate is currently preparing a release date for the film, but now we know why they were taking their time on that front.

Finishing the Game -- A mockumentary about the guy called in to "replace" the legendary Bruce Lee on Game of Death after the star passed away. From Better Luck Tomorrow (and, ugh, Annapolis) director Justin Lin.

It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! -- Director Crispin Glover returns with a follow-up to his certifiably insane What Is It?

The Signal -- "A mysterious signal is being transmitted from all media devices in the city of Terminus, provoking murder and madness within the psyches of its inhabitants." Sounds promising. And check out the trailer!

Sk8 Life -- Apparently it's a Can8ian indie about a bunch of sk8ers who band together to save their beloved hangout from dem0lition.

Smiley Face -- Anna Faris stars as a girl who eats some crazy pot brownies and has a day full of wacky Araki misadventures. And check out the cast!

The Ten -- Some of the old State members got together to do a comedy anthology based on The Ten Commandments. Again, the cast is absolutely jam-packed with colorful folks.

We Are the Strange -- Apaprently someone called it "Monsters Inc. meets The Nightmare Before Christmas inside of a retro Japanese video game." Hmm, OK. The trailer certainly promises something ... yeah, strange.

So there's one I've seen already, two promising comedies, an animated brain-twister, an indie that uses 8s instead of As, another piece of brain-rust from Crispin Glover ... and a Gregg Araki ensemble comedy? Which leaves The Signal as my one small beacon of late-night horror. Ah well, a cool-looking line-up all the same, even if it's not as blood-drenched as I'd hoped it would be. (Plus there's always a few genre titles mixed in amidst the more "highbrow" programs.)

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