As an admitted Admirer-And-Not-Much-More of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic, The Shining (I know, I know, blasphemy and such), I still got a genuine kick out of this Channel 4 promo for their upcoming month-long Kubrick retrospective.

Hosted on UK newspaper The Guardian's website, the ad consists of a single minute-long tracking shot and takes the view of the Academy Award-winning filmmaker as he dashes about the quite meticulously recreated set. The twins, the axe, the maze, each and every last iconic touch -- it's almost like they Overlook-ed nothing... (No? Too much? Apologies all around then.)

I'm having trouble ascertaining whether or not Channel 4 was also responsible for this live-action opening to 'The Simpsons' that popped up a few years back. Even if it's not, the fact still remains that precious few American commercials can claim to be their equal in both fondness and dedication. Alas, until Spike someday hosts a Joe Eszterhas tribute marathon...

[by way of AICN]

A friend of mine emailed this morning with a link to this site and one simple question: "Which t-shirt are you buying?" After checking out said website, the question then became: Which t-shirt am I NOT buying? Over at Last Exit to Nowhere, they specialize in creating movie t-shirts. Ah, but these aren't just your run-of-the-mill shirts, see -- they're so much better. The site's intro description says it's "home to a collection of unique shirt designs which are inspired and pay homage to some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in modern fiction – from the sunny shores of Amity Island (Jaws) to the frozen climes of Outpost #31 (The Thing)."

Oh yes, that's the Little Lebowski urban achievers t-shirt to the right of your screen; they also have shirts for Hudsucker Industries (Hudsucker Proxy), Skynet (Terminator series), Shawshank State Prison (Shawshank Redemption), and much more. Then there's the random shirts like the Stovington Academy shirt Jack Nicholson wore in The Shining, a Polymer Records shirt from This is Spinal Tap, and a shirt wearing the logo of the fictional TV station from Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Insanity, I tell you! So many awesome shirts -- honey, consider this month's paycheck officially blown. Check out all the shirts over at Last Exit to Nowhere ...

... and extra credit goes to the first person who can name all the films from the t-shirts pictured in the galley below (no cheating!).

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Just about anyone who follows horror has bemoaned the sorry state of the genre these days. Nearly everything is a remake, either of some 1970s or 1980s classic or of some recent Asian hit. The rare films that aren't remakes are simply lazy copies of whatever worked a year earlier, the current "torture porn" subgenre, for example. And hardly anything screens for the press, which means that even the studios now understand how low things have sunk.

The new film The Ruins likewise isn't screening for the press, but it is based -- of all things -- on an actual book! With pages! It's by Scott B. Smith, who many years ago wrote both the book and screenplay for the excellent A Simple Plan. The new movie inspired me to look up other literary-based horror movies (whether inspired by novels or short stories). Sadly, aside from Stephen King and the upcoming Midnight Meat Train (based on Clive Barker's short story), I couldn't find much good recent work, but there is plenty to choose from ...

Last week in my Indies on DVD post, I mentioned a new Stanley Kubrick box set (from Warner Home Video) and Criterion's release of Terence Malick's Days of Heaven. Both releases had raised pre-release questions. Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere sounded the alarm back in August that Criterion's upcoming re-issue of the Days of Heaven on DVD would look "really different" than the previous version from Paramount Home Video. He based his concerns on comments by Criterion's Lee Kline. Now that Wells has seen the new DVD, he writes: "I saw Days of Heaven in 70 mm on the day it opened -- 9.13.78 -- at the Cinema 1 on Third Avenue, and the Criterion DVD took me right back to that transporting experience. This is how it looked back then, and should have always looked. " Good to hear.

The Kubrick set raised eyebrows when it was announced that three of the films (The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut) would be presented in a different home video format than Kubrick had insisted upon when he was alive. Film critic Dave Kehr noted: "Kubrick apparently had his reasons, as mysterious as they may be, for releasing them to video the way he did." The new, reformatted aspect ratio, Kehr says, "would be closer to the way the films were originally seen in theaters." Kehr then quotes a statement from Jan Harlan (the present keeper of the Kubrick estate) and questions the historical sense of Harlan's statement before concluding: "I'm really not well informed enough to have a solid opinion. And without Kubrick around to consult, I don't see how we'll ever know for sure." He recommends hanging onto the older DVD versions as reference points, if nothing else. So if you've been waiting for the definitive edition of these films (others in the set are 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, in addition to the doc A Life in Pictures), you'll need to weigh out the positive and not so positive.

Sure, it's easy enough to find the up-side of the handsome hunks of horror film. Hunks are easy. They're (mostly) hot, with their nicely whitened teeth and their hair product-styled to perfection, their six-pack abs, their ... sorry, where was I? Oh, right. Hunks versus Slashers. Jeff and Monika have already brought you the hottest hunks and chicks of horror; guess who drew the short straw and had to pick the slashers? (Actually, I volunteered for this one, so I guess that says something freaky about me ... ) My mission: to determine the hottest horror slashers (at least, according to me). These are the bad boys of horror you just can't stop thinking about, the ones who keep popping up in your dreams ... or nightmares. Whether they slash with blades on their fingers, roque mallets, or your basic kitchen knife, these are the boys you don't want to bring home to introduce to the folks over Sunday dinner ... unless you want your family to be the main course.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates (Psycho) My mother always told me: Never date a mama's boy. Little Normie's devotion to his mother was sweet, sure, but his methods of showing it left a little to be desired. But you have to admit, there's something about a guy who might stab you through the shower curtain if the mood strikes that guarantees that you'll never be bored while getting ready for your big date night. Anthony Perkins' striking performance as Norman Bates set the bar for horror slashers for decades -- even after all these years, watching Psycho still sends shivers up your spine. (View the trailer for Psycho or go straight to the gallery!)

Doug Bradley as Pinhead (Hellraiser) Sure, all those nails stuck into his skull give new meaning to the word "hammered" -- not to mention making it a little tricksy to coordinate outfits for those hot dates to movie premieres -- but at least, in his own bizarrely twisted way, Pinhead had a sense of fair play. Of course, if you make the wrong choice, your evening is gonna go downhill in a hurry. There's nothing like giant fishhooks pulling your flesh 14 different ways to put a damper on date night. On the plus side, though, you're probably pretty safe being walked home after dinner by a guy who looks like he had a close encounter with a nail gun, on purpose. (View the trailer for Hellraiser ... or go straight to the gallery!)

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The Shining (1980) marks an interesting spot in Stanley Kubrick's filmography, one that hardly anyone ever mentions. Most Kubrick films are not appreciated in their own time, but while Barry Lyndon (1975) and Full Metal Jacket (1987) are beginning to enjoy a newfound critical reputation, The Shining -- stuck right between them -- is generally left out of the discussion. Despite mixed reviews (recommendations from Andrew Sarris and the New York Times, but pans from Pauline Kael, Stanley Kaufmann, Dave Kehr and Variety), it was a hit film, grossing $44 million on a $19 million budget (according to boxofficemojo.com). It was based on a young, successful horror writer's third novel, and thus it hardly warranted serious consideration. Only David Thomson, in his "Biographical Dictionary of Film," gives the film a once-over; in an otherwise negative essay about Kubrick, he calls The Shining Kubrick's "one great film," but he also calls it "very funny."

At the same time, horror fanatics find the film extraordinary; and by all counts, they're right. Here was a horror entry from a first-class filmmaker who had succeeded in escaping the "horror" classification. Our other masters -- Bava, Romero, Carpenter, Hooper, Craven, etc. -- started in horror and got stuck there, unable to express their artistry in any other medium, and unable to earn the acclaim of someone like Kubrick. He visited, left unscathed and left behind something truly exceptional. But where do these two sides meet? What did Kubrick bring to horror and what did horror bring to Kubrick?

I was a fan of The Simpsons back when they were still on The Tracy Ullman Show. But back then, I was a fan of anything on television. Those old shorts weren't even that funny. A few years later, though, when I grew out of watching TV, I remained loyal only to The Simpsons. Why? Because it got funnier, but also as a movie geek, I couldn't get enough of the series' constant homages to cinema. It seemed there were references in every single episodes. Some were little throwaway bits, either verbal or visual winks, while others were more blatant, full-on tributes or parodies. In both cases, there are sequences using near-exact shot duplication -- something only an animated show could do so well -- and these are the kinds of nods that kept me a fan for years and years and years (I did kind of abandon the series in its regular run after about 12 years, though).

There have been a number of guides and websites to The Simpsons that provide lists of movie references and parodies. However, none of them are visually comprehensive. Coming close, though, are a few sites that place side by side a Simpsons still and its corresponding reference. Here, we can really see how dead-on some of those frames are, and how loosely adapted some others are. So, in preparation for the soon-to-be-released Simpsons Movie DVD, a blog titled The Adventures of Accordian Guy in the 21st Century (aka JoeyDevilla.com) put up a decent collection of these comparison shots over the weekend. He admits he found the images, but his spread is appreciated, nonetheless. He also doesn't list the movies, so I'll take a second and list the ones included: The Shining; Vertigo; The Graduate; Citizen Kane; Miracle on 34th Street; A Clockwork Orange; The Godfather, Part II; Goodfellas; Tom Jones; The Karate Kid; Psycho; Full Metal Jacket; The Longest Day; Apocalypse Now; Stripes; An Officer and a Gentleman; The Ten Commandments; North by Northwest and Saboteur. Additionally, the blog has posted small, individual sections on Simpsons tributes to Raiders of the Lost Ark; Citizen Kane; Midnight Express; It's a Wonderful Life; 2001: A Space Odyssey; The Pride of the Yankees; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Steamboat Willie.

Obviously there are countless more movies the blog doesn't include (commenters mention some good ones), as well as a number of shots and references within his list that are excluded. But we must understand that a comprehensive project would take a long, long time. However, if you know Spanish (or even if you don't), you could take a look at Actualidad Simpson's movie reference section, which is apparently where the blog got the images (I couldn't tell you if they took them from elsewhere), and where there are lots, lots, lots more (with titles).

Wowwy wow wow. I knew there were some new Stanley Kubrick special editions on the way, but I had no idea that Warner was going all out with new features! I don't even know where to begin! (OK, breathe.) According to DVDActive.com, five of the master's films will be hitting the shelves as part of a massive box set. Those films are The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut. All of 'em 2-disc widescreen treat-laden Special Editions! (And yes the DVDs will also be available outside of the box set.)

Each of the 2-disc sets come with documentaries / featurettes both old and new, but what I find most exciting are the all-new audio commentaries. (Yes, I'm a commentary nerd. No apologies.) The new chat-tracks break down like so: On 2001 we get actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood; on Clockwork it's the awesome Malcolm McDowell and film historian Nick Redman; on Eyes Wide Shut we'll hear from actor/director Sydney Pollack and professor Peter J. Loewenberg; The Shining delivers Steadicam creator Garrett Brown and Kubrick biographer John Baxter; and (this should be great) on Full Metal Jacket the participants will be actors Adam Baldwin, R. Lee Ermey, Vincent D'Onofrio and film critic-turned-screenwriter Jay Cocks. (What, Matthew Modine was too busy?)

And again I'll reiterate an important factor: All of these DVDs (which have been approved by Mr. Kubrick's estate) will come in digitally remastered widescreen. (The old-school Kubrickians know what I'm talking about.)

The discs will hit the stores on October 23, and if you're not satisfied by these five offerings, you can also pick up the new-but-movie-only releases of Kubrick's Barry Lyndon and Lolita. And just to quell any confusion, I'll remind you that Dr. Strangelove and Paths of Glory are Sony properties, whereas Spartacus is a Universal title. That's why they're not included here. But hats off to Warner Bros. for this inevitably awesome box set!

Halloween is a great time of year if you love horror movies. I'm not what you'd call a horror buff -- I'm way too much of a weenie. I'm the person you see at horror flicks hunched way down in my seat with my jacket ready to hide my face in if it gets overwhelming. Plus, I have a very active imagination, and when I see a really scary movie it stays in my head, and then late at night when I'm taking a relaxing bubble bath after the kids have gone down for the night, I'll hear the voice of Pennywise the Clown giggling in the drain, telling me how "we all float down here." God, I hate clowns.

Nonetheless, there is something shiveringly delicious about being scared just the right amount, isn't there? That rush of adrenaline, that thrill of being in danger, tempered by the knowledge that we are perfectly safe in a theater seat with a bag of popcorn and a box of Whoppers to help see us through. Here are some horror flicks that really scared me, that stayed in my head somewhere to haunt me late at night, to come creeping out of dark shadows. They're scary, but oh so good ...

The Changeling -- This is my favorite horror movie ever. George C. Scott stars as a writer who, after the death of his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, rents a spooky mansion. All by himself. Right away, creepy things start happening -- and I mean creepy. This film is packed with send-a-shiver-up-your-spine moments: The spooky voice of Joseph, a ghost child recorded on tape during a seance, audible only when it's played at the right speed; a ball bouncing down the stairs; visions of a bathtub with a drowned child. Look! I have goosebumps just thinking about it! And yet this is one scary movie I can watch over and over again. Once you've seen this movie, you'll never look at wheelchairs the same way again.