Scaredy Katz: A Recap of January’s Horror

Ryan over at Rhino’s Horror has agreed to help The Cinematic Katzenjammer out a bit each month with a recap of horror movies, news, trailers, and more. He’s one hell of a blogger (and winner of 2 Golden Katz Awards) and his site is one of the sexiest looking things I’ve seen this side of the internet. Check it out here.

The month of January has come to a close for the new year and with that we are left with some promising things for the genre. Horror started the month off on a bad note, however, as news broke of the highly anticipated upcoming remake of Carrie — starring Chloe Moretz — was getting pushed 7 months away with a new release date of October 18, 2013. There has been no official word on the reasoning behind the delay, and while delays usually send up a red flag, I believe they made the move in order to distance themselves from Oz the Great and Powerful as well as Evil Dead as both of them are releasing near Carrie’s original date.

No CGI in ‘Evil Dead’ Remake

Right on the heels of the disappointing news of Carrie getting delayed was the amazing red band trailer for the Fede Alvarez directed remake of Evil Dead. Because I know it was covered already right here on Cinekatz, I won’t go into much detail about it other than one important thing to note regarding the film is that the director has stated that there will be absolutely no CGI in the film. Now, go back and watch the trailer knowing that little bit of information and prepare to have your mind blown.

‘Hybrid Vigor’ Official Teaser Trailer

Speaking of amazing trailers. The Latvian horror flick directed by Brandon Fowler, Hybrid Vigor, launched its first teaser and it’s an extremely beautifully shot looking film with an eerie score that chills straight to the bone. What makes Hybrid Vigor so special is that the film was entirely crowd-funded through Kickstarter making it one of Kickstarter’s more successful stories. It’s great seeing so many people support indie horror, and thankfully so because Hybrid Vigor looks like a solid entry into the horror genre.

Clint Mansell’s Score for ‘Stoker’

Behind every great film is an unforgettable score, and while we have yet to find out just what Oldboy director Park Chan-wook has in store for us with his English-language debut Stoker — here’s a taste of the film’s score by the always excellent Clint Mansell, titled In Full Bloom.

Mansell is amazing at what he does and upon listening to In Full Bloom you can see why he was the perfect choice to compose a film about the troubled Stoker family. Stoker is a horror film you will wan’t to be keeping an eye on as it was met with nothing but positive reviews from its screening at Sundance this year. To hold you over until its March 1, 2013 release — have a listen to Mansell’s score.

New Stills For ‘Frankenstein’s Army’

One of my most anticipated horror flicks of the year goes to Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein’s Army which has just premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. To celebrate the premiere, Dark Sky has unleashed a couple of awesome new stills from the film. In them you will see a Machete Zombot in a corpse cooler along with a picture that shows Viktor (Karel Roden) in his laboratory as he kindly offers a hand.

“Frankenstein’s Army’ takes place toward the end of World War II, as Russian soldiers push into eastern Germany and stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Viktor Frankenstein. The scientists have used the legendary Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of super-soldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades – a desperate Hitler’s last ghastly ploy to escape defeat.”

Short Films: ‘Lenny Lump’, ‘The Apocalypse’

Sometimes you just need a bit of horror in your life but you might not have the time to watch an entire film – that’s where a short film comes in. A couple of very cool (and bloody) short’s have released featuring a man who loses a toe and a couple of friends who try to come up with the perfect idea.

This first one is titled Lenny Lump and it comes to us from Sweden by director Pelle Plutt. It’s an amazing short film shot on Red — so naturally, it looks beautiful. It’s based on a Swedish nursery rhyme that is told to children about a man who is having the time of his life as he runs through the forest who takes a misstep that causes him to lose a toe.

Next up is the equally as awesome, The Apocalypse, by Andrew Zuchero. This short film actually played at Sundance this year and was put up on their Youtube channel as a way to bring Sundance right to your home. Starring the always great Martin Starr, the short film is about four uninspired friends who try to come up with an amazing idea on how to spend their Saturday afternoon. Prepare to be surprised.

‘Zombieland’ Series

One of the bigger stories to hit during January was news of a Zombieland series heading for the small screen. You may not know this, but Ruben Fleischer’s feature film was originally written as a TV series before ultimately turning into the popular film. The show is currently looking for a cast to pick up the characters of Columbus, Wichita, Tallahassee, and Little Rock. On a surprising note is that Amazon’s streaming service is currently in talks to land a deal with the series making their first original series for Amazon Instant. Tucker and Dale vs Evil director Eli Craig is currently eyeing the director’s seat.

‘Suspiria’ Remake May Not Happen

In a time where no film — regardless of how classic — is safe from getting the remake treatment it’s very rare that we get news of one NOT happening. A while back it was reported that David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) had a script for Dario Argento’s cult classic Suspiria finished and ready to go. Not only was a script finished but they went as far as casting Isabelle Furhman (Orphan) as the leading star.

Well, it appears that Suspiria has hit a bit of a snag with a legal situation that could very well keep the film from ever getting made. Green says, “Suspiria is caught up in legal crap so who knows what will ever happen to that,” he explained. “That kind of falls into the ‘Confederacy Of Dunces’ category of ‘someday I’d like to make these movies’ that I was once attached to and worked on, but they may never happen.”

While this is no doubt for the best, I was actually looking forward to seeing what Green had in store for us with his vision of Argento’s classic.

Frank Darabont Talks ‘Godzilla’ Remake

Even though Suspiria may of gotten the axe, there is one remake that is still happening and on its way very soon. With a new writer on board in Frank Darabont, Gareth Edwards’ (Monsters) Godzilla reboot is getting ready to start shooting as early as March. Despite all of the legal problems and lawsuits that Legendary Pictures’ creature feature is going through, that hasn’t slowed them down one bit. Not only is Darabont re-writing the script but word is that they are eyeing Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson for the title role.

Here is what Darabont had to say on the upcoming remake,“What we’re trying to do with the new movie is not have it camp, not have it be campy. We’re kind of taking a cool new look at it… We want this to be a terrifying force of nature. And what was really cool, for me, is there was a very compelling human drama that I got to weave into it. It’s not that cliched, thinly disguised romance or bromance, or whatever. It’s different, it’s a different set of circumstances than you’re used to seeing.”

Sounds promising. If anyone can give us a Godzilla film worth watching, it’s going to be Darabont.

That will about do it as far as some of the more important things that happened in the world of horror during the month of January. Overall, it was a very solid month for the genre. So what is in store for February? Take a look at some notable upcoming releases.

In Theaters:

Feb. 1

Girls Against Boys (limited)

Warm Bodies

Feb. 8

Would You Rather (limited)

Feb. 14

Beautiful Creatures

Feb. 22

Dark Skies

Blu-ray Releases

Feb. 12

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

Feb. 19

Sinister