1 2 3 >
The U.K Lets The Right Subtitles In

Over the last week some of you may have read about the mini sh*t storm that’s been brewing after Icons Of Fright first made the revelation that there were “differences” in the translation between the theatrical subs, and those used by Magnet Releasing on their U.S. DVD/Blu-ray of Tomas Alfredson’s hit Swedish Vamp horror Let The Right One In. Some of them weren’t too bad, but others - well let’s be frank here, were cringe worthily poor.

So that’s the mess in the U.S, what’s in store for the impending release in the U.K - Good, bad or down right ugly? We’ve made a few enquires and are happy to say we can put any fears to rest. The Brit release will use the “international” subtitles track, with the correct grammatical translations. Result! Keep it here for our review of the film later this week. Let The Right One In opens in the U.K April 10th.

Let The Right One UK site

Protégé: Review

Director: Tung-Shing Yee. Review: Tim Irwin.

 Protégé follows in the style of Hong Kong cop films like Infernal Affairs, with a hint of the melodrama that John Woo added to most of his Hong Kong movies. Except here the sadness and melancholy are oftentimes brutal and difficult to take. The film follows an undercover narc, Nick (played by Daniel Wu), as he attempts to work his way higher in the drug organization headed by Lin Quin (played by Andy Lau). His supervisor wants him to remain undercover long enough to unearth the supplier of the gang in order to take down the entire group.

Nick doesn't mind, he doesn't have much else going for him. He sees the effects of the drugs on his neighbour Jane, a young woman who has hidden from her husband with her young daughter. She's a junkie, blaming her husband for getting her started. Unfortunately, her daughter Jane-Jane is probably the cutest little girl to grace a movie screen in quite some time. She's also quite the little actress, provoking a very strong emotional reaction every time her mother's drug problem makes them go hungry or cause them problems. This is how Nick first gets involved; Jane asks to borrow some food and proceeds to stuff bread into both of their mouths…Continue reading review.

Protégé official site

UK release date for John Woo’s RED CLIFF

Back in February we revealed that John Woo’s uber epic Red Cliff, was set to get a release in the UK, but we weren’t sure of the date. Now we are. Well....the month at least. For all you Woo fans, eager to see it Red Cliff will arrive on British shores in May. So that’s the plus. Now the minus. RC parts 1 & 2 runs to nearly 5 hours in length, so it’s pretty much a cert this will be a limited release and the version shown in UK cinemas will be the heavily shortened/combined “international (heavy on the action and light on any plot and character development) cut.” To that, we say...Booo.

 

 

Red Cliff UK trailer

Fabrice Du Welz’s VINYAN on R1 DVD

Back in 2005 Fabrice Du Welz wowed us with his surreal (and lets face it, at one point grotesque) French thriller Calvaire (aka the Ordeal). Now he’s back with his second feature, another thriller/horror tale - this time in English – titled Vinyan. Starring Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell Vinyan follows the story of a couples harrowing journey to discover the fate of their son, lost in a tsunami disaster.

When someone dies a horrible death, their spirit becomes confused and angry. They become "Vinyan". A couple leaves the civilized world behind and descends into a living nightmare in this chilling horror thriller. Six months after losing her only child in the Southeast Asia tsunami, Jeanne is convinced she sees him in a film about orphans living in the jungles of Burma. While her husband is worried that she's losing her mind, he still agrees to take her to search for their son together. Introduced to a dangerous gang of human traffickers, they find themselves alone and stranded in the middle of a treacherous jungle, set upon by a band of feral children. Has their search for their son led them to a fate more horrific than death?

Vinyan official site

Order your copy here

New stills from Hammer Horror’s THE WAKE WOOD

News that’s created great interest around these parts recently is the fact that “Hammer” the classic British horror movie house is returning to theatrical production, after 30 years away. First on the slate will be The Wake Wood directed by David Keating, and we have just found five new - small but perfectly formed - stills from the pic.

The Wake Wood tells the story of Patrick (Aidan Gillen) and Louise Daley (Eva Birthistle), whose nine year old daughter, Alice, is brutally killed in a frenzied dog attack. To escape their grief, the devastated young parents relocate from the city to the remote rural community of Wake Wood. Sensing their loss, the people of Wake Wood introduce the couple to a secret, pagan ritual that will allow them 3 more days with Alice before she is returned to the ground forever. But what will they do when it's time for Alice to go back?

It’s great to see a classic name like Hammer return to the horror fold, but people perhaps expecting a return to the old school style of filmmaking, will we think be in for disappointment. This seems very much a contemporary production, for the 21st century. The Wake Wood is set to be released sometime this year.

The Wake Wood stills

The Wake Wood official site (not yet fully active)

BLOOD: THE LAST LAST VAMPIRE U.K quad poster

UK distributor Pathe have just dropped us the UK quad poster for Blood: The Last Vampire, and mighty purdy it is too. By now most of you should be pretty much up to speed on the film with all the coverage we've given it so far. If so, skip a recap of the storyline and scoot on down to the link to see it full size.

Synopsis: On the surface, Saya is a stunning 16-year old, but that youthful exterior hides the tormented soul of a 400 year-old halfling. Born to a human father and a vampire mother, she has for centuries been a loner obsessed with using her samurai skills to rid the world of vampires, all the while knowing that she herself can survive only on blood like those she hunts. When she is sent onto an American military base in Tokyo by the clandestine organization she works for, Saya immediately senses that this may be her opportunity to finally destroy Onigen, the evil patriarch of all vampires. Using her superhuman strength and her sword, she begins to rid the base of its evil infestation in a series of spectacular and elaborate showdowns. However, it is not until she forms her first human friendship in centuries with the young daughter of the bases general that Saya learns her greatest power over Onigen may well be her ability for human connection.

Blood UK poster

Ghost Hunters vs Evil Spirits! MANDATE arrives on DVD

A Korean supernatural action thriller, about a sword wielding Ghost hunter, hacking ghoulish nasties to itty bitty pieces – Hell yeah, where do we sign up? Mandate: Gods Mission starring Jae Hee (Art of Fighting) is up for pre-order on R3 English subtitled DVD.

There has been a serial murderer and rapist on the loose in the town of Whagoklee for over a decade. With the police unable to make heads or tails of the case, most of the town's residents have fled, leaving Whagoklee in disarray. After two years of relative peace, death and terror strike the town again when two college girls are raped and killed. The police are again at a loss, but this time a mysterious ghost hunter rolls into town claiming that the murderer is actually an evil spirit.

Mandate official site

Pre-order it here

Fantasy horror PAINTED SKIN, sequel confirmed

The Donnie Yen starring Chinese blockbuster, Painted Skin is set to get a big budget sequel, according to backers of the original film. Two investors in 2008 hit will re-team to produce the second film adapted from the 18th century book series by Pu Songlin Strange Tales Of Liaozhai, of which Painted Skin was the first. Skin grossed a very respectable $33.7m (that explains the rush for sequel) in mainland China alone. Eastern Mordor, Golden Sun Films and Chinese Ningxia Film Studio will together back the new film, which is budgeted at $20m and is being designed to "appeal to markets beyond Asia." Lets hope that translates into it having just a little more action, than the first one. More as we get it.  

 

Painted Skin website

Source

Korean horror thriller A BLOODY ARIA: R2 DVD Review

Director: Shin-yeon Won. Review: Adam Wing.

When it comes to extreme cinema, I’ve always considered myself to have a pretty strong stomach. It’s rare that I’ll feel uncomfortable watching a movie, unless of course it happens to star Steve Martin, but there’s something about Shin-yeon Won’s (The Wig) latest movie that really does strike a nerve. Be warned, A Bloody Aria is grim, relentless, hard hitting cinema, it’s also extremely violent and indisputably worthy of your time.

Part time music professor and full time scumbag Yeong-sun (Byeong-jun Lee) is driving pretty student In-jeong (Ye-ryeon Cha) home from an audition when he decides it would be a good time to make his move. Unfortunately for him he couldn’t be more wrong, you would think that an encounter with local law enforcement earlier that day would be enough excitement but no, now he has to deal with a near hysterical teenager trying to make her own way home. Things take a turn for the worst when In-jeong accepts a lift from the local whack job, not that she knows he’s a whack job just yet but it wont take long, especially once she’s met his friends. They are soon re-united with Yeong-sun and what follows is both deeply disturbing and darkly depraved...Continue reading review here

A bloody Aria Trailer

Official site for Chan-wook Park’s THIRST!

The website for Chan-wook Park's (Oldboy) priest-turned-Vampire horror Thirst is up and running. Content wise its still on the light side, but what it does boast is a beautifully clear, high-res wide screen version of the teaser trail to feast our eyes on. Suffice to say its all looking stunning. Thirst opens in Korea April 30th.

 

 

 

 

Thirst official site

Fantasy horror HANSEL & GRETEL on R2 DVD

After an oh so brief U.K theatrical run back in January, YIM Phil-Sung's Korean horror fantasy Hansel & Gretel is heading for release on R2 DVD, via new boys on the block Terracotta Distribution. If you head over the their website you can check out a trailer for Hansel, and see some details on some upcoming Terracotta releases. Most noticable among (for us anyway) them being Lee Hyung-gon's surreal horror comedy The Fox Family. Hansel & Gretel streets on April 6th.

Synopsis: Eun-su (Chun Jeong-myoung), while arguing over the phone with his girlfriend, has a car accident in the middle of nowhere. Deep in the heart of a forest, he finds sanctuary in a beautiful house, where a charming family of five greets him.Here, rooms are filled with a myriad of colorful toys, and sumptuous three-tier cakes and other cavity-causing sweets are served for breakfast. But that's one thing to imagine and another to actually live through, especially when you cant get away from it...Ever.

 

Terracotta website

A CHINESE GHOST STORY heading for a remake

Just in case you don’t catch on later, I loved the original movie, so have to admit to being more than a little torn about this news. A true classic of 80s Hong Kong cinema, Siu-Tung Ching’s A Chinese Ghost Story is apparently being set up for a big budget remake. With its flying swordsman, superbly choreographed martial arts, Ghosts, Zombies, evil Witches and all other manner of the supernatural goings on, Ghost Story has been responsible for introducing tens of thousands to the joys of Hong Kong cinema. Indeed (along with “Zu Warriors”) it was one of the first Asian movies I ever watched, and afterwards, pretty much sealed my life long addiction there and then.

There’s no word yet as to who’s tipped to star or direct (we can dream Ching would return to do it again) the project, but there are already some heavy hitting names attached on the production front. Tan Cheung (Iron Monkey, An Empress and the Warrior) will pen the script and the film will be produced by by Ketsarinh Lan (Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger, Painted Skin). Still in pre-production visuals are of course lacking though we have been able to find is this piece of concept art/teaser poster. Its hefty $10 million plus budget is enough to deliver some superb FX, so with the right cast and director we could be in for a real treat. Heres hoping.

Thai horror BUPPHA REBORN plotline revealed

It took a while, but finally the synopsis is out for Buppha Reborn, the third in Yuthalert Sipapak’s horror series. A blend of horror and comedy B3 is set in the same apartment where the original story was told, and goes something like this...

"Surrounded by tranquillity of the apartment, a horrible spirit in the room 609 is lurking, and going to be awakened. This time the terror is tripled. It is time for Oscar apartment to renovate after the death of the former owner. Now, it's Jai Sam who takes over the whole business and stealthily turns the third floor into an illegal casino. Meanwhile, Rung, a handsome guy who has a job as horror cartoonist, moves in for a personal reason. 

Rung has a supernatural ability to see ghosts, he finally meets Buppha, a mysterious girl who lives in the room 609. Soon, He falls in love with her. When love is blind, Rung isn't aware that his crush indeed is the haunting and dangerous spirit that he needs to avoid. But he is too late when his sweet dream turns to nightmare as Buppha is now on the rage again. And the bloody horror love story begins....."

Buppha Reborn opens in Thailand April 9th. 

Buppha 3 English subbed trailer 

Via

More new stills from live action BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE

The release in France of Chris Nahon's live action remake of Blood: The Last Vampire is still a few months off, but we've just discovered the French official site for the film is now partially live. What treats are there to see if were to look inside? How about some new, never before seen, action-packed high def stills from the movie. Oh go on then, we'll force ourselves. Blood: The Last Vampire opens in Japan in May, the U.K in June and great news for U.S fans - Samuel Goldwyn Films have apparently just picked up the North American rights, release date still tbc.

 

 

Blood New stills

Blood The Last Vampire UK trailer 

BLOOD BROTHERS on R2 DVD

A real classic of bloodshed cinema - producers John Woo and Terence Chang’s Blood Brothers comes to R2 DVD. Set in 1930s Shanghai, replete with warlords, politicians, wealthy industrialists, courtesans and gangsters. Three innocent young brothers, Kang (Liu Ye, Curse of the Golden Flower ), Fung (Daniel Wu, Around the World in 80 Days ) and Xiao Hu (Tony Yang), arrive in this seeming paradise in search of a better life.

Enticed by the rich and powerful world of organized crime, the three brothers start down a path of no return: they are hired to do the bidding for one of the cities largest mob syndicate. When Fung begins an affair with the mob boss girlfriend, beauty Lulu (Shu Qi, Transporter), and life takes a difficult turn for all three brothers when the forbidden love affair is exposed. Friends turn against friends, brother against brother. The days of innocence have passed; the three brothers must stand up as men and make their choices.

 

Blood Brothers trailer

Order it here

Site and full trailer for Taiwanese slasher INVITATION ONLY

Hailed as Taiwan's first ever slasher horror movie, Invitation Only has finally (it was orignally due for release Nov 08) been given an official site, a theatrical poster and full trailer of its very own - Our first impressions still stand, it does very much look like they've decided "oh what the hell, as its our first slasher, lets go for it and make it REALLY gory." Fine by us.

Invitation stars...ahem..."Adult" movie siren Maria Ozawa in her first straight acting role as a super model. The movies "plot" seems to follow traditional slasher lines and revolves around five friends who arrive at a party, unaware that the special night is just a cover for an evening of torture and murder. A tortuous party you feel you’ll never escape from – I think we’ve all been there. The bloody fun starts on April 17th.

Invitation official site

Invitation English subbed trailer

THE WARLORDS DVD giveaway winners

Our contest to give away 3 copies of Peter Chan’s historical blockbuster The Warlords has ended and the winners have been picked. Congratulations are due too: Dee Hardy, David Oso and Anthony Barter who each get a copy of the DVD. No luck this time around? No worries, we have more great giveaways coming soon.

 

 

Warlords UK sub site

Warlords official site

An Empress And The Warriors: Review

Director: Ching Siu-Tung . Review: Adam Wing.

So I guess it's that time of the month again, a time to kick back and revel in the wonder that is Donnie Yen. For better or worse, prepare to be entertained… The story begins when Donnie… no hang on, let’s try that again. The story begins at the end of the battle between two kingdoms, that would be Yan and Zhao then. Princess Feiyin (Kelly Chen) accepts the appointment as successor to her fathers thrown after he dies in battle. He had wanted Donnie, I mean Muyong Xuehu, to take over his duties but some of the king's followers are slightly miffed that he would want a bastard orphan to take his thrown. So they give it to a girl instead and hey, that's okay right? Well, no.

The problem is that some quarters of Yan's army are none too pleased about being controlled by a woman (happens to us all in the end, get over it I say) and they fear that Yan's control will be taken away from them. Either that or they'll all be listening to Kelly Clarkson songs and platting their hair by the end of the day. Out of jealousy, not to mention a love for beer, football and paintball, the Commander-in-chief dispatches warriors to assassinate Feiyin. So far so good then. An Empress And The Warriors wastes no time out of the blocks, the opening act is chock full of glorious action, moments of drama, occasional emotion and yet more scenes of action as Donnie (it's easier to type) teaches Kelly to become a proper warrior. Donnie is usually topless of course, Kelly on the other hand is not. The production values are high and the story moves along at a swift pace keeping the enjoyment factor soaring. Then act two kicks in…Continue review here.

Empress Trailer

Empress official site

 

Detailed plotline for Hideo Nakata’s new horror CHATROOM

It was back in November that we brought you the news that Hideo Nakata (The Ring, Dark Water, L- Change the world) was set to direct his first English language production, the psychological horror Chatroom. Horror auteur Nakata at the helm of a film would be reason enough pique the interest of any fan of frighteners, and suitably piqued we've gone off and uncovered a detailed synopsis of the plot. Still no word on who's starring, but as always, more when we get it.

Synopsis: When jaded teens Jim, Eva, Emily and Mo meet William online, they're seduced by his charisma. But William isn't what he seems. He's calculating and manipulative and doesn't have time for people in the real world. Jim is vulnerable and he has no idea how dangerous his new friendship with William will be. When Jim confesses he's on anti-depressants, William knows he's found a victim. He vows to help Jim off his drugs, and the rest of the group fall in line. What begins as friendly advice to help Jim becomes twisted and Eva and Mo realise the deadly game William's playing, but the wheels are in motion. Jim is set on a path of self- destruction, and is going to do the unthinkable. As Eva, Emily and Mo try to save Jim, William begins a terrifying game of cat and mouse chasing them across the internet, shutting down their systems, and cutting them off from his victim. Fantasy meets reality when William and Jim are face to face in rush hour on the underground. Without the faceless security of the online world, everything becomes real. It's now a race against time to save Jim, but the clock is ticking... and we fear someone must die.

Date for THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD on R2 DVD

Yes indeed boys and girls of Britannia - If you missed the UK theatrical release of Ji-woon Kim's Korean Oriental Western The Good, The Bad and the Weird, your wait to see it, is very nearly over. In an early heads up we’ve just been told the film will hit DVD (and joy of joys Blu-ray) on June 1st. We’ll be bringing you full details of both formats release later next month.

 

 

Good Bad Weird UK site

Recent Entries