A Nightmare on Elm Street… Freddy is back!
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films, Horror Genres
Greetings and Salutations!
I admit it, I have largely been ignoring any of the Elm Street related hype. I know B_Sol over at The Vault of Horror is probably going to spank me, but largely I haven’t given a crap, the films aren’t really my thing… Until now! Tickle me interested with that claw Freddy! The new trailer has well and truly caught my attention.
I wasn’t allowed to watch horror movies during my youth, so my parents are entirely to blame for my adult obsession with the Macabre. However my Dad did introduce me to Twin Peaks and The Exorcist when I was fourteen, so he eventually redeemed himself. I digress, so I kind of missed the whole watching Freddy at sleepovers thing (yes I will take the shame!).
So my question to those of you who are more versed in this cornerstone of the horror genre, should I go and watch the original before this incarnation comes out? I hear Johnny Depp makes an appearance! I will defer to your judgment people, so drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts.
Meanwhile thanks to the crew at First Showing check out the trailer for the new ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street‘ below.
Ms Harker
A Nightmare on Elm Street in HD
Tags: Horror, Horror Films
Horror Book Trailers, the good and the bad…
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Reading
Greetings and Salutations.
I need to discuss something with you all, that I have been finding a little perplexing. An emerging trend in the book world, leading up to a new release, has been the evolution of a promotional toll known as the ‘book trailer’. I’m sure this isn’t limited to the horror genre, however it seems to have been embraced by some of the horror writing community. Two recent offerings of this phenomena are ‘Audrey’s Door‘ by Sarah Lanagan and ‘Dracula the Un-dead‘ by Ian Holt and direct descendant of Bram Stoker himself Dacre Stoker.
I’m honestly unsure how I feel about the trend towards using these trailers to promote books, however I definitely know one thing they can be really good or really bad! A brilliant example was the campaign attached to ‘The Strain‘ by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. This campaign had a fabulous website and the trailers were well linked to the novel itself, well produced and definitely made you want to read the book.
Equally the recently featured trailer for ‘Audrey’s Door’ on Shock Til You Drop is well produced, gives you a couple of good scares and again has me very keen to read the novel.
“Audrey’s Door is the tale of Audrey Lucas, a young woman who moves into an Upper West Side apartment in which a terrible tragedy recently occurred. Audrey’s not scared, however, because she’s undergone her own share of tragedy.
But, is it something otherworldly or Audrey’s own increasing instability that’s to blame for the dark visions that haunt her . . . and for the voice that demands that she build a door? A door it would be true madness to open . . .” (Shock Til You Drop)
On the more negative side of the coffin we have the trailer for ‘Dracula The Un-Dead’, granted I may be a bit pissy at the entire prospect of this book being written in the first place. But hey, Dacre Stoker is a direct descendant of the mighty Bram Stoker, so if he wants to trash his family’s literary legacy then far be it from me to question… However if the trailer is anything to go by, the gothic Irishman will be spinning in his grave! The novel has been written (obviously) with the blessing of the Stoker family and takes place twenty five years post Dracula turning to dust:
“Van Helsing’s protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict obsessed with stamping out evil across Europe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school for the London stage, only to stumble upon the troubled production of “Dracula,” directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself.
The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents’ terrible secrets, but before he can confront them he experiences evil in a way he had never imagined. One by one, the band of heroes that defeated Dracula a quarter-century ago is being hunted down. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Or is their another force at work whose relentless purpose is to destroy anything and anyone associated with Dracula?” (Shock Til You Drop)
In the age of multi media advertising, blogging, twittering etc in some ways I think it was inevitable that the printed word had to do something in order to keep up with the flow of worldwide information. However the continuum between good and bad execution of this marketing strategy is vast, I hope that for some authors it does not result in their work being overlooked.
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Horror Novels, Vampire
Deadgirl: confirmation adolescent boys are inherently evil.
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films
If I took away one thing from viewing the film ‘Deadgirl‘ it’s that adolescent boys are sex crazed, morally bankrupt and inherently evil! A little while ago I posted about my anticipation for this morbid teenage indie corpse ride… Praying to the dark gods that this would be the film that would deliver our decaying minds, our rotting intelligence from the ever pervasive Twilight twaddle; and low and behold this film has game!
Decrepit, skin crawling sexually depraved game, but game none the less. The Indie pop soundtrack very reminiscent of that used by Sofia Copola in ‘The Virgin Suicides‘ or ‘Lost in Translation‘ is hypnotic and lulls the viewer almost into a trance like state as the horror of the acts before you start to unfold. I found the soundtrack almost desensitized me at times from the heinous decisions made by the twisted adolescent beasts, until towards the end when our apparent heroe steps up to the plate.
“Daringly original and genre-busting, Deadgirl is an odyssey into the soul of our alienated youth that takes the conventions of the horror and coming-of-age movies and turns them on their heads.
When high school misfits Rickie and JT decide to ditch school and find themselves lost in the crumbling facility of a nearby abandoned hospital, they come face-to-face with a gruesome discovery: a body of a woman stripped naked, chained to a table and covered in plastic and soon realize she is anything but dead. Quickly the boys find themselves embarking on a twisted yet poignant journey testing the limits of their friendship, and forces both to decide just how far they’re willing to stretch their understanding of right and wrong.” (Amazon.com, Product Description)
The film starts off slow, takes place in a steamy summer, featuring a couple of adolescent males without much else to do but drink beer and graffiti abandoned mental asylums. However once our Deadgirl enters the picture the film begins to expose the adolescent pain of exclusion and isolation, first love and of finding one’s place even if it is inside the corpse of an undead naked chick. The film escalates to a satisfying vicious ending for those characters that you want to cop a chomp from the very beginning, however provides the viewer with an unexpected twist; all to the soothing tunes of indie pop in the summer sun!
Deadgirl is out on DVD and showing at selected film festivals, well worth a view, and a chilling reminder as to why I never became a high-school teacher!
Ms Harker
Tags: Horror, Horror Films, Zombies
