Oh yes, there will be blood. AMC has made some pretty impressive headway in the television world in recent years, going from primarily broadcasting old movies to competing with the cutting edge of dramatic television on channels like HBO, Showtime and FX. And while “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad” broke ground in terms of language and sex, their next series The Walking Dead promises to bring the gore in a big, big way. And from what we saw during our recent visit to the Atlanta set, this may well be the bloodiest show ever seen on television.

Read the whole story on Bloody-Disgusting!

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I spent most of last week in downtown Los Angeles covering all the craziness that is the E3 Video Game Convention. I was covering for Bloody-Disgusting/Dead Pixels and you can check out all of my horror-related coverage in the Day 1, 2 and 3 Wrap-Ups below. You can also check out a wide selection of videos from E3 on my YouTube page. Anything from E3 got you excited?

E3 2010 Day 1 Wrap-Up

E3 2010 Day 2 Wrap-Up

E3 2010 Day 3 Wrap-Up

Jeff Otto’s YouTube Page

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In the sweltering heat of a typical Louisiana summer, we walk down a dirt road to get a better look at the action. On the edge of a big, muddy swamp, surrounded by the ever-present bugs, a giant Civil War ship sits docked, looking very out of place. The look of the sets and costumes is part Civil War, part old west. In the buggy, sweltering June heat in a remote area outside of New Orleans, Jimmy Hayward (HORTON HEARS A WHO!) directs John Malkovich, who as the deadly Turnbull, commands his troops with a rebel rousing speech full of fiery bluster.

“This is Turnbull’s boat and he’s going to take it to Washington to blow up the White House,” an enthusiastic Hayward tells a group of press.

Read the full story on Bloody-Disgusting.com

Additional Jonah Hex Set Report on Dark Horizons

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Where do I begin? Well, to preface my review, I must admit that I am a longtime Elm Street lover and a pretty big fan of the entire series. Sure, I know the sequels aren’t great, but I truly believe the first film is a masterpiece of the genre and Part 3: Dream Warriors, Part 4: Dream Master and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare have their merits. Heck, I even enjoy Freddy Vs. Jason for what it is. Still, I’ve always wondered what might happen if the series were to return to its roots, less of the game show host Freddy and more of the dark, mysterious, demonic boogeyman that had audiences of the edge of their seats in 1984.

I was understandably skeptical of the inconsistent Platinum Dunes’ involvement, but I liked their original Texas Chainsaw and thought last year’s Friday the 13th was, at the very least, silly good fun. I was extremely impressed by the casting of Jackie Earle Haley. He was my choice in a Bloody-Disgusting article a while back and seemed like a natural for the part. The script wasn’t bad and the rest of the cast seemed generally solid. Samuel Bayer’s music videos have always had inventive visuals, which would at the very least make for some eye-popping dream sequences.

As I sat in the darkening theater at last night’s screening, eager with anticipation and careful to avoid early reviews or the reactions of fellow critics, I returned to the giddy little boy of years past, popcorn and Wild Cherry Icee in hand ready for a good time at the movies. I tried and tried to go with the images that were unraveling before my eyes. I tried to ignore the terrible opening, the lack of character development or the undeniable fact that Jackie Earle Haley just isn’t that frightening as Freddy. I tried to like something, anything, about this new Nightmare. But as the credits rolled, I only sat in my seat in a bit of a daze, trying to come to terms with the fact that 2010’s Nightmare isn’t just flawed, but without any merit whatsoever, amongst the worst of Platinum Dunes’ cinematic abortions (Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning, Amityville Horror) and as bad, if not worse, than the truly terrible Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge and part six, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.

The film opens with all the subtlety of a frying pan to the face. Where the original slowly and effectively built to Freddy’s first on-screen kill, the classic and unforgettable death of Tina (Amanda Wyss), blood is shed only moments into Nightmare 2010. In the original, the characters and audience alike sweated through the subtle reveals, learning little by little just what atrocities Krueger was capable of unleashing on his victims in the helplessness of sleep. Here, one scene in, you know Freddy can kill you if you sleep. Characters have already stopped sleeping and Freddy is picking off victims at a breakneck pace. Character development? Nah, we’ll pass. Here’s a bunch of sleep-deprived kids wearing dark clothing and looking like drug addicts. Mr. Krueger, here’s your buffet. Enjoy!

Samuel Bayer should go back to music videos and never look back. With few exceptions, the visuals aren’t terribly impressive and far less compelling than the original film, shot 25 years ago with the budget that this new film probably spent on Craft Services. The pacing is a mess, the acting is wooden and any sense of drama or character dimensionality is noticeably absent. Instead of the goodie two shoes Nancy Heather Langenkamp perfected, we get Rooney Mara’s brooding Nancy, an outsider who sits in her room listening to her iPod and staring into space or painting pictures that belong on the covers of ’80s heavy metal albums. How do you know Quentin (Kyle Gallner in the Johnny Depp role) is troubled and dark? By his Joy Division t-shirt, of course.

And Jackie Earle Haley? Well, he tries. Many of the reasons Freddy isn’t so scary this time around aren’t really his fault. First, he’s in the light almost from the beginning. While Dunes was ridiculously careful to avoid revealing Krueger’s new look prior to release, in the actual movie he’s practically in a spotlight from his first appearance. Haley’s height is quickly and inexplicably apparent. I mean, no one knows Tom Cruise is five feet tall when you see him on screen. Couldn’t they afford platforms or a step stool? The flashbacks only further serve to lessen Freddy’s intimidation factor. He’s less mysterious, less frightening and more pervy and creepy.

In a day and age where we’ve come full circle on the slasher genre, from the early days where Michael Myers, Freddy and Jason were first born to the self-referential fun of the Scream series and back again, Nightmare 2010 is surprisingly humorless. No ones really having a good time, including the audience and Freddy himself. Scream’s killer mocks his victim saying, “You might as well come outside to investigate a strange noise of something.” In this movie, Kris (the Tina role from the original) actually does just that before a rehash of the levitation ceiling kill, albeit without the flair or brutality or visual stylization Craven pulled off 25 years prior. Scares are cheap and obvious. Loud sounds, screeches and Freddy constantly popping up behind or beside characters in a series of lame peekaboo scares.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) is a disappointing from start to finish. It takes everything that set the Elm Street series apart from the standard slasher and pisses it away. The result is a snooze-inducing, run-of-the-mill remake that furthers the argument that more times than not Hollywood should leave well enough alone.

(Score: 1 out of 10)

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This past week was an exciting one for Elm Street fans. The new  poster surfaced (left) and it’s pretty bad-ass. The new trailer (below) also premiered and, for the most part, response is very positive. Personally, I think it’s very promising.

I also published a few reports this week from my visit to the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake in Chicago this past summer.

First up is a very in-depth piece for Dark Horizons.

I also did an exclusive interview with the new Nancy,  Rooney Mara, for Fandango.

This coming week I’ll  have a segment on Bloody-Disgusting’s lengthy day-by-day coverage. I’ll post that one here as soon as it goes live.

Check back here for lots more Elm Street coverage as we dreamily await release day, April 30th, 2010.

A Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer 2 in HD

Trailer Park Movies | MySpace Video

MORE ELM STREET

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The Crazies hits screens this Friday, February 26th, and I’m hopeful that this one might turn out to be a pretty good jumpy scare kind of horror thriller.

To offer a little background, the story takes place in the fictional small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. A disease starts to take hold of the residents causing them to go mad and hunt down their friends and family. Directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara), Crazies is a remake of a little known 1973 low, low budget George Romero flick.

I spent some time on the set down in rural George earlier last year and wrote reports for Dark Horizons, Bloody-Disgusting and SCI FI Channel. Last week I spoke to castmembers Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker and Radha Mitchell as well as director Breck Eisner about the release on behalf of Bloody D and SCI FI.

All in all, I’ve got a decent feeling about this one. It could very easily be nothing more than schlocky horror crap, I admit, but I think this one has a chance of rising to the occasion a bit and being something a little more. Bloody D ran a pretty cool clip recently in which Sheriff Dutton (Olyphant) has a battle with an autopsy saw. Check out my various Crazies coverage below as well as the aforementioned autopsy saw clip.

Exclusive Bloody D Chat with Director and Cast

Exclusive SCI FI Chat with Olyphant

Exclusive SCI FI Chat with Director Breck Eisner

Set Visit on Dark Horizons

Set Visit on Bloody-Disgusting

Set Visit on SCI FI

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It’s been a while since Joe Dante was in the limelight, but his list of career accomplishments speaks for itself. From genre classics like Gremlins, The Howling and Innerspace to kitsch classics Gremlins 2: The New Batch (a misunderstood masterpiece), The Burbs and Explorers. Hell, Dante even directed the original Piranha and a few episodes of the original Police Squad!

Joe Dante’s The Hole is a return to form of sorts, a family horror flick about a group of teens that discover a gaping hole in the basement of their new house. Stepping inside the hole takes the daring on a trip through their worst fears and nightmares.

I visited the set of The Hole earlier this year on behalf of the good folks at Bloody-Disgusting.com. Read more in my full two part report including an exclusive interview with Mr. Dante himself.

Read The Hole set report at Bloody-Disgusting

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I just posted my pics for the forthcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake from Platinum Dunes over on Bloody-Disgusting.com. I think the article came together well and I came up with some pretty good pics. Check out the BD Casting Call and let me know what you think.

Now let’s hope Platinum Dunes doesn’t screw this one up!

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