Leatherface has directors, yes plural!

The next instalment in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise has found its directors, yes that is more than one director signed on the for the next film. It was only a few weeks ago that a shortlist of directors and the two who got the job were on it these are French directors Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo the directors behind French Horrors "Livid" and "Inside".

ShockTillYouDrop.com speculated some potential details;
"The story will begin with the Leatherface character in his teenage years. He resides in a mental institution until he joins a pack of fellow patients who all break out and go on the run from the authorities."

MTV taking Scream to series

The rumours came around about two years ago that MTV were planning on taking Wes Craven's Ghostface to the small screen in a "Scream" television show. We are now getting news that MTV plans to have the show on air in October 2015.

The show is set to star Willa Fitzgerald, Bex Taylor-Klaus, John Karna, Conner Well, Amadeus Serafini, Carlson Young, Joel Gretsch, Bobby Campo, Tom Madden and Anna Grace Barlow.

The pilot is being scripted by Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin, with Jill Blotevogel is serving as showrunner on the series and executive producing alongside Wes Craven, Cathy Konrad, Marianne Maddalena and Bob and Harvey Weinstein.

See No Evil 2 review

Genre: Slasher, Horror.
Starring: Danielle Harris, Kane, Katharine Isabelle, Chelan Simmons, Kaj-Erik Eriksen, Greyston Holt, Lee Majdoub, Michael Eklund, Soska Sisters (cameo).
Year Of Release: 2014
Certificate: 15 (UK)
Runtime: 90 Minutes

Director: Soska Sisters
Synopsis:"A group of friends pays a late-night visit to the city morgue to surprise Amy (Harris) on her birthday. But the surprise is on them when the one-eyed corpse of brutal psychopath Jacob Goodnight (Jacobs) unexpectedly rises from a cold sub-basement slab. Their wild party quickly turns into a terrifying slay-fest as the sadistic mass-murderer resumes his savage rampage complete with hooks, surgical knives and power saws." IMDB

Here we are with the obligatory Horror sequel, it feels as though 9/10 everything Horror related today is either a sequel/prequel/remake/reboot. That is less annoying when it is a Slasher, just look at Halloween that spawned 9 sequels and I still watch every one of them.

The film opens up with Amy (Harris), Seth (Eriksen) and Holden (Eklund) who are stuck working the graveyard shift at the city morgue where they are all employed. Amy is getting ready to leave in order to celebrate her birthday with her friends. Holden gets the news that a huge number of bodies are coming in, victims of the mass murder committed by Jacob Goodnight (Kane) an event which takes place in the first film. Amy abruptly cancels plans to leave deciding instead to stay and help process the bodies including that of notorious killer Goodnight.

Knowing she can't make the celebration, Amys friends Tamara (Isabelle), Kayla (Simmons), Carter (Majdoub) and her brother Will (Holt) decide to surprise her by throwing her a party in the morgue. During the party Seth and Will have a falling out resulting in Seth leaving the party and going back into work. Tamara is disturbingly obsessed with serial killers and all things that fall under that bracket, she and her boyfriend leave the party to hunt down the body of Goodnight to check it out. Finding the body causes Tamara to get a little bit on the frisky side shall we say, she and Carter begin having sex in turn somehow waking up/reviving Goodnight and that it when the proverbial shit hits the fan.

Overall, the film is a thoroughly enjoyable flick while all set in modern time, it has a brilliant 80s Slasher vibe to it. The Soska Sisters must have grown up watching countless Horror and Slasher films, they get this one down to perfection. Yeah the film lacks character development, however the first film told us all we needed to know about Jacob so this film just needed to be a full on gore fest Slasher flick. Which it was, the film reminded me of the first time I watched the greats like "Halloween" or "Friday The 13th", far superior than the modernised slashers we have.

I also loved how the Sisters gave their own twist to Jacobs look, they made him look more like a true Horror icon, one that when you see you can imagine having a franchise of films built around him. If you are a fan of either the Soska's work or the Slasher sub-genre you would be a damn fool not to check this out, if the twins continue to make films half as good as this they have a LONG career making Horror.

How they managed to get both Katharine Isabelle AND Danielle Harris in a direct-to-dvd sequel of a WWE film is beyond me, but bringing them together was one of the best parts of the film they are both Horror icons in their own right and them sharing the screen rocked! Isabelle's performance was sublime in all she done throughout the film, not to take away from anybody else, heck even Kane upped his game and played a much better "monster". The film uses a lot of practical effects which is by far the best way to make Horror, there is some CGI, more practical though. The death scenes are incredible, the death of Katharine's character completely stands out, it was a beautiful death has to be seen to be appreciated.

Here's to decades more from these genius sisters!

7/10

Fox planning amusement park Slasher/Comedy

20th Century Fox are planning to get ready for their very own "Thrill Ride", Deadline have announced that Fox have took on board the script for an upcoming Slasher Comedy from the writers of "Bad Neighbours" Brendan O'Brien and Andrew Jay Cohen the pair are also signed on to direct.

Peter Warren will provide the screenplay for "Thrill Ride";
"which takes place at the end of a high school semester and follows the senior class on an exclusive visit to an amusement part. It's not long, however, before people start turning up dead and the survivors find themselves trapped and at the hands of a homicidal madman or woman."

"A Nightmare On Elm Street" review

Genre: Horror, Slasher, Supernatural.
Starring: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Johnny Depp, Ronee Barkley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Joe Unger, Charles Fleischer.
Year Of Release: 1984
Certificate: 18 (UK)
Runtime: 91 Minutes
Director: Wes Craven

Synopsis: "In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him." IMDB

Freddy was the first true "boogeyman" in my life, I remember watching this film about 15 years ago, he was the monster that made me fall in love with this beautiful genre. Since that day I have been watching Horror films religiously I would not like to even speculate on the number I have seen. Since that first time I have watched it every Halloween since and countless times throughout the year, this year is no exception seen it twice already and will be viewing again on the 31st.

The film opens up with a very ominous scene of what we can presume is a man creating what can only be described as disturbing, the scene really sets the tone for what is to come dark, evil, monstrous and death. Cut to the next scene we see Tina Gray (Wyss) finds herself walking down a dark, creepy hallway hearing eerie laughter then out of nowhere a goat, yes a goat. Tina now finds herself in a boiler room the constant dripping of water, the laughter the sense that she is not alone. Then it begins you hear the claws scratching the metal, a glimpse of a hat, face and a man in the distance, the sound of goats, she's backed into a corner then boom he strikes we get our first glimpse of the scariest slasher I have ever known. I can pretty much play this scene in my brain from memory now.

I don't want to talk to much about the story, it just has to be seen to be appreciated, Wes Cravens directing in the two opening scenes in which I mentioned are so on point you will watch them and know what the film is going to be like. 

People will argue that majority of the success for "A Nightmare On Elm Street" comes for the performance given by Robert Englund as Fred, which is not entirely wrong a lot does come from that but also from Cravens writing and directing. Englund plays a very subtle but still menacing presence as the demonic antagonist. Englund is not the only one to shine in their role though, Langenkamp as Nancy Thompson she adds a vulnerable yet intelligence that really shows when her character develops throughout the film. The main shame comes from the displays from the majority of the supporting cast who do nothing but read their lines they are not stand out in any way.

Cravens baby shall we say will forever live on as the absolute pinnacle of the Slasher genre at a time when people and even studios were giving up on the sub-genre. Craven has even spoken recently on his Instagram about how there was nearly no Elm Street. The film is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and it is still loved across the many generations who have seen it, and me personally I will continue to tell people how perfect a film it truly is so I will help keep it alive for whatever time I am on this planet hoping you guys and girls will also.

Overall, the film is a masterpiece in its genre and for me personally a triumph in what a man can do when he puts his whole heart into a project. There is some problems with the acting but that happens in EVERY Horror film, the effects, the story, the acting of Englund and Langenkamp, the directing, the music, just everything makes up for that. The greatest slasher in history, I'll say it the best monster/villain performance since Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster in "Frankenstein" 1931, there I said it.

10/10

Paramount sets release date for the next "Friday The 13th"

It goes without saying these days that we can always expect a new instalment in one of the big Horror franchises i.e "Nightmare On Elm Street", "Halloween", "Hellraiser" and of course "Friday The 13th". Looks like the latter has has indeed been green lit, Paramount has confirmed this by licking down the release date of March 13, 2015!

Yes, you guessed it March 13th of 2015 is indeed a Friday, however as it stands we have no official title or information on the film. It is still currently unknown whether or not this film will be a sequel to the 2009 release or another stand alone reboot. I'm personally hoping for a reboot, the 2009 release was fun but not the best film.

"There are no further details other than that. We know Platinum Dunes will be producing the film, but there is no director and there are rumblings of the producers looking for a "found footage" approach." That worries me a lot, I do not think for a second that Jason Voorhees would work in a found footage style scenario, however I am open to being proven wrong.