Ray Harryhausen passed away last week. This has been noted by people more qualified than I to discuss the master of stop-motion magic—Rick Baker, Adam Savage, Todd Masters, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and more. The superhuman talent and perseverance evident in a Harryhausen effects sequence can easily be seen in countless visual effects artists since he first brought his creations to frame-by-frame life on the big screen. That makes sense. So how can I really say anything of worth when I say that I was also profoundly influenced by the artistry of Ray Harryhausen? With modesty, and a story about Clash of the Titans. Continue reading…
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Recent Features
Ray Harryhausen and Me: A Life of High Adventure and Escapism
Things That Change You Forever
I have a ghost story of my own. At least, I have a ghost-cat story.
My final year as an undergraduate was spent in relative splendor. My friends and I lucked into tenancy in the house of a professor on sabbatical. Twelve foot ceilings! Built in bookshelves! Three cats! Real, grown-up furniture! Wait… let’s get back to the cats. The professorial family had three cats and a dog, though the dog was sent to a friend with a farm (later, they told us later that we clinched the lease when they told us that cat care was part of the deal and our response was, “Aw, we don’t get the dog?”).
So. Three housemates, three cats. One morning around the (solid oak!) table, we were chatting about the cats’ sleeping habits. Two of the cats routinely slept in my room, the third with one of the others. Feeling a little left out, the third roommate said, “That’s okay, because Ghost Cat slept on my bed last night.” Continue reading…
Secret Agent, Detective, Genius, Jerk: Modernizing Sherlock Holmes
A man with dark wavy hair wakes up in an iron-framed bed in the middle of a windowless room. He leaps out from under the white sheets and stares intently at a corner of the white ceiling. Suddenly, gracefully, he spins to defeat an invisible opponent in four swift motions, finally falling to his knees in front of an empty chair, hands outstretched.
There’s something about the way Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role in the BBC series Sherlock that seems like it could be Holmes’ fantasy version of how a brilliant detective behaves. Continue reading…
My New Weapon of Choice
In April, the Guttersnipes like to mix it up a little. This month, Comics Editor Carol Borden writes about romance.
“You hit him with a frying pan,” he said to her. “How come you didn’t grab a knife?”
“The frying pan was closer.” Her eyes slid away. “It’s not like I had time to pick a weapon. It’s not like the frying pan is my weapon of choice.” –Agnes And The Hitman (27)
Growing up in a town where Elvis was sighted post mortem, I despised and mocked The King. Now, I have held wakes in his honor. I used to only like punk. Then I used to say I liked everything but country. Now I don’t even bother arguing that I’m listening to “Americana,” not country. It is a truth universally acknowledged that something I once despised I will come to appreciate and, often, love. So when both Chris and alex recommended Jennifer Crusie, the author of many romance novels, and in particular her collaboration with Bob Mayer, Agnes And The Hitman, I knew I needed to read it. Continue reading…
“Where Have All The Midnight Movies Gone?”
Midnight Madness Programmer and Gutter Friend, Colin Geddes, is interviewed (along with many others) about the history of midnight movies from El Topo and Eraserhead till now.
Interview with Don Coscarelli
At the Midnight Madness blog, the Gutter’s own Carol Borden interviews Don Coscarelli about adaptation, Godzilla and John Dies At The End.
Ben Wheatley’s Viral Videos and Rob Zombie’s Ads
Kill List director and suspected Pirate Captain Ben Wheatley has been secretly making commercial videos for years. Siân Elizabeth-Anne just happens to have gathered all Wheatley’s booty in one place, The Vanguard programme blog. Or most of it. Meanwhile, at the Midnight Madness blog, Chad Eberle has collected evidence of Rob Zombie’s secret life as [...]
Midnight Madness 2012 Trailers!
Trailers for this year’s Midnight Madness programme! Dredd 3D; Seven Psychopaths; The Lords of Salem teaser from a Rob Zombie concert; ABCs of Death; The Bay; and the much anticipated, John Dies at the End. No One Lives; Hellbenders; Aftershock; and Child’s Play/Come Out and Play are all playing Midnight Madness, but I haven’t found [...]
Bruce Campbell on TVO
TVOntario’s Saturday Night At The Movies interviewed Bruce Campbell when he was in Toronto for Bubba Ho-Tep‘s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2002 Midnight Madness Programme. (via Bruce-Campbell.com)
Coverage of The Raid at Midnight Madness
Read the Gutter Guest Star (and good friend) Robert Mitchell’s interview with Gareth Evans, director of The Raid (aka, The Raid: Redemption) along with all kinds of coverage of The Raid”s premiere at Midnight Madness, including video of the Q & A and introduction of the film.
The Raid Trailer
Here’s an Indonesian trailer for The Raid, not that it matters because the titles are in English and asskickery is an universal language. (The Raid played at–and won the People’s Choice Award–at TIFF’s 2011 Midnight Madness Programme, see more trailers from that programme here and here).
Taira no Kiyomori
Kenichi Matsuyama, who played L in Death Note, Masura Kato in Gantz: Light in the Dark and who Midnight Madness fans might remember as Negishi/Johannes Krauser from Detroit Metal City, is playing the 12th Century/Heian Era, Taira no Kiyomori, in an eponymous 50 episode NHK television series. The Japan Times covers the series’ development and [...]
“10 Movies You Didn’t See in 2011″
At Slate, Grady Hendrix offers his list of “Ten Movies You Didn’t See But Should Have,” two of which premiered at Toronto’s Midnight Madness (Stake Land and Super).
Slate’s 25 Best Horror Films of the 2000s
Slate has a nicely ecletic and thoughtful list of the best horror films of the ’00s, including many Midnight Madness favorites and films by Rob Zombie, David Lynch, Takashi Miike, Sam Raimi, Tomas Alfredson, David Cronenberg, William Friedkin, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.
Midnight Madness 2011, Updated
Here are two more trailers for films screening at this year’s Midnight Madness Program at the Toronto International Film Festival. First up, a teaser and clip from Eduardo Sánchez’ Lovely Molly. There’s also a trailer for Frederic Jardin’s thriller, Sleepless Night / Nuit Blanche. (Updated: The Incident trailer was incorrect).
Trailer for The Raid
Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais go through 15 floors of bad guys in Gareth Evans follow-up to Merantau. We didn’t have the trailer for The Raid in time for the Midnight Madness trailer post. But it’s worth the wait.
Insidious
A clip from Insidious, the creepy new ghost movie from James Wan (Saw) and Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity). (via both FearNET and Dread Central)
Midnight Madness 2010 Trailers
Here are trailers for 6 of the 10 movies at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness program this year: Fubar II; The Vanishing on 7th Street; The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman; Red Nights; Fire of Conscience; and Stake Land. (SUPER, Insidious, Bunraku and John Carpenter’s The Ward don’t have trailers yet).
The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman
Violence + cooking. It just doesn’t get any better. The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman.
Asian Western Round Up
This month we’re mixing it up at the Gutter with each editor writing about something outside their usual domain. This week Carol Borden writes about movies. She can normally be found here. The world is clamoring for more Asian Westerns. Or at least I am. I’m talking Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean Westerns. They seem [...]
“Crisis in the 36th Chamber”
Chris Sims and Rusty Shackles bring you, “Great Comics That Never Were (But Shoulda Been)!”
Solomon Kane: Puritan Swordsman
Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane buckles his swash, fights the Devil’s Reaper and becomes a puritan swordsman in, well, Solomon Kane–a much better action movie with Christian themes in which the hero is crucified than The Passion of the Christ.
A Matter of Evolution: Monkeys vs. Robots
They’ve been brought together before in James Kolchalka’s Monkey vs. Robot books, by Mecha Kong in King Kong Escapes and Mojo Jojo’s mech-suited machinations in The Powerpuff Girls. Primates and robots each imitate and mock humanity in their own way. When the postapocalyptic future finally overtakes us, will we be replaced by the robots we [...]
Symbol
Matsumoto Hitoshi has not made an art film, but it sure looks like one.
keep looking »Of Note Elsewhere
“It’s easier to tell the same stories everyone else does. There’s no particular shame in it.
It’s just that it’s lazy, which is just about the worst possible thing a spec fic writer can be.
Oh, and it’s not true.”
Kameron Hurley writes about lazy writing, cannibal llamas, female soldiers, and women here. (Thanks, James!)
Patton Oswalt’s multi-franchise super-movie described in his Star Wars filibuster from Parks and Recreation, animated.
Corrigan Vaughan writes an open letter to “Fans of Geek Things“: “I appreciate that you think I have a nice rack and that some of you even find my friends and I to be pretty. That’s very kind. I’m not, however, super in love with the fact that having a rack at all seems to preclude me from being considered a ‘real’ fan.”
The Hollywood Reporter interviews director Takashi Miike about his new film, Shield of Straw: ” In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was young and went to old cinemas, they had a distinctive feel, an adult smell about them. As you got in your seat and the lights went down, there was a feeling of excitement: What if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going to be? You’re taken into that world. Nowadays, you can sit in the theater and know it’s going to be safe. That’s good for business, but not for filmmaking.”
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