Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction Films
Veteran CFQ journalist Lawrence French takes you deep into the dark and dreamy world of horror, fantasy, and science fiction films.
That criminal mastermind of a film programmer, Eddie Muller is presenting 24 films a second… or rather 24 films in ten days, for the ninth annual edition of NOIR CITY taking place at San Francisco’s historic movie palace, the Castro Theatre, from Friday, January 21 through Sunday, January 30. This year’s festival features several Noir …
Seventeen years ago on October 25 1993 at the age of 82, Vincent Price met the end of his adventure on Earth. To commemorate his passing, several Facebook groups are having a “Vincent Price Day” including Rick Squire’s The Vincent Price Exhibit. As is well-known, Mr. Price was a life-long devotee of all the arts and often defended the motion-picture as a great art form before it was fashionable to do so in the fifties and early sixties. In an homage Price wrote in 1986 for Forrest J. Ackerman, he offers a splendid tribute not only to “4 E” but also to the many fright films that will forever be associated with the name of Vincent Leonard Price. Read it below the fold.
Image Entertainment’s new 14-DVD set of 67 episodes of THRILLER is quite a marvelous treat, and it fits in perfectly with Cinefantastique’s celebration of movies released in that seminal year for terror, 1960. Among the impressive authors who wrote episodes for THRILLER were Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Donald S. Sandford and Barre Lyndon. …
Watch the Video of the BFI and BAFTA special achievement award presented to RAY HARRYHAUSEN on the occasion of the master animator’s 90th birthday. This fabulous 42 minute minute video includes comments from James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Guillermo Del Toro, Nick Park Frank Darabont, John Landis, and more.
As I’ve suggested for the last two years, limiting the Academy Award for “Best Visual Effects” to only three nominees seems quite unfair, since all the other categories (except make-up) have five nominees. Given the overwhelming number of films that feature superlative effects work these days, it has become increasingly obvious that this is a change that has been long overdue.
Probably the biggest challenge for Pixar in making TOY STORY 3 was turning the third film into more than just a rehash of ideas from the first two stories. But having a central core of well-loved toy characters who were already familiar to audiences from the first two movies, freed the Pixar story team so …
In Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND Christopher Lee has a brief one line “cameo” as the voice of the dragon-like Jabberwock, so it was interesting to note that Lee himself has recently suggested he might play the voice of Smaug, the dragon, in the upcoming two-film adaptation of THE HOBBIT, being produced by Peter Jackson …
Read More “Sir Christopher Lee on The Lord of the Rings trilogy”
Cinefantastique celebrates the horror stars’ birthdays with retrospective interviews regarding their work together on HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS, THE OBLONG BOX, and SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN.
In this article, taken from the book Fritz Lang (Oxford University Press, 1977) by Lotte Eisner, the sculptor Walter Schultze-Mittendorf reveals how he created the iconic “false Maria” robot for Metropolis. The Birth of the female robot in METROPOLIS By Walter Schultze-Mittendorf Problems of form? No! Expressionism lived. Technological form had been discovered as motif …
Read More “The Making of Metropolis: Creating the Female Robot”
Fritz Lang discovered the 17-year old actress Brigitte Helm for the double-role of Maria and her robot counterpart in METROPOLIS and she gives a remarkable performance in the film, convincingly portraying both angel and whore . In this 1927 article she discussed the rewards and difficulties of working with Fritz Lang, a notorious perfectionist. THE …