Apollo 18 is a stunning docudrama, which nudges itself in the propaganda of the 1960s optimism of the unknown frontier, using extreme attention to details, creating a “lost” look at the real reason we never went back to the moon. Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego uses the blackness of space and the small quarters of the station to create maximum tension and claustrophobia. Using the conventions of the “found footage” genre to its advantage, Lopez-Gallego freshens up the sub-genre. Sound is key, as it is in Paranormal Activity or Blair Witch (who are the grand-dads of the genre still), but since the equipment and the lunar location are still foreign to the audience, and easily creates a position of unrest.

Make no mistake, if you’re not in tune with the “found footage” aspect, then the film won’t work. Your loss. Apollo 18 is stunningly real, harrowing, and creepy. The scares might be minimal, since the film’s pace is set to break-neck speed leaving little build-up for suspense and then the pay off, but I’ll happily sacrifice this for the immense claustrophobia. Apollo 18 is an imaginative take on a genre far too reliant on ghosts and zombies. If you want chills, Apollo 18 is your hair-raising answer. Look to the stars, and be thankful you’re only on Earth.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Killer Film recently caught up with the young directors, as we talk about the genre, the scares, and that creepy old mental institution. Check it out!

Jon: Was it hard writing Grave Encounters, considering the success of the genre now thanks to Paranormal Activity?

Stuart Ortiz: When we started writing it, it was interesting, because we were going to make it quote/unquote realistic, subtle. We actually started writing this before Paranormal Activity even came out. After Paranormal Activity came out, we saw what they done, which was very subtle and down played the terrors, we wanted to go crazier, show more. That got us excited to go farther, which was something we haven’t seen before in the genre.

Jon: That was one aspect I really loved about Grave Encounters. The ghost weren’t afraid to show themselves, right up there in your face…

The Vicious Brothers: (in unison) Yeah.

Jon: While the night vision added to the suspense and atmosphere, how did you come up with the idea to use it?

Colin Minihan: Just naturally, since we wanted to imitate those popular ghost hunting reality shows. That aspect is something audiences have grown accustomed too. The great thing about night vision is it has this black-and-white quality to it, and when you suck the color out of the picture, it gives it a unique tone that helps the horror. When we shot the film, we had the actors with cameras in their hands, which something they had to get use too.

Jon: The night vision also probably helped out the visual FX…

Stuart Ortiz: Yeah, it’s funny because there’s a few shots that were originally shot in color and we changed the color grid to make it night vision. It did help the FX; the color draining aspects to it, the high contrast, helped.

Jon: Was the film pretty well scripted or improvisational?

Colin Minihan: We originally wrote it as a 90-page script, but we wrote it loosely because we knew we wanted to allow the actors room for their improvisation. There’s two kinds of “found footage” films: one, which is very scripted like Cloverfield, and there’s the ones that use a loose frame work, which has been proven to be successful in the past. Let the actors build the script through there improvisation skills, like in Paranormal Activity…

Stuart Ortiz:…or more like in Blair Witch. Still, we shot want we needed because only had a certain amount of time at the location we were shooting at, so we didn’t have a lot of time to dick around. While it would’ve been fun to shoot a full day’s worth of improvised material, we were happy to land it somewhere in the middle. It’s important to allow the actors a certain amount of freedom, so the dialogue doesn’t sound scripted.

Jon: One of the great aspects of the movie, besides being scary, it that location. Did you write that place in mind or was that a happy accident landing it to shoot?

Stuart Oritz: We knew we wanted it. Everyone in Vancouver knows about it. It’s one of the most shot at locations in Canada, as seen in X-Files episodes, so we were already aware of it, and never considered shooting Grave Encounters anywhere else. It made sense. If they’re going to film this paranormal investigation show, it got to be big, and not some haunted club. It just made perfect sense to do it there, for it’s multiple levels, its maze and labyrinth qualities.

Jon: I read that most of the hospital has been shut down, except for one wing or one building that’s still in operation. Did you guys have to do anything to dress it up or was it just that dilapidated?

Colin Minihan: It’s several buildings. I think two of them are in operation, although one of them is like the original building, which is covered in Asbestos. If you shot in there, you’d probably get cancer (laughs). But we an entire building to ourselves, and since we knew that, we could really write the film around this location to our advantage. There’s that tunnel that runs underneath the whole area, so we wrote that end scene there. It just kind of worked out for us, since the building happens to be a popular filming location. We couldn’t picture a better location for a popular ghost hunting TV program to go wrong in.

Jon: I heard there were some initial roadblocks for you to film in there. Apparently, the institution was afraid of you guys being a real ghost hunting show, but when they found out it was a movie, they allowed. How did you finally convince them?

Stuart Ortiz: That’s right. I think they said no outright, and we were taken aback. I think it was the treatment that they got, which made us sound like one of those shows. They don’t want people’s names, family members to feel outed, so they don’t want themselves to be put out directly.

Jon: Can you explain the casting process? How hard was it to find actors willing to shoot at night there and probably by the end, they were edgy.

Colin Minihan: We had a casting director in Vancouver, who helped. We didn’t think we were going to get Union actors, due to our low budget, but luckily our producer Shawn Angelski, was able to make it happen. We search for people who had television backgrounds, the caliber of acting we got in Vancouver was fantastic. No amateurs. The hardest role was of Lance, since it was a unique role, because an actor had to audition of that of a TV host and for the narrative aspects of the film. He had to be basically to two people, since he had to be a MTV style of personality, then to show humanity in the end of the film. We had some difficulty, and there’s a lot of dialogue to remember. We got sent this audition tape, were Sean Rogerson had recorded it on a little Flip camera. His agent thought he would be perfect for it and luckily he submitted it to us. After seeing it, we knew he was perfect. Just awesome depth, and was great working with him too.

Grave Encounters is coming soon to theaters and VOD starting August 25th. Find out more on its official site, as well as on Facebook.

What works so well in Grave Encounters, a terrific no-budget debut from The Vicious Brothers, is that it follows the conventions of the genre, almost worn out by [REC] sequels, Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism, and of course, The Blair Witch Project, and infuses it with vicious supernatural elements. For some films, a door moving or a loud thump is the source of its scares, but The Vicious Brothers aren’t interested in such rudimentary typecast scares. While showing how reality TV has become rather scripted, The Vicious Brothers are also skeptical of the “found footage” genre, and are keen on giving smart horror fans a real jolt of terror.

The story is simple, because it needs to be. A popular TV show is gearing up for their next episode at the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, and while filming and even staging certain moments, are caught up and trapped in the hospital. One key thing the directors do, is allow the camera lights, along with the night vision, to capture a truly wonderful location where they filmed at. The green light of the night vision instantly adds depth to the rooms and immediately instills tension. With suspense, you need a payoff, and Grave Encounters has plenty of little climaxes that should make you scream. Doors moving and shadows creeping are absent, and instead, and it’s one of the film’s best new elements to the genre, is the supernatural boo’s are manifested into some really pissed off ghosts.

Familiarity both helps Grave Encounters and somewhat hurts it, but this wasn’t made to convert the naysayers of this genre. The abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital is place I don’t want to visit. Featuring a scare-a-minute finale, Grave Encounters is a fun thrill ride, no matter the similar notes to The Blair Witch or the Silent Hill video games. Where as the slasher genre in the 1980s burned itself out, so did the teen-horror-parody in the 1990s, and the zombie genre in the 2000s, the “found footage” genre might be heading that way too soon, but it won’t be Grave Encounters fault.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

ATROCIOUS is a gruesome, mind-bending thriller shot in a style reminiscent of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. The horror film excerpts found footage from a film reel recovered by Spanish police, documenting a family of five discovering the truth behind a dangerous urban legend. The 37 hours of found footage follow Cristian and July Quintanilla passing time at their summer home by investigating a terrifying and mysterious urban legend. As their investigation intensifies, strange occurrences in and around the house escalate rapidly, culminating finally in unspeakable atrocities.

Thoughts?

Source: Arrow

Lance Preston and the crew of “Grave Encounters”, a ghost-hunting reality television show, are shooting an episode inside the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena has been reported for years.

All in the name of good television, they voluntarily lock themselves inside the building for the night and begin a paranormal investigation, capturing everything on camera. They quickly realize that the building is more than just haunted – it is alive – and it has no intention of ever letting them leave. They find themselves lost in a labyrinth maze of endless hallways and corridors, terrorized by the ghosts of the former patients. They soon begin to question their own sanity, slipping deeper and deeper into the depths of madness, ultimately discovering the truth behind the hospital’s dark past…and taping what turns out to be their final episode.

It’ll hit VOD on August 25th. Check out the Facebook page for more info.

Source: Arrow

After the incredible box office numbers of the first two films, is a no-brainer that Paramount and Oren Peli will be doing a third Paranormal Activity, but as April looms, we’ve really heard nothing on this outside of the date: October 21st, 2011.

We will let you know more when we know more.

Update: Bloody-Disgusting has quickly proving that this is just a silly, but fast-spreading rumor. The only facts are the release date and that Oren Peli is the film’s producer.

The Yamano family lives in a remote area of Tokyo, Japan. With their father away on business, 19-year-old Koichi is left to look after his wheelchair-bound sister, Haruka, who has returned to Japan early after surviving a car accident whilst traveling in America.

Soon after Haruka’s return from the States, strange and unexplainable things start to happen in the Yamano home.

As the incidents continue to grow increasingly stranger and more severe, Koichi persuades his sister to set up a video camera to try and capture them on film. What Koichi discovers is beyond anything he could have ever imagined, and as the situations intensify, a terrible fact is revealed …

Ahhh! Sorry. Paramount has another sequel coming too later in October 2011.

Source: Upcoming Horror Movies

The Film:

Paranormal Activity 2 finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place, or whatever that old saying is, because as much as it wants to be different and its own entity, it also doesn’t want to lose its connection to the first film. Now that first film, the little word-of-mouth film that could, was a honest-to-goodness damn good scare. It was original enough to feel new, built suspense at various growing intervals, and was also a slow burn, that even if you weren’t totally freaked out, an hour after seeing it, at home, you would be. A sequel was inevitable. But the results aren’t.

A family, who recently moves into a big house, comes home one day to find the house vandalized, but nothing missing. To ensure some eased minds, the dad installs security cameras. That’s all of the plot I’ll give you. Director Tod Williams establishes that this world will have the feeling of the original, but amps up most of the “jump-out-of-your-seat” moments, but they all come a little to late. The family we follow is fine; good acting, genuine scares, but it takes too long to get going. And it undoes its agenda because of one simple reason that debunks these found footage films: there really wasn’t a reason for them to record themselves continuously.

If the film would have followed them via those newly installed security cameras, the events of Paranormal Activity 2 would have been justified, but the dad also records almost everything, until the daughter picks up the camera. Because of this, there’s plot holes and inconsistencies, which take you back out of the film, even with some good scares, they’re too hollow since we’re not invested as much with the family’s plight.

It’s a little unfair to this sequel – that thankfully doesn’t go all Blair Witch 2 on us – but it feels largely predictable. The scares are almost telegraphed. And still, it almost works. If the audience wasn’t left in the dark on some plot details and if the script didn’t offer as much humor as it does, maybe the ballsy and intense ending would have ringed a bit more genuine. Make no mistake, Paranormal Activity 2 will scare most of you, yet it relies too much on the first film to creates its intensity. Also, by using the kid you’ve seen in the trailer and the dog as plot devices, with any kid violence, and especially animal violence, for the audience it is always an instant no-no, since the audience will automatically feel anger about anything happening to these two. But the script uses them as a device for a scare, and doesn’t allow us to care about what’s going to happen.

It’s a typical sequel that gives you more: louder noises, larger set pieces, but also feels a little too slick. Gone is most of the spontaneity of the original that made that film so special. Since most of the audience is now savvy to the tricks, Paranormal Activity 2 is not recommended with a crowd. Trust me. See it alone, but you won’t get too worked up.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Paramount serves up a standard looking presentation. These types of films never wow visually in HD, so don’t expect that here either. It’s hard to fault the transfer for the limitations that were intentional, but the DVD (also included) looks maybe more accurate? Yes, details are a bit more refined in HD than SD, but again, it’s purposely meant to look like a home movie, and security camera footage-like, so just don’t expect to wow anyone.

The audio is in DTS and while I found the mix to be a little processed (meaning like a movie more than a home made movie), it’s pretty booming when the scares come. Unpolished, yet that’s the point, most will get scared more of the deep bass than the film. As expected, decent presentation for what it is.

The disc includes a little longer Director’s Cut which really doesn’t add too much more back into the film and the theatrical cut. Some other Deleted Scenes are include, but again, offer little. The Trailer is included, along with the DVD copy and Digital Copy of the film.

The Film: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Thoughts? Looks creepy as all hell, in my opinion. Maybe a new [REC] (I’m not digging the sequels)? Premieres January 22nd at Slamdance.

Source: moviefone

So, look for Paranormal Activity 3 on October 11th, 2011.

Jon: Could you talk about this short trailer the Brothers Strause created a year ago, its inception and how it led to you two writing the script?

Joshua Cordes: The whole thing has been on such a crazy timeline. Basically, we had come up with an idea after Greg Strause saw Paranormal Activity and were amazed by how that guy [Oren Peli] just picked up a camera and shot it. We were all sitting around and thought, “Hey, wait a minute! We had cameras and Greg’s condo!” We had just bought RED cameras and Greg has this condo on top of this building and we thought we could do something really cool with that.

So, from there, we kicked around some ideas and Liam and I proposed that while being trapped in the condo, you had a front row seat to an apocalypse? We came up, after a month, with an outline. This was November, last year, and the Brothers were pretty adamant about making quick trailers to show the visual ideas of what we wanted. So we got a few cameras together and got two actors – on Thanksgiving Day – to film this. They shot a teaser trailer with two characters waking up in the bedroom, looking out the window and seeing this flash of light –

Liam O’Donnell: With these tentacles smashing a Ferrari that makes them run up to the roof and a dust cloud sucking them upwards. We were being coil about the spaceships.

Josh Cordes: We spent December writing, just to finish for the Berlin Film Festival.

Liam O’Donnell: We were really successful in selling international rights there for the film, which helped out a lot.

Jon: When did Universal come in? I know the Brothers Strause initially funded the film at $500k, but then another $9 was used to fill in the VFX.

Liam O’Donnell: Right. None of the budget was put up by Universal or Relativity. All of the budget was internal. But what happened was, after we finished our cut of the trailer, Brett Ratner partnered again with the FX company who did his X-Men 3 and he was really excited about the project. He started Relativity over, championing us around town, and we showed them an unfinished part of the end battle and after a few minutes, they wanted to be in business with us. They thought Universal Pictures would be best to partner with on this date. We were thinking a Christmas release, but Universal said no, they thought the November release would be best, since there hasn’t a big movie in a while, since summer.

Jon: This is your first real script and the film has over 800 visual effects, that’s a lot of effects. Was there anytime you took a step back and thought maybe, due to the time frame to complete Skyline, you were getting too crazy with it all?

Josh Cordes: Actually, we officially broke 1000 visual effects and yes, when we wrote the script, we didn’t go too crazy where we could.

Liam O’Donnell: All of the big set pieces you’ll see were in the script, and when Colin and Greg say “let’s go here”, you do. The script probably would have had about 600 effects shots.

Josh Cordes: The Brothers wanted to keep pushing the envelope – in a good way – and the film is better because of that, but yeah, the delivery time and when they announced it, I think I started crying. [laughs]

Liam O’Donnell: Yeah, in meetings Josh kept saying after them, “how the hell are we going to get this movie done?” [laughs] so it was definitely a challenge trying to complete it and all the while doing other films, but our crew is second to none, and we all pulled together and got it done.

Jon: It really shows in the trailer, making it one of the more talked about films recently. I’m fascinated by these recent crop of films like Paranormal Activity and Skyline, these do-it-yourself films. It seems like this is the new way of doing movies, due to the economy?

Josh Cordes: The movie came up after the difficulties of trying to get something done through a studio. There’s so many hands involved and when you have a great idea, by the time it gets to the theater screens, it’s not the same idea anymore. It takes a lot of effort and we thought we could do it in house with the same effortand it was quite liberating. There was like five people working on it, everyone was involved and it was just great to do it like this.

Liam O’Donnell: It was a perfect storm. There was so many things that lined up to make it happen. The fact Greg [Strause] had this penthouse with an amazing view; we had Hydraulx and the cameras. We were trying to work on the next big thing in house, but I don’t think there can be another Skyline, since our next one is going to be bigger. It seems like the natural course of things. It is a new thing of filmmaking, getting these things done thanks to how technology has gone. Studios don’t know how to figure it out. Paramount wanted to start that whole new wing of funding lower budgeted films like Paranormal Activity, but it’s about the artists. The studios don’t know how to do this type of thing. I mean, I love the big studio stuff, but I can see younger filmmakers continuing this, because this is the only way they know how to make a movie. It was for us.

Jon: It’s funny you mentioned all of that, because while you did this movie your own way, Universal and Relativity came calling pretty quick, but also Sony had issues with Skyline, since you got this out before their Battle: Los Angeles, a far bigger budgeted film.

Joshua Cordes: It was arrogance of them to think aliens invading LA was something new. You can go back to War of the Worlds 1953. Even Roland Emmerich owns his imagery to something else, like in ID4 the big spaceship coming over the city owns it to V. I think it will all work out because our movie is different than theirs, but ours came out of nowhere, which freaked them out, I think. We had to thank our friends at Universal, who pulled out all of the stops at Comic-Con. The billboards, the logos.

Liam O’Donnell: That all of that put us on the map to the online film community. But it is frustrating. You do something from your heart. You want it out there, and then some people are saying something else, but in the end, I think we will be vindicated.

Jon: Seems like that already, as one of the bigger news items recently was for Skyline 2 (here). How do you feel a bigger, better sequel for 2012, when the first hasn’t even opened yet?

Joshua Cordes: It’s funny because they offered us to do the sequel during filming!

Liam O’Donnell: It was brought upon us because we need our foreign investors since we’re doing it independently, and they’re dumping all this money into it. This gives us power Stateside. We had ideas while writing and then filming. Josh and I wrote it really quick in two weeks.

Joshua Cordes: We had a lot of ideas that weren’t possible for Skyline 1 due to the budget, so now we were like, “let’s break it open for the second.” That’s the exciting part, growing the world more, without rehashing. When the story broke, of our planning Skyline 2, comes off as arrogance, and if nobody knew about it I would’ve been fine. But it was an internal development and hopefully the film will be a success and people want to seeing the continuing story.

Skyline opens everywhere November 12th.

The Film:

After 11 years, there’s still nothing like The Blair Witch Project. It was the forefather to the recent crop of “found footage” movies like Cloverfield, [REC], Paranormal Activity, and The Last Exorcism, yet it’s so much more than that, but in the intervening years, the film still divides horror fans down the middle. One camp says it’s an effective, suspenseful, creepy film, while the other camp claims it’s boring, too much arguing, no monster. Blah, blah, blah, folks, because love it or hate it, The Blair Witch Project was the best straight-up horror film in the 1990s, staking claim to the dead genre in that decade, in an effective way.

Was it real? Was it fake? To me, that’s the fun of the film. Of course, it wasn’t real, but thanks to a brilliant Internet marketing campaign, people swore it was, and sometimes still do. At its simplest, The Blair Witch Project is perhaps the best example this side of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead as a do-it-yourself, no budget, grab a few friends and head into the woods, horror film. The film plays perfectly into everyone’s psyche: we all live in a town or city that has a local legend, and that’s the real hook of The Blair Witch. It plays with us since it feels like a filmed version of what you and your friends always talked about.

Besides the DIY attitude, even with the no budget, directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez created a mythology that we came to accept. Plus, it didn’t hurt having another faux-documentary air on the (then titled) Sci-Fi Channel, called Curse of the Blair Witch. But even after all of this, some people hate the shaky camera, the lack of any real on-screen gore or creature, and the “bad” acting.

These “found footage” movies really only work if one invests themselves into it, and that’s what a slew of people did in 1999. For those that did, The Blair Witch scared the crap out of us, especially since we were a few years away from the reality TV craze that has everyone glued to the screen, following people’s lives as if it was good drama. A head of its time, for sure. Good? Bad? It’s the film with the phenomenon.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Lionsgate bought Artisan a while back, so it’s no surprise we have this film in HD now. Anyone who understands the capabilities of Blu-ray and the intentions of the directors, will be highly skeptical on why this film is in HD. True, it really doesn’t benefit from the HD upgrade, only very minor enhancements can visibly noticeable, but that’s the way of the world – everything on Blu-ray. The audio doesn’t benefit either, nor should it. This film is meant to look and sound like real footage and it does, don’t expect much in the A/V department.

Sadly, after celebrating its 10th Anniversary recently, one wishes LGF would have offered something new in the extras, but they did not. We get all of the Artisan’s DVD extras being ported over.

Commentary: Directors Sanchez and Myrick, along with the film’s producer offer up an fun, light, but informative track. They touch upon their budget, their intentions, the acting, the staging of scenes, all to a great listen.

Curse of the Blair Witch: This SyFy Channel (as its called now) documentary on the kids in the film who went lost and the Blair Witch myth, further adds to the film. It’s great; it aids the film greatly, reaffirming the fake-reality of the characters. Runs for 45 minutes and it’s a must-watch for fans of the film.

Alternate Endings that offer some interesting, if not wrong choices, but they’re there for discussion (I prefer the theatrical ending still); Discovered Footage which is nothing more than deleted material to no real regard; The Blair Witch Legacy is another fake news report on the events in the film that’s too quick, but still fun; and Trailers round out the extras.

Conclusion: Do you need The Blair Witch on Blu? Probably not, but that Artisan DVD is getting quite shoddy now days, huh?

The Film: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Slasher Pick: Hills Run Red

Sure, as far as slashers go, The Hills Run Red isn’t the best, but while some might be inclined to watch something else more often than not over this, there’s something about its story of a long-lost slasher epic that a group of kids go off to find, but find themselves apart of it, that I like. Plus, Babyface is a cool killer and there’s sick gore.

The Gore Pick: Cannibal Ferox

The Italian Cannibal film genre always make me feel dirty watching them. I personally think the genre was made out of pure sensationalism with the real animal deaths, and while I’m appalled by those despicable actions, there’s something that just works in Cannibal Holocaust, which is the one true great films from the genre. For this, Cannibal Ferox upstages that film in the gore quota with hanging chicks by their breasts and a penis getting cut off, making people wonder ‘wtf’ I am watching.

The Vampire Pick: Let Me In

For many people, this vampire genre has run its course over the last few years with Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Dairies, all being overexposed. But if there’s one I’m going to watch, I’m heading to the theaters for this wicked flick. I loved the original a lot, but while this looks at times, shot-for-shot alike, it has Chloe Moretz and looks creepy.

The ‘Scare the Sh*t Out of My Girlfriend’ Pick: Paranormal Activity

This was the no-brainer pick to me, since we just moved into a new apartment, and since she’s easily scared, why not show her something that will freak her out. Remember those promo videos showing the audience’s reaction to the film during its run last year? That’ll be her and yes, I’m an a$$.

The Cheesefest Pick: Humanoids from the Deep

Shout! Factory has done a marvelous job with these Roger Corman films on DVD and Blu-ray. So I can pop it in, press play, grab some beer and pizza, and let the night roll on watching some sea creatures trying to have sex with beautiful human women! Ah, the life…

The Blu-Ray Pick: The Exorcist

Pea soup in 1080p? Yes, please. One of the scariest movies ever should just sparkle in HD from Warner Brothers. They do a top-notch job with their classic catalog titles, filled with beautiful stills, a slew of extras, and superb audio/video. Lucky for me, I just bought a new 120Hz TV so this should be a revelation re-watching in HD.

The Old Movie Pick: The Black Cat

This 1934 film is a lot of fun, watching Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff try to out act each other. It’s not very close to the Poe poem, but who cares when you’ve got these two horror legends trying to kill each other. If you’re wondering, Universal put this out on DVD in the Bela Lugosi Collection a few October’s ago.

The NetFlix ‘Instant Watch’ Pick: Gozu

Got Netflix? Wanna watch something truly ‘out there’? Try Gozu from director Takashi Miike. You won’t get the final few minutes out of your head-ever.

The ‘You Haven’t Heard of This’ Pick: Jigoku

It translates from Japanese as Hell. It’s a surrealist film, filled with weird images and odd elements, making it for a trippy time. Besides that, it’s a wonderful film that many haven’t heard of. It’s on the Criterion Collection, too.

That’s what I’m watching this year for October and Halloween, and comment below if you’re playing along, too! Also, what are you watching? Tell me in a comment below, and as always, Happy Halloween from myself and Killer Film!

This film will star Aoi Nakamura and Noriko Aoyama and is tentatively scheduled for release in December. No word on an American release for the film. Thoughts? With Ringu and Juon, the Japanese know a thing or two about scary ass ghost films. Think they can bring anything new to the world of Paranormal Activity?