Blu-ray.com has the list of special features you can expect to see:

10.) Chucky (Child’s Play series)

This might need like an odd choice, but as a kid Chucky used to freak me out. A doll is so unsuspecting, and with Brad Dourif’s voice, what a bad ass!

9.) The Thing (John Carpenter’s The Thing)

An alien that can mimic, it could be anyone and everyone, truly terrifying!

8.) The Tall Man (Phantasm series)

There is something about the look of this character that is absolutely chilling, and it remains quite effective throughout the series. A true terror, and an amazing creation by Don Coscarelli.

7.) Jason Voorhees (Friday The 13th series)

The man that scared everyone away from camp, the killer that wont stop. His legacy lives on and one, and he is a true icon of terror and fear.

6.) Pinhead/Cenobites (Hellraiser series)

I tell ya, Pinhead still creeps me out. Not sure what it is but if Pinhead is around I have trouble watching, truly the boogeyman of my worst nightmares. Clive Barker is a horror genius.

5.) Dracula (There have been countless incarnations)

Dracula is a timeless character, there have been many different versions. Perhaps my personally favourite is by Bela Lugosi, there was just something both frightening and calming about the man and the way he portrayed the character.

4.) Damien (The Omen series)

The son of satan, is there anything more perfect?

3.) Candyman (Candyman series)

Perhaps one of the more strange and unique boogeymen, Candyman is from a legend and one that I thought might be real when I first saw the film. It left a lasting impact on me, and it took a lot of guts (no pun) before I felt comfortable to watch the film again.

2.) Michael Myers (Halloween series)

The silent killer, the shape, the one who stalked the babysitters. Certainly one of the most influential horror icons, and one of the most frightening,

1.) Freddy Krueger (Elm St series)

My personal favorite, the man who can kill you in your sleep, he attacks when you are most vulnerable. He was a child killer and his burnt face and knifes for fingers make him oh so creepy. The best horror boogeyman in my books, a truly frightening invention.

10.) Session 9 (2001)

This psychological horror film kicked my sorry ass when it came out, the slow burn, tension filled atmosphere was perfect. Brad Anderson cleverly crafted all these elements, and this truly creeped me the heck out! Remind me never to go into an abandoned mental hospital!

9.) The Exorcist (1973)

The film about demonic possession in a young girl is a classic through and through. The thought of having absolute no control over an evil force is truly terrifying. As a kid I wasn’t afraid of this film but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found so much here, and some scenes are truly creepy.

8.) Black Christmas (1974)

Slasher films rarely scare me, but the film that really gave birth to the wave of slashers back in the mid 70’s is the exception. The killer is in the house, watching, making the creepiest of phone calls. We see their POV and that is all, the mystery remains strong through out, and we the killer strikes it is incredibly affective.

7.) The Shining (1980)

I was around 10 when I first saw this film, and it scared the crap outta me. As I got older and subsequently re-watched it, it still kept up on the creep factor. The lodge, Jack Nicholson slowly going mad and the ghosts, it was just such a great combination. That old lady in the bath scene is still difficult to sit through.

6.) Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

It might be blasphemy to call this scarier then the original, but for a young Marcey this creeped me out far more than the original. Yes that scared me as a kid but here, set in the real world it made Freddy scary again. I don’t think I slept that night in fear of Freddy coming. The only Elm St to actually stop me from sleeping.

5.) The Changeling (1980)

I only watched this film yesterday and it has already made the list. This was one of the very few genuinely creepy ghost/haunting films. The atmosphere is perfect, and the scares are fantastic. This is so well handled and done, a lot of newer films owe so much to this. George C. Scott is absolutely fantastic here, and an over all amazing film.

4.) Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

This is one of the best sci-fi films to come out of the 70’s, playing with the theme of paranoia. This hit me hard, and it is so multilayered it needs repeated viewings. With people being replaced and the stunning conclusion, this film still manages to throw me for a loop.

3.) Ringu (1998)

This film scared me, so much so I can’t bring myself to watch it again. The creepy phone calls, and the amazingly done video, I loved it as much as it scared me. As I watched this I started to receive strange phone calls, I was so terrified that I was convinced I had 7 days to live. This is one of the most effective horror films I have ever experienced.

2.) The Thing (1982)

This holds a place as one of my all time favourite films, nothing quite compares to what John Carpenter created (the original is amazing but the films are quite different). What creeped me out here was the isolation of the characters and the tension that built when it came clear what was going on. The blood-testing scene still creeps and frightens me till this day. The creature effects are so amazing they hold up so well today. I am not ashamed to call this a masterpiece.

1.) Spoorloos (The Vanishing) (1988)

This is the number one creepiest and most disturbing film for me, as I watched this unfold I was crushed from within. I was unable to sleep and I spent weeks thinking about it. Girl goes missing; her boyfriend spends years trying to find out what happened. The man responsible is truly one of the most frightening characters, his family man and neighbourly took sold the creep factor. The ending is astonishing, and as much as I want to watch this again, I can’t handle it.

No disrespect to Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World, but when I reference the original film for this review, I am referring to John Carpenter’s movie to lessen confusion.

Antartica, 1982 – A Norwegian research team has found an alien spacecraft in the ice that has been buried for 100, 000 years. An specimen escaped from the ship only to be frozen in suspended animation, and Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) recruits the talents of Paleontology graduate student Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to determine the source of its origins. Her gut instinct tells her something is amiss, but she begrudgingly goes about her job as Halvorson believes he has made the find of the century on a Nobel Prize level.

They decide to drill a hole in the block of ice and take a tissue sample for study, and in the process, they wake a sleeping giant who proceeds to break out of the ice and scurries away to hide and stalk his prey. After getting in a quick kill, the creature is burned and its carcass is brought back to the laboratory for further investigation.

It is discovered that the being has the capability to imitate humans, and imitate them perfectly. The organism is far from dead and Kate realizes one or more team members may have been exposed and it is time to find out who is who. Proving she is beauty and brains, Kate surmises that when a host is taken over, it can duplicate tissue but not inanimate objects like earrings or fillings. In a move similar to MacCready’s blood test theory, she has everyone open their mouths and say ah, in hopes that someone hasn’t been brushing their teeth and they have a mouth full of mercury.

The true calling of this ancient enemy is to survive at all costs, and it’s up to the Norwegians and Americans to keep this disease-like strain from making it to the nearest camp, or worse, to civilized regions and become a worldwide epidemic.

First of all, The Thing is not a remake of John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece. While it does hit some of the same notes along the way, it is obvious the filmmakers are making a prequel, yet at the same time homaging some of the classic imagery that is embedded in most horror aficionados’ subconscious. I’d call it a premake.

The original was an all-male ensemble who were sex-deprived grunts who just wanted to drink beer and be left alone. We are now introduced to not only one, but two female characters, which force feeds the viewer into a mini hookup that luckily never comes to fruition. Mary Elizabeth Winstead steps into the lead role and does command attention, and that is nice to see because she has played second fiddle to a lot of mediocre actress’ in other flicks. Her cast mates are not as fortunate, as they are interchangeable parts, and I couldn’t tell one from the other except for their accents.

Rob Bottin’s makeup (with a little help from Stan Winston) in the ’82 film is the high water mark in the field of makeup artistry, and almost thirty years later, no-one has come close to topping it. I realize that computer generated imagery is here to stay and has a place in cinema, but when it comes to creature features, there must be a 50/50 split between the two. Tragically, it’s 90% CGI and 10% traditional and it takes the wind out of the sails, and it sucked me right out of the picture. The Lovecraftian beasties have been downgraded to cartoon characters along the lines of Scooby-Doo. The Mist and Deep Rising are stellar examples of the two working together hand-in-hand, while here we’re given ham-handed graphics that looked better at the advent of the technology. You can tell that Tom Woodruff’s and Alec Gillis’ on-set special effects would have worked, and it got covered up with glitter to appease the kids.

Ennio Morricone’s pulse pounding score drops in a few times, and it is effectively used at the end when the prequel catches up the the original. Other than those instances, the soundtrack is unremarkable and skimps on the foreboding gloom that lies ahead. The Cold War paranoia is not even acknowledged, giving this update a serious lack of cabin fever.

Universal Pictures, a bastion of great monster movies since the 1930′s, has sunk to all-time lows with the CGI atrocities Van Helsing and The Wolfman, and now The Thing. It is apparent they want to revisit the classics from their vault and show how they are trying to make a quick buck at the expense of quality filmmaking.

“You gotta be fuckin’ kidding!”

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

October 7th

Dirty Girl

The IMDb plot: It’s 1987 and Danielle, the high school ‘Dirty Girl’, is running away. With her is chubby, gay Clarke, a bag of flour called Joan and a Walkman full of glorious 80′s tunes.

Jason: A hot girl and an 80′s soundtrack equals gold. See it.

Donny: This looks like fun. I’m all about the ’80s, so I’ll be there on opening day. See it.

The Human Centipede

The IMDb plot: Inspired by the fictional Dr. Heiter, disturbed loner Martin dreams of creating a 12-person centipede and sets out to realize his sick fantasy.

Jason: I’m morbidly curious to see how far this flick goes. See it with caution.

Donny: I’d rather nail my balls to a 2×4. I hate this shock and awe drivel. Just saying. Absolutely skip it.

The Ides of March

The IMDb plot: An idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail. Based on the play by Beau Willimon.

Jason: The ladies will see it for Clooney. Maybe one of them can review it for us. Skip it.

Donny: Two solid actors in what looks like a carefully crafted story. I’m there. See it.

Margaret

The IMDb plot: A young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people’s lives.

Jason: Mmmmmmm…Paquin…drooooool. But I get her nude on HBO. Skip it.

Donny: I’m bored with Sookie. I’ll let someone else check this one out. Skip it.

Reel Steel

The IMDb plot: Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

Jason: It’s the unofficial Rock’em Sock’em Robots film, which is kinda cool. And it has Hugh Jackman. See it.

Donny: I am really stoked about this flick. Robots kicking each others asses seems like one hell of a good time. See it.

October 14th

The Big Year

The IMDb plot: Three avid bird watchers compete to spot the rarest birds in North America at a prestigious annual event.

Jason: I’d rather watch birds poop on my recently cleaned car. Skip it.

Donny: I’m already falling asleep. Skip it.

Footloose

The IMDb plot: City kid Ren McCormack moves to a small town where rock ‘n’ roll and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace.

Jason: Kevin Bacon and John Lithgow can’t be replaced by Glee bluster. Skip it and watch the “old” version.

Donny: I saw this flick when I was young, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be difficult to top it. Skip it.

Texas Killing Fields

The IMDb plot: In the Texas bayous, a local homicide detective teams up with a cop from New York City to investigate a series of unsolved murders.

Jason: Sounds generic. Skip it.

Donny: Looks interesting. See it.

The Thing

The IMDb plot: At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson.

Jason: I have seen the prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 film, but due to an embargo I can’t say a word until October 14.

Donny: Like Footloose, I saw this flick already and don’t need to see it again. Just saying. Skip it.

October 21st

Paranormal Activity 3

The IMDb plot: In 1988, young sisters Katie and Kristi befriend an invisible entity who resides in their home.

Jason: The first one blew goat dong, and I have yet to watch the sequel. Skip it.

Donny: I’m so over this crap. Skip it.

The Three Musketeers

The IMDb plot; The hot-headed young D’Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.

Jason: I dig Paul WS Anderson’s overblown action, although this looks like a real stinker. Skip it.

Donny: I”m a real sucker for the Musketeers. See it.

October 28th

In Time

The IMDb plot: In the future people stop aging at 25 and must work to buy themselves more time, but when a young man finds himself with more time than he can imagine he must run from the corrupt police force to save his life.

Jason: Sexy back meets Logan’s Run? Skip it.

Donny: I know there are some legal issues lurking in the background with this one, but I sure hope they get ironed out before the release date because I can’t wait to see this flick.

Puss in Boots

The IMDb plot: A story about the events leading up to the sword fighting cat’s meeting with Shrek and his friends.

Jason: I’m never tired of the pussy. Donny and his kids can see it for me. Skip it.

Donny: I’m tired of the green guy, and I’m tired of this pussy too. Skip it.

The Rum Diary

The IMDb plot: American journalist Paul Kemp takes on a freelance job in Puerto Rico for a local newspaper during the 1950s and struggles to find a balance between island culture and the ex-patriots who live there.

Jason: Yes! See it.

Donny: Love Hunter S. Thompson, love Depp, and I can’t wait to see this flick on opening day.

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

Source: ScriptFlags

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

Bare witness October 14th.

The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Jonathan Lloyd Walker and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

The Thing opens on October 14th.

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet.

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up.

Click here for the new official site.

The quality of fan-made stuff is impressive, and while I personally still love the original one-sheet from Universal, this is a clever minimalistic art piece. Amazingly, there’s more bad-ass fan-made posters for The Thing, courtesy of The Shortlist. Check them out below!

Now, MSN has the trailer for The Thing 2011.

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists.

Thoughts?

*Before your geek instincts start wondering where the xenomorphs are, keep in mind the following list is limited only to invaders of Earth.

10) Independence Day (1996)

Like 99% of Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin films, ID4 (as it was called then) was a huge piece of shit, but as alien invasion films go, it cannot be overlooked. In terms of computer-generated effects, it was one of the most ambitious films to date. The trailer featured the freaking White House being blown up by a mothership! And Will Smith punches an alien in its face. “Welcome to Earth!” For box-office grosses, you can’t go wrong with testosterone like that. In terms of cinematic quality, though, Independence Day brought nothing to the table. Still, those of us who were about 12-years old at the time sure got a kick out of it anyway.

9) Mars Attacks! (1996)

This quirky Tim Burton flick, based on the mean-spirited Topps trading cards from the 1960s, was a counterpoint to Emmerich’s big-budget alien actioner. The comedy was not without its flaws, but it was still an amusing tribute to 1950s sci-fi invasion movies. The film is completely absurd but unlike ID4, Mars Attacks is aware of how stupid it is and runs with that. In addition to a cast packed with great actors and playful cameos, the aliens are creepy and funny. They are one-quarter the size of the extra-terrestrials in ID4 and yet they are creepier and dispose of humans with a wicked sense of humor.

8 ) Fire in the Sky (1993)

Based on Travis Walton’s 1978 book “The Walton Experience”, this film details the alleged UFO abduction of an Arizona logger. His co-workers watch terrified as Travis is pulled into an alien spacecraft. He disappears for five days, during which time his friends are accused of murder. When Travis re-appears, his memories show the aliens performing medical experiments on him. The movie is rated PG-13 but I vividly remember it scaring the hell out of me as a kid. The thought of being experimented on was terrifying, even though human beings would not hesitate to do the same to an alien if we got our hands on one.

7) Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

While most kids my age were growing up on nice aliens like E.T., I loved watching this wacky cult classic. The film is completely absurd, funny, and represented an era when horror-comedies could be safe enough for kids without being dull for adults (see also, Monster Squad). The filmmakers really ran with the clown jokes, including a circus-tent spaceship, acid pies, and killer shadow puppets. The alien clowns harvest humans for sustenance by melting them inside cotton candy cocoons and drinking them via a crazy straw. Just when we thought clowns could not get any scarier, along came Killer Klowns.

6) Night of the Creeps (1986)

Aliens don’t just come in the form of little gray men or eight-foot-tall monsters. In Creeps, they are slug-shaped parasites that climb into your mouth and make you into a walking incubator. These little guys contributed to a new breed of zombie – one created by alien infestation as opposed to a virus, a comet, Trioxin gas, etc. As if aliens and zombies were not awesome enough, Creeps gives us Tom Atkins and a slew of memorable one-liners. This 1980s classic is a fantastic spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies, as well as slashers and zombie films.

5) They Live (1988)

In most cases of alien invasion, the presence of extra-terrestrials becomes known to the general public pretty fast. After all, hiding a spacecraft or a green bug face is not easy. The aliens in this John Carpenter film cleverly disguise themselves as normal human beings so they can live amongst the Earthlings. Their downfall is a special type of sunglasses, which allow Roddy Piper to see the aliens’ true form and the subliminal messaging they use to control mankind. They Live has a lot to say about corrupt government and commercialization of the media. Carpenter intended the humanoid look of the aliens because they were supposed to be a twisted reflection of human beings.

4) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Here is the original aliens-amongst-us film. When the residents of a small California town complain their loved ones are acting like impostors, Kevin McCarthy discovers that the townspeople are slowly being replaced by emotionless duplicates that have been grown out of alien pods. Naturally, nobody believes him and the Pod People grow in numbers. Like in Night of the Creeps, the alien menace uses human beings to hide and procreate. In doing so, the aliens are able to gain human trust without revealing themselves. Needless to say, Body Snatchers has inspired countless science fiction films since its 1956 release.

3) Predator (1987)

Unlike most alien invaders, the Predator came to Earth alone in John McTiernan’s 1987 film. But when you stand over 7-feet tall and have an array of plasma weapons, camouflage abilities, built-in bombs, and thermal imagining, you don’t need back-up. The Predator is an intergalactic trophy hunter. It kills for sport and keeps the spinal cords and skulls for show. In this sense, the Predator is more like human beings than most other alien invaders. It does not seem interested in world domination, nor does it simply want to survive like an animal. The Predator is only interesting in sport and bragging rights – a very human-like trait.

2) War of the Worlds (1953)

While Steven Spielberg’s modern update was enjoyable (and more loyal to the source material), this 1953 black-and-white film is a classic of science fiction cinema. Based on H.G. Wells’ novel of the same name, War of the Worlds tells of a swift, brutal alien invasion. The human beings attempt to peacefully communicate with the visitors but the alien machines kill without warning. The Martians’ goal is to take over the Earth, as their own planet is dying. The spacecrafts produce EMPs, deadly heat rays, and are protected by an impenetrable force field.  The film is steeped in Cold War-era themes, but it is still relevant today (immigration, social inequality, etc).

1) The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s legendary sci-fi/horror film is the ultimate representation of terror and paranoia provoked by an alien menace. After crash landing on Earth, this alien was buried under the Antarctica ice for thousands of years. It is unearthed by Norwegian scientists, after which is wreaks havoc on the American researchers of Outpost 31.  The creature can assimilate any person or animal, often without drawing any attention to itself. It does not seem to have any intentions for human domination, rather it just wants to hide and survive. Once the men of Outpost 31 discover the “thing” is amongst them, paranoia runs wild, creating one of the most suspenseful, terrifying films ever made. And the creature effects, courtesy of FX master Rob Bottin, are simply unparalleled.

Thoughts?

Fans were perplexed. Was it bad? Well, the producer came out (here) and said it needed some reshoots and a better date, which makes sense since the film was to open after Scream 4 and before Thor. Today, Universal (via Arrow) has announced that The Thing will be in theaters October 14th, 2011. It’s competition? Horror-wise: Paranormal Activity 3. Non-horror: Three Musketeers and Footloose.

Thoughts?

There’s been no reason given why it’s TBD, but it could easily pop back on our radar once more for a 2011 date.

Source: Dread Central