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  • The Arrival Of Wang Trailer

    The Arrival Of Wang Trailer

    Yes, you read that right.

    Interpreter Gaia (Francesca Cuttica) is offered a fortune by security forces to use her Chinese-language skills on a very special, highly secretive job. Her curiosity means she accepts and after being escorted to a secret location in Rome, she is locked inside a pitch-black room under the watchful eye of the domineering Inspector Curti (Ennio Fantastichini, Loose Cannons) where she is asked to interpret the harsh interrogation of the eponymous ‘Wang’. But who exactly is the mysterious visitor and what does he want? Gaia uncovers some startling truths that not only jeopardise her position but could also threaten the future of Earth itself.

    You’ve been waiting all these months and now he’s finally here! But will you let him phone home? Inspired by cult Sci-Fi TV classics such as The Twilight Zone, V, and The X Files, and with a touch of The Man Who Fell To Earth and The Day The Earth Stood Still, Marco and Antonio Manetti’s The Arrival Of Wang takes refreshing new look at the genre, building intrigue and tension that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s also a psychological drama that questions our conflicting attitudes towards trust, prejudice and xenophobia. The brothers have gained international acclaim as the rising starts of Italian genre cinema with films such as Zora the Vampire and Paura 3-D, which also stars Francesca Cuttica. Having won enthusiastic audiences at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, the whole of the UK is now preparing the welcoming committee for Wang.

  • Corey Feldman’s 6 Degrees Of Hell

    Corey Feldman’s 6 Degrees Of Hell

    In Northeast Pennsylvania, “Uncle Jack’s Hotel of Horror” is besieged by a dark presence after two friends of “Uncle” Jack, Chris and Kellen, unwittingly release a deadly evil by transporting local psychic Mary Wilkins’ collection of haunted objects as props for the popular tourist attraction. At the same time, a local TV ghost hunter, confronts an evil that has haunted him all his life-one he believes is responsible for his sister’s death years ago.

    His search puts him in the path of a rogue police chief and June-a girl who seems to be the eye of this supernatural perfect storm. They all find themselves connected to the old hotel while the threads of their own personal horrors draw paranormal investigator Kyle Brenner (Feldman) to pull all the threads together…

    Looking forward to another release with Breaking Glass, writer/producer Harrison Smith said, “We’re excited about 6 Degrees of Hell because it makes horror fun again. It’s a horror film with Easter eggs, there’s so much horror history in it. It’s intelligent, fun horror with solid characters and respect for the genre.”

    Wolff echoed his sentiments, saying “6 Degrees is an excellent film, and the second in what will hopefully be many successful collaborations between Breaking Glass, Fabrication, and Harrison. It is a perfect match.”

    More details here.

  • Kursk Available On The Space In August

    Kursk Available On The Space In August

    A new film of the play Kursk, inspired by the Russian submarine disaster in August 2000, will be available to watch free on digital arts service The Space from 1 August.

    Kursk played to packed houses and received rave reviews twice at London’s Young Vic, on UK tour and most recently at Sydney Opera House. It was nominated for Best Touring Production TMA Award, Best Off West End Production at the Whatsonstage Awards 2009 and Best Design at the Evening Standard Awards 2009.

    The story is inspired by the devastating event in 2000 when the Russian submarine Kursk suffered a huge explosion, and sank with all on board. Set on a Royal Navy hunter-killer submarine, sent to spy on the Kursk on its final fateful mission in 2000, the play follows five British crew members who live and serve under extreme pressure, hidden beneath the waves.

    Director Amanda Boyle, who won great acclaim for her Rose D’Or and RTS nominated drama series Cast Offs and BAFTA-winning Skins, has joined forces on the new film with celebrated director of photography Tat Radcliffe, whose work includes BBC Two’s The Shadow Line, Channel Four’s BAFTA-nominated Top Boy and music videos for Plan B, Arctic Monkeys, The Streets and Coldplay.

    Since its launch in May, digital arts service The Space has become the online destination for theatre lovers offering a selection of free and on-demand events. including productions from the Shakespeare Globe to Globe season and a specially filmed performance of Owen Sheers’ The Two Worlds of Charlie F.

    On Saturday 11 August audiences will also be able to experience a multi-camera livestream of the largest outdoor theatre event in the UK in 2012 as more than 1,700 local people, including the two casts of 250 community actors, will join forces with a large professional team to stage a unique adaptation of York’s Mystery Plays. The cast will be led by Ferdinand Kingsley, playing God and Jesus, and Graeme Hawley as the Devil.

    After the performance, visitors to The Space will be able to create a bespoke version of the production, using their own ‘playlist’ of the project, following the narrative from different angles using the multi-camera stream which will be archived. Their own version of the piece will then be available to watch, share and download.

    The Space will also be streaming four new plays live from the Edinburgh Festival on 19 August.

  • Manborg (EDIT – DVD Sleeve Too! And New Artwork! And A Clip!)

    Manborg (EDIT – DVD Sleeve Too! And New Artwork! And A Clip!)

    Remember all those crazy, spoof, sci-fi, comedy horror films of the late 80s and early 90s that for more than a decade were the most popular video genre ever?  Canadian director Steve Kostanski from the Astron-6 film co-operative certainly does.  It was after watching 80s classic ‘The Eliminators’ again that he decided to spend the following three years of his life making his own contribution to the genre, the crazy sci-fi adventure ‘Manborg’.

    The film has been a big hit at festivals around the world and following rave reviews at the London Sci-Fi Fest in May is being released on retail DVD by Rockstone Films on 4th February.  If the pre-release hype is anything to judge by ‘Manborg’ already looks set to emulate the success of Revolver’s ‘Iron Sky’ and yet … the film was made for just $1000!! Who needs Hollywood’s mega-buck budgets?!!

    All the classic ingredients from those 80s straight-to-video movies have gone into ‘Manborg’ but with one addition from a later era … a hot, knife wielding, kick-ass blonde chick who throws her weight around at every opportunity!!  It is the future and Nazi vampires led by the nefarious Count Draculon (Adam Brooks) and his minions rise from the bowels of Hell and take over the planet. A ragtag group of rebels is fighting back but their rebellion is effectively crushed, leaving nothing but scorched earth on which the Hellions plan to build their new world.

    After a personal confrontation with the Count, a soldier (Matthew Kennedy) is blasted into oblivion only to awake in the dark future to find most of his body replaced Robocop-style with cybernetic enhancements. A mysterious inventor has turned his bloodied remains into Manborg, cyborg of destruction.

    EDIT – Here is the DVD sleeve.

    And new artwork!

    EDIT – A clip for you too!

  • Zombie 108 – DVD Review

    Zombie 108 – DVD Review

    Billed as the first Taiwanese zombie movie and coming to DVD this month is Zombie 108, a typical biohazard turned deadly affair with plenty of gore, undead, and definitely too much torture-porn style violence. Directed by Joe Chein this movie is a wildly meandering affair whose incoherence is matched only by it’s level of insanity.

    The story, such as it is, follows the release of a virus in Taipei that (as is almost always the way) just happens to create a hoard of undead, flesh craving zombies. Opening to a desaturated and desolate city scene with cars crashed or left in reckless abandon we meet one of the many many characters that pop up throughout (to the degree that it’s difficult to keep track of them) and soon we realise the zombie peril that has befallen the city. Add to this Triad gangsters, strippers, CIA agents, a misogynistic rapist/pervert, a plethora of ancillary characters, and a SWAT team sent in to presumably try and evacuate any unharmed civilians and we have a fairly big cast of largely throwaway characters most of which are interchangeable and not even remotely compelling.

    Zombie 108 features the fast running type of undead rather than the shambling, slow, walk of terror kind, and that works well when there are large groups of them attacking en masse. The make-up and effects are passable to good, especially considering the presumably sparse production budget. Unfortunately the action sequences, rather like the story, are completely unintelligible because of the stylistic decision to use shaky camera shots and fast quick jump cuts that rather than adding to the tension or upping the pace create confusions as to what is on screen.

    As the situation degrades and the zombies take out more and more of the cast the few that are left somehow all end up in the home of a bizarre sadistic creep who kidnaps women and keeps them in his torture-rape basement. At this point the story has become so muddled and confusing, not to mention the frequent scenes of very difficult to watch violent-torture-porn exploitation, that Zombie 108 becomes almost entirely unwatchable. Perhaps if you are a hardcore zombie fan (I count myself as a zombie fan, but perhaps I’m not hardcore enough) this will be of interest as yet another example of flesh eating monsters, this time of a largle asian variety, but overall between the muddled story, the bad acting, and the less than stellar storyline Zombie 108 falls a bit short of being a decent genre depiction.

    Zombie 108 is out on DVD July 30.