Connect with us

News

Legendary Director Larry Cohen Has Died, He Was 77

Published

on

Larry Cohen, one of the horror genres most legendary icons, has passed away confirms Variety. He was 77-years-old.

The producer, director and later screenwriter dominated the independent movie market in the ’70s and ’80s with classics such as It’s Alive, God Told Me To, and Q.

Although people refer to his works as B-movies, they were much more than that. Their low budget appearance and seriousness only added to their creepy artistic effect. This was something that fans appreciated and supported through the decades.

Shade Rupe, Cohen’s friend and publicist announced his passing on Facebook, saying that the filmmaker was surrounded by loved ones in Los Angeles when he died.

“The entire #KingCohen team mourns the loss of its star, hero and King, #LarryCohen,” reads the post. “His unparalleled talents were surpassed only by his giant heart. The impact he made on television and cinema will be felt forever, and our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.”

Cohen’s career began in television in the ’60s with dramatic crime shows such as “The Defenders,” “Espionage,” and “The Invaders.”

In a lot of his horror films, the male leads were thrust into pursuing answers to supernatural events. In It’s Alive, John Ryan is on the trail of his deformed killer newborn.

In 1982’s Q Michael Moriarty’s character hunts a legendary winged serpent terrorizing New York from the skies. And in 1985, Moriarty returns as Cohen’s lead in The Stuff where he hunts for answers to a killer whipped-topping-like dessert.

Cohen had the pleasure of directing Bette Davis in her final film called Wicked Stepmother and continued to churn out low budget films in the ’90s.

He began to do screenwriting which led to semi-successful movies at the box office. Films such as Phone Booth starring Colin Farrel and Cellular with Chris Evan drew in reasonable crowds.

The director also participated in Showtime’s horror anthology Masters of Horror with a segment titled Pick Me Up, reuniting him with Moriarty once again.

Cohen said in an interview for Diabolique in 2017 that modern movies aren’t original anymore and they rely too much on CGI which makes them all look the same.

“I want to make movies myself — write them, direct them, produce them, edit them, make my own titles – and I don’t want anybody else to interfere. But it’s hard to do that in this industry right now,” he said.

Larry Cohen: 1941 – 2019

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading