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Love Damien Leone? There’s More Than Just ‘Terrifier 1 & 2’

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Kicking back to watch a punk-gore independent horror movie is a true American pastime. The ’80s were famous for these movies where practical effects outshined the actors; the gore was the star of the show. So it’s no surprise that a masterful hardcore special effects artist like Damien Leone decided to multitask and direct movies of his own. You may have heard of one or two already: Terrifier and Terrifier 2, but there is another called Frankenstein vs. the Mummy (2015).

Taking a cue from the Dark Universe which believe it or not isn’t a new concept, Leone pits two of the greatest supernatural forces against each other.

This isn’t the first time classic movie monsters crossed over for mortal combat, they have been doing it since the early 1940s. It began with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man — no synopsis needed — then the count himself flew into the fray with House of Dracula (1946), where The Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster occupy the same timeline. Slapstick duo Abbott & Costello did a few movies with Universal Monsters as special guests but by then they had become more of a punchline than a menacing force. The gimmick made a modern mainstream comeback when Freddy met Jason in 2003, then Alien vs. Predator in 2004.

If you are wondering, “Hey Leone can’t make a movie using Universal properties,” you’re right. But Universal only holds the rights to certain creatures as they appear in their films. For instance, you can make a Frankenstein movie, but you can’t use green skin or put bolts on his neck. Leone’s monster (Constantin Tripes) resembles more of a Deadite than a blockhead. And he is more sentient (and rapey) than Universal’s which is one of the more interesting parts of his movie.

The movie itself is passable. The best part of it — you guessed it — is the make-up effects. If Leone used any sort of CGI it is not visible onscreen. The script, written by Leone, attempts to be kind of like Cronenberg’s The Fly wherein a damsel is distressed over her boyfriend’s obsession with science, specifically reanimating the dead using cadaver parts. Meanwhile, she is also involved in an Egyptian archeological discovery of a mummy that comes to life.

But none of that matters. If you are going to watch this movie it’s purely to appreciate Leone’s artistry as a make-up artist (the standoff in the title doesn’t happen till the end). He does a great Maniac (1980) homage in one scene which may be better than the original. Also, his creature designs are fantastic. The Mummy make-up took six hours to complete before shooting, and it rivals that of the mega-budget Tom Cruise remake with its team of expensive artists and computer rendering.

If you love Terrifier and Terrifier 2, you should check out Frankenstein vs. the Mummy. It is currently playing on Tubi for free.

Frankenstein vs. the Mummy (2015)

The mummy of a cursed pharaoh and a reanimated corpse terrorize a medical university. Only an Egyptologist and a college professor, the deranged Dr. Frankenstein, may be able to stop the creatures before it’s too late.

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Shudder Promises: “Goopy practical effects…and LOTS of blood” in Upcoming Movie

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Shudder has been hitting out of the park with new horror releases lately. Now comes word that they will release the horror/comedy Destroy All Neighbors on their streaming platform starting January 12. The movie is helmed by music video director Josh Forbes. It stars Jonah Ray Rodrigues (Mystery Science Theater 3000), and Alex Winter, Ted, of Bill & Ted Fame.

There is no trailer for the movie yet, but Shudder explains that Rodrigues plays William, “a neurotic, self-absorbed musician determined to finish his prog-rock magnum opus, faces a creative roadblock in the form of a noisy and grotesque neighbor named Vlad (Alex Winter). Finally working up the nerve to demand that Vlad keep it down, William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William’s accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla. Destroy All Neighbors is a twisted splatter-comedy about a deranged journey of self-discovery full of goopy practical FX, a well-known ensemble cast, and LOTS of blood.”

Destroy All Neighbors will premiere on Shudder on January 12.

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‘Darkman’ is Getting a 4K Release Early Next Year

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Not all superheroes come from Marvel or DC, some come from the mind of a horror movie director (who would eventually go on to direct a Marvel movie). Sam Raimi was ahead of his time with 1990’s Darkman, and it’s finally getting a 4K Collector’s Edition release on February 20.

Perhaps this movie started Liam Neeson’s revenge-thriller movie path, Darkman had a stressful post-production period. A film editor had a nervous breakdown and left after Raimi reprimanded him for not following his storyboards. Then, test audiences hated the initial film calling it “the worst movie they had ever seen.”

After some re-tooling and hiring Danny Elfman to do the score, Darkman did a complete 180, becoming a critical and box-office hit. Marvel decided they wanted a piece of the action and developed comic books based on the character soon after.

The Scream Factory 4K edition is available for pre-order now at a cost of $35.99 for the paper sleeve release. The steelbook edition is $47.99. Both are available for pre-order. Sadly no special features have been specified at this writing.

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Director Adam Green Relays a Chilling True Story About the Ski Lift in ‘Frozen’

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Just before director Adam Green announced the DVD release of his festival hit Victor Crowley back in 2018, he gave fans a behind-the-scenes tale about another one of his films; Frozen.

As we approach the 14th anniversary of that movie, we thought we would rewind a bit and re-share what he said about his experience on Frozen; his most successful film to date.

In Frozen a group of friends get stuck on a ski lift high above the ground in the middle of a snowstorm and try to figure out how to get down.

The film is not based on a true story, but there is an eerie coincidence as he tells it attached to the film’s location, and he may have had a premonition while riding the lift before cameras even started rolling.

“[We] finally came over these trees and there it was,” conveys Adam while scouting exteriors 50 feet above the ground. “There was the spot and instead of me saying ‘This is where we should shoot the movie,’ for some reason I said ‘This is where they die,’ and the chair just stopped- stopped! And I thought the representative of the mountain was like f***ing with us or something, but no it stopped.”

Adam says he excused the sudden halt to the wind or something else; it’s no rare occurrence that ski lifts stop without warning, but he says it was still really eerie and what was only a few minutes of hanging there in mid-air, felt like an hour.

Here’s the strange part,  as he was shooting the movie he found out from lift operators that someone had taken their own life with a firearm in that exact same location. They even showed a member of the crew the alleged chair that had the bullet hole in it.

Thinking it was still just a rumor, or a local urban legend Adam did more investigating. It wasn’t until Sundance that Adam got confirmation the death was real.

“Somebody in the audience raised their hand, and…said the person’s name. It was a true story, someone did die there. After that point my editor and I started going through all the footage trying to see if there was another voice on the audio or can you see anything.” They didn’t.

However chilling that story is we’d still love to hear if there was ever a conversation with Disney about using them using the name Frozen for their animated hit which came out three years later.

We sadly assume Disney won’t be doing a princess musical about Victor Cowley anytime soon, so we know that copyright is safe.

Green talks about his ski lift premonition at 11:38 in the video below:

Trailer:

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