Werewolf links, news, and reviews
Believe it or not, there are werewolf movies other than “An American Werewolf in London”.
The trailer for 2011’s Red Riding Hood was just released, and from the look of things, director Catherine Hardwicke is still in denial over not being asked back to direct more Twilight films. See for yourself:
A gaunt, poofy-haired male lead swanning about a forest full of sunbeams with his virginal, angelic female counterpart? Hmmm. Hmmmmm. As excited as I am to hear Gary Oldman say the word “werewolf”, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Hopes: dashed. This looks like an after-school special with a big effects budget. The producers in charge of this should be fired, first from their jobs, then from a big cannon pointed into a volcano. Good job, MTV: obtain the rights to a quirky 80’s cult film, then replace all of the character, charm and originality with “drama” so lame and predictable it would’ve been cut from The Gates. Oh no, Scott’s got a date with a hot girl on the same night as the full moon! What’s gonna happen? Frankly, MTV, I don’t give a shit, and neither will anyone else.
Viacom is going around DMCAing this trailer wherever it pops up, so if this embedded version doesn’t work, sorry. Or… you’re welcome?
Special shout-out to the special effects crew who worked on this: thanks for the effort. Your work (what little I could see of it in this trailer) looks like the one redeeming feature of this abomination.
Hat tip: manny
Every now and then I see something werewolf-related that makes me giddy. This is one of them. I’ve only seen a trailer and a poster for “Le poil de la bête” (The Hair of the Beast) and already I’m in love. The problem is, everything to do with the movie is in French, and I’m one of those Canadians who didn’t pay attention during high school French. Here’s what I’ve put together thanks to Google Translate and the film’s IMDB page: It’s 1665 and scruffy con-man / swindler Joseph Côté manages to escape a Québec (née New France) prison mere hours before he’s scheduled to be hanged. He flees to the seigneury of Beaufort, where the main activity is waiting for “Daughters of the King”– French women who’ve been sent to Canada to find husbands. To avoid capture by the colonial soldiers searching for him, Côté assumes the identity of a Jesuit priest who, unbeknownst to him, is a famed hunter of werewolves. And wouldn’t you know it! Beaufort has a werewolf problem.
It’s Canadian, it’s photographed well, it’s a period piece and it has a werewolf that looks great (from what I could see). This particular mix of ingredients has got me excited! It’s been out for a month in Québec, but I’m not sure if / when / how us Anglos will get a chance to see it. In the meantime, here’s a trailer (love that hand transformation) and a poster. There are more clips and images available at www.lepoildelabete.com. If any French readers (I know there are a few of you out there) learn anything about a larger release on that site, please let us know.
Hat tip: Roger Flavell
[insert lame joke about “dinner and a date” here]
Lovely cinematography and good solid rock music by a group of guys who all look like they call their mothers at least once a week. I wish they would have shown more than a glimpse of the werewolf costume, though. It looked pretty good, at least from the shoulders up.
Hat tip: lessthanhuman
I like these guys (and gal). I like them a lot. Here’s a press release about their new album, Sins Of The Past.
Philadelphia, PA October 1, 2010 – The Young Werewolves, the Philadelphia based rockabilly, garage, punk trio, are set to release their third studio recording titled, ‘Sins of the Past.’ The timing of the new release coincides with recent trends toward all things vampire and horror.
With the popular Twilight movies, True Blood television program and even the Harry Potter books all referencing werewolf characters, the music of The Young Werewolves is right on time and with the times to such a degree that within the last year the band’s back catalogue has been raided for programs like Vampire Diaries and Supernatural (the proceeds from the licensing helped fund the recording of the new album).
‘Twelve Steps to Rock N Roll’ is the first single from the album and is available for download through The Young Werewolves’ bandcamp site which is linked from their official website. ‘Sins of the Past’ had its official release at the beginning of the Halloween season when The Young Werewolves performed at The Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia on Saturday September 25, 2010 during the annual Zombie Prom. Attendance was sold out with over 1000 tickets purchased for the event.
The release follows the band’s 2008 recording, ‘Cheat The Devil,’ produced by horror film star Sid Haig. The Young Werewolves blend the styles of rockabilly, psychobilly, surf, punk, garage and pop music into an infectious mix. For further information visit the band’s facebook and myspace profiles. Their official website is www.theyoungwerewolves.com.
This trailer for an interesting-sounding werewolf movie called “So Falls the Shadow” has been on Vimeo almost a month ago, and for the life of me I can’t figure out if this is a trailer for a completed film, or if it was assembled to show to studios and investors. Its Facebook page says the movie is “an independent feature film whose script is currently being read by several mini-majors”, so the latter seems to be the case. Based on the trailer and this outline, I’d watch the whole thing!
In the small town of Jackson City, Tennessee, things are not as they appear. The buried secrets of this quiet Southern town surface when dead bodies start appearing near its outskirts. The corpses are torn to pieces and nearly unrecognizable. No man could do such a thing. Death like this can only be attributed to the work of a savage beast. Desperate to understand how God could allow this, Jeremiah, the town pastor, makes a bold conclusion: The beast is not an evil, but rather an instrument of God’s judgment. And anyone who puts his or her trust in God will be saved from the werewolf’s wrath! The pastor’s “panic attacks” continue and leave him waking up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. Then, Jeremiah realizes a horrible truth: He is the instrument of God’s wrath. He is the werewolf.
Syfy is getting their werewolf thing on this Halloween, which I have noted and carefully marked under the “good news” column on my report. First up is “Monsterwolf”, a Syfy original movie that airs this Saturday the 9th at 9PM E / 8PM C. It stars Robert Picardo, Jason London, Leonor Varela, Griff Furst and Steve Reevis (I know someone who will be excited to see Picardo’s involved in a “wolf” project!). Syfy’s other werewolf movie, “Red”, airs October 30th.
So what do we know about Monsterwolf, other than the presence of a presumably monstrous wolf? The story’s got a rather nifty ecological angle that isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but I think adds a nice “root for the bad guy” aspect.
A creature of ancient legend manifests, bound to protect the ecological balance of the land and killing anyone that threatens it. This elusive guardian is initially both feared and celebrated by the locals, but when a deadly curse affects them all, they must unite and recapture the monster wolf’s spirit or face their ultimate doom.
I wonder what the symptoms of this curse are? Having watched this clip from Syfy (yes there’s a big wolf-beast in it) one might assume two of the symptoms are increased pain tolerance and strength– that lady breaks the upstairs window like it was a big sheet of puddle ice.
If you crave more info about Monsterwolf, direct your attention to the official Facebook page.
The last line of dialog in this clip from The Howling III is making the rounds today as a candidate for “the worst line ever” in a movie. I… I might agree with that. It’s definitely one of the lowest points in an already cringeworthy movie. But coincidentally, there’s a short exchange in The Howling II that never fails to make me chuckle with genuine glee: Jenny, What’d He Say? [mp3]. So absurd! Ben, you skeptical fool!
Normally I’m not big on posting about totally unsubstantiated rumours, but this one is too awesome to skip. Word on the Internets is that MTV is trying their hardest to get original Teen Wolf star and all-around awesome guy Michael J. Fox to accept a role as a “recurring character” on their in-the-works Teen Wolf remake. Given that Fox has basically stopped acting in order to focus on his Parkinson’s research foundation, I don’t know how plausible this is, but… what if it happens? From its “kissable” werewolves to its darker, horror-based theme, this production seems all over the map– it’s certainly got my attention!
The Hollywood Reporter and every other film news site / blog are suddenly all very excited that Kate Beckinsale will have a role in the fourth Underworld film, despite the fact having been reported over a month ago. No other information has been released, so I’m not sure what triggered the hubbub, but here we are. Production starts here in Vancouver next March, with a theatrical release tentatively slated for January 2012.