Category: Film, Television & Music

Believe it or not, there are werewolf movies other than “An American Werewolf in London”.

“Sins Of The Past” – a new album from The Young Werewolves

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.

Oct. 22nd 2010

“So Falls the Shadow” – Werewolf pastor dispenses God’s wrath

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.

Oct. 7th 2010

Syfy’s “Monsterwolf” airs this weekend. Here’s a clip!

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.

Oct. 7th 2010

Get ready to cringe! Dialog from The Howling III + a solid gold quote from The Howling II

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!

Sep. 30th 2010

Michael J. Fox might just possibly (maybe) have a role in MTV’s “Teen Wolf” remake

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!

Sep. 29th 2010

Okay, okay, we get it! Kate Beckinsale is officially starring in Underworld 4

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.

Sep. 29th 2010

Victoria Justice on being a werewolf for Nickelodeon

Reader ArcLight sent me this link about upcoming Nickelodeon film “The Boy Who Cried Werewolf” and actress Victoria Justice yesterday. I’m going to quote his email because it does the job nicely:

Hey…remember that Brooke Shields werewolf thing for Nickelodeon? I didn’t either but apparently it’s airing this October. Here’s a short bit with one of the actresses.

If you have an aversion to clicking on links or the New York Post web site, here’s the pertinent text:

“I got to do most of the prosthetic work and the transformation [into a werewolf] was all me,” Justice says, adding that she had to spend three hours in the makeup chair to get the werewolf prosthetics glued onto her face. “The cool thing about it is that I don’t look pretty at all, I look disgusting — like a beast.

“There’s a werewolf suit that somebody [else] had to operate,” she admits. “I’m 105 pounds, so there’s no way [she could’ve worn it]. I would’ve passed out from heat stroke.”

Some people have all the luck. You can see Justice as a “disgusting beast” when the movie airs on October 22nd.

Sep. 23rd 2010

Werewolf, Vampire, Mummy & other monsters to throw down in Monster Brawl’s pay-per-view wrestling match

“Monster Brawl” is an upcoming Canadian horror-comedy film in which eight wrestlers fight to the death in a Pay-Per-View tournament held in an abandoned and cursed graveyard. The competitors? A vampire, a witch, a mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, a zombie, a werewolf, a swamp creature, and Cyclops. I think Dread Central said it best: “the title and the concept sound like the basis for an old NES video game.” I would have added the words “awesome” and “kick-ass” in there somewhere, but, you know. I’m excitable.

My Google-fu couldn’t produce much more about this film besides that Dread Central post and some local news articles (Ready for the Monster Brawl? and Zombie for a day), but the few details are tantalizing: Lance Henriksen and Dave Foley have roles, as do WWF / WCW manager Jimmy Hart, MMA ass-kicker/ref Herb Dean and a number of other wrestling stars from the 90’s. It’s being produced by Ontario’s Foresight Features and should be out next year, hopefully accompanied by a downloadable 8-bit style wrestling game.

Sep. 21st 2010

Mark Romanek Explains Why He Bailed From “The Wolfman”: The Producers Were Idiots

In a recent FirstShowing.net interview to promote his latest film “Never Let Me Go”, director Mark Romanek explains why he walked away from “The Wolfman” with only three weeks of pre-production left.

And then I got involved in The Wolfman which was exciting because I was going to work with Benicio Del Toro. And I wanted to reinvent that genre and make this dark, rich, intelligent Jungian kind of piece that I was hoping could totally work as populist entertainment and yet be legitimate, like be an intelligent film that might even be critically well-received. And I just could never get on the same page with the producers about what it should be. I think they were scared of doing it the way I was suggesting. There was so much money involved that I ultimately couldn’t convince them of my idea of the film.

Read more at FirstShowing.net — the bit about The Wolfman is roughly halfway down the page.

Mark’s comments are very much in line with what Rick Baker had to say about the producers meddling and waffling on the werewolf design. Mark’s a great director, but with such spineless people in charge, had he stayed on I doubt he could have done much better than Joe Johnston did. What a shame. If only Bill Carraro, Ryan Kavanaugh and Jon Mone had trusted the people they hired.

Sep. 9th 2010

“Teen Wolf” pilot analysis & transformation photo

This is a month old, but interesting nevertheless. TheTorchOnline.com has an in-depth analysis of the pilot of MTV’s “Teen Wolf” remake, including quotes from executive producer / writer Jeff Davis and lead actor Tyler Posey. There’s also a rather boring photo of Posey’s transformation. One of the most telling quotes is from Davis, regarding the design of the show’s werewolves. Apparently there will be three kinds of werewolves– Alpha, Beta and Omega, with the Alpha being the most monstrous and the Omega looking like a straight-up wolf. And what’s the driving force behind the werewolf designs?

“The way we like to put it is, the other werewolf shows and movies have werewolves you can pet,” Davis said. “We wanted to have one you could kiss.”

Oh super. I think MTV and werewolf fans like you and I have different ways of assessing a werewolf’s kissability.

Read the whole post for more information.

Hat tip: Jason

Sep. 7th 2010