Black Gate

This week in 1973 a fourteen-year-old girl hurls obscenities, vomits and behaves like Satan himself.

Today this would be just another episode of an MTV reality show, but 39 years ago it was a move called The Exorcist which changed the horror genre forever.

The Exorcist was released theatrically in the United States on December 26, 1973 by Warner Bros. On April 2, 1974 the film had earned ten Academy Award nominations, winning two (Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay). In the years since it has been voted the Scariest Move of All Time by Entertainment Weekly, Maxim and the UK’s The Times newspaper and according to BoxOfficeMojo, has taken in around $232,906,145 at the US Box Office and $208,400,000 in foreign markets for a combined worldwide total of $441,306,145; huge numbers for a movie with a production budget of $10.5 million.

In short, the movie wasn’t just a hit – it was a global phenomenon. If adjusted for inflation, The Exorcist would be the top grossing R-rated film of all time.

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Normally, I’d be prone to bust on this, but either the holiday season has taken a little edge off my snark, or this is actually kind of a cool idea.

This week, A&E released a featurette to promote its upcoming mini-series / prequel Bates Motel. Looks like we’re finally going to find out how Norman became psycho and got his mother fixation.

Freddie Highmore, the adorable little moppet last seen in Finding Neverland and Tim Burton’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, has grown up quite a bit and takes on the role made famous by Anthony Perkins, as a teenager this time; with Vera Farmiga (George Clooney’s love interest in Up In the Air) portraying Norman’s eventually-mummified-Mom, “Norma.”

Hot Mom with an only son who she named after herself…yes the creep-factor is mounting…

A&E joins NBC in bringing another monstrous movie murderer to the small screen to more closely examine what makes him tick. Similar to what Bryan Fuller’s upcoming Hannibal series plans to do with Hannibal Lecter, A&E’s Bates Motel will focus on young Norman’s serial killer psyche and how his backstory turned him into what he’s most known for cinematically.

“Norman has been through a lot. He’s a sensitive boy,” Norma Bates can be heard to say in the new promo. We get a glimpse of Norman fraternizing with some of his female classmates (before Mother put a stop to that) and displaying an early eeriness.

It also looks like we discover where Norman got the idea to hide bodies in the lake behind the hotel. The cast seems especially enthusiastic about the writing talking about crazy turns, suspense and emotional characters, and the music sets a sufficiently ominous mood.

See for yourself with the full trailer, after the jump.

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Honestly, I don’t know where to start with this news.

Back in 1986, Sonny Bono, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Noah Hathaway (who played the lead character “Boxy” in the original TV version of Battlestar Galactica and “Atreyu” in The NeverEnding Story), got together in a cinematic train wreck called Troll. This film, such that it is, is not to be confused with Troll 2, called “the most beloved-best worst movie of all time,” which was released in 1990 and had zilch to do with the plot of its namesake.

In Troll, the sister of Hathaway’s character (played by ex Charlie’s Angel Shelly Hack) is possessed by an evil wizard in the form of a troll.

Hathaway’s character in Troll was “Harry Potter Jr.”

Since JK Rowling first published her famous book series about a boy wizard in 1997, I rather doubt she stole the character from John Carl Buechler’s wretched film (or even saw it for that matter). But the people behind Troll do have a claim on the name Harry Potter; and we are in the middle of a remake craze…

Can you guess where this is going…?

If you guessed a remake of Troll called Troll: Rise of Harry Potter, you’d win. You’d also likely win a lawsuit from Rowling and Warner Brothers Studio.

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You really shouldn’t read from that book.

I mean seriously.

Put it down.

Oh well, you’re screwed.

A remake of Sam Raimi’s horror film franchise Evil Dead finally has a release date in 2013 after a couple of false starts, some casting shuffles, and a change of director that had fans screaming for the wrong reasons.

As early as 2005, it had been confirmed that a remake of Evil Dead would be made. At that point, it was to be produced by Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi, but would not include any references to the original characters. It was also said that the movie would be about a group of teenagers that go to the cabin and find the book, but the similarities with the 1981 version would end there.

However, in August 2007, Bruce Campbell revealed in a radio interview that the proposed remake was “going nowhere” and “fizzled” due to extremely negative fan reaction.

The rumor mill went quiet after that, until July, 2011 when Ghost House Pictures (Sam Raimi’s production company) announced it would be producing a remake with Fede Alvarez directing and Diablo Cody refreshing the script. That’s when the legions of The Dead cried foul.

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Back in the summer, we had the pleasure of getting a behind-the-scenes look at the indy sci-fi film Outpost 13 via an exclusive interview with the creators Wyatt Weed (Pirate Pictures), Billy Harzel, and Corey Logsdon (State of Mind Productions). As you know, Black Gate loves nothing better than spotting a rising talent and when that talent is producing indy horror films, we here at Goth Chick News get as excited as a pre-teen’er in an I-heart-Edward tent, camping out for the Twilight opening.

<insert high-pitched, pre-pubescent squeal here>

Well, you get the picture, even if you wish you didn’t.

On November 12th, State of Mind Productions released the official trailer for its upcoming feature length horror anthology Tales of Fear. Not coincidentally, the release date was also the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of the classic George A. Romero film Creepshow (Logsdon and Harzel are fans).

Tales of Fear is a six-part horror anthology styled after the EC comics of the 1950‘s. The film seeks to capture the essence of the horror elements of the comics, as well as the crime and mystery aspects that made EC’s stories so popular (and occasionally controversial).

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The epic of this film’s development is definitely beginning to look like a journey not of sight or sound, but only of mind.

Leonardo DiCaprio and his company, Appian Way Productions, have been developing a Twilight Zone movie since 2007. The script has been through a series of rewrites, with Joby Harold (All You Need is Kill, Tom Cruise’s latest film) being the latest scribe. There have also been numerous directors attached, with things looking up recently when Matt Reeves (Let Me In and Cloverfield) got onboard… until he dropped out shortly after, reportedly to head 20th Century Fox’s upcoming sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Bummer.

We were never actually told what the new Twilight Zone film was about, except that it would combine several episodes from the original Twilight Zone show. But today, we have a one-sentence plot summary that states:

The film follows a test pilot who winds up breaking the speed of light; when he puts down his craft, he discovers that he’s landed a bit late for supper – 96 years late.

Not a huge amount to go on then, although it’s nice to see a nod to The Twilight Zone’s favorite themes, namely space and time travel. It’s also not clear which of the episodes the movie will draw from.

But one thing is certain, there will be a twist at the end.

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