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MonsterVerse is one of the most interesting cinematic universes out of all of them. The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures-owned franchise has earned over $2.5 billion worldwide and also consists of TV shows on different streaming services but the way it all came together is a bit iffy because of the rights issues and the general laziness that we see in the some of the MonsterVerse films, but still Godzilla vs. Kong is still one of the most iconic movies for me. So, we thought of compiling every project that exists in the MonsterVerse and ranking them according to their Rotten Tomatoes score, here it is.

7. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Max & Rent on Prime Video) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 42% Credit – Warner Bros.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a monster sci-fi action adventure film directed by Michael Dougherty...

Its shocking just how different critics' opinions of a film can be from audiences, as proved by the massive disparity of certain movies' scores on Rotten Tomatoes. These were movies that, for one reason or another, ticked all the right boxes for professional critics and left general audiences feeling disappointed or, in some cases, downright hateful toward a release. Whether it was remakes of beloved classics, movies that didnt line up with audience expectations, or franchise entries that went in surprising new directions, there are plenty of movies that divided critics and viewers.

Some of the most controversial movies ever split critics and audiences and have remained highly divisive. While a high critic score doesnt automatically make a movie great, the fact that these films have received such a disproportional reaction from critics and audiences means that they each have something interesting to offer and were well worth checking out...

For The Ages

Revered Indian actor Waheeda Rehman, who was accorded the Dadasaheb Phalke award, India’s highest film honor, last year, has donated her personal memorabilia to the Film Heritage Foundation (Fhf) for preservation. Rehman, the 86-year-old grande dame of Indian cinema, has worked with most of the legendary filmmakers of her country during her career and the roles she chose were in films that are considered classics in the annals of Indian cinema. She worked with Guru Dutt in “Pyaasa” (1957) and “Kaagaz Ke Phool” (1959), Satyajit Ray in “Abhijaan” (1962), Basu Bhattacharya in “Teesri Kasam” (1966) and Yash Chopra in “Kabhie Kabhie” (1976), among many other memorable roles.

The donated material includes the saree Rehman wore to the “C.I.D.” premiere in 1956, her photo albums and photographs and lobby cards from “Kaagaz Ke Phool,” “Chaudvin Ka Chand” (1960), “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam” (1962) “C.I.D.,” “Bees Saal Baad” (1962) and “Baat Ek Raat Ki” (1962). The donation was...

An ambitious new production company is making waves in Germany, where it’s following up its successful 2020 comedy pic debut with a stylish erotic thriller that harkens back to Hollywood classics of the 1980s.

Launched in 2020 by Andreas Kröneck and Antonio Fernandes Lopes in the southwestern Baden-Württemberg city of Heilbronn, Hnywood is aiming high with plans to recapture the cinematic magic of yesteryear, including Edgar Wallace masked-killer mysteries and sexy swashbuckling space operas.

Hnywood – short for “Heilbronnywood” — is presenting its latest title, “Steal Her Breath,” at the European Film Market (EFM), where it is selling the film in strategic partnership with Munich-based Morefilms.

Written and directed by Kröneck, the film follows virtuoso thief Laura as she outmaneuvers relentless detective Maxine in a dangerous yet passionate cat-and-mouse game while a sadistic killer marks them for death.

“Steal Her Breath” stars Luisa Binger as the elusive thief, Christina Lopes (“Faustdick”) as the policewoman on her tail,...

12 April 1933: There are more thrills than have been manufactured for the screen since speech came to it

London, Tuesday

King Kong, which will start an exclusive season at the Coliseum on Monday, was press-shown to-day. It is based on the last story Edgar Wallace wrote for the screen. The idea is good, and the picture begins well with an explorer about to set out on a film expedition to an unknown island. It is not on the map, and natives dwell on it in worshipping dread of a giant ape which lives behind a wall built in “time immemorial.” This is to be the subject of the producers’ picture, but when the party reach the island their leading lady is kidnapped and offered to King Kong, the ape. The party set out in pursuit and, penetrating the wall, enter a world where prehistoric monsters still range.

Dinosaurs and pterodactyls destroy most of the party,...

A strong argument could be made for King Kong being the most influential movie ever made. Kong’s progeny includes Mighty Joe Young, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, Ray Harryhausen films, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, Avatar, many of the character-driven stop motion creations of the past ninety years, and dozens of authorized and unauthorized spin-offs, sequels, remakes, and rip-offs. The film inspired dozens, if not hundreds of directors, special effects artists, sound effects creators, composers, and film creators of all kinds, who have in turn inspired the next generation of filmmakers, and they the next. It is the first special-effects driven blockbuster of the sound era; a genre-crossing spectacular that introduced the world to some of cinema’s most iconic imagery and sound, the screen’s first true Scream Queen, and one of the all-time great gods and monsters of film history.

King Kong...

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Lexington Books

222 pages

Illustrated

Hardback

January 2022

Isbn: 978-1-4985-7072-5

Rrp: £73.00

By Adrian Smith

British author Edgar Wallace, aside from the London pub bearing his name, is now largely forgotten in his home country, and is perhaps best remembered, if at all, for his contribution to Rko’s King Kong (1933), although he sadly died before the film was completed. During his immensely prolific career as a journalist, author, poet, playwright, historian, film producer and director, screenwriter and chairman of the British Lion Film Corporation, he published around two hundred novels, almost a thousand short stories and twenty stage plays. It was said that at one point around a quarter of all books being read in the UK were written by Wallace. He was best known for his crime novels, particularly ‘The Four Just Men’ series and the amateur detective J.G. Reeder,...

May 31st sees the release of The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2 from Severin Films, bringing more cult classic Christopher Lee films to Blu-ray, including Uncle Was a Vampire and Dracula and Son! We have all the details below, along with a trailer, and a look at the box set artwork:

The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2

To celebrate the centennial of the legendary actor, Eurocrypt Collection 2 presents five of the most unexpected, underrated and underseen films of the iconic actor’s European career. Immediately following Horror Of Dracula, Lee reprised the role in the quirky 1959 Italian comedy Uncle Was A Vampire. Lee speaks fluent German opposite Klaus Kinski for the crazed 1962 krimi Secret Of The Red Orchid. In the 1974 UK psycho-thriller Dark Places, Lee toplines a cast that includes Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Jane Birkin. Lee’s final performance as The Count in the 1976 French comedy Dracula And Son...

By Hank Reineke

A March 1945 notice in the Los Angeles Times reported that following his return to Hollywood from a Uso camp tour, Boris Karloff was to begin work on a Rko Radio production titled Chamber of Horrors. The film was to be produced by Val Lewton, the producer who had already brought to the screen such psychological-horrors as Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and Curse of the Cat People (1944). Karloff had already appeared in a pair of Lewton’s horror-melodramas for Rko, The Body Snatcher (1945) and Isle of the Dead (1945). The actor had been enjoying his freelance status of late. Recent castings in a series of mad scientist films (1940-1942) for Columbia solidified Karloff’s reputation as cinema’s preeminent boogeyman - even in roles sans grotesque makeup appliances. So the engagement of the actor for Chamber of Horrors was properly trumpeted in a 1945 Variety notice as...

All 2021 Academy Awards nominees for Best Original Song will be performed during the preshow, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Et — not during the main show, which begins 90 minutes later.

The pre-show and main ceremony will be broadcast on ABC, as well as available to stream on Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV, FuboTV and on ABC.com (with provider authentication). The awards for Best Song and Best Score will be given out during the main show.

Leslie Odom Jr., a double nominee for acting and songwriting for “One Night in Miami,” will perform the end-titles theme he co-penned for the film, “Speak Now.” Diane Warren and singer Laura Pausini will join forces again for “Io Si (Seen),” which they co-wrote for “The Life Ahead.” “Fight for You” will be performed by the singer/co-writer H.E.R., who performed the old-school-soul throwback anthem over the end credits for “Judas and the Black Messiah.

One of the most anticipated movies to spin out of Warner Bros.’ upcoming phalanx of 2021 movies heading straight to HBO Max is “Godzilla vs. Kong.” The sequel to “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” and “Kong: Skull Island,” the fourth entry in Legendary’s evolving MonsterVerse arrives day-and-date on the rookie streaming platform and in available theaters this coming March 26. Watch the new full trailer below.

Directed by genre filmmaker Adam Wingard and written by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein, “Godzilla vs. Kong” has been wrapped, at least production-wise, for nearly two years. It was originally slated to open in November last year but, like every other tentpole movie in the pipeline, was pushed into 2021 due to the pandemic. “Godzilla vs. Kong” combines the former character created by Japan’s Toho, and the latter character created by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper, in a monster movie mash-up that harks back...

Castle of the Creeping Flesh

Blu ray

Severin

1968 / 77 Min. / 1.66:1

Starring Howard Vernon, Janine Reynaud, Michel Lemoine

Cinematography by Jorge Herrero

Directed by Adrian Hoven

Just in time for the holidays, it’s Castle of the Creeping Flesh. The film’s director, Adrian Hoven, helmed a mere seven films but one of them made grindhouse history. The movie was Mark of the Devil and the campaign for that 1970 stomach-churner was a perfect compliment to the degenerate nature of the product—for once there was truth in advertising. Hallmark Releasing made their name with bottom-feeding fare like Last House on the Left and Slaughter Hotel and if a film wasn’t truly debauched they could make it appear so—in 1972 they retitled Mario Bava’s Bay of Blood to Twitch of the Death Nerve—incomprehensible but portentous. For Mark of the Devil they arranged a give-away—a sack that could double...

Dino De Laurentiis took a lot of flack for his underwhelming remake of the incomparable 1933 horror classic, which he promoted into a monster-sized hit. Nothing could eclipse the original but the good casting still appeals. An honest ad campaign would have leaned on two points: See Jeff Bridges and Charles Grodin carry an insultingly ugly production like real stars! See ‘newcomer’ Jessica Lange play a sexualized ditz so well that she retains her dignity! …and most importantly, See the biggest special effects fraud ever perpetrated on movie screens! Umbrella Entertainment from Australia puts this one back in print, on Blu-ray.

King Kong (1976)

Region B Blu-ray

Umbrella Entertainment

1976 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date November 4, 2020 / Available at Umbrella Enertainment 19.95 (au)

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange, Rick Baker, Rene Auberjonois, Julius Harris, Jack O’Halloran, Ed Lauter, John Agar.

Cinematography: Richard Kline

Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters

Production design: Mario Chiari,...

By Hank Reineke

The 1972 Giallo Who Saw Her Die? (Chi l'ha vista morire?) was Aldo Lado’s second film as director, his first being Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971). That film was a somewhat less-than-traditional Giallo, photographed inexpensively behind the Iron Curtain in the cities of Zagreb and Prague. Short Night of Glass Dolls was a complicated film that told its story in backward fashion, much in the style of the celebrated playwright Harold Pinter. It was also an unusual Giallo in the sense that its overtly exploitative sex scenes were unevenly mixed with the genre’s level of on-screen violence than European movie-thriller fans had come to expect. Lado had entered into the film business only some five years earlier, serving as the assistant director on a handful of Sergio Leone-inspired Spaghetti western knock-offs and a couple of action films, before getting the opportunity to work with the...

Dario Argento’s acclaimed directorial debut emerged from a successful writing career that encompassed everything from movie criticism to contributions to westerns like Five Man Army and Once Upon a Time in the West. He enlisted his father, producer Salvatore Argento, to help fund what would become a landmark in the Italian giallo genre, whose origins many link to Mario Bava’s The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Evil Eye in its alternate Us version). Although there are also echoes of Bava’s Blood and Black Lace, much of the plot is inspired by Fredric Brown’s novel The Screaming Mimi (filmed by Gerd Oswald in 1958). Coproduced with Germany’s Ccc Films which expected an Edgar Wallace-style thriller and was put off by the level of violence. Ennio Morricone’s score is disturbingly sexy.

The post The Bird With the Crystal Plumage appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Arrow Video seems to be staging a bit of a Riccardo Freda renaissance. Several weeks after recuperating his odd 1971 Irish giallo The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, they unleash his London set Double Face, which straddles the line between the popular Edgar Wallace krimi genre (which it was marketed as in West Germany) and a giallo in Italy. But what’s most notable about this late period Freda offering is for a subdued performance from the inimitable Klaus Kinski as a cuckolded businessman haunted by the notion his recently deceased wife is alive and well and making local pornographic films, no less.…...

Klaus Kinski in Ricardo Freda’s Double Face will be available on Blu-ray June 25th From Arrow Video

In the post-war years, the proliferation of transnational European co-productions gave rise to a cross-pollination of genres, with the same films sold in different markets as belonging to different movements. Among these, Riccardo Freda s Double Face was marketed in West Germany as an Edgar Wallace krimi , while in Italy it was sold as a giallo in the tradition of Mario Bava s Blood and Black Lace, combining elements from both genres for a unique and unforgettable viewing experience.

When wealthy businessman John Alexander’s unfaithful wife Helen dies in a car crash, it initially looks like a freak accident. However, the plot thickens when evidence arises suggesting that the car was tampered with prior to the crash. And John s entire perception of reality is thrown into doubt when he discovers...

Serbian actress Nadja Regin, who appeared in two early James Bond movies, has died at the age of 87.

The news was announced on the official 007 Twitter account, which said: “We are very sorry to learn that Nadja Regin has passed away at the age of 87. Nadja appeared in two Bond films, ‘From Russia with Love’ and ‘Goldfinger.’ Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.”

She was born as Nadezda Poderegin on Dec. 2, 1931, and began acting while a student. She graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade and also the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Philosophy.

Regin began appearing in British films in the late 1950s and early 1960s, starting with the horror film “The Man Without a Body,” followed by the comedy “Don’t Panic Chaps!,” “Edgar Wallace Mysteries,” “Solo for Sparrow” and “The Fur Collar.” TV roles included “Danger Man,” “The Saint...

Even horror fans of an older vintage like me came to find out about giallo films at a later date; sure, certain big juggernauts would make their way through, like Deep Red and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, but at the advent of home video, they were mainly outliers. As DVD blossomed, many more were rescued and rediscovered by a whole new generation (and the ones before that missed them) clamoring for creative kills wrapped in (sometimes puzzling) whodunit packages. Now that a blood river’s worth of titles have been rereleased, it’s time to try and pool them together and take a vantage view of their place in the horror landscape. Enter Federico Caddeo’s All the Colors of Giallo (2019), a great overview for newbies and vets alike, overflowing with three discs of crimson wonder by Severin Films.

Yes, several books have been written on this (predominantly...

The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1972/73 / 1.33:1 / 74/90 Min. / Street Date October 2, 2018

Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland

Cinematography by Michel Hugo, Robert B. Hauser

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, Dan Curtis

In January of 1972 ABC broadcast the story of a middle-aged newsman hot on the trail of a vampire seemingly escaped from a 50’s horror comic. The man and the monster had one thing in common – by the 70’s they were both anachronisms, adrift in an era of hot pants and roller disco.

Carl Kolchak, the overbearing reporter played by crusty TV vet Darren McGavin, was not simply immune to current fashions – his steadfast belief in the supernatural ensured his outsider status throughout two films and 20 hour-long episodes broadcast between 1974 and 1975.

The first of those movies was The Night Stalker, a nocturnal thriller animated by the lurid neon of the Vegas strip where a string of showgirl...

Happy 2018, dear readers! With a new year comes a new batch of home entertainment releases, even if we only have a relatively quiet week of titles to look forward to. Scream Factory is kicking off 2018 right with their Collector’s Edition of Hell Night, and Umberto Lenzi’s Seven Blood Stained Orchids is getting a brand new Blu as well. If you missed it last fall, The Houses October Built 2 comes home this week, and cult film fans should keep an eye out for Miss Zombie from Redemption Films, too.

Other January 2nd releases include Bigfoot Country, Dystopia, Anna, Death Island Paranormal Retribution, No Solicitors, and The Body Tree.

Hell Night (Scream Factory, Blu/DVD Combo)

As an initiation rite into Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, four pledges must spend a night in Garth Manor, twelve years to the day after the previous resident murdered his entire family. Two of the pledges,...

If you missed Long Live The King when it played last November at The St. Louis International Film Festival, you can now watch it on Amazon Video and YouTube! The 2016 documentary Long Live The King explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong. Long Live The King is produced and directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger, the creative team behind the award-winning Beast Wishes (the 20112 documentary about Bob and Kathy Burns, the goodwill ambassadors of science fiction film fandom. Long Live The King devotes primary attention to the 1933 classic, celebrating the contributions of filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, writer Edgar Wallace, and especially stop-motion innovator Willis O’Brien. But Kong’s legacy is also fully detailed: the sequel “Son of Kong,” the cinematic kin “Mighty Joe Young,” the Dino DeLaurentis and Peter Jackson remakes,...

The uncanny Georges Franju strikes again, in an Agatha Christie-like thriller imbued with his special mood, the eerie music of Maurice Jarre and some great actors including Jean-Marie Trintignant, Pierre Brasseur, Dany Saval, Marianne Koch and Pascale Audret. If mood is the key, then Franju has found an ideal setting, a beautifully preserved castle in Brittany.

Spotlight on a Murderer

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Academy USA

1961 / Color / 1:37 full frame (1:66 widescreen?) / 92 min. / Street Date May 30, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video.

Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Pascale Audret, Marianne Koch, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dany Saval, Jean Babilée,

Georges Rollin, Gérard Buhr, Maryse Martin, Serge Marquand, Philippe Leroy.

Cinematography: Marcel Fredetal

Film Editor: Gilbert Natot

Original Music: Maurice Jarre

Written by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Georges Franju, Robert Thomas

Produced by Jules Borkon

Directed by Georges Franju

Until a few years ago most U.S. fans knew of Georges Franju solely through the great...

Broadway is readying for a monster of a musical.

The long-gestating musical adaptation of King Kong will roar in the Broadway Theatre in fall 2018, producers Global Creatures and Roy Furman announced Wednesday.

The titular ape is manifested through a combination of animatronics and puppetry developed by creature designer Sonny Tilders, as similarly executed in the Walking With Dinosaurs and How to Train Your Dragon arena shows. The stage show is based on the novel of the original 1933 screenplay by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, and is described as "a contemporary take on the classic tale of beauty and the beast." It is...

Rumble Fish

Blu-ray

Criterion

1940 / B&W / 1:85 / Street Date April 25, 2017

Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane.

Cinematography: Stephen Burum

Film Editor: Barry Malkin

Written by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by Francis Ford Coppola

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola’s Young Adult tone poem, unspools in a black and white never-never land of sullen teens, pool tables and pompadours. It may take a moment for the audience to suss out that we’re not in the Eisenhower era with Chuck Berry, Marilyn Monroe and the Cold War but squarely in Reagan’s domain of MTV, Madonna and the Cold War.

Set in a destitute Oklahoma town with the ghost of The Last Picture Show whistling through its empty streets, Matt Dillon plays Rusty, an inveterate gang-banger growing up in the shadow of his older brother played by Mickey Rourke, a reformed juvenile...

Chamber of Horrors

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber

1940 / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date March 21, 2017

Starring: Lilli Palmer, Leslie Banks.

Cinematography: Alex Bryce, Ernest Palmer

Film Editor: Ted Richards

Written by Gilbert Gunn, Norman Lee

Produced by John Argyle

Directed by Norman Lee

Near the turn of the century a struggling war correspondent named Edgar Wallace began churning out detective stories for British monthlies like Detective Story Magazine to help make the rent. Creative to a fault, his preposterously prolific output (exacerbated by ongoing gambling debts) soon earned him a legion of fans along with a pointedly ambiguous sobriquet, “The Man Who Wrote Too Much.”

A reader new to Wallace’s work could be excused for thinking the busy writer was making it up as he went along… because that’s pretty much what he did. He dictated his narratives, unedited, into a dictaphone for transcription by his secretary where they would then...

March 21st is a big day for cult film fans, not to mention all you RoboCop enthusiasts out there, as Tuesday has a variety of horror and sci-fi offerings that you’ll undoubtedly want to add to your home entertainment collections. Scream Factory is releasing a pair of amazing Collector's Edition Blu-rays for RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, and Kino Lorber is keeping busy with a trio of HD releases, too: Chamber of Horrors, Invisible Ghost, and A Game of Death.

Other notable titles making their way home on March 21st include Wolf Creek: Season One, Eloise, John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs, and Frankenstein Created Bikers.

Chamber of Horrors (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)

Newly Mastered in HD! Chamber of Horrors was based on the classic novel, The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace (King Kong, The Terror) - it was the second Wallace adaptation brought to the States by Monogram Pictures.

Seth Holt is an odd figure. An editor at first, his career spans classic Ealing comedies (The Lavender Hill Mob, 1951) and gritty kitchen sink drama (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 1960), while his overlapping career as producer saw him preside over the classic The Ladykillers (1955). On becoming a director, he worked mainly at Hammer, which made radically different content from Ealing but perhaps shared the same cozy atmosphere.Taste of Fear (a.k.a. Scream of Fear, 1961) is a zestful Diabolique knock-off, while The Nanny (1965) continued Bette Davis' career in horror. It's incredibly strong, beautifully made and quite ruthless: Bette referred to Holt as "a mountain of evil" and found him the most demanding director she'd encountered since William Wyler. During the daft but enjoyably peculiar Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971), Holt developed a persistent case of hiccups that turned the screening of rushes into hilarious occasions. Then he dropped dead of a heart attack,...

Those looking to get their hands on the late Lord Selford's fortune may have to pay with their lives in 1940's Chamber of Horrors. Based on Edgar Wallace's The Door with Seven Locks, the Norman Lee film will come out on Blu-ray and DVD in March courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Chamber of Horrors will be released on Blu-ray and DVD beginning March 21st with a new HD master and a handful of bonus features:

From Kino Lorber: "Coming March 21st on DVD and Blu-ray!

Brand New HD Master!

Chamber of Horrors (1940) with optional English subtitles

Audio Commentary by Film Historians David Del Valle and Filmmaker Kenneth J. Hall Reversible Blu-ray Art Trailers"

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "When the wealthy Lord Selford dies, he is entombed with a valuable collection of jewels. Seven keys are required to unlock the tomb and release the treasure, but a series of...

A Tribute to King Kong takes place as part of the The St. Louis International Film Festival Sunday, Nov. 6 beginning at 6:00pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The first film screened will be the new documentary Long Live The King, which explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars — both literally and figuratively — in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong. Produced and directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger, the creative team behind the award-winning “Beast Wishes,” the documentary devotes primary attention to the 1933 classic, celebrating the contributions of filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, writer Edgar Wallace, and especially stop-motion innovator Willis O’Brien. But Kong’s legacy is also fully detailed: the sequel “Son of Kong,” the cinematic kin “Mighty Joe Young,” the Dino DeLaurentis and Peter Jackson remakes, even the Japanese versions by Toho Studios.

A Tribute to King Kong takes place as part of the The St. Louis International Film Festival Sunday, Nov. 6 beginning at 6:00pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The first film screened will be the new documentary Long Live The King, which explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars — both literally and figuratively — in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong. Produced and directed by Frank Dietz and Trish Geiger, the creative team behind the award-winning “Beast Wishes,” the documentary devotes primary attention to the 1933 classic, celebrating the contributions of filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, writer Edgar Wallace, and especially stop-motion innovator Willis O’Brien. But Kong’s legacy is also fully detailed: the sequel “Son of Kong,” the cinematic kin “Mighty Joe Young,” the Dino DeLaurentis and Peter Jackson remakes, even the Japanese versions by Toho Studios.

” Throw your arms across your eyes and scream, Ann. Scream for your life!”

Long Live The King and King Kong screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood Ave.) Sunday, November 6th beginning at 6pm as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The event will be hosted by We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman. Ticket information can be found Here

Sliff bows down to the King — Kong, that is — with a double bill of “Long Live the King” and the 1933 classic that introduced the giant gorilla to the awestruck world at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The event takes place at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium on Sunday November 6th beginning at 6pm.

First up will be the documentary Long Live The King, which explores the enduring fascination with one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history: the mighty King Kong.

By Todd Garbarini

It’s a scary thought, indeed, to think that it has been twenty-nine years since I first saw Dario Argento’s fifth giallo feature film which I had read about two years earlier in the pages of a back issue of Fangoria Magazine. The word giallo is the Italian word for the color yellow, and has found new life in describing a subgenre of the Italian horror film that refers to a who-done-it involving a killer who conceals their identity by wearing a large coat, a wide-brimmed hat, unisex footwear and gloves, their face always obscured or hidden completely. Very often we see the killer only in synecdoche. These stories all originated in the form of pulp novellas which sported yellow covers, hence the use of the term giallo.

Whereas the word giallo is always spelled one way, the correct spelling of the film’s title, Tenebrae,...

Acquiring the late Lord Selford's fortune proves to be a deadly and nerve-shredding task in Chamber of Horrors, aka The Door with Seven Locks, a 1940 horror mystery movie coming out on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber.

A release date and special features for the Chamber of Horrors Blu-ray / DVD have not been revealed yet, but we'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further details. In the meantime, we have the official announcement from Kino Lorber, as well as the movie's synopsis and poster artwork.

From Kino Lorber: "Coming Soon to DVD and Blu-ray!

Chamber of Horrors (1940) Starring Lilli Palmer, Leslie Banks, Romilly Lunge, Gina Malo and Robert Montgomery - Screenplay by Norman Lee (The Monkey's Paw) and Gilbert Gunn (The Cosmic Monster) - Based on the Novel "The Door with Seven Locks" by Edgar Wallace - Directed by Norman Lee."

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "When the wealthy Lord Selford dies,...

Hello again, dear readers. This week sees the release of Suicide Squad, the latest DC Comics film adaptation. In the meantime, the latest Trailer Trashin’ is my quick take on some of the major movie trailers to come out of the recent San Diego Comic-Con.

Doctor Strange

Premise: After Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the world’s top neurosurgeon, is injured in a car accident that ruins his career, he sets out on a journey of healing, where he encounters the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton), who becomes Strange’s mentor in the mystic arts.

My take: After the huge superhero brawl of Captain America: Civil War earlier this summer, the next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes things in a very different direction. This is an exposition-heavy trailer, laying out the basics of who Doctor Strange is and the nature of his powers to help general audiences get on-board with...

For the month of July, contributing writers of DestroytheBrain.com will be watching, reviewing and commenting on giallo cinema. We will be covering the sub-genre from a beginner’s angle and on the assumption that the majority of our readers are not aware of this giallo. Later on in the month, we will be getting into recent films that celebrate the idea of gialli cinema. Thanks for reading!

How Does One Get Into Giallo Cinema?

When I was mass exploring the VHS & DVD territories of horror cinema in the 90’s and into the mid-2000’s, most of my film discoveries were American horror films. Yes, there were some films, as I would later come to find, that were imports from Italy but when I watched those, I just figured there was bad dubbing and didn’t take into play that they were re-edited foreign films. In the early 2000’s, I...

June is ending on a quiet note for horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases, as we only have six titles coming our way on June 28th.

Blue Underground has shown some love to two cult classics with their Blu-ray double feature of Circus of Fear and Five Golden Dragons, and Arrow Video is resurrecting another cult classic (albeit one that is a bit more recent) with their Return of the Killer Tomatoes Special Edition Blu-ray.

Other notable titles being released this Tuesday include Alien Strain, Shark Exorcist, Forgotten Tales, and Hotel Inferno.

Alien Strain (Mti Home Video, DVD)

After his girlfriend vanishes without a trace on a camping trip, he quickly goes from witness to suspect. Now, a year later, she returns to the very spot from which she was taken, but not like she was before.

Circus of Fear/Five Golden Dragons Double Feature (Blue Underground, Blu-ray)

Circus Of Fear...

"Drive" director Nicolas Winding Refn has added a third remake of a classic horror film to his upcoming filmmaking plans and, like those films, he's set to only produce rather than direct for his Space Rocket banner.

This third one, which follows on from the long announced "Maniac Cop" remake and the recently announced "Witchfinder General" remake, will be a new version of Massimo Dallamano's 1972 giallo film "What Have You Done To Solange?".

Loosely based on the Edgar Wallace mystery novel, the story is set at an all-girls school where a killer is on the loose. A gym teacher, who has been sleeping with one of his students, becomes a suspect and sets out to find the real killer.

Fulvio Lucisano, who produced the original and has released all of Refn's films in Italy, will produce. Refn presented a restoration of Lucisano's "Planet Of The Vampires" at Cannes last week.

With the confirmation of Maniac Cop moving forward and the addition of Witchfinder General Danish filmmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has added the final piece to a trio of horror film remakes.   Deadline reports that Refn has added the 1972 Giallo flick What Have You Done To Solange? to his production slate and will set the tale in Los Angeles.    He will work with Solange's original producer Fulvio Lucisano who also released all of Refn's films in Italy. Lucisano also produced the 1965 film Planet of the Vampires which Refn screened a restoration of at Cannes this year. Much like Refn working with his UK distributor Rupert Preston on Witchfinder Refn is recognizing Lucisano's loyalty throughout his career. Loosely based on the Edgar Wallace...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Exclusive: What Have You Done To Solange? is rounding out a trio of classic horror remakes being undertaken by Nicolas Winding Refn. The 1972 giallo film was originally helmed by Massimo Dallamano and produced by Fulvio Lucisano. As with the upcoming re-dos of Maniac Cop and Witchfinder General, Refn will produce but not direct. His Space Rocket, in which he’s partnered with Lene Borglum, is teaming with Lucisano and his Italian International Film on the project.

Much as with Witchfinder, on which he’s partnered with Rupert Preston, Refn is teaming on Solange with a longtime collaborator in Lucisano who has released all of his films in Italy. He also produced 1965’s Planet Of The Vampires, a restoration of which Refn presented in Cannes last week. The Danish filmmaker tells me he’d been eyeing Solange for some time, and he and Lucisano had recently talked about hooking up on a remake.

Our series continues with a special installment that compares not just one but Two remakes to a classic original. This week, Cinelinx goes ape and looks at all three versions of King Kong.

King Kong was created in 1933 by Universal Pictures and was the prototype for the Kaiju genre, years before Godzilla ever stomped on Tokyo. The image of Kong atop the Empire State Building is one of the most iconic images in the history of film and pop culture. The first film led to a sequel (the Son of Kong), an animated series, lots of rip-offs (Mighty Joe Young, Konga, A*P*E, the Mighty Peking Man) and years later inspired a pair of remakes (Not counting the campy Kaiju films King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes.) After all these years, Kong remains one of the greatest giant movie monsters of all time. Let’s take a...

Holliston: Friendship is Tragic, the graphic novel based on the Holliston TV series from Adam Green (Frozen), features characters from the show and will be released in October. Also: Alexandre Aja’s curator collection on Shudder, Circus of Fear and Five Golden Dragons double feature Blu-ray details, a Viktorville poster, and a Shark Exorcist trailer.

Holliston: Press Release: “Source Point Press has announced they are currently in production on a graphic novel titled “Holliston: Friendship is Tragic”, based on the horror sit-com Holliston tv series created by filmmaker Adam Green. This announcement coincides with Source Point’s debut publisher booth at C2E2 in Chicago, and to celebrate the announcement the first promotional image for the comic will be available as a C2E2 exclusive art print limited to only 50 copies. Writer Greg Wright, artist Stephen Sharar, Editor Travis McIntire, and colorist and letterer Joshua Werner will...

Massimo Dallamano may be best known to some as the cinematographer of Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965), credited under the pseudonym Jack Dalmas. Following his collaborations with Leone, Dallamano would only serve as cinematographer twice more (his last credit being French director Michel Deville’s 1966 comedy The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen starring George Chakiris and Marina Vlady). The explosive popularity of the spaghetti western would allow Dallamano to begin his own career as a director, with 1967 debut Bandidos (credited under another pseudonym, Max Dillman), but he’d soon after turn to the bread and butter of more exploitative genre fare. The director of eleven features, up until his death in 1976, Dallamano’s enduring, fascinating masterpiece stands as the 1972 title What Have You Done to Solange? Credited as a giallo staple, Dallamano’s film is more of a hybrid of subgenres, a mixed giallo and poliziotteschi film.

By Hank Reineke

Perhaps it is only fitting that area meteorologists would forewarn ominously that the Mahoning Drive-in Theater’s “Christopher Lee Tribute” might take place on a cold and dark and stormy night. After all, it was the villainous film legacy of the actor – who passed away at age 93 on June 7th of this year – to have frightened generations of moviegoers in such a bleakly nightmarish rain-soaked setting. As it happened, while the shivery autumnal chill on Saturday night was undeniable, there was – happily - nary a sprinkle of precipitation to obscure one’s windshield view of the drive-in’s massive CinemaScope screen.

The Mahoning Drive-in, located amidst the Pocono Mountains surrounding Lehighton, Pennsylvania, is – quite frankly – an anomaly amongst the anomalies of surviving drive-in theaters. Whilst most remaining drive-ins have been forced to move cautiously and expensively to digital projection systems or else suffer their screens going dark,...

“We’ll give him more than chains. He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear. We’re millionaires, boys. I’ll share it with all of you. Why, in a few months, it’ll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!”

King Kong screens at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Ave.- at Manchester – Maplewood, Mo 63143) Thursday, May 7th at 7pm. It is a benefit for Helping Kids Together

Doors open at 6:30pm. $6 suggested for the screening. A yummy variety of food from Schlafly’s kitchen is available as are plenty of pints of their famous home-brewed suds. A bartender will be on hand to take care of you. “Culture Shock” is the name of a film series here in St. Louis that is the cornerstone project of a social enterprise that is an ongoing source of support for Helping Kids Together (http://www.

Out swings Spider-Man, and in swings a giant monkey puppet?

King Kong, a musical spectacle that premiered in June 2013 in Melbourne, Australia, will reportedly go ape on Broadway this December at the Foxwoods Theatre, where the big-budget Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark shuttered earlier this month, according to The New York Times. However, in a statement to EW, producers of King Kong said: “Plans for the Broadway production of King Kong are not confirmed at this time. We hope to have details about the future of the show shortly.”

It’s long been expected that Kong would follow Spidey into the Foxwoods,...

Network Distributing is pleased to announce the next batch of titles within “The British Film” range which will be available in the UK later this year. Each feature once again benefits from a new transfer, an instant play facility and will be presented in special slim-line space-saving packaging. Some of the highlights from October are a documentary about the body narrated by Vanessa Redgrave with music from Roger Waters, more gems from the vaults from Ealing Studios, classic horror, British musicals and a courtroom drama starring Richard Attenborough.

7 October

The Body £9.99

Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay narrate an intimate and innovative documentary from the seventies about the human body cut to music from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Commentary by poet and playwright Adrian Mitchell.

The Final Programme £9.99

Cult director Robert Fuest’s dystopian sci-fi thriller. Robert Finch stars as Jerry Cornelius, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and playboy who...

Review Aliya Whiteley 15 Oct 2013 - 06:26

Aliya finds that this selection of classic Ealing movies from the '30s and '40s provides a surprisingly solid few hours of entertainment

Ealing Studios has been around since 1902 and their Rarities Collection is proving to be a fascinating visit to their vaults. Sitting down to watch these DVDs has the feeling of stepping back in time: buying a cinema ticket for 1/ 6, planning to have an ice cream during the interval, looking for a bit of excitement or entertainment, and perhaps not expecting too much from the feature except to be transported away for a few hours. I’m probably seriously over-romanticising the whole experience, but I do recommend watching these films with the curtains drawn and a Lyons Maid lolly. I’m a big fan of the Strawberry Mivvi myself.

The first film in Volume Seven certainly does transport you. Eureka Stockade...

Article by Tom Stockman

The big guy once known as ‘The 8th Wonder of the World’ is celebrating his 80th birthday. A landmark accomplishment in cinema and fantasy, King Kong still holds the power to astonish and inspire, so in honor of its 80 years, here’s a look at the movie’s groundbreaking production and significant legacy.

Carl Denham, who brought Kong from Skull Island to New York, was an adventurous, globe-hopping filmmaker and the same was true of Merian C. Cooper, the mastermind behind the movie King Kong. Born in 1893, Cooper had been an aviator and hero in the First World War. He began his movie career in the mid-1920s at Paramount Pictures where he teamed up with Ernest B. Schoedsack, a pioneering motion picture photographer and news cameraman who would become his filmmaking partner. Their first successes were a pair of ambitious anthropological documentaries inspired by the...

Sleazemeister Umberto Lenzi popularized the Italian cannibal film subgenre with The Man from the Deep River and made gore fans drool with Cannibal Ferox, but you won't get over-the-top violence and a truly seedy story when it comes to his 1972 giallo, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids. The director's early gialli were quite tame compared to his later movies. Lenzi lures us to Orchids with a killer opening, featuring the death of a naked prostitute and a stylish murder set piece, starring giallo babe Marina Malfatti. Frustratingly, Orchids starts to dwindle after that. Lenzi bookends his thriller with some of the mood and craftiness we've come to expect of the Italian-made movies, but a bloated middle drags to the finish. Newlyweds Mario (Antonio Sabato, father of soap opera star Antonio Sabato, Jr.) and Giulia (German actress Uschi Glas) find their honeymoon interrupted after a black-gloved psychopath attempts to murder the missus. The unlucky...