Ah, the carefree days of 1950s America. Suburban families had the white picket fence in the yard, the 2.3 kids in the living room, and the persistent anxiety of dying in a blast of radioactive flame. The Cold War had eyes tilted skyward in anticipation of the day the Kremlin decided to drop the big one on the Us. And while there were “plans” in place (duck and cover, kids!) most people knew that there really wasn’t a whole lot they could do if a fifty-megaton warhead came to town.
As is often the case, the horror genre reflected this anxiety through the metaphor of scientists who, instead of creating giant weapons, created giant creatures. We had enormous lizards, gargantuan spiders, and even humongous blobs of unidentified slime. By 1959, if there was something that could have been made huge, it had likely been made huge. Enter Ray Kellogg, a former...
As is often the case, the horror genre reflected this anxiety through the metaphor of scientists who, instead of creating giant weapons, created giant creatures. We had enormous lizards, gargantuan spiders, and even humongous blobs of unidentified slime. By 1959, if there was something that could have been made huge, it had likely been made huge. Enter Ray Kellogg, a former...
- 12/21/2016
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
For the past two years, Niagara Falls based White Lion Studios has been cooking up something awful: A splatstick remake to the 1959 cult classic “The Killer Shrews”, a low budget creature feature made popular by Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The original film, directed by Ray Kellogg and starring James Best, is best known …
The post Killer Shrews Gear up for the Attack first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...
The post Killer Shrews Gear up for the Attack first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...
- 7/4/2016
- by Horrornews.net
- Horror News
Bernard Herrmann music + weird landscapes = Nirvana. This big-star western tale has an unbreakable story but terrible dialogue and weak characters... yet for fans of adventure filmmaking it's a legend, thanks to a thunderous Bernard Herrmann music score that transforms dozens of uncanny, real Mexican locations into something other-worldly. Garden of Evil Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 100 min. / Ship Date May 10, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlowe, Cameron Mitchell, Rita Moreno, Víctor Manuel Mendoza. Cinematography Milton R. Krasner, Jorge Stahl Jr. Art Direction Edward Fitzgerald, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor James B. Clark Original Music Bernard Herrmann Special Effects Ray Kellogg Written by Frank Fenton, Fred Freiberger, William Tunberg Produced by Charles Brackett Directed by Henry Hathaway
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
"The Garden of Evil. If the world was made of gold, I guess men would die for a handful of dirt.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
"The Garden of Evil. If the world was made of gold, I guess men would die for a handful of dirt.
- 5/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A few years ago the editors of Shadowlocked asked me to compile a list of what was initially to be, the ten greatest movie matte paintings of all time. A mere ten selections was too slim by a long shot, so my list stretched considerably to twenty, then thirty and finally a nice round fifty entries. Even with that number I found it wasn’t easy to narrow down a suitably wide ranging showcase of motion picture matte art that best represented the artform. So with that in mind, and due to the surprising popularity of that 2012 Shadowlocked list (which is well worth a visit, here Ed), I’ve assembled a further fifty wonderful examples of this vast, vital and more extensively utilised than you’d imagine – though now sadly ‘dead and buried’ – movie magic.
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
It would of course be so easy to simply concentrate on the well known, iconic,...
- 12/28/2015
- Shadowlocked
’Iron Man’ 2008: The Air Force as ’rock stars’ (See previous post: "The American Military at the Movies: The Pentagon-Hollywood Complex.") Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. are connected to the Pentagon by way of the Air Force-aided Iron Man (2008), and so is Dakota Fanning "at the side of top-gunner Tom Cruise" in Steven Spielberg’s Army-aided 2005 remake of War of the Worlds. (Image: Iron Man 2008.) Oscar winners and/or nominees Jennifer Jones, Paul Newman, Fred Astaire, Faye Dunaway, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and once again William Holden (not to mention O.J. Simpson, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, and Robert Wagner) are all in thanks to John Guillermin’s 1974 blockbuster and Best Picture Academy Award nominee The Towering Inferno. "The Navy lent helicopters," Nick Turse explains, "and the studio [20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.] said thanks in the form of an acknowledgment in the credits." Regarding Paramount’s Jon Favreau-directed Iron Man, Air Force master...
- 10/19/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Deer Hunter premiered in 1978 three years after the Vietnam War. Apocalypse Now followed in 1979. Platoon was released seven years later. Full Metal Jacket appeared after another year. Before cinema can powerfully comment on a key historical moment, a breathing period is necessary, to establish the event’s context, as a link between past patterns and future fluctuations. Who remembers Elia Kazan’s The Visitors (1972)? How about To the Shores of Hell (1966)? People have heard of John Wayne and Ray Kellogg’s The Green Berets (1968), but who likes it?
Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty follows the search for and killing of Usama bin Laden, which closed less than two years ago. Unfortunately, more time for historical perspective would have benefited the picture.
Read more...
Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty follows the search for and killing of Usama bin Laden, which closed less than two years ago. Unfortunately, more time for historical perspective would have benefited the picture.
Read more...
- 1/11/2013
- by Steven M. Paquin
- JustPressPlay.net
There’s the brand new poster and trailer for the Steve Latshaw’s long, long-anticipated sequel to 1959 Ray Kellogg-directed B movie The Killer Shrews, Return of the Killer Shrews.
The film features original star James Best, as well as John Schneider (The Dukes of Hazzard), Jennifer Lyons (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jason-Shane Scott (Starship Troopers 2), James Best (The Killer Shrews), Rick Hurst, Sean Flynn and special guest Bruce Davison (X-Men).
The story was penned by Patrick Moran, Steve Latshaw and James Best, respectively.
Well, there’s actually not much to say about it, below we have the brand new poster and trailer for the CGI filled flick, go check it out and let us know what you think?
Click here to view the embedded video.
Here’s a synopsis:
A TV Reality Show hires Captain Thorne Sherman (James Best) and his boat to cargo supplies to the deserted offshore...
The film features original star James Best, as well as John Schneider (The Dukes of Hazzard), Jennifer Lyons (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jason-Shane Scott (Starship Troopers 2), James Best (The Killer Shrews), Rick Hurst, Sean Flynn and special guest Bruce Davison (X-Men).
The story was penned by Patrick Moran, Steve Latshaw and James Best, respectively.
Well, there’s actually not much to say about it, below we have the brand new poster and trailer for the CGI filled flick, go check it out and let us know what you think?
Click here to view the embedded video.
Here’s a synopsis:
A TV Reality Show hires Captain Thorne Sherman (James Best) and his boat to cargo supplies to the deserted offshore...
- 11/19/2012
- by Nick Martin
- Filmofilia
Hot on the tail of Piranhaconda (pictured, premiering on Syfy this Saturday, June 16 at 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.), director Jim Wynorski is finishing up Gila!, another reptile-run-amok monsterpiece. A remake of Ray Kellogg’s 1959 B-favorite The Giant Gila Monster (and no relation to the Gila! novel written by Kathryn Ptacek under the pseudonym Les Simons), the movie is near and dear to Wynorski’s heart.
Read more...
Read more...
- 6/11/2012
- by gingold@starloggroup.com (Walter Bonner)
- Fangoria
Hot on the tail of Piranhaconda (pictured, premiering on Syfy this Saturday, June 16 at 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.), director Jim Wynorski is finishing up Gila!, another reptile-run-amok monsterpiece. A remake of Ray Kellogg’s 1959 B-favorite The Giant Gila Monster (and no relation to the Gila! novel written by Kathryn Ptacek under the pseudonym Les Simons), the movie is near and dear to Wynorski’s heart.
Read more...
Read more...
- 6/11/2012
- by gingold@starloggroup.com (Walter Bonner)
- Fangoria
The art of the glass shot or matte painting is one which originated very much in the early ‘teens’ of the silent era. Pioneer film maker, director, cameraman and visual effects inventor Norman Dawn is generally acknowledged as the father of the painted matte composite, with other visionary film makers such as Ferdinand Pinney Earle, Walter Hall and Walter Percy Day being heralded as making vast contributions to the trick process in the early 1920’s.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
Boiled down, the matte process is one whereby a limited film set may be extended to whatever, or wherever the director’s imagination dictates with the employment of a matte artist. In it’s most pure form, the artist would set up a large plate of clear glass in front of the motion picture camera upon which he would carefully paint in new scenery an ornate period ceiling, snow capped mountains, a Gothic castle or even an alien world.
- 5/27/2012
- Shadowlocked
Indie legend and Corman go-to-guy Jim (Chopping Mall, Return Of The Swamp Thing) Wynorski is helming a remake of the notorious 1959 Ray Kellogg creature feature The Giant Gila Monster. Famous Monsters sat down with Jim to chat about the project and share some production pics. The film, aiming for SyFy release in 2012, is currently shooting in Franklin, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis.
Despite wearing it’s meager budget on it’s sleeve, the original Gila made an impression on Wynorski that endured as he made his way in Hollywood. “I saw it on TV when I was a kid, and even then I understood it was a cheaply made movie,” shares the director. “It didn’t have a big budget, but it had a cool premise with the hot rods and rock n’ roll. When the film fell into public domain, it was always in the back of my mind to...
Despite wearing it’s meager budget on it’s sleeve, the original Gila made an impression on Wynorski that endured as he made his way in Hollywood. “I saw it on TV when I was a kid, and even then I understood it was a cheaply made movie,” shares the director. “It didn’t have a big budget, but it had a cool premise with the hot rods and rock n’ roll. When the film fell into public domain, it was always in the back of my mind to...
- 12/14/2011
- by Justin
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Tony Randel (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Fist of the North Star) and Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall, Not of This Earth, The Return of the Swamp Thing, Dinocroc vs. Supergator) will be co-directing a remake of The Giant Gila Monster, the public domain (meaning you too can remake this movie) black and white horror flick from 1959. Playboy Playmate Julie McCullough will starring alongside Terence Knox, Matt Austin, Ellen Kingston and Jenna Ruiz, reports Robert Hood. Bill Dever and Jim Nielsen are producing. The original, directed by Ray Kellogg, follows a giant lizard that terrorizes a rural Texas community with a heroic teenager attempting to destroy the creature.
- 12/1/2011
- bloody-disgusting.com
Ray Kellogg directed the 1959 sci-fi camp film, The Killer Shrews that mixes The Incredible Shrinking Man and the Island of Dr. Moreau. It was a forgettable film, yet it was made a cult classic thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000.
According to Undead Backbrain, The Return of the Killer Shrews is in production with original star James Best. They have a rather long-winded plot synopsis for us and the promotional poster (to the right): “A TV Reality Show hires Captain Thorne Sherman (James Best) and his boat to cargo supplies to the deserted offshore island they’re using as a filming location. Thorne would have refused the job because he’s been to that island before and stills sees it in his nightmares. Unfortunately, as the boat departs, Thorne is too hungover to realize where they’re going and his first mate Rook (Rick Hurst) needs the money. So...
According to Undead Backbrain, The Return of the Killer Shrews is in production with original star James Best. They have a rather long-winded plot synopsis for us and the promotional poster (to the right): “A TV Reality Show hires Captain Thorne Sherman (James Best) and his boat to cargo supplies to the deserted offshore island they’re using as a filming location. Thorne would have refused the job because he’s been to that island before and stills sees it in his nightmares. Unfortunately, as the boat departs, Thorne is too hungover to realize where they’re going and his first mate Rook (Rick Hurst) needs the money. So...
- 1/31/2011
- by Jon Peters
- Killer Films
If ever an American movie was rendered obsolete by history in the way that a piece of machinery would, it would have to be The Green Berets. Released in 1968, before My Lai, before Kent State, before Apocalypse Now or The Deer Hunter, this film simply wanted to tell a simple story about John Wayne kicking a little tail in Vietnam. In case any one’s numbers are a little off, this is also well before the conflict was in any way over and Americans were still undecided about whether or not they wanted to commit more forces and firepower to the region. It’s a stretch to say that this film in any way altered the decisions that were made (a charge that many have leveled at Patton, a film Nixon watched repeatedly on the eve of the Cambodian bombing), but it’s certainly a rare and unique glimpse into history,...
- 1/16/2010
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
Chicago – Why some films are released on Blu-ray while others languish unavailable even on standard DVD can be quite mysterious. Take for example the recent release of John Wayne’s controversial war film “The Green Berets,” a slice of war propaganda designed to pump up American support of our involvement in Vietnam. Why this movie? Why now? Whatever the reason, I’m all for more classics on Blu-ray and WB holds the rights to many so I’d like to support more releases like “The Green Berets,” even if there are hundreds of better films that could have been picked first.
Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0
Is it possible that someone has sense of humor enough to time the release of “The Green Berets” with last month’s release of “Inglourious Basterds,” Quentin Tarantino’s WWII film about the power of propaganda? Or even that seeing that movie last summer reminded someone of Wayne’s,...
Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0
Is it possible that someone has sense of humor enough to time the release of “The Green Berets” with last month’s release of “Inglourious Basterds,” Quentin Tarantino’s WWII film about the power of propaganda? Or even that seeing that movie last summer reminded someone of Wayne’s,...
- 1/11/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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