Thursday, December 31, 2009

Mallika and Jennifer Lynch Get Snaky



Seen as a sort of Slumdog Millionaire for horror buffs, snake-fanciers and males generally, Hisss (India/US-2010; dir. Jennifer Chambers Lynch) stars Mallika Sherawat, one of India's sexiest female stars, as a shapeshifting Naga. (If you don't know what a naga is, go read this article on Undead Backbrain to catch up on the whole part-woman, part snake thing.)

Here's director Jennifer Lynch and Mallika Sherwat on set:



Says producer Govind Menon:
I definitely want people to see this film and say it is the greatest horror movie made in the history of cinema –- better than Hitchcock, better than The Exorcist.
Ambitious, eh? He sees Hisss as a genuinely international film -- the first Bollywood film to have the sort of money and Hollywood co-production backing that Jennifer Lynch brought with her to the project. When asked why it will appeal to Western audiences, he commented:
The vampire has been around for 200 hundred years, but this character has been around for 5,000 years... It crossed all of these different countries and cultures [India, China, and the Far East in general].

However, I would've thought this was a far more down-to-earth reason:



Mallika said of her role in the film (which is performed without dialogue):
I’m happy to be a part of this. For a snake that doesn’t speak, my character in the movie is very sexy, it’s venomous and it can swallow whole. A story like this comes only once in a lifetime. It’s a popular legend you are part of...
She added:
As it is, my parents have disowned me! Now, when they see me making love to a snake…?! Oh my God! And it was a rubbery, slimy, slithering snake. And Jennifer would tell me, ‘Lick it harder!’ Yuck!





Click on the above image to see it much larger.

You can read a longer article (from which I took the above quotes) on Buzzine Bollywood.

For more pictures from Hisss, the trailer and more info on the film, read Part 2 of the Undead Backbrain article "Of Snakes and Women" here.

And just for good measure, here's some pictures provided by Avery, who gives Mallika his vote for "Sexiest Actress of the Year". He comments: "I know the female cast of Assault Girls are all equally super-sexy but this lady makes a man-eating serpent sexy."



 


InALIENable

So what do we make of this?

InALIENable (US-2008; dir. Robert Dyke)

Impressive genre cast: Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica), Walter Koenig (Star Trek -- and he wrote InALIENable), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: the Next Generation), Erick Avari (various Star Trek series, Heroes, Daredevil, Stargate SG-1), Courtney Peldon (Skin Walker, Mortuary, and even a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode), Gary Graham (the Alien Nation TV series, Necronomicon, and, yes, an episode of Star Trek: Voyager), Jay Avovone (several episodes of The X-Files) ... and more.

Oh, and I apologise for the ad....



For Avery....

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Images of Death Kappa

Below are a few images of the crew (and main kaiju star) of Death Kappa (Japan-[in production]; dir. Tomoo Haraguchi).


 
 

Kaiju Search-Robot Avery has discovered this interview with director and SFX wizard, Tomoo Haraguchi.
Well, you know, it [making monster films] wasn't really a choice per se; it was just that I liked hanging out around the props. I mean, any kid would. I'd hang out in the art department and ask them to let me help make buildings for the monsters to destroy, or repair the monster suits.
I think it [using monster suits] also has roots in the Edo period, in the tradition of kabuki theater. Whenever an oni, or a tiger, or a giant snake, or some other kind of creature appears onstage, they're portrayed very similarly to the way Godzilla was -- by actors wearing suits. I definitely think that the idea of putting an actor into a monster costume came from that tradition.
Read the full interview here.


Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Rock, Gator Gal and the Snow Monster

No-budget trash-film maniac David "The Rock" Nelson premiered his latest film, Gator Gal [aka Alligator Woman, Gator Girl], on Chicago's WGNTV News this past Halloween. It was received, as always, with great enthusiasm by Rock's local fans:



(For the sake of completeness, here's an early promo he rang in to the station promoting his Halloween preview and trying to find a "voluptuous woman" to play Gator Gal pre-transformation.)

I have no idea if "The Rock" ever found his starlet, but the latest development comes via the world of wrestling:



So it seems that Nelson -- who plays Gator Gal himself -- has been attacking Chicago All-Star Wrestling champs! Below are snaps of Gator Gal with James "Lord Wellington" and "The German SUPAman"!






"The Rock" wanted to thank James "Lord Wellington" for sending him the pictures.

As a bonus for the long-suffering readers of Undead Brainspasm, we now offer a preview of an even more recent horror epic by  David "The Rock" Nelson, aired on WGNTV's Voicemail program on 9 December:



Message from "The Rock":
Until next time, my "Fiends", have a "Spooky-Fun" week, weekend & beyond, enjoy some good, ol' Monster movies, with some "munchies", "'Monster' Soda", "Java", or your drink of choice, & have a good, ol' time! Your "Fiend", "Rock"! David "The Rock" Nelson, "The Ed Wood of the Future ... & Beyond That, Even", -- & "dang" proud of it! "Yah, hah, heh"!
  • via Avery

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Have She-Rex Around for Christmas!

Prolific independent filmmaker Brett Kelly has asked Avery to remind readers that his latest dino epic -- "a tribute to the classic comedy of yesteryear" -- is now available on DVD.



Slapstick "buddy" humour (ala Abbott and Costello and the Ritz Brothers)! A lost island jungle! Lots of sexy cave-gals in fake fur and the huge T-Rex that they worship! In the same vein as Queen Kong, Caveman, Africa Screams, and other wacky horror/comedy monster romps of days of old! No digital dinosaurs employed! All stunts performed totally without CGI! What more can you possibly need for Christmas?

Oh, did I mention the gorilla?

 




The movie, complete with director commentary, photo gallery and trailers, is available from Amazon and direct from the folk that made it. You can also purchase She-Rex as a digital download for the cost of a cup of coffee!
This advertisement was brought to you by The Avery Battles Independent Film Support Institute. No money was involved -- just like the films themselves.

Friday, December 18, 2009

A Problem with Fire Ants

In July Undead Backbrain wrote about Invicta, a film that its writer-director Carolyn Banks calls “Horror Tra-La.” By that she means it's a mix of comedy, romance and horror -- the horror coming, in this instance, from an invasion of South American flesh-eating fire ants into rural Texas.

Now there's a trailer.

Invicta (US-2009; dir. Carolyn Banks)



Source: Avery

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Update: Amphibious 3D

More from Brian Yuzna's giant-arachnid-acting-badly flick, Amphibious 3D (Indonesia/Netherlands-2010; dir. Brian Yuzna) -- touted as Indonesia's first 3D movie -- which we last met on Undead Backbrain not long ago.



Produced by San Fu Maltha and Komodo Films, the film is scheduled to be released mid-2010 (November in the Netherlands, according to IMDb) and stars Michael Paré (Bloodrayne, Bloodrayne 2, Virgin Suicides), Janna Fassaert (Couples Retreat) and Francis Magee (London River, Sahara, Layer Cake and Ricky Gervais' upcoming Cemetery Junction), among others.



Cast:
Michael Pare (US) : Jack Bowman
Janna Fassaert (Holland) : Skylar Shane
Monica Sayangbati (Indonesia) : Tamal
Francis Bosco (Singapore) : Boss Harris
Francis McGee (UK) : Jimmy Kudrow
Verdi Solaiman (Indonesia) : Andi
t.b.c. : Bimo
Mikael C. Jehian (Indonesia) : Aris
Mohammad Aditya (Indonesia) : Big Rudi
Steven Baray (Indonesia) : Rizal
Herlian Ujang (Indonesia) : Nanung
Bambang B.S. (Indonesia) : Tamal’s Uncle


 

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Princess of Mars Trailer

Here's the trailer for the Asylum's version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, with a couple of nice monsters lurking about -- and a spaceship.

Princess of Mars (US-2009; dir. Mark Atkins)



It will be released on 29 December 2009.


Source: Official website; previous Undead Backbrain article. Thanks to Avery.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Teaser Trailer for Clash of the Titans

Speaking of stopmotion vs computer-generated SFX, here's the first trailer for a CGI blockbuster remake of a stopmotion classic, Clash of the Titans.

Clash of the Titans (US-2010 [currently in post-production]; dir. Louis Leterrier)



Clash of the Titans (US-1981; dir. Desmond Davis)




It's interesting the way our view on what makes for appropriate epic music scoring has changed....

Creating the Raiders

Larry Arpin, who is currently working on a scifi monster film that utilises the stop-motion technology made famous by the 1933 King Kong's Willis O'Brien and the great Ray Harryhausen, has sent along an exclusive SFX reel showing how he creates the pre-CGI magic.



The film is Galactic Raiders and you can read more about it on Undead Backbrain and on this site:
Also check out Arpin's newly revamped website.

Thanks to Larry Arpin, Avery, and RoboJapan.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Update: She-Rex

Low-budget genre auteur Brett Kelly's prehysterical dino-comedy She-Rex has just wrapped and can be downloaded from The Content Bay for viewing on your PC/Mac. It will be released to DVD very shortly (27 November).



Synopsis:
Dan and Stan are the world's greatest adventurers -- at least in their own minds! When the two morons are sent to a lost island to rescue a wealthy pair of treasure hunters, chaos ensues. The adventurers encounter a tribe of sexy jungle girls who worship a flesh-eating T-Rex! She-Rex is a tribute to the classic comedy of yesteryear.

Trailer:

Thursday, November 5, 2009

More Images from Assault Girls

TwitchFilm has dug up some new images from Assault Girls [aka Asaruto gâruzu] (Japan-2009; dir. Mamoru Oshii) -- the Ghost in the Shell director's first live-action film since the excellent Avalon.



 
 
 
 

There's plenty more on the Twitch site.


Thanks, Avery.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Update on Alien Grey: Zone-X

A restricted research area designated Zone-X -- reminiscent of the legendary Area 51 perhaps -- spawns aliens, alien-reengineered dinosaurs and invasive conspiracies. This is the premise of the independent scifi flick Alien Grey: Zone-X (US; dir. Thomas R. Dickens), which Undead Backbrain reported on a while back.

Director Dickens has dropped by to supply us with a new snapshot of one of the alien greys, just to keep things rolling.



Dickens reports:
The only thing new on AGZ-X is that I am continuing forward with the "Reptile Attack" section.  It is still in post-production.  It is looking great, but still a few shots to do.  The above is an image of an Orion Grey in the film, at the end of the Reptile Attack Sequence.  It looks a little goofy but is based on actual sightings.

Part of the film (65 minutes of an anticipated 120 minutes) has screened at the New York International Film and Video Festival,  where it gained awards for Best Actor, Best SFX and Best Film.

Here's the director being interviewed:



Go to the website for more information.
  • Source: via Avery

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Update: Sherlock Holmes vs the Monsters

Up until a few moments ago, I was wondering what sort of "enormous monsters" the great detective Sherlock Holmes would be up against in The Asylum's in-production fantasy film -- Sherlock Holmes (US-2010; dir. Rachel Goldenberg).

Synopsis:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective faces the ultimate challenge when enormous monsters attack London.
Now we know!


Sunday, October 11, 2009

G on DVD

Short, traditionally imagined daikaiju eiga by independent filmmaker Taguchi Kiyotaka are suddenly appearing on DVD. First there was his Gehara. Now it has been announced that G (2008), a short [48 minute] film featuring a huge (and weird) rampaging monster, Garaemon, and a gigantic robot, is to be released to DVD on 23 October.



Unfortunately this one doesn't appear to have English subtitles.

Gehara on DVD

At last Chohatsu Daikaiju Gehara [Long-haired Giant Monster Gehara; Geharha, The Dark and Long-Haired Monster] (2009; short; dir. Kiyotaka Taguchi) has been released to DVD.



DVD and Blu-Ray editions became available in Japan on 30 September. The version of the film offered is the "Director's Cut", running 21 minutes, rather than the 17-minute version that was aired on NHK’s late-night series “Play TV: Perform!” and was available on the web. Gehara was later screened at the 2009 Yubari Fantastic Film Festival where it came in 2nd place in the Yubari Fantaland grand-prix.

New Trailer:



Both DVD and Blu-Ray releases have English subtitles and include the following extras:
  1. Monster Movie Special [49 minutes]
  2. Making of the full version [63 minutes]
  3. Promotional video [1 min]
  4. Plus an audio commentary by Jun Miura (screenplay), Shinji Higuchi (Executive Producer) and Taguchi Kiyotaka (Director)


 

 
(more images available here and here)
Synopsis:
In Ishikawa prefecture, mysterious incidents occur frequently and there is always a tangle of long, creepy hair left behind. Newspaper reporter Hideo Akihara is so interested in the story on the news that he rushes to the hospital where a survivor of the incident is hospitalized. The survivor is hairless. . . Undertaking an investigation, Hideo stumbles upon a shrine and learns about the hairy monster Gehara. Meanwhile, the monster appears in Kanazawa city and is engaged in mortal combat with defense forces. . . (adapted from CDJapan)

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Update on Daimajin Kannon

A previous article on Undead Backbrain revealed that Kadokawa Publishing had acquired the rights to Daiei's 1960s Daimajin franchise -- which featured a huge statue of a warrior that comes to life to get revenge on the wicked and those who don't show proper respect -- and were planning to produce a TV series based on the films, modernised under the title Daimajin Kannon. Well,  no further information is forthcoming at this point, but a series of images have surfaced. From the images, which as well as Daimajin himself show cast members (presumably), an alien Kamen Rideresque insectoid character and a very Japanese yokai with a bucket for a head, a few of the show's characteristics can be deduced -- though I'll let you articulate them for yourself.