EVIL DEAD/EVIL DEAD 2, HOUSE/HOUSE II, & THE WARRIORS Apparel from Fright-Rags

Few films and their sequels are as equally revered by fans as The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. Whether you prefer Sam Raimi's 1981 indie horror landmark or his black humor-injected 1987 sequel, Fright-Rags has something for you, along with new shirts from House, House II, and The Warriors.

Fright-Rags returns to the cabin in the woods for more Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 apparel. There are three new shirts, along with reprints of two classic designs, three pairs of socks, and five enamel pins - including a recreation of the cellar door that opens and closes with real dangling chains.

Horror has found a new home as Fright-Rags moves into House and House II: The Second Story. Four shirt have have been created for the pair of '80s horror flicks, including one in the style of a vintage double-feature newspaper ad.

 

Fright-Rags comes out to play with The Warriors collection. Choose from four new shirts from Walter Hill's 1979 cult classic, ranging from new designs to official artwork.

Join us at Fright-Rags.com, where the Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2, House/House II, and The Warriors collections are available now.

Be sure to return to the site this Friday, August 17, for Fright-Rags’ latest “classick” reprint. Justin Osbourn's Zeke the Plumber T-shirt, inspired by Salute Your Shorts, will be available for three days only.

Finally, Fright-Rags has announced that it will be releasing officially licensed apparel from the Halloween franchise - including John Carpenter's original and David Gordon Green's brand new sequel, among other installments - each week throughout the month of October.

Visit Fright-Rags.com,

 

Chris Sun talks about BOAR - showing at this years FrightFest

10 Questions with Chris Sun, director of BOAR - playing at this years FrightFest.

Are you really named Christopher after horror icon Christopher Lee?

Sure am, my mum loved him as an actor and I guess I scored his name.

Your past horrors – DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL, COME AND GET ME, CHARLIE’S FARM – were all R rated and came with some controversy. Is that why BOAR is just gory creature feature fun?

When I first wrote BOAR I wanted it to be R Rated as well, really violent kills and gore like my past films, people seemed to really love the kills in Charlie’s Farm and the Torture in Daddy’s Little Girl. I wanted the fans to get that same feeling and enjoyment from the bloodshed in BOAR. I wrote BOAR to be funny when it had to be funny and serious when it had to be serious. I wanted to give the fans a journey they could go on for 96 minutes, one minute they are laughing, the next minute watching a head get torn off then back to laughing again. BOAR doesn’t take itself serious at all; it’s a fun film that has a giant pig that eats people, so yeah BOAR is just “Gory Creature Feature Fun”!

A giant pig in the outback! Obviously RAZORBACK must have been an influence? 

You know you can’t make a giant pig movie in Australia without people thinking about one of the greats, RAZORBACK. Now that’s a great monster movie and I guess in a small way there was a little RB Influence there but to be honest, my inspiration for BOAR came from American Werewolf in London and Jaws. However I do have an awesome cameo from Chris Haywood (Razorback) in BOAR where he sits at the bar and talks about a giant pig terrorising the outback.

You are very loyal to your repertory company, including Bill Moseley, Nathan Jones. And BOAR also stars iconic actors from WOLF CREEK and MAD MAX. How important is it to continue that Australian genre tradition?

I have so much love for all the actors I have worked with over the years, both named stars and up and coming actors; I definitely have a special bond with some of them and hope to work with them again down the track. Like most directors I have my go too talent for my films in Australia. This may change if I was shooting a film in USA or other countries; also it depends on the film/script to what talent would be needed of course. If it was an Australian film I would most definitely continue to hire Aussie acting legends for the roles, especially talent I have worked with and now have solid relationships with.  

This is your first time at FrightFest. Excited? 

I am super excited and honoured to have BOAR playing at FrightFest, what an amazing festival to have the UK premiere. I really hope the FrightFest Creature Feature fans really enjoy BOAR and have a great time watching BOAR and all the great films the festival is playing.

What are your own personal favourite past Australian horrors? 

You can’t go past John Jarratt and Wolf Creek, Razorback, Rogue, The Loved Ones and I really enjoyed Wyrmwood. To be honest I’m a big supporter of Aussie Horror movies in general, I think Aussie’s have a knack for making good fun horror films and I think the world loves to see what we are going to bring out next. Aussie’s are known for F@%king Sh%t up and I don’t think this will ever change. The boar itself is a 3-man operated 14ft. fibreglass model and over 85% of the film utilises practical effects.

Was that the major challenge here?

One of the main challenges was moving the big beast around on set, sometimes just to move him a few meters up the road could take 20+ minutes then we would have to re set him up and get the team back inside for the next takes.  As for challenges I don’t think we had too many with the practical beast apart from small things like tusks breaking, there was the one time Nathan Jones punched out one of the eyes and we had to change heads but overall I think he went pretty well on set.

How hard is it to balance comedy with the horror?

The script has to have some great dialogue in there for the talent to use but I think it’s all in the casting, delivery and edit. So far all my films have had a mixture of comedy and horror, as I said a few times in the past I don’t think I’ve actually made a “Scary” movie yet. I seem to be able to have that healthy balance of both comedy and horror and the fans seem to enjoy that balance as well. It’s also important to know when enough is enough so you don’t turn the whole film into a comedy, you still need those moments where the audience hides behind their hands, gasps or reacts to the horror on screen. You have to remember it’s a horror film that has a few laughs along the way, take the audience on the emotional roller coaster ride so they walk out of that screening not only talking about the funny scenes but they are raving about the kills, blood and guts as well.

What’s your favourite scene in BOAR?

There is a scene with Chris Haywood, Ernie Dingo and Melissa Tkautz that I just love in the bar where Chris delivers a cameo, I had so much fun shooting it and editing it all together.  I also really enjoyed Nathan Jones’s rap scene, I wont spoil for the fans but Nathan Jones is normally cast in films to play the big bad guy, In BOAR we have cast him as “Uncle Bernie” and he is just a lovable character and has a few memorable scenes through out the film, he has definitely become a BOAR fan favourite.

BOAR is just so over-the-top, is that the overall atmosphere you were going for? 

Most definitely, I always knew it was going to be a fun over the top film. It has serious moments in there but for the most part it’s an entertaining F@%ked up film. FrightFest supporters should go to watch BOAR knowing it’s a fun film with plenty of laughs, blood and guts, they won’t be disappointed. I mean how can you be disappointed - it’s a giant pig roaming around eating random people, who doesn’t want to see that?

BOAR plays at Arrow Video FrightFest on Fri 24th August, Cineworld Leicester SQ.

It will receive a Home Entertainment release in 2019, courtesy of FrightFest Presents.

Tickets: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/2018Films/boar.html

For details of this and other films, tickets and weekend passes: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

 

 

Miss Leslie's Dolls and Who Killed Teddy Bear on UK BD and VOD

Network is proud to unveil two lesser-known drive-in gems from the golden age of American genre cinema, both restored in glorious HD and making their Blu-ray debuts in stunning multi-region releases, as well as DVD and Digital releases too. 

First up, fasten your seatbelts for the deranged, lost grindhouse classic Miss Leslie's Dolls, which is being unearthed on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD for the first time on 3rd September after decades of gathering dust. Then on 17th September, the criminally underseen psychedelic 1960s noir Who Killed Teddy Bear starring Sal Mineo makes its worldwide Blu-ray and VOD debut, complete with fascinating extras. 

MISS LESLIE'S DOLLS (1973)

A rare specimen from the more deranged end of the grindhouse spectrum, Miss Leslie's Dolls is a memorably demented tale of possession and transvestitism from director Joseph G. Prieto (who, under the name Joseph P. Mawra, directed the outrageous 1965 lesbian sexploitation 'documentary' Chained Girls). Believed lost for decades, it has been remastered from original film elements especially for this release.

Stranded in the backwoods during a thunderstorm, a beautiful teacher and her three promiscuous students take refuge at a lonely house owned by the middle-aged Miss Leslie. Miss Leslie, however, is less a mild-mannered spinster and more an axe-wielding, homicidal cross-dresser intent on transferring his spirit into the nubile body of any girl foolish enough to come visiting...

Miss Leslie's Dolls has been newly scanned from one of the few surviving prints in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The restoration carried out involved careful grain management, both automated and manual removal of film dirt and damage, and correction of major instability, warping and density fluctuations

Pre-order the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk

WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR (1965)

A grim police detective embarks on a one-man crusade to track down a depraved sex maniac when a nightclub dancer receives a disturbing series of obscene phone calls. Finding himself getting far too close to the victim for comfort, the hard-boiled cop must track down the unbalanced pervert before he can carry out his sick threats...

Refused certification on its original theatrical release due to its sleazy, taboo-breaking nature, this psychological crime thriller features strong performances from Sal Mineo as a bodybuilding, pornography-addicted bus boy and Juliet Prowse as a victimised nightclub hostess. Showcasing Oscar-nominated cinematographer Joseph Brun's breathtaking imagery of pre-clean-up Times Square and 42nd Street, this forgotten neo-noir masterpiece of American independent cinema still retains the power to shock, and crackles with energy from its smart dialogue, electrifying performances and groovy dance sequences.

Previously available only on DVD, Who Killed Teddy Bear has been newly scanned from one of the few surviving 35mm prints in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The restoration carried out involved careful grain management, both automated and manual removal of film dirt and damage, and correction of major instability, warping and density fluctuations. Missing frames/sections have been re-instated from a 16mm print and the image matched as far as possible but a difference in visual quality may be occasionally noticed.

Special Features
• Trailer
• Court Martial episode
• LSD: Insight or Insanity?
• Stills gallery
• PDF material

Pre-order the UK BD from Amazon.co.uk

 

Official UK trailer & poster for Brit zombie flick REDCON-1- in UK cinemas 28th Sept

British zombie action epic REDCON-1 arrives in UK cinemas this September and the new Poster and trailer have just been unleashed.

After a zombie apocalypse spreads from a London prison, the UK is brought to its knees. The spread of the virus is temporarily contained but, without a cure, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks its boundaries and the biggest problem of all… any zombies with combat skills are now enhanced.

With the South East of England quarantined from the rest of the world using fortified borders, intelligence finds that the scientist responsible for the outbreak is alive and well in London. With his recovery being the only hope of a cure, a squad of eight Special Forces soldiers is sent on a suicide mission to the city, now ruled by the undead, with a single task: get him out alive within 72 hours by any means necessary. What emerges is an unlikely pairing on a course to save humanity against ever-rising odds.

REDCON-1 infects UK cinemas from 28th September.

For more info visit: http://www.redcon1film.co.uk

Also visit: http://www.facebook.com/Redcon1Film   

10 Questions with Tim Van Dammem, director of MEGA TIME SQUAD

Director Tim Van Dammen talks about MEGA TIME SQUAD, which is being screened at this months FrightFest.

You played a Street Demon in director Jason Lei Howden’s FrightFest favourite DEATHGASM. Is the New Zealand film community that small?

I didn’t play a street demon; I am a street demon. The film community in NZ is small enough for most active people to know most other active people – but the genre scene is small enough for us all to know each other by at least one degree of separation. Many of my friends worked on or acted in Deathgasm and they needed a night shoot of ‘street demons’ so I donned my tie-dye and offered to help out. It was a lot of fun and I think Jason and the team did an incredible job.

Have you met Peter Jackson and do you see him as the ultimate Kiwi role model?

I have met some of his major long-time collaborators like Richard Taylor (production designer) who put me in touch with Jamie Selkirk (editor/post supervisor) who mentored me through the postproduction of Romeo and Juliet, so I spent a lot of time at Park Road Post but I have never met Peter Jackson. He is certainly one of the great Kiwi legends and for filmmakers he would be the ultimate role model. His work has inspired me since I was five years old and living in a caravan when I saw a news piece about Bad Taste being selected for Cannes. I remember my dad laughing his arse off about the sheep being hit by the rocket launcher and ever since then I wanted to be a filmmaker. Then when Braindead came out I realised that filmmaking was something I might be able to do – I just needed to find a fresh approach. I still remember gagging as Tim Balme pulls the dog tail from his mother’s throat… Braindead is so good.

Not many people get to write with William Shakespeare as you did with your 2013 feature debut ROMEO AND JULIET: A LOVE SONG. That must have been a great experience? 

Haha, yeah, I think that credit was a legal thing. Shakespeare really didn’t deserve it, after all he only wrote the verse. I’ll give you a moment to recover after that hilarious joke… It was fun trying to Kiwify Romeo and Juliet but the difficult part was filming it as an opera. Coming from music videos I was used to shooting to music but to shoot the full play in its entire original text, all set to a series of songs, and to try to make it emotionally moving was a major challenge. It taught me that I had a lot to learn in terms of storytelling.

You directed over 180 music video for some top Kiwi and International acts. Can you name some we would have seen?

It’s hard to tell which videos you may know because the music scene varies so vastly from country to country. My band, Collapsing Cities, was signed in the UK around 2008/9 and we toured and did the big festivals so maybe you saw something then. I used to make at least a video a week so it’s hard to remember them all. My most popular videos were ‘Just a little bit’ - Kids of 88, ‘Standing in the rain’– Sola Rosa, ‘Autumn’ – Artisan Guns, some The Naked and Famous stuff… but these were more popular in Aus, NZ, Germany and the US… the UK is pretty unique in its music scene; when my band supported the Artic Monkeys I was surprised to see that they had platinum records hanging on the wall at XFM…so antipodean.

Where did you get the idea for the MEGA TIME SQUAD script?

I wanted to do a time travel movie and I thought it would be cool if it were about a guy who went back in time to hang out with himself. But then I wondered if it would funny if he jacked himself off... Then he would feel weird about it and go back in time again to stop himself from jacking himself off and there would be this weird love triangle between a series of copies of the same guy. Then I came to my senses and realised that there was a better way to approach this idea. What if he helped himself commit a crime or escape the punishment for committing a crime? What if he time travelled to help himself steal a bunch of cash but once he got it he didn’t want to share the cash with himself? What if he time travelled so much that the various versions couldn’t remember which version was which? Then what if they started killing each other? This seemed like a better angle than a wankfest.

Time travel stories can often be so convoluted, how did you avoid that?

I drew a kind of map of the time travel and decided that the only “rule” was that when John time travels he moves in time but not in space. I was more focused on how to make time travel new again or at least address it from a less familiar perspective. I felt like we’d seen enough time travel movies where we follow the same character going back over and over again so I wanted to show the story from more of a third person point of view. We travel with John the first couple of times but after that we follow whichever version of John is driving the story. It’s not really about time travel, it’s about a lovable idiot with a time travel device who thinks time travel is cool because he gets to hang out with earlier iterations of himself.

Any favourite time travel movies you looked at for inspiration?

I watched as many as I could find and I loved most of them but the one that influenced the way this film worked was Time Crimes. Mega Time Squad is a very different film in both tone and premise but it’s similar in that there are multiples of the same guy in the same timeline and that’s what Time Crimes achieved very well. You’ll notice a dozen or so nods to various movies in the Mega Time Squad but they are not so much influences on the film; instead they are films that I imagine that John (the main character) thinks he’s in.

Did your script have to be so vulgar, or is that the NZ way?

I didn’t notice it was so vulgar until the sound designer played it to his kids. While I was writing it I was spending a lot of time with my dad and that’s how we talk. A big chunk of the dialogue is made up of direct quotes from my dad and his mates. I wouldn’t say ‘it’s the Kiwi way’ but I do think New Zealanders and Australians have a more relaxed and cheerful attitude towards vulgarity than many other parts of the world. Etymology section of answer: I was recently in Rome where I saw an original ‘vulgar’ fresco on the wall of a church from 150AD depicting the Emperor instructing slaves who were dragging St Clemente out of the ocean and the text in the fresco read “Hurry up you sons of bitches!” That’s where the term ‘vulgar’ comes from.

MEGA TIME SQUAD features some amazing special effects considering, one assumes, the low budget. How did you manage it?

I’ve been deep into VFX software since I started my career as a video artist showing in art galleries until my band was signed and I moved into making music videos and then into making films. After spending years making VFX-heavy content and then doing the VFX on Romeo and Juliet and some more on Deathgasm I have a pretty good command of the discipline. I understood that there were going to be a lot of constraints around the formal aspects of the film because, as you mention, we had no money. So I needed to work around that with regard to camera movement, for example, while still being able to pace the film and give it a cinematic feel. It was a challenge, and if my past endeavours hadn’t taught me the limits of what I could pull off competently at this budget level, I probably would’ve felt that I’d bitten off more than I could chew. As far as conceptualisation, my only rule on Mega Time Squad was that I wanted the VFX to be inherently silly while remaining cool and being something that I hadn’t seen before. Hopefully that’s what James and I achieved.

How would you best describe MEGA TIME SQUAD?

Its an absurd time travel crime comedy with a big heart about a loveable rural idiot with modest aspirations who uses a time travel bracelet to steal the money needed to fulfil his dream of moving to the neighbouring town… but he fucks up the time travelling bit.

MEGA TIME SQUAD plays at Arrow Video FrightFest on Thurs 23 August, Cineworld Leicester SQ.

Tickets: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/2018Films/mega-time-squad.html

FrightFest website: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

 

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum - screening at London Korean Film Festival

The London Korean Film Festival 2018 Teaser Screenings presents smash-hit horror Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum at Picturehouse Central, Thursday 30th August

Gonjiam Psychiatric hospital, well known locally as one of the most haunted places in South Korea, gained international notoriety when CNN named it as one of the ‘7 Freakiest Places on Earth.’ Shrouded in mystery, the desolate location is the home of urban legends telling of abandoned patients, deranged doctors and horrific experiments. With all the elements for a perfect horror movie in place, director Jung Bum-shik went to work and ended up making the surprise hit of 2018 and the country’s second most successful horror movie of all time.

Charismatic Ha-joon and his fearless pals are the founders of a ghost-hunting YouTube channel. With a target to hit one million viewers, the trio enlist four willing recruits, embarking on a mission to live-stream a journey into the heart of the abandoned Gonjiam Psychiatric Asylum. Their night-time assault on the location will see their attempt to confront the myths surrounding the building and eventually open the mysterious ‘Room 402.’ However, it seems the asylum has other plans for its newest residents, and when the truth behind the stories begins to reveal itself, the desire for online likes gives way to a need for real-life survival…

The found footage format has been a horror staple since the Blair Witch Project first wormed its way into the collective fears of a generation, showing just how successful a film an original idea and a couple of video cameras could make. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum gives the format a modern update, with GoPro cameras and drones live-streaming the action for YouTube, yet the core remains the same; take a cast of unknowns, throw in an isolated location and an urban legend, and watch the terror unfold.

Tickets: http://ow.ly/V7SK30liA6z

 

DEATH LINE and ASSAULT unleashed on UK Blu-ray 27th August

Network is proud to add two early 1970s cult favourites to their 'The British Film' collection.

First up is a brand new HD remaster of the 1972 renowned horror classic DEATH LINE (aka Raw Meat) starring Donald Pleasence and Christopher Lee, which makes its UK Blu-ray debut. Alongside that is the hard-hitting 1971 thriller ASSAULT (aka In The Devil's Garden), a lesser known gem starring Suzy Kendall and Frank Finlay, which makes its worldwide Blu-ray debut.

DEATH LINE 

Donald Pleasence gives a memorable performance as an idiosyncratic police inspector hot on the trail of a nest of inbred subterranean cannibals in this notoriously violent arthouse slasher movie from the early 1970s. A long-time cult favourite, Death Line features stylishly grim imagery from Oscar-nominated cinematographer Alex Thomson and a rumbustuously sleazy soundtrack from Wil Mallone and Jeremy Rose. Transferred from original film elements it is presented here as a brand-new High Definition restoration in its original theatrical aspect ratio.

When a philandering politician goes missing on the Underground, the subsequent police investigation uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden since the 1800s. Who – or what – is turning the Underground tunnels into a Death Line..?

Previously available only on DVD in the UK, Death Line has been newly scanned to 2K resolution from the original 35mm camera negative and extensively restored in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 for this exclusive UK Blu-ray release. The restoration involved careful grain management, both automated and manual removal of film dirt and damage, and correction of major instability, warping and density fluctuations.

Special Features
• Mind the Doors!: an interview with Hugh Armstrong
• Limited edition, collectable booklet written by Laura Mayne
• Theatrical Trailer
• Image Gallery
• PDF Material

Mind the Doors!
A one-off interview with the incredibly friendly Hugh Armstrong, who provides insights into his life and acting career, including his portrayal of ‘The Man’ in Death Line.

Pre-order on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2M4un9h

ASSAULT 

A hard-hitting psychological thriller, Assault stars Frank Finlay as a career policeman willing to employ unorthodox methods to catch a sleazy murderer and Suzy Kendall as a plucky teacher willing to put her life in jeopardy to help him do so. Tautly directed by Sidney Hayers (Night of the Eagle), this controversial drama is presented here as a brand-new High Definition transfer remastered from the original 35mm camera negative.

When a schoolgirl rapist escalates to murder, Det. Chief Supt. Velyan (Finlay) faces an agonising choice when the girl's teacher – who saw the maniac in pursuit of his second victim – offers to put herself in harm's way in an effort to catch the killer. 

Assault has been newly scanned to 2K resolution from the original 35mm camera negative in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The restoration carried out involved careful grain management, both automated and manual removal of film dirt and damage, and correction of major instability, warping and density fluctuations. Remastered from original film materials preserved by the BFI National Archive.

Special Features
• Theatrical Trailer
• Image Gallery
• Limited edition collectable booklet written by Laura Mayne and Adrian Smith
• PDF material

Pre-order on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2AQgqqz

Network presents Death Line and Assault on Blu-ray 27th August