More from the boils ‘n ghouls over at Shock Till You Drop. This time they got the goods on the first season of the horror anthology show TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE. Check it out:
“Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But, there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit…a dark side.”
Paramount Home Entertainment will finally give Tales from the Darkside a home on DVD. The complete first season is arriving on February 10th!
This 30-minute horror anthology series followed in the vein of Creepshow with George Romero on board to executive produce for Laurel Entertainment. The show ran from ‘84 to ‘88 delving into original stories and adapting works from writers like Stephen King and Clive Barker. A feature anthology film, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, opened in theaters in 1990.
I’m gonna need a better job with all of this cool shit coming out, the next story will be about MY NAME IS BRUCE DVD Specs. SWEET!
If you listened to Episode FIVE of THE BACKWOODS HORRORSHOW, you might’ve heard me mention something about a poster for the new Romero zombie flick. Well, apparently the boils ‘n ghouls over at SHOCK TILL YOU DROP got a look at it and snapped a few pics. The working title is still “OF THE DEAD” as they don’t have an official title yet. I thought it was a fake photoshop workup by some fanboy at first but it seems somewhat legit. Check out the art below and let’s hope that this one’s better than DIARY. Here’s the teaser art:
More than likely. As much of a Romero mark as I am, I can’t get behind his latest effort Diary Of The Dead. It, well, it was just awful and it didn’t really FEEL like a Romero Zombie flick. The characters weren’t well defined and the social commentary that generally permeates the original trilogy, one of the aspects that made them so damn good, was just slapping you in the face on this one. Sorry Uncle George, that one was a real stinker.
Dimension Extreme, the company that brought us Diary of the Dead on DVD is also bringing us another film in the same vein, the UK’s ZOMBIE DIARIES, and I’ve got to say, this one looks like a winner. It’s being hailed as the best zombie flick to come out of the UK…ever (let’s remember that 28 Days Later was NOT a zombie movie, it was a plague movie). This is what Dread Central got out of Co-Director Michael Bartlett:
“Instead of making it a ‘documentary,’ we felt the Blair Witch format worked better — i.e., people trying to hurriedly document what they could for posterity. We saw a lot of areas that could be improved with this format, too.
For example, our film has music (which seems initially counter-intuitive but works a treat) and does not have annoying sequences with characters constantly arguing with each other. We also broke the story up and shot in Pulp Fiction style. It jumps across time lines and stories and does a pretty neat job of keeping the viewer’s attention, which we felt one single story wouldn’t achieve.
I made sure we did lots of [rehearsing] for this film and combined [that] with complete back-stories for the characters, as well as improv based around a script.
We also then cut the film to pieces in the editing suite. Kevin is a fantastic editor, and we put our egos aside and made sure we were blunt with one another from the scripting right through to the editing. Any dodgy exposition had to be axed. This had to be so real that you felt you were in this genuine ‘zombie world.’ Obviously we had to strike a balance, as at the end of the day this film is entertainment. I think we did that well, but time will tell if we did a good job. We had Mike Peel (The Descent) working on our special effects with two other great artists, and [everything] certainly comes across as very believable, even under the unforgiving eyes of a DV camera.”
This is the summary from Shock Till You Drop: Set in England during a world-wide viral infection, this documentary-style frightfest records the rise of the undead from the videocams of several survivor groups. As each struggles against the flesh-eating hordes, an even more horrifying fate lurks among them.
Granted, I’ve only seen the trailer and some stills, but it looks pretty damn kickass. Take a look at the trailer and poster below.
Release Date is set for November 18th, 2008, so mark your Zombie calendars! And While you’re here, be sure to click the link to your right for The Backwoods Horrorshow podcast!
Ok…so apparently the new one IS going to be kind of a sequel to Diary. Fucksticks! Here’s the word from Shock Till You Drop:
In speaking with SchlockAroundtheClock.com, Romero explains the story, “starts with the blonde who drove away [in Diary of the Dead] and the national guardsmen who robbed the people. So those are the only characters that return. What it’s about is tribalism. How the Internet creates a Hatfields and McCoys situation. It’s on an island, where people have been lured by someone on the net as a safe haven, but really what these guys are trying to do is hold them up at the boat docks.
Ah hell, I was hoping for a non-sequel, but at least I think he’s going against the POV/Blair Witch style of direction this time. Still…it’s a Romero Flick…of COURSE I’m going to watch it. The dude could film zombies takin’ a shit and I’d watch it. In fact…(excuse us, Aaron has just gone into the bathroom with a makeup kit, MiniDV camera…oh GOD the smell…)
One of my continuous sources of creamy horror goodness, Shock Till You Drop, released some info. on the upcoming George A. Romero Zombie flick…and guess what, it’s not a sequel to the abysmal Diary Of The Dead. Seems like it’s gonna be an entirely original flick in his Zombie canon. The most information they’ve got thus far is that it’s going to take place on an island. Not a huge scoop, but stay tuned boils ‘n ghouls because as soon as I know more, you’ll know more!
This probably explains why he postponed his visit to Charlotte, NC (nearby stompin’ grounds for yours truly).
G. Cameron Romero, son of legendary George A. Romero, has, of late, been following in his father’s devilish footsteps. His newest feature, Staunton Hill, seems like it might be worth checking out. The story follows a group of hikers who unwittingly become involved with a backwoods family by the name of Staunton. Seems like it may be derivative somewhat of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but hell, what backwoods movie with a fucked up family isn’t these days? Hopefully, being Romero’s son, G. Cameron Romero will be the new go-to guy for horror. The trailer gives me hope. I’m wondering if this flick will get theatrical distribution or go straight to dvd. Let’s all hope we can see this one in a darkened theater. Check out the trailer below.
![](http://backwoodshorror.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/sjff_02_img0827.jpg "\\"Now zoom in real close, I want a tight shot of that Zombie poo!\\"")
