Totally meta! Magnolia just announced that V/H/S will be available on VHS format in the U.S. I am excited! My VCR has been feeling lonely lately and is totally sick of playing the Young Ones anthology. No word on when, where, or how many, but fingers crossed it will be soon.

V/H/S was released in the U.K. back in December, see pics below. Odds are it will look quite a bit like this. The Brits really do get everything cool first.

In case you missed it, V/H/S is a found –footage horror anthology written and directed by Adam Wingard (The ABC’s of Death, You’re Next, A Horrible Way to Die), David Bruckner (The Signal), Ti West (The Innkeepers, The House of the Devil), Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead), Joe Swanberg (Autoerotic, The Zone) and Radio Silence.  There’s already a V/H/S sequel in the works, and we have the first image here.
 

via Bloody Disgusting

 

Vulture is reporting that Joe Dante’s classic Gremlins is inching closer into remake territory. Here’s the scoop:

“Our sources tell us that, in keeping with Hollywood’s mandated pop culture recycling program, Warner Bros. Pictures is negotiating with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment to reboot their 1984 horror comedy, Gremlins.

We’re also told negotiations of this sort have happened several times over the years, but making Spielberg’s deal always proved too daunting a financial prospect and his involvement might simply be a requirement for making the film at all, so don’t hold your breath. Having said all of that, our sources tell us that it might just actually come off this time.”

No executives were available for comment, and it’s highly unlikely Joe Dante would be involved with this reboot/rehash/remake.

Does anyone who is actually a fan of the original want to see this happen? I really don’t think so. I will make one plea to Warner Bros. if this project goes forward: please keep the bar scene, most specifically, the Flashdance part. There’s nothing like a Gremlin in legwarmers.

What do you think of a Gremlins remake? Would you go see it?

via Vulture

In Fear is a tale of a couple that gets lost in a maze of country roads and must attempt to survive a night-turned-nightmare. The first film from director Jeremy Lovering stars an up-and-coming cast including Iain De Caestecker of The Fades, Alice Englert from Beautiful Creatures, and Downton Abbey's Allen Leech.

See the poster below.  Anyone who lived, or lives, in the woods knows dark country roads are terrifying. In Fear’s woods are made of knife/saws. That’s not good.

The film will play a midnight screening at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 20.

I liked Death Race 3 about as much as I enjoyed Death Race 2, and I have two theories on why stuff like this happens to an intelligent person who can plainly recognize sloppy, low-budget filmmaking when he sees it:
A. When a genre movie is produced directly for the video market, a seasoned viewer cannot help but lower their expectations a little. This makes them a little happier because they spent less money, and it may make them a little more charitable towards low-budget components like wooden acting, cheap sets, or chintzy special effects.

B. When a group of filmmakers are given a limited budget, relatively free rein, and a goal to make a simplistically entertaining action sequel ... sometimes fun things can happen.

That's not to imply that Death Race 3 ever comes close to transcending its "made for DVD" lineage, but to say that, within the realm of what it's shooting for, Death Race 3 is as much of a success as its two predecessors. In other words: if you like this sort of junk, here's a fun piece of that sort of junk. 

Continuity helps, even in goofy franchises like Death Race, so fans will be pleased to note that director Roel Reine is back, as is screenwriter Tony Giglio, producing partners Jeremy Bolt and Paul W.S. Anderson, and the whole dang cast of crazy car-crashin' caricatures. Death Race 3 is willfully mindless, frequently tasteless, and occasionally insipid, but there's little denying that it's another scrappy little "DTV" action flick that certainly delivers enough maniacal mayhem to warrant a three-dollar weekend rental.

Picking up right where Death Race 2 left off, we learn that the heroic Luke (Luke Goss) has now assumed the mantle of "Frankenstein," although his team of pals don't know the truth. Those pals are Lists (the nerd), Goldberg (the Trejo), and Katrina (the gorgeous, busty navigatress who accompanies "Frank" on all of his death races). But instead of just another series of carnage-laden death races on "Terminal Island" high security prison island (facility, inc.), the series is taking us to... Africa! What? A three-day mega-death race across the African plains? Complete with missiles and rockets and furious warlords? Oh my. 

And I didn't even mention the all-babe battle royale super-brawl in which the aspiring navigatresses fight to the death for a chance to race to the death. 

In between all the amusingly childish chases, scrapes, and explosions we're treated to a familiar yet juicy subplot about the new owner of Death Race (Dougray Scott) screwing over the old owner (Ving Rhames), but then it's back to more testosterone-y lunacy, with only a very slight gesture towards the scant-yet-still evident satirical barbs that ran throughout Anderson's first Death Race flick. 

Basically we're a long way from Roger Corman's 1975 cult favorite Death Race 2000, but there's still a gleeful, perhaps infantile, affection for colorful carnage that somehow connects all four of these unapologetically broad and campy action flicks. On a technical level, several of the set pieces are enjoyably pulpy and impactful; the score adds a nice dash of grizzled attitude; and overall the tone feels like the unkempt offspring of Lock Up, Mad Max, and The Cannonball Run. Only not as good as those movies.

Cheap, choppy, and almost shamelessly by-the-numbers, Death Race 3 earns points for the same reason its predecessor did: it's quick, slick, enjoyably empty-headed, just energetic enough to smash through the finish line, and, as a bonus, offers a final plot contortion that has to be seen to be believed. Crazy stuff, but not lazy. There's a big difference.

READ FEARnet's PARTNER REVIEWS OF DEATH RACE 3: INFERNO

The Following is one of the shows that I have most been looking forward to this season. It has a great cast (Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy), comes from a great writer/producer (Kevin Williamson), and has a great premise (cult of serial killers.) How could that combo go wrong?

Well, it can’t - it hasn’t. The Following completely lived up to my high expectations.

Kevin Bacon plays former FBI agent Ryan Hardy. He is former for many reasons: he is an alcoholic; he has a pacemaker after being stabbed in the heart by serial killer Joe Carroll; and he had a brief relationship with Carroll’s ex-wife after the trial was over. Carroll was literature professor with a hard-on for Poe, and killed over a dozen coeds in the manner of many victims from Poe’s stories. Hardy is brought back to the FBI when Carroll escapes, leaving a bloody path of victims in his wake. A cat-and-mouse chase like that can sustain an entire season, but Carroll is captured by the end of the pilot episode - he just had some unfinished business to attend to. 

What unfolds after Carroll’s capture is a cult that he has created, years in the making, laying in wait until they are signaled into service. They kill, they kidnap, they lie, and it appears to be a widespread cult - similar murders pop up all across the country by the pilot’s end. For the first four episodes that I saw, we stick with a small, local “sect” of this cult. I am hesitant to say much more, for I don’t want to give anything away. The Following doesn’t really have any jaw-dropping twists (at least, not in these first four episodes) but there are several moments that turn things around and make you go, “Nice!” It’s a Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries, Scream) trait.

As a tortured anti-hero, Ryan is nothing special. He has a troubled - but not uncommon - past, and the alcoholic FBI agent is far beyond cliche. But what you don’t get to see very often is an FBI agent and a brutal serial killer interacting on a level playing field like this. Ryan and Joe’s relationship is reminiscent of the relationship between Hannibal and Clarice. Purefoy’s character certainly isn’t likable, but he is relatable. The relationship between Ryan and the former Mrs. Carroll is surprisingly genuine, if occasionally frustrating.

Much has been said of the violence in The Following. True, it is probably the most graphically violent show on network television (with past seasons of Williamson’s The Vampire Diaries coming in a close second) and it certainly has nothing on True Blood or The Walking Dead. Some of the bodies are shown more graphically: a body with the eyes gouged out, or a pile of bodies in pools of blood. Very, very little of the actual killing takes place on screen - it is just the aftermath you see. It is much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that respect: your mind’s eye fills in the really horrible stuff.

I think Fox has a real winner here. It is dark, it is layered, but still completely accessible. If you haven’t already, make sure The Following is at the top of your DVR. 

The Following airs Monday nights at 9pm on Fox beginning January 21st. 

The Vampire Diaries Episode 410
“After School Special”
Written By: Brett Matthews
Directed By: David Von Ancken
Original Airdate: 17 January 2013

In This Episode...

During a town memorial for Carol Lockwood, Elena thinks she sees Rebekah in the crowd. She finds April crying in the hallway, but it is a ruse. Rebekah is indeed “alive” and she snaps Elena’s neck. Rebekah calls Stefan and kidnaps Caroline and pretty soon she has an Algonquin Roundtable of compelled vampires. She recaps the whole vampire cure deal, but notices that the tension in the room is unusually high. Caroline finally tells her that Stefan and Elena broke up. Rebekah’s interest is piqued; more so when Stefan says, “She slept with Damon.” Rebekah is distracted from the vampire cure to focus on pouring salt on that wound. She compels Elena into admitting that she is no longer in love with Stefan, but she is in love with Damon; she feels free with him, while with Stefan, she feels like a project.

Guess who else is in town? Kol! He kidnaps Shane and brings him to his sister to spill his guts on the vampire cure. Shane can’t be compelled, so Kol starts torturing him. When Bonnie discovers that Shane has been taken by Rebekah and Kol, she enlists April’s help to do a protection spell around him. It quickly becomes clear that Bonnie messed up on the protection spell Shane finally spills some of what he knows to the Originals. He is looking for the cure because he wants to free Silas, the first-ever immortal. Once Silas has risen, he will raise an army of those who died for him (yes! Zombies!) This spooks Kol, who is terrified of the prospect of Silas being resurrected. Rebekah scoffs that Silas is just a fairy tale, but Shane insists he is real. Out of pure rage and fear, Kol impales Shane on a piece of rebar, which infuriates Rebekah. Of course, April takes the true damage from this, leaving Bonnie wide-eyed as she tries to stem the blood. Elena and Stefan, no longer under Rebekah’s watchful eye, burst in and Stefan quickly heals April and send her away with Bonnie. Elena desperately wants to talk with Stefan about what just happened, but he is done. Wise man.

Meanwhile, Damon is still acting as camp counselor for Jeremy and Matt up at the lake house. Damon is not giving this training his all, because he is still pining for Elena. Klaus shows up unexpectedly, and is annoyed to discover that Jeremy hasn’t actually killed any vampires. He assumed that Damon would make a bunch of vamps for Jeremy to kill, but Damon says Jeremy first needs to learn to defend himself adequately; in actuality, Damon just doesn’t want to do anything to upset Elena. After Rebekah releases Elena from her compulsion, she goes home and calls Damon, and confesses that she is in love with him. Damon is overwhelmed with emotions that he doesn’t know how to handle. He assures her that he will get this cure for her, even though he will have to do things she won’t like, then tells her to come to him. Elena is elated. But before Elena arrives, Damon and his charges go meet Klaus at a bar. The bar is filled with bodies and, as Klaus explains, the victims are in transition; it is up to Jeremy to kill them.

Stefan is back at home and Rebekah goes to see him. He has a proposition for her: they team up to find the cure. Whoever gets to the cure first will decide what to do with it, and they both hate their brother. Rebekah wants to force feed the cure to Klaus and laugh when he realizes he is no longer immortal. I am not sure what Stefan plans on doing with the cure, but it is likely that he no longer wants to use it on Elena. Rebekah accepts his offer.

Some other important events from tonight’s episode:

-Shane was behind the explosion that killed the town council. He needed massacres of a dozen to use the bloodshed to perform dark magic.
-Bonnie’s dad, Rudy Hopkins, takes over as mayor. This is the first we are seeing of Bonnie’s dad, whose absence is explained as business travel because his daughter’s witchy tendencies make him uncomfortable.
-April takes a meeting with the sheriff and the mayor to tell them she knows that Shane was behind her father’s death - and she wants the truth to come out.

Dig It or Bury It?

Welcome back, The Vampire Diaries. Tonight’s episode was dark. There was no humor; no lightheartedness; no happiness. Even Damon getting those three little words from Elena was a little uncomfortable - I’m not used to seeing Damon so vulnerable. It is weird.

Devilishly Charming

Okay, there was one line that made me smile. At one point, Rebekah got Tyler to the school and compelled him to shift so she could watch the vampires run frantically. Nothing ever happened with that, but when Rebekah comes across Elena and Stefan later, she rolls her eyes. “Why are my least favorite people always the most durable?”

Prophecies?

Jeremy is not pleased with Klaus’s training program for him. Kol doesn’t want anyone to have the cure. And it looks like Stefan and Rebekah are going to hook up.

The first trailer for the sequel to the V/H/S anthology is out and from what you I can  glean from the very short clips it looks like we’ve got a bloody birthday, some monster action, and zombies.

It’s definitely a good start.  S-VHS is directed by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Edúardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Huw Evans, and Jason Eisener, and stars Adam Wingard, Lawrence Levine, L.C Holt, Kelsy Abbott, and Hannah Hughes.

See the first images here and read the synopsis below:

Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his abandoned house and find another collection of mysterious VHS tapes. In viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be terrifying motives behind the student’s disappearance.
 

This week in horror history saw the birth of two men who would change the face of the genre forever. Edgar Allen Poe, king of all-thing macabre and haunter of teen Goth dreams, was born January 19, 1809.

Nearly 150 years later director John Carpenter was born on January 16, 1948. Carpenter came out of USC film school with a number of other talented writers and directors. He was instrumental in changing the face of horror movie industry, making it the blockbuster business it is today, and creating what we know as the contemporary slasher. As a side note, there’s a fascinating book out there, Jason Zinoman’s Shock Value, that’s a great read if you want to know more about Carpenter and other directors of ‘70s horror classics.

“There’s a doctor present, Dr. Gatinau.”

One of my all-time favorite films was released this week, Cronenberg’s Scanners.  If you haven’t seen it, please see it soon.  It’s Cronenberg at his finest, combining corporate greed, sci-fi, societal fears, and body horror into a story that will make your head explode. Just like in the movie.

Also out this week in 1996, the ultra-cheesy, ultra-fun, biker-vampire bloodbath courtesy of Robert Rodriquez, From Dusk Till Dawn. George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino star as outlaw brothers who kidnap a family and head for a bar/stripclub on the border … of hell.  Tarantino wrote it and was cast in the role of the psychotic, sexual predator Richie.  Like most Rodriquez and Tarantino films, it’s chock full of a-list actors and genre favorites including Tom Savini as the biker Sex Machine.

Watch clips from the films below:

Title:Scanners
Released: January 14, 1981
Tagline: There are 4 billion people on earth. 237 are Scanners. They have the most terrifying powers ever created... and they are winning
 

Title: From Dusk Till Dawn
Released: January 19, 1996
Tagline: Vampires. No Interviews.
 

With no director and no one set to star in the next Terminator installment, things have not been looking good for the movie. Justin Lin was originally hired to helm, but quit in 2011 due to scheduling. It’s been reported he left for Fast and Furious 6.

Now Deadline reports that My Bloody Valentine director Patrick Lussier, who also scripted Wes Craven’s Dracula, is teaming up with Laeta Kalogridis, whose credits include Avatar and  Shutter Island, to tackle the script.

“Skydance’s David Ellison recently hired the scribes to write an original scifi adventure film, with an idea initiated by Skydance,” Deadline said. “Megan Ellison paid a fortune for the rights several years ago, and recently teamed with brother David, whose company finds big ticket action films like Terminator to be in its wheelhouse. David, who just produced Jack Reacher, had the relationship with the scribes, though interestingly Kalogridis also is tight with Terminator creator James Cameron. Megan Ellison is in the thick of the Oscar race with Zero Dark Thirty and The Master.”

It’s tough to tell what will happen to the project, but as of now Arnold Schwarzenegger has no attachment to the film. Who would you like to see star in the Terminator 5?

via Deadline

NBC announced that they have found their Mina for their upcoming Dracula series. The part has gone to Jessica De Gouw, who currently appears as The Huntress in CW's Arrow.

In this version of Dracula, set in the 1890s, Mina is the only female studying to be a doctor at University College in London. She is described as "forward-thinking, clever and independent -- more at home at a bohemian party than sipping tea in drawing room." Dracula will be played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is posing as an American businessman in bringing modern science to Victorian London. He is actually there for revenge on those who scorned him centuries ago, until he falls in love with Mina, whom he believes to be the reincarnation of his dead wife.

Dracula, which bypassed the tradition pilot stage and was picked up directly to a 10-episode series, is slated to debut in the fall.

While Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland sequel probably won’t be happening, there's some good news for fans of the film. It looks like the rumored TV show may be moving forward. I09 reports there was a casting call for the show for the main characters, Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock, and a few minor characters.

Apparently, the show will give some backstory to the characters and change them up a bit. This is, of course, all tentative. Read the character descriptions from i09 below and be warned they contain spoilers.

Tallahassee is still kind of a snarky weirdo, but he seems to have a much less spiky relationship with Columbus. He and Columbus have a pretty amusing thing where they riff on the fact that Steven Seagal movies always have three-word titles like "Marked for Justice" or "May Cause Diarrhea." But Tallahassee also dispenses homespun wisdom about how to feel happy with your life. He also tells a weird story about being in a trailer park with a perpetually nude Matthew McConaughey. He also has a somewhat heartwarming scene where he tells Columbus that he's been wandering aimlessly for a long time, but maybe he's been put here for a reason — to help Columbus and the others.

Columbus is much the same, except that he tracks down his grandma and grandpa (Bubbie and Peepaw) only to find them recently zombiefied. Also, Columbus is trying to deal with his newfound relationship with Wichita, after their first kiss. He has started calling her "Krista," her real name — but there are some problems, especially after she finds him reading a book about fatherhood. He tries to organize a romantic scavenger hunt for her in the IKEA they're camping out in, but it goes kind of horribly.

Wichita is still trying to look after Little Rock, trying to teach her math with problems about someone stealing from a liquor store and jumping on a train going 42 miles per hour, with a cop chasing in a car going 88 miles per hour. We also learn a lot more about Wichita's backstory, including how she ran away from her father after he had her stealing people's Christmas presents — and later, she found out she had a sister who was also being a grifter with her dad.

Little Rock seems actually kind of excited about meeting Columbus' grandparents, before they turn out to be zombies. And she shares some of her own backstory, about how her dad parked her at a school while he went off grifting on his own — and then yanked her out of school right before a dance that she was looking forward to.

Fred and Ainsley are two office workers at the start of the zombie apocalypse, obliviously complaining about problems with their iPhones and getting the wrong order at Starbucks, which they admit are "first world problems" with a hashtag — while people are being disembowled just outside the window they're not facing. Tallahassee shows up to bring them their lunch orders, wearing a green polo shirt.

via i09

Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Sinister) and Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story) are teaming up to produce a remake of the 1976 cult film The Town that Dreaded Sundown. Loosely based on the true story of a hooded serial killer who terrorized small town residents on the Arkansas-Texas border in the 1940s, Murphy recently admitted that the original "freaked" him out. "I was just starting to babysit my brother, and the ads for that would come on and I would get freaked out."

The remake already has a script from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who wrote the remake of Carrie, coming out later this year, and is also working on the Little Shop of Horrors reboot. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who has directed several episodes of American Horror Story and directed second unit on Argo is in talks to make The Town that Dreaded Sundown his feature directorial debut.

Source: Deadline

It would be impossible (albeit amusing) to recount all of the various Alien rip-offs, knock-offs, and retreads that have been churned out of the indie horror machine since Ridley Scott's masterpiece of creature craziness hit the screens back in 1979... and they're still showing up in 2013. Take it as a compliment to the masterful outer-space monster classic or dismiss it as a simple enough concept for just about anyone to tackle -- the "people vs. alien in an enclosed place" conceit has been presented in a mega-ton of (mostly rotten) movies. So when a new one wanders down the pike, another indie from Great Britain to be specific, my first thought is "lemme watch it," and my second is "please let this one have at least one stray thread of originality, novelty, or creativity." The recent Australian import Crawlspace went a little too dense and plot-heavy with its Alien-inspired antics, and unfortunately it seems like Storage 24 fails in the other direction: there's virtually nothing going on!

A plane crash near a giant storage rental facility allows a ravenous creature to stalk and kill some of the more annoying characters you'll come across in a horror film this year. One can assume that lead actor / co-writer Noel Clarke doesn't want us to take the premise all that seriously, but I sincerely doubt that he wanted his main character to be this unremittingly annoying. Long before the creature pops up we're saddled with a painful series of exchanges between sad-sack Charlie and his recently estranged girlfriend, and a lot of the dialogue is more or less painful. At early moments Storage 24 almost feels like an Office-style comedy of embarrassments regarding Charlie's wounded heart, but it's not very funny and I thought this was a monster movie, after all.

After much hemming and hawing and weird sexual politics all over the place, the locked-in losers start to get picked off by an alien that looks a whole lot like all the other bipedal aliens you've ever seen in low-budget movies like Storage 24. And while the flick does mange to exhibit a little bit of a pulse and a few decent directorial touches once stuff actually starts happening, the simple truth is that the headache you'll get from the first half of the flick is not worth the meager thrills you'll get from the second half. I say there's always room for another "alien on the loose" b-movie but if all you have to add to the mix is a bunch of whining and a (frankly rather dull) storage facility as your location, you may need to refer to the drawing board one more time.

READ FEARnet's PARTNER REVIEWS OF STORAGE 24

Back in the day, kids used to play with army men figures, small, cheap plastic figures that were most often used to be melted into puddles. The modern-day version would be "pre-melted" in the form of zombies. Yes, this zombies vs. zombie hunters is just like those cheap army men figures, but half are decomposing zombies, and the other half are dressed in decontamination suits.

You don't need to melt these figures, but I wouldn't blame you if you did anyway.

$9.99 at Amazon

Fringe Episodes 512 and 513
“Liberty” 
Written By: Alison Schapker
Directed By: P.J. Pesce
“An Enemy of Fate”
Written and Directed By: J.H. Wyman
Original Airdate: 18 January 2012

In This Episode...

This is it Fringe fans. It’s all over. Are you ready?

Broyles lies to get Michael’s location out of one of the loyalists. He sends the info to Olivia. Michael is being held on Liberty Island, which is a fortress. Broyles can’t get them in, and breaching the perimeter would be a death sentence. Olivia has an idea - one that Peter hates. She will go in using the other universe. Walter (naturally) has a stash of cortexiphan hidden away. The idea is that if he injects her with multiple doses it will trigger her powers and give her a window to move between universes. This comes with a huge amount of potential side effects, but Olivia insists that she can handle it.

Walter gives Olivia four doses of cortexiphan, directly into her brain stem. Each injection causes more pain, increasingly rapid heart rate, and a blurring of vision. But she powers through. The plan is for Olivia to slip to the other universe, go to Fringe division there, get into the precise coordinates on Liberty Island, come back to our universe, grab Michael and go back to the alternate universe, then meet Peter, Walter, and Astrid in our universe in Battery Park. Peter drops her off in front of where Fringe should be in the other universe, and she moves to that universe with relative ease. Her arrival sets off alarms, and she is collected by a dozen armed Fringe agents. Fauxlivia and Lincoln are called in, and rather than being kept as a prisoner, Olivia is greeted warmly and given all the help she needs.

Michael is being tested on. Initial scans show that he is not only far more intelligent than the Observers, but he has more emotional functions than that of native humans. Windmark shares this with the commander, but frankly, neither know what to make of it. The commander decides that “it” should be disassembled and pieces preserved.

So when Olivia blips into our universe, Michael is not where he is supposed to be. Her vision is very blurry; she is dizzy and weak, but she manages to move down the hallway, killing a couple Observers and loyalists as she does. When she finds Michael, mere minutes away from being vivisected, he smiles at her. With Michael in her arms, they blink back to the alternate universe, but Observers have followed her back. Lincoln and Fauxlivia are waiting for her and shoot a couple Observers that follow her. Lincoln stays behind to make sure no one else is following, and Fauxlivia shuttles Michael and Liv to Battery Park. She is weakened, but blips one final time, back to our universe. Walter, Peter, and Astrid are waiting, thrilled to see them and scooping them into the van.

During this time, Donald has been working on building the machine that will open up a wormhole, allowing Michael to go into the future. He gets it all set up, but discovers one of the pieces, necessary to power the device, has become corrupted. He goes to December, one of the original 12 Observers, and reasons with him to obtain the part they need. He agrees. When the team returns to the lab with Michael (Donald is annoyed; he has no idea what they have been through) he tells them that one of them will need to go retrieve it. Astrid and Olivia go, but when they arrive, December’s apartment is swarming with loyalists. Windmark had put the originals under observation in case September reached out. Then Liv and Astrid see December - he hanged himself. Astrid and Olivia shoot their way out.

Back at the lab, Peter discovers a video tape addressed to him. Walter pretends not to know what it is: a video he recorded just before ambering himself. A goodbye video. Walter finally admits to Peter that he has decided that he will be the one to travel through time with Michael, to take him to the scientists. Peter is heartbroken - but understands. The two men cry as they embrace each other tightly.

Astrid and Olivia return with the bad news. The group is desperate to figure out another way to create enough power to open up that wormhole. Astrid figures it out: one of the Observers’ shipping lanes. Luckily there will be a New York lane opening up at 6am. They need one of those cube thingies to access it, but somehow this isn’t a problem for them. What might be a problem is Broyles. He calls Olivia to tell her he is on his way to them - but realizes Windmark is having him followed. He will try to distract them as long as possible. Olivia insists that they will rescue him, but he insists they continue with the plan and hangs up on her. Broyles eventually tries to flee on foot, but he is quickly captured.

Olivia can’t dwell on Broyles. They have a plan to put in motion. The group packs up everything they need from the lab. Donald has decided that he will be the one to escort Michael. He knows Walter thought this was his penance, but Donald felt something that he couldn’t describe until he saw Peter and Walter together: parental love. He felt it was his duty to accompany Michael to the future. Walter understands this. “It’s called being a father.” Olivia and Peter head to Observer headquarters - actually, the parking garage. They don gas masks and dump hundreds of biohazard tins from Walter’s storage into the ventilation system. The toxins they release affect loyalists and Observers alike. By the time they get inside, alarms are going off, people are trying to evacuate, but few are making it out. As Liv and Peter rush down the hall, they run past a catalogue of all the Fringe events Walter created that they, at one point or another, had to clean up. It all comes full circle. Peter finds the cube they need, but Olivia finds something, too: Broyles. Windmark had been trying unsuccessfully to read him. He was just seconds from breaking Broyles down when the alarms went off. The interrogation room isn’t ventilated, so Broyles is safe. They toss him an extra gas mask they just happen to have, and leave.

Outside, the Observers are preparing to open up the shipping lane - and so are Astrid, Walter, and Donald. Broyles, Liv, and Peter join them, and a gunfight opens up.  Windmark is there, bent on taking Michael, and Olivia fights him for the boy. Windmark knocks her out fiercely and walks off with the boy. She might be down, but she is not out. She sees the smushed bullet necklace that Peter had given to her just before the final leg of their journey. The emotion boils through her and sends a terrific electromagnetic wave through the city. Lights go out, car alarms go on, and a nearby car is smashed into another car, crushing Windmark in between. Donald takes Michael and heads to the now-open wormhole, but is shot along the way. He drops, and Michael looks lost. He sits next to him and plays the tiny music box that Donald had given him a few episodes ago. Walter steps up. He offers his hand to the boy. Michael takes it. Walter looks back to Peter, who mouths, “I love you dad.” It’s a beautiful moment, then Walter and Michael walk into the wormhole.

The screen fades to white, then comes back to picture. It is 2016 and we are back in the picture-perfect park. Olivia and Peter cuddle on a blanket and watch Etta play. It is time to go home and Peter calls Etta to him. She runs, but instead of being picked up by the Observers, she jumps into Peter’s arms. Olivia watches happily as father and daughter play. Back at home, Olivia is in charge of bathing Etta while Peter checks the mail. A hand-written letter, addressed to him, with Walter’s return address, is amongst the bills. His curiosity piqued, Peter opens it. All that is in there is Walter’s white tulip. He knows.

Walter Babble

Walter did not eat a single Red Vine tonight. Luckily, I had a whole box. He was extraordinarily lucid tonight, though he did, early on, call Astrid “Ashcan.” Before they all leave the lab for the last time, Astrid has a surprise for Walter. She takes him deep into the amber, where she has found Gene, the cow. Astrid didn’t un-amber her for fear that loyalists would hear her mooing, but she thought Walter would like to see her one last time. He is very happy. “You always did know how to soothe me,” he tells her. As Astrid leaves, Walter tells her, “It’s a beautiful name.” “What is?” “Astrid.” This was probably my favorite moment of the night.

In the Other Universe...

Chelsea Clinton is president, and Walternate has retired from politics. At 90 years old, he still lectures at Harvard. Fauxlivia and Lincoln are married and have a teenaged son. They are very happy, though Lincoln (briefly) feels guilty for choosing Fauxlivia over real Olivia.

Fauxlivia had my favorite line of the night. As she and Lincoln are helping Olivia escape, Fauxlivia turns to Lincoln and teases him: “Stop looking at my younger ass.”

Dig It or Bury It?

It was a satisfying ending. It was the only ending the show could have. It was very predictable - and that is ok. If this weren't the last-ever episode, it would have been kind of weak because it ended up exactly where you figured it would. But it was more about the emotions. Producer J.H. Wyman has said, time and again, that Fringe is a show about family. The science fiction is almost secondary (almost). This episode was a culmination of that. 

My quibble with most series finales is that, after you have spent years and years following these characters, you want to find out where they end up two, five, fifty years in the future. With Fringe, you kind of get that. You have seen what the future could hold - but no longer does - and piece together where Olivia, Peter, and Etta will end up. Personally, I would like to think that they live a normal life from this point on (unless there is a chance for a movie). Never in my life have I wished for a happy ending as much as I have with Fringe. 

I could nitpick about all sorts of little things, but you know what? I don't want to. I just want to enjoy the peaceful ending.

After a highly successful festival run in 2012, the genre-defying indie flick Resolution is finally making its way to limited theaters on Friday, January 25^th courtesy of Tribeca Films. Directed by up-and-coming filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Resolution starts off somewhat normally as we follow the well-meaning Michael (Peter Cilella) on his quest to get his life-long best friend Chris (Vinny Curran) off drugs after receiving a disturbing video of Chris whacked out of his mind and shooting guns at the unseen forces chasing after him in the middle of nowhere (or more specifically - meth country).

But when Michael arrives at Chris' place and forces his friend to confront his addictions and the mess he's made of his life, the duo get far more than they bargained for when things take a turn for the weird and they're forced to deal with a supernatural entity that has infiltrated their lives and taken control in some rather unexpected ways. Filled with well-executed tension and humor as well as some masterful twists on many of our favorite horror tropes, Resolution is a description-defying indie gem worth seeking out and demonstrates that risky and compelling storytelling is still alive and well in the world of indie horror.

FEARnet recently chatted with Resolution helmers Benson and Moorhead to hear more about what inspired their mind-bending tale, their thoughts on defying genre labels for their film collaboration, what the future holds for them and much more.

I'd love to hear more about what inspired the story of Resolution; it has this great unexpectedness to it which I loved. It reminded me of a few other recent indie genre-esque films I enjoyed like Bellflower or The Catechism Cataclysm.

Justin Benson: Oh thanks! I haven't seen Catechism so I'll have to look that one up. For Resolution, all I wanted to do was to write a script that I thought would be scary and to me, stories are far scarier when you really care about the characters because you want them to make it through the film. I knew that if I could make the relationship between Mike and Chris feel natural and give a new twist to that kind of relationship dynamic in a story, I knew that Resolution would work way better as horror movie that way than if I had just used a bunch of generic characters that get killed off every couple of minutes.

It's not that I don't enjoy those movies too- because I do. That's just not the movie we were trying to make so I knew we had to approach everything about it unusually and I think it all really works.

Aaron Moorhead: We also talked a lot about how to approach making Resolution since it’s an unconventional movie and we always knew we'd run the risk of alienating some of our audience. But really, you can't think about those things too hard so we decided that the best way to make Resolution was the simplest- just make it openly and honestly. We just didn’t want to shoehorn ourselves into one category or another because that's what everyone says we’re supposed to- that's not honest filmmaking.

Benson: And Aaron and I never once had a conversation about what genre we were trying to work in either; we wanted to approach everything in the movie like, "Here’s a scene and it’s funny but how can we make it a bit funnier?" or  "This scene is scary now but how can we make it scarier?" but making sure it all serviced the story and these characters. It was always about these characters for us.

How quickly did Resolution come together for you once the story was finished?

Benson: It took six months to write the script, then Aaron and I went off to film the 'stories-within-the stories' parts of the script over a couple of months on the weekends and whenever we could. We were fortunate to have three months to rehearse with the actors and then shot the main parts of the film over seventeen days. It was pretty quick looking back; we were really fortunate that things came together like they did on Resolution.

Did you guys face any sort of challenges along the way at all?

Moorhead: You know, not in the way you'd think; I mean, it’s never easy to make a feature film but all things considered, we were very lucky. We didn't have the longest shooting schedule so there were a lot of  long hours and everyone was pretty much exhausted but we had the right people working on this and everyone came really prepared for anything we could throw at them. We were really fortunate because I've heard a lot of horror stories from other indie filmmakers so I don't think we could have asked for it to go any better than it did.

I want to hear more about your experiences working with Peter (Cilella) and Vinny (Curran). I know you mentioned before that you had three months to rehearse with them before you started shooting- did you guys give them creative license with the parts at all or did they stick mostly to the script? Also, was their chemistry instantaneous because I thought they were both incredible against each other throughout this movie.

Benson: Those two guys are geniuses- really. We wouldn’t have had a movie without them and once we cast them and got them together, we really built this script around that chemistry. Their characters aren’t really similar to their personalities in real life but that sort of antagonistic brotherhood was definitely there beyond the characters. They both brought a lot to the table that wasn't in the script too but that's the kind of stuff- the delivery, the body language- you really can't write either. That was all Vinny and Peter and I think they are both the reason that this story ultimately works.

Would you guys say that Resolution is an accurate depiction of the stories you like to tell?

Benson: Oh absolutely; we're fans of genre films and I think we both take a lot of pride in saying that we now are working in the genre realm too; it's really the only place you find any sort of creativity anymore because filmmakers can make up the rules as they go along and so the possibilities are endless.

But one of my favorite all-time graphic novels is Preacher; the way Garth Ennis brilliantly blends together different genres is the same kind of genre-blending we like to approach our stories with too. Those are the stories I enjoy most and really, independent horror is the only world you can show audiences something new. We always strived to make a movie unlike anything we had ever seen before and so every decision on Resolution was made with that goal in mind.



Are you guys planning to continue making movies together then? Any future projects in the works?

Moorhead: Definitely. I just wrapped up a short and we've got three more features in the works that are definitely the same kind of DNA as Resolution is, with our own unique twists on the genre too of course. Right now we're just focused on Resolution; hopefully fans will connect with it and enjoy our weird little story.

The Following Episode 101
“Pilot”
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Directed By: Marcos Siega
Original Airdate: 21 January 2013

In This Episode...

We open on a prison escape. A prisoner, Joe Carroll, escapes by posing as a guard and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Carroll was a professor of literature who, ten years ago, turned to murder. He killed 14 women in 18 months or so. All had their eyes removed, or were otherwise killed in a manner reminiscent of victims in Edgar Allen Poe tales.

The FBI’s first call goes to Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent who literally wrote the book on Joe Carroll. He pursued Carroll for 18 months before finally catching him, single-handedly. Ryan found Carroll in a sorority house, having just killed his 14th victim and halfway done with #15, Sarah. Carroll stabbed Ryan in the heart, then returned to Sarah. But Ryan wasn’t dead, and he shot Carroll. Sarah survived to testify against Carroll, and Ryan now has a pacemaker. The pacemaker was one of the reasons he is no longer an agent; his alcoholism is another. 

The FBI’s second call goes to Sarah. Agents and marshals descend on her home to keep an eye out for Carroll. Her neighbors Will and Billy keep her company and try to calm her down. Their third call goes to Claire, Carroll’s ex-wife. She will only speak to Ryan. But Ryan is a little busy.

Ryan checks in at the FBI command center, where Carroll “groupies” have gathered. Carroll had Ryan’s book in his cell, with a note suggesting that there was going to be a sequel. He finds out that, since Carroll had decided to act as his own attorney, he was given access to the law library - which included “limited” internet access. As if on cue, one of the groupies gets a text message. She moves into the center of the room, removes her dress, revealing text scrawled all over her body. “Lord help my poor soul,” the woman says before stabbing herself in the eye. Those were allegedly Poe’s final words. The woman had visited Carroll in prison, and Ryan believes Carroll used his internet access to get help on the outside. That help is one Jordy Raines, a prison guard. He helped Carroll escape. A raid of Jordy’s home reveals an obsession with Carroll, and Jordy practiced his killing style on kidnapped dogs.

The FBI finally gives in and agrees to let Claire speak to Ryan. It is clear that they had a relationship at one point, and about a week ago, Claire received a letter from Joe, saying he knew about her and Ryan. Ryan tells her to hold on to the note - that won’t help them find him. Ryan finally realizes that Joe escaped to finish his work. Sarah.

Sarah is gone. The cop that was supposed to be guarding her is found dead in her bed. Ryan discovers a false wall linking Sarah’s closet to Billy and Will’s closet. Despite the fact that they had been living next door to Sarah for over three years, they must be Carroll groupies too, for the have kidnapped Sarah. In their house, Ryan finds a photo of the guys in front of a B&B called The Lighthouse. Poe’s last, unfinished book was called The Lighthouse. Carroll wrote a universally-panned novel that was his attempt to finish what Poe started. Without a word to anyone else, Ryan heads to The Lighthouse.

Arriving at the long-abandoned B&B, Ryan realizes he no longer has a gun; he enters anyway, promising Joe that he is alone. Sarah’s screams cause Ryan to race into the B&B, which causes his weak heart to pound like the tell-tale heart. He finds Joe, alone, upstairs. Carroll knocks him to the ground, then toys with Ryan: How is your heart? Do you know how many muscles connect the human eye? He reveals that Sarah’s screams were coming from a recording. He tugs a rope, and Sarah, long since dead, tumbles from the rafters. Joe surrenders, but that doesn’t stop Ryan from choking him. The FBI agents who swarm the place have to separate the two.

Back in custody, Carroll will only speak to Ryan (there is a lot of that going around.) Carroll needed to finish his “work” and kill Sarah. Yet he believes the story isn’t over; that he and Ryan will write a sequel. Ryan confronts him about his groupies, his cult; Carroll prefers to think of them as his friends. He then brings Claire into the discussion, because “every story needs a love interest.” He wants to see her, claims she is very important, the only woman he ever loved. Ryan grows more and more agitated until he breaks Carroll’s fingers. Guards have to separate them.

At Claire’s home, a new level of horror has hit. Claire has a son, Joey, eight years old... yes, it’s Joe’s son (I have to assume he was already born before she found out about her husband’s extracurricular activities - otherwise why would she name her son after a psychopath?) Joey is gone. His nanny, Denise, kidnapped the boy and has driven him to meet Will and Billy. The four drive off together.

Dig It or Bury It?

This was an incredibly dense, fast-paced pilot. It jammed an entire season’s worth of plot into one episode - and did so without feeling forced or otherwise awkward. I am really enjoying the show.

Blood Trails

There was plenty of the red stuff in the premiere episode. The most horrifying one, to me, was the scene with the dismembered - and apparently still alive - dog. 

Prophecies?

Lots more murders. Lots.

Being Human Episode 302
“(Dead) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”
Written By: Nancy Won
Directed By: Adam Kane
Original Airdate: 21 January 2013

In This Episode...

By way of cleaning up the Stevie and Nick storyline, they are there, corporeal, happy. Nick goes off with Zoe; Stevie decides to hitchhike across the country and lose his virginity. And that’s it. They are gone - fine by me, I never really liked either of them.

The blood that Hadley had been transporting had spilled, allowing a weak Aidan to get enough blood to get himself upright. Josh is shocked to get the call from him, and he, Sally, and Aidan enjoy a very happy reunion. Aidan is still weak; it takes him a moment to realize that Sally is corporeal (and it’s not until later in the episode that he realizes that Josh “doesn’t smell like dog.”) Back home and cleaned up, the gang catches up a bit. Nora and Sally go do girly clothing things while the boys catch up. Aidan is starting to get the blood hunger, and despite Josh’s desire to help, has to go at this alone.

So let’s follow Aidan. He first visits Tracy, the blood hooker. She’s not pure, but she gives Aidan the info of a guy who is rumored to have clean blood. Aidan and the guy do a deal for newborn baby blood in a back alley (always a good sign) but Aidan is quickly set upon by a group of werewolves (in human form.) He is too weak to fight back, but is saved by Henry. Both men are surprised to see one another. Henry brings Aidan back to his house and introduces him to his girlfriend, Emma. Emma never got sick, so her blood is still pure. Henry offers her to Aidan so he can get his strength back up. They go into the bedroom; both are nervous. Aidan tries to open the window and finds it sealed shut. He soon realizes that Emma is a virtual prisoner, kept there by compulsion and fear. Henry will not let her leave the house for fear that she will get sick and he will lose his food source. Aidan returns to Henry’s house the next day and frees Emma. Henry is not too happy.

Tonight is the full moon, so Nora will be in solitary. She knows that Josh spends his evenings sitting outside, just in case she needs him; she insists that he go out and enjoy himself. He and Sally go out to dinner. While out, an old friend, Trent, recognizes Sally. She and Josh both fumble with an explanation; finally Sally says she faked her own death to get away from her abusive boyfriend. She begs Josh to go so she can spend some more time with Trent. Josh, with many, many misgivings, goes to sit at the bar until Sally comes up, breathless, asking for Josh to give them a few hours of alone time at the house. Sally is ready to get her freak on. There is some debate over whether or not Sally’s organs can function sexually - she is ready to find out. Against better judgement, Josh agrees. Back at the house, Sally invites Trent inside, but he is not feeling well and wants a raincheck. Clearly, Sally’s zombie saliva is poison. They make a date for tomorrow. Josh, in the meantime, spent the night enjoying the full moon and contemplating asking Nora to marry him.

In the morning, Sally is eager for breakfast (she has missed food even more than sex.) Josh will take her as soon as he goes to get Nora - and proposes to her. Sally begs him not to, not after she has spent the night as a wolf. Sirens draw them to the window, and they see Trent being zipped into a body bag. Josh is convinced that this is the price you pay for ignoring the witch’s admonition to not see people from your past.

Liam, Brynn and Connor’s dad, is in town looking for his daughter. He found Connor, his head mounted on the wall of a vampire nest. He dusts them all and vows revenge. He comes to town and follows Nora’s scent into the storage unit, desperate to know where his daughter is. Nora swears she doesn’t know. She hasn’t seen Brynn in a year, when their time in New York was too much for her. Liam doesn’t quite believe her, so he seals them both into the storage unit, convinced that he can sniff the truth on her as a wolf. When Josh comes back in the morning, he finds a hole has been ripped out of the unit’s door and blood is all over.

Also: an awkward moment between Aidan and Sally, in which he cannot get over her being corporeal, leads me to believe that they will sleep together within the first half of the season. Unless she decays before then.

Dig It or Bury It?

Being Human is taking an interesting turn. Two out of three roommates are human now. Well, I don’t really count Sally as human. At best, she is corporeal. At worst, she is a zombie. I am glad to have the gang back. I am especially intrigued by the idea of a virus that is killing off the vampire population. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any other film or TV show that had a plot like that.

Myths Revamped

Some new strain of the flu went around recently. It knocked humans on their ass but (most) were fine. Unfortunately, if a vampire drank from a human who had the virus, it becomes deadly. Sally offers herself for Aidan to feed on, but because she is reanimated, it would be like drinking vampire blood - no sustenance .

Jolly Good Fun

When Sally first sees Aidan, she comments that he “looks like a 1970s serial killer.”

Prophecies?

Nora is clearly fine, as she shows up in the “scenes from next week” clip. She and Josh are counseling a newly-turned werewolf.