ASIAN HORROR INVASION
According to recent posts on the Fangoria Web site: MTV.com is offering a pair of on-line counterparts to fright film news segments that aired recently on MTV, MTV2 and MTVU. “The first piece, titled Hollywood Horror: Made (Originally) in Japan, looks at the Asian horror remake craze, focusing on The Grudge, The Ring and Dark Water. The segment (produced and written by Vanessa White Wolf with Robert Mancini) featured interviews with Grudge star Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rob Zombie, Ringu director Hideo Nakata (currently helming the U.S. sequel The Ring 2), redux producer Roy Lee and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone. ‘It’s all about Hollywood’s new love of Asian horror,’ says Mancini.
” ‘Our second story explores the social context of horror,’ says Mancini, ‘looking at the theory that bad news is good news for horror films.’ Dubbed It’s Alive! Horror is Reborn (Again) and written and directed by Mancini, the segment boasted interviews with directors Wes Craven and George Romero, plus Zombie and Timpone once more.”
In other horror-film-related news: Media Blasters has acquired two new movies from celluloid terrorist Takashi Miike for U.S. release: the violent (of course) Yakuza thriller Deadly Outlaw Rekka and his stunning Ringu-style horror yarn One Missed Call. The former, a 2002 tale of warring gangsters, stars Miike veterans Riki (Dead or Alive trilogy) Takeuchi, Ryosuke (Graveyard of Honor) Miki and Kenichi (Happiness of the Katakuris) Endo, with a cameo by Asian action legend Sonny (Kill Bill) Chiba.
Media Blasters is currently mulling over theatrical exposure for both titles, having scored earlier with Ichi the Killer. Meanwhile, both Deadly Outlaw Rekka and One Missed Call will screen at Montreal’s Fantasia film festival, running July 8 to August 1.
Takashi Miike’s surreal Lynchian/Cronenberg-like Yakuza/horror film odyssey Gozu will open theatrically via Pathfinder Pictures on July 16 at New York’s Cinema Village, August 13 at the Landmark Kendall Square in Boston, August 28 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX, September 10 at the Landmark E. Street Cinema in Washington, D.C. and September 24 at the Landmark Varsity in Seattle. More summer dates will be announced soon.
