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The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Who Should Direct 'Catching Fire'? 5 Directors We Think Could Do The Job

By Oliver Lyttelton
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April 11, 2012 9:59 AM
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20 Comments

News

So, writer-director Gary Ross, having helped make "The Hunger Games" into a gigantic hit, has decided to move on to new pastures. As we reported last week, Ross will be focusing on a new project, and after a few days, Lionsgate officially confirmed he will not be helming "Catching Fire," with both the studio and the director issuing formal statements.

By Drew Taylor
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April 10, 2012 10:05 AM
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3 Comments

Features

Everything from “The Truman Show” to John Carpenter’s “Halloween” is chopped up and blended in the pop culture Cuisinart that is Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s irrepressible “Cabin in the Woods.” But it quite clearly owes a certain debt to a very specific type of horror sub-genre set primarily in a rickety homestead in the forest, one just desolate or decrepit enough to be rife with the possibility of evil spirits, demented madmen, psychic trauma… or all of the above. When Whedon originally came to Goddard with the concept, he gleefully suggested making a “cabin movie.” While “Cabin in the Woods” ended up being much more than that (it's an acidic takedown and euphoric celebration of all things horror), we wanted to briefly cite five of the films that contributed, either directly or through the pop culture ether, to “Cabin in the Woods.”

By Oliver Lyttelton
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March 9, 2012 9:45 PM
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1 Comment

Reviews

Almost no genre (bar perhaps the romantic-comedy) revolves around formula as heavily as the horror film. Obviously there are sub-categories: the haunted-house film, the zombie flick, the vampire movie. But a disproportionate amount of the involves a group of horny teens going to a remote location, taking off clothes, making stupid decisions, and getting picked off one by one, whether by a man in a mask, or by some kind of supernatural creature or force. So on hearing the title, and indeed basic premise, of "The Cabin In The Woods," it's hard not to be a little downhearted. Is this the same old cheapo horror flick we've seen dozens, if not hundreds of times?

By Drew Taylor
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March 9, 2012 11:01 AM
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2 Comments

Festivals

Tonight "Cabin in the Woods" will open this year's South by Southwest film festival, and those lucky enough to attend will experience something very special. Ostensibly a gleeful send-up and acidic takedown of modern horror films (and their nearly mythical place in our culture), it's as smart as it is scary, and truly unique. It's not hard to imagine a heavily lubricated SXSW losing their collective shit. We got to talk to co-writer/director Drew Goddard, who created the film with is former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"/"Angel" boss Joss Whedon, about the inception of the film, what it was like to have your debut feature indefinitely delayed by original studio MGM's crumbling empire, and how much fun it is to be writing a robot movie for Steven Spielberg. (It should be said, right off the bat, that the less you know about "Cabin in the Woods" so you might want to read this after you see the movie, either at SXSW or when it opens theatrically on April 13th.)