I’m more of a ‘cup is half empty with a knife sticking out of it’ type of guy, which tends to lend itself to some rather cynical thinking in general. Especially when it comes to the future. And the films that I’ve featured on my Top7 are of the more ‘darker’ post apocalyptic fare.
The end of the world. The Apocalypse itself. A pretty scary concept to think about, come to think of it. But it also makes for a fantastic genre of film. Not the actual apocalypse itself, but the aftermath. The post-apocalypse genre of film. These dystopian futures, some looking beautiful with a disgusting underbelly and others that are just a horrific wasteland right from the get go. Usually filled with sand, fire, leather clad punk rejects from a Final Fight sequel and hell on earth itself. It’s always a fun ride and I thought I’d list a few of my favorite examples of the genre.
It’s Tuesday and we all know what that means: it’s Top7 Dystopian Films Day! The problem with this category is that there are innumerable dystopian movies out there, and there are so many that deserve to be on this list, but (unfortunately), it’s not Top700 Tuesdays, and blogs are supposed to be brief, so I’ll try to make this short. One note: I left out post-apocalyptic films because they really belong in their own category (so no Road Warrior here, kids). Also, I tried not to include anything released in the last couple years (e.g. Moon) because (I believe) movies need a chance to stand the test of time. … Continue Reading
Some horror news that is making the waves today and should be known to all of you out there as well.
First off, George A. Romero’s new zombie film, Survival of the Dead, has a new red band trailer, exclusive to IGNhas been posted today and it looks quite fun to this gorehound. Remember though, this film isn’t as action packed as the trailer might show, but it’s still the master at work here. Plus, it has to be better than Diary of the Dead, right?
Next up on the Splatter Menu, we have Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead getting a 6 episode pick up for the fall season this year. October 2010 to be exact, which is exciting news. When hearing that AMC picked up the series, it worried a few people out there. How would the gore quotient be? Would AMC allow the grotesque and harsh violence that makes the comic book a fan favorite? Well, Shock Til You Drop spoke with KNB’s very own Greg Nicotero, where he mentions that KNB will be working on Frank Darabont’s The Walking Dead, which is already exciting for everyone out there. They are the premier special effects group around, not only for horror but for any film that has required special effects work.
KNB worked recently with Darabont on the greatly under-appreciated film The Mist, so in less than a year we’ll find out how much blood AMC allows in the series.
And finally, not necessarily horror news, but the G-Man himself will be coming back to theaters in 2012. Legendary Pictures officially announced today that they will be partnering with Warner Bros. and Toho to make a new Godzilla film. As long as Roland Emmerich is nowhere in sight of this, then we won’t have another abortion of sorts on the big screen. Godzilla was last seen in the film Final Wars, a fun little flick that even poked fun at the American Godzilla mess. I appreciate how bad they made the CGI for the new Godzilla look in the movie. Check out the clip below.
Let Paper Spaceships know if you like this idea for a new article. Being a huge horror nut, I will scour the internet for random news bits that you, the horror fan, would like to know about.
Blame it on our massive brains or perhaps our obsessive-compulsive eye for detail: we nerds have become the masters of the fine art of movie heckling. We’ve turned mediocre movies into grandiose cult pop-culture phenomena, most famously with midnight showings of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’. That’s right, we made yelling back at the screen, singalongs and throwing crap at other people in the theater into an acceptable cinema experience. The costume contest-turned-musical-turned-snark-a-thon tradition has continued with other screen greats like ‘Repo: The Genetic Opera’, ‘The Sound of Music’, and according to at least one episode of Drew Carey, ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’.
A number of today’s nerds have probably fine-tuned their movie heckling skills through multiple viewings of multiple episodes of ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’. We have all learned how to whisper a quick, clever joke to our friends between gaps in dialogue. We know when it is appropriate to make armpit farting noises during a love scene and when to squeal like a 14-year-old girl. (The answer to that one? When you see a sparkly-ass vampire, of course!) Sadly, oh readers of this fine internet publication, I have not come here to discuss exemplary movie snarking technique. I have come to discuss a growing problem that we nerds may be unaware of: PEOPLE WHO ARE TERRIBLE AT HECKLING MOVIES. … Continue Reading
My fellow paper astronaut Allison makes a great point in regards to the demographic that Sony and Microsoft could be targeting, Nintendo has been doing games for a long, long time, and have been hitting people’s sweet spot since before we could walk. Applause. They also do it at a smarter price point. The Wii was cheap from day one, pretty much giving them the win come holiday season. Your mother doesn’t care how many of your friends are going to have XBoxes, cuz she damn sure ain’t made out of money. Microsoft and Sony caught on late in that regard(and still need to go lower), but they’re starting to pick up speed this year. Let’s just say this early – no one is ever going to touch Nintendo in the handheld market. I have more faith a blind man will make it through Korea’s demilitarized zone with an airhorn and a police siren strapped on.
My gripe with Nintendo is that every two years they announce a new version of something they have out on the market already… it’s kind of like Apple with the iPhone. Slap a Nintendo tag on it, and people buy it regardless… never mind if they actually use it. Why does everyone want a Wii Fit? Because we can’t exercise unless we think it’s a game. What a great idea! It’s still exercise, so that board is going to be mistaken for a scale every now and then, and put in a bathroom.
While Nintendo (as a game developer) puts out a lot of good titles, their third-party developers churn out a lot of garbage. Quality developers see the pileup of games Nintendo supports as a financial risk and will stick with titles that make money. Microsoft and Sony are where the money is in 2010, which to analysts represents the biggest quality-game release window in the industry’s history. Those non-teenage/ young adult-males are expected to spend a metric ton on video games this year – while the country is in a recession no less. I’ve bought more games in the last 3 months than I have in three years, so I can’t really argue with that point. And those 8 and 9 year olds? If you played any online games for 360 or PS3, most of the profanity is coming from those little bastards (seriously), so John Koller kind of has a point… but he’s still a douche. I expect to see a lot of lonely and angry girlfriends for the remainder of the year. But then again, who says women don’t play Halo, God of War or Call of Duty?
The big news in the gaming world this week: Nintendo announced it has plans to release the Nintendo 3DS, a 3D version of their very popular (I don’t have numbers, but I’m fairly certain it’s the most popular handheld) Nintendo DS. Supposedly, you won’t need glasses, either.
Awesome.
Nintendo, to me, has always appealed to a much wider audience than XBox 360 and PlayStation (which in my eyes makes them a more intelligent company).. neither Microsoft or Sony has really gotten a handle on the non-teenage/young adult-male gaming demographic, but Nintendo has. Yeah, Microsoft and Sony do that demographic VERY well, but what about the rest of us?
Just to illustrate how out of touch Sony is, I give you this quote: “Having been in the portable space for quite awhile, I think it’s an interesting move but one I’d like to see where they go from a demographic standpoint. Eight- and nine-year-olds playing 3D is a little bit of a stretch given where some of our research is right now.” (John Koller, SCEA director of hardware and marketing)
lolwut? Wow. He’s going to be regretting those words for a long time to come.
Due to some unforeseen technical problems (and to some unforeseen sleeping in…hey I work nights) I am just now posting my Top 7 Tuesday list. This week we bring you our favorite 80s slasher flicks. These were the films I grew up watching with my friends on the weekends. I am a film nut but also a gore hound (although recently the torture porn craze just makes me feel ill). One Christmas I had my grandparents get me both Zombie and Dead Alive (as well as some other VHS tapes) so yeah not only was I a strange kid I had awesome grandparents. So I bring to you my favorite 80s slasher films, Paper Spaceships style. I’m also going to shy away from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th because we all know they were awesome. (Also there be bewbs and violence ahead so fair warning to ye.) … Continue Reading
I’ve finally decided to wade into the waters of Top 7 Tuesdays. This list was difficult because I was tempted to include so many films from the 70s, and every time I had to eliminate something like Halloween or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I whispered a silent “damn it.” In the end, I settled with lesser movies (in some cases) that are indeed from the 80s, and although I shed a couple tears, all of these movies are definitely worth your time. Hope you like ‘em.
My computer has been on the fritz, which makes me want to cut its non-existent throat out and then, like Bob Barker, punch through and look for some sort of prize. Where am I going with this? Well, with my mindset right now, I feel like a slasher who wants to kill this damn computer, like the many innocents (and not so innocents in the 80′s Slasher Boom) before it. I’m going a completely different route with mine. I’m focusing on films that everyone who says they’re a slasher aficionado should have watched multiple times, like I have done. I will not include any Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Nightmare on Elm Street films. I’m going a bit more below the radar.
Sometimes I need a reminder why we do what we do. We all have other jobs, some of us work insane hours, others have more than one and some of us go to school. Yet everyday we get up and type out our thoughts to the ether. As much as we are a science fiction and genre blog, we are also science fiction. We are the between generation, raised between the old and the new. In the short course of our lives we have seen technology exponentially expand and grow more powerful. Things that our parents and grandparents thought of as impossible are now possible with a few clicks of the mouse. I have friends from all over the world and we don’t send letters or even emails, no we keep up with each other through facebook and twitter. Blogs and network sites. Our younger cousins and the kids today are growing up in the future. They are a generation raised in a time when skills we learned in school are long past obsolete. A generation where facebook and wikipedia are normal and aren’t even worth thinking about because duh, its just there and its been there forever. Granted with this technology the technological divide between classes becomes more apparent. You need money to access information, and in many ways information is the new currency. Social status is more important in some ways than how much money is in your bank account, yet they also seem to grow together. The more followers you have on your blog the more advertising revenue you get and the more writers you can hire (or finally pay).
We are a generation who watched WarGames and thought wow that is a crazy computer, now our cell phones are more powerful than WOPR. Obviously I’m a technological optimist, and every once in a while I stumble on infodump videos that make me marvel at the world around us. Today I want to share this one with you. Its from the Socialnomics crew.
