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Christopher Lee is knighted
31 October 2009 11:27 AM, PDT
| Corona's Coming Attractions
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Yesterday the man who played Count Dracula in dozens of Hammer horror films throughout the 1950s through the 70s stared down a man wielding a sword. However, instead of having to worry about being stabbed through his heart actor Christopher Lee was standing in front of Prince Charles and being given an Order of the British Empire -- he was knighted.
The 87-year-old Lee was being honored for his contribution to cinema. At the height of his time wearing white makeup and brandishing fangs toward the necks of quivering British ladies, Hammer horror movies were considered garbage cinema. While they recouped their investment and proved to be popular among the blue-collar crowd, British cinephiles turned up their nose and proclaimed the films as trash. Now, half a century later, a more kinder and appreciative generation of film critics have recognized Hammer horror movies and the important role they played in
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- Patrick Sauriol
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Dracula Stakes Out A British Knighthood
31 October 2009 9:18 AM, PDT
| HollywoodNorthReport.com
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Hammer horror movie star Christopher "Dracula" Lee has been knighted in the UK for his many villainous screen performances.
The 6' 5", 87-year-old actor, who has appeared in more than 250 film/TV productions, was honoured for his services to both drama and charity, receiving his knighthood from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.
Lee's first major acting role was as the 'Frankenstein Monster' in Hammer Films' Curse of Frankenstein (1957).
More Hammer films followed including Horror Of Dracula, The Mummy and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
In the 1970's, he continued working in genre films, including the role of 'Scaramanga' in the 'James Bond' film The Man with the Golden Gun, 'Rochefort' in The Three Musketeers, 'Lord Summerisle' in the original Wicker Man and the lead in Fu Manchu.
Recently, he portrayed the wizard 'Saruman' in The Lord of the Rings and 'Jedi' villain 'Count Dooku' in Star Wars.
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Lee knighted by Prince of Wales
30 October 2009 12:45 PM, PDT
| digitalspy
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Christopher Lee has been knighted by the Prince of Wales in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. The 87-year-old, who received the honour for his services to drama and charity from the Queen in June, was officially recognised today during the long-established investiture service, Sky News reports. Lee is considered to be one of the most prolific actors of his generation and has appeared in over 150 pictures. He is perhaps best known for his performances with co-star Peter Cushing in a string of successful Hammer horror films from the '50s and '60s, during which time he played famous monsters Dracula and Dr Frankenstein's creature (more)
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- By Tim Parks
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Movie Poster of the Week: "The Curse of the Werewolf"
30 October 2009 8:33 AM, PDT
| The Auteurs
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Though this French poster for the 1961 Hammer horror The Curse of the Werewolf—with a lycanthropic Oliver Reed bursting through a window (and his shirt) against a garish pink sky—is terrific by itself, it is as part of a series that it is particularly memorable. Designed by French illustrator Guy Gérard Noël, who often made more than one design for each film, the posters for The Horror of Dracula, The Mummy, Kiss of the Vampire and The Evil of Frankenstein are all notable for their lurid fields of color and their dynamic yet stripped-down mise-en-scène (victim cowering in the foreground, monster looming behind).
One of the great French movie poster illustrators, Guy Gérard Noël was born in 1912 and started designing movie posters in 1943, after two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp. He worked steadily for the next 23 years producing countless posters in every genre. According to a recent book on the artist,
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Screen Queens: Hammer Horror
24 October 2009 12:21 PM, PDT
| FilmExperience
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Hi, Matt here with your weekly dose of Queer Cinema. With Halloween coming up, we turn our focus to horror.
Hammer Horror films are not truly part of the gay canon, and as a body of films they are conservative in their narrative arcs and messages. However, I've always been a huge fan. They are undeniably camp and always feature either subtle homoeroticism or full on Lesbian Vampires. For those unfamiliar with this horror subgenre, it is a collection of films produced by Hammer Film Studios from the late 50s to early 70s that mixed Gothic melodrama with exploitation horror. The studio was most famous for their vampire, mummy, Frankenstein, and cave girl pictures.
The vampire films stand head and shoulders above the rest. Hammer's Vampires went through two major cycles, the gothic Dracula films with Christopher Lee and the later sexploitation-y lesbian vampire films. The early Hammer films are the most respectable.
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- CanadaMatt
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Exclusive: Steve Niles Confirms 30 Days of Night 2 Cast; Talks Trilogy, Shooting Schedule & More!
22 October 2009 3:24 PM, PDT
| DreadCentral.com
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Moments after the report came in that actors Mia Kirshner, Diora Baird, Rhys Coiro, Harold Perrineau, and Monique Ganderton had joined the cast of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days (the follow-up to 2007's vamp thrill-ride 30 Days of Night), the series’ writer and producer Steve Niles called this scribe to confirm the news (we held off on running this until Sony signed off) and also to provide us details on the flick’s plot, shooting schedule, and more.
[Click here for the full casting breakdown, which came courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.]
“I actually co-wrote the sequel with Ben (Ketai),” said Niles, correcting the leak, “who’s also directing.”
The flick, which is slated as a direct-to-dvd release and began shooting in Vancouver, Canada (standing in for Los Angeles) on October 20th, is the cinematic incarnation of the comic Dark Days, said Niles, and is being set up as Part Two of a 30 Days of Night trilogy.
“It’s going to be basically like what
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- SeanD.
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Check out some retro Hammer Horror films this Halloween
21 October 2009 9:30 AM, PDT
| Boxwish.com
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If modern horror films just don’t do it for you then you’ll be pleased to know there’s an alternative to the likes of Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant and Saw VI this Halloween. Beginning on 28th October, London will play host to a two week festival celebrating the legacy of the campest of horror films – Hammer Horror. The production company which brought us awesome bone-chillers like Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy and stars like Peter Cushing, Hazel Court and Christopher Lee will once again take to the big screen. The festival will include spooky screenings of a selection of films, a free exhibition, video interviews and the launch of a new book.
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Check out some retro Hammer Horror films this Halloween
21 October 2009 9:30 AM, PDT
| Boxwish.com
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If modern horror films just don’t do it for you then you’ll be pleased to know there’s an alternative to the likes of Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant and Saw VI this Halloween. Beginning on 28th October, London will play host to a two week festival celebrating the legacy of the campest of horror films – Hammer Horror. The production company which brought us awesome bone-chillers like Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy and stars like Peter Cushing, Hazel Court and Christopher Lee will once again take to the big screen. The festival will include spooky screenings of a selection of films, a free exhibition, video interviews and the launch of a new book.
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Hammer Horror to Ink Books With Blood
14 October 2009 6:13 AM, PDT
| Atomic Popcorn
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If you’re familiar with classic horror, Hammer Film Productions will drum up instant images of 1950s/60s/70s monster sequels, such as The Revenge of Frankenstein and the Christopher Lee Dracula films. Since the seventies, Hammer has survived through British television specials and straight to DVD productions.
Now, Hammer is planning a resurgence into cinemas by re-releasing some of their classics, along with signing a deal with U.K. literary agency Pfd for future book deals based on their properties.
“Hammer is an iconic household name with a loyal fanbase and the raft of forthcoming initiatives will create a whole new generation of devotees,” said Caroline Michel, CEO of Pfd. The deal will “bring new life to the brand with exciting contemporary writers.”
I’m imagining a whole slew of cheesy Hammer dime novels in grocery stores, and that’s not entirely a bad thing. The Hammer House is
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- John Cooper
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NYC’s Scary Movies 3 gets Red; free tickets to American Werewolf w/Landis!
8 October 2009 9:47 AM, PDT
| Fangoria
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The Scary Movies 3 festival being held by Manhattan’s Film Society of Lincoln Center October 12-22 at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street, upper level), which we first reported on last week, has updated its schedule, with the addition of fright filmmaker Eric Red and two of his movies to the lineup. And in conjunction with the Film Society, Fango is offering five free pairs of tickets to the Thursday, October 15 at 8 p.m. showing of An American Werewolf In London, with writer/director John Landis in attendance!
Red will be on hand for 1986’s original The Hitcher, which he scripted, and his new writing/directing venture 100 Feet; see the full updated schedule below. To enter to win tickets to American Werewolf with the Landis Q&A, send an e-mail by 12 noon Est on Tuesday the 13th to fangoscreening@starloggroup.com. You must list “American Werewolf” as your subject line; plus,
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- no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
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Brides Feast on Colonial's Spooktacular
6 October 2009
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Ferocious female vampires feast upon Keene, New Hampshire at The Colonial Theatre's Spooktacular, Saturday, October 24.
Curated by Saturday Fright Special, New Hampshire's first home-grown horror host show, the cornerstone of the event is a rare 35mm screening of the 1960 Hammer horror classic Brides of Dracula , starring Peter Cushing.
The Spooktacular will also feature additional Hammer and other vintage monster movie trailers and other fearsome film goodies too frightful to mention, horror DVD and T-shirt giveaways and an original Brides of Dracula sketch from renowned artist S.R. Bissette.
The costumed cast from Saturday Fright Special will be on hand to introduce the film and live "vampire brides" will hand out free vampire fangs to the first 50 patrons.
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Nobody Shows Any Old Horror Movies In NYC - Except All Of These:
5 October 2009 2:22 PM, PDT
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A fellow writer on another site pointed out something today: We like to complain that there isn't any good horror movie programming going on in NYC, but there's almost always something going on if you look hard enough. Of course, you're not likely to see catch NYC's finest horror programming on many of the other sites, seeing as all those shockers are far too centrally located in disgusting California. (I see what you did there...) Who has the time to search through the hundreds of theater listings in Manhattan to find a good batch of flicks playing. We do! We do!
There's the Scary Movies 3 Film series at the Walter Reade Theater by Lincoln Center (classy!), the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam) has a Creepy Cat series coming up and a number of other genre flicks programmed for October, and The Sunshine Landmark Cinema in Manhattan Always has a midnight cult-flick screening every Friday-Saturday-Sunday,
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American Werewolf with Landis, much more at NYC’s Scary Movies 3
29 September 2009 10:20 PM, PDT
| Fangoria
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Manhattan’s Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the full slate for its Scary Movies 3 festival, running October 12-22 at the Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street, upper level). Among the highlights are a screening of An American Werewolf In London with writer/director John Landis in attendance, the New York premiere of MacAbre by Indonesia’s Mo Brothers and a non-midnight showing of Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity.
The complete schedule is as follows:
Monday, Oct. 12
2:30 p.m.: Tom Savini’s Night Of The Living Dead
4:30 p.m.: Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive
7 p.m.: Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity
9:30 p.m.: The Mo Brothers’ MacAbre
Tuesday, Oct. 13
2 p.m.: David Cronenberg’s The Brood
4 p.m.: MacAbre
6 p.m.: Jerzy Skolimowski’s The Shout
Wednesday, Oct. 14
1:30 p.m.: John Landis’ An American Werewolf In London
8:45 p.
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- no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
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Prince Of Pieces heads for the comics page; exclusive art
31 August 2009 1:11 PM, PDT
| Fangoria
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A little while back, we heard from FX artist Jeremy Selenfriend about a movie he was involved with called Prince Of Pieces, which he told us was “a comedic horror movie with the killer as Jesus Christ, who goes around killing everyone in Biblical fashion: crown of thorns, pillars of salt, crawling leprosy, that sort of thing.” While the feature remains in preproduction, the concept will first emerge in a graphic novel, scheduled to go to print next February; we got exclusive concept sketches of the characters of Jesus, the Reverend and Jimmy, which you can see below.
“The decision to produce Prince Of Pieces as a graphic novel flowed naturally from the process of developing it as a film,” Sam Miserendino, who wrote both incarnations, is producing the illustrated version and will direct the eventual movie, tells Fango. “The same type of imagery that lends itself to depiction on
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- no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
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Vampire thriller Dead Cert casts up
31 August 2009 9:44 AM, PDT
| Fangoria
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British producer Jonathan Sothcott get in touch to let us know that a cast has been nailed down for Dead Cert, the vampire film he previously discussed with us here. Set to roll for five weeks this fall in London and Essex, the movie will be directed by Steven Lawson from a script he wrote with Ben Shillito and Nick Onsloe.
The ensemble is headed by UK horror regular Craig Fairbrass, Doghouse’s Billy Murray, Steven Berkoff, Dog Soldiers and Mutant Chronicles’ Sean Pertwee, Philip Davis, Andy Tiernan, Lisa McAllister, Roland Manookian and Janet Montgomery, the latter of whom will be seen this fall in both The Hills Run Red and Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead. “Janet is a bona fide scream queen,” Sothcott tells Fango. “Craig Fairbrass and I went with her to the Hills Run Red premiere last week, and she is bloody amazing. She totally steals the film,
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- no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
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'Friend of gays' Queen Elizabeth
28 August 2009 4:08 AM, PDT
| Monsters and Critics
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Alan Cummings is amazed Britain's Queen Elizabeth is "a friend of the gays". The 44-year-old actor was shocked to receive an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work as a gay rights activist, as well as for his services to the arts, but was thrilled with the accolade. He said: "I didn't know the queen was such a friend of the gays." Alan received the award in the queen's birthday honours list in June. Others famous faces to be honoured included chef Delia Smith who received a Commander of the British Empire (Cbe), golfer Nick Faldo who was knighted and 'Dracula' actor Christopher Lee who also got a knighthood. The outspoken star has also revealed his shock at
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Alan Cummings Amazed That Queen Elizabeth Is "A Friend Of The Gays"
28 August 2009 12:59 AM, PDT
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Alan Cummings is amazed Britain's Queen Elizabeth is "a friend of the gays." The 44-year-old actor was shocked to receive an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work as a gay rights activist, as well as for his services to the arts, but was thrilled with the accolade.
He said: "I didn't know the queen was such a friend of the gays."
Alan received the award in the queen's birthday honors list in June. Others famous faces to be honored included chef Delia Smith who received a Commander of the British Empire (Cbe), golfer Nick Faldo who was knighted and "Dracula" actor Christopher Lee who also got a knighthood.
The outspoken star has also revealed his shock at the death of his friend Natasha Richardson, who died after being involved in a skiing accident earlier this year.
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Stacie Ponder - A Primer to the Best of Hammer Horror Movies
21 July 2009 9:00 PM, PDT
| amctv.com - Horror Hacker: Stacie Ponder
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If you ask me, weekends were made for Hammer horror movies. Lazy, Sunday-afternoon air cries out for a gothic-flavored Dracula flick; lying on the couch and watching Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing battle it out while a busty broad in a flouncy top and a tight corset cowers in some castle corner, screaming, well... that's the good life, my friends. The veteran English production company offered more than their
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Exclusive: We Chat with Hammer Chief Simon Oakes about Christopher Lee's Return to Horror and the 'Let the Right One In' Remake!
3 July 2009 10:00 PM, PDT
| FEARnet
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For longtime horror fans, there's something magical about the words "Hammer Horror." They conjure up images of Christopher Lee's feral Dracula, Peter Cushing's dashing Van Helsing, and countless buxom beauties in diaphanous nightgowns running through gothic castles and moonlit forests. For decades, Hammer was the premiere horror-film studio, giving us countless reasons to sit in darkened theaters. And since it stopped producing fright films, it seems there have been just as many attempts to bring Hammer back. The boldest attempt, however, is currently being orchestrated by producer Simon Oakes, who's readying Christopher Lee's return both to fright films and the world of Hammer with The Resident, along with
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Revisiting Brides Of Dracula
30 June 2009 12:46 AM, PDT
| Fangoria
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When Marianne (Yvonne Monlaur) frees the captive Baron Mienster (David Peel), she unwillingly unleashes all hell…or, just one really bad vampire. One way or the other, village people begin dropping like flies, and the charming Baron Mienster is responsible. Fortunately for our naïve female lead Marianne, the wise Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) arrives just in the nick of time. After assessing the situation, Van Helsing quickly determines there are vampires to blame for the mysterious deaths; it’s not long after, before the good Doc also realizes the mysterious Baron Mienster is the culprit.
After the Baron has recruited a few attractive young ladies to join him in his life of vampirism, Van Helsing cuts all plans short by tracking the Baron down and feeding him a fatal dose of Holy Water.
Cushing is wonderful as the visiting hero Van Helsing, and Yvonne Monlaur is perfectly oblivious in the unsuspecting female lead.
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- no-reply@fangoria.com (Matt Molgaard)
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