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Author: Sue Granquist

Goth Chick News: Samuel L. Jackson Takes On Japanese OVA – Hold On To Your Butts…

Goth Chick News: Samuel L. Jackson Takes On Japanese OVA – Hold On To Your Butts…

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image002Frankly, it occurred to me to just post this video clip with “Hell yes!” underneath it and call this week’s GCN done.

When you watch it, you’ll understand you would not have blamed me.

But then I would have missed out on the chance to share some very juicy background tidbits about this little gem.

Here in the US ,the live action film starring Samuel L. Jackson will be called Kite. But in Japan, where the source material originated, it is known as A Kite; Yasuomi Umetsu’s 1998 animated film. Though I have attempted to find out the meaning of the title, my Japanese is a tad rusty and so far no joy.

Kite started out as an OVA (“original video animation”) and the Japanese version ran for two 30-minute episodes. Though anime generally gets away with a heck of a lot more than traditional media could, Kite is still unique in its controversial depiction of extreme gory violence and strong sexuality. It was subsequently banned in many countries including Norway due to some scenes in the film being labeled child pornography, which didn’t stop it from gaining underground-cult-classic status from OVA fans.

Banned or not, it won’t take you much digging to find A Kite online and uncut for free, which I did and be warned — it is pretty hard to watch (and do not try watching it at work). In a rare change of heart I actually feel rather glad the US film version took liberties with the source material, or this post could have been the very first red-band GCN.

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Goth Chick News: I, Frankenstein… You, Potentially Disappointed

Goth Chick News: I, Frankenstein… You, Potentially Disappointed

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I Frankenstein Poster-smallI am just not sure how to feel about this one.

On January 24, I, Frankenstein the film will finally come to life in theaters nationwide. This after the U.S. release was originally set for February 22, 2013. Then five months prior to release, in the fall of 2012, it was abruptly moved to September 13, 2013; then in April 2013, the date was moved again to January 24, 2014.

In February 2013, Lions Gate said they would release the film in 3D and then in September 2013, they came back to tell us the film would be digitally re-mastered and released in the IMAX format – in 3D.

I, Frankenstein’s release strategy has been retooled more than the old guy himself.

There are a lot of reasons for a studio to postpone a movie release: like problems with the script/ talent/ director, the test audiences didn’t react well and new footage needs to be shot, the studio doesn’t want the release to be diluted by a competitive release in a similar genre…

Or the film just isn’t good and the studio needs time to add some additional razzle-dazzle — like 3D and IMAX.

As a fan of the graphic novel and after seeing the movie trailer, I tend to believe this case might be a combination of all of the above.

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Goth Chick News: When Visiting Hemlock Grove, Better “Late” Than Never

Goth Chick News: When Visiting Hemlock Grove, Better “Late” Than Never

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Hemlock Grove-smallDid someone give you a Netflix subscription for the holidays? Then I have two words for you and your shiny new queue.

Hemlock Grove.

Never heard of it? Neither have a lot of people. If you are anything like me, then you have never even seen Hemlock Grove pop up in your Netflix recommendations. Heck, chances are, you may have never heard about Hemlock Grove before reading this post.

But that’s OK; because Netflix didn’t make the show for us.

Unlike its other two pet projects which Netflix has spent a lot of effort promoting, Arrested Development and House of Cards, they purposely made very little fuss about Hemlock Grove when it launched back in April. It’s aimed at an audience of teenage horror fans and Netflix had the numbers to know that this audience is engaged enough on the streaming service to make a title like Hemlock Grove succeed.

So, why do the rest of us care?

Hemlock Grove is an American horror/thriller series from executive producer Eli Roth (Grindhouse and Hostel) and developed by Brian McGreevy and Lee Shipman. It is based on McGreevy’s 2012 novel Hemlock Grove.

The show examines the strange happenings in a fictional town in Pennsylvania where a teenage girl is brutally murdered, sparking a hunt for her killer.

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Goth Chick News: Godzilla Geek Out – More on the First Trailer for 2014 Remake

Goth Chick News: Godzilla Geek Out – More on the First Trailer for 2014 Remake

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Godzilla 2014 Poster 2-smallFifteen years ago a horrific monstrosity was loosed on an unsuspecting public. It was huge and ghastly and made you want to avert your eyes.

And it starred Matthew Broderick.

Yes, I am referring to the 1998 “American” remake of Godzilla, which outraged fans nicknamed  G.I.N.O., an acronym for “Godzilla in Name Only,” to ensure it would never be confused with the original source material.

To be fair, there were two good things about the film. One, even with an estimated budget of $130M it did at least break even in the US, pulling in $136M. Second, TriStar Pictures was able to keep all the velociraptor special effects guys employed (they had recently been laid off following the release of Jurassic Park: Lost World in 1997).

However what happened this week may finally eradicate the revulsion from our collective memories.

As my co-worker Ryan Harvey announced on Tuesday (by jumping up and roaring “out loud with him at the top of my lungs”… while at work), Legendary and Warner Brothers released the trailer for their 2014 Godzilla reboot and it looks pretty epic. Considering how long it took me to actually access it, there is clearly a whole lot of interest in seeing what will happen with the iconic monster this time around.

Monsters‘ special effects guru, Gareth Edwards writes the story and directs an eclectic cast including Elizabeth Olsen (Kill Your Darlings), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Juliette Binoche (The English Patient).

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Goth Chick News: Why Japanese Tire Commercials Are Cooler Than US Tire Commercials

Goth Chick News: Why Japanese Tire Commercials Are Cooler Than US Tire Commercials

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Kuchisake-onnaYou’re going to love this…

Autoway Loop, one of Japan’s largest wholesalers of tires, has recently employed the image of Kuchisake-onna (the “Slit-Mouthed Woman”) as its new “it” girl.

According to Japanese urban legend, Kuchisake-onna is a woman who is mutilated by a jealous husband and returns as a malicious spirit. When rumors of alleged sightings began in 1979 around Nagasaki, it spread throughout Japan and caused panic in many towns. There are even reports of schools allowing children to go home only in groups escorted by teachers for safety, and of police increasing their patrols.

Flash forward to 2013, to an ad agency somewhere in Japan who are tasked with making snow tires interesting.

The results are awesome (especially the guy with the high-pitched scream toward the end), though I’m not sure afterwards I’d remember someone is trying to get me to buy tires.

Take that, Michelin Tire marshmallow man…

Post a comment or drop a line to sue@blackgate.com.

Goth Chick News: The Devil and Leonardo DiCaprio in the White City

Goth Chick News: The Devil and Leonardo DiCaprio in the White City

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image002The last time we heard anything about a possible film version of one of my very favorite books, Erik Larson‘s The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, Leonardo DiCaprio‘s company had just optioned it and attached the actor to the project.  Way back then DiCaprio had yet to shoot either J. Edgar or The Great Gatsby, both of which have already come and gone.

And that’s what the industry refers to as “development hell.”

However, recently it was confirmed that DiCaprio was, and still is, set to play H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who haunted the creation of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. We still haven’t heard all that much about the film, but Warner Bros. says they are still working to make it a reality, and have hired Graham Moore to script.

It might help to move things along that fellow Chicago native Moore is a huge fan of the book, and has been for some time.  As he told Deadline Hollywood,

[I’ve been] obsessed with Devil in the White City for a decade. My high school was 50 yards away from where the Chicago World’s Fair was held, and I played soccer on a field near where Holmes murdered about 200 people. It was a truly horrible crime, but it’s a very Chicago story. Though I moved to LA, I think of myself as fundamentally Mid-Western, and in a weird way, this is a dark and twisted tribute to my hometown.

Nicely put Mr. Moore, I couldn’t agree more.

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Goth Chick News: Ending “The Season” at Days of the Dead

Goth Chick News: Ending “The Season” at Days of the Dead

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Days of the Dead Chicago-smallIt is with a heavy sigh that the Goth Chick News team bids farewell to another “season” of Halloween fun but not before attending one last hurrah.

Days of the Dead is a four-city, tour de force of all things horror that rolled through Chicago last weekend.  In addition to a copious list of movie celebrities, this year’s event boasted the largest number of industry vendors ever to attend the Midwest show; including special effects artists, set dressers, authors and indy film makers.

Bigger events come through Chicago, but Days of the Dead has the monopoly on panache.

Let’s wade in shall we?

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Goth Chick News – NYT Best Seller Dark Places in Post Production

Goth Chick News – NYT Best Seller Dark Places in Post Production

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image006This time next year, fellow Chicagoan Gillian Flynn is going to have one heck of a fall season with two of her best-selling novels headed for the big screen.

David Fincher’s high-profile thriller Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, releases October 3, 2014 but this week it was announced that Flynn’s earlier cult thriller Dark Places is nearly in the can, with Frenchman Gilles Paquet-Brenner behind the camera and Charlize Theron in front of it.

Dark Places is set to hit theaters September 1, 2014.

Dark Places was published in 2009 and at the time was listed on the New York Times Best Seller List for hardcover fiction for two consecutive weeks. The book was also shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and won the Dark Scribe Magazine Black Quill Award for Dark Genre Novel of the Year.

Flynn’s more recent novel, Gone Girl, spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the hardcover fiction best-seller list of The New York Times, and has sold more than two million copies in print and digital formats.

In addition to Oscar-winner actress Charlize Theron, Dark Places will also star Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies), Chloë Grace Moretz (Carrie), Corey Stoll (House of Cards) and Emmy Award nominated actresses Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) and Drea de Matteo (Sons of Anarchy).

The plot sees the seven year-old Libby Day witness the murder of her family, seemingly the work of a Satanic cult, and testify against her own brother (Stoll) as the murderer.

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Goth Chick News: Max Brooks Takes on Walking Dead with Extinction Parade (Maybe…)

Goth Chick News: Max Brooks Takes on Walking Dead with Extinction Parade (Maybe…)

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The Extinction Parade-smallAnyone who thinks the whole zombie thing is at risk for falling out of pop-culture-vogue is underestimating the undead super powers of Max Brooks.

The World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War writer continues his current reign as king of the reanimated by reportedly signing his latest comic Extinction Parade to a TV deal, offering up what may be the first real, small-screen competition to The Walking Dead.

Bleeding Cool reports Brooks is in talks with “one of the most successful production companies in Hollywood,” though no one is even hinting at who that could be yet. But to really get our attention, Extinction Parade is going to need the no-holds-barred approach of someone like HBO rather than a network treatment.

NBC is resurrecting the made-for-CBS undead series Babylon Fields and The Sundance Channel is currently airing The Returned, both of which take a less violent look at zombies. But now with vampires in the mix, Brooks’s story definitely needs the creative freedom to back up the tanker of fake blood.

As explained in Extinction Parade’s first issue:

As humans wage their loosing fight versus the hoards of the subdead, a frightening realization sets in with the secretive Vampire race: our food is dying off. This is the story of Vampires’ decent into all-out war with the mindless hungry hordes of the zombie outbreak as humanity tries to survive them all. Three species in mortal conflict. This is how a species dies.

Oh yes please.

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Goth Chick News Wishes You a Frighteningly Wonderful Halloween

Goth Chick News Wishes You a Frighteningly Wonderful Halloween

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image002From all of us in the underground offices of Black Gate, wishing you a wonderful “holiday” season and thank you for continuing to follow us into the dark.

And now for your reading enjoyment, what would Halloween be without a little Edgar…?

Thy soul shall find itself alone
‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness — for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

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