Black Gate

Setting aside the fact that Poltergeist is one of the most celebrated horror films of all time, a burning question has been the cause of endless debate among fans: who really directed the film?

What? Have you never heard this story?

Well me either until this week – so here goes.

While Tobe Hooper – certified genre legend for helming The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – is the credited director, there has long been debate around whether or not it was in fact producer Steven Spielberg who did most, if not all, of the directing.

The rumor about Spielberg’s creative control began way back in 1982 with an L.A. Times feature on the making of Poltergeist that ran before the film’s release. In it, Spielberg contrasted his input with Hooper’s: “Tobe isn’t what you’d call a take-charge sort of guy. He’s just not a strong presence on a movie set. If a question was asked and an answer wasn’t immediately forthcoming, I’d jump up and say what we could do. Tobe would nod agreement, and that became the process of the collaboration.”

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Though every period since the birth of celluloid entertainment can boast its share of vampire films, the 1980’s saw a definitely change in how our favorite movie monster was portrayed. The “decade of excess” also heralded the reign of the excessively sexy vamp.

Not that Dracula in all his iterations wasn’t alluringly sexual – this was the “naughty” angle to his story from the Victorian era. But the 80’s saw a new batch of vamps who not only blended in and lived among humans, but at whom we humans could not stop gaping. From Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in The Hunger, to Chris Sarandon in Fright Night and Lauren Hutton in Once Bitten, vampires replaced capes with haute couture and picked us up in nightclubs rather than (or before) sneaking through our windows.

And what group of undead epitomized the 80’s better than The Lost Boys?

Correct. None at all.

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Having been exceptionally good this year, relatively speaking, Santa brought me the second-most-wished-for item on my list.  I sort of understand why it really wasn’t in Santa’s power to bring my most-wished-for “Men of Black Gate” calendar, but the second item was almost as awesome – a Virtual Reality (VR) headset.

If you’ve had the pleasure of experiencing one of these such as the Oculus Rift, then you know how next-level-amazing it is for total immersion into movies and gaming; so much so that the units come riddled with all manner of warnings about motion sickness and disorientation.

Now, imagine the possibilities when considering using it within the horror genre.

Specifically something like the Aliens franchise.

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Much like bacon, we here at Goth Chick News think everything is better with zombies. Pride and Prejudice was better. Brad Pitt was way better. And even Romeo and Juliette was a bit better, in a dead-guy-falls-for-living-girl kind of way.

But honestly, even we were skeptical that zombies could improve upon what may be the best holiday movie ever: Bob Clark’s classic A Christmas Story.

Thanks to Buzzfeed’s Jesse McLaren, those of us who have fantasized about Ralphie turning his Red Ryder against the undead have received this 30-second gift via YouTube last week.

Stand aside Daryl Dixon, because Dead Eye Ralphie makes this look good…

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In January of this year we reported how J.J. Abrams was up to his old guerrilla marketing tactics again when 10 Cloverfield Lane was not only announced, but also came with a trailer and a release date only a few months later in March. The pseudo-sequel to the 2008 found footage sci-fi/horror film Cloverfield was a box office success, even garnering some serious if fleeting Oscar buzz for John Goodman.

Because 10 Cloverfield Lane reignited fan interest in the franchise (and made such bank), it was pretty much a done deal that there would be another entry in the Cloverfield universe. However, given that it was eight years between the first and second installments, no one was exactly holding their breath.

Then in October it seemed that we should have been, when The Wrap revealed that the next film in the series was already in production — and had a title and a release date: God Particle; ETA February, 2017

However, literally before I could bring you the news, the top secret film directed by Julius Onah, was pulled from the schedule.

Seriously J.J… WTF…?

Now this week comes word from Paramount Pictures’ PR branch that they plan to release a new Cloverfield movie in theaters (and IMAX) on October 27, 2017.

And with that we now have a mystery on our hands.

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Sigh.

I don’t even know where to begin. But pour yourself the adult beverage of your choice and roll a bit closer to the keyboard while I bring you sad tidings.

Back in October, I thoroughly bummed myself out right before the day around which my entire year revolves, by reporting the relentless assault Universal Studios was perpetuating on its own classic monster movie catalog. First in the line of this death-march to the box office was a remake of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise.

Though I am definitively and forever not a fan of Tom Cruise, I am a fan of a well-made or at least well-intentioned horror movie. I held out the slimmest hope that having been the literal celluloid birthplace of the entire lineup of classic monsters, Universal Studios might, just might, opt to protect the originality of their creation, therefore respecting the reverence with which their creatures were held by the fans.

Nope.

This week saw the release of the full trailer for The Mummy, which will be loosed on an innocent public on June 9, 2017. Assuming that this trailer, like any other, contains the best bits of the film and is sincerely meant to make you want to see it…

Heavy sigh.

Of the 2 minute, 34 second snippet, the first 1 minute 19 seconds is consumed with a very Mission Impossible / Jack Reacher style, CGI’d-within-an-inch-of-its-life plane crash which Tom Cruise apparently doesn’t survive, until he does – without a mark on his tiny but toned visage. Then queue the car crashes, explosions and under-water scene that includes a brief glimpse of “Princess Ahmunet” (yes it’s a she-mummy this time around) and Russel Crowe attempting to be ominous.

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