By Jeff Pfeiffer
Follow @ChannelGuideJP
Perhaps trying to recapture the feeling of that long-ago time right after the original Halloween came out, when every horror movie seemed to have a holiday theme, Syfy has announced a new slate of holiday-related films in its infamous Saturday Original Movie franchise.
According to Thomas Vitale, executive vice president of programming and original movies for Syfy, the network is “committed to finding new and different ways to destroy the world in our Saturday Original Movies. Since 2002, we’ve unleashed natural disasters, unnatural disasters, creatures on land, sea and air, and iconic fantasy characters. Now we’re taking over the holiday seasons, one terrifying movie at a time.”
The holiday flicks appropriately kick off this Halloween with Zombie Apocalypse (pictured above), premiering Oct. 29 at 9pm ET/PT. Although it stars
Ving Rhames, the film sounds predictable to those familiar with the zombie-movie genre — after a zombie plague wipes out 90 percent of the world’s population, a small group of survivors fight their way across the country to a rumored refuge on the island of Catalina. Fairly standard zombie plague fare, but can anyone else but Syfy give you a zombie tiger (pictured left)???
Skipping Thanksgiving and moving into winter, the next Syfy holiday horror film will be Snowmageddon, premiering Dec. 10 at 9pm ET/PT. Although the film’s title seems inspired by the clever headlines used by every local newscast in blizzard-prone areas, the plot centers around a mystical snow globe that, when shaken, makes very bad things happen in the real world. Not entirely sure what holiday this related to, but I’m assuming Christmas.
The next announced holiday film for Syfy will be St. Patrick’s Day Leprechaun (fortunately that’s just a working title, since it’s pretty weak even by these standards), premiering March 17, 2012. In this film, an evil leprechaun who has been imprisoned within the roots of an old oak tree is accidentally set loose — on St. Patrick’s Day! — and takes bloody revenge on the descendants of those who originally trapped him. Whether this can break new ground in the “evil leprechaun” genre not already covered by the Leprechaun films remains to be seen.
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Credit: Lara Solanki/Syfy
