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VOD Spotlight: Isle of Mania — Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island”

June 10, 2010 Jeff Pfeiffer Comments Off

By Karl J. Paloucek One of the problems with director Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thrillers is that over time, their references to psychoanalysis have not aged well. The science was in its early infancy and its treatment in movies like Spellbound and Psycho that was once clever now seems clumsy and weak. Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese – one of the few directors to come close to catching up to the Master of Suspense with his 1991 remake of J. Lee Thompson’s Cape Fear – has an advantage in being able to rely on decades of development and history where behavioral […]

VOD Spotlight: “Legion” imagines the Apocalypse

June 10, 2010 Jeff Pfeiffer Comments Off

Legion is a terrifying vision of the Apocalypse from writer/director Scott Stewart (Priest). As mankind destroys itself in a savage fury, a small group of peple trapped on the edge of nowhere prepare to make a last stand, with the help of a mysterious and powerful stranger. Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, Paul Bettany, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Adrianne Palicki and Kate Walsh star. Stewart’s rewrite of the original script takes a “less is more” approach to the horror elements. “The original was a more explicit, ‘we’re going to show you everything,’ way of telling the story, as opposed to, […]

VOD Spotlight: “The Wolfman” – Returning To Classic Horror Roots

June 9, 2010 Elaine Bergstrom 1

By Elaine Bergstrom Some of my fondest childhood memories were watching the classic Universal Studios horror films of the ’40s and ’50s at the local theater and on Ghoulardi’s late-night horror film screenings. One of the films I saw was the Lon Chaney Jr. classic The Wolf Man, and it was one of my favorites. Thankfully, the werewolf may have made some smoother and more elaborate transformations thanks to modern special effects, but the tone of the stories – a noble human doomed by a curse and an unfortunate bite – has stayed the same in films such as An […]

VOD Spotlight: “Dear John” sparks more interest in author’s book adaptations

June 9, 2010 Jeff Pfeiffer Comments Off

Author Nicholas Sparks has hit it big in Hollywood ever since his best-selling novel The Notebook was made into a successful film in 2004. Two of his other books, Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember, had previously been filmed, but The Notebook really helped cue movie audiences in to the Nicholas Sparks style of romantic drama. That was followed by the 2008 adaptation of Nights in Rodanthe, and this year’s The Last Song. That style has also continued with this year’s movie version of Sparks’ Dear John. It’s a romantic drama about a soldier (Channing Tatum) who […]

Comcast’s New On Demand Series “Vampires Revealed” Sinks Its Teeth Into Vampire Culture

October 5, 2009 Lori Acken 1

They’ve been fascinating folks for years and now vampires are hotter than ever — from The CW’s new series The Vampire Diaries, to the fanatical success of HBO’s toothsome drama True Blood and the feature film Twilight, to the fervor for Twilight’s November sequel, New Moon. With Halloween right around the corner, Comcast On Demand is giving TV viewers a peek into the intriguing world of real-life devotees of the ancient practice of vampirism (including Seregon O’Dassey, pictured) with of its original docu-series, Vampires Revealed, premiering Oct. 5. This entrancing true-life tale offers up surprising evidence that supports — and debunks — […]