For anyone interested, IDT Entertainment's "Masters of Horror" feature anthology series finalized their procurement of major horror directors and plan to start filming in April of this year. Each feature will initially run 60 minutes long (who knows if the DVDs will be "director's cuts" of longer length) for the possibility of running on cable, with eventual home video release handled by Anchor Bay Entertainment. Mick Garris is executive producer, I believe, with a budget of $1.5 million per film.

The directors are (so far):

John Carpenter ("Halloween", "The Thing", "Prince of Darkness", "In the Mouth of Madness")

Mick Garris ("The Stand" mini-series, "The Shining" mini-series, "Riding the Bullet")

George A. Romero ("Martin", "Night of the Living Dead" + sequels "Dawn", "Day" & "Land", "Creepshow", "The Dark Half")

Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption", "The Green Mile")

Joe Dante ("Pirahna", "Gremlins" series, "Innerspace", "The 'burbs")

John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London", "Twilight Zone: The Movie", "Michael Jackson's Thriller")

Don Coscarelli ("Phantasm" series, "The Beastmaster", "Bubba Ho-Tep")

Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator", "From Beyond", "Dagon", "King of the Ants")

Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" original & part 2, "Eaten Alive", "Lifeforce", "Invaders from Mars" remake)

Roger Corman ("Little Shop of Horrors" original, "The Pit & the Pendulum", "The Masque of the Red Death", "Frankenstein Unbound")

Hideo Nakata ("Ringu", "Dark Water" original, "The Ring Two")

Larry Cohen ("Bone", "It's Alive" series, "God Told Me To", "Q - The Winged Serpent", "The Stuff")

Dario Argento ("Deep Red", "Suspiria", "Tenebre", "Phenomena", "Opera", "The Stendahl Syndrome")

The writers are (so far):

Kim Henkel ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre")

Michael Brandt & Derk Haas ("2 Fast 2 Furious")

David J. Schow ("The Crow")

Harlan Ellison ("Star Trek", "The Outer Limits")

Steve Niles ("30 Days Of Night")

Lawrence D. Cohen ("Carrie")

Matt Greenberg ("Halloween: H20")

Richard Christian Matheson ("Full Eclipse") adapting a piece from his father, the legendary Richard Matheson

Drew McWeeny & Scott Swan ("Mortal Kombat: Devastation")

Cooper Layne ("The Core")

Apparently both Guillermo Del Toro and Robert Rodriguez have since passed on participating, the first due to conflicting production schedules and the second in favor of a Masters of Horror knockoff entitled "Grindhouse".

Very impressive. I'm looking forward to this now since Roger Corman will be a part of this and Hideo Nakata will be also. The only one person thats missing here is that I'd love to have seen David Cronenberg been a part of this.

Yeah, I was surprised to see that he wasn't involved. He is one of the "Masters of Horror" ceremony alumni (per Mick Garris' arrangement), but he's been doing a lot more mainstream work lately. Who knows, maybe he was just busy?

word.

word.

what?

Don't ask... I know he co-wrote the rewrite for Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (with director Chuck Russell), which was infinitely inferior to Wes Craven's original draft you can find in the novelization. I've seen him use that as his credibility, but I don't buy it. Frankly, whatever he does I could care less about. I'm interested in everyone else.

Yes why is he on this list besides the fact that he's good friends with Mick Garris and Tobe Hooper. Not only is Cronenberg missing on this list but Wes Craven and Clive Barker are missing also, unless Barker is going to write something for one of the directors.
BTW: I was thinking what it would be like if Cronenberg and Barker teamed up to do a film. I was thinking years ago that Cronenberg I bet would do a pretty good version of Barker's Weaveworld.

I don't believe Craven (though associated with a few of them in the past) or Barker have ever been a part of the "Masters of Horror" ceremonies held by Garris. The only other directors mentioned to have connections to that group NOT on this list are: David Cronenberg, Eli Roth, Lucky McKee, Dwayne Jenkins, William Lustig, Robert Parigi, Richard Kelly, Bill Malone, Tim Sullivan, Rob Zombie, Tom McLoughlin and Bryan Singer.

Anyway, I've seen an interview where Wes Craven swore off the horror genre during the troubled production of "Cursed" and has since switched to straight thrillers like "Red-Eye". Clive Barker is trying to get numerous films off the ground, which I believe are writer/director projects. They are set up at various other studios and I think he's concentrating on those. If there is any creative person I'm surprised hasn't gotten involved, it's Steven King as a writer.


That would be a very bizarre and most likely disturbing collaboration. One would think the two of them would have crossed paths by now.

They did, in a way, if you count Cronenberg's appearance as an actor in a film Barker directed - Nightbreed; though, as to be expected, that probably wasn't the most memorable of collaborations.

Good god, I totally forgot about it. Though I first saw the movie when it hit video, I dug the movie up just a few years back and was really disappointed. I guess I just buried the memory of it, though I seem to remember Cronenberg was really frightening. Too bad it wasn't a creative collaboration, it might have helped.

I havn't seen the film in years and forgot about it all together. It's been some years since I've seen it and I never picked up the DVD becuase it was a bare bones and Barker talked about that there would be a SE that would come out latter on.
Ok back to the topic

Ok so this is more that some TV project I get. I get that this is sorta like what they did years ago with the Horror Hall of Fame that was shown on TV back in the early 90's. Or is this diferent.

I'm not sure if anything has been done like this before. Landis said that they have so much creative freedom that they could do one-offs or a few of them could get together to combine their entries into one big project. They could also get as gory as they want because the international market will differ from the domestic one, so they're probably going to tailor the editing for each feature based on who is going to see it. The only place we're likely to see them unaltered in the U.S. is on DVD.

The selling point is sort of like those Creature Features projects that I think Cinemax or Showtime ran a few years back, where a bunch of horror/sci-fi themed projects were sold and aired as a package with a home video release to follow shortly thereafter for each film. European produced films, like "Dog Soldiers" and "Beyond Re-Animator", have followed similar release patterns with a cable television debut (Sci-Fi Channel in these two instances) for maximum exposure before home video.

It's like the new drive-in... cheaper genre projects tailor-made for a certain audience and released wide by less glamorous venues, except to own. Unlike the days of Full Moon Entertainment and the like on VHS, consumers can get their dibs on the product as soon as hits home video and for affordable prices ($20 vs. $100). Thinking about getting on TV first is also a major step forward, because the casual rental model is evaporating too.

ITC/Anchor Bay are probably the first production group to think this far ahead, but I would imagine that others will likely follow this model soon if the market continues to grow. When you think about it, the major studios (Universal, Dimension, Lion's Gate) have a lot more control these days when it comes to releasing films theatrically, so this is a more logical means of creating a profitable release model for smaller budgeted work.

Some of the Creature Features for what they were wern't that bad for a cable b-film. I'm really looking forward to this from what you have said DrewReiber this may really kick ass. But what I was getting at was that from what you said this as started off as a ceremonies or award show type deal that Garris hosts??? It sounded like he's been doing what they did in the early 90's when the horror hall of fame was being done by I think Fangore magazine and they aired it on tv.
BTW off topic for a minute-
did anyone watch Garris Riding the Bullet tonight on USA. I remember it coming to theaters back in October for a bit and I was suprised that it turned up tonight on USA cause I dont' think it's out on DVD.

Does anyone have any insight as to why Mario Bava and/or Herschell Gordon Lewis were omitted from the anthology? Both directors have contributed greatly to the horror genre. Maybe Bava was trumped by Argento as the more important director. But HGL? His movies may be week but he still deserves the recognition. Take Darabont off that damned list.

It would be very very hard to get Mario Bava to direct again...he hasnt made a film in ages!

Probably because he's dead.


Well, first off as I just mentioned, Bava has been dead... maybe 20 years. As for Argento having trumped Bava, I can't imagine why anyone would make such a claim. Argento, even by his own admission, wouldn't exist without Bava. His early work (worth of notoriety) was derivative of Bava's Giallo style, and his later film Inferno (sequel to Suspiria) had serious creative consultation and I believe some direction from Bava himself. However, Argento really took off in different directions by the late 70's and has since established his own style.

As for Herschell Gordon Lewis, I don't think he's ever worked alongside fellow horror filmmakers like these guys. Even his most recent film (after a break of about 40 years or so) was completely independent. From what I've heard (he lives near where I am), he's not exactly in tip top shape these days either. We're lucky we got Blood Feast 2 out of him.

Drew, Bava directed the sequence at the start of Inferno where the young lady goes through a hole in the cellar and finds the underwater room. You can tell because of the extreme fetishization of detail and furniture evident in the hand-held shots - Argento tends to instead fetishize mechanics, gears, or pistons as literal 'death traps'. Bava's obvious love of baroque furniture is most evident here and in the extended sequence in Blood and Black Lace where a woman is persued through an entire antique furniture gallery.

The other apparent Bava hallmark, besides the obviously extensive number of trick photography shots required for the sequence, is the underwater door that keeps drifting open and slamming shut as the woman retrieves the keys.

Bava is exceptionally fond of providing a "beat" to his suspense scenes, and this is a good example, along with the gently strobing light outside the apartment for the final sequence of Black Sabbath. This provides an 'intensity rythm' which he often uses as a hook to build his scenes on, rather than Argento's reliance on moving camera and jagged, unbalanced editing to build tension.

Bava also designed the trick shot near the end where the nurse fades out of existense, but her reflection in the mirror comes to life and shatters the glass 'barrier' between her and reality, transforming into Death in the process. This effect is simple and elegant - it bears Bava's distinctive "simple effects" hallmark as well as being worthy of the best of Cocteau's in-camera slight of hand. I think he only set up the shot and effects, but Argento seems to have left the setup alone. So he didn't really 'direct' that sequence, but his hand is evident.

The final Bava contribution to Inferno was the "rats in Central Park" death. Since Inferno was shot in Rome, Bava matted several moonlit New York cityscapes into Argento's shots. One shot, of the old man crossing a bridge, is even identical to a shot in the first part of Bava's Lisa and the Devil (pure coincidence, but fun). For anybody unaware, Bava's effects shots in his films were almost always in-camera and always his own work.

Interesting. Makes me wonder if David Lynch is influenced by Bava. He certainly has a thing for fetishizing furniture... the death by coffee table in Lost Highway, the attention paid to furniture in the Red Room in the Twin Peaks TV show and movie. Also, there are some shots in Mulholland Drive that feel quite Bava-esque.

One of Lynch's other interests is furniture design, so it could be a coincidence. Still not impossible, though.

Probably a coincidence -- Bava's films weren't well enough known or distributed in America and would not have been seen or even known for the most part unless you made a point of it to specialize in Italian cinema (like Martin Scorsese, who has moments of camera movement which are very Bava, especially with his zoom lens). Lynch would not have been exposed to Bava in a significant enough capacity to form any kind of lasting impact, especially considering the situation and place of his artistic formation.

I do think Lost Highway, especially the first half, is very similar to Euro-Horror, but is uniquely Lynch and, especially, uniquely American. Bava's films are full of declined aristrocats of a forgotten bloodlineage dying among the debris of their anscestors; Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive portray a more unique form of American inner decay which seems to hide out in the open, behind dumpsters and inside neat apartments with locked doors.

Bava's furniture fetisization takes on an even more sinister air than much of Lynch's - take a look at the pile of rotted furniture which frames a composition in the secret passageway of Black Sunday; a lone rocking chair rocking in the middle of a dark apartment in the final sequence of Black Sabbath; the woman trapped by junk in Blood and Black Lace and an earlier shot through a harp with still-vibrating strings which announces a murder; the secret to the murder hidden in a beaurea in The Girl Who Knew Too Much; a preponderance of secret-panel fireplaces in all his films; a bed which hides a rotted corpse in Lisa and the Devil; and even a large wardrobe which attacks a woman at the end of his last film, Shock.

Long story short: I doubt it very much. You can't very well be influenced by things that just aren't available to you.

You're making a pretty big assumption here. How do you know that he wasn't influenced by Bava consciously or had access to his films? Lynch is notoriously tight-lipped about talking about his cinematic influences. So, I wouldn't rule out Bava's influence on Lynch's work.


True enough. Bava biographer Tim Lucas wrote an excellent analysis of Fire Walk With Me in an old issue of Video Watchdog where he talks about the influence of Bava on that film and on aspects of the TV show. Specifically, the scene in the last episode of the series where Agent Cooper is being chased by himself in an otherworldly dimension bares a striking resemblance to a scene in Kill, Baby, Kill. I don't have the issue handy, but I can dig it up and find the references.

It's entirely possible, just it doesn't seem likely to me prior to the advent of home video considering the distribution system most of his films got cycled through and the network of alternate titles, director psuedonyms, and cut versions. I'm familar with the Twin Peaks episode you speak of and the lineage seems obvious, but Kill Baby Kill had been around on video for some years by then. I'd argue that most fans of Bava only really had the chance to discover him on video, far too late.

I'm guessing I was only trying to refute the furniture argument earlier. Stylistically Lynch is such a unique creature and I tend to look earlier in his filmography, rather than later, to see the seeds of influence and there's nothing in The Alphabet or Eraserhead that leads me to a Bava-Lynch connection. His later films show a diverse web of influences (starting around Blue Velvet) so I won't discount the argument. And if I pretended to know everything about everything I'd be a pretty boring person indeed, so I could be totally wrong, but I find it unlikely that Bava was an early influence on Mr. Lynch.

The two do share a similar sensibility, and given Lynch's interest in finding transcendence in the strangest of places, I can see how he'd be impressed by the better Euro-Horror directors.

More articles on "Masters of Horror"

Ok, I've updated the list to include the screenwriters announced so far... at least the ones who are not directing as well. Some of them sound like they were scraped out of the bottom of a barrel.

Well, I hope this is kosher as there is a discussion thread going on in Old News for general chat and I'm keeping this one up for news and links on the "Masters of Horror" films. Moderators, let me know if there is anything I should or shouldn't be doing.

NEWS: Dario Argento has just announced that he will be completing his film for Masters of Horror before embarking on La Terza Madre (the Third Mother), the final part of his Suspiria trilogy. He's finished a treatment for the film, but decided to push it back after completing his recent Italian TV movie, "Do You Like Hitchcock?". He mentioned two other projects he's working on, one of which I believe is the film "Dark Glasses" that he'll get two after his current commitments. I think he's supposed to be starting shooting for MoH in April. (Darkdreams.org)

UPDATE: I found some stuff about Dario Argento's next projects after Masters of Horror.

La Terza Madre / The Third Mother: "It’s about mysticism, alchemy, terrorism and Gnosticism (a religious movement characterized by a belief in intuitive spiritual knowledge, regarded as a heresy by the Christian church). So many heretics were tortured because of the Church and I’m living all that at the moment and sleeping with difficulty.

It will be set in Rome where we will first see the Mother of Tears/Mater Lachrymorum in medieval times. Because she is the most beautiful and cruel of the three mothers, I’m currently looking at Russian models to play that part. Ana Pieroni (who played the cat-stroking mother in Inferno) will not be reappearing as she now has five kids! It’s been over 20 years since I left the Three Mothers behind and it’s good to go back and explore the story from a retrospective perspective. I’m discovering more about witchcraft than ever before”.

Dark Glasses: After adopting a Chinese orphan boy, a prostitute is blinded in an accident and, finding her senses are heightened, decides to track down a killer responsible for a string of murders where the victims are all hookers.

NEWS: Mick Garris has announced that he will also be starting the shoot for his MoH film in April. He's just finished the new TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's Desperation, and will soon be starting work on a teleplay for an episode of Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes anthology horror series for TNT. Other scribes involved include Mike Robe, Peter Filardi (TNT’s Salem’s Lot, Flatliners), Larry Cohen (!!!), April Smith and Richard Christian Matheson. I've also heard that George Romero had been talking to Stephen King about doing an episode, but that was a while ago so there's no telling now. I must say I'm very excited about the prospect of Larry Cohen writing and directing an adaptation of Stephen King!

We are in total agreement on this point. I don't see much Bava influence on Lynch's earlier work either. I think your assessment of his influence perhaps creeping in around Blue Velvet -- it certainly has a European sensibility to it in some ways -- and then developing around Twin Peaks and Lost Highway. As I said, I'll try and dig up the Lucas article. It he makes some very interesting comparisons.

Pics from John Carpenter's segment, "Cigarette Burns." More graphic depictions of gore than usually seen in his movies (well, except maybe Vampires).

Apparently, Romero won't be contributing a segment anymore. Instead, John McNaughton will be filling for him, adapting the Clive Barker story.

Pics from Don Coscarelli's "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road"

Some tantalizing hints at possible directors for the second season of this anthology from the Horror Channel:



This is a bit depressing to hear but at least it's coming out on DVD:

From DavisDVD:

Zombies Attack George Bush

Anchor Bay has announced DVD releases for some of the first batch, and they're going to be one episode per DVD with an SRP of $17 each or $30 for a two-pack. No comment necessary.

Terrific interview with Joe Dante at Cinema Scope, re Homecoming. Tell it like it is Joe!

(Never even heard of The Second Civil War (since I don't have HBO) -- but the DVD is on its way now...!)