Tim Burton: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work [Hardcover]

For the respective Tim Burton enthusiast comes “Tim Burton: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work,” a comprehensive biography and study of the master’s work by author Ian Nathan. Courtesy of Aurum Press, the book is a hardcover encyclopedia of everything Tim Burton, chronicling pretty much every film he’s ever made, from his short films in school, to his work in animation, right down to major projects like “Batman Returns” and “Dark Shadows.” Fans of Burton will be pleased to read about the interesting life Burton has led, and how he was often drawn to the Gothic and ideas about the outcasts in “normal” society.

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The Search for Weng Weng (2007)

Andrew Leavold, a cult video store owner, goes on the search for a mysterious movie star from the Philippines, the 2’9” action star Weng Weng who did less than a dozen films but left a huge mark on his fans.  Leavold through his documentary shows the star’s childhood, rise, and fall until his untimely death. Written by Andrew Leavold and Daniel Palisa (as Daniel Haig) and directed by Leavold, it follows its director’s journey from Australia to the Weng Weng’s native Philippines where he finds footage of the star he had never seen, movies he had never heard about, and plenty of people ready to talk about the star.

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24×36: A Movie About Movie Posters (2016) [Blood in the Snow 2016]

24x36Illustrated movie posters are explore here through their beginnings, history, the artists behind them, and their recent resurgence started with Mondo and their artist posters of older films that have become highly collectible and wanted. Directed by Kevin Burke, this documentary starts with the history of the medium and interviews with knowledgeable people and artists.  This part of the film is filled with historical facts and anecdotal stories.  The film spends a bit of time on the history, where posters can from, why are they the sizes that they are, why they look a certain way, their evolution, etc.

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Interview with Scream Queen and Author Carrie Keagan

carrie-keagan-1I first learned about Carrie Keagan during her stint on “Attack of the Show” in the mid-aughts. As one of the hundreds of men in America smitten with the bold, funny, quick as a whip, and daring journalist, I’ve been following her career and am pleased to see Ms. Keagan is now starring in two highly anticipated upcoming horror films. Carrie Keagan has an insatiable appetite for horror movies, and is a bonafide horror geek and self-professed “Gore Whore” who can be seen playing a Burlesque dancer/zombie fighter in Staci Layne Wilson’s “Fetish Factory,” and as a bride to be turned monster in “The Fiance.”

Thanks to talented director Staci Layne Wilson, I was lucky enough to grab an interview with the very busy Carrie Keagan, who is taking on more film projects, huge television projects, and even released a memoir.

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Winners Tape All: The Henderson Brothers Story (2016)

winners-tape-allJustin Channell’s “Winners Tape All” is a very niche mock documentary about a pair of brothers that became low budget horror filmmakers who went on to direct schlock slashers like “Curse of Stabberman” and “Cannibal Swim Club.” It’s a difficult premise to explain, and sadly it’s not a movie that lends itself to a lot of laughs or even an interesting story. Director Channell and stars Zane Crosby and Josh Lively look like they had a great time making “Winners Tape All,” but even at an hour in length, their premise feels stretched pretty thin. It’s an interesting concept for Channell to evoke the video age and explore cheaply made horror movies that were filmed straight to video.

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The PC Thug: George Romero and The Blame Game

PCThug-logoI should preface this rant by saying that I avoided making this article for a few days if only because I am a big Romero fan. I think Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead are brilliant masterpieces that should be analyzed by film students everywhere, while films like “Knight Riders” and “Creepshow” are pretty fantastic in their own right. Hell I’ve even ardently defended Romero at every turn, cheering on his efforts to make a “Resident Evil” movie, “Dead Reckoning,” and I’ve even defended “Land,” “Diary,” and “Survival of the Dead” despite being his lesser movies. But lately I’ve managed to come across an interview with George Romero who has decided to bring the whole house down with him despite someone who has offered films with diminishing returns. And what’s worse is some media outlets are pretty much enabling him.

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