Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
If you follow Steve Epting on Instagram then you’ve probably already seen the wonderful Marv from Sin City art above. Even if you have seen it, the piece is worth another look. If it is new to you, thank me later. Now you should click over and check out Epting’s other amazing pieces.
I love everything about this rare Creature from the Black Lagoon photo. I hope you do as well.
Source: @shiigeeboo.
The poster and trailer for Respite is here. Any time there is a down and out private eye, you have my attention. Add in a serial killer and the interest goes up. I like (not love) the Respite poster and the trailer has me wanting to see more.
Down and out private-eye Jimmy Baz reluctantly takes on a case to find a missing college student when the dead bodies of Muslim men start turning up, leading him to believe he is now searching for a serial killer.
Directed by Saro Varjabedian and written by Varjabedian and Ali Abouomar,
RESPITE was produced by Monte Bezell, Julián Juaquín, Ahmet Devran Dayanc, and Karina Bezell.
RESPITE stars Monte Bezell, Julián Juaquín, Ahmet Devran Dayanc, Haythem Noor, Leslie Kalarchian, Baylen Thomas, and Guillermo Iván.
Stephen King has a new book coming out on August 3rd. Billy Summers is described as “…a thrilling new novel about a good guy in a bad job.”
Tell me more.
Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
How about everything.
This spectacular can’t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption.
You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy.
Entertainment Weekly has an excerpt if you’d like to know more. As for me, I’m in.
Body Brokers – the poster and trailer are here! The poster is okay — it looks like a good start but needs more. I liked the trailer okay. The main selling point to me is Michael Kenneth Williams and Frank Grillo. These guys are under-rated actors.
Utah and Opal are junkies living on the streets of rural Ohio until a seemingly chance encounter with the enigmatic Wood brings them to Los Angeles for drug treatment. Utah appears to find sobriety with the help of treatment center shrink, Dr. White, and tech turned love interest, May. They soon learn that drug treatment is but a cover for a predatory business, enlisting addicts to recruit other addicts.
Starring: Jack Kilmer, Alice Englert, Michael Kenneth Williams, Melissa Leo, Jessica Rothe and Frank Grillo
Directed by: John Swab
Above we have a poster for Faceless and below the trailer. I’m interested in seeing more thanks to the trailer — the poster doesn’t do much for me.
Marcel Sarmiento, director of Deadgirl, V/H/S Viral and Totem, is back with his next horror film, Faceless, which releases on Digital February 16 and on DVD March 2.
In the film…
“After waking up disoriented and frightened in a hospital room, George (Brendan Sexton III, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) discovers that he has received a full face transplant.
“Following the initial shock of an unfamiliar face, George becomes plagued by vivid, unexplainable flashbacks. He is soon released from the hospital and expected to fend for himself without any recollection of his previous life. With no end in sight and nobody to turn to but a mysterious woman named Sophie (Alex Essoe, “The Haunting of Blye Manor”), George must overcome his flashbacks, unexplained daily occurrences and a persistent, masked stalker to put the pieces together before it’s too late.”
Cloris Leachman, whose acting career spanned over 70 years, died yesterday of natural causes at the age of 94. It is hard to say the role that she was best known for since she had so many memorable and award-winning parts. Leachman was nominated for 22 Primetime Emmy Awards (earning her the record for the most nominations). She won 8 Primetime Emmy Awards (tying her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the most actress wins in Emmy history.) Leachman also won an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Daytime Emmy Award!
My first memory of Cloris Leachman is from her role as Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her character was so popular that Leachman played her in two spin-off series; first on Rhoda and then in her own show simply titled Phyllis. Although my first memory of Cloris Leachman is from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, there is no doubt that I’d seen Leachman in many other television guest appearances. Her tv credits include dozens and dozens of appearances on popular shows… everything from Lassie to The Twilight Zone.
Cloris Leachman wasn’t just limited to television roles. Her appearances in Mel Brooks’ films were always funny, welcome additions. Her role as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein is a classic. Who can forget her first major movie role as Christina Bailey in Kiss Me Deadly? Leachman also appeared in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Last Picture Show (where she won the Oscar and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress), High Anxiety and many other features.
Cloris Leachman has nearly 300 acting credits on her resume and she made everything she was in better by her presence. She will be missed.
Our thoughts and prayers go our to Cloris Leachman’s family, friends and fans.
The Dead Air poster and trailer are here. The trailer has a Frequency vibe to it. I liked Frequency, so I’ll give Dead Air a shot.
Suffering from the repressed memory of an old trauma, William discovers a ham radio and stumbles into contact with Eva, a woman with a dark secret of her own. The deceptively innocent relationship leads him to a horrible truth and changes him forever.
The Debris trailer looks pretty interesting. I’ll give it a shot.
When mysterious wreckage starts falling from the sky, a secretive international agency is tasked with figuring out what it is, where it came from, and most importantly… what it can do. British agent Finola Jones and American agent Bryan Beneventi are partners who have very different styles – she’s warm, intuitive and detail-oriented, and he’s charming, confident and guarded. But they have no choice but to trust each other as they track down the debris scattered across the Western Hemisphere. Each fragment has unpredictable, powerful and sometimes dangerous effects on the everyday people who find it. Every discovery is also a race against time, because shadowy outside forces seek these objects for nefarious purposes.
The cast includes Jonathan Tucker, Riann Steele, Norbert Leo Butz and Scroobius Pip.
Creator and showrunner J.H. Wyman will write and executive produce alongside his company, Frequency Films. Jason Hoffs, Jeff Vlaming and Samantha Corbin-Miller will also executive produce.
“Debris” is produced by Frequency Films and Legendary Television in association with Universal Television.
I like the poster and trailer for Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. I’ll be watching come February 10th.
From housing serial killers to untimely deaths, the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles is known to many as LA’s deadliest hotel. The latest chapter in the Cecil’s dark history involves the mysterious disappearance of college student Elisa Lam. Check in to the Cecil Hotel on February 10, only on Netflix.
I’m not a fan of the poster, but the trailer for A Ghost Waits has won me over. I want to see this film. It appears to be a mash-up of Beetlejuice (confirmed in the synopsis) and Ghost (speculation by me). Check it out!
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
An ingeniously unique and unpredictable combo of horror, humor and heart, A Ghost Waits is a DIY labor of love years in the making from first-time writer/director Adam Stovall and producer/star MacLeod Andrews.
Tasked with renovating a neglected rental home, handyman Jack (MacLeod Andrews, They Look Like People, Doctor Sleep) quickly finds out why the tenants keep leaving in droves – this house is haunted. The ghost in question is Muriel (Natalie Walker), herself employed from beyond the veil to keep the home vacant. Against the odds, Jack and Muriel find they have a lot in common… pulse notwithstanding. Having found a kindred spirit in an otherwise lonely existence, they must fight for their newfound affection as pressure mounts for them each to fulfil their “cross-purposes”.
From its opening spectral assault to its achingly poignant conclusion – as well as a witty depiction of afterlife bureaucracy in the vein of Beetlejuice and A Matter of Life and Death – A Ghost Waits has shocked and surprised audiences around the world, and now makes its home video debut stacked with insightful bonus features that take you inside the process of creating this phantasmagorical monochrome marvel.
While we’re on the topic of new posters for classic Universal monsters, let me direct your attention to the two new Greg Staples’ prints for Dracula and Frankenstein that will become available for purchase tomorrow through Vice Press.
From the Vice Press release…
On Tuesday the 26th of January Vice Press and Bottleneck Gallery will be launching a new series of limited edition Universal Monsters movie posters and art prints by British artist Greg Staples.
Greg Staples is best know for his work on British comic 2000AD and artwork for Magic the Gathering but also regularly contributes towards film and game design and most recently has worked alongside director Neil Marshall on a number of projects.
‘For me the classic Universal Monster films have been engrained into me since I was a child, not only with their legendary visual design and makeup but because they are almost not of this world. To me they are the purest form of escapism and something that simply couldn’t be made in this day and age. I decided to approach these illustrations a little differently by choosing to try to add a bit of realism, hopefully to capture a small part of their character so wonderfully portrayed by Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. This really was an honour.’ – Greg Staples
Working closely alongside Universal and the estate of Bela Lugosi, this officially licensed series kicks off with pieces for Dracula and Frankenstein and feature Greg’s amazing paintings that beautifully capture Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in their iconic roles. Both versions of the art are available in a regular edition movie poster in an edition of 195 priced £44.99, and a variant edition art print in an edition of 175 and priced £49.99. Both prints are 24×36 inches. There will also be smaller art prints available featuring Greg’s original paintings.
There will also be the opportunity to add a signature by artist Greg Staples to your print for an extra £5.
I love the attention the classic monsters continue to get and that artists like Greg Staples are true fans of the genre.
I love this alternative Dracula poster. Everything about this is right, from the colors, to the use of Lugosi’s likeness, to the female vampires bowing to the Count as he brings in his latest victim.
Sadly, the artist isn’t known to me or Neil Vokes. (I first saw the image on Neil’s Facebook page. If you’re a fan of horror, Neil is as well, plus he’s a fine artist in his own right.)
If anyone knows/discovers the name of the artist who created this poster, let me know so I can update this post.
Larry King died this morning. He was 87. King had been hospitalized in December for complications from Covid-19. King, who was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger worked on radio and television for over 60 years.
King became a national celebrity when his Larry King Live interview program on CNN went viral in 1985. King hosted the show for 25 years and interviewed just about everyone who was making headlines. That was the joy of King’s program, one night he might be talking to a top political figure, the next night a celebrity or psychic.
King became so popular and well known that he began to appear in movies and television roles (hundreds listed on IMDb) usually playing himself. Throughout his career King earned an Emmy, two Peabody awards and 10 Cable Ace awards. When King left CNN he continued to work in television with Larry King Now (2012-2020) on Hulu and Politicking with Larry King (2013 until his death).
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Larry King’s family, friends and fans.
Although Gregory Sierra died on January 4, 2021, from cancer, his death wasn’t made public knowledge until yesterday. Sierra, who had a long career acting in television and movie roles was probably best known for his co-starring role on Barney Miller.
Sierra made guest appearances on dozens and dozens of television shows with reoccurring roles on The Flying Nun, Sanford & Son, Soap, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Murder She Wrote and more. Sierra’s major theatrical film roles were in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Papillon, The Towering Inferno, Vampires and Vic (written and directed by Sage Stallone).
I always enjoyed tv shows and movies a bit more when Gregory Sierra appeared. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Gregory Sierra’s family, friends and fans.
