"Room 237" Out Today

          This is one of my favorite films recently and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in film theory and or Stanley Kubrick. "Room 237" is a film centered around different theories that try to explain the true meaning of "The Shining". My personal favorite part of the film is the images they used from "Demons", its just something about hearing cool theories of a film I love over images of a totally different film genre that is also love that I find very relaxing... Anyway you gotta gives this one a chance and its out today so go get it! Also once I pick this up you can expect a review.

Mark from "The Room" Tells All in "The Disaster Artist"

         Greg Sestro aka "Mark" from "The Room" has written a book. This book pretty much explains itself from the cover and if your experience of "The Room" was anything like it was for me then this book is a no brainer. Check out this video that was made to promote "The Disaster Artist".




          This kinda seems like an egomaniac telling his sob story but maybe I'm just bitter. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg and Tommy in person way back in 2005 and they were not the humble people I imagined. If you have seen "Best Worst Movie Ever" the film about "Troll 2", Tommy Wiseau is much like Claudio Fragasso and totally believed his film was awesome and deserved credit. Also Greg seemed like he had won an Oscar that year and we should treat him accordingly. Since then I think Tommy unlike Claudio has realized making a horrible film isn't so bad and will now admit "The Room" isn't the masterpiece he claimed it to be. In fact back in 2009 Tommy was on "Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job" poking fun at his success. Still I don't know about Greg I guess I'll have to get the book and decide then.

          If you've been living under a rock since 2003 and have yet to see "The Room", it is arguably one of the most entertaining bad movies ever made. I myself love films like this and try to screen them often and my personal experience would say "Miami Connection" and "Troll 2" do much better in crowds. But then again I have seen this film screened at the Red Vic on Haight Street (R.I.P.) and that was one rowdy crowd. I guess you will just have to see it for yourself.

The Number 23

3 of 6 citizens "Liked" "The Number 23" (2007, USA)

Here's what the citizens of the Overlook Theatre had to say:

Book Wyrm - "This movie was awesome. I never knew what to expect. There was a surprise around every corner pulling me in like the number 23." - 4 Stars

Bug - "It had a decent storyline but the execution was a bit weak. The twists were okay though, more of a movie for laughs." - 3 Stars

The Great Hornito - "23 reversed is 32, 3 minus 2 equals 1, which is exactly the amount of stars I'm giving this piece of shit." - 1 Star

Brewha - "With a lot of possibilities this movie still managed to fall short, just like Jim Carrey's acting." - 2 1/2 Stars

Lord Battle - "This is one of those movies that seems dumb but you watch it anyway, then just as you think it might be okay the third act kicks in and proves you should always trust your instincts. I will say I liked how they put 23 chapters on the disc which is cleaver. If the director knew how the finished product would turn out I'm sure he would have credited himself as Topsy Kretts." - 1 Star

Huntress - "This movie had the eccentric acting of a high school play. but the plot was distracting enough not to focus on that." - 3 Stars

The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*

The poster comes from Gee4411 on deviantart. I like going with alternate posters for the reviews and I'm very happy to come across Gee4411's. As for the film, it might have actually suffered from having Jim Carrey play the lead, since a lot of his dramatic scenes inspired laughs over tears. 

*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not effect the rating.

Insidious Webisodes 1 & 2

          It seems people can't get enough of the dark fantasy that is the world of "Insidious", so thankfully they have given us some more.  The webisodes star Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Samspon) before they met the Lamberts. 

          When the last one is i'll be sure to share it but this goes to show supporting horror in theaters has its rewards. "Insidious 2" almost opened as strong as "The Conjuring" (40.3 Mil to 41 Mil). "Insidious" opened at 13 Mil so a huge improvement there.

Halloween Blu Ray & Triple Feature

          To help celebrate the release of the 35th anniversary edition of John Carpenters's "Halloween" a number of theaters have been selected to screen John Carpenter's "Halloween", "Halloween 4", & "Halloween 5" back to back to back. This is the first time something like this is actually hitting a good number of theaters, to find a theater near you head to screen vision's web site here.

           For some reason California has 38 locations but not one in San Francisco... This is annoying but not a deal breaker. The Blue Light Cinema in Cupertino will be participating and that really isn't to far so I'm excited. The showing dates are October 28-31 and the Blu Ray comes out Tuesday.

The Soska Sisters and "See No Evil 2"

          The Twins have been busy getting "See No Evil 2" ready to shoot. I haven't been covering their progress much since they have really only announced the casting since my last post. And although most of the names are not that exciting, a couple totally add to the anticipation. First Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Freddy Vs Jason, American Mary) will be joining the twins again adding to her growing list of horror film roles, Second is Danielle Harris (Halloween 4-5, Hatchet 2-3, etc...) who is horror royalty and totally an awesome grab, defiantly a direction WWE wouldn't have gone in without some outside influence. As excited as I may sound about the casting it sadly was not the reason I felt the desire to write this post.  The inspiration came from an interview I read on Craveonline.

         WWE and pro wrestling in general has always been pretty over the top, creating larger than life characters and then parading them down a thin line between reality and fantasy. Nightly they blur the line between sport and "entertainment", presenting super campy soap opera story lines filled with laughs and gags.  Little does the audience know that the villain who recently slept with the hero's wife to cause his marriage to crumble just in time to take his mind off of their PPV title fight, really did so and it has been going on for years. The divorce and drama is all real and this makes the story THAT much better for TV, this particular indecent happened not to long ago with Kurt Angle and Jeff Jarrett.
         Ultimately I love cheering for larger than life characters (Which also helps explain my love for slashers, Go LeatherFace!) and that means I love wrestling. Now imagine how happy I was when I realized that WWE had partnered up with Lion's Gate again and hired a new polarizing couple of directors, then I read this interview that made me understand how wholly the twins embarrassed the line blurring of the WWE. You will have to read the interview to understand what I'm talking about but it really seems like the marketing and full understanding of the materialism of horror fans means they will be doing this right.
          Talking about reality and fantasy being blurred in wrestling has totally derailed my focus, so checkout the interview here and let me know what you think. I can't wait to see how they make Jacob Goodnight a slasher that people want to celebrate rather than just forget.

The Burnt House

5 of 5 citizens "Disliked" "The Burnt House" (2009, USA)

Here's what the citizens of the Overlook Theatre had to say:

Lord Battle - "This is a perfect example of a film that gives arthouse a bad name. If this movie was your typical run of the mill horror with a liner plot and obvious twist it would have at least held peoples attention, Sad thing is this movie also had a cool looking location and descent looking special effects/make up. Oh and the BluRay featured two unrelated music videos, nice money grab. I'm giving it 1 1/2 because as much as I hate this film now I know I'll forget about it until I post the review." - 1 1/2 Stars

The Great Hornito - "Obnoxious, self indulgent arrogant. Whoever made this is a complete narcissist and should be thrown into a burning house." - 2 Stars

Drumachine - "No redeeming qualities. A lot of dead horses being beaten. Insufficient. - 1 Star

Brewha - "The film focused more on repetitive artsy scenery rather than character development." - 1 1/2 Stars

Huntress - "This was the bare bones of a good plot, cushioned with tired editing tricks and over used jump scare attempts. It seemed to be building up to a predictable end, only to leave you dissappointed with the poorly executed "Twist"." - 2 Stars

The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*

Something positive I have to say related to this film is that I really like the way that the Overlook Theatre logo looks on the movie poster!

*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not effect the rating.