Today In Horror History

May 23,1980
On this day in Horror History, The Shining made it’s theatrical debut. Undeniably one of the most memorable and terrifying movies of all time, the Stephen King adaption directed by legendary film-maker Stanley Kubrick will forever be a cult masterpiece at the heart of the horror genre. Starring Jack Nicholson in the iconic role of Jack Torrance, the initial release of the film in the United States garnered less than favorable reviews and box office sales. The result was a re-edited European version and a legacy that will forever shadow the trials and tribulations faced by everyone who lent their brilliance to what is one of the most celebrated and inspiring moments in cinematic history.

“Have you ever had a SINGLE MOMENT'S THOUGHT about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the OVERLOOK Hotel until May the FIRST. Does it MATTER TO YOU AT ALL that the OWNERS have placed their COMPLETE CONFIDENCE and TRUST in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a CONTRACT, in which I have accepted that RESPONSIBILITY? Do you have the SLIGHTEST IDEA, what a MORAL AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLE IS, DO YOU? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future, if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? HAS IT?” –Jack Torrance

Today In Horror History

May 18, 1978
On this day in the Horror Movie Timeline, Ruggsville Texas authorities under the command of Sheriff John Quincy Wydell run a "search and destroy" mission on the Firefly home. The onslaught results in many deaths and the arrest of mother Firefly. Otis B. Driftwood, Baby and Tiny narrowly escape with their lives. –The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

“You listen to me, and you listen good! I am gonna kill every member of your family! I'm gonna hunt them down like the animals they are, and I'm gonna skin em' alive! They are going to feel the pain and suffering of every last victim! They're gonna crawl on on their hands and knees, and they're gonna beg me for mercy! But all I'm gonna have for them is pain! Pain and death!” -Sheriff John Wydell

The Devil's Rejects - Full Shootout Scene  

Upcoming Horror: V/H/S/2 - Red band trailer.

Yesterday Magnet Releasing premiered the red band trailer for V/H/S/2

You can check that out here: V/H/S/2 Red Band trailer


Synopsis:  In the film directed by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Gareth Evans, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Jason Eisener and Timo Tjahjanto, “Inside a darkened house looms a column of TVs littered with VHS tapes, a pagan shrine to forgotten analog gods. The screens crackle and pop endlessly with monochrome vistas of static—white noise permeating the brain and fogging concentration. But you must fight the urge to relax: this is no mere movie night. Those obsolete spools contain more than just magnetic tape. They are imprinted with the very soul of evil.

From the demented minds that brought you last year’s V/H/S comes V/H/S/2, an all-new anthology of dread, madness, and gore. This follow-up ventures even further down the demented path blazed by its predecessor, discovering new and terrifying territory in the genre. This is modern horror at its most inventive, shrewdly subverting our expectations about viral videos in ways that are just as satisfying as they are sadistic. The result is the rarest of all tapes—a second generation with no loss of quality.”- Bloody Disgusting


V/H/S/2 will be arriving on video on demand  platforms June 6 with a theatrical rollout set for July 12.

Upcoming Horror: Green Inferno

From the mind of Eli Roth… GREEN INFERNO (2013)!

An homage to the controversial Ruggero Deodato classic ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, the film follows a group of student activists that travel from New York City to the Amazon to save a dying tribe but crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by the very natives they protected.

Currently in post-production, the film was shot in an Amazonian village with no contact to the outside world. As a result the natives were unaware that film or television even existed, and in order to solidify permission to shoot, Roth and the producers would use generators to show the Amazonian’s Cannibal Holocaust (1980). Thinking it was a comedy, the natives loved the film and all of them agreed to the filming as well as portraying cannibals in the upcoming release. 

Today In Horror History

May 7, 1939
On this day in Horror History, Ruggero Deodato was born in Potenza, Italy. Arguably one of the most controversial directors of all time, Deodato’s 1980 Cult Film Cannibal Holocaust would solidify his place as one of the most misunderstood and infamous film-makers in the annals of the horror industry. The film itself has been banned in more than 40 countries worldwide in the last 33 years and even resulted in Deodato being charged with murder for sending the stars of the to their merciless deaths. Depicting the “Found Footage” of documentary film-makers that face unspeakable horrors in the Amazonian Rainforest at the hand of cannibalistic tribes, it would garner quite the reaction upon its debut. Prior to the film’s release, Deodato would require the actors to sign a contract agreeing to be sequestered as to add to the realism that the film was the recovered footage of their death. It turned out to be more believable than intended, as it would not be until Deodato requested their presence in the court hearings that his murder charges would be dropped.

Regardless of your beliefs and how you feel about the choices made by the renowned director, there is little doubt that his unique and powerful prowess in film evokes an unsettling terror that few in the industry could ever hope to achieve.

“I make films that people call "horror" because I want to make films about real things that happen in the world, and most real things aren't very nice.” - Ruggero Deodato