With the release of Alien Origin, a found-footage sci-fi/action thriller that hits shelves today, you'd think The Asylum might wait a little while before unleashing another flick in the genre, but lo and behold, another title has appeared on the horizon, and this one takes the found-footage format back to its roots in good old-fashioned horror: 100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck.
For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Richard Speck was a real-life serial killer responsible for the death of 8 student nurses in Chicago in 1966. Dude was pretty heinous, so there's lots of scary material here. Check out the plot:
"In 2010, paranormal investigators tried to
film Richard Speck’s ghost at the site of his heinous killing spree.
The victims’ families have finally released the footage that documents
their last days."
This one sounds like a guaranteed scare-fest. Find out yourself when the film drops on DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD on July 24th.
Then there's Golden Winter, which we already knew was a tie-in to the Disney golden-retriever-puppy movies, but now we know the plot and stars. First the plot:
"A boy befriends a litter of homeless Golden Retrievers. Together, they help stop a bank robbery just in time for Christmas."
Aww. The film stars talented beauties Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) and Haylie Duff (7th Heaven, Backwoods) and is written and directed by Tom Seidman, an Asylum newcomer. This one streets September 25th.
And as if all this wasn't enough, we also got a DVD date on The Asylum's star-studded movie Bigfoot: it'll be on DVD August 14th, following its SyFy debut on the 30th of this month. In case you've been living under a rock, the film - from director Bruce Davison off a script by Micho Rutare and Brian Brinkman - stars Barry Williams, Danny Bonaduce, Sherilyn Fenn, Andre Rojo, Howard Hesseman, Billy Idol and Alice Cooper. The plot:
"When Bigfoot attacks an 80s themed music
concert, a concert promoter and a hippie burnout will do anything to
protect the "endangered species."
So much awesomeness...
Buzz has been building for a while about The Asylum's next SyFy Original Movie, Bigfoot, mostly because of its AMAZING cast: Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch, Mega Piranha), Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family), Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks, my dreams beginning in 1989), Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati, Head of the Class), Andre Royo (The Wire, Super), Alice Cooper (duh) and Billy Idol (double-duh). Whew; it's gonna be like the wackiest episode of Hollywood Squares ever all up on your television screen. And as if all this star power wasn't enough, the film is being directed by Academy-Award nominated actor and Asylum vet Bruce Davison (MegaFault, Titanic II) from a script by Micho Rutare and Brian Brinkman, the team behind Meteor Apocalypse. This could sincerely be the biggest project yet from The Asylum.
And now we know when we get to lay our greedy little eyes on it: Saturday, June 30th, 9 pm on SyFy. No word on a DVD release as of yet - my guess would be by the end of the year - but have no fear, this being an instant classic, I'm sure SyFy will rerun the shit out of it for decades to come.
What with those great pics released to Entertainment Weekly, the cat is out of the bag on The Asylum's upcoming SyFy original movie, Bigfoot. All there is to know about the plot is that some dudes are hunting Bigfoot, but thanks to IMDB we know a great deal about just who is involved, and it's pretty awesome:
Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch, MegaPiranha), Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family), Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks), Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati, Rubin and Ed, Head of the Class), rockers Alice Cooper and BIlly Idol, Andre Royo ("Bubbles" from The Wire, no shit!!!) as well as Bruce Davison (MegaFault, Titanic II), who's also directing the film from a script by Micho Rutare and Brian Brinkman, who together previously wrote Dragonquest and Meteor Apocalypse; Rutare also wrote the story for Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, while Brinkman has worked in the editorial department on a handful of Asylum films and has appeared as an actor in three.
Translation: there are some seasoned pros at play in this one, promising an all-Asylum take on the ripe legend of Bigfoot. No air-date as of yet, but probably sometime in the next couple of months this one will grace TV screens nationwide. As soon as more details are available, I'll post 'em up. Until then, salivate along with me over the greatness to-be that is Bigfoot!
Another in the Faith Films line, this apocalyptic disaster epic concerns a meteor of truly ginormous proportions headed right for Earth. Though we try to annihilate the problem by throwing all our nukes at it, this predictably only makes things worse, turning what was one massive meteor into thousands of splintered shards that rain down upon cities worldwide, beginning a wave of destruction that can only be described as "Biblical." When our hero's ("Dr. Quinn's" Joe Lando) family is herded away to quarantine by government agents, thus begins his quest within the chaos to find them. He is joined along the way by a beautiful and headstrong accomplice (the lovely and talented and Looney-nominated, here, Cooper Harris).
One thing I liked about this film right off the bat was where it began; what's typically act 3 for most meteor films - our last-ditch effort to destroy/deflect the meteor - was the launching point for this one. What follows is the real drama, how we deal with inescapable chaos. And in truth, this new situation is worse: a single, giant meteor would have wiped out all life on the planet, no questions asked; but now, like this, the planet will survive, civilizations will be decimated, yes, but life will go on for a good percentage of the population. The game then becomes to make it into that percentage, which is a far more unsettling premise than everyone being resigned to the same fate. All this is just to say Meteor Apocalypse opens tense and never lets up. It's a relentless drama and a thrilling tale of survival, determination and faith.
Joe Lando as the scientist/concerned father is a believably-gruff skeptic in the beginning, making his transformation to capable coper over the course of the film that much more hard-won and convincing. Third-billed Cooper Harris is the clear standout here: likable, relatable, and the most palpable of the characters. You feel her distress, her resolve. There's a natural ease to her performance which endears her to the audience. That, and her hotness. Audiences like hot ladies (picture a super hot, much younger Tina Fey).
Claudia Christian "Babylon 5" also stars as Lando's wife, and plays the role as a cold nag. She's not around all that much, but when she is, she works.
Overall, I found Meteor Apocalypse - written by Brian Brinkman & Micho Rutare, and directed by Rutare (writer of Dragonquest and Asylum Director of Development) - a smart film in that it's not just a straight-up astronomical disaster movie - though as one it's highly successful; the FX are awesome at depicting widespread heavenly chaos and metropolitan destruction - there's a medical-thriller aspect to this one as well, another sort of inevitable and randomly-selective killer that just throws another level of tension on the pile.
And as I've found with other entries to the Faith Films line - Countdown: Jerusalem, 2012 Doomsday, The Apocalypse - the message might be Christian, but it isn't overwhelmingly so; you want to watch this as a secular action film, you won't be distracted by theology. Think of it as a nice midway point, philosophically, between Left Behind and Armageddon.
A good time, all around, and very much so recommended.
