SHARK WEEK Stills and a Teaser Trailer!!!

So much Shark Week info this week, and now we get the cherry on top: production stills and this incredibly awesome teaser trailer: 

Man oh man oh man oh man, I wrote the damn thing and that trailer gave me chills. Check out the finished product this Saturday night at 9 p.m. on SyFy. Patrick Bergin, Yancy Butler, Erin Coker, Josh Allen, Frankie Cullen, Valerie Garcia, Bart Baggett and more star for director Christopher Olen Ray.

 

SHARK WEEK Gets an IMDB Page...Further Cast Details!

With only 10 days to go until the Shark Week premiere on SyFy - Saturday, August 4th, 9p.m. - there's now an IMDB page giving away further cast and crew details. The film, as avid Committed readers (assuming there are any) will know, stars Patrick Bergin (Sleeping With The Enemy, Patriot Games) and Yancy Butler (Witchblade, Lake Placid 3 & 4) as the shark-loving madman and his moll, respectively, who abduct a group of strangers and force them to fight for their lives in a gauntlet of ever-deadlier shark species on a remote island compound; now we know who some of the "contestants" are:

Josh Allen (below, Nazis at the Center of the Earth) and Erin Coker (right, 11/11/11) had already been mentioned on The Asylum's Shark Week page, and while Ms. Coker has not yet been added to the IMDB page, Mr. Allen has, and he's playing "Cal," the primary protagonist. I would assume - not just out of the blue, I wrote the script - that Ms. Coker is playing his female counterpart, but we shall see. New names include Asylum vet Bart Baggett (2010 Moby Dick, Airline Disaster, Air Collision) as "Holt," a cantankerous fellow, Frankie Cullen as, appropriately, "Frankie," and Valerie K. Garcia - the same VKG who works magic as a key makeup artist, with a resume that includes not only this film and several others, but especially the INCREDIBLE ghost-witches from A Haunting in Salem - as "Layla," the wild card of the bunch, if you will.


Shark Week was directed by the great Christopher Olen Ray (Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, Almighty Thor, 2-Headed Shark Attack) and written by me, H. Perry Horton, and is the perfect way to spend next Saturday night (9 p.m., SyFy)

The Asylum's SHARK WEEK Details Revealed

It's been a while we've been waiting, but The Asylum has finally revealed some details about Shark Week, and I, for one, am super stoked for the news, seeing as I wrote it. 

The film, which will be out on August 7th, is to be directed by the one and only Christopher Olen Ray, who with this film gets his shark hat trick, following Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus and 2 Headed Shark Attack. Dig the plot:

"A group of complete strangers find themselves isolated by a wealthy madman on his island compound. They are forced into a horrifying gauntlet where they must survive a barrage of ever deadlier species of shark."


Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. 

The cast for this one is pretty, pretty, pretty awesome, and includes Patrick Bergin (Sleeping With The Enemy, Patriot Games) as the madman in question, Yancy Butler (Witchblade, Lake Placid 3 & 4) as his femme fatale and Erin Coker (11/11/11, Air Collision) & Josh Allen (Nazis at the Center of the Earth) as two of the terrorized strangers.


Words can't describe how proud I am of this script - think of it as The Hunger Games meets Deep Blue Sea - and I for one can't wait to see how it turns out. More cast and crew details as they become available...

Lovely Ladies of the Asylum vol. 7

I'm not a fool, gentlemen. I know what brings you here, what lures you in, coaxes your hits, some of you at least. It isn't the snarky commentary, or the breaking news, the hard-hitting interviews or deep-digging profiles, no, it's not me at all, is it? I see the keywords from my Google hits, and I know a picture of a pretty lady brings in more readers than the phrase "observation notes." 

Not that I can blame you: The Asylum employs a score of attractive and - more importantly - capable, intelligent and talented actresses well worthy of your search engine adoration. So, to gives my readers something I know they want and would never ask for, I tastefully present a pictorial tribute to some of The Asylum's beautiful leading ladies, this time the stars of the studio's 2011 productions. Enjoy.

Erin Coker, 11/11/11

Aurelia Scheppers, 11/11/11

AnnaMaria Demara, 200MPH

Hennely Jiminez, 200MPH

Julie McCullough, 2012 Ice Age

Michelle Boyd, 3 Musketeers

Heather Hemmens, 3 Musketeers

Patrica Velasquez, Almighty Thor

C.B. Spencer, Ballistica

Jeneta St. Clair, Barely Legal

Melissa Johnson, Barely Legal

Lisa Younger, Barely Legal

Nia Peeples, Battle of Los Angeles

Theresa Jun-Tao, Battle of Los Angeles

Meredith Monroe, Born Bad

Bonnie Dennison, Born Bad

Cecily Fay, Dragon Crusaders

Shinead Byrne, Dragon Crusaders

Courtney Abbiati, A Haunting in Salem

Debbie Gibson, Mega Python vs Gatoroid

Tiffany, Mega Python vs Gatoroid

Taryn Manning, Zombie Apocalypse

Lesley-Ann Brandt, Zombie Apocalypse

11/11/11 on DVD Today!!!

Whew, seems like every time I turn around there's another Asylum movie out. It's still shy of a month since A Haunting in Salem was released on DVD, and since then we've seen the DVD release of 3 Musketeers and the TV premiere of Zombie Apocalypse. Plus, Born Bad hits DVD a week from today, and the mysterious found-footage film Amityville Haunting comes out in December. 

But all this is a side-note to what's happening today: the DVD release of apocalyptic thriller 11/11/11. 

I posted my thoughts on this one last Friday, and strongly encourage anyone who enjoys creepy kids, cultish behavior, twisted suburbia, decapitations or Satan to rush right out to wherever you procure movies these days and gets your hands on this fine film.

For fans of The Omen, The Exorcist, The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby, The Seventh Sign or the "Twilight Zone" episode, "It's a Good Life."

observation notes: 11/11/11

With a lot of Asylum-attention this week focused on Saturday night's SyFy premiere of Zombie Apocalypse, not a lot has been said about the other Asylum film out in the next few days, the apocalyptic numerological thriller 11/11/11, directed by Keith Allan and written by Allan & Kiff Scholl. Allow me, then, to talk about it, as I have just seen it.

Plot-wise, 11/11/11 concerns a set of parents, Jack (Jon Briddell) and Melissa (Erin Coker), who become increasingly alarmed at their son Nat(Hayden Byerly)'s erratic and violent behavior. And they have every right to be: seems Nat isn't just acting up, he's the key to the whole freaking Apocalypse, which is nigh, people, and only two weeks away in real time - 11/11/11, the kid's birthday. Helluva set-up.


As usual, I'll refrain from spoilers, but suffice it to say, what we have here is a taut, well-paced, dramatic, suspenseful, sinister and bloody thriller of Biblical proportions, literally. It's a film that opens with a bang - several of them, actually - and ends even more explosively. Think equal parts The Omen, The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby; a heady cocktail, believe me.


The cast has a lot to do with 11/11/11's success: whether principles or supporting, most everyone here brings their A-game. Briddell plays the father as concerned to the point of angered frustration, a powerful but helpless man, and is appropriately tortured. Coker as his wife - though bedridden much of the film - is the fragile heart of the story, delusional with fear and medication and burdened by an unbelievable truth she shares alone. But it's Byerly as the son who practically steals the show. He's stoic, soft-spoken but rigid, not sheepish, plain-faced and pensive until he needs to erupt and then the boy's a true devil. Kid's got chops, and they're on full display here.

Then there's the deep supporting cast, the characters who make up the neighbors and townsfolk with an eerie interest in the boy's upcoming birthday: Tracy Pulliam as bossy, busy-body realtor Janice; David Bertolami and Rebecca Sigl as Chris and Sarah, the too-nice neighbors with spooky lingering stares; Nicholas S. Williams as Mick, the mentally-challenged truth-speaker; Greg Wall as Mike the janitor; co-screenwriter Kiff Scholl and Melissa Wintringham as over-perky joggers Brian and Marie - this one really is a team effort, with everyone turning in convincing performances. 


The two standouts of the supporting cast, in my opinion, have to be Madonna Magee as Annie, the creepy-kooky stalker old lady next door with a heart of gold, a load of hard-earned wisdom and a touch of good, old-fashioned madness; and Aurelia Scheppers as Denise, the "nanny" and the film's sultry femme fatale - think a smarter, more dangerous Megan Fox.


Add to this fine story and these stellar performances the once-again spot-on musical score of Chris Ridenhour (really, this guy, like Asylum productions in general, gets better every film. I want a box set of his scores) and sweeping, approaching-epic direction of Allan, and it all equals a thrilling, brutal, convincingly-frightening and horribly plausible film - numerically and Biblically speaking - well-executed by all. 

In all honesty, I really liked the crap out of this one; it's one of my favorites of the year, I think. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself this Tuesday, November 1st, when 11/11/11 hits DVD, just in time for you to get your affairs in order. I'm kidding. I hope.

11/11/11 Trailer Released

Keeping the news coming in this busy Asylum week - already we've gotten Celebrity Sex Tape info and stills, as well as Air Disaster details - just this morning The Asylum posted the trailer for the upcoming apocalyptic thriller 11/11/11, out 11/1/11 - a few days after the Zombie Apocalypse premiere on SyFy (10/27) and the DVD release of Jared Cohn's Born Bad (11/8) - and this one looks to be a gripping, intense, cerebral drama. Dig the trailer, courtesy of You Tube:

11/11/11 stars Jon Briddell, Hayden Byerly and Erin Coker, and is directed by Keith Allan from a script by he and Kiff Scholl.

Details for 11/11/11 !!!

So, part one of the big news today is that The Asylum has released info on their latest production, 11/11/11. The film, a horror-thriller is described as:

"Jack and Melissa are frightened by their son's bizarre and violent behavior; they soon learn that he is the gateway to the Apocalypse, and it will happen on his birthday, 11-11-11."

The film is being directed by Keith Allen, who, if I have the right guy, has one credit on IMDB, for acting in the upcoming 3 Musketeers. Mr. Allen also wrote the script, along with one Kiff Scholl, who has quiet an extensive resume as an actor - including appearances in "Reno 911" and "Criminal Minds" - and has one other writing credit for a funny film (I've actually seen it, not just blowing smoke) entitled Scream of the Bikini, which he also directed.


As for the cast, it includes Jon Bridell - Hot Wax Zombies on Wheels, Hatchetman, The Millennium Bug, Midnight Movie - Hayden Byerly, the bizarre little dude in question, and Erin Coker, another newcomer.


This one's set to bow on DVD November 1st, right smack in the middle of what's gearing up to be a busy and awesome Asylum fall, what with A Haunting in Salem, 3 Musketeers, Born Bad, Dragon Crusaders and 11/11/11 all getting released within a six week period. Awesome!


And speaking of awesome, this is only part one of the big news...come back in about half an hour for GIANT NEWS!