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| FEO NEWS FOR FALL 2024: - NOVEMBER - The detritus of old Horror/Thriller history can be found here. These are archived news items, many of them linked outside of this website. |
YOU DUG IT
1. VENOM: THE LAST DANCE wins the #1 spot for the second weekend in a row. A feat not seen since the previous Marvel movie, DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE. Despite belated Halloween parties and Dia de los Muertos throughout the weekend, VENOM suffered a 49% drop in ticket sales without any loss of screens. After over a quarter century of cinema success, its safe to say that Marvel and the MCU has buried Warner Bros. DCU. There will be successful Batman movies in the future, but the MCU has beaten the DCU to death. 2. THE WILD ROBOT, in its 6th weekend, jumped back up to #2 with a +9 in ticket sales this week despite a 190 screen cut. 3. SMILE 2 slips from #2 to #3 with a mere 29% drop in box office in its 3rd weekend against a 389 screen cut. 4. CONCLAVE holds onto #4 for the second weekend in a row. This Horror Thriller from boutique distributor, Focus Films, had only a 24% drop in B.O with an addition of 43 new screens. Having nearly half the number of screens as the movies in the #3 and #2 position, CONCLAVE earned more per screen than THE WILD ROBOT or SMILE 2. 7. TERRIFIER 3 slips from last weekend's #6 with only a 33% drop in ticket sales against a 363 screen cut. Not bad for a low budget indie after 4 weekends! 8. BHOOL BHULAIYAA 3, a Horror comedy from India, makes an impressive debut on the Top Ten despite a small 754 screen release. With a per screen average of $2,259 in the U.S.A. alone, it outperformed every Top Ten movie's per screen take except for #1. 10. BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, in its 9th weekend, made it through Halloween with a small 33% drop in B.O. against a 623 screen cut. YOU BURIED IT 16. TRANSFORMERS ONE, despite hanging onto the Top Ten for 6 weekends, brought in a worldwide total of less than half its production budget before post production and advertising. It's rare to see a movie hold on for well over a month in the Top Ten and not at least break even. Figures calibrated from reportings by Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Should there be differences between the two, I err on the side of caution and post the most positive numbers. And - John Carpenter's THEY LIVE Turns 36
It's flawed but cool and more than a little hypocritical. The evergreen pop-influence of John Carpenter's THEY LIVE. Plus - Kenneth Branaugh's FRANKENSTEIN is 30
Francis Ford Copolla, hot off the success of Bram Stoker's DRACULA, wanted this to be prefaced with Mary Shelley's name to indicate that this movie would be closer to the original intent of the novel same as he did with Bram. He bought a script from Steph Lady (her only produced screenplay), and soon realized that the undertaking was too huge to be both a Director and Producer. So Francis eventually hired Kenneth Branaugh who, once hired, disagreed with Copolla's vision. Ken brought in screenwriter Frank Darabont who at that time was best known for his work on sequels and remakes (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, THE BLOB [1988], THE FLY II) to make changes. What changes? To Kenneth, what this movie really needed is something to spice it up! Something Mary Shelley's book never had and what Kenneth never dared to do to his own Productions and that's Way More Sex: featuring his new girlfriend, Helena Bonham Carter. The fights between Copolla and Branaugh weren't epic but the wounds inflicted were apparently deep, as Francis wound up publically denouncing his own movie, Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, as did Frank Darabont when he said in later interviews that Branaugh mishandled the movie. Also - 19 Years Ago the Sky Fell on Disney
The growing cult-status of Director Mark Dindal's CHICKEN LITTLE. Wassmor - 8 Years of DOCTOR STRANGE
It built great box office, but despite the fan popular actors, the character isn't building much following. What's going on with DOCTOR STRANGE? Finale - HAPPY HORROR BIRTHDAYS TO -
Actor Olivia Taylor Dudley (CHILLERAMA, CHERNOBYL DIARIES, TRANSENDENCE, THE BARBER [2014], DUDE BRO PARTY MASSACRE III, THE VATICAN TAPES, APPLETON, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION, THE MAGICIANS [TV], SHE DIES TOMORROW, CRAWLSPACE, ONYX FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS) is 38. SUNDAY -
Actor Debbie Rochon (NEGATIVES, BANNED, VALERIE, BLACK EASTER, REGENERATED MAN, ABDUCTED II, SHRIEK OF THE LYCANTHROPE, DEPRAVED, TROMEO AND JULIET, SANTA CLAWS, EVIL AMBITIONS, CYBER VENGEANCE, THE VAMPIRE'S SEDUCTION, ALIEN AGENDA, RAGE OF THE WEREWOLF, TERROR FIRMER, HELLBLOCK 13, CITIZEN TOXIE: THE TOXIC AVENGER IV, THE RESURRECTION GAME, MULVA: ZOMBIE ASS KICKER!, KILLJOY 2, VAMPIRE QUEEN, DEADLY STINGERS, CHAINSAW CHEERLEADERS, DEAD END [2010], SINEATERS, IMAGO, SICK, DEATH HOUSE, ALTERSCAPE, FANTASMA [2018], SHAKESPEARE'S SH*TSTORM, and a whole lot more) is 56. What Began in Japan 70 Years Ago Became a World-Wide Phenomenon
Believe it or not, Japan's GOJIRA didn't reach U.S. shores until 2004: 50 Years! This is why: GODZILLA - 1954. CARRIE Turns 48
It was 1976, Hollywood movie public schools were segregated, and White kids preyed on White. Which was a foolish thing to do if you bullied CARRIE White. It was 19 Years Ago When We Danced After Dark
Great Script, Great Direction, Great Acting, and Great Practical Effects. Then the investors saw all that and decided to go with a crap cheap cgi finale. Why one of the scariest movies you may have never watched (though you've probably seen a ton of its freaky movie stills through years of Social Media memes) got limited release and why you should seek out Mike Mendez' THE GRAVEDANCERS. HAPPY HALLOWEEN Part 3... The Second Day of Dia de los Muertos: Remembrance.
SATURDAY DIA DE LOS MUERTOS FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS TO -
Writer Peter Atkins (MORNINGSTAR, BIG THUNDER, HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2, HELLRAISER III, WISHMASTER, HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE, PRISONERS OF THE SUN) is 69. JACOB'S LADDER Turns 34
Review of JACOB'S LADDER by Bram Stoker award winning author and fellow Feo Amante alumni, Brian Keene. MONSTERS, INC. is 23
I was there on opening day to see it on the giant screen! Remembering MONSTERS, INC.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN: DAY 2...
Countries adopt a wide variety of foreign holidays and make them their own, instilling their own customs into them, and world-wide the examples are many: HALLOWEEN, Christmas, Mardi Gras, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and more. Even in China, their resolutely non-religious government still celebrates Christmas and goes to great expense to hire Caucasian men to fly in and cosplay as Santa for the children. Purists say Day of the Dead, which begins on November 1 and ends on November 2, is not a Mexican version of Halloween*. Yet Hallowmass (revamped to All Saint's Day), which also begins on Nov. 1, bears striking similarities to the Latin America version. Moreover no one can deny the obvious, that down through the years children and adults from both cultures increasingly celebrate with dressing up in costume and, depending on the state/cuidad, going door to door asking for dulce (candy). HALLOWEEN and DÍA de los MUERTOS are no longer the somber Catholic Feast for the Dead the European church created centuries ago. 33 Days of HALLOWEEN! Day 32 *Halloween comes from Hallowtide or Allhallowtide, which begins, not ends, on October 31 and continues through Nov. 2. And - DOWN TO THE BONE by René Castillo
Plus - PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE Turns 50
I was a kid when I saw this movie playing at a Science Fiction convention. They had a huge screen set-up and a far better sound system than I've heard at any subsequent conventions. I'd gone to the screening room to catch a different movie and Brian De Palma's passion project was so good I still can't remember the name of the movie I originally went to see! Even stranger than the fact that this movie tanked at the theaters, is how this experimental 20th Century Fox movie spent decades being the midnight movie event to see in One Small Town, years before 20th Century Fox's next experimental Horror Comedy Musical, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. How on earth did a twisted comedic riff on the cut-throat recording industry and a morally corrupt and self-praising Hollywood so resonate with a backwoods farming community deep in the middle-of-nowhere - somewhere - Canada? Discover the bizarre life and times of Writer and Director Brian De Palma's PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. Also - A NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET 2 Turns 39
It was the beginning of the "Odd Number Good, Even Number Bad" judgement on the A NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET movies. New Line Cinema Producer, Robert Shaye took full credit for this sequel and Wes Craven's name was nowhere to be seen. It would take decades and a lot of effort, and so money, for A NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE, to find an audience. Finale - DIA DE LOS MUERTOS FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS TO -
By E.C. McMullen Jr.
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INTERVIEWS Matt Jarbo's interview with Feo Amante at The Zurvivalist. James Cheetham's Q&A with Feo Amante at Unconventional Interviews *. Megan Scudellari interviews Feo Amante and Kelly Parks (of THE SCIENCE MOMENT) in The Scientist Magazine. Check out our interview at The-Scientist.com. REFERENCES Researcher David Waldron, references my review of UNDERWORLD in the Spring 2005, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture entry, Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right: Community Formation in Response to a Moral Panic (downloadable pdf). E.C. McMullen Jr.
*Linked to archive.org |
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