I don’t know about you, but to me the world is a better place when Keanu Reeves is acting in relevant, compelling films. Such is the case with Knock Knock, Eli Roth’s upcoming thriller which now has a second trailer.
In Knock Knock, Reeves plays a loving father who is lured into a seedy sexual encounter with two mysterious women one weekend while his family is out of town. When Reeves tries to right the situation, the two women aren’t having any of it. Here is the second trailer:
When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse. A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, KNOCK KNOCK stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.
After John Wick, it’s nice to see Reeves starring in a film that doesn’t look entirely terrible. I’m not a fan of Eli Roth overall, but this film looks like a tense ride that (possibly) tones back on the relentless gore. Still, I’m sure there will be plenty of bloodletting somewhere along the way.
Monday morning Netflix released the official trailer of Season 4 of Longmire.
“It’s not that you come back, it’s how you come back that matters,” said Walt Longmire.
This contemporary crime thriller focuses on a Wyoming sheriff who’s rebuilding his life and career following the death of his wife. Walt Longmire is the charismatic, dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County.
Longmire stars Robert Taylor, Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bailey Chase, Cassidy Freeman and Adam Bartley. The highly rated series was canceled by A&E after three seasons and then found a new home on Netflix.
The fourth season is 10-episodes and comes out September 10.
“This is our home. They will not possess it,” said Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber).
In ‘The 5th Wave,’ set in the present day, four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, 16-year-old Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal 5th wave, Cassie meets a young man who may become her final hope.
The 5th Wave is directed by J. Blakeson and stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Maika Monroe, Nick Robinson, Maria Bello, Maggie Siff, and Ron Livingston.
Wes Craven once said he didn’t set out with the intention of becoming a horror director. Thankfully, for cinema and pop culture in general, Craven’s career took that path, and the director created some of the most groundbreaking shock set to celluloid throughout his forty-year career. Sunday, Wes Craven passed away at the age of 76 after a battle with brain cancer, and immediately his resonance spread throughout social media. While his career had slowed considerably in the last decade, there is no denying the crater of influence Craven left upon the horror landscape. He will be missed.
Wesley Earl Craven was born August 2, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio. At 32, Craven wrote, produced, and directed an indie horror flick called The Last house on The Left. Last House was, and remains, a disturbing and boundary-shoving cinematic bloodletting. It drew controversy and vitriol from the buttoned-up masses, but in this new world of visionaries infiltrating the studio systems of Hollywood, Craven’s documentary-style revenge thriller was a breath of fresh-blooded air. From there, Craven would work to change the landscape of horror time and time again, creating iconic characters and films that were best watched with your head turned slightly away, through one open eye.
The Hills Have Eyes was Craven’s next groundbreaking feature in 1977. Then came smaller fare like Deadly Blessing, the comic-book adaptation Swamp Thing (which I posited deserves a remake), and Invitation to Hell. Then, in 1984, Craven birthed one of the most incendiary, iconic horror baddies in film history: Freddy Krueger. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, it was Freddy Krueger, clad in his razor-sharp claws and Christmas sweater, that changed the game for good. A Nightmare on Elm Street would go on to become the ultimate horror franchise, spawning endless sequels, a remake, and another remake on the way. Some Craven directed, others he did not; you always knew when Craven was behind the camera.
The 80s were rife with low-budget freak fests from Craven’s delightfully warped sensibilities. Films like Shocker and The Serpent and the Rainbow were not blockbusters, not by any measure, but horror fans admire these works on par with Craven’s legendary Krueger brainchild. The People Under the Stairs did its part to disturb young children who grabbed the VHS copy at their local video store. Then, in 1996, Wes Craven once again upended the status quo in the genre with Scream, a meta-fueled examination into those films he perfected throughout his career. Scream would kick off its own set of sequels, all directed by Craven, and now lives on an MTV series.
Craven’s penchant for taking meta angles were one of the many things which set him apart from other horror directors. Scream was, and still is, the definition of what self-aware horror can become; before that, however, Craven returned to the Krueger well to direct New Nightmare, a meta precursor to the structure of Scream 2, 3, and (shudder) 4. Craven was all for pushing boundaries, all the while remaining fully aware of the gleeful absurdities in horror. He had fun creating bumbling comedy relief and satire in the face of pure chaos and disturbing subject matter. It was a twisted way of looking at the genre, and a wonderfully entertaining perspective.
TOP FIVE WES CRAVEN FILMS:
Narrowing a list of Craven’s five most influential horror films is like choosing your favorite child. To point out these films is in no way a slight on the ones that don’t make the list, but with every subjective list, some make it and some don’t. The beauty of a list like this is how it will vary from person to person, place to place. This is simply a list of the films that stand out to me, films that stamped out a spot in my own cinematic journey, and films who’s cultural impact were, in my opinion, head-and-shoulder above the rest. Here we go…
5 – The Hills Have Eyes (1977): A vacationing family find themselves stranded in the desert, near an nuclear testing range, where a savage group of cannibalistic monsters stuck in time begin systematically stalking and terrorizing them. The Hills Have Eyes mixed notions of post-apocalyptic landscapes and true horror. It also showcased one of Craven’s true talents: ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The grit and grime oozes off each frame, creating a desperate world of violence and bleak fright.
4 – The Last House on the Left (1972): Craven’s first feature is still one of the more unsettling personal horror stories of all time. Two young women are kidnapped by a gang of roving psychopaths and systematically tortured. The Last House on The Left is part true crime, part horror, part revenge, as the parents of one of the girls seeks their pond of flesh. Craven pushed well beyond the boundaries of what was expected, or accepted, in his debut feature. The relentlessness and doc-style of the film make it still difficult to watch, but that is the idea.
3 – Scream (1996): While Scream may have dealt with a murderous serial killer in a mask slashing through unsuspecting teens in a small town, the film also managed to be the the most amusing of Craven’s career. The self-aware discussions of previous slasher films was the tapestry of the film itself, as the kids front and center in the story were unlike most kids in horror films: they have seen other horror films. They know the play, they know the rules, but that doesn’t help their plight.
2 – The People Under the Stairs (1991): This one touched a nerve on a personal level. The People Under the Stairs was a perfect blend of physical and mental horror, as it tells the story of a family with feral children who terrorize unsuspecting kids in a dilapidated home. The film is edgy and boundary pushing, and despite not having the commercial success of some of Craven’s bigger films, it remains one of his most complete horror stories.
1 – A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): This goes without saying. Aside from the reshaping of horror in pop culture, Wes Craven’s creation of Freddy Krueger was a seminal moment in the genre. Without getting too far into details, I direct you to Matt Singer’s piece at The Dissolve about the cultural and genre impact of A Nightmare on Elm Street. He says it better than I could ever say.
AMC Monday morning released a sneak peek at Fear The Walking Dead episode three titled ‘The Dog.’
What did the world look like as it was transforming into the horrifying apocalypse depicted in “The Walking Dead”? This spin-off set in Los Angeles, following new characters as they face the beginning of the end of the world, will answer that question.
The AMC series is six episodes and stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Frank Dillane, Alycia Debnam Carey, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Lorenzo James Henri, Mercedes Mason, and Ruben Blades.
Fear The Walking Dead already broke the record as the highest rated cables series debut, in will be interesting to see how the ratings continue for the series. AMC also announced a half-hour special that will connect with Fear The Walking Dead. The special is about a zombie outbreak on a flight to LAX.
Fear The Walking Dead takes the holiday off and returns on September 13.
The Iron Giant has been remastered and enhanced with two all-new scenes and renamed, The Iron Giant: Signature Edition and will be re-released in theaters on Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 p.m. local time, with an encore event in select markets on Sunday, October 4 at 12:00 p.m. local time.
While promoting the re-release of The Iron Giant, Vin Diesel who voiced the giant robot hinted at a possible sequel.
“I have been very lucky to have played so many interesting characters… one of the first and one of my favorites is… the Iron Giant. P.s. Don’t be surprised when you hear WB announce the sequel,” said Diesel.
Brad Bird directed the film and used it as a launch pad to The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Do you want to see ‘Iron Giant 2’ or should they leave it alone?
I have been very lucky to have played so many interesting characters… one of the first and one of my favorites is… the Iron Giant.P.s. Don’t be surprised when you hear WB announce the sequel.
Peter King of Sports Illustrated released the first trailer to Peter Landesman’s film Concussion starring Will Smith Monday morning. Smith stars as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE and fought for the truth to be known.
“I have no position on whether or not people should play football or whether they should have their kids play football. To me, this is a story about making adult choices. Once you have the information—and the information has been obscured for a long time, it’s been buried and covered up by people who don’t want to damage the sport—the information is now out there, and I hope this movie brings together the information in a way that the general public can metabolize and now make their own decisions. So now that you know that concussions can kill you and playing the sport can kill you, it’s on every parent and it’s on every college player, it’s on every high school player and professional player on whether you are going to let your child play. It’s the same with smoking, drinking and doing drugs. I like to think in some ways that life is an occupational hazard. Something we do in our life is going to kill us; maybe now, maybe 50 years from now. You have to choose what those things are. We love to drink and be merry and be happy, we know it’s not good for us, but we do it. It’s about making adult choices,” said Landesman when questioned by King if people should still play football.
The film is written and directed by Landesman, stars Smith, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alec Baldwin, and Albert Brooks. Concussion will be in theaters on Christmas Day.
In a turn of events that quite frankly had me shocked, set plans for for highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens were being sold on E-Bay by a buyer based out of the United Kingdom. Within moments the item was taken down but not before we were able to acquire the images of what was actually being sold by this member of the Empire. Check out the images below.
Make sure you keep checking in with monkeysfightingrobots.com as we will keep you up to date with the latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens news as we countdown to December 18.
