Trailer Time

Some upcoming films of interest have released trailers in the last week or so. If you haven't caught them, here they are.

SLEEPING BEAUTY (Julia Leigh) -



SLEEPING BEAUTY is a film written and helmed by Australian writer and first-time director, Julia Leigh. Essentially, the film, in case you didn't gather from the trailer, is about a young woman who (played by Emily Browning) starts work as a prostitute. Her gimmick? Men carry out their fantasies with her while she's asleep. Sound disturbing? It sure looks disturbing. The film played at Cannes recently to some somewhat mixed reviews, as one might expect with such a film.

IMMORTALS (Tarsem Singh, 11/11) -



This sort of visual sword and sandals epic will undoubtedly elicit comparisons to 300 (which the trailer already does) and therefore catch a lot of flack. I like 300, so I won't sweat the comparisons, but I bet a lot of people will. I can see this being a bit different though with Singh (THE CELL, THE FALL) at the helm. Some elements of the trailer are a bit lame, but I was impressed with the look of it.

THE RETREAT (Carl Tibbetts) -



This film is about a couple in self-imposed island seclusion who receive a visit from a man claiming that a disaster has gripped Europe. The main draw of this film, and what sets it apart from any other low-budget thriller, is the presence of performers of the caliber of Cillian Murphy and Jamie Bell.

BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW - (Panos Cosmatos) -



This film has earned a fair amount of recognition lately, having played the Tribeca Film Fest. Many viewers are offering up comparisons in feel/aesthetic to Kubrickian science fiction, which I guess was the director's intention. Speaking of the director, BLACK RAINBOW is his first film with his only other film credit coming as a second-unit video assistant operator on TOMBSTONE. Apparently, the plot details are a bit debatable, but it takes place in some scientific facility where a young girl is being held against her will.

THE BLEEDING HOUSE (Philip Gelatt) -



Yet another film by a first-time director that's making some noise, THE BLEEDING HOUSE looks to be an unconventional horror film. The official synopsis is as follows: "A stranger with mysterious intentions comes to stay the night at a secluded country home, but what he finds inside is a family torn apart by a violent past and a secret more deadly than he expected." I can't tell who we are supposed to be afraid of, this peculiar man in white, or this family with a past. Either way, it looks good.

FRIGHT NIGHT (Craig Gillespie, 8/19) -



Can't say as though I'm a huge fan of the original FRIGHT NIGHT as I've only seen it once, so I definitely don't mind this rehash. The cast is solid, with Yelchin and David Tennant going up against a scary Colin Farrell. I can see this film being good for a couple reasons; one being my faith in Farrell and my belief that he could play a decent villain and another is the director. I'm not going to say that I loved his first film LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, but it wasn't bad. A horror remake such as this seems more like something they'd give to some crumb-bum music video director, so I feel that Gillespie's involvement could be a good sign.

STRAW DOGS (Lurie 9/16) -



Speaking of remakes, here's one that probably won't work. For one, this trailer looks terrible. I can't imagine why, forty years later, they decided to remake STRAW DOGS. I mean, sure, it could turn out okay, but it almost certainly will not have the same effect as the original. Without the insanity of Sam Peckinpah behind the camera and the quiet intensity of the diminutive Dustin Hoffman in front of it, I just don't see the point. Also, I can't imagine this remake going to the controversial lengths of the original, which was banned in England after its release. I don't know, this one just confounds me. It's not like that many people have even heard of STRAW DOGS.