News

When Tobe Hooper passed away in 2017, the majority of the press coverage focused on him as the man behind The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. Little was said about his other work, which includes a documentary on Peter, Paul and Mary, an experimental film about the ’60s counterculture called Eggshells, several made-for-tv movies, numerous TV episodes, and his influential music video for Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself.”

Now comes American Twilight: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper, newly published in paperback by the University of Texas Press, to remedy that oversight. Nearly every work in Hooper’s oeuvre is covered at some length by one of the essays in this volume.

Because this is an academic publication, there’s a certain amount of technical jargon to contend with. Luckily for readers, editors Kristopher Woofter and Will Dodson have endeavored to keep things eminently readable. And whenever the jargon does show up,...

Stars: Cynthia Rothrock, Caitlin Dechelle, Sofia O’Brien, Jose Manuel, Jeff Fahey | Written by Bruce Del Castillo, Stephen Carolan | Directed by Bruce Del Castillo

The good news is that Cynthia Rothrock has a new film, Lady Scorpions. The bad news is that it’s from Tiger Style Media, the same production company that gave us the underwhelming Art of Eight Limbs and The Lockdown. The good news for you is that I’m willing to risk taking a bullet, or a kick to the head, to tell you if the third time is a charm for them.

On her way to her car, Lacy gets jumped by a pair of attackers whom she makes quick work of. Not that she was in any danger, it was a demonstration for her self-defence class. She’s less successful at getting her mother Alena (Cynthia Rothrock) to pick up the phone when she calls...

Despite being banned from theaters at its initial 1974 release for its shocking violence, Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” remains among the most influential horror films in history — and one that’s inspired countless remakes, sequels, spinoffs, and imitators.

Hooper, who would later direct the cult series “Salem’s Lot” (1979) and the ’80s phenomenon “Poltergeist” (1982), was a documentary cinematographer and an assistant film director at the University of Texas-Austin in the early ’70s. Co-written by Kim Henkel, “Texas Chain Saw” was remarkably only his sophomore feature following his 1969 psychedelic debut “Eggshells,” which Henkel also co-wrote and starred in.

In “Texas Chain Saw,” Sally (Marilyn Burns), her brother Franklin (Paul A. Partain), and their friends go on a doomed road trip in Texas County. On their way to Sally and Franklin’s family slaughterhouse, the journey goes off course when a hitchhiker splatters blood on their Rv, and masked serial...

The episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? covering The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

The video which you are about to see is an account of a small group of filmmakers in the area of Austin, Texas in the summer of 1973. Their intent was to make a motion picture which was unlike anything ever seen. For them, the idyllic summer shoot became a nightmare from the low budget, sweltering Texas heat, and the treacheries from fraudulent investors. The events of that summer were led to the release of one of the most terrifying films in the annals of cinema history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (watch it Here).

Have you ever had a conversation with friends or even made the occasional Google search on what would be considered the scariest movie of all time?...

Tammy Slaton married Caleb Willingham at the Windsor Lane Rehabilitation Center in Ohio on Nov. 19, 2022. The TLC series 1000-Lb. Sisters will air footage of Tammy and Caleb’s wedding in the season 4 finale episode on March 21. However, we have details about the reality star’s nuptials ahead of the finale. Find out what Tammy had to say about her marriage to Caleb Willingham.

Caleb Willingham and Tammy Slaton | TLC Tammy and Caleb get married in the ‘1000-Lb. Sisters’ Season 4 finale

1000-Lb. Sisters Season 4 Episode 9 showed the Slaton Family helping Tammy find decorations and choosing a wedding dress for her marriage to Caleb, who proposed to the TLC star after only knowing her for a few weeks. In the March 21 episode “Apple of My Eye,” their wedding will occur. Despite disagreeing with how quickly things moved with Tammy and Caleb, her entire family showed up for the big day. Amy Slaton-Halterman...

Season 4 of 1000-Lb. Sisters is almost over. The Slaton Family heads to Ohio after learning of Tammy Slaton’s quick engagement to Caleb Willingham in “Walkin’ on Eggshells.” Find out what happens when Chris Combs confronts Caleb about marrying his sister in the March 14 episode of 1000-Lb. Sisters.

Tammy Slaton | TLC ‘1000-Lb. Sisters’ cast learns Tammy is engaged in ‘Walkin’ on Eggshells’

After noticing how good Amanda is at bossing Michael around, Amy gets a call from Tammy, who says she has good news. She tells Amy, Amanda, and Misty that Caleb proposed to her and their wedding will take place in two weeks on Nov. 19, 2022.

Amanda is the most shocked, saying she only learned about Tammy having a boyfriend on social media “a few weeks ago.” Naturally, the Slaton Family has a lot of questions about Tammy’s engagement. Amy worries that Caleb might be a serial killer — er,...

Traditional fairy tales almost always have important lessons to teach. Goldilocks educates us on why you probably shouldn't just wander into a stranger's house one day and make yourself at home. Red Riding Hood alerts us to the perils of talking to suspicious strangers, even if they are wearing your grandmother's clothes. And Hansel and Gretel expand upon the "strangers are bad" lesson by teaching us that just because a house is made of candy, that doesn't mean you should necessarily start gorging on it.

Because all of these fairytales have a creepy bend to them, many, if not all, have been turned into horror films over the years. Sometimes the movies are obvious retellings of classic tales like 2020's "Gretel & Hansel" or 2011's "Red Riding Hood." Other times though, the fairytale source material is a bit harder to put your finger on.

Tobe Hooper's remarkable 1974 horror classic "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,...

“Unforgivable,” a film hailing from El Salvador, won the best of the festival award during the 2021 edition of the Palm Springs International ShortFest.

Directed by Marlén Viñayo, “Unforgivable” follows a hitman for the 18th Street gang as he serves his sentence in an evangelical Salvadorian prison, where he is punished not only for his crimes, but for being gay. Selected by a jury consisting of 2020 ShortFest best of festival winner Bérangère Mc Neese and Sundance Festival programmer Ania Trzebiatowska, “Unforgivable” will receive a $5,000 cash prize. The honorable mention in the best of festival category went to French film “Palma.”

“Step Into the River,” from both China and France, won best animated short at the festival, with French film “Navozande, the Musician” earning an honorable mention. “Step Into the River,” directed by Weijia Ma. Lu and Wei, is a surreal exploration into China’s one-child policy, and was awarded $1,000 in prize money.

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

By Mark Cerulli

Just before the Covid veil descended, this Cinema Retro scribe traveled to Texas to meet up with the unstoppable Allen Danziger, an entrepreneur and actor who parlayed a friendship with the late Tobe Hooper into roles in two of his films. Always fast on his feet, Allen basically improvised his way through Eggshells, Hooper’s 3rd film in 1969… five years later he got the call for a role in Hooper’s next project, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He landed the part of “Jerry”, the van driver transporting his college friends to their doom – and into cinema history. “I think he liked my look,” Danziger says of Hooper, “I was a munchkin with Leatherface towering over me.”

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a genre film destined for drive-ins and grindhouses, then something magical happened – audiences connected with its raw power and gritty filmmaking.

Tune in and drop out. Seek altered states of reality and a quest for the truth. The era is the 1960s and 1970s. LSD was not just a drug, but a connector to the deeper meaning. Hippie exploitation films are free in style and form, the genre is not a rigorously researched cinephile favorite. In fact, it is a term used mostly by B-movie and grindhouse enthusiasts in internet forums. The cultural revolution of the 1960s fought against social conservatism and war, and the cinema of the time depicted these tensions with films bearing messages of the dangers of revolution and hallucinogens.In its most basic definition, these films live within the realm of the exploitation genre and heavily feature LSD and hippies. The films depict the various trips experienced by characters, on a scale of positive to negative. In the wake of the Manson murders in 1969, the media amplified...

Eggshells poster

There are few names more important in the history of horror cinema than that of Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper, so fans will be excited by the chance to catch some of his hard-to-find early works this month thanks to a partnership between Watchmaker Films and the Triskell Arts Cinema in Cork. Available to online viewers worldwide, the package of films and special features will help to support the cinema and aims to provide an interesting shared experience for viewers during lockdown.

The package is centred on Hooper's 1969 film Eggshells, an experimental film about hippies which might not include the same kind of scares or the gore for which he would become famous but has the same focus on fantasy as allegory. Lost for many years, it has since been restored. Also included are short films The Heisters (1964) and Down Friday Street (1966), plus filmmaker...

Ryan Lambie Nov 2, 2017

Far from a curse, Tobe Hooper's tiny budget made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a timeless horror classic...

In the summer of 1973, the cast and crew of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were suffering through what was, by most accounts, a thoroughly miserable shoot. The heat and humidity were almost unbearable; the interior location where much of the film's third act took place, an old farmhouse outside Round Rock, was dressed with animal bones and blood, which had begun to stink in the broiling Texas air. The stench was so bad that some crewmembers were throwing up outside between takes.

See related  Gunpowder episode 2 review Gunpowder episode 1 review 26 new TV shows to watch in 2017

Directed by Tobe Hooper, then a largely unknown 20-something filmmaker from Austin, the film's painfully low budget only added to the misery. Funds didn't stretch to a wardrobe of multiple costumes, so the cast...

Unfortunately, none are on Netflix. But they can be found elsewhere. Where you can watch Night Terrors? How about Eggshells, the early Tobe Hooper film that predates even The Texas Chain Saw Massacre? In the wake of Hooper’s passing over the weekend, the horror community has been mourning the loss of another legend by revisiting his […]...

Horror legend Tobe Hooper passed away on August 26, and many artists who were influenced by his style have paid tribute to the visionary director. With a legacy that goes far deeper than his two biggest and most brilliant films — “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Poltergeist” — IndieWire’s editors and critics took time to analyze his finest works, hoping to lead genre fans to some under-seen gems they might have missed.

“Eggshells” (1969)

Tobe Hooper’s psychedelic 1969 debut was lost for years, but recently found new life as a cult film with restoration screenings. The movie is a far cry from the intense horror elements with which Hooper’s most closely associated, but lays the groundwork for the subversive cultural commentary and disjointed storytelling effects found in more brutal terms with “Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” “Eggshells” is a freewheeling hippie chronicle about a bunch of free love kids, including a mute...

Filmmaker Tobe Hooper, best known for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, has died, according to Variety and other news sources. He was 74. Born in Austin, Texas, Hooper made his first feature, Eggshells, in 1969, an odd, experimental film that is allegorical and, more than that, spacey and trippy. But it was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre that made him (in)famous. Long before I saw it, I remember reading a newspaper article in Los Angeles about a big, tough college football player who vomited during a screening and thought: 'that's a movie for me!' Its horrors, of course, were more shocking in contrast to its era. Even as Hollywood was becoming (briefly) more serious about redefining mainstream filmmaking, Hooper and his colleagues painted a disarming...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"Of all liars, the smoothest and most convincing is memory."* I saw Kid Blue at the Paramount during Austin Film Festival 1997, and I remember a lively, responsive audience that loved a very weird and very funny movie from 1973. Afterward, the film's star Dennis Hopper and screenwriter (and Austin author) Bud Shrake had a rollicking good time onstage telling crazy stories about shooting the movie in Mexico.

I've been encouraging people to get their hands on the movie ever since, but it's not on DVD or Blu-ray and it hasn't been screened in Austin since Aff. Fortunately, it's available online via Amazon, although the picture/sound quality is not stellar.

Over the past 17 years (damn, it cannot have been that long), I overhyped myself on Kid Blue. But it's a fascinating movie, if not as funny as I remembered it. As a 1970s oddity, the counterculture Western falls somewhere between the...

With a holiday weekend ahead of us, Movies This Week is getting an early run so you can determine which flicks are best worth your time. Since it's a few days ahead of schedule, there are a few repeats from last week's column here in the rundown of repertory screenings.

The Austin Film Society is launching a new Essential Cinema series featuring some of the best collaborations of Liv Ullman and Ingmar Bergman this Thursday at the Marchesa. Read Chale's preview for more details. The first movie of the series is 1966's Persona and next Thursday (July 10), you'll be able to catch 1969's The Passion Of Anna, both in 35mm. A newly restored 35mm print of Alain Resnais' Je T'aime, Je T'aime is on the books this Sunday afternoon and Monday evening. Also, catch a rare screening on Tuesday night of Eggshells, a 1968 film by Tobe Hooper that was...

Fandor has won the distribution rights for "Easy," the new short film by Dallas-based writer/director Daniel Laabs. The film follows two brothers, one entering adulthood, the other becoming a teenager. The film will play on Fandor starting March 7, the day of its debut at SXSW. Laabs's earlier films "Sleet/Snow" and "8" will also play as part of a Laabs showcase, part of Fandor's "Spotlight on Texas." The program will also feature work by Richard Linklater, the Zellner brothers, the Duplass brothers, Eric Steele's "Cork's Cattlebaron" starring Robert Longstreet, the debut film by Tobe Hooper, "Eggshells," and Eagle Pennell's "The Whole Shootin' March," alongside a documentary about Pennell, "The King of Texas." In addition to wining the Grand Jury Prize for Texas Shorts for "8" at SXSW 2011, Laabs' "Sleet/Snow" played at SXSW in 2009 as a part of the Austin Film Society Shorts Showcase.

Stars: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley, Bill Johnson, Ken Evert | Written by L.M. Kit Carson | Directed by Tobe Hooper

A key component of just why many sequels don’t satisfy is that age old complaint of repetition. The Saw and Paranormal Activity franchises are just the latest examples of films which don’t do anything all that different from the first in their intent aside from new characters, more complex mythology and the odd new Usp, something which made Paranormal Activity 3 in particular a more interesting installment than it probably should have been with its oscillating camera. Looking at franchises past though, there are quite a few examples where box office and critical results have been disappointing because the sequels are just too different from the original. One of the prime examples of this is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a film made by the director...

Arrow Video has announced that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 will be released on Blu-ray in the UK as a limited edition 3-Disc Set.

The set also includes a collection of director Tobe Hooper’s early short films on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time. There are plenty of exclusives, such as limited edition packaging, a 100 page book featuring new insights into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series and a certificate to show the number of your set out of the 10,000 released. Not forgetting audio commentaries, deleted scenes and more.

Here is the official announcement from Arrow Video:

“After A Decade Of Silence… The Buzzz Is Back!

In 1974, Tobe Hooper quite literally changed the face of horror with his landmark film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Although the hulking Leatherface and his trusty power tool left an indelible mark upon the cinematic landscape, it wouldn’t be until 1986 that the buzz came back…...

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a perfect horror film. From an aesthetic and narrative standpoint, it is one of the most emulated genre films of the last half century. It has its roots in the bloody chamber archetype, the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale and the literary notion of the Bluebeard. Put simply, it is the cinematic incarnation of the most primal fear mankind experiences, that of being captured and eaten by an animal more vicious than ourselves. Certainly the elemental terror of being trapped, tortured and consumed is grisly fodder enough to base a film around. But Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece uses that as merely the foundation for a multi-layered treatise on the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam cultural schism America was then roiling in. The echoes of the Manson family's ruinous effect on the peace generation reverberate through every frame and the sordid, predatory impulse inherent in Western capitalism is...

The 6th annual Sydney Underground Film Festival is taking over all three screens of the Factory Theatre for a blow-out four-day event on Sept. 6-9.

Making it’s World Premiere at the fest on the 8th is the highly anticipated President Wolfman, the latest “green movie” by director Mike Davis that he’s cobbled together from public domain footage and feature films and set to an outrageous new soundtrack. The film looks like it promises to be a rollicking good time.

Other highlights of the fest include Guy Maddin‘s latest trippy film noir, Keyhole, about a mobster revisiting his homestead’s old memories; Bob Ray‘s documentary about Austin, Texas’ homegrown Total Badass; Bobcat Goldthwait’s media takedown God Bless America; Michal Kosakowski’s underground murder fantasy documentary hit Zero Killed; Richard Griffin’s funky The Disco Exorcist; and more.

Some of the extra special events of the fest...

Tobe Hooper is best known for directing Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a classic horror film but one whose fame and influence has often eclipsed the rest of the director's equally interesting earlier and subsequent work. This is why we are particularly excited to present an exclusive, limited online run of Hooper's fantastic feature debut Eggshells (1968/69) alongside his Hammer horror parody short, The Heisters (1964)—both restored and presented by Watchmaker Films and still playing on the site for two more months.

Now that we've given you some time to see these previously unreleased and unknown cult gems, we thought we'd give you the opportunity to ask Tobe Hooper your own questions. Please submit your questions in this forum thread; the thread will be open for two weeks and we'll send Tobe some of your best inquiries to answer. We'll then post the subsequent the community interview at Mubi. Head to the forum to ask your questions now!

Time Out London's "100 best horror films" blowout is more than a list; it's a microsite unto itself: "We polled well over 100 horror enthusiasts — with big names like Roger Corman, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg, Clive Barker and Alice Cooper, and horror legends like Coffin Joe, Kim Newman and Tom Six — and came up with a definitive top 100 list." Click on those names to see the individual ballots. "The result may surprise you: while the top ten may be stuffed with big hitters, the full list is wonderfully unpredictable and packed with oddball leftfield choices."

A couple of notes on the top five:

The Exorcist (1973). Tom Huddleston calls up William Friedkin: "To be frank with you, [writer] Bill Blatty and I never set out to make a horror film. The idea never crossed our minds." Tol's notes; and take a look at the storyboards at OutNow (scroll down).

The Shining (1980). Tol...

Last week, in partnership with Watchmaker Films, we presented Tobe Hooper's rarely seen comedic short The Heisters (1964). This week: the main attraction, Hooper's debut feature, Eggshells, (1968/69), long believed to have been lost until, four decades on, it was rediscovered, restored and presented at the 2009 edition of the South by Southwest Festival.

That's when Louis Black, a co-founder of both the Austin Chronicle and SXSW, wrote that "Eggshells makes explicit what many have long assumed — that Hooper's sense of cinema is the defining characteristic that makes [The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)] great. Eggshells is a true 1968 film, psychedelic and political; it seems clear that Hooper had watched more than a film or two by Jean-Luc Godard. The film celebrates alternative lifestyles and politics and people and an odd, kinky semi-mysticism that is grounded more in humor than the supernatural. It captures what Austin looked like in the Sixties as well as the political sensibility shared...

In late 2010, a panel of judges that included John Carpenter, Wes Craven, John Landis, George Romero, Guillermo del Toro and Eli Roth put The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) at the top of Total Film's list of the "Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made." But five years before Tobe Hooper would carve his signature on the genre, leaving a proud and permanent scar, he made a feature for $100K called Eggshells — which, for decades, was believed to have been lost. But in 2009, a print was discovered and presented at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Hooper's hometown, and it's since seen the occasional festival screening — but never a full-blown release. Until now.

Mubi's proud to be teaming up with Watchmaker Films to present a proper worldwide release later this month of what Hooper himself describes as "a real movie about 1969, kind of verite but with a little push, improvisation mixed with magic.

If you share my interest in Austin film history, don't miss this week's screening of Eggshells, the first feature by Texas Chain Saw Massacre writer/director Tobe Hooper (pictured at right).

Made in Austin in 1969 with a cast of Hooper's friends, Eggshells is every bit a late 1960s film, a psychedelic drama about a group of students sharing a commune-like Austin house. Much of the film follows the students' typical activities -- this being 1969, many of them involve nudity and drug-fueled sociopolitical discussions -- but there also is an oddly mystical twist. In the basement is what Hooper describes as a "crypto-embryonic hyper-electric presence" that grows into a bulb-like form and manipulates the characters' lives.

Confused? So was I before I saw Eggshells last year, but fear not: It all makes sense -- sort of -- when you see the movie. While Eggshells is often quite bizarre, it's an intriguing...

The first five hours of Frightfest day two were all about horror legend Tobe Hooper and the day kicked off with his rare debut film Eggshells. Made in 1969 Eggshells is an early experiment from Hooper. Testing out techniques and experimenting with form Hooper misses more times than he hits but overall the film is interesting and one that when viewed in the context of the year it was made and as an early fragment from Hooper’s career, absolutely fascinating. The film is receiving a release soon and I can recommend checking it out and if you’re a Hooper fan, it’s an essential purchase.

Following that was his incredible The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What more can I say that has not been said before, the film is astonishing. Hooper then took to the stage for a Q&A where he regaled the Frightfest audience with stories of working...

There is only one festival where you can run across the father of midnight movies and the father of slasher horror, and it’s next week in Paris. For those who lived in a cave the past 16 years, it’s September. Meaning it’s time for the IRS and corollary it’s time for L’Etrange Festival.

The most bizarre, weird, shocking, gore, poetic and illuminating pieces of cinematographic creation of the year and beyond, are once again tied together and bound into two weeks of total visual bliss. This year is more loaded than a 34 year old Presbyterian going to the brothel, just look at the numbers : 2 world premieres, 1 European premiere, 22 French premieres, 5 first screening and 5 never seen before movies. All that including Monsters" from Gareth Edwards, "Bedevilled" from Jang Cheol-Soo, "Captifs" from Yann Gozlan, "Four Lions" from Chris Morris and "The House Maid" by Im Sang-Soo.

Even...

The full lineup for the 2010 Film4 FrightFest has been confirmed. This year's festival takes place at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square from August 26 to 30 and features a number of premieres and previews. It will also boast an appearance from famed horror director Tobe Hooper, who will present his 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and his 1969 debut Eggshells. Total Film editor Jamie Graham said: "We're delighted to welcome Tobe as our inaugural (more)...

This year’s FrightFest horror festival has revealed its full line-up and it should have horror fans very excited. A special appearance by Tobe Hooper and a screening of his little seen Eggshells is a must for film lovers.

And of course they’ll be showing his masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It’s special because Hooper hasn’t visited the UK for almost twenty years!

Check out the main titles playing at the festival below. It’s a good mix of world horror cinema.

Thursday Aug 27

6.30pm Hatchet II (World Premiere) – 90 mins Director: Adam Green USA 2010

9.15pm Primal (World Premiere) – 85 mins Director: Josh Reed Australia 2010

11.30pm Dead Cert (World Premiere) – 90 mins Director: Steve Lawson UK 2010

Friday Aug 28

10.45am Eggshells – 90 mins Director: Tobe Hooper USA 1969

1.00pm The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – 83 mins Director: Tobe Hooper USA 1974

3.15pm Interview With Tobe Hooper.

5.30pm Isle Of Dogs (World Premiere) – 90 mins Director:...

Yesterday saw the official announcement of the line-up for the London Film4 FrightFest 2010 and whilst the FrightFest gang had already announced Hatchet II, The Last Exorcism, Eggshells, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and we exclusively revealed the appearance of Burning Bright, and Red White & Blue at this years festival, there was still some surprises amongst the bunch.

So after reading up on each movie that is due to play the festival I thought it would be a good idea to breakdown just which movies I’m looking forward to seeing, and which ones I’m not… As always let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Highlights:

The real highlights for me this year include Simon Rumley’s Red White & Blue, the infamous A Serbian Film – which should test the FrightFest audiences metal! Of course I’m looking forward to Hatchet II – since when has Adam Green ever let FrightFest down?...

That's right, Frightfest is back. Running from August 26th through the 30th in London at Leicester Square, it brings a couple great looking world premiers we broke the news on, and our own lucky London correspondent Ben Austwick will be there yet again to bring us his good taste and some great reviews.

First off, the two films, both world premiers, which we're most looking forward too:

F by Johannes Roberts - A bunch of people stuck in a school, after hours, hunted by a faceless threat.

The Dead by the Ford Brothers - Zombies? In Africa? Maybe a little influence from Fulci? I'm in!

Other lookers include The Pack, Gregg Araki's Kaboom, Monsters, Amer, and The Loved Ones.

Full list after the break! Here is the official website.

- Hatchet II (World Premiere)

- Primal (World Premiere)

- Dead Cert (World Premiere)

- Tobe Hooper Retrospective: Eggshells and...

FrightFest 2010 will, as it did last year, take over the Empire Cinema in London’s Leicester Square on 26th-30th August and of course we’ll be there bringing you all the news, reviews and gossip a horror fan could Ever want. The guys at Film4 FrightFest have announced the full line-up of this years even and this years line-up looks like a wide variety of films, from a truly international group of filmmakers. Check it out:

Main Empire Screen - Thursday 26th August

6.30 – Hatchet II

9.15 – Primal

11.15 – Dead Cert

Main Empire Screen - Friday 27th August

10.15 – Eggshells

1.00 – Texas Chain Saw Massacre

3.15 – Total Icon Tobe Hooper

5.30 – Isle Of Dogs

7.45 – F

9.15 – Red Hill

11.30 Alien Vs. Ninja

Discovery Screen - Friday 27th August

10.45 – Burning Bright

12.45 – The Clinic

3.00 – Finale

5.00 – Wound

7.15 – Outcast

9.45 – Higanjima: Escape From Vampire Island

Main Empire Screen - Saturday 28th August

11.00 – Cherry Tree Lane

1.15 – The Tortured

3.15 – 13 Hours

6.30 – I Spit On Your Grave...

The UK's most amazing horror film festival Film4 FrightFest has released what could very well be another one of the best horror line-ups we've seen ever for its latest show taking place from Thursday the 26th of August to Monday the 30th of August, brimming with films we've been salivating over Stateside!

From the Press Release

This year there are eight British films in the main programme (another record) including Monsters, Gareth Edwards’ sensational post-Apocalyptic debut, The Ford Brothers’ Cannes-hyped African Zombie flick The Dead and Johannes Roberts F – in which a school gets a lesson in horror! Other home-grown titles are Dead Cert (East-End gangsters meet Eastern European vampires), Isle Of Dogs (nasty gangland horror), Paul Andrew Williams’ harrowing Cherry Tree Lane and werewolf thriller 13Hrs. Plus, Jake West will be presenting his in-depth documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape, which will be followed by a Q & A panel discussion.

The complete lineup for the 2010 edition of the Film4 Frightfest has just been announced and, as usual, it is a quality selection of the best in horror film from the UK and around the world. The program splits into two programs - the main lineup and sidebar Discovery program - and you'll find both below!

Programme = Screen 1

Thursday Aug 26

6.30pm Hatchet II  (World Premiere)

FrightFest continues its strong relationship with Adam Green by hosting the world premiere of the sequel to his 2006 slasher sensation. Picking up right where the splatter-tastic original ended, Marybeth escapes the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling iconic killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about her family's connection to the hatchet-wielding madman, Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher. Delivering unapologetically unrestrained gushers of gore,...

FrightFest 2010 infects the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square between the 26th and 30th of August and HeyUGuys will be there to bring you all the news and reviews. Festival tickets go on sale tomorrow and you can find all the details on how to grab yours here.

Today we got our first look at the stunning line-up for the festival and you can check it out in all its glory right below. The official FrightFest site has also had a huge update with pages for each film and loads of information. Head over here to check it out.

We previously brought you the news that Hatchet 2 and The Last Exorcism are set to open and close the festival but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Highlights of the line up that strike me immediately are the already infamous A Serbian Film, a screening of the rare 1969 feature Eggshells (with...

African zombies, Adam Green's latest, an afternoon with Tobe Hooper and a number of UK premieres pepper this year's Film4 Frightfest, the annual event that unfolds in London August 26-30. As we told you earlier, Hatchet II will be making its world premiere on Thursday, August 27 and the festival closes with the Eli Roth-produced The Last Exorcism ( review ). Other films on the line-up: Primal , Dead Cert , F , The Tortured , Cherry Tree Lane , Monsters , I Spit On Your Grave , The Pack and much more. On August 28, the programmers will screen Tobe Hooper's early film Eggshells and follow that with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a Q&A with Hooper. For the full details, visit Frightfest.co.uk .

Total Film have announced that they have teamed with the London Film4 FrightFest gang to present a brand new strand for the event called Total Icon. And there’s no better way to kick off this celebration of gods of the horror genre with a director who is responsible for one of the controversial and notorious horror movies ever – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Yes, appearing at this years FrightFest will be none other than Tobe Hooper, who will be crowned Total Icon 2010! According to the official FrightFest website:

Hooper will be appearing at Film4 FrightFest on Friday August 28th to oversee the screening of his rarely seen 1969 debut Eggshells at 10.45am, followed by his ferocious 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at 1pm. He will then join Total Film’s Deputy Editor Jamie Graham on stage at 3.15pm for a 45-minute Q&A – Hooper’s first appearance in the UK for 18 years.

Total Film is growing its partnership with leading international horror festival Film4 FrightFest by introducing Total Icon, a buzzing new attraction designed to celebrate the gods of the genre. Total Icon 2010 will be Tobe Hooper, the legendary director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. Hooper will be appearing at Film4 FrightFest on Friday 27 August to oversee the screening of his rarely seen 1969 debut Eggshells at 10.45am, followed by his ferocious 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at 1pm. He will then join...

.

Date/Time:  Sunday, March 21, 2010 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm Location:  Alamo Drafthouse -- Ritz More info:  Visit external web page.

At SXSW 2009, Austin director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), pictured at right, attended a special screening of his first feature film, the 1969 movie Eggshells. He pointed out that it had not been shown in theaters since the late 1960s.

On Sunday night, the movie gets another rare theatrical showing, this time at Alamo Ritz. Watchmaker Films, which is restoring the film for a future DVD release, has partnered with Alamo Drafthouse to show the film. It's a very odd, surreal movie that offers a few glimpses of Austin in the late 1960s, mostly around the University of Texas campus. In addition, Alamo promises some unnamed "special guests" at the screening.

For more information, check out my article for Cinematical from SXSW 2009 about the fest's Eggshells screening. (I...

The Alamo Guide

for March 18th, 2010 While SXSW is slowly filtering out of our theaters and instead, flooding the music venues and rent-a-bars that pop up around town, we are beginning to resume a state of normality. We have a few new releases this weekend (The Runaways – with the director live in person – and The Bounty Hunter) and we’re also back with our special programming!Master Pancake is doing One Final Weekend of Goldfinger before they turn their attention to Mr. Gibson in Braveheart. We were all very saddened to hear we lost a Corey, so we decided to put up a couple Lost Boys Tribute Shows this week (my vote was for Prayer Of The Rollerboys, but I’ll just watch that at home!). Also, if you got shut out of SXSW this year by lack of money or other reasons, we’ve chosen a few of our...

The 16th annual Bradford International Film Festival, which will run March 18-28, is a total celebration of all forms of cinema, from classic films to modern world cinema to a tribute to Cinerama and more. But, most excitingly, is a bombastic collection of some of the best, most exciting underground films being made today.

From Bad Lit’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.

Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens.

Before he set loose Leatherface on an unsuspecting America, Tobe Hooper directed Eggshells and the Steve Allen Theater Drive-In in Los Angeles (4773 Hollywood Blvd.) is giving you a chance to see this "lost" '68 film from the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . Beginning December 4, the film - which screened to SXSW audiences in March - will get a midnight run at the Steve Allen (part of a limited theatrical run) before hitting DVD from Watchmaker Films. Due to weather concerns the screenings may move from the outdoor drive-in screening to the indoor theater (at the same venue) at the end of December. Eggshells is described as a trippy experience capturing "the Austin counter culture scene of the late sixties, new attitudes of sex, love, drugs and...

At the Museum of Contemporary Art/American Cinematheque benefit screening of Parasomnia (see item here), Fango got a chance to quickly chat to some of the assembled filmmakers about their upcoming projects. First up, Wes Craven took a moment to discuss the title of his latest feature, Rogue Pictures’ 25/8.

“It’s based on a phrase in the movie, saying that if you fight the devil 24/7, it’s not enough—you have to fight 25/8,” Craven tells us. “The phrase was in the film, in the dialogue. The original title of the movie was Bug, which is the name of the central character [played by Max Thieriot, pictured]. I was about halfway through writing the script when somebody said, ‘I just read that William Friedkin has a film coming out called Bug.’ So that was that for that title. It’s very punchy and intriguing, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Meanwhile, Mick Garris, recently...

Update: Read this story for more details! ShockTillYouDrop.com received the news this morning that Texas-born actor Lou Perryman passed away on April 1st. To horror fans, Perryman was best known as "L.G." in Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 . Prior to that, Perryman had worked with the director in Poltergeist and was a camera assistant on the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre . He also shared an assistant director credit with Sallye Richardson on Hooper's first film Eggshells . "He was a wonderful man and was so happy to have you all in his life. He was blessed," writes Perryman's daughter, Jennifer, via his Facebook page. When we contacted Jennifer for more details regarding his death, she provided us a link to this local story...

While many SXSW Film Festival attendees were at the Paramount last night watching The Hurt Locker, I decided to try a more Austin-ish event at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Tobe Hooper's first feature was screening -- no, not The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but earlier than that. Eggshells was shot in Austin in 1968 and had a limited release the following year. And that's pretty much the last anyone saw of it on a big screen until now -- even Hooper, who was at last night's screening. Hooper says he had a DVD made from a VHS copy, but for the rest of us, Eggshells has been a "lost" film.

The film focuses on a big rambling house full of college-age people who hang out, throw parties, get married ... and discuss the "ghost" in the house, an odd energy field that lives in the basement. But as Hooper told us before the film started,...