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The Lord of the Rings is one of the most acclaimed movie trilogies of all-time, with every single installment now regarded as an all-time classic. The work of J.R.R. Tolkien has been endlessly debated, studied, and beloved by readers and fans alike for decades, and there was certainly a time in which the thought of adapting his magnum opus seemed like an impossible task. While a 1978 animated film managed to combine elements of the first two novels in the trilogy into a halfway decent adaptation, it was evident that Tolkiens most defining work deserved to be depicted as a massive epic. Peter Jackson may not have been the first name that came to mind, as his background was primarily in low-budget horror films like Meet the Feebles and Bad Taste. However, Jackson ended up being the perfect storyteller to bring the unique heroes of The Lord of the Rings saga to life.

Edmonton’s premiere genre film festival, NorthwestFEARFest, is pulling out all the stops this October with six spine-tingling days and nights of new and classic genre cinema haunting Metro Cinema. Running from October 16 to 22, the lineup is peppered with myriad highlights, including the local premiere of Parker Finn’s Smile 2 and a 50th anniversary screening of Brian De Palma‘s Phantom of the Paradise with special guest Paul Williams!

Festival Director & Programmer Guy Lavallee says audiences are in for Edmonton’s biggest celebration of horror, thriller, dark comedy, and retro genre favourites. “With so much local support for our first 2, I’m pretty stoked to finally be able to announce the full 2024 lineup,” Lavallee announced. “Starting with our phenomenal Opening Night Film, Smile 2, our whole team is excited about this year’s movies, and I hope local genre enthusiasts will be as pumped as we are.

Lavallee continues,...

Peter Jackson's early dark humor films, like Meet the Feebles, were a far cry from his later Lord of the Rings success. Meet the Feebles, a crude puppet-filled movie, gained cult status despite its low box office return and shocking content. The dark, crude, and surreal humor of Meet the Feebles connects with Peter Jackson's early career fascination with the bizarre.

Frodo Baggins. Aragorn. Gimli. Legolas. If you havent been living under a rock for the past twenty-three years, you definitely know where these names originate from. The Lord of the Rings franchise has not only become a cornerstone of the fantasy genre, but has also easily become one of the greatest film series ever made. Directed by New Zealands own Peter Jackson, the three films ended up making close to $3 billion worldwide and the first entry, The Fellowship of the Ring, was recognized by the Library of Congress for being culturally,...

Peter Jackson has a wide range of successful projects under his name, from blockbuster franchises like The Lord of the Rings to cult classics like Meet the Feebles and Dead Alive. And his journey to becoming one of the most proficient filmmakers in the industry began with the 1987 film Bad Taste, which paved the way for his illustrious career in the film industry.

Peter Jackson | Credit: Wikimedia Commons/foilman

The film has since become a cult classic known for its over-the-top gore and dark humor. However, it faced significant challenges during production, particularly due to limited resources. In order to realize his vision, Jackson found himself compelled to employ unconventional methods to secure funding.

Peter Jackson’s Sneaky Tactics to Fund His Debut Feature Film

Peter Jackson’s journey as the filmmaker began with the gory extravaganza of the 1987 sci-fi horror comedy Bad Taste. Based in a fictional town in New Zealand,...

Born on the 31st of October 1961, in Pukerua Bay, a small seaside suburb in the North Island of New Zealand, Sir Peter Jackson became a film lover during his early childhood. Overwhelmed by the striking black-and-white imagery of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's original 1933 creature feature, King Kong, an impressionable nine-year-old Jackson made it his life's goal to create movie magic. Kicking off what would become a world-renowned career in film-making, a small cult following would amass around Jackson's earliest works, a bizarre series of grotesque and often visually repulsive horror/comedies in the form of Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and Braindead.

These days, Peter Jackson is best known for directing big budget spectacles. He took the Hobbits to Mordor, he cast Benedict Cumberbatch as a dragon, he brought us the sight of a motion-capture King Kong smacking around a bunch of dinosaurs. But when he was just getting his career started, he was making very different kinds of movies: horror comedies that were drenched in blood and pretty much every other bodily fluid you can think of. In 1992, he brought the world what may be the bloodiest film ever made: a zombie comedy he would call Braindead, but many fans know it as Dead Alive. And if you haven’t seen this one yet (you can watch it Here), it’s the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Peter Jackson never had any formal film school training, and not just because they didn’t have such courses in his home country of New Zealand.

Some horror films from the past pushed boundaries with shocking content, but may not be appropriate for today's audience. Movies like 'Meet the Feebles,' 'Cannibal Holocaust,' and 'A Serbian Film' contain content that would not be accepted in modern cinema. Themes of extreme violence, gore, sexual abuse, and racism in these films make them unlikely candidates for remakes in today's society.

Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault, extreme violence, and illegal activities toward minors.

Over the years, many different horror movies have pushed the boundaries of the genre in shocking ways, but some of these films would not be made today. The horror genre has been going strong for well over 100 years, with early movies like Dracula shocking audiences before a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s with titles such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. In recent years, the horror genre has become incredibly developed,...

Clockwise from top left: Thelma And Louise (MGM), Chicago (Miramax), The Handmaiden (Cj Entertainment), and Ocean’s 8 (Warner Bros.)Graphic: The A.V. Club

The trailers for the upcoming films Drive-Away Dolls (opening February 23) and Love Lies Bleeding (opening March 8) have us thinking about all the badass women who have...

There have been many movies that have been seen as too controversial for audiences and have been banned in different countries. Some movies such as The Da Vinci Code and Meet the Feebles were banned for going against the religious beliefs of certain countries. Other movies such as The Exorcist and The Hunger Games were deemed too disturbing and frightening for certain audiences.

Since the early years of cinema, many movies have been deemed controversial for various reasons. A movie might cause controversy because of its story, genre, or themes and may be considered unsuitable for audiences. A movie can sometimes cause so much controversy that it ends up being banned from cinemas altogether.

Every country around the world has its own list of banned movies; in later years, many of them have been removed from these lists as heavy censorship has been toned down, and artistic expression has been welcomed in visual media.

The end of the year always brings about reflection, so it felt appropriate to recall the moments that helped define 2023 in horror. As in, the unforgettable moments that shaped the conversation whether through watercooler discussions or going viral on social media. Consider this a fun trip down memory lane before 2024 ushers in its own new wave of horrors.

These ten memorable horror moments stood out, and catapulted their respective movies, video games, or TV series into the public conversation.

M3GAN – A Viral Killer Doll

Technically, one of the buzziest horror moments of the year began in 2022. From the very first look at the dancing queen in the trailer that debuted in October 2022, audiences were smitten. So much so that M3GAN went viral, and Blumhouse leaned into it in a way that ensured this early January release was a not-so-sleeper hit. We’d expect nothing less from the mind...

The upcoming episode of The Simpsons features a cameo by Peter Jackson and Elizabeth Banks, along with other celebrity cameos. The episode parodies Silicon Valley and includes references to Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Peter Jackson's cameo includes Easter eggs referencing his films, such as King Kong and The Hobbit trilogy.

The Simpsons images reveal Peter Jackson's role and Easter Eggs for four of his films. Currently in the midst of its 35th season on Fox, the long-running animated sitcom has not lost its satirical edge nor its ability to attract big-name celebrities for cameos. The upcoming fourth episode of the season, titled "Thirst Trap: A Corporate Love Story," will feature a slew of celebrity cameos headlined by the famous filmmaker Peter Jackson and actress Elizabeth Banks.

Now, ahead of its airing on October 29, Entertainment Weekly has shared exclusive first-look photos for the fourth episode of The Simpsons season 35 revealing Peter...

Peter Jackson truly hit the public consciousness with the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. Yet before that, he was creating very different films. Along with his strange puppet-based Bad Taste (1987) and Meet the Feebles (1989), he found his way into other, more high-concept films.

One of these, The Frighteners, was released in 1996, five years before The Lord of the Rings. It contained two elements that Jackson loved in his movies to that point: Horror and comedy. Here's why the film is perfect for a Halloween movie night.

What Is The Frighteners?

In The Frighteners we are introduced to Frank Bannister, played by the always-delightful Michael J. Fox. He is a man who, after the death of his wife, can see ghosts. With this talent, he makes friends with three ghosts from very different time periods. Each one looks the way they did when they died.

Underrated comedy movies on Netflix offer a range of comedic styles, from slapstick to spoof, with memorable characters and hilarious performances. Despite critical backlash, movies like "The Happytime Murders" and "Dirty Grandpa" remain guilty pleasures and box office successes. "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga" and "Accepted" are surprising, underrated comedies on Netflix that deserve more recognition.

When it comes to the underrated comedy movies on Netflix, there are several to choose from that are both underappreciated and often labeled as guilty pleasures. It could be argued that most comedy movies are guilty pleasure movies that simply vary between comic tastes. The more ridiculous, far-fetched, or over-the-top a comedy is, the guiltier the pleasure of watching it. As a pure form of escapism, the comedy genre tends to sit near the top of the heap, offering audiences a chance to forget about life for a while with a big smile on their face.

Peter Jackson – chances are that, when you hear his name, your mind conjures images of grandiose fantasy worlds, incredible documentaries, and an unparalleled level of detail when it comes to set and costume designs. He directed the legendary Lord of the Rings trilogy, after all. But before They Shall Not Grow Old, before The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, even before King Kong of all things, Jackson made his mark on the genre you'd least expect: horror.

Combining incredible amounts of slapstick with endlessly grotesque practical effects, Jackson made his filmmaking debut with a handful of horror comedy films. Some horror fans may already be familiar with Braindead, his hilariously horrifying zombie film with karate-kicking priests and an ocean's worth of fake blood. Or, maybe you've heard of Meet the Feebles, Jackson's crudely-twisted take on The Muppets. But, it would be Jackson's first film, Bad Taste, that cemented this...

Stars: Sam Bangs, Leonard Hoge, Steve Larkin, Stephanie Leet, Calvin Morie McCarthy | Written and Directed by Erik Skybak

While watching TV late one night, Peter O’Neill (Leonard Hoge) notices a curious sight from his bedroom window. A green light outside alerts him to strange occurrences in the house next-door, owned by the strictly religious Johnson family. What Peter witnesses leaves him scared, and his attempts to inform his family are met with disbelief.

Writer/director Erik Skybak then takes viewers into the Johnsons’ house, as they invite fellow churchgoer Herma (Sam Bangs) to housesit while they are on vacation. Later while she is alone, the guest ventures into the cellar where she discovers mysterious items, including a ring she tries on. The jewellery has a nasty effect on Herma, as a possession transforms her body and deteriorates her mind, threatening the guest and her unborn baby.

As unseen forces within...

The new ten-episode Disney+ series"The Muppets Mayhem" sees the return of the psychedelic Muppet band The Electric Mayhem as they embark on a rip-roaring adventure to record their debut album. Their fearless bandleader Dr. Teeth is still behind the keys and Animal is still beating his drum kit into submission, with all the rest of the band getting back together to make magic happen once again. The long history of Muppets movies has always been filled with pop culture references and glorified celebrity cameos, but aside from "Muppets Haunted Mansion," they've largely avoided any direct nods to the horror genre. 

That all changed with the seventh episode of the series "Track 7: Eight Days a Week," where an uncredited appearance from director Peter Jackson confirmed one of the most unlikely puppet crossovers in film history. For the sake of your own sanity and to keep wholesome childhood memories intact,...

An episode of The Muppets Mayhem showed that Jim Henson's beloved creations share continuity with Peter Jackson's dark parody Meet the Feebles.

In Mayhem's seventh episode, "Eight Days a Week," A&r executive Nora takes inspiration from The Beatles: Get Back and hires a film crew led by Kevin Smith to record the Electric Mayhem's process as they work on their debut album. In the episode's final moments, Get Back director Sir Peter Jackson arrives at the band's pad to film his own documentary. Floyd mentions the band hasn't seen Jackson since "that night in Wellington when we met the Feebles." Jackson laments that since then, two of the Feebles have gone into witness protection and the rest are in prison.

Related: The Muppets Mayhem Teaser References One of the Greatest Mockumentaries of All Time

We filled @Muppets_Mayhem with easter eggs that only the cool kids would appreciate.

Peter Jackson is a name that many people recognize, and for good reason.

He has experienced tremendous success in his career, from creating short films to directing Hollywood blockbusters like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit. But what many don’t know is that he’s an independent filmmaker who has been making movies since the 1980s.

In this article we’ll look at Peter Jackson’s epic career. We’ll explore his early career, discuss his film-making style, and discover how his involvement in projects such as The Lord of the Rings has shaped the Hollywood film industry today.

We will also look at some of the lessons aspiring filmmakers can learn from Peter Jackson’s journey. So let’s dive into this exciting story and find out how an independent Kiwi filmmaker made it big in Hollywood!

Early Life and Short Films: Peter Jackson’s Humble Beginnings Peter Jackson.

All ten episodes of “The Muppets Mayhem“ dropped on Disney+ earlier this week, sending beloved Muppet band, The Electric Mayhem, on a musical journey to record their first album. In true Muppet style, the journey comes with a slew of notable cameos, including a shocking horror crossover we never would’ve anticipated in a million years.

A surprising uncredited cameo by director Peter Jackson confirms that the characters from his raunchy spluppet feature (splatter + puppet), Meet the Feebles, exist within the same world as the Muppets, making for one of horror’s most surprising crossovers.

“Track 7: Eight Days a Week” is the seventh episode of the season, which sees the Muppets’ music exec Nora (Lilly Singh) attempt to create a documentary about the band. Enter director Peter Jackson, playing himself. The Award-winning director is there with a crew, and the band recognizes him instantly.

In a bizarre exchange, Muppet...

A new creature feature from New Zealand filmmaker Scott Walker (The Frozen Ground), The Tank is coming to select theaters April 21, followed by Digital on April 25.

Set in the 1970s, The Tank is about a young family who unwittingly awakens creatures at their recently inherited coastal property. Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor and creative director Richard Taylor (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Krampus, Braindead) and his team at SFX studio Wētā Workshop are behind the film’s practical creature effects.

Ahead of the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting spoke with Walker and Taylor about bringing these creatures to life.

Walker explains where his throwback creature feature began, “It was during Covid when I wrote this, and I wanted it set in 1978 as a nod to a simpler time. That was about a year into Covid, and nobody knew what was going to happen. We had been displaced around the world,...

Peter Jackson's 1994 drama "Heavenly Creatures" was based on the real-life Parker-Hulme murder case which took place in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1954. The story goes that the convicted killers, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, became friends as adolescents and began to obsess over each other. They lived a very vivid fantasy life, and even invented their own religion, to which they were the only adherents. When Parker's mother, Honorah, threatened to separate the girls, they plotted to murder her, a crime they committed in Victoria Park. They spent five years in prison and were spared the death penalty, as Pauline was 16 and Juliet was 15. Jackson's film maintained that the two young women could be released from prison under the condition that they never see each other again, but this, however, was not true.

"Heavenly Creatures" was widely lauded at the time and was nominated for Best Screenplay at that...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "King Kong" (2005)

Where You Can Stream It: HBO Max

The Pitch: Peter Jackson's "King Kong" doesn't get the respect it deserves and I think it's high time to re-evaluate his epic love letter to the movie that made him want to be a filmmaker in the first place. Is it a little indulgent? Yes. Is it overlong? Maybe. But it's also a fascinating moment where one of our most visionary directors was coming off a landmark trilogy that forever changed the way movies were made with all the clout, creative freedom, and budget that comes with a success as big as "The Lord of the Rings." A lot of the unique chemistry that made "Lord of the Ring...

Josh Olson shares his top 10 movies from his favorite movie year, 1992, with Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Star Wars (1977)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

After Dark, My Sweet (1990)

The Last Of The Mohicans (1992)

Thief (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Manhunter (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Last Of The Mohicans (1936)

The Player (1992) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Popeye (1980)

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Quintet (1979)

​HealtH (1980)

Come Back To the Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982)

Secret Honor (1984)

The Graduate (1967) – Neil Labute’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Touch Of Evil (1958) – Howard Rodman’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dead Alive a.k.a. Braindead (1992) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary

Meet The Feebles (1989) – Mike Mendez’s...

Showrunner Eric Kripke joins podcast hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Piranha (1978) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

My Octopus Teacher (2020)

The Evil Dead (1983) – Fede Alvarez’s trailer commentary

Evil Dead II (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Alex Kirschenbaum’s review

Meet The Feebles (1989) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary

Dead Alive a.k.a. Braindead (1992) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary

Bad Taste (1987) – Ti West’s trailer commentary

Infested (2002)

Super (2010)

Forrest Gump (1994)

The Hidden (1987) – Mike Mendez’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Uhf (1989)

Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid (1986)

The Dead Pit (1989)

Batgirl (2022) – Unreleased film

The Fantastic Four (1994) – Unreleased film...

From Peter Jackson’s misspent youth comes this wild and wooly musical satire featuring a cast of misanthropic puppets. With its bizarrely designed characters and plot turns involving porn actors and drug addicts, this 1989 New Zealand release is like a nightmare version of one of Disney’s Silly Symphonies. The writers include Jackson himself and future spouse Fran Walsh, the soon-to-be scribe of the director’s Tolkien adaptations.

The post Meet the Feebles appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

After concluding his sixth Middle-earth film, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” Ian McKellen praised Peter Jackson, telling Variety, “He’s invented technology to match his imagination.”

Jackson’s first “Lord of the Rings” film, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” premiered in December, 2001, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this month.

Jackson oversees five companies in Wellington, New Zealand, that were each started to fill the films’ needs:

— Weta Workshop was born for the 1989 “Meet the Feebles.” Jackson and Fran Walsh collaborated with husband-and-wife team Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger and their 5-year-old Rt Effects, who worked on models and puppets.

Weta Workshop has five divisions: Makeup and prosthetics, armor, weapons, creatures and miniature environments.

During a Variety visit a few years ago, the WW’ers were working on film and TV projects as well as museum installations, a sculpture garden, film projects and books. Richard Taylor told Variety,...

After success with several small-scale films, Peter Jackson in 1992 told Variety he was looking for a project “that will really push me.”

He found something that surpassed everyone’s expectations. This month marks the 20th anniversary of Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings,” which kicked off the 2001-2003 film trilogy based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In 2000, Jackson told Variety “Lotr” was “the Holy Grail of filmmaking, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

In retrospect, handing this massive project to Jackson seems like a no-brainer: great material for a great filmmaker. But in fact, there were so many unknown factors that it was immediately recognized as one of film history’s greatest gambles.

“I read ‘Lord of the Rings’ first as a 17 year-old,” Jackson told Variety. “I wasn’t one of those avid fans who read it every year. Fran and I were childhood fan of the ‘Sinbad’ movies,...

Ever since Bob Shaye launched the company in 1967 to release arthouse, foreign language and cult films on college campuses, New Line Cinema had been a studio known for out-of-the box choices necessitated by being the last stop for good material. From the audacious early John Waters films like Pink Flamingos to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Line found gems others missed, even after Ted Turner bought the studio. New Line had launched Jim Carrey with The Mask, leveled up Mike Myers with Austin Powers, and given a home to filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson with Boogie Nights and David Fincher with Se7en. Shaye had shown his studio to be a place of creative risk taking.

But New Line had never taken a financial risk like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As a matter of fact, no one else in Hollywood had; three films, each with budgets of $120 million,...

The writer/director of Spontaneous discusses some of his favorite off the beaten path films. Plus grooming tips!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Underwater (2020)

The Babysitter (2017)

Jane Got A Gun (2015)

Spontaneous (2020)

Citizen Kane (1941)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Mandy (2018)

Bad Hair (2020)

Little Murders (1971)

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)

Parents (1989)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Kuroneko (1968)

Onibaba (1964)

Birth (2004)

Heathers (1988)

Sexy Beast (2000)

Under The Skin (2013)

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Paddington 2 (2017)

The Brood (1979)

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The Fly (1986)

A History of Violence (2005)

Brick (2005)

Knives Out (2019)

Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)

Gremlins (1984)

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Dead Alive (1993)

Meet The Feebles (1989)

The Addams Family (1991)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Other Notable Items

Bruce Springsteen

Justin Simien

Hulu

Tales From The Crypt TV series (1989-1996)

Alan Arkin

Temple University

Warren Beatty

Jules Feiffer

Paul Sylbert...

Happy (Good) Friday, everyone! Even though time isn’t much of a construct these days, the weekend is officially here and if you’re like me, you’re looking for ways to entertain yourself at home during this whole pandemic mess. And with the economy being what it is right now, I know it’s helpful for many folks out there to save money wherever you can, so I thought I would dive into all the great films over at Tubi TV to compile a list of more than 50 different cult films you can currently stream for free.

Just a note: there are a lot of definitions of “cult film,” so I did my best to not include a bunch of titles that horror fans throw around ad nauseam here, and I even opened up my search parameters a bit to include horror, sci-fi, and genre-adjacent titles that I feel...

Everyone remembers when New Zealand’s Peter Jackson came barreling onto the scene and in quick order brought us Bad Taste (1987), Meet the Feebles (1989), and Braindead (1992) before eventually settling down into Academy Award-winning fantasy films. (I forget their names. Just Google them.) But he wasn’t the first to introduce the world to his country’s nascent splattery talent: that honor goes to Death Warmed Up (1984), a loopy mash-up of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eye, Mad Max, and Looney Tunes, all spit-shined to grimy perfection in a great new Blu-ray from Severin Films.

Remastered by director David Blyth (Red Blooded American Girl) from the only existing materials, this new disc of Death Warmed Up has a ton of gooey goodies that we’ll get to, but first let’s tackle the story:

Dr. Archer Howell (Gary Day – Death Wave) plans on taking his mind control experiments to the next,...

Stars: Becca Hirani, Tara MacGowran, Rita Siddiqui, Tiffany-Ellen Robinson, Georgia Wood, Jitendra Rai, Charlene Durrant, Chris Kaye, Heronimo Sehmi, Claudine-Helene Aumord, Victor Toth, Mika Hockman | Written by Dan Allen, Scott Jeffrey | Directed by Dan Allen

Written by Dan Allen and Scott Jeffrey, The Mummy Reborn tells the story of Tina (Tiffany-Ellen Robinson), a young woman left to care for her mentally challenged brother Max (Victor Toth) and pay the mortgage on the house her deceased mother left her. Finding out the antique store she works at is closing, leaving her jobless, Tina’s boyfriend Luke (Chris Kaye) convinces her that they should rob the antique store of an ancient amulet. But what they don’t realise is that this tomb is cursed, and when the amulet is separated from it’s master he will do anything to get it back. Leaving Tina and Luke to try and save the day,...

Before Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings trilogy he made some crazy awesome, low-budget gross out horror films. He spent a lot of the early years of his career bathing in fake blood. Well, the filmmaker would love to go back to his roots and make another horror film filled with blood and gore, if the right project came along.

While recently talking with THR, Jackson had this to say:

"I'm very happy to be disgusting again if the right project comes along. It would be interesting to see how disgusting [collaborator] Fran [Walsh] and I could be in our older age compared to our younger years because we've learned a few things since then. We know a little bit more about the world than we did then, so maybe our levels of disgusting could go into whole new places!"

I would love to see Jackson make another horror movie!

Kirsten Howard Jan 3, 2019

Jackson is also planning to release a Weta-restored box set of his "naughty" films...

Having impressed critics and audiences alike last year with his Wwi restoration film They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson is now planning to use the same Weta Digital techniques to meticulously restore his early films, in what sounds like an expensive must-have box set purchase for us all in the future.

"I've decided to go back and do this to my old films — the first four I made, which I own but never rereleased," Jackson confirmed to THR. "I've done some tests on Braindead (aka Dead Alive), where we took the 16mm negative and put it through our World War I restoration pipeline — and shit, it looks fantastic!"

Jackson revealed to the site that plenty of people have talked to him about getting films like Bad Taste and Meet The Feebles cleaned...

Earlier today we passed along the awesome news that Lord of the Rings and King Kong director Peter Jackson plans to restore his early splatter films onto 4K for an all-new box-set. That news had a horror fan like me over the moon excited. But hidden in the article over on THR, there was another super interesting bit where Jackson was asked if he'd ever be interested in returning to the world of gore films, to which he responded:

"Oh, I'm very happy to be disgusting again if the right project comes along. It would be interesting to see how disgusting Fran [Walsh] and I could be in our older age compared to our younger years because we've learned a few things since then. We know a little bit more about the world than we did then, so maybe our levels of disgusting could go into whole new places!"

To reiterate...

Peter Jackson has a new film headed our way, and this time the man behind such blockbusters as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, and King Kong is bringing us a documentary on Wwi. But rest assured when it's Jackson we're talking about, this documentary is anything but what we've seen before. They Shall Not Grow Old is a film that stitches together more than 600 hours of archival footage and then updates it with today's top technology, bringing the once silent and black and white footage to colorful 3D life in a way never before seen. It really is stunning.

And today we have word that Jackson had such a ball updating the old Wwi footage that he's planning to put his early splatter films through the treatment as well.

"I've decided to go back and do this to my old films - the first four I made,...

Peter Jackson became a superstar with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he built a devoted cult following thanks to his first four movies: Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, Braindead (aka Dead Alive), and Heavenly Creatures. However, none of these movies have ever been released on Blu-ray or HD, and it makes sense when you consider the low-budget cost of Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, and Braindead (Heavenly Creatures is more of an indie arthouse film and it’s always looked pretty good by comparison despite only carrying a $5 million budget). But now that Jackson has …...

Spencer Mullen Nov 20, 2018

One lucky winner can win a movie kit inspired by The Happytime Murders, now on Blu-ray!

Outrageous, wild, and hilarious -- the 2018 R-rated puppet comedy, The Happytime Murders, is certainly a bold genre mash-up. Featuring an all-star cast of comedy veterans and a raunchy ensemble of puppets, the film follows a joint police force that must solve a murder spree of retired sitcom stars. The film was directed by Brian Henson, the son of Jim Henson, the legendary puppeteer and creator of The Muppets. The Happytime Murders was written by the witty Todd Berger, who appeared on our podcast back in August.

With the release of The Happytime Murders on Blu-ray and DVD, we are pleased to announce that we are giving away a movie kit inspired by the film! One lucky winner will win a swag box that includes the movie on Blu-ray, one Happytime Murder T-shirt,...

Bad Taste, Braindead, and Meet the Feebles are all getting 4K restorations by Peter Jackson and his team. Before Jackson went big time with The Lord of the Rings franchise, the director was into making some pretty awesome low-budget horror/comedy films dubbed "splatstick." All three of the aforementioned movies are beloved by horror fans, who have been waiting years for some high-quality transfers. Jackson admits that he has been thinking about taking on the massive project for quite some time now.

Bad Taste and Braindead, aka Dead Alive in North America, are both dark horror comedies while Meet the Feebles is a black twisted comedy musical. The quality on the DVDs of all three films leave a lot to be desired, but Peter Jackson admits that they've already made some decent headway on restoring the films. Jackson had this to say about the 4K restoration on Bad Taste, Braindead,...

My introduction to director Peter Jackson came when I first watched his insane gore filled horror film Dead Alive on VHS when I was in high school. After experiencing that greatness, my friends and I managed to find a copy of his 1987 film Bad Taste, which was Jackson’s very first film, and that was quite the unexpected and wild treat.

It’s pretty crazy to think that Jackson went from making these low-budget silly horror films filled with blood and gore to making one three of the greatest films ever made… The Lord of the Rings.

For those of you who are fans of these films, you’ll be happy to learn that Jackson and his team are going to restore them and release the films in 4K! He made the big reveal on Empire’s Film Podcast, saying:

“Anything from those films that is available is, like, 1990s Telecine things,...

Chris Longo Oct 10, 2018

Giant Moths, Demonic Puppets, and Hell on Earth are coming in Stan Against Evil Season 3.

Stan Against Evil star John C. McGinley described the upcoming third season, which premieres on Halloween night, as “subversive and fantastic.” In an age where there’s no shortage of ambition with niche comedies, IFC’s horror comedy is ready to take one giant leap forward. We saw it firsthand. While on set for a day of filming, we witnessed guest stars David Koechner and Eddie Pepitone smashing up a miniature Willard’s Mill while dressed as a Giant Mothman and Gorilla, respectively.

Those are just two of the ridiculously fun monsters that Stan (McGinley) and Evie Barrett (Janet Varney) will have to face as their lives in Willard’s Mill continue to be one endless nightmare after another. “There’s so much real horror, how about a little fake horror?” series creator Dana Gould says,...

Chances are if you have watched the trailer for The Happytime Murders – which does show some of the biggest shocks – you know what to expect. From director Brian Henson, this is the first feature to come from Ha! (Henson Alternative), a branch of the Jim Henson Company specialising in adult content and it is hard to imagine a more in your face start. The film has been chastised with scathing reviews, some calling it the worst film this year (it isn’t) or this summer (it isn’t that either) and while the film is not a rib-bustingly bawdy and masterful spin on the Who Framed Roger Rabbit-esque concept of man living among cartoon characters (only here we replace cartoons with puppets), there is still dirty and crude fun to be had with the film’s puppet-filled ridiculousness.

In development for years, the film has gone from noirish detective...

Depraved puppet lovers unite. This is your weekend to go wild. If you're adventurous enough, you could be enjoying a double feature of The Happytime Murders and Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, with both playing at a theater near you. For those inclined to stay on the couch, The Littlest Reich is even available on VOD. But for many of you, with limited time or cash, just one of these perverted purveyors of filth will have to suffice. So which R-Rated puppet movie is your best bang for the buck? That perhaps depends on what exactly you're looking for.

Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is a very gory horror slasher movie with some shockingly funny scenes. Happytime Murders is a raunchy comedy whose needle skips into a gritty crime noir groove. Both are headlined by two very funny people. Melissa McCarthy turns in some of her career best laughs in Happyland Murders,...

A few critics are calling it the worst movie of the year. Unfair! The Happytime Murders, the R-rated look at a serial killer running wild in a puppet-populated L.A., has what it takes to be a contender for worst of the decade. Directed by Brian Henson (son of the late, great Sesame Street and Muppets icon Jim Henson) and starring a painfully stranded Melissa McCarthy, this toxic botch job deserves an early death by box office. It’s not that smutty puppets are a bad idea (see: Team America: World Police,...

“Avenue Q.” “Meet the Feebles.” “Ted.” “Ted 2.” “Greg the Bunny.” “Wonder Showzen.” Hell, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” If each and every one of these titles is completely unfamiliar to you, and you are eager to start studying for your driver’s test, you may well go googly-eyed at “The Happytime Murders,” with its nonstop depictions of innocent-looking yet depraved puppets swearing, smoking, screwing, and exploding into geysers of fluff. For the rest of us, this adolescent YouTube sketch laboriously stretched to 90 minutes is notable only for its provenance – directed by longtime puppetmaster and Jim Henson scion Brian Henson – and its litany of missed opportunities, and it should soon be movin’ right along out of multiplexes.

Much like last year’s similarly misguided “Bright,” “The Happytime Murders” takes place in a Los Angeles where humans coexist uneasily with an oppressed and despised fictional minority group; in this case, Muppet-like puppets.

There’s a funny idea at the heart of “The Happytime Murders,” a satire of hard-boiled L.A. noir in which most of the hard-luck, low-life characters happen to be puppets. But a movie is supposed to have many ideas, and the one-joke nature of this adults-only spoof wears out the film’s welcome, even if director Brian Henson and his talented crew never let us see the strings.

It’s a concept not unlike the recent Netflix dud “Bright,” which presented a Los Angeles inhabited by orcs (including the city’s first orc cop) and fairies as a way to make ham-fisted statements about race. Here we get private eye Phil Phillips (voiced by Muppet vet Bill Barretta), who had been the Lapd’s first puppet officer, only to get kicked off the force for not shooting a fellow puppet who was holding his partner Connie Edwards (Melissa McCarthy) hostage.

IndieWire owes our readers an apology. Last week, in a moment of desperate optimism and/or extreme naïveté, this critic declared “Mile 22” was “far and away the worst summer movie of 2018.” And while that statement was true at the time, it failed to account for the unfathomable awfulness that one of the season’s final studio offerings had in store.

I foolishly assumed an incoherent and jingoistic Mark Wahlberg vehicle that climaxes with someone telling him to “say hi to your mother for me” would be the most eye-punishing, soul-crushing, career-questioning thing I’d have to sit through until at least after Labor Day. And then, I saw “The Happytime Murders.”

An admirably debased but deeply unfunny Muppet noir that opens with a porn-addicted bunny getting his head blown off, it peaks with a Robert De Niro-inspired puppet ejaculating silly string all over his office, and presumably ends...

When the first trailer landed in May for The Happytime Murders, STXfilms’ liquor, drugs, sex and violence-soaked puppet crime comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, one British newspaper declared it to be the “first-ever R-rated Muppets film."

Not quite.

As was quickly pointed out by Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement, that title had already been claimed.

“Ahem… No, that would be Meet the Feebles, Peter Jackson, Nz, 1989,” he tweeted, referring to only the second feature by his Oscar-winning fellow New Zealander, made back when he was a 20-something filmmaker spending his weekends putting together comedy horror splatter movies ...

When the first trailer landed in May for The Happytime Murders, STXfilms’ liquor, drugs, sex and violence-soaked puppet crime comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, one British newspaper declared it to be the “first-ever R-rated Muppets film."

Not quite.

As was quickly pointed out by Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement, that title had already been claimed.

“Ahem… No, that would be Meet the Feebles, Peter Jackson, Nz, 1989,” he tweeted, referring to only the second feature by his Oscar-winning fellow New Zealander, made back when he was a 20-something filmmaker spending his weekends putting together comedy horror splatter movies ...

All of the sesame is definitely gone in this brand-new very street red band trailer for Melissa McCarthy's The Happytime Murders. The movie hits theaters at the end of this month and it's looking to be pretty unique, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but with puppets, drugs, violence, and over-the-top sexual references instead of animation and traces of family decency. The Happytime Murders is proud of its Nsfw status, wearing it like a giant badge of honor. Though, we do admit, Peter Jackson's Meet the Feebles did get here first.

The Happytime Murders stars Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Joel McHale, and Elizabeth Banks. The filthy comedy, directed by Brian Henson, recently saw itself in some legal trouble after the studio behind Sesame Street attempted to sue Stx Entertainment for referencing the popular kids show in its marketing campaign. However, Sesame Street lost that legal battle and The Happytime Murders...