Adam Green’s anticipated film Hatchet II is releasing on Blu-ray and DVD on February 1, 2011! You can view Steve’s review here if you like.

Screenhead is hosting a giveaway of this horrific movie: Giving away two DVDs!

Hatchet II picks up right where the original Hatchet ended. The quiet but hot-tempered Marybeth (Danielle Harris, Halloween) barely escapes the clutches of the mysterious Crowley (Kane Hodder, Friday the 13th), who has already murdered all of Marybeth’s friends and other vacationers in New Orleans swamp country.

Marybeth recruits a team of hired guns and returns to the bayou to exact her revenge, but quickly discovers that even with an army of hunters at her side the murderous fury of Crowley cannot be contained. Ultimately, it will be up to Marybeth alone to defeat the seemingly indestructible Crowley, but not before learning the truth about a twisted secret he shares with her own family.

The film stars some of the most iconic names in horror including Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Tom Holland (Director of Child’s Play), R.A. Mihailoff and scream queen Danielle Harris.

To enter the giveaway for one of the two DVDs, post your name and we will pick the winners February 20, 2011.

On behalf of Overture Films and Anchor Bay, Screenhead is excited to announce the upcoming release of Stone on Blu-ray & DVD January 18, 2011!

Screenhead celebrated the release of the movie by hosting a Stone DVD giveaway! And, we have our winner: Claudia Vitello!

What a great movie to win!

Starring Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and Academy Award nominee Edward Norton, Stone is a combination of suspense and psychological thrills – with a shocking ending that is sure to leave viewers satisfied.

With supporting performance from Milla Jovovich, who comes between De Niro and Norton, Stone is a must-have addition to complete any home library.

Both the Stone Blu-ray ($39.99) and DVD ($29.98) bonus features include a “The Making of Stone” featurette and the theatrical trailer.

In Stone, Jack Mabry (De Niro), a parole officer is days away from retirement. He is asked to review the case of Gerald “Stone” Creeson (Norton), who’s in prison for arson.

Now eligible for early release, Stone needs to convince Jack he has reformed, but his attempts to use his wife Lucetta (Jovovich) to influence the older man’s decision have profound and unexpected effects on them both.

This tale of passion, betrayal and corruption skillfully weaves together the parallel journeys of two men grappling with dark impulses, as the line between lawman and lawbreaker becomes precariously thin.

The Conspirator is directed by Robert Redford, and the trailer looks real good. The movie stars Robin Wright, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood and Kevin Kline.

The Conspirator opens April 15, 2011 as a limited release.

Screenhead pick the winners of the giveaway for the suspense, art house movie, Bitter Feast, available now wherever DVDs are sold.

Directed by Joe Maggio and starring James Le Gros, Joshua Leonard, Amy Seimetz, and Mario Batali, a food critic can dish it out, but can he take it? Revenge is on the menu for notorious blogger J.T. Franks (Leonard) when he publishes a rumor which leads to the demise of TV Chef Peter Grey’s culinary empire. Grey (Le Gros) kidnaps the writer, confines him in a remote cabin and presents him with a series of deceptively simple food challenges – from preparing a perfect egg over-easy, to grilling a steak precisely medium rare – punishing him for anything less than total perfection.

Bitter Feast is an exploration of the creative impulse gone tragically and ferociously awry. Indie horror icon Larry Fessenden and renowned chef Mario Batali co-star in this tense shocker, which is served up with wicked wit and savory flair.

We have our three winners! They are Mike Schneider, Jacque R. and Jeff Bayless.

The folks out at Dark Sky Films sent over a copy of Hatchet II for us to review, and I couldn’t be much more excited. I loved the first installment, billed as “Old School American Horror”–and billed quite correctly, too–but would the sequel follow in the original’s footsteps? That’s the question we ask and answer right here.

Hatchet II sends us back down to New Orleans, where murderous madman Victor Crowley (played once again by the best Jason Voorhees, Kane Hodder) is still running amok in the swamps. Heroine extraordinaire Marybeth is going back down to try and put paid to the monster once and for all, and finally avenge her fallen family, slain by no less than Crowley himself. But Marybeth discovers that the Crowley clan is actually closer to her than she thinks. So now, Marybeth returns, as I mentioned, but with a whole lot of extra firepower…a team of mercenaries ready to show Victor just what kind of stones Marybeth has. But will even all this extra firepower manage to tip the scales in Marybeth’s favor?

While Hatchet II will be over the top, writer / director Adam Green could use a lesson in anatomy, because if that first kill got strangled by what I think he got strangled by, he had about nine-tenths of a mile to go before he ran out of room. A bit of a spoiler, but only if you use logic. Special bonus for those of you paying careful attention, there will be at least two other references to other Green work (Frozen and the Jack Chop YouTube video, specifically), and that’s always a plus. They’re quick, so you’ll have to look carefully, but these little in-jokes make things even better.

It’s about as good as I expected, with a little more humor and a little more gore to take the place of the more straightforward slasher of the first. It could have gone stale easily, but this time, Green cuts off that possibility by simply going the zany route and putting in in-jokes and ludicrous gore to keep things interesting.

The last fifteen minutes are a series of logical impossibilities followed by gore so preposterous that you’ll be dumbfounded throughout. I don’t know when the last time I managed to scream at a movie “He’s got a belt sander!” was, but this was one of those times. And don’t even get me started on the curb stomping.

The question you’ll have to ask yourself is, can you stomach fountains of high-pressure fake gore going off all around you as random people are killed in progressively more bizarre ways up until an abrupt yet surprisingly satisfying ending? If the answer is yes, then you will love Hatchet 2. If the answer is no, you’re already arranging to host a party in which you burn several thousand copies.

Meanwhile, the Screenhead Ten Scale gives Hatchet II, this in-joke filled romp of ultra-mayhem, a seven out of ten for being over the top, and often ludicrous, and frequently, not scary, which was supposed to be the point of a horror flick anyway, last I knew.

Screenhead is hosting a giveaway to promote the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment film, A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop from the director of House of Flying Daggers and Hero. We have one DVD to give away!

A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop will be released on February 1 2011.

Zhang Yimou directs a story about an almost perfect plan: the affair will come to a cruel but satisfying end when a Chinese noodle shop owner plots to execute his unfaithful wife and her lover. But the lover has a lethal plan of his own in this violent tale of adultery and revenge based on the Coen Brother’s debut classic Blood Simple.

To enter the giveaway, post your name and we will pick the winner February 18, 2011.

The folks out at Image Entertainment sent over a copy of Chain Letter for us to review, and though I missed this in theaters–I was watching Case 39 when Chain Letter came out on the same day–I get a chance to recover it right now, and I look to take it. But was this a chance worth taking?

Chain Letter follows a group of kids who’ve run afoul of the phenomenon of the same name, adapted for the email generation and propagated through text messages as well. But when one kid breaks the chain, he finds himself running afoul of a whole new phenomenon–the Chain Man. And the Chain Man is out to kill anyone who breaks a chain letter–and he’s even using the very technology that spreads chain letters to find his victims.

Yes, it’s a typical slasher movie in most every sense, but then, we don’t get many “typical slasher movies” any more. And sure, it presupposes a level of hacker skill in a deranged serial killer that verges on the magical, but it’s actually still kind of interesting. It wavers between interesting and unpleasant–just when I’m convinced it’s crap, it goes and does something to redeem itself. And just when I’m thinking it’s interesting, it goes and blows it all by following into one of the many plot holes littering the landscape.

And throwing in the bit on Anonymous was clever enough. I’m not going to harp on the predictability too hard (Fox News did it first, and frankly, Anonymous really doesn’t fit in with the plot), but let them have the credit for doing something a bit unexpected.

That’s the worst thing about Chain Letter–it does something unexpected, just as you’re finally getting in a position to denounce this movie once and for all. It has an absolute gift for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and it will do that several times through the movie. Of course, it will get really, really close to the jaws of defeat every time, so that doesn’t make this a very good movie, but since it never truly fails, it’s still halfway decent.

Special note–there are literally geysers of gore going on in here, so if you’re not the type to suffer splatter lightly, you’ll want to stay well away from Chain Letter. And if you’re not into ham-fisted social commentary, also stay away, because there will be plenty of that here too.

The end result is a halfway-decent, mostly watchable title that will riff hard on technology and social media, but won’t do much new for the genre. You’ve likely already seen this one a couple times–you just don’t recognize it.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, gives Chain Letter a six out of ten for doing a passably good job, but not much more than passably good. The commentary is thick with debacle and the plot is laden with holes, but aside from that, it’s all right.

Award season is truly upon us. In a month’s time it will be over and the cinema will be packed with also-rans and padding until the blockbusters attempt to empty our wallets. The biggest news story of this week is of course the announcement of the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards. You can check out the full list of nominees here.

Here at Screenhead, we decided to briefly analyse the award and make note of the good surprises, the bad ones, and remind you all that just because someone doesn’t get an Oscar nom, that doesn’t mean they’re inferior to the final five of each category.

The one ommission in this year’s awards that has been stirring up the internet forums was Christopher Nolan for his highly successful Inception. While the movie had a fascinating premise (so much so that it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay) and largely positive reviews, one can argue that outside of the realm of visuals the film didn’t quite work. And of course, the Academy of voters are largely resistant to “blockbusters”, which rarely pick up Oscars. The recent decision to allow 10 nominees for Best Film feels like a comrpomise to amend that issue. Nevertheless, David Fincher will be the one making the speech with gold statuette in hand.

The most disappointing ommission was in the Best Supporting Actress category. Lesley Manville delivered one of the most brilliant performances in years, as the deluded Mary in Mike Leigh’s Another Year. Mary is a somewhat uneducated admin assistant who puts ona mask of endless joy and optimism, but each day is a battle with the realisation that she is getting on in years. She relies on her co-worker Gerri and often savours Gerri and her husband’s relationship. She also secretly wants to seduce Gerri’s son and resent him when he gets a girlfriend. Manville could have played the borderline alcoholic Mary as a total trainwreck, but ensures enough self-awareness and warmth to induce sympathy in the audience. She is a fascinating character in a fascinating film, and it’s a shame Manville was denied an Oscar nomination. Her performance is far more memorable than Helen Bonham Carter’s permenant look of sympathy in The King’s Speech, or Amy Ryan who may win for her role in The Fighter, but only because she’s playing against type.

READ ON »

Focus Features released the brand new poster for their upcoming film Hanna. The poster looks awesome with Hanna’s silver-blue eyes dominating the poster as she aims her arrow.

The movie is directed by award-winner Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice), who creates a boldly original suspense thriller, starring Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, Atonement) in the title role.

Raised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna’s upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one when she sent into the world by her father on a mission.

Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

Hanna also stars Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng.

The movie opens in theaters April 8, 2011.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has commissioned Michael Schwab, one of America’s most recognized graphic artists, to create exclusive artwork for the 2011 edition of the network’s TCM Classic Film Festival, which takes place April 28 – May 1 in Hollywood. The official poster and other designs created by Schwab will be used throughout the festival and in all promotional materials, including festival merchandise.

Schwab has created several film genre-based images for the TCM Classic Film Festival. You can see romance, musicals, dramas and westerns. He also created an image to highlight the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the centerpiece venue for the festival. Schwab will be on-hand during the TCM Classic Film Festival to sign the official festival poster for festival passholders. His work can also be seen at Turner Classic Movie official site.

Discussing the project, Schwab says, “Movies have always played a starring role in my life and in my work. As a kid, I remember stealing away to my small town theater and getting lost in the great classics. Those iconic images of American film have, in many ways, influenced my own artistic style. It’s a style that is defined, much like these classic movies, by bold, dramatic and memorable graphic images. It’s an honor to have been chosen by TCM to create these exciting and historic portraits.”