Anyone know if it's ever coming out?

Love or hate Hostel and Roth, the movie did alright at the box-office. Now, I hate the Saw franchise, but come this October Saw IV will probably do what Saws I - III did and clean up in ticket sales and people will stop worrying about the immediate future of R rated horror.

I'm looking forward to seeing Southland Tales, because I'd like to know whether the guy is talented. I enjoyed Donnie Darko, but when I listened to Kelly's commentary it was clear that the bulk of his ideas were not onscreen at all. The story he thinks he told and the story the film presents are not the same thing. Hence, my feeeling that Darko is an accidentally good film.

I was worried when I heard about the terrible reception it got at Cannes, but now I hear I have to read some comics to make sense of this film... gak. Not a good omen for this one, I think.

We can talk about being gutless and lacking in balls all we want (it's so safe here on the internets), but you have to ask yourself this question - if you had made a $50million + investment in something, how many real chances would you be willing to make?

This is the main reason I watch more and more films from outside the studios these days. They're made for less money and therefore the people involved are more likely to gamble or try something more unique or challenging. Studios rarely do that anymore because there's too much money on the line and it doesn't make good business sense.

Phew, that went on longer than I expected. Have a good weekend, everybody!

There are so many people rooting for the movie to do well, and they tend to say that the movie did great in the theaters and then there are people who wanted it to tank and they say it bombed. Truth is it did OK, not great, but it certainly didn't do tank.

And those freaks who say a PG-13 film can't be scary, if you think "The Sixth Sense," "The Others," or "The Ring" weren't scary, then you have no imagination and you need everything up there on the screen to scare you! By the way, Poltergeist was rated PG - that was before the PG-13 days.

And yes, watch "Donnie Darko." You'll have plenty to talk about, even if you don't like it. I wish your friend wouldn't have tried to explain it, though. That kind of takes the fun out of it. I'm not the biggest fan of the film, but I love the discussions I have as a result.

I understand most people who've been brainwashed through societal groupthink will enjoy "1408" for its false conceit. But I won't. Those skeptical of the existence of ghosts have ALWAYS been proven right. Always. I'm sure John Cusack gave a great performance, but I'm tired of rational-thinking skeptics in films being upended by irrational-thinking, ghost-believing shitheads.

This entire rant is off topic, I realize, so I'll quell it now. I hope Kelly gives us something interesting with "The Box".

Quint is so dead-on when he says he doesn't know a single "horror fan" who's calling for more PG-13 horror films.

So who is?

Clueless half-wits like Jeffrey Lyons...that's who. Yes, Lyons, the man who derided Bug by saying "uh, this was a little creepy, I didn't like this...". He then went on to praise Shrek 3 by saying "my wife didn't see the first two and she loved it!" High praise indeed!

Don't let middlebrow schmucks like Jeffrey Lyons dictate what goes into our horror films. This isn't about gore either, it's about a filmmaker getting to make the movie he/she wants to make, regardless of whether or not Jeffrey Lyons' wife wants to watch it.