GireWire

A mysterious fog leads to horror in “The Mist,” a tense thriller worth checking out this weekend.

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Right about now, you probably want to scream when someone suggests another scary movie you can rent, buy or watch for the impending Halloween weekend.

We all know the standard horror classics don’t we? Let’s see: “The Exorcist,” “The Haunting” (1963 original), “Halloween” (1978 original), “Night of the Living Dead” (1968 original), “Psycho” (1960 original), “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1975 original), “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956 original), “Alien,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Evil Dead,” “The Omen,” and on and on.

What about those not-so-classic scary movies? The ones that hover just below the mainstream popular radar?

They may not be regarded as on the same level as Tim Burton’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” but the following alternative scary movies might just fit the bill for something different this weekend. (Read more…)

A grieving father (Willem Dafoe) takes his wife to a cabin in the woods with disastrous results in the controversial “Antichrist.”

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Most people probably know Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin from the first blockbuster “Spider-Man” movie.

But the two-time Oscar nominee is also a star of what will certainly be the most controversial, polarizing motion picture of 2009: Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist,” opening today at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

He and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a husband and wife who lose a child, then go to an isolated cabin in the woods to work out guilt and grief, with shocking, catastrophic results.

I sat down with Dafoe at Chicago’s Wit Hotel in the Loop and asked him the burning question: When shooting the two hard-core sex scenes in “Antichrist,” did he use a “stunt double”?

“I did on those two porn shots,” Dafoe said.

“We did a lot of stuff nude,” he added, “but he (Lars) cut it out because he said it was too distracting.”

“Antichrist” has the ability to really upset some viewers, especially if they’re not prepared for what they’re about to experience.

“I can understand why,” Dafoe said, “if you’re not interested in unfamiliar things. If you’re not interested in some rough, visceral moments, seeing things you’re not usually seeing in films. I understand that. And it’s not so much those rough moments as those unrelenting meditations on guilt, and depression. (Read more…)

The eighth annal “Flashback Weekend” starts Friday, October 23 and runs through Sunday, October 25 at the Wyndham O’Hare, 6810 N. Mannheim Road in Rosemont. Horror file celebrities scheduled to appear include Robert Englund (“Freddy Krueger”), Lance Henriksen (“Near Dark”, “Aliens”), Jenette Goldstein (“Near Dark”, “Aliens”), Tim Thomerson (“Near Dark”) and many more.

The event will be hosted by Daily Herald Film Critic Dann Gire, WGN radio superstar Nick Digilio and Ain’t It Cool News critic Steve Prokopy. Also scheduled to appear is Chicago’s own Rich Koz as Svengoolie.

Go to flashbackweekend.com for details.

Cost: Friday Single day – $20.00
Saturday Single day – $25.00
Sunday Single day – $20.00
Weekend Pass – $50.00

Wyndham O’Hare
6810 N. Mannheim Road
Rosemont

Actor Lance Henriksen, star of “Aliens,” is part of a “Near Dark” vampire reunion at this year’s Flashback Weekend.

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I know all about the sacrifices that Mike Kerz made to turn his dream of a horror convention into a reality.

I met Mike when he was a manager at One Schaumburg Place Cinemas, and he had this crazy idea that if a celebrity came to visit, more people would know about the theater and come to see movies at it.

So he invited Karolyn Grimes, who played little Zuzu Bailey, Jimmy Stewart’s daughter in the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” to visit the Schaumburg theater. More than 2,000 fans streamed into the place to meet her.

And the Loews employees grumbled.

“These people aren’t buying tickets!” they complained.

Then, Mike brought in cult idol Bruce Campbell, star of the infamous “Evil Dead” horror films, to promote his book “If Chins Could Kill.”

An estimated 3,000 people lined up around the theater to see Campbell.

And the Loews employees grumbled even more. (Read more…)

A cute robot with a punked ‘do saves a planet from corrupt politicians and android slavery in the animated “Astro Boy.”

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This movie had me at “What? I’ve got machine guns in my butt?”

The slick, computer-animated action film “Astro Boy” will probably not please fans of Tezuka Osamu’s original 1952 Japanese “manga” comic book about the adventures of a superpowered boy robot on a vaguely distant futuristic world.

David Bowers’ big-screen adaptation has been westernized out the ying-yang. Then, Saturday-morning-cartoonized on top of that.

But its thoughtfully selected voice cast, lean and quick pace, plus zillions of zany pop culture references make it joyously fun, even if originality isn’t its strong suit.

I practically filled my notebook with these nifty, throwaway allusions to other works.

“Frankenstein” is in this movie. So is Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.” (via “Pinocchio”). And “Oliver Twist.” And the gold-glowing briefcase from Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” And arcanely enough, the old “Magnus: Robot Fighter” comic books.

The story takes place, as Charlize Theron’s voice-over narration lectures us, on a world that has separated the haves from have-nots. (Read more…)

Darren (Chris Massoglia), left, takes on his pal Steve (Josh Hutcherson) as puppet master Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris) watches in “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.”

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When you come out of Paul Weitz’s comic horror film “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant,” you don’t feel like you’ve watched a real movie.

It’s more like the pilot episode of a new teen-centric TV show where the main characters get introduced and all the ground work gets laid for the plots of future episodes.

Actually, I really liked the first half of “Vampire’s Assistant,” back when it was called Ray Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” about two best pals – complete opposites – who sneak off to see a mysterious traveling circus and wind up in the clutches of evil.

The opposite best pals in “Vampire’s Assistant” are high school students Darren (a blandly benign Chris Massoglia), a goodie-two-shoes kid who earns top grades, and Steve (an edgy Josh Hutcherson), a disgruntled, troublemaking rebel from a broken home.

Steve, who’s such a fervid vampire fan that he wants to become one, goes nuts when he sees a flier promoting a freak show in town. He drags Darren to it, and in the middle of the program – a special-effects enhanced parade of shocking physical deformities – swears that the flame-haired emcee is a vampire from one of his books.

Indeed he is. (Read more…)

Already this year, I’ve seen two movies about whiny, inferiority-complexed women who seek personal validation by writing blogs about their put-upon lives.

First came “Julie & Julia” featuring Amy Adams as a blogger out to cook up all of Julia Child’s French recipes. She was cute, despite being shallow and irritating.

Now comes Katherine Dieckmann’s “Motherhood” starring Uma Thurman as an unemployed Manhattanite mommy who struggles to get by on a limited budget, struggles to deal with her eccentric hubby (Anthony Edwards) who won’t answer his cell phone, struggles to walk up the steps of her elevatorless high-rise, struggles to raise two cute kids and struggles to keep viewers awake. (Read more…) Rated: PG-13 (sexual and drug references, plus language). 90 minutes.

Opens Friday, October 23 at local theaters.

It would be easy, and a cop-out, to simply dismiss Lars von Trier’s eyeball-blanching, conscience-searing psychosexual horror experience “Antichrist” as obscene, evil or just bad movie-making.

I prefer to think of “Antichrist” as a metaphor-choked adult Grimms fairly tale gone horribly awry.

Like Peter Greenaway’s movies – especially his “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” – von Trier’s films flirt with taboo and confrontational imagery. (Read more…) Rated: NR (adults only). 109 minutes.

Opens Friday, October 23 at the Music Box in Chicago.

The Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema cranks up the projectors for a week and a half of international moviegoing running Thursday, October 29 through Sunday, November 8.

“Shiva – The Seven Days” opens the fest at AMC Loews 600 North Michigan 9 theatre in Chicago. The fest jumps over to the Wilmette Theatre at 1122 Central Ave. in Willmette from Monday, November 2 through Sunday, November 8. (Read more…)

Go to chicagofestivalofisraelicinema.org for details.

Cost: $36.00 (opening night)
$10.00 (regular screenings)

AMC Loews 600 North Michigan 9
600 North Michigan
Chicago

The Wilmette Theatre
1122 Central Ave.
Wilmette

The After Hours Film Society presents “The Cove,” a muckraking documentary directed by National Geographic magazine photographer Louie Psihoyos, who chronicles the brutal, unrestrained and very legal slaughter of dolphins off the coastal town of Taiji, Japan. It starts at 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 26 at the Tivoli Theater, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. Rated: PG-13. 90 minutes. (Read more…)

Go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com for details.

Cost: $9.00 ($5.00 for members)

Tivoli Theater
5021 Highland Ave.
Downers Grove