Articles by TFH Team

Back to School with Trailers From Hell!

To make the return to late night study sessions a little less painful, Trailers From Hell has partnered with Barnsdall Art Park Foundation to present a screening series of classic and cult films set in high school (including TFH Guru Allan Arkush’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School). Here’s the official lowdown from the fine folks at Barnsdall: Adolescent angst. Raging hormones. Twisted teachers. Barnsdall Art…

Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Fave Heist Films

Drive Hard, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s latest ‘Crime Against Cinema’ is all over VOD this week (see the links at the end of this post) and to commemorate the release, Entertainment Weekly talked with BTS about all things car and crime-related, including a run-down of Brian’s favorite heist films. You can see the EW interview here. And…

Joe Dante ‘Buries the Ex’ in Venice!

Our Fearless Leader’s new film, Burying The Ex, premieres today at the Venice Film Festival. The touching story of “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl becomes flesh-eating zombie” showcases four terrific young actors, Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Fright Night), Ashley Greene (The Twilight Saga), Oliver Cooper (Project X) and True Detective‘s Alexandra Daddario. Here‘s an interview with…

Brian Trenchard Smith Puts the Pedal to the Metal with DRIVE HARD

Brian Trenchard-Smith has, by his own estimation, directed “42 crimes against cinema”… which brings us to his latest filmmaking infraction, Drive Hard starring John Cusack and Thomas Jane. From RLJ/Image Entertainment, Drive Hard will be available via VOD this week on September 4 and in theaters and on iTunes on October 3. The action/adventure film was written by Brian…

DeMille’s Call Sheets

A friend passed on these pieces of moviemaking memorabilia. They’re call sheets for Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments starring, naturally, Charlton Heston and a cast of thousands. These sheets are are directed to just a few of those thousands but the production minutiae gives us some insight into the backbreaking attention to detail that went into…

TFH is Turning Japanese

Our friends at Maxam Inc. (a dvd and film distributor in Japan) have just released a brand new compilation of their favorite commentaries from TFH. While we wait for our own copies, here’s a message straight from our tomodachi in Tokyo: The filmmakers of Trailers From Hell, whose movies we’re so addicted to, talk about…

Lord Love A Duck

If you are in the mood for an unhinged parody of the beach-blanket-teen-flesh movies of the early to mid-’60s – and when are you not in the mood for that? –  “Lord Love A Duck” is where you should go.  Duck pairs wonderfully with wine and the movie gives flight to the “groovy” part of…

Touch of Evil

Orson Welles wrote, directed and co-starred in “Touch of Evil” in 1958, at the end of what might be considered film noir’s golden era.  It was right at the end of Welles’ golden era, too.  He had been packing on the pounds by this point in his career, and was also drinking too much.  In…

The Return of Zulu to the Big Screen

No home theater can contain Zulu, director Cy Endfield’s panoramic adventure tale pitting a small band of British soldiers against a swarm of Zulu warriors at Rorke’s Drift in 1879. Endfield’s South African canvas is vast… and to see a mile-wide line of 4,000 threatening Zulus emerge over the horizon in Super Technirama 70 inspires the kind of…

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

The Curiosity rover has begun snooping about for evidence of life on Mars.  I’ll be watching those pictures closely for evidence of wine on Mars.  Paul Mantee’s character in Robinson Crusoe on Mars could have used a little martian vino, be it red or white.Had Daniel Defoe’s earthbound Crusoe known he would be marooned for 28 years,…

The Howling

For the dog days of summer, what could be better than a movie with some canine teeth?  And some claws.  And a loud bark.  And a nice wine for a dog day afternoon. “The Howling” is a great 1980s werewolf film – there were a few of them back in the day.  This one boasts…

Dick Smith – The Original Transformer

Legendary Special Effects Make-Up master Dick Smith created the primordial transformations for 1981’s Altered States and Altered States would  be a fitting job title for the visionary craftsman who died this week at 92. Smith was responsible for the look of so many movie characters, from Brando’s grizzled mob boss in The Godfather to The Exorcist‘s demon child to Taxi Driver‘s mohawked sociopath that…