If you feel anything like me right now it would be pretty fitting to crawl beneath a rock and wait for the zombie – like state of foggy brain, toxic liver and dead eyes to wake up after weeks of hibernating and partying excess. While some want to kick start January with health regimes and resolutions, some want to continue in that blissful fog. Well perhaps Horror Channel can offer a happy compromise? We’re not going to shuffle through January like a rotting corpse, nor are we suggesting you hit the gym and drink wheatgrass every morning. How about then a whole month of intense ‘wake up’ horror to get your heart pumping, your lungs screaming and your mind blown wide open? We bring you Horror Channel’s Xtreme Season.
We have eight film premieres every weekend in this hard hitting, no holds barred season, three of which are UK TV premieres!
XTREME SEASON
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (First Sequence) is back on the channel WEDS 13th 10.55pm
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (Full Sequence) UK TV Premiere SAT 9th JAN 10.55pm.
The Human Centipede literally had jaws wrenched open – both in the film and the auditorium when it first premiered at Frightfest in 2009. Enjoying its network premiere on Horror a week ago you can now enter the twisted mind of demented director Tom Six once again with his outrageous sequel in the UK TV premiere of The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) on Saturday 9th January (with a chance to catch up with the first sequence – The Human Centipede on Weds 13th January at 10.55pm)
Described as the film ‘that redefined the limits of extreme horror’ the original sees three unfortunate people taken hostage inside the home of a mad Doctor with a big God complex. He dreams of being the first Doctor to sew people together making a unique human triplet conjoined using one shared gastric system. That means arse sewn to mouth and back out again. YUK. The sequel is something of a postmodern twist on the original and sees an overweight lonely misfit who becomes obsessed with the actual film ‘The Human Centipede’ only he wants to recreate the experiment. This time however three unfortunates become twelve in an unbelievably grim experiment! The second movie has a completely different look, the demented genius is swapped for a sloppy weirdo, the lab goes from clean clinic to grimy warehouse and the cinematography goes from colour to black and white. Oh and while the first claimed to be “100% medically accurate” the second relishes in it’s “100% medically inaccuracy” and you get the feeling Tom Six isn’t taking things too seriously here!
HOSTEL PART II NETWORK PREMIERE SAT 16th JAN 10.55pm
HOSTEL PART III UK TV PREMIERE SAT 23rd JAN 10.55pm
Eli Roth. He’s gone from fan boy to Tarantino sidekick throughout his horror career and he certainly rocked the genre with his brilliant Cabin Fever and Hostel movies. This month we’re proud to have the Network premiere of Hostel Part II and the UK TV premiere of Hostel Part III as firm entries in our Xtreme Season.
Most fans I know detest the term ‘torture porn’ be that as it may it does best sum up this ‘movement’ we saw in the horror industry Eli Roth is partly responsible for. The first as we know saw the boys head to America’s worst nightmare (Eastern Europe) and check in to the wrong hostel, this time however it’s the girls turn to feel the wrath of Roth! In interviews he said he was fully aware that seeing girls in that position is potentially more disturbing and that’s why he made some of the characters stronger and smarter with tougher survival instincts. Interestingly in this film we’re exposed to both sides of the torture chamber; the victims and the aggressors. In this case two American men who both ‘win’ the online auction to torture their chosen victims; one of whom is a cock sure alpha male who cannot wait for his first kill, the other a more repressed nervous man somewhat bullied into proving his metal. Which one will crack….?
The third instalment goes bigger and badder and is more cynical in it’s portrayal of ‘torture as entertainment’ for a disaffected society. Grimy Slovakia is swapped for glitzy Las Vegas as Human Hunting Club puts on the sickest show in town only (of course) for the very rich and twisted. Here, there’s a live audience, a stage and a fully interactive menu of ‘torture options’ with the wheel of misfortune. Again – you can see the under current of humour here; reminding me slightly of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ ‘The Uh-Oh Show” (2009) (though slightly less colourful!)
But that’s not all folks with amazing Friday Night premieres throughout January as well! OK life’s good again.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990) NETWORK PREMIERE FRI 8th 10.50pm
Night of the Living Dead as we all know was Romero’s seminal 1968 black and white zombie classic, apparently a film that Romero felt somewhat cheated by due to the budget constraints and the fact that the movie made a fortune while he didn’t! Cut to the 1990 remake with his old mate SFX wizard Tom Savini taking directorial reign. The story is the same but black and white is swapped for full blown bloody colour and Savini’s influence in gory effects!
PANIC BUTTON NETWORK PREMIERE FRI 15th 10.45pm
Imagine a SAW – like torture movie with a conscience at 30 000 feet? Harnessing the very current paranoia behind our online privacy issues this is a very timely British chiller. Four social networkers believe they’ve won a dream holiday on a private jet but as they ascend the skies, the on board ‘entertainment’ begins conducted by a voiced character they never see. With their secrets revealed the games are about to begin…
TEXAS CHAINSAW UK TV PREMIERE FRI 22nd 11pm
Leatherface is back in this 2013 sequel of sorts. Picking up the action immediately after the 1974 original ended a lynch mob has come to torch the hideous cannibal home down to the ground, the only survivor a baby girl….. so it would seem! Decades later a young orphan receives an amazing inheritance – a Texan Mansion. Shame she missed the small print about the thing that comes with it….!
The Anthology Horror became a popular format back in the 60’s and 70’s with Amicus Studios producing a crop of titles where short stories, each focusing on a doomed individual were all linked together somehow, a style that’s enjoyed a recent resurgence in films like V/H/S.
DR TERRORS HOUSE OF HORRORS NETWORK PREMIERE FRI 29th 9pm
Our final network premiere in January stars Peter Cushing as a tarot card reader who tells 5 strangers to each pick a card – their horrifying futures revealed…from voodoo to vampires there’s something for everyone….
Remember to tune in just before the movie to catch my cheeky movie introductions to get you in the mood!
