Movies
Grudge Director Enjoys 3-D Amusement Park ‘Shock Labyrinth’
Asmik Ace Entertainment has unveiled details of Japan’s first live-action digital 3D feature, The Shock Labyrinth, which The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu started shooting earlier this week, reports Screen Daily. Beyond the break you’ll find all of the details on this new horror-thriller that finally breaks Shimizu from the curse.
Yuya Yagira, who won best actor at Cannes 2004 for Nobody Knows, heads the cast of hot young Japanese actors which also includes Misako Renbutsu (The Inugamis), Ryo Katsuji (Hana), Ai Maeda (Battle Royale), Erina Mizuno and Suzuki Matsuo.
Based on an original screenplay by Daisuke Hosaka, the horror-thriller follows a group of teenagers dealing with the sudden return of a friend who went missing a decade ago. When the friend falls ill, they take her to a hospital but end up trapped in a labyrinthine haunted house.
The film’s central setting is inspired by the Labyrinth of Horrors attraction at Fuji-Q High Land amusement park, near the base of Mount Fuji. The attraction set the Guinness world record for the largest haunted house in the world. Much of the film is being shot on location during the park’s off hours.
The Shock Labyrinth is produced by Satoru Ogura of production house Ogura Jimusyho and Asmik Ace’s Masayuki Tanishima and Dai Miyazaki.
Shimizu previously directed J-horror titles Ju-on and Juon 2 and their US remakes The Grudge and The Grudge 2.
“I am extremely thrilled to be working with the horror giant Shimizu on his first 3D project. This project is inspired by amusement park attractions, like Pirates Of The Caribbean and HauntedMansion, but it is not only that. We are literally shooting the film inside the actual horror house and it will be delivered earlier than James Cameron’s Avatar,” said Tanishima.
Asmik Ace will distribute the film in Japan this October and is also handling international sales.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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