There's a real art to coming up with sassy, smart taglines -- you know, those clever one liners attached to a movie's promotion. The best of them are little gems, and perfectly encapsulate a movie's essence. A tagline should be descriptive, yet subtle; tongue-in-cheek is always appreciated, bad puns are not. When a great film meets a memorable tagline, magic happens. I love these things, and in my next life I'm planning on coming back to write them!

How's your tagline trivia? Do you remember taglines better than the actual movie titles? Here are my favourite all-time horror taglines.
Can you name the movie?

Have fun!

1. To avoid fainting keep repeating: it's only a movie, it's only a movie ANSWER

2. When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth ANSWER

3. In space, no one can hear you scream ANSWER

4. Don’t give away the ending…it’s the only one we have ANSWER

5. This is the weekend they didn’t play golf ANSWER

6. Herbert West has a very good head on his shoulders...and another one in a dish on his desk ANSWER

7. The night HE came home ANSWER

8. Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas. ANSWER

9. Sister, sister, oh so fair, why is there blood all over your hair? ANSWER

10. Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven ANSWER

11. See it before you go swimming ANSWER

12. If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all ANSWER

13. To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a
madman ANSWER

14. ...and remember, the next scream you hear may be your own ANSWER

15. Last year the lucky ones died first. On March 23rd the lucky ones die fast ANSWER

This post appears courtesy of RPL's horror blog

So you think you know horror movies? Here are some of the most memorable lines, from some of the most unforgettable horror classics of all time. Some films may appear more than once.

Test your skill level. Can you name the movie?

1. Then let's head on down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch. ANSWER

2. Death has come to your little town, Sheriff. Now you can either ignore it, or you can help me to stop it. ANSWER

3. Your mother's in here, Karras. Would you like to leave a message? I'll see that she gets it. ANSWER

4. Red -- I might have known it would be red. ANSWER

5. I found some cigarettes. I found them all the way in the bottom of my pack. We're still alive 'cause we're smoking. ANSWER

6. She doesn't like it in the barn. The horses keep her up at night. ANSWER

7. Tony is the little boy that lives in my mouth. ANSWER

8. Let's not call him "the Captain," you illiterate TV people. It's "the Skipper." ANSWER

9. Redrum. ANSWER

10. Then when it's over, your phone rings, someone knows you watched the tape... and what they say is, "You will die in seven days". ANSWER

BONUS:
She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you? ANSWER

If you scored 8 or higher out of 10, then congratulations you are a Horror Movie Maven!

Check out the horror blog here: Are you a Trivia Maven?

Movie Maven

The Strangers (2008)

OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE

Tagline: Lock the door, pretend you're safe.

Now playing in theaters, The Strangers starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman is allegedly based on true events whereby a young couple are vacationing in a remote area and are terrorized by three masked assailants. The opening narration begins with:

The film you are about to see is inspired by true events. According to the F.B.I. there are an estimated 1.4 million violent crimes in America each year. On the night of February 11, 2005 Kristen McKay and James Hoyt went to a friend's wedding reception and returned to the Hoyt family's summer home. The brutal events that took place there are still not entirely known

The Strangers isn't the first and won't be the last horror movie to use this ploy -- the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre likewise opens with the following infamous narration:

The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths....For them an idyllic summer afternoon drive became a nightmare. The events of that day were to lead to the discovery of one of the most bizarre crimes in the annals of American history, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

While both films are "inspired" by actual events, neither film is a true story. In fact, at the end of The Strangers, there is a disclaimer saying that all the events in the movie are fictional and any resemblances to any persons living or dead, etc, are completely coincidental. That's okay. The Coen brothers pulled the same stunt with Fargo, and look at how well that paid off.

If home invasion does it for you then don't miss the French flick Ils or Them (2006) (not to be confused with the 1950's low budget horror flick about giant ants).

Find THEM in the RPL Catalogue.

There was a rumor afoot that The Strangers is actually a remake of Them, but this is incorrect. While very similar in plot, Them (2006) is a totally different movie that terrified European audiences before making its way across the pond. Check out the IMDb page for Them (2006)

For more info and updates on all things terrifying, check out RPL's horror blog here.

Movie Maven

Filming for Dolan's Cadillac began this week in Regina and Moosejaw! Check out the SaskPower building on 2025 Victoria Avenue; film crews have given the front entrance a complete makeover so that it passes as a hotel. Filming is scheduled to wrap in 26 days.

Christian Slater is starring as mobster Jimmy Dolan, so don't be surprised if you spot him around town. Who knows? Maybe Stephen King himself will stop by to check out the film's progress and stay for a cameo :-)

See previous post on the horror blog:
Movie news: upcoming Stephen King adaptation

Movie Maven

Funny Games (2007)

Written and Directed by: Michael Haneke

Are you ready to be disturbed? Shocked? Riveted? Terrified? Forget about SAW, and Hostel, and all of the various Texas Chainsaw Massacres...Funny Games by German-born filmmaker Michael Haneke is a brutal vision with a real social message.

Reviewed by Rossiter Drake
from the San Francisco Examiner :
give German-born filmmaker Michael Haneke his due — his movie is shockingly effective in its depiction of a well-to-do family paralyzed by a terrifying home invasion.... Clearly, Haneke is daring us to turn away, confident that our voyeuristic fascination with violence will trump our revulsion. And it’s hard to argue. “Funny Games” is at once repellent and hypnotically absorbing, and not simply because of Michael Pitt’s terrifying performance as a serial killer — styled, one suspects, after Alex, the Beethoven-obsessed sadist from “A Clockwork Orange.” It plays on media-fueled suburban paranoia with manipulative ease, thrusting us into a waking nightmare ripped from the headlines.

If that makes “Funny Games” sound anything like “Saw” or “Hostel,” which eagerly rewarded audiences with the graphic dismemberment they knew to expect, think again. Haneke is less interested in on-screen mutilation than in the suggestion of violence, and his restraint is far more affecting. He never attempts to explain Peter and Paul’s bloodlust — they are monsters, plain and simple, giggling their way from one victim to the next. Their very existence is grotesque, but entirely natural in the bleak, remorseless world Haneke envisions.

Starts showing tonight at RPL Film Theatre!

The RPL Film Theatre is located inside Central Library, in the heart of downtown Regina, on 12th Avenue between Lorne and Smith Street. The Theatre is on the lower level of the Library. Phone: 306-777-6104 Click here for showtimes.

Thursday, May 29: 9-11pm

Friday, May 30: 7-9pm

Saturday, May 31: 9-11pm

Sunday, June 1: 7-9pm

For more info and updates on all things terrifying, check out RPL's horror blog here.

Movie Maven

There's a whole lotta blogging going on at RPL!

Our blogs are maintained by your very own Regina Public Library staff and are designed to help you stay current on what's new and popular in our collection, both on DVD and in print. Do you have a favorite author? Are you a mystery fan? Do you watch a lot of sci-fi movies and television series? Do you love to be scared? Do you like to read graphic novels? Or maybe you are a romantic at heart? Whatever your reading and movie-viewing habits, there is a blog for you.

Find more of what you like to read! Get access to news, reviews and interviews! All blog entries link to our catalogue allowing you to place holds immediately on popular items. All of our blogs come with RSS feeds too! RSS feeds make it possible for you to receive information whenever it is posted to particular areas of the Library's Web site...without actually having to visit the site each day to check for changes.

We would love to hear from you! Leave us your comments, make suggestions. These blogs are for the RPL community and that includes you!

Check out all RPL Blogs here!

Movie Maven

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

Company Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content

TOKYO (February 19, 2008) -- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

More Oscar trivia...

Throughout its illustrious (sometimes contentious) history, the Academy Awards of Motion Pictures has snubbed and overlooked some major talent.

Can you name the iconic director who failed to ever win an Oscar in a contested category despite being nominated a total of six (6) times?

Hint: Perhaps in recognition of its stupendous oversight, the Academy did award this person the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968, for "Creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production."

For answer, click here.

by Movie Maven

Oscar turns 80 this year, when the Academy Awards air live on February 24th, 2008. Jon Stewart (beloved anchor of The Daily Show) will host for his second time.

Presentation of the Academy Awards was first televised on March 19, 1953 from the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, and it should come as no surprise that Bob Hope was master of ceremonies. Oscar turned 25 that year, honoring the best movies of 1952 and Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth received Best Picture.

Oscar trivia:
Since the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, only three (3) films have swept all five major categories for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Adapted). Can you name them? See answer below.

Stay tuned for more Oscar trivia as we get closer to the big day!

by Movie Maven

Recommended Websites:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Wikipedia's List of Academy Awards ceremonies
Academy Awards Portal hosted by Wikipedia.org
The IMDb: Academy Awards

And the ANSWER is...

It Happened One Night (1934)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

One of the most memorable of the original Twilight Zone series episodes is "Nightmare at 20,000 feet". Remember this one? It starred a very young William Shatner who, while flying on a commerical plane, looks out the window and thinks he sees a gremlin/monster monkeying about with the wing. In true Twilight Zone style, he freaks out but of course no one believes him. The episode aired in Season 5 on October 11, 1963. It was later re-made starring John Lithgow for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).

Trivia Question:
Who wrote the story on which this episode is based?

The answer is available in the Comments section below.

Hint:
There is a big-budget blockbuster playing in theaters right now based on one of his novels.

by Movie Maven

What's your favorite Twilight Zone episode? Leave us a comment here at the Movie Blog!