A couple years ago I named Christopher Young’s Drag Me To Hell as my favorite score of the year. It had all of the big, bold, bombastic sounds you think of with true gothic horror. What raised that score above its genre and made it stand alone as the best was its sense of fun. It very well could have been the theme music for the tea cups ride at Inferno-Disney.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a new horror film with a strong pedigree. It takes its cues from a more classical age of horror movies and the film’s score follow suite. The music sounds like it’s from another time and shares many of the trademarks of Young’s score. This is particularly evident with the opening title, which actually made me look at my iTunes to confirm I wasn’t listening to Drag Me To Hell.

Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders have put together a very consistent sounding soundtrack for this throwback horror flick, in fact I often went ten minutes without realizing the track had changed. This ends up being a double edged sword for the album, on one hand I like what the music is giving me, so consistency means it is all gravy.

However, after the strong opening, the album never really hooks you again. You pretty much have heard everything dynamic this score has to offer in the first few tracks.

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So it turns out America is a huge fan of heartwarming tales about maids, as indie comedy The Help managed to steal the show once again, claiming the #1 spot for the second time in 3 weeks.

The film has grossed nearly $100 million domestically, and is still growing in popularity, as it beat out Colombiana, Guillermo del Toro’s Don’t Be Afraid Of the Dark and Paul Rudd’s attempt at a quirky indie comedy with Our Idiot Brother, bringing in a total of $14.3 million this weekend.

Coming in second is Luc Besson’s Colombiana, which only managed to bring in $10 million (a quarter of the film’s budget) in the domestic box office this weekend.

Just after that film, the first big horror film of the late summer/early fall season, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, was unable to open big enough to scare the masses, as the film barely managed to break $10 million this weekend, coming in just shy of $9 million.

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With Comic-Con in San Diego kicking off today the announcements of new and exciting projects are going to start coming fast and furious. Sadly, there won’t be anything about Vin Diesel — at least in this case. See what we did there?

Instead, this particular announcement concerns a different star (well two, actually): Director Guillermo del Toro and Dark Horse Comic. That’s right, del Toro is teaming up with Dark Horse Comics to bring his horror novel The Strain to the pages of a comic series.

Written in conjunction with novelist Chuck Hogan, the novel concerns a mysterious airplane that lands at JFK Airport and then goes dark on the runway. The Center for Disease Control, fearing a terrorist attack, calls in Dr. Ephraim Goodweather and his team of expert biological-threat first responders.

However, he isn’t the one able to really solve the mystery. Instead, an elderly pawnbroker from Spanish Harlem, who suspects a darker purpose behind the event, realizes an ancient threat intent on covering mankind in darkness is responsible.

Adapted by writer David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Kull), with art by Mike Huddleston (MK Ultra), the first issue arrives in stores on December 14.

This year’s Comic-Con International was looking like it would be a bit lame with studios like Marvel, Paramount, Warner Bros, and other big companies dropping out of the festivities entirely. That means we won’t be seeing massive lines for Hall H and a glimpse at Henry Cavill in the Superman suit or footage of Thor and Hulk whomping on each other.

Instead we’re getting some of the lesser known properties in that famous football stadium-sized room known as “Hall H” such as The Knights of Badassdom and Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil. With the very first day of programming for the ‘Con announced, it looks like we’re going to be getting just that, and a truck load of TV.

One good note is that all things Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 will be in the early half of Thursday, leaving the rest of the weekend vampire free (except for those Southern vamps from True Blood).

Check out the full day’s schedule after the jump, and head to their official Scheduler app, so you can make official the things you want to see that weekend!

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Not many people snynomize Neil Patrick Harris with video games. They do, however, consider him one of the greats when it comes to awards show hosts. Which is why Spike TV’s decision to hire him as the host of this Saturday’s Video Game Awards.

G4 may have their own version of the awards, but Spike’s show is considered the be-all, end-all of video game award shows. You can expect to see guests like the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Guillermo Del Toro, Nathan Fillion, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Munn, and a musical performance by My Chemical Romance.

You can check out the full awards show live on Saturday, December 11th at 8pm ET/ 5pm PST. Here’s the full press release announcing the new host.

New York, NY, December 6, 2010 – Acclaimed television, film, stage and video game star Neil Patrick Harris has been handed over the controller and will host Spike TV’s 2010 “Video Game Awards.”  Broadcasting in over 175 territories worldwide from Los Angeles, the “VGAs” will celebrate the best in gaming on Saturday, December 11 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

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This week on The Flickcast your favorite hosts take on some new and recurring topics to entertain, inform and otherwise keep you interested. . . at least for a little while. Some of the topics covered today include the brand new Green Lantern trailer, more on The Walking Dead, Hulu Plus price drops, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leaked footage, trailers for The Mechanic,  Red Riding Hood, Teen Wolf, Cowboys Vs. Aliens, Marvel’s Hulk TV series and more.

In addition, the boys also made new picks this week for your viewing, listening or reading pleasure. Matt picked the animated series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes while Chris picked the first person shooter game Medal of Honor.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Director Guillermo del Toro and Battlestar Galactica Exec Producer David Eick are planning a new version of The Hulk for TV and will reportedly be doing it for ABC. This show will mark Marvel’s first foray into series TV after being acquired by Disney.

“I have always been attracted at the combination of comic book heroics and monsters, Jack Kirby’s Demon or Kamandi or DC’s Deadman or Marvel’s Dr. Strange, Morbius, Metamorpho, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, etc,” Del Toro said. In addition, the director indicated The Hulk has been at the top of his list and he first pursued it as a feature film around the time of the 2002 release of Blade II. Del Toro added that, with partner Eick “we coalesced a respectful but powerful way of retelling the Banner/Hulk story in a fresh way.”

As the project is only in the preliminary stages, details of the premise are sketchy. However, the show will reportedly be an origin story following the exploits of mid-twenties physicist Bruce Banner and his alter ego The Hulk. In addition, for this series The Hulk won’t be full CGI like he was in the movies. Instead, the character will be realized via a combination of prosthetics, puppetry and computer generated imagery.

Because of the extensive prep work involved the series won’t be ready for ABC’s Fall schedule in 2011. So, look for it more like Fall of 2012. Wow, I can’t wait. Yes, that was sarcasm because I have a hard time thinking this will be any good.

How about you guys? Think this is a good idea?

You heard that right. Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller is currently working with NBC to bring a brand new Munsters reboot to the airwaves as soon as next season. Just like that, what could be a terrible idea, has been turned around into a potential brilliant idea. From EW.

So far, NBC, with whom Fuller has an overall deal, has ordered only a pilot. But since the potential series is being described to me as “Modern Family meets True Blood,” I have a good feeling about it.

Not only that, but rumor has it no less than Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) is eyeing a behind-the-scenes role in the project.

So if fanboys and fangirls weren’t excited enough for Daisies creator Fuller to come on-board, master of twisted horror/sci-fi del Toro is also looking to hop into the mix.

Though it’s sad to believe, a lot of this project’s future rides on whether or not ABC’s newest series No Ordinary Family succeeds. If the TV-watching American audience doesn’t buy into the not-so-conventional family comedies that they used to scoop up in the mid 1990′s, this series could be dead before it’s ever born.

We expect to hear more news soon, but don’t expect anything official until we get closer to NBC’s next Fall Upfronts next year.

As scary TV movies go the original 70′s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark ranks pretty high. It manages to be quite harrowing and chilling without resorting to gore or other obvious means.

It was so scary good, in fact, that it attracted the interest of big time writer/director Guillermo del Toro who co-wrote and produced a remake. Now, thanks to the folks at MySpace (I know) we’ve got a trailer for the updated version to share with you.

This new one continues the scary trend but also shows what you can do without too much in the way of blood and gore. Although it does seem to be upping the “monster” quotient a bit from the original. Plus, the rest of the elements of filmmaking have obviously come a long way too.

Don’t be Afraid of the Dark, which features Katie Holmes and Guy Pierce, comes from Miramax who will release it January 21, 2011.

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Much like J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon’s epic team-up during Comic-Con to show they are probably way geekier than you are, two other powerful film titans that you love (or love to hate) have decided to team up for a project as well. That’s right, Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron are working together on a big screen adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness with del Toro directing and Cameron producing.

Of course, the film will be shot in 3D for studio Universal Pictures. According to reports, the studio was a bit nervous about he high budget project but Cameron’s stamp of approval and support for del Toro apparently won them over. Cameron had said in the past that he wouldn’t put his name on many future movies outside of the 3D reboot of Fantastic Voyage at Fox, but he’s apparently making an exception for del Toro and this project.

In case you’re not familiar with Lovecraft’s work, this particular story centers around a gruesome discovery made during a scientific expedition to the South Pole in the 1930s. This discovery hints at the true origin of mankind and our having come from elder gods from another planet. Of course, bad things start to happen when those life forms are awakened. If you’ve ever read any Lovecraft, you know if they stay faithful to the source material this movie will be one wild time.

At the Mountains of Madness is expected to being filming next Summer for a 2012 release.

Guillermo del Toro announced at a San Deigo Comic Con press conference that he is in the process of collaborating with Disney Studios to develop a movie based on the popular “Haunted Mansion” ride at Disney.

Del Toro emphasized that he feels Disney’s history is rich with dark imagery and frightening characters, a perfect place for del Toro to bring his own personal visions. It will also be in 3D.

Disney chairman Rich Ross noted that del Torro will be a unique guide to lead filmgoers through the Haunted Mansion experience, and they are excited to work with him.  The Haunted Mansion has been frightening visitors since 1969.

No word on where this fits into the director’s schedule or if it will be his next film. But don’t worry, when we get more news we’ll be sure to bring it to you.

Well folks, it looks like it’s pretty much a done deal that Peter Jackson will, much to the delight of fans everywhere, take on directing duties of both Hobbit films. After the departure of Guillermo del Toro recently speculation ran rampant that Jackson, who’s Lord of the Rings films are the definitive cinematic incarnation of the beloved trilogy, would take over for del Toro.

However, Jackson’s camp denied the speculation citing his commitments elsewhere. However, that seems not to be the case now as Jackson is in active negotiations to take on both films that will bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to the big screen. According to reports, another of the stumbling blocks was money and the current financial state of MGM.

However, it seems the case is being made to MGM’s owners that two Jackson-directed Hobbit films would almost guarantee box office success. So, it remains to be seen if this very hopeful development will prove to be accurate. Let’s hope so for fans of The Hobbit everywhere.

Jackson is an immensely talented filmmaker and his Rings trilogy are examples of some of the best literary adaptations ever made. So, his version of The Hobbit should also be extraordinary. Let’s hope for every fan’s sake he really does end up as the director. More on this story as it comes to us.

Until then, how do you guys feel? Is Jackson the best choice for The Hobbit?