This week’s Monday pick is the 1982 horror classic Alone in the Dark which was the debut film from Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), The Hidden (1987), and By Dawn’s Early Light (1990). The film stars Jack Palance, Martin Landau, Dwight Schultz, and Donald Pleasence.

Alone in the Dark is one of the most intelligent and generally frightening horror films that came out in the early 1980s, a time where cinema was oversaturated with slasher films like the Halloween or Friday the 13^th franchises. Jack Sholder and fellow writers Robert Shaye and Michael Harrpster created one of the greatest cult horror films that would go on to influence a whole new generation of fans and filmmakers.

Dr. Dan Potter (Dwight Schultz, Murdoch from TVs The A-Team) is hired as a replacement psychiatrist for an institution known as the Haven. The hospital’s owner is Dr. Leo Bain (Pleasence), an unorthodox shrink whose very lenient approaches to the treatment of his patients is met with astonishment by Dr. Potter. Dr. Bain refers to his patients as “voyagers” individuals who are having trouble adapting to an already insane world.

As the two men walk the grounds, Bain shows Dr. Potter the third floor of the hospital where four of the most dangerous “voyagers” are contained with an elaborate electrified security system.  The four men who reside on the third floor are former POW and paranoid schizophrenic Frank Hawkes (Palance), pyromaniac and former preacher Byron Sutcliff (Landau), Obese child molester Ronald Elster (Erland Van Lidth), and Skaggs aka ‘The Bleeder” (Phillip Clark) who hides his face throughout the whole film.

Even with Comic-Con in San Diego looming on the horizon, some of us are thinking farther down the road towards Austin, TX in September. That’s right, we’re thinking about Fantastic Fest, the amazing genre film festival that runs from September 20 to 27.

And, as thoughts turn to Fantastic Fest, so must they turn to films as well. In fact, we now know that one film in particular will open the festival on September 20th. That film? Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.

In fact, it will be the world premiere for the film, with the studio taking it out officially on October 5. The black-and-white 3D sci-fi monster film, written by John August and directed by Burton, is about a boy who brings his beloved dog back to life — with just a few complications.

Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, Charlie Tahan, Atticus Shaffer, Robert Capron, Conchata Ferrell and Winona Ryder are among the actors contributing their voice talents. Looks like fun. Can’t wait to see it and to get to Austin.

Good times.

This week’s pick is the HBO film By Dawn’s Early Light (1990), directed by Jack Sholder. The film stars Martin Landau, Powers Boothe, Rebecca De Mornay, James Earl Jones, Darren McGavin, Rip Torn, Jeffery DeMunn, Peter MacNicol, and Nicolas Coster.

By Dawn’s Early Light was based on the novel Trinity’s Child that depicts a full nuclear exchange between the U.S. and USSR. The film is set in 1991 as the Soviet Union is undergoing radical political change (when the film was produced, the Soviet Union was in fact beginning to collapse).

A group of Soviet brass launches a nuclear strike with a stolen missile against the Soviet city of Donetsk. U.S. forces track the trajectory of the missile from allied Turkey. This act makes the Soviet Première and Soviet forces think it was a surprise attack from the U.S. and NATO forces.  The Soviets launch a retaliatory strike which threatens U.S. land based bombers and many key points of communication such as the NORAD facility, SAC headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, Washington D.C., and Andrews AFB in Maryland which is where the president would be evacuated from.

One of the most visually stunning, action packed, clever and suspenseful of all Alfred Hitchcock movies, his 1959 masterpiece North By Northwest finally gets the Blu-ray treatment it deserves. Featuring a terrific remastering with lots of great supplemental material and beautiful packaging the movie really shines and Warner Bros. has clearly pulled out all the tops to bring this classic film to a new generation of audiences.

Just in case you’re not familiar with this Hitchcock masterpiece, it stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and a young Martin Landau in a story featuring one of Hitchcock’s signature conceits: the wrong man. Grant’s Roger Thornhill, mistaken for superspy George Kaplan by a group of sinister agents led by James Mason’s Phillip Vandamm, is taken to a county house, forceably intoxicated and almost murdered. He barely manages to escape with his life, mostly due to his high tolerance for alcohol after years in the advertising business, but this sets in motion a series of events culminating in one of the most exciting and visually stunning climaxes ever filmed, at least up to that time.

Cary Grant is funny and cool as Thornhill and the rest of the cast take on their roles brilliantly. The script by Ernest Lehman is funny, action packed, dramatic and tight as a drum and, of course, the direction by the “master of suspense” Alfred Hitchcock is outstanding, making this, if not his best work, at least in the top three right along with Psycho and Rear Window.

Mention must also be made of the stunningly exciting action sequence involving Cary Grant, a deserted county road and a crop dusting plane. For the times, this action sequence was considered the pinnacle of cinematic achievement and even today, due to its quality and innovative direction and editing, its still ranks high. Of course, now that filmmakers have almost anything imaginable at their fingertips through the use of CGI, this action sequence may seem tame to some.

However, knowing when it was filmed and how, and also taking into consideration when it appears in the film, you have already been drawn into the world of this amazing film and completely go along with whatever happens. In short, it just works. And works exceptionally well.

We’ve been bringing you news of Shane Acker’s upcoming film 9 for some time now. Previously, we showed you the new poster, the film’s brand new website, some character posters, a brand new clip from the movie and much more. Now, we’ve got even more from the film to share with you, in the form of four brand new pictures depicting various scenes from the film.

These new images give us more insight into just how cool and interesting this film is going to be. They also show us some detail on two of the main characters in this fantasy world and a preview of a pretty scary monster as well. In case its been some time or you don’t actually know, the film concerns the character 9, who finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone. It is only by chance he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth trying to destroy his kind.

9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must go on the offensive to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them. Be sure to click through for the large versions of these photos.

9, from Focus Features and featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly and Jennifer Connelly, hits theaters next week on September 9.

While the summer blockbusters are still going strong, there’s one film that just misses the “summer” requirement but is still making a name for itself. The film is Shane Acker’s 9, which is based on his award-winning animated short from a few years back, and is produced by Tim Burton. The film is out this September and the marketing team has just released a series of character posters, showing off the animated cast of the film.

In the film, a group of numbered “people” are given the task of saving a post-apocalyptic world from destruction of giant robotic creatures. If you’re thinking “this sounds like every other movie out this summer”, then you should watch the original short that the film will be based on, because it’s got just enough of the Tim Burton fantasy-feel to make it a great movie.

The new posters show off the pretty big ensemble cast, with Christopher Plummer playing 1, Martin Landau as 2, John C. Reilly as 5, Crispen Glover as 6, Jennifer Connoly as 7 and Elijah Wood as the main character 9. Check out the character posters after the jump. 9 hits theaters September 9th.