On 10 Most Controversial Horror Films at 10/25/2007 09:07am

How about the original Hills Have Eyes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre films? They had the 70's grit and psyche-shattering horror elements that you don't see very often these days. Now it's all about the excessive gore, ridiculous chase scenes, and torture porn.

As an aside, I was really hoping for Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween to throw back to that sort of style, however, it would appear that the producers got their grubby little hands all over it. The first half when he was a a child was awesome. The second half where he was an adult was just laughable. Here's hoping that the director's cut delivers...

On Howard's Angels and Demons surprisingly flies under fast-track radar at 10/25/2007 08:46am

Angels & Demons (2000) was actually released prior to the Da Vinci Code (2003), and really shouldn't be considered a sequel. While Howard might bend the details to make it one, if you actually read both books you'll realize that they're basically the same story replacing The Vatican with Da Vinci as the major theme.

I'm not knocking the book itself, as I actually found it quite entertaining, but it's interesting to see an author reinvent a flop (A&D) and turn it into one of the best-selling books of all time (Code).

PS. You spelled both of his book titles wrong. Angles and Divinci... ;)

PPS. Howard's film version of the Code was pretty bad, though I suppose it was doomed to fail from the start. When the entire point of the book is to keep you in suspense and shocked by the various twists and turns, it's very difficult to make someone who has already read the damned story relive those sensations. And seriously, who hasn't read the book? It's nearly as popular as Harry Potter or the Holy Bible!