Live From Hall H: Ninjas Assassinating

Live From Hall H: Dark Castle Offers Hills Running Red and Ninjas Assassinating

We found ourselves in the middle of the Korean version of an N*Sync concert when Dark Castle presented the trailer for Ninja Assassin and sacrificed pop-idol (in Korea) Rain to the frothing horde of drooling young girls with dog-whistle decibeled voices. It seems obvious, in hindsight, that when all the questions begin with, "OMG, I love you Rain," they aren’t going to be focused on the process of filmmaking.

And yes, somehow the girls managed to vocalize the phrase "OMG." But it was so high pitched that only dogs could hear it. As you can imagine, all the dog-journalists in attendance were driven crazy.

But Joel Silver did manage to wow the rest of us, non-canine-attendees by showing us a great first look at a prelim trailer for the film that featured ninjas jumping over cars, being hit by cars, blood, swords, more blood, and a ton of ninjas fighting each other. There were probably even more invisible ninjas that went completely unnoticed.

Rain in Ninja AssassinIf I had three words to sum up how awesome the trailer is, they would be: Death By Urinal. If I had an entire sentence, it would still be: Death By Urinal. Despite it being a sentence fragment, the visual of a man’s already-bloodied face shattering the porcelain, splintering fragments deeper into his neck and splattering blood all over the floor is an apt one for describing the overall feeling of the trailer.

"I’ve always wanted to do a classic, ninja revenge film," said Joel Silver when introducing the concept. It certainly sounds classic. Silver described the film as a story of a man who escapes his ninja clan in order to protect an Interpol agent who stumbles into the world of ninjas as he avenges the murder of someone he loves.

Silver then brought director James McTeigue, Rain, and Naomie Harris to answer some questions about Rain’s singing career from the crowd. Oddly enough, there were no screaming tweenage girls for James McTeigue. However, Harris showed enthusiasm when asked about whether she’d want to appear in a 28 Days Later sequel. Apparently, she had shared a plane ride with Danny Boyle a few years back where they discussed her involvement in the sequel, and she was "heartbroken" when she didn't get to appear in it. If a third is made, she said she would jump at the chance to reprise her role as Selena.

On the lesser known, but still very awesome, side of things. Silver and Dark Castle also presented a trailer for their horror flick The Hills Run Red. It features Tad Hilgenbrink, who you might know from American Pie Presents Band Camp, and Sophie Monk, who you know from being incredibly, incredibly hot.

Heading straight to video, it’s the story of a group of people who go looking for "the most violent slasher movie ever made," an twenty-year old urban legend that they soon find is true - and is still being made. Stumbling onto the film, they soon become a part of it, and a lot of them will die horrible, gruesome deaths.

The trailer for the slasher is fantastically gory - with some really creepy deaths and Sophie Monk covered entirely in blood. So, basically, awesome.

"These are unusual pictures to make," said Silver of The Hills Run Red. "But they're fun to make in the direct-to-video format." Most of that reasoning is that Silver can make his film as disgusting and bloody as he wants without worrying about the usual hurdles one has to jump when releasing wide in theaters. Silver claimed Dark Castle was working on 9 more direct-to-video features.

The Hills Run Red will undoubtedly find its niche market, and you can guarantee we'll be reviewing it for The Coroner's Report here on FSR soon.

Source/Posted by Cole Abaius(cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 25, 2008
As shown on Rain-America.com