The year 1909 in film involved some significant events.
George Andrew Romero Jr. was an American-Canadian film director, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about a zombie apocalypse began with the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and is considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).
Scanners is a 1981 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan. In the film, "scanners" are psychics with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. ConSec, a purveyor of weaponry and security systems, searches out scanners to use them for its own purposes. The film's plot concerns the attempt by Darryl Revok (Ironside), a renegade scanner, to wage a war against ConSec. Another scanner, Cameron Vale (Lack), is dispatched by ConSec to stop Revok.
An American Werewolf in London is a 1981 comedy horror film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne and John Woodvine. The title is a cross between An American in Paris and Werewolf of London. The film's plot follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, who are attacked by a werewolf while travelling in England, causing David to become a werewolf under the next full moon.
War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction action-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, loosely based on H. G. Wells' 1898 novel, The War of the Worlds. Tom Cruise stars in the main role alongside Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, and Tim Robbins, with narration by Morgan Freeman. It follows an American dock worker who must look after his children, from whom he lives separately, as he struggles to protect them and reunite them with their mother when extraterrestrials invade Earth and devastate cities with giant war machines.
Ghost Ship is a 2002 American supernatural horror film directed by Steve Beck from a screenplay by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue. It follows a marine salvage crew in the Bering Sea who discover a mysterious ocean liner that disappeared in 1962 and stars an ensemble cast of Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades, and Karl Urban.
Kevin VanHook is an American comic book writer, comic book artist, visual effects supervisor, and filmmaker.
Robert Kurtzman is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and special effects makeup artist. During his time at KNB EFX Group, which he co-founded, it would win a 2001 Emmy Award. He would then start his own production company Precinct 13 Entertainment in 2003.
August Underground's Mordum is a 2003 direct-to-video horror exploitation film created and distributed by Toetag Pictures. It is the sequel to 2001's August Underground, and was followed by August Underground's Penance in 2007. The film is purposely shot in an amateur way to pass it off as a faux snuff film.
Black Water is a 2007 Australian-British horror film written and directed by Andrew Traucki and David Nerlich. The film, an international co-production of Australia and the United Kingdom, is set in the mangrove swamps of northern Australia, and stars Diana Glenn, Maeve Dermody and Andy Rodoreda. Inspired by the true story of a crocodile attack in Australia's Northern Territory in December 2003, a pregnant woman, along with her boyfriend and her sister, take a boat tour of a mangrove swamp, where they are terrorized by a ferocious saltwater crocodile.
Gregory Nicotero is an American special make-up effects creator, television producer, and director. His first major job in special effects makeup was on the George A. Romero film Day of the Dead (1985), under the tutelage of Romero and make-up effects veteran Tom Savini.
S&Man is a 2006 American pseudo-documentary film that examines the underground subculture of horror films. It contains interviews with filmmakers and other participants in the low budget indie horror scene, as well as film professor and author Carol J. Clover. The second half of the film also features a scripted plot, which stars comedian Erik Marcisak as the fictional filmmaker Eric Rost.
Barry Lee Hobart was a local television personality widely known to fans as Dr. Creep. He was a horror movie host on WKEF Television in Dayton, Ohio.
August Underground is a 2001 American exploitation horror film directed by Fred Vogel, who co-wrote it with Allen Peters. The film stars Vogel as a serial killer named Peter, who kidnaps and kills several innocent people, while his unnamed accomplice, played by Peters, films and documents the murders.
Murder Collection V.1 is a 2009 American horror anthology film written and directed by Fred Vogel, and co-written by Don Moore, Shelby Vogel, and Jerami Cruise.
The Redsin Tower is a 2006 indie low-budget horror film directed by Fred Vogel and written by Fred and Shelby Lyn Vogel. This is the third film produced and distributed by TOETAG INC, and the first film in their filmography to be a traditional three-act narrative. The Redsin Tower is noteworthy for its use of excessive gore, violence, and psychological horror. The plot centers around Kim, a girl trying to get over her ex-boyfriend by taking a trip with her friends to the Redsin tower, where the partying quickly becomes a fight for their lives. The film was distributed and released on DVD on October 10, 2007, by TOETAG INC.
Carl Albert Crew is an American actor, screenwriter, author, artist and co-proprietor of the North Hollywood nightclub California Institute of Abnormalarts.
KNB EFX Group is an American special effects company that specializes in prosthetic makeup, animatronics, and other practical effects. It was founded in 1988 by Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger, though Kurtzman left in 2003. After establishing a reputation for gory effects in horror films throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, they broadened to performing animatronics and makeup effects for mainstream comedy and drama films. Their work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Walking Dead have netted them multiple awards and nominations.
Nightmare Factory is a 2011 documentary film directed by Donna Davies about KNB EFX Group, a special effects company.
FuseFX is an American special visual effects company which was founded in Los Angeles, California in 2006 by David Altenau, Tim Jacobsen and Jason Fotter. The company is best known for developing special visual effects for television series, films, commercials and virtual realities.
