Last week, we debuted a couple of new images from new movie, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and now, Time (with a nod to our pals at BleedingCool) have released the first trailer for the movie. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and stars Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Benjamin Walker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jimmi Simpson, Alan Tudyk, and Rufus Sewell. It’s produced by Tim Burton so that will also give you an idea of what you might be able to expect. The screenplay comes from Seth Grahame-Smith and the movie is based on his novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter explores the secret life of our greatest President, and the untold story that shaped our nation. Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted) bring a fresh and visceral voice to the blood-thirsty lore of the vampire, imagining Lincoln as history’s greatest hunter of the undead.

Have a watch of the dark but brilliant trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section. We’re loving the awesome axe wielding! There are some serious skills right there! Sorry it’s so small. Seems to be locked down by Time which is rather annoying.

Here’s a couple of brand new and exclusive images from Twentieth Century Fox’s new movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which sounds like something we’ve made up but I assure you we haven’t! The film is directed by the man who brought us Wanted, Timur Bekmambetov and stars Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Benjamin Walker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jimmi Simpson, Alan Tudyk, and Rufus Sewell. It’s produced by Tim Burton so that will also give you an idea of what you might be able to expect. The screenplay comes from Seth Grahame-Smith and the movie is based on his novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

We’ve been given these two new images from the movie which is set for release 3rd August just like the others that we’ve seen previously (see below), they really set the tone for the movie.

Absolutely love the image of the Vampire Hunter with his axe in the dark! These images are super high res so if you’re on a slow connection, be patient as they’re worth the wait. You can click them to enlarge.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter explores the secret life of our greatest President, and the untold story that shaped our nation. Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted) bring a fresh and visceral voice to the blood-thirsty lore of the vampire, imagining Lincoln as history’s greatest hunter of the undead.

Here’s the other images in high resolution that came out earlier in the week, again, click to enlarge.

Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, statesman, president. He lived a long and varied life but until now little has been said of how throughout his illustrious life he moonlighted as a vampire hunter, taking out the supernatural trash while keeping a steady hand on the tiller of his numerous responsibilities.

Seth Grahame-Smith’s follow up to his best-selling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, was similarly well received and now it’s getting the Bekmambetov treatment with a big budget adaptation starring from the Russian who brought us Nightwatch, Daywatch and the bullet bending lunacy of Wanted.

Starring Benjamin Walker as Lincoln, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as his wife and Rufus Sewell as the lead vamp the line up might not be nearly as bulletproof as the concept but what a concept it is. The idea of a respected and fabled statesman going round getting covered in gore and stabbing vampires through the chest with impunity does sound like a load of fun.

I guess now we should just hope for a few more classic alternate biographies. I myself am looking forward to Franklin D. Roosevelt Werewolf Decapitator, Woodrow Wilson Super Soldier and Richard Nixon Puppy Murderer. Here’s the plot this time around:

President Lincoln’s mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers.

And crush them he will, hopefully with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

Here’s a new poster of Lincoln looking suitably stately, with an axe. Click to enlarge.

Source: IMP Awards

Remember the times critics have said that they like it when films let the audience find the horror in their own imagination? To keep that latex monstrosity of a monster in the shadows lest we see it’s horribly unhorrifying latex moulded face? To keep that particularly traumatic scene off-screen so that we can think ourselves into terror as opposed to just passively taking it like a blood soaked pie to the face?

Well I think they should take that back because no matter how fertile an imagination you have The Darkest Hour will finally confirm that suspicion you had that invisible electricity isn’t actually that scary. At all. Not even when it turns people into fairy dust and eats your energy. Not even then.

The film starts by following two American internet entrepreneurs (Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella) who head to Moscow to finalise a business deal. When they learn that their idea has been stolen by a Swedish opportunist (Joel Kinnaman) they head to a nightclub and hook up with two female tourists (Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor). A black out occurs and soon enough the world is being attacked by  invisible aliens that feed of electricity whilst showing a stark disregard for the integrity of the human body.

As soon as our two All-American heroes grace the screen with their thoroughly unlikable presence – cock-blocked as they are by an alien apocalypse and bitter about the loss of their creepy dating idea to a scheming swede – one quickly realises that you won’t be empathising with anyone any time soon. Add to this a lack of decent special effects and a couple of unimaginative action sequences and all you are left with is a cold empty shell of a film, devoid of invention nor genre thrills.

Finding the key to survival in nothing more than being attractive and having access to a wholesale amount of lightbulbs, the young cast do a passable job but it’s the writing that’s at fault . The screenplay by Jon Spaihts is dry and peppered with placeholder characters who breeze through the carnage with little to say and surprisingly little to do. Whenever anyone is speaking it’s just plot exposition and whenever anyone isn’t the film is just efficiently disposing of the plot, going through the motions until eventually it all grinds to a giddy halt and the film ends. But not before giving us a terrifying glimpse at the spectre of a sequel.

Whilst it’s a cliché ridden and wholly derivative affair it does come as a bit of a surprise that it’s set in Moscow. This of course has much to do with the influence of producer Timur Bekmambetov but it’s an interesting decision nonetheless. However The Darkest Hour’s attempts to differentiate itself through its location are slapdash and grossly offensive at best. All American business boys Sean and Ben get double crossed within about ten minutes by those lousy thieving Muscovites. You know, the ones called Yuri and Boris wearing those big furry hats like you see in the films. With the music, that sounds like all of that Russian music, because it’s all the same. Those films. You know, the stupid ones. How this came from the mind of the man who has written Prometheus (Spaihts) I don’t know, but that may become abundantly and unexpectedly clear come June.

The main mystery on show here though is that of director Chris Gorak who back in the heady creative days of 2006 wrote and directed the striking and thoroughly thought provoking Right At Your Door. A film low on budget and big on ideas, it showed the man to be a promising young talent, ready to create heaps of atmosphere and apocalyptic destruction from nothing more than a house and some wonderfully committed performances. The opposite is on show here. Whereas before the implied consequences of a dirty bomb were enough to paste a thick layer of doom laden subtext over his small theatrical drama, this time round he’s got money to blow and he’s blown it on crummy CGI. Whereas before a concept said a thousand words, this time around $30 million has said very little at all.

The Darkest Hour was released in UK cinemas on the 13th of January.

*~~~~ (1/5)

Ever since we got our first look at Emile Hirsch in the upcoming alien invasion/apocalyptic film The Darkest Hour back in the summer, I’ve been getting excited for its release at the start of next year.

Since then, we’ve seen the film’s first trailer, some incredible concept art, and a whole host of other awesome things to boot. We’ve now got a great viral video promoting the film to share with you, courtesy of ShockTillYouDrop, in which we get to see a Russian reporter witness the invasion, and subsequently get shredded, disintegrating into thin air.

“THE DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects.”

Along with Hirsch, The Darkest Hour also stars the brilliant Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor, and Joel Kinnaman. Chris Gorak, art director on Minority Report and Fight Club, is behind the camera on this, and Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov is producing.

This new viral video doesn’t explicitly even mention The Darkest Hour, and I think the very fact that you can easily tell that it’s promoting the film is so awesome. If you’ve seen any of the trailers or featurettes for the film so far, you’ll know that it’s got a really visually distinctive feel to it, and the look of the aliens and the ways in which Hirsch and Thirlby and co. tackle them is set to be brilliant.

The Darkest Hour will be hitting the UK in 3D on 13^th January, which means we’ve got less than a month to go until we can see the end of the world unfold on the big screen. I can’t wait. Until then, here’s the great new viral video to enjoy. Pretty much sucks to be him.

The second of Seth Grahame-Smith’s best-selling mash-up novels, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has found better traction on its path to the big screen than his earlier novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and is currently in post-production having filmed earlier this year.

We got our first look at photos from the set back in April, and IGN have now debuted the film’s brilliant first two posters, which give us a terrific look at Benjamin Walker in the lead as the eponymous President/Vampire Hunter. (Granted, you can’t see his face to tell it’s Walker, but I’d say the axe and the top hat are a bit of a clue.)

As the posters proudly promote at the top, the film is being produced by Tim Burton and has Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Night Watch, Day Watch) behind the camera. Alongside Walker, the filmmakers have lined up a great cast with some excellent rising stars at the moment, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Rufus Sewell, and Alan Tudyk.

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter explores the secret life of our greatest President, and the untold story that shaped our nation. Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted) bring a fresh and visceral voice to the blood-thirsty lore of the vampire, imagining Lincoln as history’s greatest hunter of the undead.”

Grahame-Smith has scripted the adaptation of his own novel for this, which means we’ll get to see two of his screenplays on the big screen next year, the first of which will mark is his feature debut with Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, due out on 11th May.

These new posters are of the lenticular variety, with one being Night and the other Day, so when you’re walking by it in real life, you’ll get twice the awesomeness in just one poster. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter will be with us in 3D on 2nd August next year, and here’s to hoping it’ll be one of the summer’s many great movies to look forward to. Without further ado, here are the two new posters. The handwritten signature-esque font of ‘Abraham Lincoln’ is a nice touch, like Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar. As usual, click to enlarge.

Here’s the second trailer for The Darkest Hour which oddly is only one minute long and appear to be more like a TV Spot than it does a full on trailer. The first trailer was 2.5 minutes long and showed us much more but this one still has me keen to go and see the movie that comes out in the US on Christmas Day and in the UK 13th January as is being distributed by Twentieth Century Fox where as Summit have it in the US.

The Darkest Hour which is directed by Chris Gorak, produced by Timur Bekmambetov​ and Tom Jacobson and stars Emile Hirsch​, Olivia Thirlby​, Max Minghella​, Rachael Taylor​.

Synopsis: The DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects.

Source: Apple

I have a really good feeling about The Darkest Hour. So far, everything we’ve seen from it has been pretty excellent, and it just gives off a great vibe. (Post-)Apocalyptic films seem to be coming in their dozens in the past few years (and obviously beyond that too), but this one looks to be one of the better ones.

We’ve now got a new poster from the film to share with you, courtesy of Yahoo Movies, showing a decimated street of Moscow wrecked by the alien attack.

“THE DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects.”

This poster does an excellent job of highlighting the words of that last sentence, showing Moscow’s beautiful architecture whilst demonstrating the brilliant effects we can expect in the film. As you can imagine, you definitely wouldn’t want to be caught up in the action of the film; judging from the trailer, they’ve done a pretty great job of making it all as visually convincing as possible.

Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby are leading the cast in this, with Chris Gorak, art director on Minority Report and Fight Club, directing, and Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov producing. The film is due to be released here in the UK after the US (hence the ‘Survive The Holidays’ line at the top of the poster), which is getting it at Christmas, with our release date being 13^th January next year. It’s definitely a date I’ve got noted in my mental film calendar; this is one to watch out for. Without further ado, here’s the new poster. As usual, click to enlarge.

It’s been a little while since we’ve seen something new from one of the several upcoming post-apocalyptic films, The Darkest Hour, but what we have seen so far (all of which you can catch up on here) has been pretty damn brilliant.

The film certainly seems to have created something visually awesome, even innovative, which you can definitely tell by the excellent concept art that was released back in the summer.

Two great new international posters have surfaced for the film over at IMP Awards, the first totally in CGI and the second is half-CGI, half-not. (Technically, a little more than half-CGI, but that’s neither here nor there.) Both posters give us a nice look at the end of the world that we can look forward to in this.

“THE DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects.”

Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby are leading the cast in what should be a fantastic film, with Chris Gorak, art director on Minority Report and Fight Club, directing, and Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov producing.

The Darkest Hour is due out on 13th January next year, so we’ve got just under three months until we can see this awesomeness for ourselves. Until then, here are the two new international posters to keep you content for the time being. As usual, click to enlarge.

20^th Century Fox have sent over this fab motion poster for their new movie, The Darkest Hour which is directed by Chris Gorak, produced by Timur Bekmambetov and Tom Jacobson and stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor. The movie hits UK cinemas 13th January and US cinemas on Christmas day.

Synopsis: The DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects.

Love these new motion posters that we seem to be seeing more and more of. Lets the people who are creative be even more so. No doubt we’ll see this on a London Tube TV screen in the not too distant future.

On a classified mission to the moon, tasked with planting detectors as part of an early warning system for ICBM attacks on the USA, cosmonauts Commander Nathan Walker and Captain Benjamin Anderson depart Freedom to land the lunar module Liberty on the moon’s surface.

Unable to sleep and the subject of certain mysterious goings on, their suspicions are ultimately aroused when they discover the corpse of a Russian cosmonaut while on routine expedition. Sensing that there is more to their assignment than first perceived, Nate and Ben must face the very real possibility that they are not in fact alone on the moon.

Considering the sheer ineptitude of the advertising campaign – noteworthy only for the new low it constituted in the industry’s use of photoshop – you could be forgiven for writing Apollo 18 off as a bit of a waste of time. But if every movie was judged on it’s posterwork alone Kevin James wouldn’t be the employed actor he is today.

OK, so maybe I should think before I analogise. My point is that going in with low expectations I was pleasantly surprised by Apollo 18; it may be no Troll Hunter (what is?), but it nevertheless engages with surprising aplomb, using its particular filmmaking device to arresting effect. While the film might lag in the beginning, as the mandatory genre statements inform us that the following footage was ‘leaked’ onto the internet after a decades-long cover-up, the footage used appears staggeringly authentic, with images of launches and apparent routine successfully inducing a growing sense of immersion that compliments the skeletal narrative greatly, effectively invoking a sense of novel mundaneness before things inevitably get a little Alien.

Once the film has settled, and the images have become more consistently stable (the found-footage element is a little invasive to begin with), an eerie atmosphere is allowed to slowly develop as our astronauts begin to suspect that they are not alone on the moon. Although short on genuine terror, Apollo 18 is definitely more accomplished at suspense than the trailer seems to suggest, as two crater-set scenes exist to display. With a cast of only three actors – not including the extras composing a set of highly unnecessary flashback sequences – leads Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen and to a lesser extent Ryan Robbins competently hold their own, particularly as the film approaches its frantic and desperate conclusion.

However, while they do their best with the source material, Apollo 18 lacks any real punch. Divulging little more about our heroes than that they like barbeques and dislike rubbing jalapenio juice into their crotches, John, Nate and Ben are little more than cyphers, lacking any real personality. For this reason, the jeopardy in which their lives are placed is of no real meaning. Sure, it sucks that they are stranded on the moon with – well, you had better wait and see – but why should we care? Yes, they have wives and children, but they’re not the ones with their lives hanging in the balance.

The result of this is that the film, though perfectly well directed by Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, is a decidedly unfulfilling experience. Though technically adequate,  there is little to set this film aside from previous found-footage fare beyond the novelty of its setting – a limitation approaching travesty when you consider the presence of Timur Bekmambetov on the film’s credits as producer (Night Watch was pretty much all punch). Beyond the atmospheric scrambling of footage and a few decent effects, Lopez-Gallego’s film is sadly of little note. Merely fine, Apollo 18 might reward low expectations but is unlikely to warrant repeated viewing.

**~~~ (2/5)

There is just one more day to go until we get to find out exactly why we never went back to the Moon with Gonzalo López-Gallego’s Apollo 18′s searing indictment on the socio-political consequences of NASA budget cutbacks.

Or more likely it’ll be a lunar version of Paranormal Activity which is pretty much what is promised here in this final trailer. Usually when a film isn’t screened for the press it bodes badly for the final product however into an open mind floods the notion that there’s something special on offer here and the new trailer promises a twist filled final ten minutes that any advance word would ruin. Yeah. I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

Here’s your trailer lunartics,

and a TV spot which really does ruin one of the film’s scares, but hey – I bet they’ve got a bagfull of these in their film.

Yahoo had the last one.

Moon based stalk/scare frenzy Apollo 18 has the intriguing premise of a secret lunar mission with unknown nasties attacking the astronauts, however despite a few well designed early teases the more we’ve seen of this film the more generic it’s looking.

Secret ‘found’ footage gimmicks and conspiracy craziness swirl around this but it won’t be until the 2nd of September that we get to see if director Gonzalo Lopez and producing partner Timur Bekmambetov can pull something surprising out of the shadows because Blair Witch in space isn’t doing it for me.

Three new clips have been released which contain a little new footage, and hint at a few interesting details that will be all important in creating the right atmosphere to scare our faces off.

Stand by for a cool glass of synopsis,

Officially, Apollo 17, launched December 17th, 1972 was the last manned mission to the moon.  But in December of 1974, two American astronauts were sent on a secret mission to the moon funded by the US Department of Defense. What you are about to see is the actual footage which the astronauts captured on that mission. While NASA denies its authenticity, others say it’s the real reason we’ve never gone back to the moon.

Clippage follows:

Here’s a few new TV spots for the rather eerie movie that is Apollo 18. It’s produced by Timur Bekmambetov who directed Angelina Jolie in Wanted and this movie is directed by Gonzalo López. It recently got picked by by the Weinstein company so we’re expecting it to be rather good.

Officially, Apollo 17, launched December 17th, 1972 was the last manned mission to the moon.  But in December of 1974, two American astronauts were sent on a secret mission to the moon funded by the US Department of Defense. What you are about to see is the actual footage which the astronauts captured on that mission. While NASA denies its authenticity, others say it’s the real reason we’ve never gone back to the moon.

Apollo 1is is released in the US September 2nd but we have to wait until 22nd April here in the UK I’m afraid.

We got our first look at Emile Hirsch in the upcoming sci-fi action thriller, The Darkest Hour, last month and it was a pretty nice introduction to the film. Then Comic-Con furnished us with some great concept art, and we got an absolutely awesome first trailer just a few days ago.

Some more brilliant concept art has been released via /Film, and there’s a nice description to go with each one, so you know exactly what the awesomeness that you’re feasting your eyes upon is.

“THE DARKEST HOUR is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects.”

The film is directed by Chris Gorak, who was art director on Minority Report and Fight Club, both truly awesome films, so you know that he’s got the experience and capabilities to pull off an awesome alien movie with brilliant special effects. Timur Bekmambetov, who directed Wanted and will be producing Gareth Edwards’ next film, is producing the film, which is led by the fantastic Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby, who will also be seen in the upcoming Killer Joe and Dredd respectively.

The Darkest Hour is due out just before Christmas this year in the States, and will be hitting our cinemas on 13th January next year. If you haven’t been keeping an eye on this film so far, I highly recommend that now is the time to start, because what we’ve been shown so far from it looks pretty immense. There have been plenty of sci-fi action films in the past few years, but this one looks to be doing some very visually awesome work, as this new concept art shows. We’ve seen the first couple of these before, but the majority of them are new, and all of them have got neat little descriptions now to go with them. I think of all these new artworks, my favourite has to be the Faraday Cat, and I’ll let you see why beneath. As usual, click to make them go big.

Shredding

The aliens in THE DARKEST HOUR are unlike any depicted on screen. Composed of lethal wave energy, they have the ability to shred apart human life.

Subway Attack
An alien “seeker” emits a controlled lightning bolt to reel in its prey.

Seeker Bolt
A close-up of the alien seeker bolt.

Flamethrower
The aliens in THE DARKEST HOUR are virtually invisible. They are detected only by the surrounding electrical systems they activate, making travel by day particularly dangerous.

Trolley Attack
A seeker alien attacks Olivia Thirlby & Emile Hirsch on a runaway trolley train.

Alien POV
Life forms are illuminated by the faint electrical impulses in the body’s nervous system. This is a pre-vis look at how the aliens see humans.

Sergei’s Faraday Cage
The group of survivors meet up with an eccentric Russian scientist, who has outfitted his apartment as a giant Faraday cage, providing protection from the aliens.

Faraday Cat
Sergei’s cat is also outfitted with a mini-Faraday cage.

Matvei
The survivors meet up with a group of tough Russian soldiers on horseback, led by Matvei.

Submarine
A submarine in the heart of Moscow may provide temporary sanctuary from the vicious aliens.

Alien Tower
An alien tower, whose function is central to the mystery of the aliens’ motivation for taking over our planet.

When Monsters came out last year, it instantly became one of my favourite British films of all time. To me, writer and director Gareth Edwards made a masterpiece with his feature debut.

He then signed on to direct Legendary Pictures’ new Godzilla film earlier this year, with David Goyer (The Dark Knight, Blade) currently rewriting the script, and now details of his as-yet-untitled next project he will both write and direct have arisen, /Film report.

Edwards has been working on the project for some time now, coming up with the idea before he made Monsters. But details about it have been kept pretty quiet. In an interview he gave with The Playlist last year, all he really said about it was that,

“it’s an epic human story set in a futuristic world without humanity.”

Now, we’ve got a little bit more to add to that:

“The still untitled project is about a young human child (probably around 5 years old) and a robot who travel across the galaxy in search of mankind’s origin in a world void of humanity and filled with robots.”

And Edwards is pitching the project as,

“a robot Star Wars.”

If, like me, you saw and loved Monsters last year, this is definitely a project to look forward to. Edwards had almost no money to work with on Monsters, and he still managed to create an utterly fantastic film, taking on the visual effects himself. Now, he will hopefully be granted a little more money with which to work, and I can only imagine he’ll come back with yet another incredible film.

Edwards is going to be working alongside Russian producer and director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Wanted, and the forthcoming Apollo 18), who will produce the project with Edwards, which should make for a great match. Script work is still being done for the film, so it could be a little while before we hear more concrete news about when filming can begin, but hopefully production on the project will be starting soon.

This is more like it. Yesterday’s Wasp in a Spacesuit poster for Apollo 18 was far too obvious, not at all scary and when you’re setting up your audience to be intrigued and then scared out of their pants you need to learn the noble art of the tease.

This paranormal activity in space should work very well providing director Gonzalo López-Gallego keeps us up in the air as much as possible. As with Alfonso Cuaron’s forthcoming spacebound movie Gravity the tension comes from the belief that we are completely isolated and comepletely alone. Think of Duncan Jones’ Moon – the device of having the only contact with Earth either recorded or on a time delay immediately and subtly redoubles the feeling of isolation.

I just hope whatever is dragging this poor astronaut off into the dark of the moon is something more scary than a cast off from Starship Troopers.

Here’s your pic, which – hey! can be clicked and bigged up,

Let’s all take a moment and thank IMPA. Done? Right – click on.

The more I see of the marketing for Apollo 18, the Moon bound Blair-Witch esque scarefest, the less I’m caught in its orbit.

I’m on board for the basic premise of a secret Apollo mission and the notion that there’s sinister at play out there but, while the first posters made the most of the film’s unsettling imagery, the recent trailer seemed to dull the effect of the potential for the haunted isolation spooks.

That said director Gonzalo López-Gallego has Timur Bekmambetov behind him on this film, and here’s hoping there’s life left in the found footage subgenre.

Check out the subtle poster below and steel yourself for a bad trip to the Moon.

Found footage horror Apollo 18 just got its second trailer and the mystery of what really* happened to the Apollo 18 lunar mission deepens accordingly

Gonzalo López directs a script from Brian Miller and the name on the poster you may know is that of filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov who jumped aboard with his Executive Producing hat.

The marketing so far has done a fair job of creating some unsettling images for the film (with the very first poster giving more away than we’ve seen since) and it’s an intriguing premise but this new trailer leaves me a little cold. If you’re flying me to the moon you’d better make it worth my while (nod to you Duncan Jones) and I hope that this is more than just Paranormal Activity in Space.

*not really.

This is really nothing more than a brief look at Benjamin Walker as the 16th President of the United States in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and while several of the assembled do seem as if they are moments away from taking their own first steps in the life beyond it’s a fairly sedate first look at Timur Bekmambetov’s film.

The New York Times talked to the director on set and clarified some of the plot points we’ll see next year and what he said hints at a far more thoughtful approach to the supernatural alternative history,

The “Vampire Hunter” film, like the book, follows Lincoln from his boyhood on the frontier through his assassination by John Wilkes Booth and — because this is a vampire story — beyond. Young Lincoln, having learned that his grandfather and mother were killed by vampires, vows to kill every last blood-sucker in a country that is crawling with them.

On realizing that vampires are tangled in the slave trade, Lincoln’s resolve grows and takes on a moral dimension. To complicate matters he also learns that the creatures come in two varieties, good and bad.

Decapitations and moral flux with stiff collars and outstanding muttonchop sideburns? Count me in. Here’s your pic.