After having watched, " Frozen ", I was almost hesitant to sit through another minimal location/minimal casting/minimal title thriller... but I'm glad I did. Paul wakes up to find himself buried alive in a coffin.  All he has is a Zippo lighter, and a Blackberry phone. As time and air runs out, he maintain his sanity, and deal with the demands of those that placed him there... otherwise the coffin will be his final resting place...

And somewhere, in the state of Florida , Jeb Bush is eating a live puppy. That's how I feel about a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds . I know I've said each remake should be judged on its own terms, but remaking The Birds is as stupid an idea as remaking Psycho , and look how that turned out. Some movies should be left alone, and The Birds is one of them.

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a horror classic, and the house Norman Bates called home a veritable landmark of terror. I've done the Universal Studio's tour a few times, and seeing the set used in the movie was a thrill each time. Which is why it pains me just a titch to think the studio is considering tearing it down. I get progress, I get that there's new things that appeal to the younger generation, but dismantling the Psycho house feels wrong. It's a landmark in it's own right. A piece of history.

Y'all remember Jeremiah Kipp, he who won our Win A Chat with a Scream Queen contest back in Season Three and made the exceptional short flick Crestfallen? Well, he's back! I just had the pleasure of watching Jeremiah's latest short, Baggage -- a groovy 14-minute throwback to the tales found on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, only bloodier and a titch more disturbing. Rob Dimension plays Benjamin, a normal guy trying to live his life and fit into society. We get to spend one day with Benjamin, and witness how his simple existence unfolds with unsettling results. Dimension is great as Benjamin, and Jeremiah once again shows he's an accomplished filmmaker. Baggage is more of a straight-up genre piece than Crestfallen, and plays within the conventions of what we expect. It's expertly made. As with any good Hitchcock tale, nothing is quite as it seems. I figured out the twist right away, but was still pulled along for the ride. And yeah, the last shot got me. Got ...

In what has to be one of the cleverest viral marketing ploys for a movie I've ever seen, we bring you this PSA from the Master of the Suspense himself -- Alfred Hitchcock. And he would like you to turn off your cell phones during the movie. The great Anthony Hopkins brings the director to life here, as he does in the upcoming biopic Hitchcock, due out next month. This is awesome. Pure awesome. And very much in line with the way Hitchcock used to introduce his TV series and films. Directed by Sacha Gervasi, Hitchcock stars Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, and Jessica Biel. Watch, share and enjoy.

The modern horror movie wouldn't exist without Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho. And judging from the below preview for Sacha Gervasi's upcoming biopic Hitchcock, it was a film no one wanted the master filmmaker to make. Few directors are as deserving of a biopic as Hitchcock. And it looks like Gervasi and screenwriter John J. McLaughlin have picked the perfect thread -- in the story of Psycho's trip to the screen -- to hang such a film on. I'm in! What a cast too: Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson and her boobs, Jessica Biel. The list goes on and on. Hell, even Ralph The Karate Kid Macchio gets in on the action as screenwriter Joe Stefano! This movie looks great. I actually look forward to seeing it. Hitchcock opens in limited release via Fox Searchlight next month.  

We haven't featured much on Sacha Gervasi's upcoming biography on the life and times of famed director Alfred Hitchcock because, well, we just haven't. Back off about it! Now that we've scored a couple of pics from the film, which is due out next month, we figured what the hey -- let's post 'em. The film is a love story between influential filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) during the filming of Psycho in 1959. Fleshing out what really is a great cast are Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel as Vera Miles and James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins. Yeah, I might have to see this. Above is a pic of Hopkins in classic Hitchcock profile and below is the lovely Johansson as Leigh. If anything, the casting for this is perfect. We'll have to see if the film is as good.

Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin, a plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives a work of fiction. Writer/director Nate Golon must have had the term in mind when he crafted his short film Briefcase. Take a guess what the MacGuffin is. Golon also stars in the film, which we've embedded for you below at his request. The less said about Briefcase before you have the chance to watch it the better. So I'm gonna embed away and share my two cents after the break. This is a pretty cool little film; a concept ripe for a short. Golon uses the MacGuffin well in crafting a tale right out of The Twilight Zone that's five minutes well spent. It's a good looking flick too. I'd love to see what he can do with a feature film. To learn more about Briefcase check out the film's Facebook page , where Golon promises more about the film's mythology. Something tells me we're not done with this story yet.

Basement contributor Matt Bellamy has taken it upon himself to watch and review at least one horror movie a day for the month of October . . . because he's awesome that way! For our Friday edition of the series, Bellamy challenges the notion that a man's best friend is his mother.   Wouldn't be right to not include a classic, and from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, this is one deeply disturbing movie. The themes 'Psycho' plays with throughout its runtime must have been controversial and slightly taboo upon its release in 1960; brutal murder, voyeurism, and schizophrenia aren't exactly light subject matter! Janet Leigh stars as a woman with a secret agenda of her own who, on a dark and stormy night, pulls into the notorious Bates Motel to spend the night. Something isn't right though, the manager played by Anthony Perkins seems very strange and awkward, her intuition turns out to be cor...

It's no secret we in The Basement loved the hell out of the British revenge thriller Harry Brown. Now the man who made Michael Caine totally bad ass again is ready to direct a variation on Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train We don't need another spin on The Master's classic but if anyone can do it, Daniel Barber can. Granted, Harry Brown was Barber's first feature, but it was intense, suspenseful and featured some bone-crunching violence. He also got great performances out of the entire cast, including Emily Mortimer (above). There are few plot details available, but Ian Shorr’s script takes Strangers on a Train's plot and transplants it to high school, with a substitute teacher convincing a student they should swap murders. Shorr also wrote the fucking great indie horror flick Splinter, so that's two points in Substitution's favour. No word yet on when Substitution starts rolling, but we'll keep you posted, as always.

Buried Jason: I love movies that leave me feeling like I've been punched in the gut and this movie did that to me. The final 10 minutes are unbearably suspenseful and the ending, although some may see it coming, still packs a wallop. This is the kind of movie Alfred Hitchcock would have made if he were still with us. It's cinematic, emotional and even shocking despite its cramped quarters and features a great performance by Ryan Reynolds. This is a one-man show and he owns it. A Good review from me. Shawn: You know, a man in a box for the whole movie? I wondered if this was something that I would even be able to endure. And I've never really been a fan of Ryan Reynolds, as I believe he should stick with humorous roles as that is what he personifies. Is this a thriller? No, not really. Unless you are highly claustrophobic and also have a fear of snakes. But I was surprised at how well this movie worked and kept me interested. At the end, I was surprised again. ...

Where to begin in our descriptions of tonight's films? One is a documentary for our times that has been accused of not being a documentary at all. The other is a one-man show about a man buried in a coffin beneath the sands of Iraq. To say much more would be giving too much away. Buried stars future Green Lantern Ryan Reynolds, an actor better known for his comedic timing than his dramatic chops. But he's all there really is to Buried and the film hinges on his ability to carry a dramatic role. Does he pull it off:? Stick with us! Then there's Catfish, a high-tech "thriller" of a documentary about online relationships and dating in the Facebook age. Some believe what happens in Catfish is too good to be true. Being a journalist, I make my bread and butter off of such stories and have come to believe that truth really is stranger than fiction.  In the end, all we in The Basement really care about is does the film work? Tune in tonight and find out. And don...

Centurion Jason: The latest effort from writer/director Neil Marshall highlights his talent for crafting exciting action and suspense sequences but lacks the tightness of script he showed in earlier efforts Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Events don't happen out of logic, but because the screenplay requires them to. As a result, Centurion feels contrived and isn't as much fun to watch as Marshall's earlier work. I hope he abandons his loftier ambitions and returns to his low budget roots, much like a certain Spider-Man director. A Bad rating from me. Shawn: Why do you need to start such an exciting movie with a slow, slow, slow opening credit sequence? Whoa. Blood. What a great movie!  The story was awesome, and I went through most of the movie not really knowing who to cheer for. Actually, there wasn't really a side you could pick. This was a cool emotion, because the vengeance by either side was served up with a fantastic amount of blood. Ha ha! A Good review fr...

Mike S and yours truly (Jason) are back, this time taking on the suspense flick Hit and Run. We use the term suspense loosely. Jason:  A film that tries very hard to be more Hitchcock thriller than simple slasher, but fails at almost every turn. The concept of a woman stalked by a man she hit with her vehicle and left for dead has potential, but director Enda McCallion is totally inept at getting any suspense out of the proceedings. In fact, McCallion doesn't even understand how to stage a scene. The film just clunks from one moment to the next and never ends up going anywhere. Laura Breckenridge makes for a fetching damsel in distress, but the movie ultimately lets her down. Better luck next time. Mike S: This movie was a hit and run in it self. While I will give it credit for some interesting film techniques (the high speed driving), the rest of it was as lively as... well, road kill. The acting was barely passible. The characters weren't engaging, and I wa...