SIDESHOW REVEALS PUMPKINHEAD STATUE INSPIRED BY THE CULT HORROR CLASSIC: "Sideshow and Premium Collectibles Studio (PCS) have revealed an all-new limited edition horror collectible inspired by the special effects legend Stan Winston's 1988 directorial debut, Pumpkinhead™. This fully sculpted and meticulously detailed Pumpkinhead Statue by PCS stands an impressive 27.4" high and evokes all the nightmarish menace, malice, and madness of the infamous Demon of Vengeance.
Eerily looking for its next victim, the Pumpkinhead Statue stands upon the aptly designed base, replicating the iconic graveyard scene in the film. Much like the figure itself, the gruesome details are impossible to ignore. Fans will notice a particularly creepy Easter egg sculpted into the base — the partially buried inhuman corpse that Ed Harley digs up in order to summon the vengeful demon, Pumpkinhead.
An ultra-limited-edition Exclusiv
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BLOOD CONSCIOUS: "Kevin, his older sister, Brittney, and her fiancé, Tony, set off to their parents’ lakeside cottage expecting a leisurely weekend getaway, but little did they expect the horror that awaits them.
Their holiday turns into a trip from hell as they enter a scene of mass murder, where their parents and neighbors this side of the lake all lie dead.
Terror strikes when the armed murderer confronts them, alleging to be fighting demonic forces that had possessed them all. They pin him down and lock him up in the cellar, but soon he claims to not to be alone down there.
As unexpected and traumatic events keep unfolding, they will have to find a way to survive the night without turning on each other, or becoming possessed."
In Select Theaters + Digital/VOD on August 20th
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Breaking Down the Too Late Score, Interview with Composer Mikel Hurwitz: "
Gravitas Ventures’ horror-comedy Too Late is now available in select theaters and VOD. To learn more about the making of the movie we spoke to one of the film’s creatives, composer Mikel Hurwitz. Read our Q&A with him below.
-How would you describe your Too Late score?
It’s an eclectic journey through quirky horror moments, pulsing synths, strings ostinatos, with accordion and harpsichord thematic elements superimposed on top of it that get progressively more mangled as the score progresses.
-What was your favorite part of collaborating with the film’s director, D.W. Thomas?
DW was great to work with because she had developed a really specific feel for the film before it even had music. There was a vaudevillian kind of eclecticism to the set design, weird moments of trippy key lights, and just generally captured in a distinctive way by the DP & through Thomas’ eye.
More than any of that, though, she never delivered any temporary music along with the various cuts I received during scoring. This shows a real trust and openness in the composer’s skill and intuition. I very rarely work like this and after having done it, even though it’s harder to do, it’s such a pure way of scoring a picture: My reaction to the film while crafting music for it wasn’t influenced by any temporary decision that was made by the editor during editing. It really allowed me to feel the flow of the edit.
-Was there a specific scene that was particularly difficult for you to score?
I think the trickiest scene to get right was the climax scene where violet gets eaten. It was just tricky to nail the tone of it because though it’s a scene with a lot of gore, there is still a humor to it, though not overt. I think I scored it more contemporarily first then slowly worked in our unique sonic elements in a creative way over various iterations of the cue.
-You incorporated the antique clock into the score when Bob devours Chase. Why did you decide to do this?
Oh, you might be thinking about the Dulcitone? It’s actually a bell-like keyboard instrument that was the predecessor of the celeste or the Rhodes electric piano more recently, not that different, I suppose, from how a grandfather clock or tabletop chime clock might sound. Or perhaps you’re thinking about some of the hollow-sounding percussion-like thing? That is actually prepared piano – I stuck a pencil eraser in the piano strings and it gives you this cool muted sound that was kind of ‘clicky’.
In terms of why I chose these elements, I suppose I was riffing off the tabletop mantle clock in the set a little and was ultimately trying to add a rhythmic pulsing motor to help the suspense of the scene.
-Too Late is classified as a horror-comedy. Both of these genres have very different sounds. Musically, how did you decide on the right tone?
They are different sounds but timing a scene musically is actually kind of similar: whether you’re building to the scare or joke, there is an element of tension and release in both of them.
The tone of the score ultimately just came from lots of conversation with the director and writer/producer – we talked a lot about Bob’s backstory and that we wanted to subliminally communicate it with music off-screen because we intentionally don’t get it explicitly on-screen through the script or acting (though we do with the set design).
-Did you watch any other horror comedies, such as Zombieland, to see how other people approached this subgenre?
Honestly, no, and it was by design this way. I wanted this score to come from my unfettered reaction to what was on screen, combined with how I imagine the subgenre to be, and not from being influenced by anyone else’s take on it.
-The climax when Bob confronts Violet in the end, there is a big musical moment. Did you have to spend extra time on this scene, then some of the others?
I talked a little about this in an earlier question, but to expand on it: I think this was one of the scenes that we spent the most time on, if for nothing more than we had to try a couple times to get the tone right and find the balance between the underlying comedy and the onscreen gore.
-The opening and end credits are very similar, but when looking at the track list, the end credits are almost a minute longer. What variation did you do?
The End Credits is a variation on the Main Titles. I’m not sure what exactly you mean by ‘what variation’ but the End Credits has a bunch of added elements, effects and sections in the arrangement to sort of muck up the original in a way that’s telling us that we’ve been through this experience of the film. I wanted this cue to bookend the score intentionally.
-What horror films/tv shows do you recommend from the past year?
I thought 1BR was great.
You can listen to Mikel’s Too Late score here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3syTE5Bjjyp4MNaRcpa7A7.
The film was directed by D.W. Thomas and stars Alyssa Limperis, Ron Lynch, Will Weldon, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Fred Armisen, Jenny Zigrino and Jack De Sena."
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