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One of European cinema’s most distinctive, fearless and tireless narrative and documentary filmmakers, Eckhart Schmidt, died of natural causes at his home in Munich on Oct. 24, only a few days before his 86th birthday.

His best-known film, the psychological horror thriller, “The Fan,” was graphic and shocking when it premiered in 1982, and its stomach-churning tale of a cannibalistic groupie was influential on a generation of horror filmmakers, but the film didn’t achieve mass commercial success upon its initial release.

Banned in several territories for its jarring, bloody portrait of a rock star-obsessed teenager, in the past decade the film has undergone a global rediscovery, popping up in sold-out screenings at film festivals (like Thessaloniki in 2019) and a social media obsession to match its heroine’s zeal (but thankfully not her savagery).

Before his multi-disciplinary career in the visual arts, Schmidt worked as a film critic for the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung,...

High school can be heaven or hell depending on your social status, and for the titular character in Brian DePalma's Carrie (based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King), life is definitely the latter. Coming out on a Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory on Tuesday, October 11th, Carrie is teased in high-def clips and a trailer.

From Scream Factory: "Great news! Our upcoming 40th Anniversary Blu-ray release of Carrie will include a fantastic and in-depth interview with composer Pino Donnagio--who has been responsible for scoring all sorts of great thrillers such as The Howling, Piranha, Tourist Trap, The Fan, Dressed to Kill, Raising Cain and so many more.

National street date is 10/11/16. Final List of extras again are as follows:

• New 4K Scan of the original negative and restoration

• New More Acting Carrie – featuring interviews with Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, William Katt, Piper Laurie,...

Back in June, fans of 1976’s Carrie were excited to hear that Scream Factory would be coming out with a Collector’s edition Blu-ray of Brian De Palma’s Stephen King adaptation, and they might be absolutely elated by the latest special features revealed for the anticipated release:

From Scream Factory: “Great news! Our upcoming 40th Anniversary Blu-ray release of Carrie will include a fantastic and in-depth interview with composer Pino Donnagio–who has been responsible for scoring all sorts of great thrillers such as The Howling, Piranha, Tourist Trap, The Fan, Dressed to Kill, Raising Cain and so many more.

National street date is 10/11/16. Final List of extras again are as follows:

• New 4K Scan of the original negative and restoration

• New More Acting Carrie – featuring interviews with Nancy Allen, Betty Buckley, William Katt, Piper Laurie, Edie McClurg and P.J. Soles

• New Writing Carrie – an interview with screenwriter...

Released in the bleak aftermath of John Lennon’s murder, The Fan, with its story of a deadly celebrity stalking, hit a little too close to home to be a hit, in spite of the high pedigree of its cast including Lauren Bacall, James Garner and Maureen Stapleton. The film boasts a typical Pino Donnagio score, an unnerving blend of romance and horror. Director Ed Bianchi went on to produce HBO’s Deadwood.

Today we are talking to a multi-award-winning stage and screen musical master all about the forthcoming Fathom presentation of his new musical From Here To Eternity premiering in movie theaters nationwide early next month, the sharp and affable Sir Tim Rice. Outlining his impetus for pursuing a musical adaptation of the acclaimed novel upon which the multi-Academy Award-winning film is based, Rice reveals what drew him to the project as well as what viewers can expect from the dense, complex and majestic score created along with composer Stuart Brayson for the enterprise. Additionally, Rice sheds some light on the specifics of crafting the show, with a special emphasis on the controversial elements contained within the material. Plus, Rice shares specific examples of how some of the biggest showstoppers in the rich and varied score were crafted, as well as his impressions of the impeccable cast featured in the stage version,...

Legendary screen siren Lauren Bacall died of a massive stroke at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.

Her death was confirmed by Robbert de Klerk, the co-managing partner of the Humphrey Bogart Estate with her son Stephen Bogart. In a statement he said: "She passed away peacefully earlier today in New York."

Her daughter, Leslie Bogart, said the family was not sharing any additional information at this time.

The 89-year-old actress has appeared in more than sixty films over her career and was best known for her distinctive smoky voice. Smart, sultry and witty - she was a beauty with brains and a devastating wit, always a highly assertive and sassy on screen presence who classed up every film she was in.

Her film debut was also one of her more memorable roles - she was 19 and co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in "To Have and Have Not". She...

Legendary actor James Garner has died at the age of 86.  TMZ reports that an ambulance was sent to the actor's Los Angeles home on Sunday but he was dead when they arrived. The distinctively voiced actor reportedly died of natural causes.

With more than five decades of projects under his belt, Garner was one of those rare actors who had an equally successful career in both television and movies. 

On TV he was in not one but two iconic roles as the title characters in 1950s western-comedy "Maverick" and 1970s detective drama "The Rockford Files". He subsequently appeared in the 1994 "Maverick" film as the father of Mel Gibson's younger Maverick lead.

He also starred in over fifty films including many iconic titles like "The Great Escape," "Grand Prix," "Victor/Victoria," "The Americanization of Emily," "Marlowe," "Hour of the Gun," "Up Periscope," "The Art of Love," "The Fan," "Barbarians at the Gate,...

Thirty years ago, a killing machine from 2029—assuming the form of an Austrian bodybuilder—arrived with a lethal directive to alter the future. That he certainly did. The Terminator, made for $6.4 million by a couple of young disciples of B-movie king Roger Corman, became one of the defining sci-fi touchstones of all time. Its $38 million gross placed it outside of the top-20 box-office releases for 1984, yet the film grew into a phenomenon, spawning a five-picture franchise that’s taken in $1.4 billion to date and securing a place on the National Film Registry, which dubbed it “among the finest science-fiction films in many decades.

PopBytes gives Kristen Stewart advice re: her custody battle with Robert Pattinson (they share a beautiful dog)

Kirsten Dunst shares Garrett Hedlund tempting a squirrel with his nuts! (We used to do this as a little kid -- until my sister got bit!)

My New Plaid Pants remembers delicious latent homo Michael Biehn in The Fan. The internet is a wonderful time-free zone where people can obsess on Biehn like it's 1982 whenever they damn well want!

Gawker on Demi Moore's long cinematic rough patch 

The Playlist Nicole Kidman will play a small role in Lars von Trier's pornographic The Nymphomaniac (2013). Oh how I love them both. Please please please let this be as good as The Idiots.

Stale Popcorn Glenn reviews Cosmopolis and Step Up Revolution together because, duh, obvious double feature

i09 has the greatest unintentionally funny lines in genre films/tv. Love #8 and #1 so much. 

In...

Diane Warren Oscar-nominated Songwriter Diane Warren attends the 2011 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, November 12. [Photo: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.] James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies) was a long-distance Honorary Oscar honoree, as he's co-starring with Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy on the London stage; veteran makeup artist Dick Smith (The Fan, Ghost Story, The Hunger, Nighthawks), however, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar. TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey, a 1985 Best Supporting Actress nominee for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Diane Warren has received six Oscar nominations for her song compositions. The nominated films were Mannequin, starring Andrew McCarthy; Up Close & Personal, with Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer; Con Air, with Nicolas Cage; Armageddon, with Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Bruce Willis, and Billy Bob Thornton...

Sean Young Actress Sean Young attends the 2011 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, November 12. [Photo: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.] James Earl Jones was a long-distance Honorary Oscar honoree, as he's co-starring with Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy on the London stage; veteran makeup artist Dick Smith (Ghost Story, The Fan, The Hunger), however, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar. TV talk show personality Oprah Winfrey, a 1985 Best Supporting Actress nominee for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Among Young's credits are James Ivory's Jane Austen in Manhattan, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, David Lynch's Dune, Oliver Stone's Wall Street, Roger Donaldson's Now Way Out, and Joel Schumacher's Cousins. Also, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Boost, Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, Motel Blue, and Poor White Trash. Her leading men included Harrison Ford,...

It's that time of year again - pumpkins line porches, bags of candy fill the drugstore shelves, and children everywhere are encouraged by their parents to ring the bells of strangers' houses and demand handouts.

Halloween season also is the one time of year where it's pretty much impossible to avoid horror movies. If you're a horror fan like I am, there's really no change in your viewing habits because you were probably going to be watching Suspiria and The Abominable Dr. Phibes tonight anyway. But if you're only a seasonal horror fan, it can be a bit daunting to navigate the sea of bloody entertainments that flood the airwaves this time of year.

To that end, we've put together a list of over 50 horror movies that are as funny as they are scary (whether intentionally or by accident). Hopefully with the list below as a reference, even the most...

In the first part of our extensive interview with actor Michael Biehn, we got to chat about his 1980s work in The Terminator, Aliens, and much, much more…

Anyone who’s familiar with my writing will know that I have a great love of under-appreciated actors. I’ll use any opportunity available to praise their work, and draw attention to films and performances that sometimes pass by relatively unnoticed.

Michael Biehn, for my money, is the most under-appreciated actor of them all. I’m sure most of our readers hold him in high regard, since he’s starred in several of the greatest films ever made, but to the general public, he’s less widely recognised.

Best known for playing father of the future, Kyle Reese, in The Terminator and D Hicks in Aliens (I’m well aware what the initial stands for, but I was crushed when the Special...

Michael Biehn has been linked with an appearance in Terminator 5. But we suspect the actor himself might not be keen. Here's why...

Recently, we had the tremendous opportunity to have a rather lengthy and incredibly in-depth one-on-one chat to screen legend, Michael Biehn, spanning his entire career from The Fan, back in 1981, to his forthcoming directorial debut, The Victim (which I hasten to add he's very excited about).

During the course of the interview, the topic of the Terminator films inevitably arose, with Biehn being kind enough to humour us with his audition story through to his scepticism about initially becoming part of the first film. He was extremely frank in conversation, and as you'll see below, has taken no involvement in the last two Terminator films at all, through a sheer lack of interest.

Biehn has always maintained the same stance over the years towards the sequels, though,...

Subject: Michael Biehn, 53-year old American actor (turned writer and director)

Date of Assessment: March 2, 2011

Positive Buzzwords: Intensity, ability to speak wordless volumes, James Cameron

Negative Buzzwords: Lack of star power, James Cameron

The Case: Upon initial contemplation of this week's subject, the first question that springs to mind is this: What the hell ever happened to Michael Biehn? Such an involuntary reaction is based upon an assumption that Biehn's a relatively lost visage of the 1980s; but anyone who's been paying attention would realize that Biehn's been (for the most part) working steadily as an actor even though his big-time blockbuster roles have long since ceased to exist. Naturally, he came from humble beginnings by steadily landing a lot of television work, including both regular series (even an "ABC Afternoon Special") and made-for-tv movies before moving into feature films. Upon arrival within the celluloid realm, Biehn initially appeared to...

Lauren Bacall (top); Bacall, Mimi Rogers in Barbra Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces (bottom) In her 2005 autobiography By Myself and Then Some, Lauren Bacall's updated version of her 1978 bestseller By Myself, the two-time Tony Award-winning actress (for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981) candidly discusses the ballyhoo surrounding her first — and to date only — Academy Award nomination for Barbra Streisand's 1996 romantic comedy-melodrama The Mirror Has Two Faces. Apart from a few film career lulls, Bacall had been working steadily in front of the camera since her film début in Howard Hawks' 1945 adventure-drama To Have and Have Not. But whether as mere on-screen decoration (Key Largo, Bright Leaf, Young Man with a Horn) or as a reliable leading lady (How to Marry a Millionaire, Woman's World, The Fan), she had been invariably ignored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [...]...

Lauren Bacall, Mimi Rogers in Barbra Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces Julie Christie, Judi Dench, Peter Fonda: Oscar Veterans 1997 Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Barbra Streisand's domineering mother in the Streisand-directed melodrama The Mirror Has Two Faces. In one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history, Bacall lost to Juliette Binoche, who was one of the leads in Anthony Minghella's The English Patient. The Mirror Has Two Faces earned Bacall her first Oscar nomination. She began her film career in Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not in 1945. Among Bacall's other film credits are Hawks' The Big Sleep (1946), John Huston's Key Largo (1948), Jean Negulesco's How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and Ed Bianchi's The Fan (1981).

Julie Andrews, Gloria Swanson, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant, Linda Darnell, George Hamilton, Melvyn Douglas, and Louise Brooks are some of the female and male clotheshorses on parade in the New York Public Library's Performing Arts film series "Not Off the Rack: High Fashion in the Movies," which kicks off on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 2:30 p.m. The series will run every Tuesday through Oct. 26. Admission is free. Arranged by guest programmer Joseph Yranski, "Not Off the Rack" will present seven movies: the double bill Tonight or Never (1931) / Prix de beauté (1930), The Fan (1981), Star! (1968), That Touch of Mink (1962), Unfaithfully Yours (1948), and Love at First Bite (1979). Featured costume designers include Coco Chanel, Jean Patou, Oscar de la Renta, Donald Brooks, and Halston. "Not Off the Rack" is being presented as a tie-in to Fashion Week, along with the Nypl's exhibition "On Stage in Fashion: Designs [...]...

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall, who appeared in, among others, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Young Man with a Horn, How to Marry a Millionaire, Woman’s World, Sex and the Single Girl, Murder on the Orient Express, The Fan, and The Mirror Has Two Faces, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14. Maria Bello, the leading lady in A History of Violence Oscar 2010 co-host Alec Baldwin, a best supporting actor Academy Award nominee for The Cooler Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

It was announced yesterday that New York City is launching a major tourism campaign based around the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion in an effort to draw gay visitors to the city, the first integrated campaign for gay tourists in NYC's history.

The gist of the campaign is that thanks to its place in gay rights history, the city should be a "pilgrimage destination" for all gays and lesbians, and that NYC has much to offer gay visitors.

We thought we'd do our part and propose the first-ever AfterElton.com Gay Entertainment Walking Tour of the city, based around key locations from some of the most notable movies and television moments involving gay folk. 

Put on your walkin' shoes and let's hit the streets!

The Meatpacking District (Cruising)

Sure, it's pretty hard to recognize the gritty locales from the infamous (for better or for worse) gay murder thriller from...