It’s not something that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, but now that I’ve thought about it, I can’t understand why it isn’t something that I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about before. Maybe it breaks down to something as simple as ’sexy sells’, or maybe it goes to something deeper, something primal? Maybe the reason that we like to see hot girlies being chased about by monsters and psychos is because it sparks some kind of instinctive desire to protect them, therefore enhancing the impact that their inevitable, post-ankle-twistage, mutilation brings to the film?

Or, more likely, we just like to see them running in the first place.

Whatever the case, the best horror movies have always stuck with that necessary ingredient. And while the motivation behind hot-chick-horror-casting seems to be pretty consistent, much like movies themselves, the end results can be quite varied: For every noteworthy (or even simply respectable) performance by a Melissa George, or an Elisa Dushku, or a Neve Campbell, or an Ali Larter, or a few Sarah Michelle Gellars, there are a countless number of Paris Hiltons, and an infinite number of nameless, rapidly forgotten, generally poor performances by those women cast only for their physical appearance.

The question is what side of the list will Olivia Munn land? Although, I suspect for some the first question is “Who the hell is Olivia Munn?”.

Olivia Munn: Why is it so hard to find images of this girl?

Olivia Munn first came to my attention when she replaced Sarah Lane as co-host of G4TV’s pop-culture / gadget / movie / internet oriented, ATTACK OF THE SHOW [seen in Australia on Foxtel's Fuel TV]. My initial impression was that she’s obviously gorgeous, but she was a little too awkward on camera and seemed far too rigid for ATOS, especially alongside the show’s extremely natural co-host, Kevin Pereira.

However she quickly found her feet and over the last couple of years the dynamic between her and Kevin has kept me amused to the point that AOTS is one of the few shows that I make an effort to watch on a daily basis… and it doesn’t hurt that she’s still gorgeous.

So, how does Olivia factor in to all that horror movie talk from earlier? Well, next month the horror-thriller INSANITARIUM will hit DVD shelves and, as you may have guessed, Olivia is in it!

The film, which stars Jesse Metcalfe, has all the ingredients for a shlock-horror-fest: Jack Romero’s (Metcalfe) sister is involuntarily committed to an institution. After finding himself unable to gain access to visit her, Jack fakes his way into the asylum in an effort to break his sister out. However he soon discovers that one of the resident doctors is performing experiments on the patients, experiments which turn the patients into flesh-eating psychopaths! AWESOME! It’s at this point that Jack realises that mental institutions aren’t the easiest of places to escape from.

Fangoria’s Sean Decker recently reviewed Insanitarium and seemed to think that it deserved more than a direct to DVD release. He also speaks highly of writer / director Jeff Buhler’s efforts and, after poetically describing the practical gore effects of the film, notes: INSANITARIUM absolutely runs red. For me though, I’ll be checking it out to see what sort of performance Olivia (who also has a role in the upcoming Broken Lizard film, THE SLAMIN’ SALMON), delivers. [source] [source]

Some ideas are so boneheaded that they could only possibly come from Hollywood. This idea is so exceptionally boneheaded that it’s entered the charts with a bullet and, while it’s virtually impossible to keep any accurate measure of the bonehead ideas happening on a minute by minute basis, has to be considered one of the boniest headed movie ideas ever to have slithered from the rectum of Hollywood’s ‘out of ideas’ factory.

Donnie Darko has been dead since 2001. For a while his crushed corpse was able to decay peacefully while enjoying the appreciation of a respectfully enthusiastic audience. But in 2004 Richard Kelly, who originally wrote and directed Donnie Darko, returned to Donnie’s grave with is best exhuming shovel.

Kelly proceeded to defile Donnie’s remains and, in the process, made it abundantly clear that his greatest contribution to the original release of the film was in keeping out of the way of those who knew what they were doing. By the time the cadaver of Donnie Darko was re-entombed it had been given a fresh coat of spackle, but all of charm that originally accompanied it to the grave had been washed down the drain pipe in the centre of Richard kelly’s cellar floor.

For another four years Donnie’s disfigured remnants have attempted to find peace, but now Donnie’s little sister Samantha (Daveigh Chase) is paying a visit to the place of his final repose. Sadly, her purpose there isn’t to place flowers and pay her respects. No, her plan is to defecate on Donnie’s headstone, but not before she too digs up his carcass and cavorts about with it, Weekend at Bernie’s style.

According to ScreenDaily, the plot of this straight to DVD travesty revolves around Daveigh’s character Samantha, and is set seven years after the events of Donnie Darko. Samantha and her friend, Corey, are plagued by bizarre visions while on a road trip to LA. MoviesOnline takes the synopsis a little further:

Samantha, Donnie’s  younger sister, who, in the wake of his death, has found herself at 17  with a broken family, mired in feelings of insignificance, and with no  aspirations for the future.  The archetypal character study and genre   mixing of Donnie Darko is reprised, but with a fresh spin on the roles  within the Tangent Universe that warrants the telling of this darker,  more jaded tale of tragedy, second chances, sacrifice and rebirth.

Richard Kelly isn’t involved in the project, currently titled S.DARKO, instead television director Chris Fisher will take the blame instead. Along with Daveigh, Ed Westwick [Son Of Rambow, Gossip Girl], Briana Evigan [Step Up 2] and Justin Chatwin [Dragon Ball], have all been announced in the cast. But of course, Donnie himself wont be making an appearance as he’s busy filming Aquaman 2.

Briana Evigan: Member of Sparkle Motion 08?

I have to admit that the actual synopsis doesn’t sound that bad, but there’s no way that this movie will measure up to the first release of Donnie Darko… unless all of the same cosmic forces which create the first film, line up again. Frankly (pardon the pun), if they were desperate to make a sequel, I’d have preferred to see what happened to Donnie’s girlfriend, Gretchen Ross, as it always appeared to me that she (and Donnie’s mother, President Roslin) carried some ‘residue’ of the timeline before Donnie ‘fixed’ things at the end of the movie.

As always, I’m more than happy to be proven wrong about this film being a huge mistake, but in this case I’m not even sure a guy in a rabbit suit has the power to set things right. [source] [source]