June 2006 Archives

Together with Rue Morgue Magazine, HauntedHouse.com will be bringing more traffic and attention to your door than ever before. Looks like these two heavy weights have teamed up to bring a new option for Haunted Attractions. So what do you get? Merchants will receive placement in the category of their choosing. Each listing will consist of a large graphic to promote your business, a block of text describing your products or services and a link to your website.

Categories Include: Custom Props & Products, Custom Masks, Jewelry, Conventions, Artists/Web Designers, Film Distributors, Photography, Special Effects, Music, Education/Schools, T-Shirts & Apparel, Collectibles & Toys, Celebrities / Personalities, Manufacturing (DVD & CD's)

The Rue Morgue Marketplace will be promoted through HauntedHouse.com and Rue-Morgue.com year round with a direct link on the front page of both sites. The Marketplace will also receive frequent promotion in Rue Morgue Magazine! Now you can maximize the power of Rue Morgue Magazine and HauntedHouse.com to grow your business!

HauntedHouse.com's current free listing marketplace will be phased out by September 1st 2006 making the Rue Morgue Marketplace the only Official shopping marketplace on HauntedHouse.com and Rue-Morgue.com .Kinda sucks that the free listings are going away. We will see how this all pans out for them......

- iamlegend

:: This part of our series of interviews with people in the Horror Movie and Haunted Attraction Industry. This weeks interview is with Matt Thompson and Tony Quinn about their new horror movie coming out::

Tony Quinn: Writer/Director/Editor
Matt Thompson: Producer/Editor/Sound Designer/Composer

What is your background?

MT: I'm a musician and have been in the musicbusiness for years playing, touring, and building my own studio. The transition to becoming a film producer/editor/sound designer was natural, based on my music background and recording knowledge, and my day job writing software gave me the technical background to handle the production work.

TQ; Well, I have been an artist for as long as I can remember, drawing , painting, sketching. I attended The Art Institute Of Dallas and have a degree in computer animation. I favor traditional 2D animation and had plans of working for Disney. Luckily (now) I procrastinated moving to LA to follow that dream, since Disney has pretty much unemployed all their 2D artists. The Institute taught me a little about movies, and I learned a lot on my own. Making movies is a love/hate passion play- you gotta love it to do it. This is my 3rd film and I love doing it.

Why a horror movie?

MT: It was Tony's suggestion, and I loved his script because it was less about blatant gore (though we also put a lot of our budget into non-CGI SFX) and more about character depth and letting the viewer's mind take over. Plus, rock songs go better with horror movies, in my opinion, and one of my roles was to organize, write, and develop the soundtrack for our project.

TQ: I love horror movies.... there's just something about being scared and yet knowing its not real that
does it for me. the problem is, I was seeing a lot of movies that just weren't scary to me. I laugh at Jason and Freddy flicks-They let you know when something is about to happen. I like movies where the "scares" are unpredictable. So rather than complain, I decided to try my hand at doing a scary movie and making it as scary as I can.

Cont on next pages with more photos and info.....

Looks like more Dark Rides news this week. Darkride and Funhouse Enthusiasts or (DAFE) has released the TOP 10 attraction in the US. DAFE's fifth annual survey asked members to name their favorite dark attractions--those walk through or ride through attractions related to funhouses and haunted house. This year more than 90 different attractions around the world were nominated. Here is their TOP 10 list with locations for those of you wanting
something different in your travels this year:

1. Frankenstein's Castle -- Indiana Beach, Monticello, IN
2. Noah's Ark -- Kennywood Park, West Mifflin, PA
3. Pirate's Cove -- Waldameer, Erie, PA
4. Funhouse -- Jenkinson's Beach Boardwalk- Point Pleasant, NJ
5. Pirate's Cove -- Trimper's Rides and Amusements, Ocean City, MD
6. Ghostly Manor -- Sandusky, OH
7. Skull Kingdom -- Orlando, FL
8. Barl of Fun -- Bushkill Park, Easton, PA
9. Allotria -- William's Grove, Mechanicsburg, PA
10. Hallow Graves Haunted House -- Funtown Pier, Seaside Park, NJ

- iamlegend

Check out the sweet concept art for this new Dark Ride at Disney. It's the Pirates of the Carribiean update. They are taking the existing ride and making some updates to reflect the new film. I don't really find skelton pirates that scary but whatever floats your boat. Check out the concept artwork here\

- iamlegend.

As you may have noticed 06.06.06 was the opening day of The Omen. So if you haven't already seen it, go support a cool horror movie this weekend. It's sometimes tough for horror movie to go up against the X-Men III's of the world. I will tell you a little secret. It's faithfull remake of the original so don't hold your breath waiting for some bizarre interpretations......The Omen reviews here, some Omen remakes below:

- iamlegend

:: This is part of a series we are doing on spooky places to spend your summer vacation::

Why go to your local theme park this summer when you could visit somewhere really spooky. Check out Disgraceland. Disgraceland as the author calls it is really The World Landscape Park. It's located in Xi Pu, just west of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in the People's Republic of China. The neat thing about this place is that it has been abonded for quite some time. Oh did I mention the homeless children that play there?

Apparently a business venture gone bad. What's left is like exporing the rotting reamins of Disneyland. The author explains that you can basically go anywhere you want in the Park. From inside the remains of the exhibits to the bottom of the once full water attractions. Pretty cool. And this isn't your normal theme park this is the The World Landscape Park. So each area represtns (or tries to) a differnet area of the World according to China. Everything from the great pyramids to Polar town (??). And of course there are plenty of interesting other parts of the park that visitors were never meant to see, but now the doors are unlocked and you can wander freely. The author has some great photos of it all as well.

- iamlegend

if you do you can find help by calling 666-6666 now. Okay so can you guess what day it is? Talk about a good date for a horror Blog. Not much news to bring you today but let's take a look at what this famous date is all about 06.06.06? You can check out the Number of the Beast or take a look at what went on in the year 666. And of course if you really do suffer from a fear of the number 666 you can seek help here.

You heard it hear freaks. Rob Zombie, director of The Devil's Rejects, is going to be heading up the new Halloween. This isn't some Halloween 9 BS. This is a total remake of the original movie. Much like the remake of the Omen coming out on 6.6.06. I think Rob does some sweet stuff but let's just hope he does Halloween right. I really thought that the Devil's Rejects was crappy but that's just me...

- iamlegend

:: Editor's Note: This is a continuing series of Interviews with people in the Horror/Haunted House Industry. This week wie interviewed Jeremy Dalessandro of Creepy Collections::

why did you first become interested in the Haunted House/Horror Business?
I was Attracted to horror since I was 5 years old. I was the only 5 year old waiting impatiently to get in to see Jaws. Every Halloween I had to have 4 or 5 different costumes. I loved to dress up and make my own horror movies. I then I started home haunting in the late 80’s and was even awarded a scholarship to a Special effects school from the home haunting. But then one morning a Gas explosion set my house on fire.

I was left with nothing more than the pants I was wearing and so I had to give up on my SFX dream in order to re-build my life. I was 21 at the time. A few years later I discovered the Haunted House Industry and was immediately hooked. I right away knew that this could be an opportunity to finally live my dream of producing props and making them come alive in on my own haunted shows.

What Previous jobs have you had?
I worked as a stock broker for TD Waterhouse, worked as a clothing sales man and I worked as an usher in 2 movie theaters.

What job do you have now?
I work as a Media Marketer for Tribune/Newsday

How Long Have you Been in business?
It’s been 3 years since I started building my custom corpses and props.