March 2008 Archives

I'm going to start off by saying that this movie was nothing like I expected. First, I thought perhaps there was only a couple songs and not a whole freaking musical! Second, there was way more blood than I thought.


But you know what?  These are actually pleasant surprises.

Now, I'm not a big musical fan, so when the singing started in the first few minutes of the movie I said to myself "Oh great, what have I gotten myself in to?"  But you know what?  It's not all that bad.  In fact, the songs are really pretty good.

The story  of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is, as you might have guessed, about a barber (played by Johhny Depp) that goes a little looney.


In fact he goes right off the deep end and then some.  But in the end you actually feel sorry for him.  After all, he was wrongly imprisoned and lost his whole family because of a crooked judge, played by Alan Rickman.  Of course Mrs. Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter, only helps to feed Todd's blood lust.

Check out this cool new pulp horror/fiction magazine called "Out Of The Gutter". The latest issue is #4 and features such stories as "Day in the Life" by Daniel Ritchie, "Dodging Bullets" by Joe McKinney and "Lopsided Sweater" by Hana K. Lee. The book looks awesome. Let us know what you think if you have read down in our comments section.

Yes, it appears to be true. There have been rumors floating around for some time that Hollywood Uber-director Steven Spielberg has been working on a social networking site dedicated to the paranormal and supernatural. Everything from ghosts to UFOs are apparently topics of discussion.

Apparently Techcrunch has confirmed that this project will launch in the next few months.  Let's keep our fingers crossed!

According to the website:

"Spielberg has apparently had at least one paranormal experience himself. There are stories of him staying in a hotel called Excelsior House and being so frightened by ghosts that he fled the room and moved 20 miles away. We've also heard anecdotes about Spielberg seeing the ghost of a dead relative repeatedly as a child. Whether based in reality or the product of an exceptional imagination, these experiences may have had an impact on his life's work and this upcoming social network."

We had issues with our Feedburner feed not updating so we've had to replace it with "new" code.

So if you were subscribed to our site using the "old" feed code, please update your bookmarks.

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We recently did a review of a short film called Mr. Video. It's an independent short horror/comedy film.

Today, in follow up to that movie, we present you with a short interview with Alex Masterson, the mind behind Mr. Video:


Why did you first become interested in horror movies?

While growing up in Toronto, I remember as a boy seeing a creepy Canadian film called BLACK CHRISTMAS, which scared the shit out of me at the time. And then a few years later, when I saw THE SHINING, I became a confirmed horror fan.

Do you have plans to make Mr. Video into a feature length film?

No, unfortunately Mr. Video, the actually location where we shot the film, is gone. But I've just finished writing a dark thriller feature screenplay, which I hope to direct within the next few years.

I have to start by saying I'm a big fan of Stephen King. He is the master of horror. Not only does he put together some incredible stories, but his character development is second to none in my opinion.

That being said, I have been disappointed in the past with some of the movies which have been adapted from his books.  While for the most part I like them, there are a few which lack the richness of the story.

That is most likely because King goes into such detail in some cases.  For example, Delores Claiborne, which was a great movie, was still a better book.  There were details in the book which you just can't transfer to film.

That is why I was a little concerned upon hearing of this new movie based on a King story.  But let me just say the movie is brilliant.

I think it's  because of a couple of things.

#1 It's shot from a low angle
#2 Slow Motion
#3 I have played enough Half-Life to know that one day this thing will be running the
streets scooping people who disagree with the shadow-ops govt.

Enjoy!

"This country is tough on a man....you can't stop what's coming".

That is one of my favorite lines from the film I just watched. It's "No Country For Old Men" and after seeing it in the theatres and now on DVD's I have to say this is one of the best films I have watched in years. If you buy five DVD's this year make this one of them. "No Country for Old Men" is a genre bender. Is it a horror film? It's not a chase movie, not a road movie,not a horror movie, not a Thriller it's some sort of hybrid of all them. This makes the film very hard to describe. Maybe it's a dark thriller cinematic comedy? What can I say it's a Coen film. That's all I should have to say.



The scenery is fantastic, the characters are amazing, the acting is top notch and the dialog is amazing. In fact the scenery is so fantastic that west Texas itself almost becomes one of the characters in the film. Call me a film geek but Watch it and you will see what I am talking about. The fact that none of the three main characters are ever on screen at the same time, yet it works, should tell you how good this film is. As I said the actors are amazing with Javier Barden giving the performance of his life. The behind the scenes on the DVD are more of a love letter to the Coen brothers and the actors than showing you how the film was made, but they do have their points. The very, very brutal opening violence scene is well documented and amazingly sick to watch.

Simply put this is the one of the best films you will watch in 2008. Go buy the DVD today.

I give it an A+

We recieved this short film recently and were very impressed.

Obviously it is an independant film, as it is short, however don't let that stop you from watching it.  In fact, why not watch the trailer right now:




And don't forget to check out stills from the movie by clicking on the link below:

Did I get your attention?

Recently in Grapevine Texas a large group of people participated in a "zombie walk" in honor of the 40th anniversary of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead."

Geek Parenting has great coverage along with lots of pics of the event.

To see video of the zombie walk, click the link below:

One day I was bored. Don't know why but I cruised over to Google Images and searched up Ghost Photos. Google returned over 36 million results.

Now I know that not all 36 million plus results are true photos of ghosts.  Some are movie stills, some are faked, but many, such as the one on the left, are hard to dispute.

In fact, as I was scanning them I noticed that many are in fact legitimate ghost photos and not staged.

So if you have some time to kill, or are just looking for some cool pics, check out the Google Image search I did (link above).

The Contaminated has a pretty decent article highlighting what it considers to be 10 of the most haunted places in the world.

Now, who knew the Whitehouse was considered one of the most haunted places in the world?

Edinburgh Castle in Scotland seems to top the list at #1.

My only real problem with this article (and it's minor) is that it seems to focus primarly on US or UK hauntings.  What about the rest of the world? Aren't there hauntings in Canada, Germany, France?

In any event, it's an interesting short read.

Just a reminder that Doomsday drops tomorrow in theaters.  It's looking pretty cool.

If you've ever been stuck on an indea for Halloween then you might want to bookmark this page.

There's a really cool flickr photo set of masks. you read right - masks. In fact the one to the left is one of them.

But there's not just masks, there is also other sorts of appendages, like hands to help complement the mask.


They run from the more traditional, like Franenstein to aliens, zombies and even Jason from Halloween.

So if you are stuck on a Halloween idea, remember to bookmark the photoset and check back for ideas.

Personally, the one on the left is my favorite.  That's why I put it here :)

China has added all things scary to its list of banned video and audio content in a crackdown ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Offending content included "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror," the administration said.

The new guidelines aim to "control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents' psychological health."

I don't know about you, but I can see why they'd want to get porn and other stuff off the streets in an effort to clean up China before the Olympics, but horror movies and audio? C'mon, for real?

I'm a big fan of Zombie movies. There's something about them that is far out, yet somehow believable at the same time.

So when I got this one I thought "great!"

So I started watching it and you know what? I wasn't dissappointed. 

Let me rephrase that, I wasn't dissappointed until the end.  But before I explain why, let me tell you a bit about this movie.

It's about zombies, as you may have guessed, but these aren't your typical zombies.   These ones can move - fast.  They can run and jump.  Something you don't normally see in zombie movies.  They can also think and seem to have a pack mentality.  They don't wander around mindlessly like you see in a lot of zombie movies, these zombies have stealth and an ability to coordinate themselves.

If you are at all a part of the Haunted Attraction industry you might have heard about Transworld. It's the industries Super Bowl and it's held in Las Vegas this March.

• Large scale animatronics
• Visual and sound special effects
• Specialty lighting for the Haunt Industry
• Haunted House design and installation
• And the Dark Zone, featuring an area that allows you to display full-blown haunted effects in a dark environment

Would anyone attending like to live blog from the event? We can provide a digital camera and help you with software for uploading your stuff. Please leave us a comment below.