Recently in Interesting Category
The folks over at Automatic Pictures Publishing were nice enough to send us "Hatter M: Mad with Wonder Vol II" and "The Looking Glass Wars: Arch Enemy" by Frank Beddor. Let me tell you these are some really cool books and graphic novels. I read them both in a weekend. Frank has a great style of writing and from the looks of things he is the Jack White of the book world, with graphic novels, novels, films and trading cards all in his arsenal. Each book is set in a world where Alice in Wonderland is a real alternate reality to ours. But the person who wrote Alice in Wonderland got it all wrong form the spelling of Alice's name (Alyss) to who the Mad Hatter really was (a sect of royal body guards) .
I enjoyed the graphic novel a lot better than the book but was pretty lost jumping in at book two. My only negative would be that towards the end of the books Frank shoves a lot in. Trying to sell you on book 3 as well as the novels, the audio books, a iphone app and the trading cards. It's like a shamwow commerical at the end of a great book. All in all check it out. Not exactly horror, but a great dark alternate world.
So have any of you read all the books or graphic novels? What did you think?
Pittsburgh's ScareHouse has broken away from the usual zombies, mummies, and werewolves to bring thrill seekers steampunk-flavored scares, with mutants, rebel scientists, gunfire, and of course, plenty of gas masks.
This year, one of the ScareHouse's three Halloween "haunts" is Rampage, an attraction powered by steampunk concepts and design. Guests witness an uprising in a clockwork facility, where scholars and workers have long been oppressed by the wicked DieRector. They'll travel amidst the facility's grisly experiments, encounter mutants aplenty, and try to avoid getting caught in the crossfire between the rebels and the DieRector's militant forces. The ScareHouse's creative director Scott Simmons says that visually, Rampage borrows from Alien and Serenity in addition to more steampunky influences like Bioshock, and describes it as "much more aggressive and hard-hitting that anything we had done before."
Come be a part of what keeps Austin weird! (and get paid to scare the crap out of people)
The Mansion of Terror Haunted House is looking for actors of all types to perform on weekends this Halloween season. Pay is from $7-$12 an hour and our season runs from Sept-Oct. Come be a part of the #1 Haunted House in the Nation, as voted by Lions Gate Films, right here in Central Texas.
Auditions are 2pm or 7pm on August 29th.
www.mansionofterror.com
2000 S IH 35
Round Rock, TX 78681
Questions? Can't make it this weekend?
normglenn@Gmail.com
Please call
512-694-9395
This came up because I read this article where research was done that showed that scary music is spookier for listeners with their eyes shut.
I've always felt that. Whether it's music or a scary part of the movie - that it's more scary to those who don't watch it - those that prefer to hide their eyes.
That's because I believe your mind makes it worse than it really is because your brain hears what's happening, but since it doesn't have any visual cues to tie it to, it fills in the blanks with imagery that's generally more frightening than the real thing.
But back to the research: Neuroscientists have discovered that a brain centre involved in sensing emotion and fear called the amygdala kicks into action when volunteers listen to scary music with eyes closed. To uncover any neural basis for this effect, researchers scanned the brains of 15 volunteers before and during film scores.
Sure enough, volunteers rated the eerie-sounding music - laced with staccato strings, ominous trombones, and weird effects - as more emotional than a more neutral tune.
And like I said above, were they to do the same with scary movies I'm sure the results would be the same.
What do you think? Are scary movies even more scary when you DON'T watch the scary parts? Let us know in comments.
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