The Rosedales – It’s Midnight

Somebody please tell me: why these guys aren’t more famous? The Rosedales have a totally unique sound, like a cross between Misfits and The Beach Boys. I friggin’ love it! Totally unique. Melodic as all hell. Creepy and scary, yet haunting and beautiful.

This song is off their first album, Raise Your Spirits, which is an absolutely flawless masterpiece from start to finish. I know a place where we can go… straight to the record store, so you can buy this album!

Posted January 14th, 2012 in: Horror Music | No Comments »

Claymation version of John Carpenter’s “The Thing”

I just watched the 2011 prequel “The Thing“, and I’ll be damned but it wasn’t bad. Got me to reminiscing about the original 1982 movie, and then I stumbled across this:

Its from a guy named Lee Hardcastle, and there’s plenty more where it came from!

Really dig it, its like a cross between that stop-motion tribute to The Thing starring GI Joe figures and one of Takeda’s claymation horror movies.

Posted January 5th, 2012 in: Horror Movies | No Comments »

The Best Horror of 2011

I sat down to write a top 10 list of the best horror movies of 2011. As I was mulling over titles like “Fright Night 3D”, “Shark Night 3D”, “Paranormal Activity 3″, “Scream 4″, and “Final Destination 5″, a revelation dawned on me. It was so disturbing and so unthinkable, I was instantly in denial. But after much ruminating and soul-searching, I know it to be true. The revelation is this:

The best horror shows of 2011 were television shows.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some really good horror movies in 2011. “Tucker and Dale vs Evil” easily topped the heap of the horror comedies, (though to be honest, there wasn’t much of a heap). And in a very welcome change of pace, the best foreign horror movie, “Trolljegeren (TrollHunter)”, came from Norway instead of Japan or Korea. As far as domestic horror went, “Insidious” seemed to be the crowd pleaser while my personal #1 was the giddy grindhouse gorefest, “Hobo With a Shotgun”.

But my favorite horror experiences in 2011 have been on the small screen, not the big screen.

American Horror Story

“American Horror Story” has absolutely smashed the boundaries of horror on television. It’s smarter, deeper, and darker than anything that has come before it. I have never been a fan of haunted house stories, (just LEAVE THE HOUSE!), yet “American Horror Story” is right at the top of my list. Its like a mix between Amityville Horror and Sixth Sense with a dash of Twin Peaks thrown in – except that the house has more character, everybody can see dead people instead of just one little boy, and there’s no creepy midget. Not yet, anyways. The language is extremely adult for television, and so is the violence, and so is the sex. But what makes it really good, of course, is the story. Slowly unraveling the mysteries of the house and the history of the spirits who inhabit it is a lot of fun, especially when reality is so warped that the characters can’t see things for what they really are. For example, the maid of the house appears to females as a slightly deformed older lady, but at the same time she appears to males as a sultry and sexy young redheaded strumpet with a voice that can purr their pants right off. It’s pure genius.

Grimm

Filmed on location in beautiful Portland, Oregon, where I live, “Grimm” has been a very interesting breath of fresh air. A detective fears he’s going mad when he starts seeing normal everyday folks turn into monsters, and he’s the only one that can see their true faces. It turns out he has inherited the family curse of being able to see the beasts that walk among us, pretending to be human. And what’s worse, he has inherited the awesome responsibility to keep watch and maintain the precarious balance between the humans and the creatures that pretend to be human as he investigates the murders and crimes the creatures perpetrate. Not as dark as it could/should be, but still very compelling.

Teen Wolf

Perhaps the biggest surprise of 2011 was the TV show “Teen Wolf“. It had a lot of cards stacked against it from the start. It was on MTV, the cast was almost entirely comprised of ridiculously-good-looking teenagers, and… well… it’s called “Teen Wolf”. I fully expected the show to lick balls like a dirty dog and be just as bad (or worse) than “Vampire Diaries”, which I like to call “Vampire Diarrheas”. But I’m a huge fan of werewolves, so I had to watch it. And I’ll be damned if the show wasn’t awesome! It deftly plays off the good ol’ “who bit me and turned me into a werewolf?” mystery bit, and Dylan O’Brien steals every single scene he’s in as the werewolf’s best friend, Stiles. I look forward to seeing what this kid will do next, he’s got talent.

Being Human

Another horror TV show that surprised me in 2011 with its lack of suckage was “Being Human“, the American version. Gasp, I know. The original British version of this show is one of the best television shows of all time, hands down, horror or not, and when I first heard there was going to be an American remake, I groaned and I growled. But again, it had werewolves, so I was practically forced to watch it. Is it as good as what the Brits brought? No. No, it’s not. But it’s still pretty awesome. Good casting and some key deviations from the British version kept the show fresh and interesting.

I’d like to point out that “Teen Wolf” is a very very loose remake, and “Being Human” is also a remake. For them to be this good is quite impressive, especially considering that when a movie is remade it’s almost always a travesty against humanity. Only “American Horror Story” and “Grimm” are true originals, and that’s probably part of what gives them an edge for me. Especially “American Horror Story”. I really can’t recommend it enough.

That’s it for this year’s new horror television shows. The rest of my list is comprised of shows that returned this year for another season. This part of the list isn’t in any particular order, either.

Lost Girl

God bless Canada. This show is not afraid of anything. “Lost Girl” plays late at night and the Canucks are way more laid back than Americans, so there’s plenty of cussing, partial nudity (yay sideboobs!), lesbianism, and a bit o’ bloody murder to keep things very interesting. It also helps that both the leading ladies are just about the sexiest things on two legs, especially my lovely Russian girlfriend, Ksenia Solo. If you so much as look at her, I swear on my grave I will kill you. The show is confident in its vision and completely gelled in its second season, effortlessly mixing together the genres of fantasy, horror, and romance without breaking a sweat. (Although there is plenty of sweating during all the sex scenes.)

Supernatural

Now in its seventh season, “Supernatural” is better than ever! This season has brought some huge shake-ups, and I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but there are lots of deaths. Well, there’s always lots of deaths, but these deaths are more important than the other deaths. I can’t really say anything else without ruining it for any of you losers who haven’t watched it yet. But suffice it to say that shit gets HEAVY. The stakes have never been higher. Its great to see a show this long in the tooth keep coming up with new ideas and maintain its energy.

Dexter

The only show on this list that’s not on network television or basic cable, “Dexter” makes subscribing to Showtime worth the money all by itself. The sixth season started out a little slow, but the heat built slowly and steadily until I felt like that proverbial frog in the pot of water on the stove that somebody kept easing the knob up on. Before I knew it, things got completely out of control and there was no stopping them. Although Dexter Morgan might make the occasional misstep as he hunts down serial killers and struggles to keep his own murderous nature secret from everyone around him, the show “Dexter” never misses a step.

The Walking Dead

Last but certainly not least, “The Walking Dead” entered its second season in 2011. After ending its first season on a weaker note, I was a little worried, but it busted out of the starting gates and exceeded all expectations. The practical effects still meet and beat the special effects of any zombie movie, but its real strength is in its character development. You can’t help but care about each and every survivor, and the creators make no bones about the fact that any character is fair game and its always hunting season for the zombies. It warms my shriveled little black heart that “The Walking Dead” has had so much success in the mainstream. This show has definitely opened doors for horror on television, and as long as it keeps doing what its doing, its going to open many more.

All in all, its a great time to be a horror fan watching television right now. If you’re sick of the same old lame horror movies being trotted out in theaters and dumped in front of us like slop in a trough for pigs, then stay home and flip on the boob tube. Better yet, record these horror television shows and then watch them so you can fast forward through all the commercials. Save yourself the ticket money, the gas money, and the disappointment.

Posted December 24th, 2011 in: Horror Movies | No Comments »

“Left 4 Dead” fan film: so close to not sucking

“Left 4 Dead” is a killer game. If you’ve played it then you love it, and you’re going to love this fan-made film about Left 4 Dead… right up until the end, that is.

Oof, that hurt.

Posted December 23rd, 2011 in: Horror Movies | No Comments »

Teaser Trailer for Ridley Scott’s “Alien” prequel, “Prometheus”

So I fell off the earth for a while, and I couldn’t really find a good reason to get back on it. Happens to me sometimes. But then something incredible happened, and now here I am! Hurry up and check out the new teaser trailer for the prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece “Alien” before it gets yanked!

If the movie has been pulled from YouTube by the time you read this, you should probably still be able to find it at the official movie site or on the Apple trailers site. Then again you might not, as it seems Fox got a little overzealous earlier and actually yanked the trailer from their own official movie site, claiming copyright infringement! DOH!

Following the development of “Prometheus” was making me (and millions of other Aliens fans) very nervous. After the Aliens movies gradually degraded in quality, one after the other, it seemed too good to be true that the original director from the original Alien movie would finally grab the helm again and deliver a prequel to the movie that started it all. But once development started, Ridley Scott constantly butted heads with Fox over core aspects, like what the budget should be and what the movie should be rated. Fox essentially wanted the movie to film on a shoestring budget with the goal of a PG rating. Scott wanted enough money to do it right, and he wanted an R rating, just like all the other Aliens movies got. Scott and Fox simply couldn’t come to an agreement, and at one point it looked like Prometheus was never going to happen. I have to admit, I found it all so disheartening, I sort of tuned out on the project.

But now, this! This teaser is incredible. I’m more excited for this movie than I’ve been for any movie in recent memory. One commenter on reddit.com summed my feelings up perfectly: “This is so damn exciting that I feel like my excitement is going to burst out my chest, squeal, run across the countertop, and disappear into an air duct.”

Posted December 22nd, 2011 in: Horror Movies | No Comments »