March, 2007
Below are links to articles posted in March, 2007
Fairuza Balk - The Craft, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Masters of Horror: Pick Me Up
Fairuza Balk, the fairest of them all! Fairuza established herself as an actress who can channel her dark side to become an evil thing of beauty in The Craft. Her performance is easily the highlight of the movie, she smolders with steamy sexuality and evil seduction. Fairuza’s next film was a remake […]
Masters of Horror: Pick Me Up
Pick Me Up is a Masters of Horror episode directed by Larry Cohen of It’s Alive fame, among other things. It’s about a bus that breaks down in the middle of nowhere. When this happens, some passengers decide to walk to the nearest town, others hitchhike, and others stay and wait at the bus. Passengers soon start getting picked off by a crazy truck driver and a crazy hitchhiker, who are unwittingly competing for victims on the same turf.
I didn’t really care for this episode. It didn’t feel real enough for me. Acting was poor at times. The truck driver annoyed me. I didn’t like the way he talked and I didn’t like the fact that he could play piano. It didn’t seem consistent with his character. The whole scenario was unlikely (with the ending being absurd).
An American Werewolf in London vs The Howling
The debate has long raged among horror fans: which is the best werewolf movie of all time? This discussion usually ends up as a duel between An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Howling (1981), which are both classic lycanthrope landmarks of celluloid. Wow, 1981 sure was a great year […]
Welcome to Zombruary! (Z07.01)
The entire month of February was dedicated to Zombies over at the Tiki Chris blog, with plenty of movie reviews, art, and more. » original news
Frank Henenlotter back with Bad Biology
Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case, Brain Damage, Frankenhooker) is back with a twisted tale of love and weirdness. From the MySpace page of the movie: “Driven by biological excess, a young man and woman search for sexual fulfillment, unaware of each other’s existence. Unfortunately, they eventually meet, and the bonding of these two very unusual human beings ends in an explosive and ultimately over-the-top sexual experience, resulting in a truly godawful love story…. With bizarre special effects by Gabe Bartalos, a hip-hop soundtrack from Prince Paul, and shot in glorious 35mm, BAD BIOLOGY is guaranteed to shock even the most desensitized of audiences, and sure to become a modern cult classic.”
http://www.myspace.com/badbiology » original news
END OF THE LINE Trailer
This is the trailer for “END OF THE LINE”, a horror feature film written and directed by MAURICE DEVEREAUX and starring Ilona Elkin (Karen), Nicolas Wright (Mike), Robin Wilcock (Patrick) and Joan McBride (Betty). The movie premiered at the TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL and tells the story of Karen (Ilona Elkin), a young nurse who finds herself trapped in the subway at night. “As those around her are brutally murdered, Karen and a handful of survivors must face supernatural forces, homicidal religious cult members, as well as their own fears and suspicions of Armageddon, in order to survive.” I usually find movies with religious undertones quite creepy… in a good way. I looked around for a release date, didn’t find anything.
Dead Silence - Official Movie Site
For the people waiting and looking forward to Dead Silence, I suggest you go and take a look around the Dead Silence Official Site for the trailer of this upcoming James Wan horror movie. You will get to see the trailer of course, but you can also play a little nerve wrecking shooter game hosted on the official site. It’s not too hard, but man, those face are ugly! Check it out here: http://www.deadsilencemovie.net/index2.html or follow the link to the main page of deadsilencemovie.net then let load and click game.
Have fun and keep the shotgun loaded at all times. » original news
Actress Cast in “Babylon Fields”
CBS has a new TV series being developed called a€œBabylon Fieldsa€ that will show what life is like for the living after the dead come back. a€œJoan of Arcadiaa€ star Amber Tamblyn has been cast as Janine Wunch, a young woman that helped her mother kill her abusive father but then has to deal with him once again when he revives and comes back into the womensa€™ lives. The show is still casting parts and will air on the network when the new fall season begins. Tamblyn was most recently seen starring in a€œThe Grudge 2a€ and also had a small role in a€œThe Ringa€. » original news
Monster House
There goes the neighborhood.
The story revolves around a preteen boy named DJ who is sure that there is something strange going on in the house across the street. This house in has been well known as a house to avoid at all costs. Mr. Nebbercracker, a crotchety old man owns it and is infamous for seizing anything that lands on his property.
One day DJ, his friend Chowder and Jenny, who's selling chocolates for a fundraiser, take it upon themselves to solve the mystery of the house and put a stop to its terror.
Yes, this is a kid’s movie. It’s only scary if you’re very young and my son, who’s five, gets scared from this, yet wants to watch it again and again. I’d say that’s a step in the right direction, but I digress. For the naysayer’s who claim that this doesn’t belong here, it’s about a possessed house that eats people. I’d say that qualifies for a horror website.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Coming Out Soon
THQ is promising gamers that the long delayed PC game a€œS.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyla€ will arrive in stores on March 20. The FPS game puts you in the boots of a man with amnesia that awakes inside the radioactive zone around Chernobyl. It is a few years in the future and strange occurrences have taken place in the shadow of the nuclear reactor, strange mutated creatures roam the countryside, paranormal happenings are going on and weird portals are opening in the skies. You can explore the land or enter deserted villages in search of relics or creatures to shoot. The game will have a single-player mission and multiplayer options. » original news
Silent City - Short Movie
This is a cool short film I recently found while stumbling. It is directed by Ruairí Robinson and stars Don Wycherley, Cillian Murphy and Garvan McGrath as three soldiers about to meet their maker. It is not horror per se, but it is very well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Robinson’s "Fifty Percent Grey" was nominated for an Oscar at the 2002 Academy Awards. It won Best Short Animated Film at the London Effects and Animation festival and was shown in the Sundance Film Festival.
Good stuff.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 Starts Next Week
The Los Angeles Times interviewed a€œBuffy the Vampire Slayera€ creator Joss Whedon about his new a€œBuffya€ comic book due out in stores next week. The series will tell the story of what happened in season eight of the TV show and show us Buffy living in Europe and what happened to the other members of the Scooby Gang after they left Sunnydale. Whedon will write the first five issues of the comic book, which is being published by Dark Horse Comics, and then hand over writing duties to Brian K. Vaughan. Fans are eagerly awaiting the launch of the first issue which arrives in comic stores on March 14. » original news
Dead Rising to get Co-Op Add-On
What could be more cathartic than scrouring the Willamet mall killing zombies? Scouring the mall killing zombies that’s what. Folks at 360monster have suggested that the zombtastic zombie killing game Dead Rising may get a Co-Op Add-On soon, and that would be a definite plus: "EGM says the new co-op mode will be available in two ways. First up is in the platinum edition of the game (presumably an Xbox 360 "Classics" title) and also by way of a download from the Xbox Live Marketplace."
This is just a rumor thus far, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if zombie killng stepped up a notch and became collective as it is in the Outbreak files.
I love capcom.
Ash vs. Marvel Zombies!
Marvel Comics just released the first issue of a€œMarvel Zombies vs. the Army of Darknessa€, a five-issue limited comic book series that will act as a prequel to last yeara€™s hit a€œMarvel Zombiesa€ series. Robert Kirkman is writing the series which features Ash from the a€œEvil Deada€ movies in the Marvel universe that was attacked by zombies, so it will feature plenty of chainsaw action and superhero smashing! Cover artist Arthur Suydam, who painted the covers for the first a€œMarvel Zombiesa€ series, is returning again for this new series and hea€™s including Ash into a new retelling of a classic Marvel Comics cover! If you want to see a four-page preview follow our link to Creature Corner. » original news
Horror Action Figure Line Announced
Action-Figure reports that Mezco will make a line of action figures based on New Line Cinema horror film franchises. The line will be called Cinema of Fear and the first wave of figures will be Leatherface (from a€œThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrea€), Choptop (Leatherfacea€™s older brother), Freddy Krueger in a tuxedo and a€œFriday the 13th: The Final Chaptera€ Jason Voorhees. All of the figures will feature 10 to 12 points of articulation and come with extras like an Old-Ladie head for Leatherface, a zombie for Choptop, a skeleton for Freddy and Jason will have an alternate head. » original news
Elizabeth Bathory….the bloody countess
Elizabeth Bathory was part of the ruling elite in the year 1609 when the atrocities reported to be taking place in her castle could no longer be ignored. So one night, some of the men from the area’s ruling elite went to investigate and this is what they reportedly found.
The moment the men stepped into the castle the found 3 bodies of young girls that had been kidnapped from one of the local villages, all drained of blood, and one burned and beaten as well. The smell of decomposition was every where. It looked like all the rumors were true. The Countess was murdering and draining the blood of these virgin girls in an effort to remain eternally young and live for ever. They moved into the dungeons.
As they moved down into the dungeons they heard the moans and cries of many more who would turn out to be young women and small girls…many bore the signs of having been bled.They freed these prisoners and then went to look for the woman who committed these crimes. They also found the mutilated corpses of hundred of young women and children all
had been drained of blood and many had been dismembered and the parts hung up like sides of beef. The survivors reported that they were fed the grilled flesh of those the Countess had already killed.
The men went looking for the Countess in the upper reaches of her castle. Once they caught her they sealed her up in a room until they had fully investigated the entire castle and the land around it. They were utterly horrified. Apparently the Countess had a taste for many forms of torture and was very adept at it. It was reported that she learned many of these cruelties from her late husband who apparently had a taste for for sadistic “pleasures” as well.
They found the bodies of countless girls with their eyes gouged out, burned, many of them had no arms and legs, and there were quite a few buried in shallow graves. The men were horrified to find some of them being dug into by dogs and seeing the dogs run away with various and sundry body parts. Many had had their genitals mutilated with hot pokers or cut out. Altogether, it looked to be about the bodies of 300 women and girls They put the bloody Countess on trial.
The Countess was stripped of her royal title and walled up in a room with no windows for the remainder of her life with only a small slit in the door for food and water. She died 3 years later. » original news
Doorways for the Dispossessed
Doorways for the Dispossessed is a book of 21 short stories by award winning writer Paul Haines.
I’ve mentioned before I don’t care a whole lot for short stories. I just can’t seem to work up the emotion needed to invest in anyone’s well being to really give a damn in such a short amount of time. Obviously I’ve been reading the wrong short stories. Those included in this book for the most part kept me enthralled and worried about people I had only met seconds before. And if I wasn’t worried about someone I was busy wishing some particularly nasty being would go away now please and thank you.
Not every story kept my attention and earned my praise, as meaningless as that is, but the good far, far outweighed the bad. And to be fair, nothing here was really BAD just too ambiguous for my tastes.
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper. Who hasn’t heard the name. Even today, nearly 200 years after the grisly murders the name can send chills down the spine. His was some of the most brutal murders of the time period.
His first victim was a woman by the name of Martha Tabram.
She had been stabbed brutally in the neck, body, and “private” parts approximately 39 times.
His next victim was Mary Ann Nichols. Her Throat had been slashed twice. So severely as to have nearly decapitated her. She has also been slashed open from about mid chest area to her “privates”.
The next woman to fall victim to the Ripper was a woman by the name of Annie Chapman, local known as Dark Annie. Like the other’s she lived in the squalor of the White Chapel area and turned to prostitution when her husband. When she was found just a few yards from the boarding house she had lived in when she could earn enough money, her throat had been slashed very deeply, and she’d been gutted like a pig.
Her stomach and intestines were thrown over her shoulder and spilled onto the ground. Her uterus and vagina had been removed and were missing.
On Sept. 30 1888 2 women were found just a few blocks apart both had been murdered with a half an hour of the other. One throat had been slashed to the point of decapitation, and the other also her throat slashed, but with her guts spilled out into the street beside her. Elizabeth Stride was the first woman’s name. The second woman, Kate Eddowes had been more brutally murdered than any so far. Not only did Bloody Jack slit her throat, but he slashed her face and sliced her open from the center of her chest down and through her genitals. One kidney had been removed as well as her uterus and vagina.
The final victim of Bloody Jack was the most brutally murdered victim of all. Her name was Mary Kelly. When they found what was left of poor Mary, it was the most gruesome site they’d seen so far. Here quoted from the actually report is what happened to poor Mary. “…The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat, but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed…The whole of the surface of the abdomen & thighs was removed & the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds & the face hacked beyond recognition of the features & the tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone. The viscera were found in various parts: the uterus & kidney with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side & the spleen by the left side. The flaps removed from the abdomen & thighs were on a table.
The ferocity of this murder astounded the veteran police surgeons. Her throat had been slashed with such force that the tissues had been cut all the way down to the spinal column. Dr. Bond went on to describe the ghastly destruction of her body:
Her face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows & ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched & cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all of the features.
The skin & tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin including the external organs of generation & part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin, fascia & muscles as far as the knee….”
To this day this case still fascinates amateur and professional sleuths alike. Many have claimed to have discovered the identity of Jack the Ripper, but to this day this case remains unsolved. And, quite likely, the case of Bloody Jack the Ripper will never be solved. For as abruptly as they started, they ended with no leads and no clues. » original news
Try a Sample of a New Zombie Novel
Looking for some new zombie stories while waiting for the next George Romero movie? If so go visit the website of Gregory Solis and download a 48 page sample of his tale of undead, a€œRise and Walka€. Solis has posted 4 chapters from the novel on his MySpace website and the morsels are very gory and scary to say the least. Feast your eyes on what happens when a womana€™s husband returns from the dead, a young man smokes dope and encounters one of the creatures and what happens to a geology student in his last moments alive. Check it out and see for yourself! » original news
A New Logo and a New Partner
Ok, if you are looking for the perfect gift/insult to give to someone for….just about any occasion ever, check out Horror Guy’s newest partner in the Shopping Mall of the Living Dead, T-Shirt Hell. Nothing is sacred and everyone gets a chance to be offended and/or horrified that anyone would put such things on a t-shirt. I’ve bought about ten of these things myself over the past couple of years and they never fail to entertain or start a heated conversation.
You may have also noticed the lovely new logo at the top of the page. Seems my buddy A-Price thought the plain, Arial font logo was not eye-catching enough, so he designed a new one for me! Thanks A-Price! The Horror Guy owes you a t-shirt.
Save to del.icio.us
