As I've surely hammered into your brain by now, Bloody Disgusting Selects released The Woman onto DVD & Blu-ray here in the states this past Tuesday, the 24th. Over in the UK, Revolver Entertainment released the film way back in October of last year, a good three months before we got it. If that's not reason enough to go Region Free, I just don't know what is!
Anyway, in this installment of the ever popular competition Cover Art Wars, we pit the US & UK home video arts for The Woman against one another in a bloody battle to the death. Check them out below and then leave a comment letting me know which art you prefer!
UNITED STATES
UNITED KINGDOM
Though I do dig the toned down US art, which looks like a painting of sorts, I've personally gotta go UK on this one. Even though the UK art does kinda sorta spoil the outcome of the movie, I absolutely love the empowered imagery of a blood soaked Pollyanna McIntosh holding a bloody lawn mower blade, perhaps the ultimate 'male' tool. Sexy, fierce and badass, this image almost demands you pick the movie up and take it to the checkout counter. The only thing I don't really care for is the big quote blurb up top, which cuts Pollyanna's head off. UK releases tend to have art that's a bit crowded with website/magazine quotes, which can kinda get annoying, but I suppose it's a minor complaint. This art was also used for the badass vinyl soundtrack that Moderncine released here in the US.
What say you? Leave a comment with which art you'd rather have in your DVD collection!
Remember how last week I told you that the Behind The Mask online shop had added some pretty sweet new items, with all proceeds from the sales of them going directly to funding Before The Mask, the upcoming sequel/prequel to Leslie Vernon's debut outing? Well here I am again today to tell you that even more items are now lining the virtual walls of the shop, in the form of three new limited edition art prints done up by three incredibly talented genre artists, two of whom I've had the pleasure of hanging out with at conventions. The three 8.5"/11" pieces of art are all limited to 150 hand numbered prints and they're only going for 10 bucks a piece. Dig on the art below and then click the corresponding links to check out more work from these talented sumbitches!
To purchase these and other little goodies that will help resurrect everyone's favorite mass murderer, head over to the Behind The Mask Online Shop! I also again encourage you to go ahead the 'like' the Before The Mask Facebook page, where you can donate money and get even more swag and treats, including walk on roles in the film!
Just got home from the dentist, wherein I had three of my four wisdom teeth yanked out of my jaw. I'm flying pretty high on Vicodin and while I'm sitting here in suppressed pain and under the influence of some pretty seriously awesome drugs, I thought it'd be pretty cool, and quite fitting, to finally get around to revisiting both The Dentist1 & 2, and offer up my inebriated thoughts on both. I haven't watched either of these since I saw them back when I was a kid on VHS, so I've been meaning to revisit them for a while now. What better way to do so than while high, bleeding profusely from the mouth and recouping from serious dental surgery?! No better way, says I!
Before I get around to popping in this epic double feature of gruesome dentistry, let me first give ya a brief rundown of how the operation went.
Despite all the horror stories I've heard, the triple extraction (I was supposed to get all four pulled, but the doc decided that one could stay) was actually quite pleasant and not at all painful or uncomfortable in the least. I was given the choice of either A) having local anesthesia and nothing more or B) having the local anesthesia on top of inhaling Nitrous Oxide Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet style, while also simultaneously being hooked up to a Valium IV. Intent on this experience being as pleasurable as possible, being that I'm a total pussy when it comes to dental work, I opted for option B, the Valium and Nitrous cocktail. With the Bane-like mask strapped to my face and the needle full of Valium pumping a steady stream of the good stuff directly into my veins, I gotta say, I felt pretty damn good, to the point that I never once felt even a single pain or unpleasant feeling during the whole operation. In fact, dare I say, I kind of even enjoyed it and honestly wouldn't have minded if the dentist went ahead and just plucked all of my teeth out. Hell, he could've even fondled my man bits and I don't think I would've stopped him. "Hey, John, what do you think about us removing your arms and legs while we're at it?" ... "Sure doc, be my guest!"
After all the fears and worries, the whole thing was over in mere minutes and I soon found myself in the comfort of my bed at home, high on prescription Vicodin that took hold as soon as the Valium wore off. So in summation, I got the day off of work and got to get legally fucked up in public and then encouraged to pop a bunch of painkillers for the next couple days, doctor's orders. Not a bad day, if ya ask me!
Being the sick individual that I am, I of course asked to keep the three wisdom teeth that were pulled from my head, which I will share with you at the end of this post. Before then, you must endure my high on Vicodin thoughts about two of my childhood favorites, the two horror films that forever made me terrified of taking a trip to the dentist. So without further adieu, let's get this double feature started!
THE DENTIST- 1996
On the surface, Dr. Alan Feinstone is a dream dentist, the kind of guy you'd trust with sticking sharp objects in your children's mouths. He's got different rooms in his office decked out to deliver different experiences for his patients, including one themed as a tropical environment, where he even has his assistant rock a Hawaiian shirt. Not a bad place to get some dental work done ... or so it seems. Just beneath that surface lies the true Dr. Feinstone, a fastly progressing psychopath who dreams of forcing his cheating wife to bite the pool boy's dick off, sees his hatreds for humanity manifested as visible black dental decay and molests his female patients while they're under the influence of copious amounts of Nitrous Oxide. Yaaa, so I guess he's not the kinda guy you'd want probing around your kid's mouth after all. Or your own, for that matter.
Based on a real life dentist/serial killer, Corbin Bernsen stars as the titular dentist in this gem from a time which many look back on as an era when horror was dead in the water. Released in 1996, the film was directed by Brian Yuzna and written by Dennis Paoli and Stuart Gordon, who together wrote the Gordon directed Re-Animator 10 years prior. Funny because The Dentist is akin to Re-Animator in many ways, both sharing the common trait of a mad doctor pushed to the brink of his insanity, killing animals and taking his practice to levels most doctors do not. The Dentist can almost even be seen as Re-Animator by way of Taxi Driver, with a deranged doctor going around fixing what he believes to be wrong with the world, fully convinced that he's just doing his job and at times even getting the viewer on his side. Shit, did I really just compare The Dentist to Taxi Driver? Goddamn, this Vicodin is one hell of a drug.
I've always been a fan of Brian Yuzna's films and have always felt he's very underrated as a genre filmmaker, with efforts like Return of the Living Dead 3 & Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 never quite getting the fan appreciation that I feel they deserve. As far as 90's horror goes he's one of my favorites, one of the few filmmakers who was churning out decent material in the pre-Scream horror drought. The late 80's/early 90's were an interesting time for the genre, when the extreme gore and superhuman killers of the majority of the 80's gave way to more reality based killers, which resulted in a whole lot of what I like to call 'profession horror', movies which depicted people with ordinary jobs such as ice cream men, carpenters and cops as mass murderers. Though it's certainly not the best horror movie from the decade, The Dentist has always been one of my favorites of that sub-genre of seemingly ordinary people with ordinary jobs harboring dark murderous secrets.
The highlights here are obviously the scenes where the killer dentist is performing his crude brand of dentistry, with some pretty solid practical effects and several great inside the mouth camera views that bring to life a fair share of highly awesome and brutal sequences of dental torture, carried out by an on top of his game Corbin Bernsen, who turns the role into one of the more memorably underrated villains in 90's horror. Pretty much the entire movie hinges on his performance and boy does he rock the part, creating a totally nutso and yet at times likeable and dare I say relatable bad guy. There's another dude who doesn't ever seem to get the respect he deserves.
It's funny watching the movie nowadays because as a kid, minor appearances from a young Mark Ruffalo as well as Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree never stuck out to me. Nowadays, being big fans of both, I was quite surprised to see them in there, albeit in very brief appearances. Who knew!
Watching The Dentist today brought back a lot of memories for me and I had as much fun with it as I remember having with it back when I was a kid. Always nice when that can be said about a childhood favorite, which unfortunately often cannot. So hooray for that!
THE DENTIST 2- 1998
Speaking of bringing back memories, the Dentist 2 box art is one that I vividly remember staring back at me at my local Blockbuster as a youth, so much so that I've always believed that I had seen the movie until I popped it in today. It's possible that I did a long long time ago and just don't remember a lick of it, but I'm pretty certain that this was my first actual viewing of the film, as none of it brought back memories like watching the first one did. So I guess I lied up above when I said that these two movies were childhood favorites. But goddamn, is that razor toothed box art awesome or what?!
Two years after his first foray into dental terror, Corbin Bernsen is back as the killer dentist, with Brian Yuzna once again at the helm. Though he ended up in a mental hospital at the end of the first film, Feinstone breaks out at the beginning of this one (he stitched a scalpel into his leg at some point before getting locked up and uses that to escape...yep), changing his name to Lawrence Caine and relocating to a small town to start anew. Turns out his tongue-less wife is still alive (ole Corbin mutilated her in the first one) and she's hired a private investigator to track down Caine/Feinstone, who is desperately trying to suppress his desires to be the dentist/killer that we as an audience know he is eventually gonna revert back to.
Whereas the first Dentist saw Bernsen's character descend into madness, starting out as a successful and seemingly normal dentist and then morphing into a brutal killer, in this sequel he's already mad to begin with, so the majority of the film is able to focus on his complete insanity rather than his descent into insanity, which made the movie even more of a fun experience for me. Bernsen is once again on top of his game here and it's highly entertaining to watch him try and be a normal dude in the first half, doing everything he can to stop the crazy thoughts in his head and stay away from dentistry all together. Of course, all hell inevitably breaks loose when the small town dentist does some shoddy work on a tooth Caine chipped while eating dinner, which leads him to once again go off the deep end, killing the dentist and taking over his practice. From there, it's back to his old ways, maiming and brutalizing the mouths of his patients.
One of those patients, who identifies Caine as being Dr. Feinstone, thereby driving him even more over the edge, is Clint Howard, the man who played another one of my favorite under appreciated 90's killers; Gregory Tudor in 1995's Ice Cream Man. For me, seeing the Dentist and the Ice Cream Man go at it was worth the price of admission alone, a price that was quite low given that I picked both of these discs up at Hollywood Video when they were going out of business for a dollar a piece. But still, their shared scene is pure gold and put a huge smile on my face.
Just like in the first Dentist, there's plenty of gruesome teeth pulling and grinding in this one, all once again shown up close and in graphic detail. It's almost as if there are cameras affixed to Bernsen's dental tools and I absolutely love the cringe inducing sequences of him pulverizing mouths. Unfortunately, there's not as much of that kinda stuff in here as there was in the first, but that's all made up for in the final half hour of the film.
The events of both films come to a head in these last 30 or so minutes, with a particularly brutal dental torture sequence which leads into Caine/Feinstone battling both the love interest in this one as well as his tongue-less wife from the first. It's a pretty brutal finale, which sees Bernsen going full Jack Torrance for a clearly Shining inspired final act (at one point he smears a victim's blood all over his face), which ends with the absolutely batshit awesome imagery of Bernsen driving off presumably to the next town, maniacally laughing and pulling nails out of his head which were fired into him via his nail gun wielding love interest. It's the kind of totally off the wall material that I wish both films spent a bit more time reveling in, but nevertheless I had a blast with this one just as I did with the first, if not even moreso. ________________________________________
Ok, now it's time for your reward for making it through my painkiller fueled ramblings about two horror flicks that I enjoy perhaps a bit more than anyone has any business enjoying, enjoyment which was no doubt amplified by said painkillers. You ready? If you think you can handle it, here's an image of my three extracted wisdom teeth, freshly pulled from my skull just a few short hours ago. In the words of The Dentist 2's awesome tagline, BRACE YOURSELF!!
Somewhere, Corbin Bernsen is smiling. And if I ever meet him at a convention, he's totally signing one of those bad boys.
Artist/Freddy In Space friend Krystal Beck is without question the ultimate Chainsaw fan. Why do I say this? Well, in addition to having a house chock full of all kinds of related memorabilia, Krystal made the trek out to Texas last year to see the movie outside of the iconic house where it was filmed, and in fact even ate dinner in the house prior (it's now a BBQ restaurant!). While in Texas, she also managed to scoop up a bunch of dirt from the filming locales, which was included in limited edition t-shirt packages from Fright Rags last year. In addition, she dressed up as The Hitchhiker for Halloween a couple years back (seen above), a character that she has a fairly serious obsession with. Which brings us to her latest and perhaps most ultimate display of affection towards the film, a unique one of a kind tattoo that is unlike any other Chainsaw tattoo you have ever seen.
Remember in the movie when The Hitchhiker cuts his own hand and then smears blood all over the side of Sally and the gang's van, after they kick him out? He makes a pretty interesting design with his blood, which many fans over the years have speculated on the meaning of. It's this imagery which Krystal decided to recently get tattooed on her side, instead of the usual image of Leatherface or a chainsaw. Check out the fresh ink!
How cool is that?! If you're still not convinced that she's the ultimate Chainsaw queen, then I guess I should tell you that she eats head cheese every morning for breakfast, cut up and tossed into her cereal.* She's not fucking around with this stuff, believe you me.
Be sure to show your support for Krystal's awesomeness by heading over to her Etsy shop The Zombified, where you can pick up, what else, a limited edition Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster print that she drew. Go figure!!
*Ok so that last bit was made up but still, I challenge you to find a more hardcore fan of the film!*
Perhaps the biggest genre hit of this year's Sundance (Jan. 19th-29th) thus far has been V/H/S, a found footage anthology put together by Bloody Digusting founder Brad Miska that's comprised of five films directed by up and coming names within the genre, including House of the Devil's Ti West. The film has been getting pretty much rave reviews across the board, garnering serious press for pulling off the same impressive feat that The Woman did at Sundance last year; making a dude at a screening pass right the fuck out.
Hot off the heels of that exciting news blip came the news today that V/H/S has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures for distribution, who will be releasing it under their Magnet label, a label that has been attached to some of the better genre films in recent years, titles like Tucker & Dale vs Evil, Hobo With a Shotgun and the aforementioned House of the Devil. The plan is to give the film Magnet's patented pre-theatrical Video on Demand release sometime this year, with a limited theatrical release to follow 30 days later.
So, with all that established, what exactly is V/H/S and what can we expect from it? You could spend a good portion of your night prowling around Google to find out all the details but I'd rather just do that work for you and combine it all in a nice and easy quick read. That's what I'm here for.
So below you'll find everything you need to know about V/H/S, everything except any kind of spoilers that will ruin the experience for you. Cause I'm cool like that. Also peppered throughout the post are all the still photos from the movie that have been released thus far.
Without further yapping, we begin at the beginning, with the official plot synopsis ...
When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
This is the wraparound story that ties all five short stories together. Directed by Horrible Way To Die's Adam Wingard (above), the wraparound (titled Tape 56) sees the group entering the home and discovering a treasure trove of VHS tapes, unsure which one is the one they've been tasked with taking. In order to determine that information, they decide to watch all of the tapes in the house, which is how the five short films are presented to us. What we see is what they see, with the individual segments showing us what's on the various fucked up tapes in this strange house.
Here is some information about each segment, along with pictures of the directors as well as brief plot details.
Amateur Night - Directed by David Bruckner
The basic idea of this one is that a group of college kids head out for a night on the town, one of them sporting a pair of camera equipped spy glasses, which capture all the action. They pick up a couple of chicks and bring them back to their hotel, intent on filming a homemade porno of sorts with them. Unfortunately for them, the girls aren't exactly what they appear to be. Amateur Night was directed by David Bruckner, who was one of the directors of 2007's The Signal. It was during this segment that a man passed out earlier this week at Sundance.
Second Honeymoon - Directed by Ti West
The most recognizable name of the bunch, Ti West previously directed House of the Devil & the recently released Innkeepers. With Second Honeymoon he delivers what is being called another slow burn tension filled mini masterpiece, which sees a couple road tripping through the Grand Canyon. While staying at a hotel one night, they receive a knock at their door from a strange woman ...
Tuesday The 17th - Directed by Glenn McQuaid
I Sell The Dead director Glenn McQuaid helms this found footage slasher tale, the story of a young girl who takes some of her friends out to the woods. As expected, bad things begin to happen. But everything is not what it seems, as McQuaid turns convention on its head.
The Strange Thing That Happened To Emily When She Was Younger - Directed by Joe Swanberg
A Skype chat goes horribly wrong when paranormal things began to happen on one end of the video conversation in this short directed by Joe Swanberg, whose only real recognizable credits to genre fans include acting gigs in two films made by two of the other directors of V/H/S; A Horrible Way To Die & Cabin Fever 2. This haunted foray into the world of Skype was written by Simon Barrett, who previously wrote one of the better Syfy creature features out there, Frankenfish.
10/31/98 - Directed by Radio Silence
I know little to nothing about Radio Silence, but apparently they're a group of guys who have become known for their videos over on YouTube. Set on Halloween night in 1998, their debut film is about a group of buddies going out to a Halloween party, where they end up in a fight for their lives.
And that's about everything you need to know about the film. To tell you any more that I've read would spoil some things and I really wouldn't want to do that.
The guys that comprise Radio Silence describe V/H/S as being "a found footage movie for people that are over found footage", which sounds like music to my ears. According to every single review I've read thus far, the film injects new life into the dying found footage sub-genre, providing several creative new means of pulling such a film off and coming jam packed with copious amounts of horror, humor, gore and monsters. Sounds like this one has a little something for everyone and with such talented indie filmmakers at the helm, I wouldn't expect any less. I love me a good anthology and V/H/S looks to be the next great horror anthology to keep an eye on.
Once the film is available On Demand, I'll let ya know about it and I'll of course share my thoughts once I check it out!
There's a forum called The Replica Prop Forum that I hang around from time to time, a place where super talented geeks get together and show off their handmade recreations of props from their favorite movies, everything from popular items like Freddy's many gloves to more obscure stuff like the magnifier necklace Ash gave to Linda in The Evil Dead.
I was browsing around there the other night and stumbled upon something that really caught my eye, a mask that fused together two horror icons; Jason Voorhees and the oh so loveable Predator. Story goes that the man who made it, Jake Rich, was getting drunk with his brother while watching Jason X one night, wherein they came to the realization that the metallic uber Jason mask looks a bit like the mask the Predator's wear to cover up their gross vaginal mouths. So, naturally, Rich hit the garage and began turning a Predator mask he had sculpted years prior into what he's dubbed "The Hockey Hunter", the love child of Jason and Predator. Needless to say, that's one child you wouldn't want to pick on in the schoolyard!
What does such a child look like? Check out the results of Jake's gene splicing experiment!!
Made from fiberglass and featuring LED lighting mounted with a 9V battery power supply, the "Hockey Hunter" masks are currently selling for $230 a piece over at Dream Scape Studios, the Rich Brothers' FX studio. The mask can either be worn or displayed.
If you're more of a Freddy kinda guy, have no fear; Freddy has also been mashed up with the Predator in the past ...
This 'Fredator' shirt was available for one day only over at Tee Fury, but can still be purchased through Red Bubble. Hooray!
On the eve of Halloween last year, I caught a highly fascinating show on Discovery Channel called How Evil Are You?, an hour long episode from their series Curiosity. Hosted by Eli Roth, the special aimed to examine the evil that lurks inside the average American citizen. To do so, Roth and a team of psychologists recreated controversial experiments psychologist Stanley Milgram carried out in the 1960's. Remember that scene from Ghostbusters where Venkman delivers an electric shock to a test subject whenever he gets a question wrong? Well that was the basic idea with the Milgram Experiments, only Milgram had participants delivering shocks of increasing intensity to what they were told were test subjects in another room with heart conditions, who were actually actors who were purposely giving wrong answers and who weren't really even getting shocked. Without anyone actually getting hurt, the experiments determined how much pain a given subject would inflict upon their fellow man, simply because an authority figure was instructing them to do so.
Milgram's findings were astounding and can be perhaps best summed up by this bone chilling statement he delivered after conducting the experiments ... "I would say, on the basis of having observed a thousand people in the experiment, and having my own intuition shaped and informed by these experiments, that if a system of death camps were set up in the United States of the sort we had seen in Nazi Germany, one would be able to find sufficient personnel for those camps in any medium sized American town."
So, is the average American as evil now as he was back in the 60's? Hit the play button below to begin this recreation of Milgram's experiments and find out!
Had been wanting to blog about this for months now but didn't want to do so until I had the video to embed. So big thanks to YouTube user farbus5 for uploading this!
Spewed forth some brief thoughts about this one last night on Facebook but being that I still can't seem to get the movie to leave my head alone, I found myself itching to talk a bit more about it. So let's do just that and find out if this Netflix Instant title deserves your time!
Employing a mix of storytelling techniques (including webcam footage, video chats and dramatized news reports), this chillingly realistic thriller charts the disappearance of two teens who vanish three weeks apart under mysterious circumstances.
Asking whether or not Megan Is Missing is worth your time is a bit of a loaded question, because it's really not as simple to answer as the same question is for most other movies. When it comes to this one, it's really not even a matter of whether the movie is any good or not, it's more about the massively damaging impact it leaves in its wake and the message that lies underneath its less than impressive attempt at being what I could consider a great film. The fact of the matter is that Megan Is Missing is a pretty sloppy and cheesy film, a found footage flick that teeters on the brink of stupidity almost to the point that it's hard to take it very seriously for very long. The acting is oftentimes pretty poor and the way the whole thing is presented to us is quite messy, but nevertheless by the end of the film I found myself absolutely horrified and disturbed by what I had just seen, to the point that I found it hard to sleep afterwards. Movies don't often have that effect on me so I kinda gotta give serious props to this one for doing so.
What's so scary about the movie is that this kind of stuff happens in the real world all the time, with several of those real life stories in fact serving as the inspiration for the film. This isn't a story about some slasher in the woods or a melted dude invading nightmares, this is about a sick predator targeting vulnerable young girls on the internet, luring them in with promises of love and companionship. In this day and age, where teens are growing up faster than ever, doing drugs, having sex and spending late nights on the internet, online predators are an all too real problem and young girls are an all too easy prey for them. Megan Is Missing uncomfortably taps into that idea, showing us what can and many times has resulted from that combination of kids growing up too fast and having too much freedom on the internet.
Just as being a kid isn't what it used to be, the world isn't what it used to be either, and Megan Is Missing paints a very unnerving picture of the current state of things, bringing horrifying news stories to life and highlighting the dangers of being a modern day American teenager. We hear about these stories all the time on the news but it's only when we see them play out that we truly feel the gravity of the horror, a horror that a pretty newscaster or a catchy newspaper headline could never convey. In that sense, Megan Is Missing is an important film for anyone who can handle it, one that will hopefully serve to scare off teens from messing around with strangers on the internet. This is one of those movies that's truly more than just a movie, which is a pretty damn powerful thing.
All that said, I again must reiterate that as a film, Megan Is Missing is not so great. Though the final 20 minutes (which show us exactly what happened to the two girls) are raw, realistic & utterly disturbing, a lot of the stuff that comes before it is totally poorly acted and goofy, which hurts the overall impact of the experience a great deal. I shudder to think how much more effective and more horrifying the movie would have been if those two girls and their situation felt a bit more real, but then again I'm not sure I could've handled it being much more horrifying. Again though, it's less about the movie and the characters that inhabit it than it is about the horror of such a situation, as your mind pretty much swaps out the victims with your own loved ones and the movie properly gets under your skin regardless of how it's pulled off throughout. That's really the strength of writer/director Michael Goi's effort, when all is said and done.
So, do I recommend you hit the play button on this found footage horror flick by way of Larry Clark? Well, yes and no. We live in a horrific world where some pretty awful shit happens on a daily basis and if you want to be exposed to the most horrific of the horrific, and can look past some flaws on the filmmaking front, then give it a watch. If, on the other hand, you want to shelter yourself from that kind of disturbing material, stay far far away. A reader by the name of Kristi Nommensen Dorson commented on my Facebook post about the movie last night and summed up my feelings pretty well ...
"I simultaneously want to make my children watch it before they are allowed to use the internet, and at the same time never expose them to anything like this ever in their lives."
When I watched Ti West's Innkeepers for the first time last week (read the review), it was pretty much love at first sight with a couple things about the film, most notably the characters and the hotel it's set in, which is pretty much a character in and of itself. The Innkeepers tells the story of a man and a woman working at the Yankee Pedlar Inn over a long weekend, the final weekend before the place shuts down for good. They've always believed the place to be haunted and so they set out to once and for all find out if it truly is. As expected, horrific things ensue.
Though it was pretty obvious that the movie was filmed in an actual hotel, what I didn't realize until I did some research after watching it is that the Yankee Pedlar Inn is actually a real place in Connecticut, built in 1891. The name wasn't changed for the movie nor was the location dressed up at all; what you see in the movie is the same location that is still an operational hotel that you can stay in. Ever fascinated by horror movie filming locations and totally in love with the old school look and feel of the Pedlar Inn, I immediately knew I had to book a room as soon as possible.
Cut to one week later.
With Valentine's Day coming up in just a couple weeks, I figured what better way to wine and dine Jen than to book a stay at the Pedlar Inn for the weekend and celebrate our love with the spirit of Madeline O'Malley by our side. I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything that's more romantic than ghost hunting while sipping PBR. Thankfully, Jen feels the same way. So last night I booked our mini suite for two nights on the weekend after Valentine's Day, February 17th-19th. If all goes as planned, both horrific and romantic things will ensue. Once they do, you'll of course be the first to hear about them. At least the horrific parts. I'll spare you the romance.
So, is the Pedlar Inn really haunted by malevolent spirits? Well, that's up for debate. Though the whole Madeline O'Malley thing was made up for the movie, the inspiration for it actually came from Ti West and the House of the Devil crew staying at the Inn while they were filming that movie, wherein West says they experienced some pretty freaky shit; phones ringing, lights turning on and off. In addition, he says the staff regaled him and his crew with ghost stories, alleging the place is in fact haunted. It was because of his experience there that West decided to write the story of The Innkeepers, brilliantly deciding to film the movie on location at the actual hotel that inspired it, making it the first movie ever to film there and in fact the first to be filmed entirely on location in Torrington, Connecticut.
So again I ask, is the Yankee Pedlar Inn really haunted? I figure that question can only be answered by spending a few nights there for myself, so I'll let ya know when (and if!) we return on the 19th!
In the meantime, I recommend you order The InnkeepersOn Demand and, if you can, see it in theaters when it comes out February 3rd. Check the listings to see if it's playing anywhere near you!
Today is the long awaited DVD & Blu-ray release of Lucky McKee's The Woman, one of the most must see and must own horror films of 2011. In honor of that release, I wanted to put the spotlight on four kickass pieces of merchandise that all fans of the film absolutely must have in their collection, along with either the DVD or Blu. So if you dig the movie as much as I do, get ready to bust out that credit card and add some serious awesomeness to your home and your life!
If ya ask me, you simply cannot own the movie without also owning Sean Spillane's soundtrack, which adds so much to the overall experience of the film. I've had this on repeat since I saw the movie last year and I'm betting you're with me on that one. Sure you can download MP3 versions of the songs on the cheap, but if you really love the soundtrack you may want to consider investing in this limited edition vinyl release, which features all the songs and comes individually numbered. If you don't have a record player lying around, this release also contains a digital download code so don't worry about not being able to listen to it. It's currently available for pre-order and will begin shipping March 6th!
Thankfully for all of us, the Fright Rags crew are also big fans of the movie. Today they just released this t-shirt, which is available in men's and women's sizes. Only 200 will be printed before it's gone for good, so hop on this one while ya still can!
Don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen the movie but if you have, you surely know the importance of this particular weapon to the outcome of the film. In one of the coolest moves in promotional item history, Modercine decided to make a limited number of polyester resin replicas of the bloody lawn mower blade, which are currently selling for $30 over on Amazon. Small price to pay for such a cool display piece, if ya ask me.
SIGNED LEATHER BOUND LIMITED EDITION BOOK
Though only sharing the titular character and not much else, The Woman is actually a sequel to Offspring, a movie adapted from a book written by Jack Ketchum. McKee & Ketchum not only got together to write the movie version of The Woman but they also wrote a print version of it together, which was released in both an inexpensive paperback form as well as this limited edition leather bound version. Signed and numbered, the book was limited to only 174 pieces, hand sewn and bound, making it perhaps the ultimate collector's item for fans of the story. Unfortunately, due to the limited nature, there's really nowhere to buy this edition these days aside from on sites like eBay, which is why there is no link above to purchase it. Keep your eyes peeled and prepare to shell out a couple hundred bucks if ya can't live without one. In the meantime, drool over more pictures of the most badass book of all time!
On this day in 1935 the first canned beer hit the market, revolutionizing the way people got fucked up. Why is this worth noting on a horror blog? Well, you might be amused to learn what company was the first to can their beers ...
Yep, the Krueger Brewing Company was the first to adopt the can as the chosen receptacle for their booze. The small Newark, New Jersey brewery began selling canned beer on January 24th, 1935, almost a full decade after founder Gottfried Krueger passed away. By the end of that year, nearly 40 US breweries had also begun doing the same. The rest, as they say, is history.
Though Krueger closed their operations in the 60's, canned beer is more popular than ever over 70 years after its birth, making a big time comeback of late, as breweries around the globe are realizing that canned beer is the way to go. Not only are cans a heck of a lot more earth friendly than bottles, but cans actually help keep out beer ruining elements like oxygen and light far better than bottles do, and the costs are lower to produce and ship aluminum than glass. On top of that, they're a whole lot safer. After all, if there's one thing no drunk person should be in possession of, it's glass!
In the 1980's, Gottfried's great grandson Fred put the Krueger name back on the map when he innovated a new dreaming technique that allowed him to literally enter the dreams of others, an achievement so impressive that many forgot his child molesting past and embraced him as a pop culture icon. That's the Krueger's for ya; always one step ahead of the pack!
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