Happy Birthday, Adam Green!

Ever since I saw Hatchet a few years back, i've become highly fascinated and inspired by the man behind the camera, Adam Green. Just type his name in the search box on the top left of this screen and you'll see what I mean. Here's a dude who was clearly a horror fan in his youth and who had the courage to go out and make his own horror films. Long story short, he's the kinda dude who gives a guy like me some serious hope. Thanks to this blog i've had the pleasure to speak with Mr. Green (read the interview here), which only confirmed my beliefs that he may be the coolest and nicest man in Hollywood. With a couple new genre projects on the horizon (Grace, Frozen), I have no doubt that Adam Green will go down as one of the best young horror filmmakers of our generation. But don't typecast him, cause he's certaintly got enough talent to excell in non genre films as well and i'm sure we'll be seeing some of that in the near future. Ok, that's enough mouth servicing for now.

Now i'm not normally the type of blogger to make "Happy Birthday" posts, but I just checked out his latest short and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share not only it but also some other Green related goodies. I've talked in the past about the "Horror Meets Comedy" short films that a handful of horror directors made around Christmas time last year which were shown on X-Box 360 and, thanks to the fact that i'm a PS3 guy, I didn't get the chance to see any of them. The one I was looking forward to checking out most was Fairy Tale Police, which was made by who else, Adam Green. It's a COPS spoof centered around a police department that patrols the areas of fantasy and detains the likes of Santa Claus and The Big Bad Wolf. Sounds interesting enough, eh? Well thankfully for us non X-Box fans, some thief uploaded the whole short onto YouTube! It was free on The Box anyway, so I don't think any piracy charges will be brought against me for posting this.....

So without further adieu, check out Adam Green's Fairy Tale Police!



And if ya want more A.G, check out the website of his production company Ariescope Pictures to see all of his other awesome short films and even the shorts he and Joe Lynch made for FrightFest last year. That's some shit ya don't wanna miss. Also, if you haven't seen Hatchet yet, believe the hype and seek out the most entertaining and gory horror flick in years! What are ya waitin for!

So Happy Birthday, Adam Green, and keep on kickin ass and bringing us original horror. If you ever need a personal bitch to fetch your coffee and rub your feet for little to no cost, you know where to find him. If any of you are fans like myself, head on over to Green's MySpace and leave him a Happy Birthday comment and show your support!

I'm off to my first day on the job at Troma tommorow morning and if all goes well and I don't fall asleep as soon as I come home, i'll have a full recap of my day tommorow night!

Troma Update!

This past Friday afternoon I entered a tiny unassuming building with no sign out front and walked out five minutes later with an internship gig at the home of Citizen Toxie, Troma Entertainment. It's been quite a busy weekend (Happy Birthday one last time, Jen) and thus I haven't had any time to post about this yet, so lets get into it!

My interview was scheduled for 4pm but Jen and I decided to make the most out of a trip to the city and head into Queens for the day to check out her old stomping grounds. We ate at her favorite pizza place in the city, New Park Pizza (i'm with her on this one), checked out her very first job locale, paid the mall a visit, and even peeped the home she grew up in. It was a very fun day all around but I can't help but feel I would have enjoyed it even more if I wasn't so overcome with nervous anxiety about the impending Troma interview. I tend to work myself up way too much over even the smallest of things and essentially ruin the whole day over a five minute portion of it. I've found that waiting for things is often times the worst part. Once ya get over the wait, it's never as bad as you imagined it. That being said, I still needed a pre interview man sized Blue Moon to get me in the mood, so we hit up Applebee's before jetting off to Long Island City for the interview.

And this is where we arrive at that small building. I get buzzed in, walk up the steps and meet Evan, the intern coordinator, who introduces me to the rest of the crew (editor and what not) and then takes both Jen and I on a tour of the building. Lloyd Kaufman isn't in but we check out the DVD and film print storage areas and the various other rooms in the place, which are all chock full of memorabilia and screen used props familiar to Troma fans like myself. Along the tour we talk about what I will be doing as an intern and coordinate how many days a week i'll be able to do it. Considering the trek out to Long Island City will be approx. 3 1/2 hours to and from, I propose that I come out there once a week and the dude was incredibly understanding and said that'd be perfect. They were really only looking for people to come in 2-3 days a week anyway, so it all works out pretty well. I also told him about the blogging and writing I do and he seemed very excited about that given the fact that Troma is currently looking for help in those departments. Writing product descriptions and helping with internet marketing, that sort of thing. So we essentially worked out a deal where I come in one day a week and do some online work from home for them another day of the week, or whenever I have free time basically. After this brief conversation and tour, Evan left me with a handshake, a job, and told me to e-mail him sometime over the weekend with a date I can start and the day of the week i'd be able to come in every week, and we were off. That feeling of accomplishment felt pretty damn good and I will be honest in saying it's not a feeling i've experienced too often in my life. Of course it only lasts for a good hour or so, but I was flying pretty high for that hour.

So when do I start? The day of the week that I chose which I think will be the best for me is Wednesday and I start in two days! I really have no idea what that day will bring but i'm pretty excited about it and also kinda nervous due to the fact that i've never made the trek out there by train (Jen drove us in on Friday), so I hope I can find my way there because I won't have Jen by my side to navigate me. I guess I must become a man and head out into the big city alone!

So ya, the whole thing went about as well as it could've gone and this should be a good experience all around. All the guys over there seem to be incredibly nice and i'm looking forward to working with all of them. And you guys benefit from this too! Every Wednesday night (or Thursday afternoon, depending on my level of tiredness) you'll have a full rundown of my day at Troma to look forward to! It's a win win situation for all!

For now, it's more waiting....

Oh by the way, I just noticed that you can instantly watch most of Troma's library (Toxie 1-4, Terror Firmer, Tromeo and Juliet, Class of Nuke 'Em High) on Netflix, which i'm pretty thankful for. Time to play some catch up!

Another One Of Those Text Heavy Posts

- I've got an interview with Troma this Friday. But let's Tarantino this shit for a second and start from the beginning. Two days ago I was getting a little fed up with my current situation and the lack of forward movement in any kind of avenue that I want to go down in life and I ended up on Troma's website, which has a section where you can apply to be an intern. Troma, if you're not aware, is the low budget indy horror company founded by Lloyd Kaufman which has produced the hit classics Toxic Avenger, Terror Firmer, Tromeo & Juliet, and their latest release, Poultrygeist : Night of the Chicken Dead. My interest was immediately piqued because a) I want to work in the film industry in some capacity and b) I wouldn't mind cleaning the toilets of a building that produced a film with the title Night of the Chicken Dead. So I checked out their requirements and such and they asked for applicants to fill out a questionnaire and submit the dreaded resume. Now I barely even know what a resume is. I've never filled one out, I really have nothing to speak of to put on one, and I really have no qualifications that would make me qualified for a gig at Troma. But it's only an internship, right? What qualifications do you need other than to possess the ability and lack of dignity to clean toilets and make coffee runs, right? So I sent the guy who hires interns a nice long e-mail explaining all of these things and explaining how i'd love to be an intern there and would do anything that's needed of me blah blah i'll spare you from the long winded e-mail I sent. Didn't expect a response at all but I figured why not give it a shot. If anyones gonna hire people without a resume, it's surely gonna be Troma! Not an hour later, I got this response :

"Great! When could you come in for an interview?"

Whoa! Cool! Excitement abound!

Until, like I always seem to do, I froze up and got nervous. This would require work! Work is bad! For the past two days i've been convincing myself that I don't want to do it so as to avoid doing any work and accomplishing anything in my life. It's a bit of a problem I have. "It's too far away." "How am I gonna get there?" "I can't endure a 2 hour train ride to the city a couple days a week." "I don't want to clean toilets anyway." "I'm above that!" But then I realized that I of course am not. Ya gotta start somewhere right? It's time I take control of my life and do something that I actually want to do! I applied for a job earlier today at the local Stop and Shop and let me tell ya, it took being in that building for only 60 seconds for me to come to the realization that I just can't do the 9-5 thing. "The truth is never told between the 9-5 business hours", as the great Hunter S. Thompson once said. Sure I won't get paid for being a lowely intern, but the opportunity to work in some capacity in the movie business, and the horror movie business at that, is a great one and it's something i've always wanted to get an inside glimpse at. So after some heavy duty added words of encouragement from the girlfriend (I am indeed afraid of growing up), I finally responded to the e-mail today and long story short, i've got an interview with Troma at 4pm this Friday. It's not a guarantee that i'll get the gig but i'm pretty confident that I can secure it. If nothing else, it will be an interesting learning experience and perhaps give me some guidance with where I want to go with my life post internship. The website says that interns have the opportunity to do some script supervising and creative writing work, so i'm hoping to get to dabble in that a bit too. And even if it doesn't provide me any guidance and foot in the doorness, it'll surely provide some good blogging material! So we'll see how the interview goes Friday and i'll keep ya posted. The only real problem is gonna be getting there because i've just come to the realization that the Troma offices are in a place in the city that's harder for me to get to then I originally thought (trains, subways, buses). But if I can swing the intern gig only a couple days a week, I think I could pull it off. For now, whether anything comes of it or not, I just feel good that i've taken one small step towards my future!

- I've got an interview coming up on this here blog with one of the stars of one of the most classic horror films of all time, so be on the lookout for that. It's gonna be "off the hook", hint hint!

- Punisher : Warzone is fucking awesome. Go give it a rent if ya haven't yet. I haven't gotten around to seeing the Tom Jane one yet so I can't compare the two, but I can't imagine it's as good as or better than Warzone. If ya want pure bloody entertainment, look no further!

- Anyone else looking forward to checking out Haunting in Connecticut? I know it's PG-13 and all but it looks pretty kickass and I remember the original Discovery Channel re-enactment show of the true story years back was pretty awesome and creepy, so I think this one should be too. I actually won 2 passes to a screening of the movie tonight in the City but obviously was not able to make it out there. Turns out you can pretty much get free tickets to screenings like these anyway and it's all run on a first come first served basis so even though I "won" the tickets, I still would have to arrive real early to even be able to possibly get in. I guess i'll just hang the pass (which is basically a mini poster with info printed on the other side) up on my wall, a reminder of my sort of contest win!

- I've gotten several e-mails and read several articles about the Let The Right One In DVD subtitle issues and i'm happy to report that Magnet will be re-releasing the disc with the correct subtitles as they were in theatres. If you don't know what i'm talking about, head over to Icons of Fright, who extensively covered the whole issue and who probably were a big part in getting Magnet to re-release the flick. Sadly, if you already bought the previous release, you will not be able to switch it out for the new one. That being said, the current subs on there really wouldn't ruin the movie for ya at all anyway. But if you haven't picked it up yet, you might as well wait for the re-release.

- Check out this rather strange quote Rob Zombie made in a recent interview with IGN :

Zombie added that horror isn't necessarily as important to him as his fans might think it is. "They're not even my favorite types of movies. I mean, I love horror movies but not the way people think. I don't really care for slasher movies or any of that stuff. It was never anything I liked ; even as a kid I didn't care for it. I'm such a product of the '70s, you know, I'd rather watch Billy Jack than Friday the 13th any day."

I feel kinda duped! I'm sure this comment comes off a bit differently than how he meant it and of course the man does love horror movies, but i'm a bit surprised to hear that he apparently doesn't love them as much as we all thought. The guys entire career, music and film, has been based entirely off horror movies and I remember Cribs doing a tour of his house, which was chock full of horror posters and memorabilia, so this seems like a pretty out of left field thing for him to say. I wonder if he ever even liked Halloween in the first place!

- I'm about a week late on this one, but check out a brand spankin new photo of Charlie Manson! Apart from the swastika on his head, I wouldn't even recognize the man if he bumped into me on the street! Granted he will never be let loose on the streets again, but even still. Manson fascinates me to no end (he never did kill anyone!), so I had to share this.

- One more thing! I haven't talked a lick about what could be the horror movie of the year (if it ever comes out) and I feel bad about it and now seems like the perfect time. The official website for Grace has just opened up for business, check it out HERE. Grace is a horror flick produced by Hatchet's Adam Green that is based on the Paul Solet short of the same name that has been getting tons of buzz from tons of highly reputable people in the past couple years. Solet and Green joined forces, got the funding, and shot a full length feature film that is also getting lots of buzz. At the site you can check out videos, photos, and keep up to date on the latest news. To break up all this text, I leave you with the plot and trailer for Grace!

Madeline Matheson is eight months pregnant and determined to deliver her unborn child, Grace, naturally. When an accident leaves Grace dead inside her, Madeline insists on carrying the baby's corpse to term. Weeks later, when Madeline delivers, the baby miraculously returns to life... With an appetite.



Keep your eye on this one!

Awesome Ebay Finds!

Ebay is pretty much the greatest place in the world. I think that much goes without saying. There are things you can find on Ebay, no matter your interests, that you really cannot find anywhere else in the world. Being that i'm a frequent browser of the site, always on the hunt for cool shit I can look at but not touch due to my limited funds, I thought it'd be kinda fun to start showcasing some of my awesome horror finds with you guys. Who knows, maybe you'll even be able to afford some of these things that I cannot! With cool shit being posted around the world pretty much every single day, I think this could be a fun little recurring feature on here. So now that that pesky intro is over with, let's take a look at an awesome item that I found today while cruising the vast and magical world of Ebay!

"Lucio Fulci The Beyond girl head prop"





Starting/Current Bid - $200.00

Ends - March 29th

Bump In The Night is one of the premiere horror mask/prop/costume companys in the world (click that link and check out their shit...their Bigfoot costume was recently used in a worldwide hoax and it actually convinced many that it was the real Sassie!) and this is a bust taken straight from their mold that has long been out of print, which makes this item incredibly rare and valuable. It is also signed by the amazing artist who has sculpted every BITN mask, Chuck Jarman.

It's time like these I wish I had done something more with my life in the past couple years and had a nice little stash of cash that I could tap into. This is one of the most iconic and awesome scenes in all of horror history (to me, at least) and I never even knew that this prop ever existed at any point in time. Hopefully there's a Fulci nut out there with more money than I who can give this adorable creation a nice (smoke free) home!

I leave you with the amazing scene from The Beyond in which this bust is depicting .....

The brutal massacre of a red headed step-child!

Meet The Woman Who Can Kick Your Ass!

Yes, that's Zoe Bell. Yes, that's a knife sticking out of her head. And yes, she can and will kick your ass. If you haven't yet seen the web series Angel of Death yet, and I bet you haven't, you must do yourself a favor and check it out. How good can an internet series be, you ask? Pretty damn good when it's got Zoe Bell (the as vicious as she is cute stunt chick from Death Proof) kicking some serious ass with a pretty substantial size knife embedded in her dome!

Angel of Death is a 10 episode web series that ran on the website Crackle from March 2nd - March 13th of this year, one 7-10 minute episode per day. Here's the synopsis .....

The show is about a badass female assassin, Eve (Bell), who is employed by a ruthless crime family. After suffering a severe head trauma (cue knife) while on the job, she begins to hallucinate and becomes haunted by her victims. As a result of her injury, Eve is driven to seek revenge on those who ordered the hits in the first place - her mob employers.

It's violent, it's bloody, it's sexy, it's damn fun, and I can't understand why there's so little talk about it out there on the web. If it weren't for me stumbling upon a recent interview with Bell that was conducted over at AVClub.com, I don't know when I even would have heard about this series. And i'm hoping that my mentioning it on here will bring at least one more fan on board.

So go ahead! Watch Angel of Death NOW! And be on the lookout for some familiar faces throughout. Ted Raimi, anyone?

Watch the first 10 minute episode and if you like it, continue watching. You've got nothing to lose! Give it a shot and leave a comment on here with what you thought. And if ya end up liking it as much as I did, post about it wherever you can and help spread the word. It's things like these that are totally reliant on word of mouth. So open your mouth!

Thank you, Quentin Tarantino, for giving Zoe Bell the chance to shine as a kickass action star. Let's face it, there's simply nothing better than a sexy chick kicking male ass, is there? I thought not!

The whole series will be released on DVD with additional footage sometime this Summer, so be on the lookout for that. Also be on the lookout for a second season of the series which hasn't been announced yet but looks to be on the horizon. Hope hope!

Three New Fright Rags Designs!

I've been waiting to talk about these new shirts for a couple weeks now and they've finally just crash landed on the Fright Rags site (greatest horror shit company in the history of horror shirts, companys, and history). I don't know if they were first unveiled at Monster Mania a couple weeks back or what but they were the first i'd seen of them and they hadn't yet even been posted on the site, so i'm assuming I was one of the first to catch a glimpse of them. And now, I share them with you!

Introducing .....

FRANKENHOOKER



This shirt is fucking awesome looking and I almost bought it at the convention despite the fact that i've never even seen the movie and in fact had to ask the lovely lady working at the table what movie it was even from! I'll have to check the movie out and then I can buy the shirt, probably whether I like the movie itself or not!

THE BLIND DEAD



Again, never seen this one and wasn't sure what movie was being depicted when I saw it at the convention. I know, i'm a shitty horror fan. And again, awesome shirt regardless.

THE EXORCIST



Now this is what i'm talkin about! And I thought my previous boring old Exorcist shirt was cool! I immediately bought this one as soon as I saw it (you can see me sporting it in every single one of my Monster Mania pictures and Jen endured the stench of me sporting it for a straight week sans washing) and it's probably my favorite Fright Rags design to date. One must only look at the design on this baby to come to the realization that Fright Rags is the be all end all for horror shirts. Why would you even put anything else on your body?!

They also had a Beetlejuice shirt available at Mania, but it's not on the site. Not sure why but once it does get posted, i'll be sure to let ya know!

Each of these shirts is a mere $16.95 a piece and if you sign up for their online newsletter, you will instantly receive 10% off your first order! I can't exactly do the math but that's like, less than $16.95 for one of these kickass shirts! What are you waiting for!

This message was not paid for by Fright Rags.

Where Are They Now? - The Last House On The Left

1972. Two soon to be mavericks of the horror industry, Wes Craven and Sean S. "Friday The 13th" Cunningham, take the Oscar winning Ingmar Bergman drama The Virgin Spring, find some unknown actors and a little bit of cash, and turn it into one of the most disturbing genre films ever made. People faint, people throw up, people have heart attacks, though they seek some level of comfort in the fact that "it's only a movie".

It's now been 37 years since that movie and a new up and coming filmmaker has been handed a much larger budget and some known actors to remake the tale of suburban rape and revenge. But what of the original cast of relative unknowns? WHERE ARE THEY NOW?!

THE KILLERS

Krug Stillo - David Hess



There's a lot more to David Hess than meets the eye. He's not just the creepy evil dude who's always raping chicks in 70's exploitation flicks (Hitch Hike, House on the Edge of the Park, to name a few), he's also a pretty successful songwriter, which is what he began his career as back in the late 50's. Would you believe that the maniacal Krug wrote hit songs for Pat Boone, Sal Mineo, and even Elvis Presley! He even composed the awesome soundtrack for Last House, which was to be his second film and the one that turned him into the genre actor we know and love today. So what's Hess been up to lately? At the age of 66, he's still making music and he's still acting. He's currently got a couple of CD's out and he even recently worked on the soundtrack for Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, which contained some familiar odes to Last House fans. As for his acting career, Hess has appeared in many low budget genre films of late and will next be seen in the upcoming films Smash Cut, where he will play a horror film director, and The Beautiful Outsiders along with Tara Reid and Chucky himself, Brad Dourif. As if that weren't enough, he even has his own line of horror inspired colognes and perfumes! To keep up to date on the latest goings on of David Hess, head over to his official website, where you can contact him or pick up some of those scents!

Fred "Weasel" Podowski - Fred J. Lincoln



The name may not sound familiar to you, but Fred J. Lincoln has actually been a highly prolific writer, director, and actor over the past 30 or so years. He's directed over 300 films since the post Last House 70's and has appeared in over 50, one of which was titled The Last Whore On The Left. Are you catching the drift here? Yes folks, since Last House, Mr. Lincoln has had an over 30 year long career in the porn industry, and he's still going strong to this day. Prettiest Tits I Ever Came Across, Thighs Wide Open, Sextraterestrials, Edward Penishands 3, these are just a few of the productions that Lincoln has helmed and appeared in. I guess this is one Last House alumn that is truly as sleazy as his on screen character. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Junior Stillo - Marc Sheffler



Last House was the first and in fact, to date, the only film that Marc Sheffler has appeared in. But that does not mean he has fallen off the face of the earth or has given up on the entertainment industry as a whole. Post Last House, Sheffler went into the writing side of the business, working for television shows the likes of Charles in Charge, Who's the Boss?, and Harry and the Henderson's. His last writing credits were for the 19th and 20th annual People's Choice Awards in '93 and '94, respectively. He's also tried his hand at producing, where he has worked on the Sage Stallone flick Chaos and will next be producing and returning to the acting front in the upcoming horror film Girls Gone Dead, wherein he will be playing a sheriff. While not all that prolific, he's still out there in the entertainment business and if you're askin me, playing Junior Stillo and writing 7 episodes of Charles in Charge is enough for one career!

Sadie - Jeramie Rain



Being that i'm a huge fan of her performance in Last House, I was a bit saddened to discover that Ms. Rain has only appeared in two other exploitation flicks, both around the same time as LH. But the most interesting thing about Jeramie is not her professional life, but her personal life. She has been linked to both Bob Dylan and John Belushi and in 1983, she married Richard Dreyfuss, which ended 12 years and two children later. She also founded Mother's Touch in the early 90's, which is a Los Angeles based charity that helps out children diagnosed with serious illnesses. As of 2004, the 60 year old Rain was back in the entertainment industry, this time writing and producing daytime TV shows in L.A, which she is presumably still doing although no such credits appear on her IMDb page.

THE GALS

Mari Collingwood - Sandra Cassel



Sandra Cassel's whereabouts are a bit tricky. Some claim she has only appeared in Last House, while others claim she went on to do a string of adult films post LH. The confusion seems to stem from the fact that there is an adult film actress with the same name. It had been reported on Wikipedia that the porn Cassel was the same as the Last House Cassel, but that entry has since been taken down with the citing that "Two actresses with similar surnames confused". So what has the real Ms. Cassel been up to? Quite the opposite. She apparently appeared in a couple other 70's era exploitation flicks and, as of 2002, she was a drama teacher and children's television producer. That's about all the info that seems to be available on this mystery woman.

Phyllis Stone - Lucy Grantham



Much like Marc Sheffler, Last House is the first and only film that Grantham has appeared in. All I could really find out about her currently is that she's now 57 years old. She can also be seen in the 2002 mini documentary 'It's Only a Movie : The Making of Last House on the Left' where she claims that she really peed her pants in the famous "piss yer pants" scene, although that claim has been disputed. Like her gal pal in the flick, Sandra Cassel, it seems as if Lucy Grantham has vanished into thin air.

THE PARENTS

Dr. John Collingwood - Richard Towers



Richard Towers is yet another mystery amongst the Last House alumns. He appeared in a couple films before Last House and only a couple after, under different names in prtty much each one of them. Dick Stone, Tony Armada, Joe Powers, Greg Reynolds, you name it. After 1978, Towers took an almost 30 year break from acting to focus on being a talent agent before donning a new name, Gaylord St. James, in 2006's Nubile Nuisance. He has not been heard from since.

Estelle Collingwood - Cynthia Carr



Last but certaintly not least the vengeful mother of the year (she sucked a dick to avenge her daughter!), Cynthia Carr aka Eleanor Shaw. Again, Carr has not appeared in any films aside from Last House. She just turned 70 this year and that's about all I was able to track down as it pertains to her.

So what have we learned here? Among the stars of the original Last House on the Left, one's in porn, one was rumored to be in porn, one married Richard Dreyfuss, one has his own line of fragrances (the most unlikely of the bunch to lay that claim), and many have seemingly dissapeared off the face of the earth. The years have not been kind to the careers of all of these men and women but we can be thankful that, by all accounts, every person who appeared in the film is still living to this day. Even Ada Washington, the chicken coop driver, is apparently still with us! Amen to that!

*** I'm pretty certain that the "It's Only a Movie" documentary, which Lucy Grantham appears in, is on the original region 1 Last House DVD release but I was not able to pull an image from it because as i've said, I accidently broke that disc in half a couple months back! If anyone has the disc and would like to pull a still of Lucy from it for me, i'd greatly appreciate it! You can e-mail it to me at mortis45@aol.com or leave it in a comment to this post. ***

Two Very Interesting Last House Bits

What would the Last House on the Left remake look and feel like if it were directed by a different filmmaker?

We will never know for sure but Joe Lynch, the director of Wrong Turn 2, lobbied hard for the job prior to Dennis Illiadis taking the reigns and over at his blog he's just let us all in on a little peek as to what the movie would have been like if he were to have landed the gig! It's some very interesting stuff and I have no doubt that Lynch would have done Last House justice just as Illiadis did. To check out Lynch's presentation complete with video and storyboards, follow this link!

One thing I totally agree with him on is the inclusion of some family and home life stuff in regards to the second girl, as in the friend of the one who is the main female character. I always felt that she seemed more like a throwaway character and didn't seem as important as the main girl, which isn't really fair. Lynch makes the point that "by giving this girl a life, her death will not be so throwaway" and I couldn't agree more. She really needed to more fleshed out than just the wild and crazy friend of Mari's who gets killed. I know that in the original script for the remake, the other girl's dad comes in at the end to help Mr. Collingwood dispatch of Krug, and I was kinda upset that that part did not make the final cut. It really wouldn't have fit into the time frame of what went on in the remake, but they could've reworked it to fit some revenge from the other girl's family in there too, thus showing more of her humanity and making us feel that she was a real human being too whose loss is truly felt. I also would have cast somebody different in the role than that annoying chick from Superbad, but I already made that point in my review!

Also in complete agreement that the film needs to be "dangerous" which thankfully the end product was and that the rape scene needs to be dangerously brutal and unflinching, which if you read my review you'll know I also believe was accomplished with the Illiadis remake. But having the "attack scene" take place in an average backyard like yours or mine with her parents close by and having no idea what is going on? I can't help but feel that would've made the rape/murder a heck of a lot more brutal which, while it didn't need to be, certaintly wouldn't have hurt.

The only points he makes that I really don't agree with (don't be mad at me Lynch!) are changing Krug's name to Gage and the cutting off of the main girl's face. I know it's a new take on the old movie and thus there's kinda a desire to change names of characters in remakes, but I think Krug is not only an awesome name for a villian but he's such an established horror character and I think changing his name would do more harm than good. When we hear the name Krug, we already think of a sick and sadistic killing machine and it's good to have that built in fear of him the moment we lay eyes on him and hear his name. It just wouldn't feel Last House without the name Krug. It'd be kinda like Friday the 13th without the name Jason Voorhees, in my opinion at least. As for the cutting off of the main girls face, I think that's a little too over the top for what Last House should be (much like how the microwave scene was too over the top). It should be grounded in totally realistic violence and although yes, you can cut someone's face off in reality and yes it has been done in reality, a makeup effect like that would look more like something out of an over the top gory film and wouldn't really fit. Not to mention I feel that keeping the main girl alive but extremely worse for wear is much more effective and powerful than having her get killed. That's one thing they changed from the original that I am very thankful for.

Leave comments with what you think of Lynch's take on the tale!

Either way ya look at it, it would've been a totally different film in Lynch's hands and I would personally love to have seen him get a crack at doing it. But more than anything, I just can't wait to see his next flick being that i'm a huge fan of what he did with Wrong Turn 2.

What I really wanna know though is what Joe Lynch himself thought of Dennis Illiadis' Last House remake. So Lynch, if you're out there and reading, i'd love for you to leave a comment with your thoughts!

**Update! If you're lookin for Lynch's opinion on the movie, here it is!**

"...Oh, what did I think of LAST HOUSE? Let's just say, with no ill will towards Dennis Illiadis and the (mostly) stellar cast....I still stand by my idea, especially after seeing the final product. S'nuff said."

On another interesting Last House related note .....

I just came to the realization earlier today (well it wasn't so much a realization as an IMDb search) that the guy who played John Collingwood in the remake, Tony Goldwyn, is no stranger to the horror genre. His first film role, you ask? Friday The 13th Part 6! Here's his only brief scene in the movie playing Darren, a guy who's a little too confident in his abilities to kick Jason's ass!



Thankfully, you fared better with Krug, Mr. Goldwyn!

MONSTER MANIA!

Another horror convention has come and gone and it was once again a major success and I am once again very unhappy to be returning to my normal boring life where I can't look to my left and see Jason Voorhees and look to my right and see a dude clad in nothing but a skin tight green body suit. It's a little bit hard to adjust, to say the least. But it certaintly helps to relive so let's relive and take a look at all of the fun and excitement I experienced in between chowing down on hotel philly cheese steaks (5 in total) and slurping down on cheap beers (30 in total) at this past weekend's MONSTER MANIA!!

I don't really remember what was done on what days so rather than doing a day by day diary style account of the proceedings, i'm gonna divide everything into three main categories .....

THE STARS

- Derek Mears



As pretty much everyone else who has ever met him has raved, this dude is probably the nicest guy i've ever had the pleasure of meeting. You can tell that he is so honored and happy that he got to play Jason and he's so appreciative that anyone would want to meet him. Coolest guy ever. He talked a bit about a sequel and said that a script has been written but it hasn't been greenlit and he'd love to slap the mask on again for it. I don't think he's got anything to worry about in that department as i'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a lot more Mears under that mask in the years to come. We had him sign our 19" NECA Jason figure (dual heads), which is apparently pretty rare as he said it was only one of two that was brought to the table that day. Jen told him to sign "To J + J Boots" (Johnny and Jennie Boots, our respective nicknames) on it and he thought she said "Boobs", which led to some hilarity. If you ever see Derek Mears at a convention, hop on his line first thing because he's a true pleasure to meet. And make sure you take a picture with him so you can get a good idea of just how enormous the man is. He's like a big bald teddy bear!

- Walter Phelan



Although he's appeared in many things, Phelan is probably best known for portraying Dr. Satan in House of 1000 Corpses and that badass deleted scene from Devil's Rejects. I've been trying to stay away from getting any 8x10's signed as there's always much cooler things to get signed and thankfully Walt had the Dr. Satan t-shirts available so I picked one of those up and had him Hancock that. Much like Bill Moseley, it's hard to imagine that such a nice little old man can be transformed into such a badass evil looking villain!

- Steve Dash / Richard Brooker



Two Jason's in one picture! Beat that! Dash (Happy Birthday!) played Jason in Part 2 (don't let that Gillete herb tell ya otherwise) and Brooker played him in Part 3. I've already met Brook in the past and have even hung out with him in the hotel lobby but I had never seen Dash at a convention before. I didn't have much money left as this was kinda late in the weekend so I opted instead of signatures to just get a picture with the two. Here's a little convention secret for ya ; if you just wanna meet someone, ask them for a picture. Most times they won't charge you and you'll get to meet and chat with them for a bit. There's nothin like being the meat in a Jason sandwich!

- Don Coscarelli



Another incredibly nice guy. I'm a huge fan of Coscarelli's (director of Phantasm / Bubba Ho-Tep) and I told him that the latter was the greatest film of all time, which was no suck up or lie. I had him sign my NECA Cult Classic's Sebastian Haff figure (which Jen picked up for me in the merch area) and spent a good couple minutes chatting up Bubba Nosferatu with him, mostly about the lack of Bruce Campbell in it. He said they did everything they could to get Bruce back but he apparently wanted to continue working on his own projects, which really makes no sense. The greatest role and greatest movie Campbell has ever been in and he doesn't want to return for a sequel? I made mention that it's not like Campbell's "own" movies (My Name is Bruce) of late have been that great and Coscarelli didn't disagree with that point. He's clearly heartbroken over the loss of Bruce and said he hoped that fans like myself would give the movie a chance with Ron Perlman in the lead role. I don't think the movie will be the same without Bruce, but I have all the faith in the world in Coscarelli and I think Perlman will do a fine job. It will just be a much different movie than it could have been. Just like Mears, it was a total pleasure to meet this guy. Don't let my lack of smile fool you!

- Stu Charno



Ah, I have saved the best for last! You may not recognize him, but Stu played Ted in Friday Part 2, the guy who stayed out drinking all night and survived the wrath of Jason. Let me give you a brief rundown of our encounters in the Stuniverse. That above picture was taken on Friday. I was standing a few feet from Stu's table pointing him out to Jen and telling her who he was and he waved to us and told us to come over to his table where he proceeded to say something to the effect of "look what happened to me". I guess he thought we were pointing and staring and poking fun at the way he looked or something. I assure you we were not! We chatted a bit with him, he was incredibly nice and interesting, Jen took that picture with him, and we moved on. For the next 24 hours, Jen couldn't stop talking about him and for some reason had a desire to grab him a beer and bring it down to him, which I laughed off. Who the hell would drink a beer brought down by two convention weirdos! Cut to Saturday. We again approach Stu's table and Jen tells him he was her favorite person she met at the convention all weekend and I decided to take a picture with him this time around .....



So Jen mentions to him how she wanted to buy him a beer and Stu lit up and said he would love that, essentially saying go grab a Blue Moon (with an orange) for me from the bar and you two can come sit behind my table for the remainder of the day and hang out with me! Naturally, we depart to the bar, grab three Blue Moon's, and head back to the signing room. And who's coming towards the bar as we leave but Stu Charno looking for us and wondering if we ditched him (long wait at the bar)! We upheld our end of the bargain and Stu upheld his. He lets us both sit behind the table with him and hang out for the next hour left of signing time, which was no doubt the highlight of our weekends. It was pretty surreal being on the other side of the table and shooting the shit and drinking with Stu fucking Charno (who i've always loved) for a good hour. Two beers later the clock strikes six and we tell Stu we're gonna depart, to which he seems even a tad bit bummed out! He tells us that if we ever come to California, hit him up, and gives us his business card with his home and cell phone number! In retrospect, I don't know if he just used us for some free beers or what but either way ya look at it was an incredibly awesome experience for the both of us. STU CHARNO YOU ROCK!

- Other Guests

I unfortunately did not get the chance to meet Alice Cooper, which I figured would be the case. In order to meet the biggest star at any of these conventions, you pretty much have to blow a whole day waiting on line in order to do so. I'm not really down with that as it's kinda a waste of time, so I never even caught a glimpse of The Coop. Someone how parents (who love these things) managed to get into the Q & A with him and they had nothing but good things to say about him. I was hoping to at least catch a glimpse of him at some point, but it was not to be.

I was surprised at how long the line at all times was for Fairuza Balk (The Craft / American History X). I didn't think she'd be a big draw, especially at a horror convention, but I guess I was wrong. Jen and I were both shocked at how small and tiny she is in person.

And speaking of tiny ..... Rochelle Davis, that young girl from The Crow, is anything but these days. She's packed on quite a few pounds in the past couple years and that's all i'll say about that!

THE MERCH

- The main things I usually go for at conventions are DVD's. This is the place to pick up bootleg copies of movies that you really can't get anywhere else. Most of my pick ups were either movies that are on VHS but aren't on DVD yet or flicks that are on Region 2 but not 1 yet. I snatched up Babysitter Wanted, Death Weekend, Isle of the Damned, Mum & Dad, The Mutilator, Torso, and Vampira : The Movie. Can't wait to delve into some of these as most of them i've been dying to check out for a long time now. Gotta love how selling bootleg DVD's is totally legal at horror conventions somehow!

- Also picked up a whole slew of action figures this time around ; the afformentioned Cult Classics Sebastian Haff, Cult Classics Jigsaw's (one in pig mask, one out of pig mask .... both for $10!), and Jen picked up the C.C Frank The Bunny as well as ET figures in and out of drag, both for 5 bucks, which she was quite pleased about.

- That shirt i'm wearing in all of the above pictures (which I still haven't taken off) is Fright Rags brand new Exorcist tee that I think they debuted at this convention along with a couple other new designs that aren't even on their site yet. As usual with them, this shirt is fucking awesome and is probably my favorite of theirs to date. I also picked up the Doc Satan shirt, which I mentioned above, and which is now hanging proudly on my wall.

I think that's about all in terms of merch .....

THE EVENTS

- Monster Mania is known for their panels, where they get together various related stars and have them do Q & A's for an hour. The only one I made it to was the Friday The 13th the victims one with folks like Amy Steel, John Furey, VC Dupree, John Otrin, Camilla & Carey Moore, Judie Aronson, and Robbi Morgan. We would've stayed for more but they made us wait nearly an hour for that one from the time it was supposed to start, so we were ready to get outta there and head to the bar after this one was over. On the way to said bar, we again ran into Stu Charno who was playing piano and who was supposed to be a part of the panel we just left. We asked him what the deal was and he seemed to have no idea that he was supposed to be there and shrugged it off and continued tickling the ivorys. I'm still not sure what's schtick with this guy and what's not, but he's definetly a blast to talk with.

- Actually I spoke too soon as we also made it later in the night to a Madman Pondo (hardcore wrestler) Q & A. That was mildly amusing but even being a wrestling fan I was kinda wondering what he was doing there.

- Checked out a couple songs from a late night performance from some of the guys from Alice Cooper's band. Did nothing for me and couldn't even hear what was being sung, so we jetted out of there fairly quickly.

And that about wraps up the Monster Mania 12 experience! A great time was had by all as always and Monster Mania continues to be the most well put together and well run horror convention of them all. The con rears its ugly head again this June and I hope to make it out there, although that's looking iffy being that it's in Connecticut this time around. But thankfully it returns to Jersey in August. Three in one year, ya can't beat that!

The Obligatory Last House Review

Just got back from Monster Mania today and immediately rushed out to see Last House on the Left, being that I wasn't able to feast my eyes on it until now. I'm not gonna have the time to post my Mania experience until tommorow, but I figured i'd quick whip up a little post on my Last House thoughts while Jen is deeply engaged in some Playstation Home pool action. Actually, truth be told, she's only doing that because I need to write this and won't be able to focus on doing anything else until I do so. But anyway, as always, if you saw the movie, leave a comment and let me know what ya thought.



Holy shit! I didn't know (post 70's) American horror was capable of being this unnerving! Last House on the Left was always one of the more disturbing pieces of American horror cinema and i'd say it's been done a hell of a lot of justice with this redux. I thought a bigger budget and some known actors would do nothing but hurt the realism and disturbing-ness (?) of the flick, but boy was I wrong. This is a testament to not only the director, Dennis Illiadis, but just as importantly the awesome performances from nearly the entire cast (could've done without that Superbad chick). The film manages to make you feel just about everything it wants you to feel, be it sadness, rage, or utter satisfaction. Last House '09, if you're askin me, is easily the most effective and best American horror movie in the past couple years. Look out you sick French and Japanese fuckers! Us yanks are taking the horror genre back!

But be forewarned, this one is not for the weak of heart .....

I gotta say that now having a woman in my life that I really love and can't stand to see in pain, I can't seem to handle violence against women on the screen anymore. It never really bothered me so much but it's really been turning my stomach lately and I can barely stand to even watch it. I was so disturbed and disgusted during the "attack" scene that I was admittedly choking back tears during the majority of it. Just like the original, it's so realistic and so brutal and painful to watch. In fact, the original did not even make me feel the way I felt today. Jen was especially unnerved, covering her eyes and getting ready to walk out, and I can't say as i've ever seen that reaction from her before. Lest you think she's just a female and thus can't handle violence, she's sat through many a graphic horror flick with me and has never been as visibly upset as she was during this one, so that's saying something. But all that being said, the violence, just like in Irreversible, was totally necessary. We need to see the whole rape go down and see just how horrible it is in order to not only justify the second half but also make that second half as satisfying and I definetly credit Illiadis for not pulling any punches when it came to the rape / murder sequence. Horror is supposed to be disturbing and this version of Last House just about corners the market on disturbing.

I've read about a lot of people walking out of the theatre, but don't take that to mean the movie sucks. Quite the contrary. If anything, it's a testament to just how effective of a movie it is. Some people can't handle it, plain and simple, and I really don't blame them for getting up out of their seats and returning back to the comfort of their homes. If you're not the type who can handle a graphic and realistic rape scene, do not even subject yourself to this movie. Yes, it's only a movie, but a movie can still be pretty fucking powerful and even a bit damaging to one's sensibilities.

As for the revenge portion of the film, it was equally as well done. The parents don't turn into super human killing machines once they find out their daughter has been raped, which I loved as that would've been cheesy and unrealistic, like too many revenge movies are. Watching them go through it together and figuring out how to take the life of another human being is both painful and incredibly empowering to watch. I was literally on the edge of my seat eagerly anticipating the total annihiliation of the bad guys and the sheer satisfaction of seeing them get theirs felt pretty damn good. When they do finally get it, they get it good ..... with one exception that I knew was going to be a problem when I read the script months ago. I really wish they would have changed Krug's death scene as it felt totally out of place in the movie. I'm sure most of you already know what happens to him (and if you don't and wanna know, you can read my review of the script HERE) and it comes off as lame on screen as it does on the page. I understand that they were going for an over the top brutal kill scene for Krug being that you so badly want to see him die, but I think they dropped the ball on this one. In such a realistic movie with realistic violence throughout, it feels like the movie suddenly takes a turn into Dead Alive territory and it definetly hurts the overall feel of the movie.

But that's really the only complaint I have. I thought I was gonna have a problem with Mari living (don't think i'm spoiling anything there), but i'm definetly glad they made that change from the original. The movie is so much more effective and powerful with her living and making it back to her home and having her parents actually see what has been done to her and realize that their daughter has been raped. While I initially felt it was gonna be another cop out American ending of having a victim live, I think it was the better choice here. There needs to be something uplifting in such a bleak and horrifying movie, after all.

Thank you, Mr. Illiadis & Co., for managing to make a film as disturbing if not more disturbing than Wes Craven's original. I really didn't think it could be done and I love to be proven wrong when it comes to the horror genre. Last House is one of the best remakes ever made and you owe it to yourself to check it out. But as I said, it's certaintly not for everyone. Even being a seasoned horror veteran, it was still a little much for my tastes at times. But that is the ultimate goal of a horror film, so the misson was most certaintly accomplished.

Phew. I really think I need to take a couple weeks off from disturbing horror movies. With this and Martyrs in one week, i'm pretty certain i've had just about enough. Time to cuddle up with a nice kiddy flick tonight!

Why Do I Watch Shit Like This?

I'll tell ya why I watch shit like this! For one, "shit like this" can sometimes (but very very rarely) surprise. But more importantly, I sit through shit like this so that I can then go blog about it and tell anyone who will listen to me to stay away from it. Sure I could do that without even seeing the movie (it's a horror movie with Mischa Barton in the lead role, after all), but somebody's gotta sit through it and give it a fair shake. And quite frankly, I love being that somebody. Call me a glutton for punishment but if I can spare at least one person from seeing an awful horror movie like this, I will gladly take the bullet and see it for myself! After all, spreading the bad word on bad movies is just as important as spreading the good word on good ones, is it not? Ah, who am I kidding. I love to watch shitty horror movies!

So what's this movie about .... hmmmm ..... besides it being an unintelligible cluster fuck mess .....

Mischa Barton plays a (incredibly unconvincing) demolition lady or something who scopes out buildings that are set to be demolished and marks red x's on the walls where explosives need to be placed. That sorta thing. Well her job this time around is to scope out the mysterious Malestrazza Building and she decides to live on site while she goes about her business. What we know that she doesn't know is that some pretty serious murder shit (like the encasing of a young girl in cement aka the only decent scene in the movie) went down there 15 years prior (why is it always 15 years?). Can she unlock the mystery behind the building before she becomes another victim blah blah heard it all before .....

Is it just me or is Mischa Barton the most unengaging human being on the face of the planet? She is so goddamn boring and a pretty shitty actress to boot. I didn't buy her as a demolition lady for one second and in fact I didn't even buy her as a human being for one second. She's just a boring talentless void that's coasting by on her decent looks. And she even does voiceover in this flick! Now I have nothing against voiceover, I actually love it, but it takes a pretty talented actor to pull it off and pull it off well (i.e Morgan Freeman, Nicolas Cage). And no, she doesn't get naked or die, so there's nothing to see here. The film also stars Cameron Bright, aka that youngish boy who fucked Nicole Kidman in that movie and that creepy kid in that Robert DeNiro movie that made me finally come to terms with the fact that DeNiro's career is officially deceased. (I know most cite Rocky & Bullwinkle as the film where his career jumped the shark, but Meet the Parents, The Score, and City by the Sea all came after that and I enjoyed those). Anyway, this Cameron Bright kid sucks at acting too. He pulled off the creepy kid role decent enough when he was a creepy little bastard, but now that he's an acne faced teen I think he's pretty much done for as it pertains to movies.

How do these movies continually keep getting made? Generic, boring, predictable, cliche ridden and utterly pointless horror movies that follow the same exact formulas and oftentimes even the same exact plots. Every week it seems like we get five new movies that are carbon copies of one another! Where does the money come from to make these movies? Who backs them?! It just sucks to know that there are so many talented people out there with great original ideas who can't get their movies made because they don't have the resources and yet countless millions of dollars are poured into movies like this one on a daily basis. Talented screenwriters with brilliant ideas can not get their work so much as read and yet somebody decided to greenlight Walled In!? Which, by the way, was written by FOUR different people! It took four people to come up with this crap!

I had been on a streak of awesome horror movies lately so I guess it was time for me to run across a real bad one. Not that I expected this one to be any good whatsoever when I dove into it. But I guess ya gotta watch shit like this every so often to really make you appreciate the Midnight Meat Train's or the Let The Right One In's out there. Gotta sit through hell before you can enjoy heaven, or something like that.

Walled In comes out on DVD next Tuesday, March 17th. STAY AWAY! As if you really needed me to tell you .....

By the way, is that not the worst cover art ever?

Bad Scene, Awesome Movie - Inside

We've taken a look at some awesome scenes in otherwise shitty movies in the past (hit the sidebar on your right for those), but every so often it goes the other way too. Sometimes, in a really awesome movie, there's one scene that just sticks out like a shitty sore thumb. Sometimes, that one scene is even so bad that, no matter how small, it detracts from the otherwise awesome movie as a whole. High Tension's twist ending, anyone?! Or how about this scene from the French gore-fest Inside .....

To set up a bit, 10 minutes prior, this cop was shot point blank directly in the temple with some kind of gun. He then reappears, looking like this :



Did he become a fucking zombie or something!? I can see what they were trying to accomplish with this scene (the dude got shot with some kind of bean bag gun and it blew his eyes out and rendered him brain dead and he turned the lights on because he didn't realize he was blind but then when they went on he realized and he freaked out and attacked the first person he saw because he had no idea who it was), but any way you cut it it's just silly and does not fit the tone of the movie at all. It's an otherwise realistic and non laugh worthy movie and this scene totally took me out of the movie and I couldn't help but laugh at it and wonder what they were thinking. I guess sometimes an idea is just better on paper ....

I've since come to look past this scene and enjoy the awesomeness of the movie but I gotta say, it really prevented me from fully liking it for a while. To think that one minor little shit scene that lasts less than a minute can almost ruin a whole movie!

As I said, this scene aside, Inside is a kickass blood soaked film that you should definetly check out if you haven't yet. Just know that the cop doesn't turn into a zombie as I initially thought he did! The filmmaker had good intentions, it just didn't come off well on screen. Definetly could have done without it!

Anyone else bugged by this scene?

I Either Just Got Raped .....

or I just watched Martyrs ...... i'm still not sure ......



If you thought recent French horror wave flicks like Inside and Frontier(s) were brutal and unrelenting, you aint seen nothin yet! You know how with most movies you kinda know what's going to happen or at least know what could and could not possibly happen? This is not one of those movies. It goes to places one could never dream of it going and it's just about the most unpredictable and disturbing film I have ever seen. There is not a single laugh. There is not a single light or fun moment. The gore is not glorified or exciting. It's a terrifying, sickening, disgusting, powerful, dangerous, gory, maddening, and perhaps even beautiful (?) descent into the deepest and darkest recesses of the human condition from the first to the last frame. NOT FOR THE WEAK OF HEART!

"Disturbing people when you make horror is like a supreme reward." - Pascal Laugier, director of Martyrs, from a recent Fangoria interview.

Not since Irreversible have I seen a movie that has so disturbed me as Martyrs. That's what Laugier was going for and no one can say that's not precisely what he achieved. And for that, I must applaud the man. I am not easily disturbed or repulsed by movies, but this one sure as shit brought me to that level. But make no mistake. This isn't one of those mindless gore fest movies that are disturbing merely for the sake of being disturbing. It's got a purpose and it's got meaning. That being said, i'm still not entirely sure what to make of the movie as a whole and i'm not even sure whether I liked it (definetly liked the first half better than the second) or could recommend it to anyone, but it's certaintly going to be on my mind for many days to come and I guess that's saying something pretty profound.

I don't really want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything and in fact I really don't think you should even watch the trailer or read the plot description before you watch the movie. I think it's one of those movies that's best to watch without really knowing or reading anything about it, but i'll give you a brief plot description just so you kinda know what the basis for the story is. I will choose my words carefully ....

The film opens with a young girl, Lucie, running for her life from a building. She's beaten up real bad and she's clearly just been through some kind of horrific torture. She ends up in a youth home where she befriends another young girl by the name of Anna, and she's plagued by visions of a demonic creature. Fast forward to fifteen years later. All hell is about to break loose for both Lucie and Anna.

And that's quite frankly all i'm at liberty to say. That's about all I knew before heading into the movie and i'm glad for it. All I can really say is, without question, see the movie for yourself. It's certaintly not for everyone but I think every genre fan at least needs to see it. One thing is for sure ; whether you love the movie or are completely disgusted and turned off by it, it will get you talking, it will get you thinking, and it will leave a mark on you. It comes out on uncut DVD April 28th. Mark that date on your calendar and give it a rent as soon as possible. Click THIS link to instantly add it to your Netflix queue.

If you've seen the movie, leave a comment with your thoughts as i'd love to discuss it more in depth and not have to worry about spoilers.

Pascal Laugier will next be writing and directing the Hellraiser remake, which leads me to to believe that that's gonna be one hell of a movie. Being that Hellraiser deals with many of the same themes and ideas as Martyrs, I think Laugier is the perfect fit for the redux. Cannot wait to see what he comes up with.

One last thing ..... Rest In Peace to Benoit Lestang, the makeup artist who's amazing work is on display in Martyrs. Lestang committed suicide last July, making this his last film. He also worked on the flicks The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and The City of Lost Children. Without his awesome work, this movie would not be nearly as effective as it is.

Vote For The 2009 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards!

While the awards will not be televised or handed out in a public presentation as they have in years past, Fangoria is still keeping the Chainsaw Awards alive and the 2009 nominees have just been announced in the latest issue, #282, of the magazine. I figured i'd give everyone a chance to hand in their votes, whether you subscribe or buy the magazine or not, so make your picks for each of these categories and e-mail them to postalzone@starloggroup.com. Make sure to get your e-mail in by April 27th, as that is the last date they will be accepted. The winners will be announced in Fango #285, available in June. Since i'm a subscriber (thanks Jen!), i'll also post the winners when I receive that issue!

On to the nominees! Also feel free to leave a comment with your choices as i'd like to hear them. The ones in bold/CAPS are my personal picks .....

BEST WIDE - RELEASE FILM

- CLOVERFIELD
- Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army
- Quarantine
- The Ruins
- The Strangers

BEST LIMITED - RELEASE / DIRECT - TO - DVD FILM

- Jack Brooks : Monster Slayer
- LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
- The Living and the Dead
- Rogue
- Stuck

BEST ACTOR

- Leo Bill, The Living and the Dead
- KARE HEDEBRANT, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
- Trevor Matthews, Jack Brooks : Monster Slayer
- Ron Perlman, Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army
- Marc Senter, The Lost

BEST ACTRESS

- Eliza Dushku, The Alphabet Killer
- LINA LEANDERSSON, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
- Alysson Paradis, Inside
- Naomi Watts, Funny Games
- Jess Weixler, Teeth

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

- A.J. Bowen, The Signal
- Robert Englund, Jack Brooks : Monster Slayer
- Doug Jones, Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army
- VINNIE JONES, THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN
- Michael Pitt, Funny Games

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

- BEATRICE DALLE, INSIDE
- Lou Doillon, Sisters
- Jennifer Ellison, The Cottage
- Lauren Roy, The Chair
- Anna Walton, Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army

BEST SCREENPLAY

- Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army
- John Ainslie, Jon Knautz, Jack Brooks : Monster Slayer
- JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
- John Strysik, Stuck
- Mitchell Lichtenstein, Teeth

BEST SCORE

- Michael Giacchino, Cloverfield
- Ryan Shore, Jack Brooks : Monster Slayer
- JOHN SODERQVIST, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
- tomandandy, The Strangers
- Robert Miller, Teeth

BEST MAKEUP / CREATURE FX

- Mike Elizalde, Cliff Wallace, David Marti, Montse Ribe, Hellboy 2 : The Golden Army
- Jacques - Olivier Molon - Inside
- David Scott, Jack Brooks : Monster Slayer
- ROBERT HALL, QUARANTINE
- Todd Tucker, Trailer Park of Terror

WORST FILM

- Up to you! Fill in your own choice for worst horror film of 2008.

MY CHOICE - DAY OF THE DEAD

AFTER COUNTLESS SLEEPLESS NIGHTS OF INTENSE DELIBERATION, I HEREBY DECREE THAT THE ONE INDIVIDUAL MOST DESERVING OF INDUCTION INTO THE FANGORIA HALL OF FAME IS :

- Up to you! Fill in your own choice for who you think should be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

MY CHOICE - NEIL MARSHALL

Here is the complete list of those who are already in the Hall of Fame. Read carefully and do not vote for any of these folks!

Dario Argento, Rick Baker, Clive Barker, Mario Bava, Rob Bottin, Doug Bradley, Tim Burton, Bruce Campbell, James Cameron, John Carpenter, Jeffrey Combs, Don Coscarelli, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Cushing, Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Brad Dourif, Robert Englund, Lucio Fulci, Stuart Gordon, Sid Haig, Lance Henriksen, Kane Hodder, Tobe Hooper, Anthony Hopkins, Peter Jackson, Udo Kier, Stephen King, KNB EFX, Heather Langenkamp, Christopher Lee, Dick Miller, Bill Moseley, Paul Naschy, Bill Paxton, Emily Perkins, Rob Perlman, Donald Pleasence, Vincent Price, Linnea Quigley, Sam Raimi, George Romero, Eli Roth, Tom Savini, Angus Scrimm, Dick Smith, Christopher Walken, Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Williamson, Stan Winston, Kevin Yagher, Rob Zombie.

An Apology To Quarantine Is In Order ....

I can admit when i'm wrong. And i'll admit, I was wrong.



Quarantine may even be better than REC. If not better, it is definetly just as good.

By the way, if you'd like, read my thoughts on REC before continuing.

I avoided the film during its theatrical run and even urged you to boycott it. I was such a huge fan of REC (the 2007 Spanish film which this one is a remake of) that I couldn't help but be incredibly angry by the fact that a remake was already coming out when the original hadn't even made its way to the states yet. In fact, REC is still not available on DVD in the United States and the remake just came out on DVD a few weeks ago! That's some fucked up shit! But I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to those behind Quarantine for judging the movie before it even came out, something no one should ever do. I just felt that, even if Quarantine was as good as REC, it would still be totally pointless and not an accomplishment in the least because it's essentially a direct copy of an awesome movie. I felt like they simply wanted to steal the genius idea behind REC and make shitloads of money off of it by pretending it's an original American film. And as I started to watch the movie, I still felt the same way. It seemed pointless. It seemed like a direct scene for scene copy of REC that was totally unnecessary. I wondered why I wasn't just watching REC instead! It felt like REC in English and nothing more. But then I decided to let go of all that and watch Quarantine as if REC never existed. I decided to give it a fair shake and watch and then review it as I would any other horror movie out there. And with that being said .....

Quarantine is a fucking awesome, intense, and terrifying horror movie. They managed to up all of the things that made REC so great ; the scares, the terror, the gore, the brutality. And even with known actors like Jennifer Carpenter and Jay Hernandez, it still felt like I was watching real footage unfold! Is it essentially the same movie as REC and the same experience? Ya, it pretty much is. It's not a shot for shot scene by scene remake, but it's pretty close. But so what! The movie is fucking awesome and that's really all that matters. The filmmakers did an incredible job of not only capturing the fear and greatness of REC but like I said, even upping it a bit. Congrats guys and again, I apologize for shitting on your movie before seeing it.

So my advice, if you've seen REC, is to watch it as if there is no REC. Watch it as you would any other horror movie. It's only fair. And if you haven't seen REC, try to see it first. Even though I loved this movie, I still would have to recommend you check out REC over it, being that it's the original. But as standalone movies, they both kick equal amounts of ass.

Does this mean I support remakes of foreign movies that just came out a year before? Not at all. It's not something I like to see, but from now on i'm not automatically gonna judge and hate a movie just because of it. If the movie is done properly like this and as good if not a little better than the original, I can't really complain. At the end of the day, a good movie is a good movie no matter what. If anything, a remake of a recent foreign flick helps American audiences see an awesome movie that they would otherwise probably never see. Not to mention, it increases the exposure of the original, at least in most cases. Where the hell is the REC DVD though?! I want it!

Now I turn the floor over to you. Leave comments with thoughts if you've seen either REC or Quarantine.

Anyone Going To Monster Mania This Weekend?

Monster Mania is an awesome horror convention that is now (I believe) held three times a year in New Jersey (although it's moving to Connecticut this June). I try to make it out there each and every time being that it's the most fun horror convention i've stumbled across to date and wouldn't ya know it, another one's right around the corner. Just wanted to see if anyone by any chance that peruses this blog will be in attendance this weekend. I'll be there all weekend and it would be cool to meet up with or say hi to any of you! So if you're gonna be there, leave a comment and let me know.

Although that prick Tobe Hooper just cancelled (which he apparently does quite often) the guest list has shaped up decently and includes the likes of Lance Henriksen (who took Hooper's place and who is an awesome dude), Walter Phelan (Dr. Satan!!!), and even Alice Cooper! There's also gonna be Phantasm and Friday The 13th reunions, the latter of which is chock full with stars from the original franchise flicks as well as the remake. Definetly looking forward to meeting Derek Mears and of course Alice Cooper as well as Betsy Palmer (who i've somehow never met...probably out of fear), Stu Charno (the awesomely dorky Ted from Part 2 who survived Jason's wrath only because he decided to stay at the bar and drink all night!), America Olivio (if Jen lets me!), Doc Satan, and Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep!!!!). I'd love to meet all the Friday alumns and have them sign the Crystal Lake Memories book, but that would require far too much money that I don't think i'm willing to spend nor do I think I even have. Check out the above link for the full guest list. It's not all that impressive, with a lot of jabronis, but conventions were never really about the guests for me. There's so much more going on that even if there's no one there I want to meet, it's still a hell of a fun time. In fact, i've gone to a few where I didn't even meet anyone!

Definetly looking forward to this weekend as Monster Mania is usually the highlight of fun for my year and i'll of course have a full recap along with pictures and perhaps even video once I return and recover from my impending hangover. In the meantime, feel free to take a step into the time machine and check out my coverage of last year's Monster Mania HERE.

SO WHO'S COMIN!

Couple Things Before Bed .....

- I've added a new feature to both this blog and Win Free Horror Shit, wherein you can sign up to receive e-mail updates whenever I make a new post / add a new contest. To do that, head over to the sidebar on your right and scroll down all the way past the "about me" section. Now you'll never miss a single little pointless update! Isn't that grand?

- Anyone seen the flick Babysitter Wanted? It hasn't come to the United States on DVD yet, but I know it's out on Region 2. I just watched it the other night and it's pretty kickass. Half old school horror scare-fest / half gore-fest, and with Bill Moseley to boot! It's essentially about a new college chick in town who takes up a babysitting job posted on her school's bulletin board and undergoes a serious night from hell. To say any more would be giving plot twists and turns away, so I will not say any more. I will simply say check it out, because it's one of the better horror films to come down the pipeline in the last couple years. It's definetly got its flaws, but it's a pretty solid flick with a pretty awesome twist. Seek it out whichever way you can!

- With the Last House on the Left remake hitting theatres this Friday, I wanted to repost my script review from many months back for those who might have missed it. There's obviously spoilers contained in there but it's really nothing that hasn't already been spoiled about the movie in magazines and tv spots lately. I guess they figure we all know what's gonna happen, so why bother even keeping any of it a secret? You can read my review of the script HERE. I wasn't all that impressed with the script but something tells me i'm gonna like the movie itself a lot more. At least I hope so, being that i'm a huge fan of the original. I'm gonna be at a horror convention all this weekend (more on that tommorow) so i'm not gonna get the chance to see the movie until Sunday at the earliest, but I will of course post my thoughts when I get around to it. By the way, did anyone pick up that new Last House DVD yet? I think i've mentioned that I accidently snapped my copy of the original release in half (how, i'm not entirely sure), so I need to get my hands on that one pronto.

- Any fellow Mist fans out there? I just watched the flick in black and white for the first time (which you can do on disc 2 of the 2 disc set), and I think I enjoyed it even more than the color version. As Darabont himself states in the intro, they're two totally different movie experiences. And in fact the best way I can sum up The Mist is to call it an experience. Am I the only one that feels like i'm a part of the movie whenever I watch it? Something about the way it was filmed and pulled off makes you almost feel like you're in the grocery store yourself fending off the mist creatures. And the ending? Forget about it. Such an awesome movie that I can't help but feel is a bit underappreciated. Watch the black and white version if you haven't yet. If nothing else, it helps make some of the obvious CGI look not so bad as it did in color.

- I'm getting both Quarantine and Let The Right One In on Blu-ray from Netflix tommorow, and i'm definetly looking forward to that. I've made my thoughts known on LTROI several times now, but I plan on writing up a little review of the disc itself tommorow. Quarantine I have yet to see being that I avoided it like the plague during its theatrical run due to my anger over the fact that the awesome REC was already being remade, but i'm actually kinda looking forward to checking it out now. I've heard some good things and i'll post my thoughts on that one soon too. This has gotta be the first remake to hit DVD in the states before the original! Crazy times we live in.

I guess that's all I wanted to say. Goodnight, sirs .....

Vampires Exist ..... That's Some Pretty F**ked Up Shit!!

I don't really have too much to say about the movie i'm about to say something about, but I hadn't heard of it until an hour and 20 minutes ago when I started watching it and being that it's gonna air on SciFi real soon, I thought i'd help spread the word ....



It's called Bitten, it's from 2008, it wasn't released in the United States, and it stars Jason Mewes and concerns vampires. Never heard of it either? Sounds pretty awesome though, eh?

Jason Mewes plays Jack, a night shift EMT who's girlfriend has just left him and who is beginning to realize that he may never find the right gal for him. But one night, on the way home from work, he finds a beaten up and bloodied girl lying amongst some trash in an alleyway and decides to take her home and clean her up. He soon notices bite marks on her neck and wouldn't ya know it, she's a vamper. While he initially helps her find warm bodies to suck, he begins to realize that maybe this aint the right gal for him afterall.

I was surprised that i'd never heard anything about this movie being that i'm a Mewes fan (at least as far as Kevin Smith's movies go) and of course being that i'm usually pretty up on the latest horror movies out there. I'm sure my lack of knowledge about Bitten has a lot to do with the fact that it hasn't been released in the United States yet and I can honestly say I can see why! It's a totally off the wall quirky little low budget horror/comedy that does provide some entertainment in its short 80 minute runtime, but i'm still completely unsure as to whether or not I liked it. Although I think I kinda did. I watched a making of featurette on YouTube about the movie and the director states that he was aiming for it to be a "70's style B-movie" with bad acting and bad editing and what not, but that seems more like a cop out than anything to me.

Mewes essentially plays Mewes ... if Mewes were an ambulance driver. His acting's not always the best, but a lot of the charm that the movie has comes from him and I really don't think I would've been as entertained by it as I was if it weren't for him. The rest of the small cast involved are all pretty impressive, which really helps add an air of seriousness to this wacky flick. The highlight for me is Richard Fitzpatrick as Mewes' elder EMT sidekick. And let's not forget the ultra sexy Erica Cox as Danika, the vampire Mewes falls for. I'd never even heard of her until now but she turns in a pretty kickass performance and bares quite a lot of skin to boot!

The movie's admittedly not that great but it's a fun quick little time passer if you've got nothing else to do. I just figured i'd notify whoever's interested in checking it out that it's gonna be airing on SciFi Sunday, March 15th at 2pm EST. Check it out and come back here and leave a comment with your thoughts when ya do. The only problem with it airing on tv is that it will of course be heavily cut and being that the movie has plenty of cursing and female nudity, you'll be missing out on some stuff. But for now, it's the only (legal) way to catch the movie here in the states. Although i'm sure if ya look hard enough, you can watch it totally uncut right this instant. No idea when it will be out on DVD over here, but I think it's gonna be called Lady is a Vamp when it does hit shelves in these parts.

SET YOUR DVR'S, MEWES FANS! If nothing else, it will probably give ya a few chuckles. And isn't it just nice to see Mewes given shots to show off his acting chops in movies directed by people other than Kevin Smith?

The Dawning of a New Era!

Look at your address bar, sirs. What do you see? That's right, Freddy In Space is now officially a dot com website! After a couple weeks of trying to make the switchover (thanks in large part to Blogger's shitty incomplete instructions on how to do so), I have finally done away with the dot blogspot dot com! Hallelujah!

The site will remain exactly the same, and still run through the Blogger service, the only difference will be the address of the website. If you type in dot blogspot dot com or click the link you (should) have in your favorites, you will be redirected directly to the new dot com site, so don't worry about having trouble finding the blog. It's all the same, it's just more professional looking now with less to type in the address bar.

There is one minor problem that I have not worked out. When you type freddyinspace.com without the 'www', you are taken to a page that says "this website is temporarily unavailable". I'm working on getting that all set up so that whether you include the www or not, you're taken here. But for now, just include the www. If anyone has any advice as to exactly how to remedy this problem, i'd appreciate the help.

***Looks like this problem has been solved!***

Let's celebrate!

The PSYCH-o-MATIC!

I've met a lot of cool people in the past eight or so months of running this blog and one of those folks is a UK based illustrator/animator/artist/guess the movie expert by the name of Nik Holmes. He's got some pretty serious credentials including working for clients the likes of Virgin, Microsoft, and Mastercard, and he even produces a comic book titled "Bikini All Stars". You can check out his work at several different homes on the web ; his official website, his blog, and a site called Zombie Dollars, where he of course specializes in zombie artwork.

But the reason i'm posting this is because he's just launched a pretty cool little feature on his site called The PSYCH-o-MATIC, which allows you to create Nik's own version of your favorite horror villain with the click of a button or, if you so desire, you can even create a mismash of all of your favorites. Give Freddy's glove to Jason, slap Leatherface's apron on Michael Myers, the possibilities are endless. You can choose from various heads, bodys, and weapons to create the ultimate horror villain of your own design!

Let's use some visual aids to show ya what I mean .....

If you want your standard horror villain as you know and love him, you can create him .....



Or you can combine such horror villains as Cropsy, The My Bloody Valentine Miner, and Leatherface to create a super villain .....



The choice is yours! So how do you go about making your own creation? Follow THIS link, where you can even print him out (full page size!) when you're all done!

Have fun with it and leave a comment with a link to your very own maniac (this is where print screen comes in handy)! Thanks, Nik, and keep up all the awesome work!

It's Back! Guess The Movie!

Combine the two images to form the title of a popular horror movie!



This game reminds me .... Nik Holmes, where the hell have you been?!

The Movies I Watched In February

Last month, I started chronicling each and every movie I watch every month and then posting that list along with brief one or two sentence reviews at the end of that month. So, with another month down the hatch, here are all of the movies, horror and non horror, that I watched in February.

The Breed - Can you say guilty pleasure? I don't know why I was entertained by this fairly bad movie, but I was!

Clerks - The only thing better than Clerks is...

Clerks 2 - Far superior film, if ya ask me.

Cold Prey - One of the best horror flicks i've seen this year.

Elizabethtown - Are men allowed to have comfort movies? Pretty sure this is one of mine.

Friday The 13th (remake) - Somewhere in between bad and good. Good enough to satisfy me, however.

Friday The 13th Part 6 : Jason Lives - Forgot how much I liked this one.

Friday The 13th Part 7 : The New Blood - The only thing I care for less than The New Blood is...

Friday The 13th Part 8 : Jason Takes Manhattan - Just doesn't do it for me.

The Good Girl - The only Jen Aniston movie I like.

His Name Was Jason - I've heard it all before. I think the well has officially run dry on Friday documentaries.

Madman - Classic slasher fare.

Meet The Robinsons - Did a cartoon movie really make me cry?

The Midnight Meat Train (twice) - BAD ASS.

Midnight Movie - BAD.

Night Of The Living Dead 3D - REALLY BAD. From Devil's Rejects to this, huh Sid Haig?

Once Upon a Time In Mexico - Is there a director out there who provides more fun and pure entertainment than Robert Rodriguez?

The People Under The Stairs - One of my favorite Wes Craven flicks.

Premutos : Lord Of The Living Dead - I love mindless gore as much as the next guy, but this one just plain sucked. And the gore wasn't even well done.

Private Parts - Make another movie, Howard!

See No Evil - Terrible movie, awesome ending.

Spider Baby - Classic. One of my favorite fucked up families in all of cinema!

Splinter - Pretty damn good, especially for a movie that premiered on Sci Fi.

Superbad - One of the funniest movies in the last decade.

Taken - Hostel Part 3 : A Father's Revenge. Liam Neeson kicks ass and so does this movie.

Them - Better than The Strangers.

The Toolbox Murders - Fun throwback to old school slasher flicks.

Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox Story - A little less funny the second time around, but still hilarious.

The Weatherman - The last good movie Nicolas Cage made. I don't like the direction his career has been going lately, but when Cage is good, he's real fuckin good.

Zack And Miri Make a Porno - Kevin Smith's still got it. A little hacky and unfunny at times, but ultimately rewarding and a good addition to his filmography.

So what's the best movie I saw this month?



I'd already seen it several times before in the past couple years, but watching it with Jen this past weekend was by far and away my favorite experience with it to date. Bloom's voice over narration isn't always the best, but Cameron Crowe delivers one of the best feel good "dramadeys" to come out in a long long time. There's a man that really knows how to blend music and video into a beautiful piece of art.

If ya wanna get an idea of just how varied my movie tastes are, my second runner up for the month is The Midnight Meat Train. Who says a man can't, in the same day, enjoy watching Vinnie Jones smash peoples eyes out with a meat tenderizer and then hop on the couch with his lady friend and swoon over Orlando Bloom?!