Reminder : Today (Wednesday) Is Your Last Day To Save 20% On Your DWN Productions Mask Order!!

I know I already posted about this last week, but just as a quickie reminder before I head off to bed tonight, and dream of Anne Hathaway in a skin tight leather cat suit, the 20% off coupon code that DWN Productions bestowed upon you loyal readers of Freddy In Space expires at the end of the day today.  All you've gotta do is mention in your e-mail order to them (DozersWireNutz@gmail.com) that Freddy In Space sent ya, and you will receive 20% off your order of any mask in their web store.  Easy, peasy, Japanesy!

I've done a couple posts about their masks in the past, but here are just a few that they've got in stock, to refresh your memory!!

 

Night Of The Creeps - $100 + 20% OFF!

Goosebumps : The Haunted Mask - $125 + 20% OFF!

Bubba Ho-Tep - $100 + 20% OFF!

 

Evil Dead 2 - $100 + 20% OFF! 

 

Creepshow - $100 + 20% OFF!

 

Street Trash - $140 + 20% OFF!

All of their masks are totally affordable so if any of them appeal to you, now's the time to score them for as cheap as you'll likely ever be able to.  Head over to DWN Productions to see much more, including a brand new line of 'Cheap Ass' masks, based on popular Halloween icons like witches, vampires, zombies and pumpkins!

 

When the calendar turns over to August 2nd, this deal is over forever!

13 More Stunning Horror Movie Posters From Ghana!

At the start of this year, I posted a gallery of 13 incredible movie posters from the West African country of Ghana, with the promise to post more in the future.  Tonight, I'm back to fulfill that promise!

But first, to browse the gallery I posted back in January, and learn more about how the hell these utterly bizarre works of art came to be, check out that original post!

And now, 13 more!

 

New Release Review : Detention

OUT TODAY ON DVD & BLU-RAY!

Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook and Spencer Locke star in Detention, a hipster, teen horror-comedy where the local students of Grizzly Lake must survive their final year of high school. Standing in their way is Cinderhella, a slasher-movie killer who has seemingly come to life and is preying on the school's student body. As the clock ticks and the bodies pile up, the likely suspects are embroiled in a race against time to stop Cinderhella and ultimately save the world... if only they can get out of detention.

Right off the bat I must mention that Detention is barely a horror film.  Rather, horror is but one of the several different elements/genres that are thrown into the blender here.  It may just be because all of the coverage I ingested in the past couple months of the movie was from horror sites, who of course are going to play up that horror element, but I was personally quite disappointed to discover that the fairly badass looking Cinderhella character was merely a bit player in this one, with the horror element randomly popping up only a handful of times throughout the film.  So I must warn you not to go into this expecting the horror comedy that they seem to be promoting it as, because doing so will likely result in your disappointment.

Now that that's out of the way, I will try and do my best to review this very difficult to review film.  I watched it on Thursday night of last week and though I intended on reviewing it that very night, I quite honestly found myself unable to.  I wasn't really sure what I had just witnessed and, if I'm being honest, I was fairly clueless as to whether or not I even enjoyed it.  Not satisfied with writing a half assed review without a clear opinion (hate doing that), I decided to pop in the flick again last night, and then write up my thoughts.  Sometimes, it takes a couple viewings to really absorb a movie.  This is definitely one of those movies.

So then.  Detention.  Directed by the dude who made Torgue.  And starring that guy who is now ultra famous for being in The Hunger Games.  And Dane Cook.  Who everyone hates right now.  But they loved him a couple years ago.  OK I admit, I'm stalling because I'm still not sure what the fuck to say about this movie.  Deep breaths.  Start over.

Here's the deal.  Detention has proven to be an incredibly polarizing film, which some have found to be vomit in your mouth obnoxious and others have found to be hilarious and entertaining.  My hangup here is that I see both sides of the argument, because I quite frankly am straddling the fence between hating it and loving it.  Well, no.  That's actually not true.  It's not so much a matter of hating it or loving it for me as it is liking it or disliking it.  Which I'm still unclear on.  Point being that I'm having the internal debate within myself that I see many of my Facebook friends having with each other about the movie.  I'm fighting myself and I don't like it.

So here's the dilemma.

On the one hand, Detention is a fairly irritating ADD fest of 90's references and self awareness that tries way too hard to be witty and clever.  Like, hard to the point that it'll annoy the shit out of you.  Like reading the Facebook status updates of the most annoying friends on your friends list.  The ones that you wonder why you ever became Facebook friends with in the first place every time you see them pop up on your news feed, but refuse to delete them because you in some sick way enjoy reading their stupid inane hipster bullshit, if only because you get off on hating people.  They're just so damn good at irritating you and pushing your buttons that it's almost charming.  They keep things fresh, exciting, unpredictable.  Like catfish.  So you keep them around.  Even though you kinda want to punch them in the face.  Oh come on, don't pretend like it's just me.

On the other hand though, there's something to be admired about Detention and its director, Joseph Kahn.  The dude who made Torque.  Did I say that already?  Kahn funded this movie entirely out of his own pocket, which is admirable in and of itself.  But what's really admirable is Kahn's clear lack of concern for making a movie that's going to appeal to the masses, which is something he never would've been able to pull off with studio backing.  In a world where so many filmmakers are making movies with clear intentions on making a shitload of money in the process, Kahn is just making the kinds of wild, crazy and off the wall flicks that he obviously enjoys watching, and there's something to be said for that.  There's also something to be said for the unpredictability and the complete disregard for the typical movie formula in this one, which definitely creates a fun sort of anything can happen vibe for the film.  From a time traveling bear to a jock that's part Brundle fly, you truly never know what's going to happen next in Detention, and it's that unpredictability that's largely responsible for this one being worth the watch.

That said, I can't help but wish Detention was laid out a bit more in typical movie fashion, rather than the utter mishmash of whacky ideas that it is.  It's all over the place, Donnie Darko meets Breakfast Club meets Scream meets Prom Night meets Can't Hardly Wait meets I Love The 90's, which does give it a fun anything goes out of control vibe, but it also prevents the movie from really being good as a movie.  Going into it I was expecting a 90's style high school slasher flick, something like I Know What You Did Last Summer, and I really wish Kahn had gone that route with the Cinderhella character, and made a sort of Scream for the Twitter/meme generation that we currently live in.  That would've been a whole lot more up my alley, and he still could've worked in all his social and cultural commentaries.  Whatever those commentaries are, because I'm honestly not even sure if the movie is making fun of the annoying kid you follow on Twitter or if it is the annoying kid you follow on Twitter.  Is it pointing out the obnoxiousness of our current fast paced 140 characters at a time society or is it merely an obnoxious export of that era?  I had a hard time figuring that out.

Now the real interesting thing here, which is another positive the movie has going for it, is that everything somehow manages to come together in the end.  Previous random bits of information that seem to have been thrown at the screen with total disregard to any coherent plot all converge and you begin to realize that most everything you've seen has had some sort of meaning which ties the whole room together.  Like Lebowski's rug.  So on the one hand it can be criticized for making no sense and being all over the place, on the other it all does kinda make sense in the end.  On the one hand it's annoying and obnoxious, on the other hand it's at times laugh out loud funny and also at times quite clever.  Now you see my dilemma here!

So then.  What's my final verdict?  Ultimately, Detention is worth a watch, if only to see which side of the fence of polarization you fall on.  Whether you love it, hate it, or aren't sure what to think about it, I can promise you that it'll be one of the more unique and batshit crazy movies you see this year.  And again, there's certainly something to be said for that.  I definitely respect any movie that's so different and outside the box that it's hard to even review it in the same way a movie is typically reviewed, and I definitely give props to Kahn for making such a film.  If there's one negative thing that can't be said about the movie it's that it's boring, which is quite frankly more than can be said for the majority of the films that come down the pipeline.  So ya know what, I'm gonna have to say that I think I quite liked this one.  I had fun with it and that's kind of enough for me.  So there, I finally made up my mind.

Now, with all my indecisiveness here, there are three things that I am totally sure about, after watching this movie ...

1) I'm glad I'm not in high school in this day and age.

2) I want to see the faux horror movie within Detention, Cinderhella.  Bring it on, Kahn.

3) I love that the film has been given actual disc art, which has become a bit of a lost art form in the home video world.  So yea, props for that, Detention!

The Return Of Fright Flicks Trading Cards? Only Here On Freddy In Space!!

I recently became friends with a guy by the name of Frank Browning, an artist who has in the past several weeks become an absolute godsend to the horror blogging community, using his artistic talents to elevate the blog posts of myself and fellow blogging friends of mine to new and exciting heights.  Whether it's adding kickass graphic support to a review of Jaws 3D over on Guts & Grog Reviews, bringing to life a series of faux 8-Bit Italian horror inspired video games for my boy James Harris' recent Italian Horror Week festivities, or creating header banners for several of my own posts of late, Frank has really added something unique to the blogging game, arming us bloggers with more than just words and turning ordinary posts into something really special.

After seeing what Frank did for Doc Terror's Italian Horror Week, I admit I kinda got a bit jealous, and wanted him to whip up something equally special for me here on Freddy In Space.  The light bulb went off one night a couple weeks back, and I dropped Frank a Facebook message with an idea; let's do a post showing the world what the packages of those old school Fright Flicks cards would look like, if they were put out nowadays, with current day horror icons on the wrappers.  I didn't know how Frank would be able to pull it off, but I damn sure knew that he'd be able to pull it off.  He can do it all, and he can do it all damn quick.

Not surprisingly, Frank went above and beyond, not only creating ten faux wrappers, but also throwing in a couple mock cards to boot.  And he was even kind enough to add in a special little treat for me personally, knowing how much of a love affair I have with the Clint Howard flick Ice Cream Man.  

So, what would Fright Flicks cards look like if they were to experience a modern day revival?  I turn the floor over to Frank Browning, who is about to show ya!!

 

Frank even went one step further than all this, by showing what a few packs would look like in front of the boxes that they all come housed in.  Those pictures are a little too wide to be posted on here without shrinking them down to super tiny sizes, so you can check those out at the following links; Hatchet box, Trick 'r Treat box, Shaun of the Dead box.

Frank, to say this post wouldn't have been possible without you would be a big time understatement.  Without you, this post would be a mere thought in my head, never able to be executed solely through my own written words.  So thank you so so much for all the time you spent working on all of this for me.  Your love of doing this stuff is absolutely infectious and as I said to you in private, I think I speak for the whole of the blogging community when I say that we're all incredibly happy as well as incredibly lucky to have you on our side.  The sky is truly the limit for what we can all do together!

If you run a horror blog and you'd like to talk to Frank about whipping up some cool shit for ya, drop him a line over on Facebook!

Cool Shit On Etsy : Xenomorph Life Cycle Sticker Set!

Sometime last year, I made a post about a blog I discovered that I was (and still am) digging on called Feature Creature.  Run by artist Trevor Henderson, the blog is a fusion of art and writing, wherein Henderson not only writes about his favorite horror movie creatures, but also draws up original pieces of art to go along with those writings.  Since the time I posted about the blog, Trevor has really beefed up his Etsy shop, where he sells prints and stickers of the many creatures he has featured on his blog in the past.

 

 

One of my favorite things in his shop is this new sticker set he whipped up, which shows off the full life cycle of the ever so loveable Xenomorphs; the face hugger, the chest burster, and then finally, the full size Xenomorph.  An as added bonus, Trevor has thrown in a Ripley sticker, complete with flame thrower and Jonesy the cat.  Yaphet Kotto not included.

You can grab your own Alien sticker pack for $10, and check out the rest of Trevor's art, over at the Feature Creature Etsy shop!

Vintage Video Of The Week : Goosebumps Toys!

If there's one thing about the 1990's that I miss it's R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books.  Well, them and ABC's TGIF lineup.  We all had no idea how good we had it back then!

But back to Goosebumps.  I devoured those books as a kid and definitely have to credit them, at least in part, for ushering me into a lifelong love of monsters, goblins and ghouls.  He may not have been the first, but R.L. was definitely the best when it came to fusing childhood with the horror genre, at least as far as I'm concerned.  It's impossible for me to look at those books nowadays and not be filled with all kinds of gushy and gooey memories.  Which is probably why I still have most of my original collection.  God bless those stinky yellow pages!

Of course, being the mega smash hit that the book series was, there were countless spinoff products and toys with Goosebumps themes, to cash in on the success of the books.  Tonight, as this week's Vintage Video Of The Week, we head back to 1996 to check out an original commercial for just a few of those Goosebumps toys.  Into the Freddy In Space time machine we go!!

Though I have an incredibly large place in my heart for the 1980's, it's the 1990's that I spent most of my childhood in, so this here video really warms my black heart.  Oddly enough, even though I've always been a mega fan of both Goosebumps and toys, I don't recall ever having any of these as a kid.  In fact, the only Goosebumps merch I can remember having, aside from the books, were bookmarks, stickers and things of that nature.  Not sure how all the awesome toys slipped past me, but that's something I plan on someday making up for here in my adult years.  I can often be found perusing eBay for such treasures.  In fact, one of my most wanted collectibles is the original Haunted Mask Halloween mask that was put out back in the 90's, which I can never seem to find anywhere.  But a good collector never stops hunting, so the hunt continues until I make one mine!

Trailer Trash : Fatal Games

 

In an effort to present the generic slasher movie formula in new and unique ways, filmmakers turned pretty much every event and holiday imaginable into a slasher flick in the 1980's.  A killer stalking teens in the woods was tired and overdone even back then, but when you add a holiday like Christmas to the mix, things become a little more fresh and exciting.

 

During this glorious time of slasher excess, even the Olympics weren't safe from the cut 'em up treatment.  In 1984, just in time for the Summer Olympics of that year, somebody came up with the brilliant idea of arming a madman with a javelin, which he would use to turn female athletes into human dart boards.  With that simple idea, an 80's slasher flick was born.  Man, it was so easy back then!

With the 2012 London Olympics kicking off this weekend, tonight we dig Fatal Games (aka Olympic Nightmare) out of the heaping pile of Trailer Trash, for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Though Fatal Games has never been released onto DVD, of course making the VHS release rare and valuable, you can pick up a VHS to DVD transfer of the film for only 10 bucks from The VHS Preservation Society.  And don't forget to use the Freddy In Space exclusive coupon code BOOTS10 to save 10% off your order!

10 Horror Movies I Own ... But Have Never Watched!

I admit it; I'm a DVD hoarder.  Over the years I have amassed an incredibly impressive collection of DVDs, which is of course largely comprised of horror films.  I don't even want to think about how much I've spent on all of them nor do I honestly even care.  They are my pride and joy, a focal point of my home that I wouldn't give away for all the money in the world.  There's simply nothing quite like having a veritable video rental shop in your own home, with hundreds upon hundreds of movies to pick and choose from, a little something for every mood you should ever find yourself in.

Naturally, as most DVD hoarders can probably relate to, my collection has a bunch of movies in it that I've never actually gotten around to watching.  In fact, some are even still in their shrink wrap.  I'm sure I'll get around to watching most of them at some point, but there they remain, untouched until the mood strikes me to sit down and pop them in.

 

Tonight, I've selected a mere 10 of those DVDs that I own, but have never actually watched.  Let's take a look at the unseen gems I plucked from my collection, shall we?!

 

 

Yep, I've never seen When A Stranger Calls.  I've seen the awful remake (sorry Lance!) and I've even seen the straight to TV sequel, When A Stranger Calls Back.  But I have never seen the original.  Shame on me, I know.  As I recall, I did enjoy the sequel though, which was directed by the same dude who did the original.

This is one of the few beloved 80's slashers that I have never seen.  I've owned it for a few years now, thanks to a friend who spotted it at a local 7-11 for super cheap and picked it up for me, but it remains unseen by these eyes.  Totally didn't realize the guy who directed the original Cape Fear directed this, until I just IMDb'd it.  Who knew!

I've of course seen 28 Days Later, and of course am a big fan of it (who isn't?!), but I avoided this sequel after hearing nothing but bad things about it.  I don't generally like to write off movies based on what other people are saying about them but hey, sometimes it affects what you devote your precious movie watching time to.  I'll get around to it eventually.  And who knows, maybe I'll like it more than most seem to.  I can only hope!

I'm not even sure what this is, but I was sent the DVD as a screener about a year or so ago, and I never even took it out of the shrink wrap.  I don't know if it's hardcore porn or what, but it appears to be some sort of monster filled skin flick from the 80's.  Why I've never popped it in is actually kinda baffling to me, given my penchant for perverse cinema.

I went through a period where I was big time into the Syfy mega monster cheese fests, and I pretty much bought all of them on DVD for super cheap either used on Amazon or at Target.  Hell, there were even a couple months there where I had myself a little event I called 'Creature Feature Thursdays', where I'd get drunk and watch one per week.  The wife loved that, as you can imagine.  This is one I didn't get around to watching before my Creature Feature Thursdays came to an end, when I decided I had enough of this crap.  Poor David Carradine.  Not only going out the way he did, but going out with this film as one of the last on his resume.  For shame.

I love me some Fulci, so this is another one that I'm surprised I've yet to watch.  I'm not gonna pretend Fulci's movies are great or anything, but they tend to be worth the time put into them, if only for the incredible gore scenes he had a penchant for filming.  OK.  Lay it on me.  How much horror cred do I lose for not seeing this one?

Horror movies set in carnivals just do it for me, even though most (if not all) of them are total garbage.  I picked this up dirt cheap at Hollywood Video in Georgia when it was going out of business, a sale which is responsible for many gems in my collection.  I'm sure this sucks, but I do find myself contemplating watching it at least once a month.  That counts for something, no?

The reason I bought this made for TV remake of Carrie is because I am a huge fan of Angela Bettis, who I find to be one of the most precious and captivating women ever to grace God's green earth.  I went through a phase where I pretty much bought every movie she was ever in, but this one never made its way out of the case.

I believe I bought this at the Synapse Films table at my very first horror convention, Maryland's HorrorFind Weekend back in 2008.  Or 2007.  Somewhere around there.  As I recall, I bought it to get signed by Tom Savini, but never got around to doing that.  He was probably being a jerk or something.  Anyway.  This seems like the kinda meta horror movie within a horror movie that'd be right up my alley, so I should probably get around to watching it already.

 

 

I tell ya, about once every couple months, the idea pops into my head to finally get around to devoting time to watching all the Stephen King mini-series' that I've skipped out on for so long.  It always seems like a great idea, and I get all excited by the thought, but then I never fulfill my promise to myself.  I admit that I'm an instant gratification kinda guy, and that my attention span is too short to spread a movie out over the course of a couple days, but I know that I would dig some of these mini-series', so I've always been kinda bummed that I haven't watched many of them.  I kinda get turned off by any horror flick that runs for more than an hour and a half, so I guess I'm just a lazy fuck when it comes to watching movies.  And reading books.  Which is probably why I prefer movies.  Cause you get in and out quicker.  So a four plus hour movie kinda defeats the purpose for me.  But seriously.  I need to watch this.  And Storm Of The Century (which I also own).  And all the others.

 

So then.  Your turn.  What horror DVDs do you own that you've yet to watch?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Giveaway Time! Win A Breakfast Cereal Monsters Art Print, Courtesy Of Artist Lee Howard!

As I was getting ready to make a post the other day about a series of art pieces that tickled my fancy, I decided to go ahead and reach out to the artist, Lee Howard, to see if he'd be kind enough to help exponentially increase the levels of awesomeness of the post, by having it double as a giveaway.  Because, ya know, a post where I show you cool shit then give it to you is a lot cooler than a post where I just show you cool shit and tell you to buy it.

Though I wasn't even sure if he had prints of the pieces available, I contacted Lee on Facebook with the proposition.  Needless to say, given the spoiler filled headline of this post, he was in fact kind enough.  Oddly enough, Lee told me he was actually picking up prints of the pieces this weekend, so I'd say that worked out pretty damn well!

The series of ten prints depicts famous cereal mascots as evil horror movie killers, which of course appeals to me personally because I have a strange obsession with fusions of horror and cereal.  Don't ask.

Now the awesome thing here is that YOU get to choose which one of the prints you want, in the event that you win.  So take a look at the series below, pick out a favorite, and then read on for all the entry details!

 

 
 

 

 

 

Once you've decided on a favorite (hard, I know!), leave a comment below with which one you'd like to receive an 11"x17" art print of.  Be sure to also include your e-mail address.  If you win, you'll soon find the print of your choosing on your doorstep.  Magical, aint it?!

Giveaway will run through next Thursday, August 2nd, so be sure to leave your comment by then.

Good luck to all and head over to The Art By Lee Howard on Facebook to see more of Lee's awesome art!