tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50563154033205615392024-03-12T16:35:59.990-07:00The Black Glove: Horror Culture and EntertainmentNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comBlogger744125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-78098767220747322462012-04-04T04:35:00.000-07:002012-05-11T23:05:31.079-07:00Editorial April 2012 and e-issue #34<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Guest Editorial By Bill Lindblad<br />
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There's an established principle of polite conversation that suggests three topics should be carefully avoided: politics, sports, and religion. Horror is not one of those topics, and there's a very good reason for that. Horror is like many other interests; it tends to separate most people into two categories: those who enjoy it, and those who don't.<br />
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There are, inevitably, those who are offended by it and will wage campaigns against it, but such people are rare. For the most part there is very little "us vs. them" involved in horror, and that is beneficial for both the industry professionals and fandom. The typical response to a horror fan by a non-horror fan is dismissal, not revulsion. How many times has any horror fan heard the reply, "Oh, I don't [read/watch] that stuff." (Often from people with Dean Koontz paperbacks on their bedside table and Stephen King movies in their DVD collections.) The respondent is not issuing judgment on the horror fan, they're simply internalizing the concept and declaring their lack of interest.<br />
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I could argue that any such response is false, that every human being enjoys horror and/or thriller elements in one format or another. More important to me, though, is the existing community.
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We are the people who don't disclaim the darker side of fiction. We may have different views on what constitutes an enjoyable trek through the shadows... some enjoy short pieces, some longer; some enjoy graphic violence and some prefer none; some prefer movies, books, music, games... but when the crux of the matter is examined we all find pleasure in horror fiction.
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Just because someone has a different set of priorities doesn't mean they're wrong, and it doesn't mean they're right; it means only that they have different priorities. As with any conflicting viewpoint, the parties involved can focus on the differences of they can focus on the similarities. The results of the first are generally grudges, feuds and anger. The results of the second are discussions, friendships and parties.<br />
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I prefer the parties.<br />
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This is especially relevant today because much of the world is heading toward contentious elections, energizing political debates. Simultaneously, athiests and theists alike are feeling oppressed and are striking back at their perceived enemies. In the midst of all of that, sports seasons continue, igniting local pride and rivalries.<br />
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Remember above: politics, sports, and religion?<br />
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These are principles which help define people's self-perception, and which they feel galvanizes their world toward right or wrong. There's going to be a lot of emotion tied up in these things, and it's easy to allow our differences to create wedges.<br />
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But the later analysis holds. Differences of opinion are simply that, and just because you perceive something as fact doesn't preclude an equally educated, equally intelligent person from perceiving it as not only opinion, but incorrect opinion.<br />
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There are enough things diminishing the horror community. We don't need sniping and grudges undermining us from within. Yes, we have differences; heartfelt, firmly held differences. But amidst all of that, we share a common love of a particular style of entertainment. We can focus on what pushes us apart or we can focus on what brings us together.<br />
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It's horror, and I want to welcome everyone to the party.<br />
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--Bill Lindblad<br />
(Thanks to Bill for his timely and wise editorial.)Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-68043843287108551642012-04-04T04:30:00.000-07:002012-05-11T23:11:28.458-07:00Staff Profiles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Nickolas Cook (editor-in-chief)<br />
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Nickolas has had dozens of short stories and non-fiction reviews and articles published in print and electronic formats. He has been the fiction moderator for Shocklines.com for over four years. To date, his two published novels, THE BLACK BEAST OF ALGERNON WOOD (<a href="http://www.daileyswanpublishing.com/titleshorror.asp">Dailey Swan Publishing</a>), BALEFUL EYE (currently in pre-production with new publisher) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Zombieland-Lewis-Carroll/dp/1402256213">ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND 2nd Edition with Sourcebooks 2011</a>, all of which have received several positive reviews and he’s been said to display a true craftsmanship missing in much of modern horror. His first short story collection, <a href="http://www.damnationbooks.com/people.php?author=81">'ROUND MIDNIGHT AND OTHER TALES OF LOST SOULS was recently released from Damnation Books.</a>. He also has several new releases forthcoming from various publishers. Stay tuned for more news on his official website and his Facebook Page as listed below
Personal Info: Nickolas lives in the beautiful Southwestern desert with his wife and four wonderful Chinese Pugs, who are worse than little children…the dogs, not the wife.
Visit me at my official website, <a href="http://thehorrorjazzandbluesrevue.blogspot.com/">THE HORROR JAZZ AND BLUES REVUE</a>
He also has a very active <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=596016344">Facebook page</a>
Or email him at <a href="mailto:Nickolasecook@aol.com">Nickolasecook@aol.com</a>.<br />
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Co-Editor: Brian M. Sammons has been writing reviews on all things horror for more years than he'd care to admit. Wanting to give other critics the chance to ravage his work for a change, Brian has also penned a few short stories that have appeared in such anthologies as Arkham Tales, Horrors Beyond, Monstrous, and Dead but Dreaming 2. Some of the magazines where you can find his twisted tales are Bare Bone, Cthulhu Sex, and Dark Animus. He co-edited the upcoming anthology Cthulhu Unbound 3, has his first novella coming out called The R'lyeh Singularity, co-written with David Conyers, and is currently editing other fright collections, including the soon to be release Undead & Unbound. For more about this guy whose neighbors describe as "such
nice, quiet man" you can check out his very infrequently updated webpage here: <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/brian_sammons/">http://www.freewebs.com/brian_sammons/</a><br />
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Bill Breedlove is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in publications such as RedEye, Chicago Tribune, Metazen, InSider, The Fortune News, Encyclopedia of Actuarial Science, Bluefood, and Playboy Online. Some of his stories can be found in the books TALES OF FORBIDDEN PASSION, STRANGE CREATURES, TAILS FROM THE PET SHOP, BOOK OF DEAD THINGS, CTHULHU & THE COEDs and BLOOD AND DONUTS. He is also the editor of the anthologies CANDY IN THE DUMPSTER, WAITING FOR OCTOBER, LIKE A CHINESE TATTOO, MIGHTY UNCLEAN, WHEN THE NIGHT COMES DOWN and (with John Everson) SWALLOWED BY THE CRACKS. He lives in Chicago.<br />
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MyMiserys (aka Kim Cook)
Personal Info: Kim lives in the Arizona desert with her husband, Nickolas Cook, and a pack of Pugs. She met Nick in 1997 in an old AOL Horror chat room and they married a year later on Halloween 1998. She has had a passion for horror novels since the tender age of 12, when she read The Exorcist (before it was made into a movie). Her favorite author, other than Nick, is Stephen King, and she truly considers herself his “Number One Fan”. She has been reading and collecting King’s books since “Carrie” was first published. When she is not reading, Kim bakes …and bakes and bakes. You can see pictures of her wonderful cakes on her MySpace page and Facebook. Each month Kim asks a featured author “13 Questions” so Black Glove readers can get to know a little about the person behind the books.
Guilty pleasure? MeatLoaf...the man...not the entrée.
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/?sk=inbox&action=read&tid=16a3dfe1cbb6496fa37c5cc59c05767c#!/profile.php?id=1547175376">Facebook Page
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Bill Lindblad has been a bookseller specializing in horror and other genre fiction for roughly fifteen years. He is a regular contributor to the writing blog <a href="http://storytellersunplugged.com/billlindblad/">Storytellers Unplugged</a> and has been a staple at conventions for almost a quarter of a century (as an attendee, dealer, panelist, auctioneer and convention staff.) Bill is an unrepentant fan and has taken this out on the pets... as ferrets Mughi (Dirty Pair) and Boingo, cats Gamera and Shane (after Shane MacGowan) and black labrador Grue (Dying Earth and Infocom games) could attest were they able to talk. His wife makes him watch too many strange movies.
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Jenny Orosel has been published in fiction and nonfiction for the past nine years. She is also an avid baker and candy-maker (having only set a kitchen on fire once). She has also appeared in numerous game shows, worked on two feature films, and won an award for her first animated short film (also including fire, this time on purpose). When not writing or making sugary treats, she is forcing Bill to sit through some of the strangest movies he’s ever seen.<br />
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Lisa Morton is a screenwriter and the author of four non-fiction
books, including THE CINEMA OF TSUI HARK. She is a four-time winner of
the Bram Stoker award, a recipient of the Black Quill Award, and has
published fifty works of short fiction. Her first novel, THE CASTLE OF
LOS ANGELES, was released by Gray Friar Press in 2010 (<a href="http://www.grayfriarpress.com/catalogue/losangeles.html">Gray Friar Press</a>) and her first collection, MONSTERS OF L.A., will be published by Bad Moon Books for
Halloween 2011. She lives online at <a href="http://www.lisamorton.com/">http://www.lisamorton.com
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JW Schnarr is a horror writer originally from Calgary, Alberta Canada. He is the author of the novel Alice & Dorothy as well as the short fiction collection Things Falling Apart. A member of the HWA and SF Canada, he can be seen lurking in places such as Best New Zombie Tales Volume II (Books of the Dead Press) where Rue Morgue magazine dubbed his story "Freshest Tale" of the anthology. He's also been spotted in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and will also be found in Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books) alongside the likes of Ramsey Campbell and Jack Ketchum.
Schnarr has a space at Black Glove Magazine where he writes a monthly editorial titled The Hand That Reads. By day he works as a reporter and photographer for the Claresholm Local Press in Claresholm, Alberta. Look him up on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads, or check out his blog at <a href="http://jwschnarr.blogspot.com/">jwschnarr.blogspot.com</a>.
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Anthony Servante is a retired college professor with post-graduate studies in the field of the Grotesque and Horror in the Romantic Age, where vampires and Frankenstein monsters were born. It was a dream subject in his studies—to follow and write academically about monsters. He exhorts the academics of horror in his column, Servante of Darkness. He has since begun his nonprofit project: “Read THIS! Scaring Up Readers”, a book giveaway Program that donates books in the fields of Horror, Fantasy, Mystery, and Science Fiction to college-bound students to enjoy the genres Anthony has read and enjoyed since he was a kid. He critically respects old school Horror writers and encourages new schoolers in his reviews. In retirement, he hopes to push for publication of his short stories, continue to write on trends in horror, and review books, movies, and music.<br />
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Jason Shayer
Recent publishing credits:
Necrotic Tissue #6, the Dead Science and Through the Eyes of the Undead anthologies, and Arcane magazine.
He's also a regular contributor to Back Issue! magazine, a comic book magazine spotlighting the 1970s and 1980s.
Personal Info:
Jason Shayer's 12-year-old mind frame has given more than a few people a reason to raise an eyebrow, most often his wife. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s teaching his kids the finer points of zombie lore.
URL: <a href="http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/">http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/</a>
Contact info: <a href="mailto:jshayer@yahoo.com">jshayer@yahoo.com</a>Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-9872619414661828652012-04-04T04:25:00.000-07:002012-05-11T19:14:49.084-07:00Wanna Write for The Black Glove?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you're interested in writing your very own column, or just want to write reviews for your favorite horror movies and/or books, send me an email at Nickolasecook@aol.com. While we can't pay for the content, I can promise horror fans around the world will read your stuff.Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-69983243120824686042012-04-04T04:20:00.001-07:002012-05-11T20:22:45.489-07:00Stabbed In Stanzas: The Poetry of Darkness and Horror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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--compiled by Anthony Servante
<br />
<br />
In the poetry of Horror, subjects can range from the visceral to the metaphorical, depending on the theme. Some tell a story, some set a scene or mood, others prefer to repulse. I’ve gathered an assortment of Dark Poetry from Indie authors from today’s Horror scene. The mundane, the strange, and the macabre in the commonplace are drawn on here for access to the shadowy recesses of waking conscience. So, step away from the light for a few minutes and follow the trail of crumbs left by Mr. Kurtz as he travelled into the heart of darkness to find the horror.
<br />
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<b>the bleeding heart</b><br />
by Lori R. Lopez<br />
A blackish knight by lantern light<br />
Strode 'cross the murky moordred peat<br />
With soggen gait did he frustrate<br />
The trackers after his brusque feet<br />
<br />
Alone he trekked and did reflect<br />
On how he came to be so cruel<br />
The lives he claimed who were unnamed<br />
Would deem him nothing less a ghoul
<br />
<br />
He'd swiped the heads of all his deads<br />
But for the sake of victory<br />
An empty taunt, a heart to vaunt<br />
Their lives were squandered for his glee<br />
<br />
The kingdom next to leave bevexed<br />
Would host a tournament renowned<br />
Without his steed he was in need<br />
So snatched a farm horse that he found<br />
<br />
This blackest soul would play the role<br />
Of suitor to Princess Portend<br />
Whose honor knights would joust for rights<br />
To woo and troth at tourney's end<br />
<br />
Sir Anvil in rode drenched with sin<br />
But to the court's immense surprise<br />
Removing helm, did overwhelm<br />
By teardrops rolling from his eyes<br />
<br />
"I weep for love's elusive dove<br />
For never knowing such a treat<br />
My heart lies bare for you to share<br />
Dear Lady, with the face so sweet!"<br />
<br />
Spoke he these words, gone still the birds
<br />
And every ear was raptly tuned<br />
For there was more that did outpour<br />
A song of love his lips they crooned<br />
<br />
"My Lady fair, if you could care<br />
For such a wretched blasphemy<br />
I'd give my heart, we'd never part<br />
The beast subdued inside of me!"<br />
<br />
The princess learned if he was spurned<br />
That all would suffer his defeat<br />
"I'll sack and waste in utmost haste<br />
Till not a single breast should beat!"<br />
<br />
Sir Anvil waited; she hesitated<br />
The crown announced as his decree<br />
"You shall contend for my Portend —<br />
But fair is how the match shall be!"<br />
<br />
The rules were set that must be met<br />
Each man a valentine should bring<br />
The strongest heart would stand apart<br />
And give the lady thus his ring<br />
<br />
That day a dark knight rode away<br />
To contemplate what he could offer<br />
Then back he came with his best game<br />
The largest ruby from his coffer<br />
<br />
"A jewel is cold and cannot hold<br />
The endless love you promised, sir!<br />
This will not do, be off with you!"<br />
The princess ordered to the cur<br />
<br />
Bleak Anvil drew a blade with rue<br />
Yet he did not the lady stab<br />
His own chest cleaved, the core was heaved<br />
"There is your valentine!" his jab<br />
<br />
"I give my heart pierced by your dart —<br />
I've nothing more than that to give!<br />
It's black and bloody, a little muddy<br />
Accept it and I'll let you live."<br />
<br />
His bleeding gist the princess kissed<br />
That heartless knight she promptly wed<br />
The realm would thrive with all alive<br />
Except her spouse, who was quite dead.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<b>The Gracken</b><br />
by Lori R. Lopez<br />
<br />
Six grackles on a limb once sat<br />
To have a raucous bird-brained chat<br />
Like magpie gossips they did sport<br />
Then snoozed a bit with a sneerful snort<br />
When just below them from the soil<br />
A wickedness began to roil<br />
And writhing upwards out of smirch<br />
A peckish dauntling climbt the birch<br />
This heathen gathered mass and crept<br />
Up bark and branch to where they slept<br />
The smudge begrudged them their sweet nap<br />
And plucked most up in quite a flap<br />
Drooling for these fickle bites<br />
He gulped them down and set his sights<br />
Upon the last who woke to glean<br />
Himself alone, his pals unseen<br />
And a monster they had conjured forth<br />
Through gabbiness from malish pour’th<br />
Of vicious rumors, slandrous spewl<br />
These spouters summoned a pentaghoul<br />
Five scowls he wore; five eyeballs glared<br />
Five arms, five legs; five faces stared<br />
Five birds he ate with fervent glee<br />
The sixth, dessert would surely be<br />
Licking lips, he reached a paw<br />
To plunge the fowl down a single maw<br />
This gracken had a case of greed<br />
And six was more than he did need<br />
The final bird held up a wing<br />
To make him pause for one small thing:<br />
“We made you mad, we made you mean<br />
We made you brown and orange and green<br />
We didn’t make you such a glutton<br />
And we forgot a shut-off button<br />
So if you won’t mind, I think I’ll leave!”<br />
The blackbird flew, to the gracken’s peeve<br />
And the monster slunk back in the dirt<br />
His belly full but his feelings hurt.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<b></b><br />
<br />
<b>american gothic</b><br />
by Lori R. Lopez<br />
<br />
The day they posed for the painter<br />
Is engraved in a nation’s history<br />
Yet what transpired when he packed his tools<br />
And trundled off is a mystery<br />
Though the artist later told the world<br />
They were only models, not a pair<br />
The house was true and so were they<br />
On the farmer’s grave I swear<br />
<br />
If you ever wondered why she frowned<br />
Or at what she stared with pensive scorn<br />
Though no grain of proof survived the years<br />
I believe it wasn’t corn<br />
What went on up to that point in time<br />
Inside one Iowa farmer’s house<br />
We can only guess and speculate<br />
There’s no witness, not even a mouse!<br />
<br />
In her enigmatic visage hides<br />
The words she was afraid to utter<br />
In those days such knowledge was best unknown<br />
It would churn up folks like butter<br />
So the daughter held her pose, her tongue<br />
And never spoke but glared a storm<br />
You could see the feelings trapped within<br />
The bitter pain of her rigid form<br />
<br />
As the artist’s carriage grew quite small<br />
In the hazy distance of a straight flat road<br />
A father to the daughter scowled<br />
To get back in their plain abode<br />
Upstairs she hiked, her blue eyes glazed<br />
Upon her bed she placed an apron<br />
That matched the curtains of her room<br />
The attic tower of her desecration<br />
<br />
Another scenario springs to mind<br />
A second possibility<br />
The hard man killed her mother<br />
Whose broach she wears, you see<br />
Cold and cruel, a stern provider<br />
He smacked his spouse when he was drunk<br />
And must have broke some thing inside her<br />
For she didn’t have the daughter’s spunk<br />
<br />
Or did that precious cameo
<br />
Symbolize a boyfriend’s gift?<br />
Perhaps her domineering dad<br />
Was selfish in his thrift<br />
The man she loved was chased away<br />
With that pitchfork or he disappeared<br />
As she waited for her suitor’s call<br />
Maybe this is what she feared<br />
<br />
Now she changed her Sunday dress as well<br />
Into a frock of beige, once white<br />
Then stood before the Gothic window
<br />
And contemplated her sorry plight<br />
The old man summoned her to the kitchen<br />
Which planted the seed of his demise<br />
A cameo brooch clutched in her fist<br />
She descended to halt his lies<br />
<br />
The pitchfork stood upon the porch<br />
She pushed the screen-door, dropped the pin<br />
Hand leaking, grasped the threefold spear<br />
Content to do him in<br />
How upright sat this proper man
<br />
Whose neighbors saw him as a friend
<br />
Without a word she screamed and gored<br />
Her only thought to rend<br />
<br />
The farmer stumbled from his chair<br />
Gaunt features shocked and torso grisly<br />
Scarlet rain dripped from the tines<br />
As she faced his staggering misery<br />
Her father tried to steal the trident<br />
A gurgle rising in his throat<br />
She met him with a second thrust<br />
No longer would he dote<br />
<br />
A moon shone high as she spaded earth<br />
And buried him in an empty field<br />
By the time they noticed he was gone<br />
The scarred patch would be healed
<br />
He went to visit kin, she claimed
<br />
And left the fields overgrown and wild<br />
As if a widow, she stayed alone<br />
No husband and no child<br />
<br />
Her temper never disappeared<br />
She howled some nights as if it hurt<br />
To reside alone, her life in tatters<br />
For the secret in the dirt<br />
There could be no happy ever after<br />
In a crumbling home once neat and clean<br />
In a town where none could understand<br />
Why she sat in her room unseen.<br />
<br />
(This is a fictional interpretation based on the American masterpiece by Grant Wood.)
<br />
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by Aline S. Iniestra<br />
<b>Crooked She</b>
<br />
<br />
Towards the door she was creeping;
<br />
Ragged dress and a stained face;
<br />
Hurt knees and twisted wrists.
<br />
Tried to smile but she showed just a smirk.
<br />
<br />
Head inclined and eyes far gone;
<br />
Dark the room, dark her soul.
<br />
A creature so unknown,
<br />
Lonely and disturbed.
<br />
<br />
She got to the door,
<br />
All tired and worn.
<br />
Laid on the floor and though:<br />
“This is too much!”<br />
<br />
She grabbed a paper<br />
And there she wrote:<br />
<br />
“My mind is twisted,
<br />
My body is crooked,
<br />
Darkness surrounds me,
<br />
No one will find me.<br />
<br />
Here they have left me.
<br />
Pain’s all I feel.<br />
How long will I this live?
<br />
I cannot die!
<br />
I cannot live!
<br />
Fear is around!
<br />
Crawl’s all I do!
<br />
<br />
Creature of darkness
<br />
With no name attached.
<br />
Someday I’ll smile
<br />
Be happy at last...
<br />
<br />
I hope...<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
by Aline S. Iniestra<br />
<b>Living doll</b>
<br />
<br />
She is a doll and lives all alone,
<br />
Dumped in the woods, covered by worms,
<br />
Eyes nonexistent, owner grown up.
<br />
<br />
Dirt and time have made her creepy
<br />
When she used to be so pretty;
<br />
What a sad scene … I see her melancholy.
<br />
<br />
I took her with me, but never tried to fix her;
<br />
I feel something when I touch her worn out hands
<br />
And look into her empty eyes.
<br />
<br />
Never cleaned her up: dirt and cracks are part of her whole;
<br />
She sits by the window and yet she glows
<br />
With the sun, with the moon, but more with her own inner gloom.<br />
<br />
She reminds me of my dead daughter
<br />
Who was just as pretty and small,
<br />
With a similar doll, with a charm of her own.
<br />
<br />
She died in my arms three years ago.
<br />
Perhaps that is why I love this little doll.
<br />
I’ve missed her since; I’ve felt lonely and lost.
<br />
<br />
I am a man with an ancient sad doll,
<br />
Who wanders around in his lonesome house,
<br />
Feeling just as the doll looks on the outside.
<br />
<br />
It’s not only that she reminds me of my little Hania.
<br />
It’s just that my eyes lack a soul,
<br />
It’s just that my hands are dry for missing her touch,
<br />
It’s just that my heart feels wounded and old,
<br />
It’s just that this doll is my portrait: she depicts my inner look.
<br />
<br />
I’m like a doll that lives all alone,
<br />
Dumped in the woods, covered by worms,
<br />
Soul nonexistent, grown up, a fool.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<br />
<br />
by Aline S. Iniestra<br />
<b>I’ll be there</b>
<br />
<br />
The mud is so cold and is feeding my veins;
<br />
I’m laying here, eyes wide open, the moon witnessing my pain.
<br />
<br />
“Where have you left me?
<br />
Why am I bleeding?
<br />
Can someone please help me?
<br />
I think no one can hear me”
<br />
<br />
Leaves are falling and covering my body,
<br />
Mixing with my heart’s blood, infecting my agony.
<br />
<br />
“Is there a hand I could hold if I die?
<br />
Is it death that ray in the sky?
<br />
I feel like burning, like ashes inside;
<br />
Am I really going to die?”
<br />
<br />
I see black, I bleed red,
<br />
I feel blue, everything’s grey.
<br />
<br />
“Now I remember your face,
<br />
You smashing my life,
<br />
Looking at me sadly,
<br />
Saying it was my time”
<br />
<br />
The wind blows harder freezing my eyes;
<br />
My soul’s getting restless, it wants to fly.
<br />
<br />
“I fight for my life, but how much is there left?
<br />
These are only my thoughts, I don’t know my name.
<br />
You called me a demon, and stabbed me in the heart,
<br />
You said it was evil and I had to die.
<br />
<br />
Well this is the end, I’ve lost all hope.
<br />
The wind is taking my soul. But somehow I know…
<br />
<br />
I’ll go back to you. If I am a demon, I’ll be there for you.
<br />
Mud is my blood now, wind is my transport…
<br />
<br />
Revenge is my aim, and you are in my game.”<br />
<br />
**********************************************************************
<br />
<br />
<b>DOWN A DARK ROAD TO DEATH</b>
<br />
by Lori R. Lopez and Aline S. Iniestra
<br />
<br />
A bilious darkness came, out of a billowous cloud obscuring the sky
<br />
A cold breeze was felt on his face, it was freezing his soul inside
<br />
Touched by the inky depth, gripped by the night that should be day
<br />
Terror that built worlds in his head, worlds of distress.
<br />
<br />
How could he feel so alone, walking what seemed an endless road?
<br />
What was now to come? He couldn't do but spill his blood
<br />
For in his path lay sacrifice, and blood-filled footsteps in his wake
<br />
There, he had no choice but to breathe death and swallow souls
<br />
<br />
It was the black-veined consequence of what he in his torment had become
<br />
Forever he'd be the shadow of what he's hated for so long
<br />
But aren't we all on the outside less visible to ourselves than within?
<br />
Dark monsters were slashing his soul, they were coming for him.
<br />
<br />
Out of the raven cumulous, pouring from the blinded eyes of wrath
<br />
He screamed as he was losing his mind . . . he was dying. No escape this time.
<br />
Far back into the folds of eternity, his thoughts traveled to make sense of madness
<br />
But madness was creeping inside, and he had no more control over his senses.
<br />
<br />
Once upon a lifetime there was love, carefree laughter, his heart illuminated
<br />
Heartbeats with the rhythm of joy. Now it's a dry heart turning into stone
<br />
A silent heart devoid of words and feelings. Cold, unmoving as a block of marble
<br />
But don't marvel at this darkened creature. It is evil, charming, and he'll kill you.
<br />
<br />
Her life transformed him to a fragile giving man. Her death created a monstrous void
<br />
Nothing could fill his tattered soul, but the blood of innocents that believed in love
<br />
An abominable thirst which would not be sated. Like a desert, his arid emotionless core
<br />
And indeed he parted to accomplish his chore, and drink his first victim . . . Charlotte.
<br />
<br />
For her he raged as he glutted and gorged, yet even this blood could not satisfy
<br />
But she was to blame for his hate towards love. It was his mother he was eager to find.
<br />
The woman who raised him to be special: half human, the other half depraved
<br />
It was her who had this thought of "oh, he'll live happy from the dead".
<br />
<br />
He had only wanted to be himself, no more, no less, and spurned that creature's lessons
<br />
It was time to feed again. Gabriel, his companion, was a lady already dead
<br />
He came across her body, discarded by the road, the victim of another fiend
<br />
Her corpse he cut into pieces. This crooked cold woman would feed him till the end.
<br />
<br />
How he fought to restrain the impulses rising within, towards she who killed his love
<br />
He couldn't take it anymore, insane urges started to unleash
<br />
Instinct, the bond of blood, led him to a mother who had never been sweet
<br />
Screaming and howling her name through the night, he would find that mad woman at last.
<br />
<br />
The creature stood with her back turned, yet all of her senses aware of his approach
<br />
Step by step and breathing like a beast, he started to run frenzied, ready to kill
<br />
"I asked for one thing!" he screeched. "To love Charlotte! And you took her away!"
<br />
"You'll suffer for the scars I have!" All of a sudden, her throat was pierced by a knife.
<br />
<br />
The crimson blade clattered. With bare hands he tore her apart, succumbing at last
<br />
But he didn't feel relieved. His rage still had so much to be revealed
<br />
A storm of emotions released, a dire burden he had borne from childhood
<br />
A growing pain made of him a haunting shadow. Rotten souls had to be swallowed
<br />
<br />
Now there was no sanity or reality, only a trace of a man who must do one thing right
<br />
If killing was right, he had more bodies to leave dry. So on his gory journey, he stopped at a dreamy park
<br />
Innocent specters watched, lining the fringes, while he chose victims — the worst of humanity
<br />
A trembling boy, a crying girl, the twins screaming, the two-year-old fainting . . . it all was ready.<br />
<br />
They had been shorn of life, fed to sustain his dreadful existence. This was for their sake!
<br />
One by one he smelled the dark ones, who left the children to die again, bite by bite
<br />
Responsible for their deaths by indifference or intent, and their second demises at his teeth
<br />
Bones cracking, blood scattered, screams echoing. The killing was for justice, but was his soul at peace?
<br />
<br />
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November 19, 2010
<br />
by Tina Marlene Goodman
<br />
<b>LONG SUFFERING SPOUSE</b>
<br />
<br />
In that haggard, horrid house
<br />
at the corner there
<br />
survives the long-suffering spouse.<br />
But where has her
<br />
worse-than-worst-half gone?
<br />
Has she finally thrown him out?
<br />
Does she have it in her?
<br />
Has he run off again for a
<br />
bit of fun with one
<br />
of his floozy drugging girlies
<br />
or his boozy drinking buddies?
<br />
No, his rust bucket truck is parked askew
<br />
on the front lawn<br />
and he would never just up and abandon
<br />
his only and best true love,
<br />
his loyal mixed-mutt dog.
<br />
<br />
Last night, that poor forsaken dog<br />
was digging through her telling trash,
<br />
so she lit the can on fire.
<br />
She must have had a restless night
<br />
'cause this morning I see,
<br />
'though her arm is still in a sling,
<br />
she planted a long row of New Hope roses.
<br />
Now that dog keeps digging, digging
<br />
deep down into hope's mound.
<br />
In vain, she tries to shoo him away;
<br />
but she would never strike that hound.
<br />
On the dirty, evidential bed he stays,
<br />
howling like a siren and
<br />
digging up the filthy roots,
<br />
embedded, entwined with his master's remains.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<br />
<br />
November 9, 2010<br />
by Tina Marlene Goodman
<b></b><br />
<br />
<b>BODY IN A FIELD</b>
<br />
<br />
If you chance upon a body in a field,
<br />
first, stop.
<br />
Calm down!<br />
Think, think, think!
<br />
Were you seen?
<br />
If so, shout, “Somebody call 911!”
<br />
If not, keep calm, sniff the air.
<br />
Do you smell any sickly-sweet decomp? No.
<br />
What do you hear?
<br />
A moan, a groan? Yes!
<br />
Don't use your knife, it's too messy.
<br />
Casually approach the body.
<br />
Look out at the distance.
<br />
Place your boot on its throat.
<br />
Don't let it scream!
<br />
Keep calm, remain calm.
<br />
Again, don't let it scream!
<br />
Don't look down!
<br />
Did you hear the bones crack?
<br />
Good, it's done.
<br />
Now walk away.
<br />
Leave the same way you came.
<br />
Remember, no matter how strong the urge,
<br />
never return to the scene
<br />
<br />
But what about your boot mark?
<br />
The diamond shaped treads?
<br />
The trace evidence that fell from the crack in your boot.
<br />
The bloody bits that same boot picked up.
<br />
Your shoe size,
<br />
your height, your weight?
<br />
Your gender. Your age.
<br />
The insects crawling in and out of
<br />
the body.
<br />
The time of day. The temperature.
<br />
Your fibers and hair and dander and skin cells<br />
and any vegetation that dropped from your clothes?
<br />
The shrub that scratched your arm?
<br />
The DNA that dripped in the sweat from your brow?<br />
Your stomach ache. Your vomit.
<br />
That neon GUILTY sign flashing across your face?<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<br />
November 13, 2010
<br />
by Tina Marlene Goodman
<b></b><br />
<br />
<b>CAT KILLER</b>
<br />
<br />
Thank you for your late night visit!<br />
I admit, at first I was a bit upset<br />
to see Tiffy placed like that,
<br />
crumbled up on my doorstep.
<br />
<br />
But now I realize
<br />
it was probably for the best.
<br />
I should never have grown attached
<br />
to his purrs and softness.
<br />
<br />
I barely even noticed your
<br />
shoe prints and cigarette butts
<br />
ground into the dirt<br />
outside my bedroom window.<br />
<br />
**********************************************************************
<br />
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<br />
by Kendra Saunders
<b></b><br />
<b>They Know A Secret</b>
<br />
<br />
I see my coworkers
<br />
Upright, cruel birds
<br />
They know a secret
<br />
<br />
Their faces are skeletal
<br />
wide open, souls on display
<br />
They point, bony fingers
<br />
They chirp and hobble
<br />
together, best of friends<br />
<br />
Lunch partners<br />
<br />
They long to rip my skin<br />
drain away my blood
<br />
until I’m black charcoaled
<br />
remains like them
<br />
<br />
Until my nose is a triangle bone
<br />
my eyes are missing
<br />
Until I paste the feathers
<br />
of the dead
<br />
across myself as adornment
<br />
and hobble with them<br />
<br />
**********************************************************************
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<b>Down By the River</b><br />
by Rob M. Miller<br />
<br />
My long lost Sherry, my heart of hearts, how do I miss?<br />
Our long hours of love, walking hand in hand,
<br />
Your loving, funny stories, our humorous moments, being your man.
<br />
I sorrow for your now gone beauty, your laughter, your bliss.
<br />
Your smile so sweet, your skin so soft, your voice … a sparrow’s sweet song.
<br />
I’ve looked since your passing, no other t’ever compare,
<br />
With your elegance, your spirit—no one but you my soul to bare.
<br />
My heart breaks for you with longing; my shame t’will never be gone.
<br />
How did I fail you? Where did I miss the mark?
<br />
You left me; you shamed me; or so I felt at the time.
<br />
I couldn’t bear it … the sorrow, the loss, a love lost, a love’s crime.
<br />
Can’t make up for the wrongs; the guilt, ne’er to be undone, a stain forever stark.
<br />
I weep, for your passing, for all you could’ve been, your world-brightening grin.
<br />
Now I cower in love-spurned dark corners, in black wells of impassioned hate.
<br />
First for you; then I did evil; now for myself, and my own condemned fate.
<br />
To’ve stabbed-sliced-buried a life so glad, I now so cry—marked by so dire a sin.
<br />
I long to atone, pay, to account; but my fear remains—a throbbing, hobbling sliver.
<br />
Will I be found out, will you be uncovered, will I ever be brought before all?
<br />
How long will I suffer, before my tortured soul is punished in justice’s maw?
<br />
Should I take that pitiful step, for some slight form of redemption, to confess to where I did lay you, all alone in pieces … in plastic bags <br />
… down by the river.
<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<br />
<br />
<b>Failing Lament</b>
<br />
by Rob M. Miller
<br />
<br />
In the night, instead of happy dreams,
<br />
Eyes open in Hell, and I hear the screams.
<br />
Questions arise as to why I’m there,
<br />
My soul is flayed, my fears laid bare.
<br />
Deep within I recognize the sin,
<br />
But instead of sorrow, my face does grin.
<br />
In the night, instead of happy dreams,
<br />
Eyes open in Hell, and I hear the screams.
<br />
The sum of a life, bloated with deeds,
<br />
hungers and passions, unhallowed greeds.
<br />
With due recompense, this state’s been won,
<br />
mocking right living, justice now done.
<br />
In the night, instead of happy dreams,
<br />
Eyes open in Hell, and I hear the screams.
<br />
Whose voices do wail with such shrill and plea?
<br />
Realization slams hard:
<br />
It’s me,
<br />
and me,
<br />
and me….
<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<b></b><br />
<br />
<b>Halloween Trip to Daddy</b>
<br />
by Rob M. Miller
<br />
<br />
Little girl Annabelle looked out her rain-washed window,
<br />
Longing for her daddy, she decided to go solo.
<br />
“I’m off, dear mother, to see my father beyond the wood.”
<br />
“Wait, fair daughter, remember the tale of Lil’ Red Riding Hood?”
<br />
<br />
“There’s things that do bump, that do boo, and do scare,
<br />
And I’m a’feared for your safety; scaries do desire one so fair.”
<br />
“Oh, mother, do not be wary, for I’m not a’feared of anything ferocious…
<br />
Nor of anything bumping, or boo-ing, or flapping, or atrocious.”
<br />
<br />
So off went the lass, into the wood, and down the path,
<br />
Travelling by fir, and shrubs, and thick, dark wild grass.
<br />
And things did abound, she could hear them quite clear…
<br />
Boo-ing and flapping and scraping, she did hear from her ears.
<br />
<br />
Brownies and dark fairies, wolves, sprites, and gnomes,
<br />
Beasties and wild things, through the dark wood did roam.
<br />
Quite hungry, on the prowl, a’hunting and scheming they did go,
<br />
Howling, hooping and hollering, perhaps led by a dread forest troll.
<br />
<br />
But long through the dark, and under somber, path-covering limbs,
<br />
Young Annabelle did laugh, felt no fear, no worry, or thoughts that were grim.
<br />
“I’m going to see my daddy, and no matter what I face along the way,
<br />
Nothing will stop, or a’fear me … not a tad or a bit, on this, my daddy-visiting day.”
<br />
<br />
Then on to the path came cougars and bears and three-legged snapping things,
<br />
Scary and ready to gobble, hair standing and spikey, the stuff of bad dreams.
<br />
But Annabelle kept skipping, as if on a stroll down a lane, singing away,
<br />
Knowing nothing could touch her … going to her daddy, evil would be held at bay.
<br />
<br />
So the monsters tipped their hats, waved hello, and gave up trying to fright,
<br />
Having realized their yippings, growlings, and yappings would not stop the little girl,
<br />
<br />
Not on this particular Halloween night.<br />
<br />
**********************************************************************
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<b>Pathos</b>
<br />
by Michael H. Hanson<br />
<br />
I've seen you, in town, supplejack in hand,
<br />
tolerated by walker, bike, and bus
<br />
a tragic vessel of hopeless yearnings,
<br />
oblivious to tears of rain and snow.
<br />
Assaulted by the screams of auto horns,
<br />
resisting rivers of humanity;
<br />
trapped in the cinema of cecity --
<br />
crippled shadow puppet encased by light.
<br />
The eerie magnetism of your soul
<br />
clutches my heart with brutal tenderness.
<br />
(Two dark jewels in lovely pale aspect.
<br />
I can't look away...I can't turn from you...)
<br />
<br />
No, not even the stars have such sad eyes.<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<b></b><br />
<b>I Am Climbing</b>
<br />
by Michael H. Hanson
<br />
<br />
I am climbing out of a deep, dark void,
<br />
a yawning, vertical, depthless chasm.
<br />
Shadowy tendrils of doubt flail at me,
<br />
pitilessly dislodging my handholds
<br />
and footholds, hampering my departure
<br />
as my limbs weaken and my soul withers.
<br />
<br />
Looking upwards I am blinded by the
<br />
wild, incandescent possibilities
<br />
of a surface life, among denizens
<br />
of purity and pretty perfections,
<br />
successful sneers, and harmonized hair styles –
<br />
a land, never promised, yet within reach.
<br />
<br />
Dark songs of shaming recriminations
<br />
blare upward from beneath, rising, rising,
<br />
growing in volume and pitch, billowing,
<br />
feral, rushing, oily, miasmic waves,
<br />
boiling, soon on the verge of engulfing
<br />
me, lapping at my back, draining my hope...<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------
<b></b><br />
<br />
<b>The Forgotten</b>
<br />
by Michael H. Hanson
<br />
<br />
Does anyone at all see us,
<br />
we apparitions of failure,
<br />
pale ghosts of broken marriages
<br />
and shadows of love’s harsh defeat?
<br />
Does anyone at all hear us
<br />
wounded, passionless refugees,
<br />
walking laments to life’s backlash;
<br />
echoes of once jubilant glee?
<br />
Does anyone at all feel us,
<br />
feather light with timid touches;
<br />
fearful to express our own will,
<br />
wispy, tenuous, hollow things<br />
<br />
**********************************************************************
<br />
<br />
AUTHORS RETAIN ALL COPYRIGHTS TO THEIR WORK. All poems will take “one time publication rights here.”
--compiled by Anthony Servante
(The Black Glove wishes to thank all of the participating poets for this Cinco De Mayo special feature)Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-34053463095855896012012-04-04T04:15:00.000-07:002012-05-11T20:25:28.025-07:00TIME CAPSULES classic book reviews by Bill Lindbladby Bill Lindblad
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<br />
<br />
THE DAIN CURSE by Dashiell Hammett (1929)
<br />
<br />
Call it antihorror.
This is a mystery story involving, among other things, multiple gruesome murders, a ghost, a cult, and a supernatural curse. Under any normal circumstance, a pulp author would have played up those aspects in an effort to lend an air of weird menace to the story. In Hammett's hands, however, the trappings are wasted. The detective in charge of the case does not believe in the supernatural, and it comes across as authoritative even through casual conversation. Even at a point where the detective, attempting to brawl with the ghost and failing, questions his own skepticism the reader is never encouraged to do so because of the way the story is written.
This is not merely a case of horror tropes being poorly handled. It is a situation where those tropes are handled perfectly for a story that is not intended to be horror. Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op serves as the progenitor for Joe Friday on Dragnet while simultaneously channeling Hercule Poirot. He is all business, while simultaneously capable of brilliant and intuitive deductions.
The story is cohesive and reasonable, while still managing to surprise the reader at many turns. It remains in print after more than eighty years, despite some of the conversations and grammatical choices aging poorly, because of how brilliantly constructed the mystery is. It is amazing that something so expertly crafted, steeped in the supernatural and death, could bypass any and all emotions of horror. But it does.
<br />
<br />
As a horror novel: one star out of five
<br />
As a non-horror novel: five stars out of five
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
SKULL-FACE by Robert E. Howard (1978)
<br />
<br />
Skull-Face and Others is one of the legendary titles of Arkham House, but the 1978 Berkley edition of Skull-face is the first book to assemble the various related Howard "evil mastermind" works together.
The book begins with an introduction by Richard Lupoff, providing a background on not merely Skull-Face but also the various related stories. He explains the similarity in tone between these stories and the Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer. He also provides an explanation for the connections between the novellas in the book and is the author who completed the final work in the collection, Taverel Manor.
Scholarly introduction aside, the book contains four short novels by Robert E. Howard. They provide his entries into the mad genius subgenre of pulp fiction, although they maintained their distinctive Howard flair even as he emulated the successful formula honed by the Fu Manchu stories.
Howard was unwilling to relegate his protagonists to the role of throwaway hero. While most Rohmer clones made their leads into everyman and focused on the villain, Howard makes his characters distinctive. A hero may be abnormally strong, for example, or be crossed by an unusually gifted woman. The stories aren't as groundbreaking as Rohmer's, but they're a dozen times better than most other imitators.
<br />
<br />
Four stars out of five.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
SPAWN OF THE WINDS by Brian Lumley (1978)<br />
<br />
Brian Lumley has been roundly criticized in some circles for deviating far astray from Lovecraft's source material when writing his Mythos fiction. This is for a good reason; Lumley's Mythos work bears more resemblance to action thrillers than it does classic Lovecraftean stories.
Personally, I don't see the problem. Yes, much of the effect of incomprehensible horror is lost when the Mythos gods (here reduced to a simple acronym, like the KGB... the CCD, Cthulhu Cycle Dieties) are presented as anti-humanity monsters instead of creatures whose motivations and views are beyond our understanding. But the stories themselves are consistently strong supernatural thrillers.
Lumley's protagonists are action heroes of the best sort. They're strong, they're intelligent, but they're not infallible and they can be emotionally vulnerable. The women in the stories are usually equally strong. These are not the tense academics of traditional Lovecraftean lore, nor are they Doc Savage, but by incorporating the Mythos so heavily they have resulted in disappointment and vilification from those who demand fealty to the established story principles in their Lovecraftean work. They don't need the same storylines, or so they claim; but if someone is going to lay claim to the beings of Lovecraft he should work to ensure that the beings his action heroes encounter are representative of the cosmic horrors and not watered down versions who work within the traditional human understanding of good and evil.
I appreciate that argument. I also appreciate the best action-fantasy treatment of the Mythos since Conan killed a shoggoth. These are entertaining books with both horror and fantasy elements, and this one, Spawn of the Winds, may be the most blatant example of both sides of the argument. It could be summed up as: "A rough-and-tumble adventurer from Earth fights Ithaqua, the Wind Walker - with only a barbarian princess and her army to help!"
It delivers on what you'd want from such a book, and if that is a warning or promise depends entirely upon your point of view.
<br />
<br />
Four stars out of five
<br />
<br />
--Bill LindbladNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-6595429280961116432012-04-04T04:10:00.000-07:002012-05-11T20:27:50.558-07:00Servante of Darkness #8: Magic Realism in Horror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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CHOCOLATE-COVERED EYES: A SAMPLER OF HORROR <br />
by Lori R. Lopez
<br />
<br />
Reviewed by Anthony Servante
<br />
<br />
Welcome back, dear readers for my 8th venture into the literary workings of Horror today. This month, we will discuss the tradition of Magic Realism, from art to literature, and examine the anthology of horror stories by Lori R. Lopez in terms of the magically real approach, as compared to the supernatural and fantastic works of the South American writers who solidified the literary movement in the 80s. We want to see how Horror has been affected by the use of the hyper-realistic.
The German art critic Franz Roh first used the phrase in 1925 to refer to an artistic style also known as The New Objectivity, a form of surrealism. Early in the art movement, surreal paintings dealt with fantastic aspects and landscapes, (think Salvador Dali’s melting clocks); later they focused on psychological subjects such as the realistic depiction of bureaucratic anxieties, as in the works of George Tooker.<br />
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<br />
This shift from unreal to real led to exaggerations in the mundane, a long line of people waiting for a bank teller, pedestrians crowding a crosswalk, or a mother smothering a child with her enormous arms. Literature of the magical realist began to utilize elements of the surreal and the ordinary to make further comments on social and government bureaucracies.
Jorge Leal Amado de Faria (August 10, 1912 — August 6, 2001), a Brazilian author, was one of the first Latino writers to use this combination of artistic forms in his novel, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos) in 1978. In the novel, Dona Flor marries a philanderer of a man who satisfies her sexually, but he soon passes away, and later she marries an honest man of good social standing who cannot satisfy her in bed. In the second half of the book, the ghost of her former lover begins to seduce her, thus fulfilling her needs both physically and socially. “There is no justification for enlisting magic realism unless there is a larger truth which cannot be reached but for distortion of ordinary social realism,” says Joan Mellen, a modern literary critic. “Magic realism at its best relies not upon flights of fantasy but on particular fusion of fact and fantasy in the service of a quest for meaning” (Mellen, J. 2000). By this, she wants us to understand that literature of this genre exaggerates the real in order to provoke a response on the thematic target. So, per Mellen, Tooker’s surreal bureaucracies are comments on the ineffectiveness of government services (think the clichéd long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles). Therefore, Dona Flor by Amado is a criticism on marriage. Some marry for social status, some for sexual pleasure, but the perfect marriage includes both. Since this perfection is not attainable in real life, Amado incorporates the supernatural element of lust to the natural marriage of Dona Flor to realize a perfect union.<br />
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<br />
Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his work, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad, 1967) also utilizes the supernatural in the form of ghosts to tell the history of a town and its founders cursed to repeat the same mistakes generation after generation that lead to the destruction of their home. José Arcadio Buendía founds "Macondo", a city of mirrors that reflected the world in and about it, after dreaming of a utopic village. But by building a real city based on an unreal dream, he dooms his future families. “At the end of the story, a Buendía man deciphers an encrypted cipher that generations of Buendía family men had failed to decipher. The secret message informed the recipient of every fortune and misfortune lived by the Buendía Family generations” (Wiki). Throughout the novel the characters are visited by ghosts. "The ghosts are symbols of the past and the haunting nature it has over Macondo. The ghosts and the displaced repetition that they evoke are, in fact, firmly grounded in the particular development of Latin American history" (Wiki). This supernatural element reminds the reader that the town is an illusion, or a false hope that when one builds on dreams, failure is inevitable, just as death is inevitable when we build on life. Our children inherit the illusion and thereby sustain its appearance of success. It is a real history based on the fantastic, life and death living side by side, generation after generation. “The author employing magic realism searches out hidden potential in the natural world or in human actions, and often describes the commonplace as mysterious. Reality seems to be deformed, but the reader perceives essential truths as a result of this distortion” (Mellen, J. 2000).
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<br />
(Note in the cover to the Marquez novel that the city rests partly on a solid rock and partly on its cliff, seemingly about to fall, symbolizing the painting’s comment on the nature of the town.)
In CHOCOLATE COVERED EYES (2011) Lori R. Lopez combines the real and the fantastic to create her own blend of magic realism. First off, this book is a collection of one poem and six stories, a confectionaire’s sampling of candied horrors. We saw in the Latino novels the blending of ghosts and the living to create a statement on social mores and government inefficiencies. Here we see Lopez comment on social conventions with her incorporation of horror and normal life.
In the first story, HEARTBEAT, the realism of a fifties era family is set against a zombie infestation, where the government is under the illusion that they are in charge while the zombies have become just another facet of the neighborhood where the kids establish the rules for zombie/human interaction (a comment on gangs, perhaps?). As Lori puts it, “Always too much red tape and rights to consider. [The government] still think[s] they’re in charge, and they don’t want to risk provoking riots on top of everything else, as the so-called civilized world clings by a thread to an illusion of Normal.” This seems to be a social comment on single parenting set against the hardships of growing up in an impoverished neighborhood. Its poignant ending shows the government’s inadequacy to protect the single parent.<br />
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In a language usually reserved for poetry, our second candy of horror, NUANCE, places the “Normal” within the freaks and fiends of a carnival, the ever reliable symbol for the life of a gypsy, or transitory existence. The governing of a sideshow life is established by the carnies, and thus we have a microcosm of a city. Even the dreams of one boy reflect the hopes of such a morose existence: “The only chance of salvation was to believe in a boy who could fly, traverse walls, render magical feats.” Within the existence of the noncorformist life, dreams are your only salvation and the carrot on the stick that death proudly holds up for you. The fantastic in normalcy is that we all share the same fate.
In UNLEASHED: TAIL ONE, Lori blends the normal with the fantastic by use of perspectives. The reader switches from the point of view of a detective, a dog, and a cat. Our world is askew—but only because we can perceive of other ways of seeing things, “real” things, depending on your point of view. We have seen some combination of these narratives in others works, such as James Herbert’s FLUKE, but without the magic realism. The use of such a narrative style comments on a cold government, one-sided in its decisions, versus the empathetic view that incorporates even opposing visions.
BEYOND THE STUMP also combines various perspectives in a magic realism approach. The narrator describes it as, “Most people I’ve observed while walking on two limbs exist in a fantasy realm composed of past and future. They view little of the world around them, always focused somewhere else, ignoring what is there though scarcely noticed. The ordinary details. I cling to those details, endeavoring to not look back or ahead, for the present is all I have. All I can endure.” We think back to the ghosts of Marquez in the city of Macondo where past and present and future are trapped in the family curse. The narrator of Stump hangs in a similar time trap, between madness and reality, striding social strata. We forget how we saw the world from the height of our childhood. Lopez reminds us of this point of view with horrific results.
BEDEVILED strides two worlds as well—that of the cats and that of the humans, at once ordinary pets and owners, and witch and familiar. In the author’s words, “’You cannot forget the sun that departs but is always there.’ Lonely and sad, the boy repeated this often to wring some droplet of wisdom which could heal his sorrow. The words tattered, dulled, lost all significance. He remembered darkness—shared only insects and spiders. A friend taught him to look between the shadows.” The time trap of magic realism here lies in the exaggeration of time as represented by the sunrise and sunset, and all time in between. The horror comes from the “ear goblin” that resides in dark madness. It is real in a surreal narrative. Where does the dark begin and the light begin?<br />
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In MACABRE, ghosts and the living reside together. The Murther Mill and the neighboring house are specters of a bygone time, “they endured as shabby blights on the sterile landscape, a flat expanse of scantily inhabited terrain—unremarkable; unmemorable; contradicted solely by fenceposts and telephone poles, an occasional tree.” These were grim reminders of the “curse”; even the shadows meant bad luck if they touched you. The supernatural clings to the ordinary old fixtures by way of rumors and gossip by those who fear these ancient presences. In the dust of the modern buildings that sit atop the land that held these antique structures are the spirits of the past, spirits that someday will return to dust.
Lori R. Lopez uses magic realism in a modernistic approach, blending elements of poetry and horror to mead out narratives that both amaze and attract readers. As Marquez and Amado combined the real with the unreal, the natural with the supernatural, and the ordinary with the odd, in order to take the reader to a moral plateau of didactic proportions, so too does Lopez traverse a merger of extremes in her stories, not only to teach but to terrorize the reader. If the writing seems a bit heavy-handed at times, it is intentional in order for you to get inside the narrator’s frame of mind and view his surroundings through his ordinary madness. Worth a second and third reading, these stories by Lori R. Lopez demand at least a single read.
Thank you, dear readers for joining us on this Cinco de Mayo literary festival for a discussion of magic realism in the horror of Chocolate-Covered Eyes: A Sampler of Horror. For more from Ms. Lopez, see also her guest blog in this issue. We shall see you again next month, faithful horrorheads. Until then, let the candle flame burn away the darkness, and ignore the scratching of the shadows against the walls.
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--Anthony ServanteNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-63709211663008806802012-04-04T04:05:00.000-07:002012-05-11T20:30:04.349-07:00BLOODLINES: Serial Horror in Fiction #10 : Bureau 13 by Nick Pollotta<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Author Nick Pollotta)</td></tr>
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by Bill Lindblad
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I've lost count of how many times I've recommended this series over the years. It is a horror series; it is also a fantasy series, action/adventure, humor, and sometimes mystery series. It offers something for many types of fan, and because of that lends itself easily to recommendation.<br />
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Even better, it's successful at delivering what is promised. Nick Pollotta takes the RPG setting of Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic and crafts novels around it for this series. The fairly obscure game is a horror/action role playing game designed with an eye toward lighter gameplay; the players take on the roles of agents for a secret government agency tasked with eliminating monsters, demons, enemy cultists and more. Pollotta takes the basic idea and toys with it, sending a team of specialists to handle extraordinary foes and situations. Along the way he finds the opportunity to elicit humor from various sources familiar to the reader, from soul-sucking swords to various types of werecreature.<br />
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Two things make the books distinctive; the first is the humor, which is remarkably well handled. There is a range shown in the comedic side of the storytelling, generally focusing on wit but occasionally sidling into broad farce as a mechanism to control the pace of the action. The second is the uncertainty associated with the characters. Having taken the time to develop each character's personality, the author does not hesitate to kill or maim them as the story requires. What results are action stories which are a cut above normal, where the reader experiences actual suspense as they follow a favorite hero or heroine into any given conflict... and, being adventure stories at their core, there are a stream of conflicts in each book. In keeping with the horror aspect of the books, innocence is no guarantor of survival and success rarely comes without a bloody price. The author uses rapid pacing to keep the reader off-balance, maximizing the effect of both the humor and horror elements. He also takes an intentionally casual tone in his writing, which works well for the style of stories being told.<br />
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WORKS:
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BUREAU 13 (also released as JUDGMENT NIGHT)
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DOOMSDAY EXAM
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FULL MOONSTER
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DAMNED NATION
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Short fiction: "Upgrading", "The Collar" and "Initiation"
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(Visit Nick Pollota at his official <a href="http://www.nickpollotta.com/">Amazon page</a>)<br />
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--Bill LindbladNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-89416714460059658372012-04-04T04:00:00.000-07:002012-05-11T20:32:12.930-07:00Movie vs. Book: THE 10TH VICTIMMOVIE:<br />
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THE 10TH VICTIM (1965)
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Do you ever make it to the end credits of a movie and wonder, “What just happened here?” If you not only have, but enjoy it, then THE 10TH VICTIM (1965) is for you.
This movie was loosely based on a Robert Sheckley short story. I say “loosely” even though I have yet to read the story. However, I doubt there is ever a point in the story where it says, “And random farm animals appear in the background.” The movie is based on the notion that, in the not so distant future, homicidal individuals are given the chance to compete in “The Hunt” where they alternate being the hunter or hunted. Two people enter the challenge, only one can survive. If they can survive ten rounds on both sides, they win respect. And a million dollars. Ursula Andress plays Caroline, a nine time winner and audience favorite. A tea company offers to sponsor her championship kill, as long as she makes it filmable and pretty, so they can use it in a commercial. Marcello Mastrioanni plays Marchello, the victim in the hunt. Caroline tries to lure him in, posing as a journalist. Marcello appears to be falling in love with her. Or does he know her true identity as his hunter, and is just using her as part of a plan? And is she falling for him, or is that part of her bigger plan? And what were those farm animals doing in the background there?
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Like so many other Italian movies from the sixties, THE 10TH VICTIM is all about style. The story provides little more than a framework for the wild visuals, costumes, music. And, like many of its counterparts from that era, it’s certainly a joy to look at. And that’s really all I can judge it on. Absurdity seemed to be director Elio Petri’s only concern. Sure, the performances weren’t realistic, but they weren’t supposed to be. For most of the movie, the story held up well enough to support the wild style. However, Petri kept upping the ante throughout the movie so, by the time it got to the end, he had to go so far afield that it not only made no sense, but I even stopped asking, “What’s going on here?”, shrugged, and let the movie be what it was.<br />
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I’m sure somebody, somewhere could make a realistic, darkly humorous adaptation of THE 10TH VICTIM story. Not to say that this was a bad movie. It wasn’t—it was the movie it set out to be, and a whole lot of fun to look at. However, the story inside the movie had so many possibilities, none of which were achieved. But for visual candy, THE 10TH VICTIM did deliver. Greatly.<br />
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--Jen
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THE 10TH VICTIM by Robert Sheckley (1965)
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This is an oddity, as it is almost a novelization. The novel would never have been written were it not for the movie, and it incorporates many elements of the screenplay. The screenplay, however, was inspired by the shorter work "The Seventh Victim" by Robert Sheckley, and had incorporated many elements of the short fiction into the screenplay. The book lies somewhere between novelization and expansion of The Seventh Victim.
I suspect Sheckley would have enjoyed the confusion. He was a man of deep artistic knowledge armed with a deft wit and a philosophical perception. He spent much of his literary career illuminating the absurd within daily life, and that effort is shown here to great effect.
In this future world, life has little value. People play hunter/killer games in public areas both as a means to further themselves financially and legally but also to amuse the general public. Sheckley takes a hard look at personal freedom and creates an interesting extrapolation: in order to eliminate the murderous impulses from society, a central authority is created to allow violent people to kill each other under guidance of a carefully arranged and equitable set of rules.
Sheckley takes the opportunity to skewer everything from social engineering (the attempt to eliminate murderous citizens merely exacerbates the situation) to law and order extremists (the penalty for littering is public impalement) to romantic relationships to ethnic slurs to... well, just about anything that pops into his fertile mind. Instead of being overly restricted by the screenwriter's modifications to his original story, Sheckley merely further modifies it again, using the tools available to him as an author to create a cohesive narrative.
The book is like a learner's swimming pool: as shallow or as deep as any user might wish, and capable of functioning perfectly in multiple capacities. It does suffer very slightly from having to follow the general progression of the movie, but for the most part the book excels.
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Four stars out of five
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--BillNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-62571397540344922282012-04-04T03:55:00.000-07:002012-05-12T04:57:25.993-07:00Is This The Future of Online Horror?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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by Nickolas Cook<br />
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Recently, I spent some time online doing some research for a book I'm writing. Now, I don't know how many of you guys have ever spent a good deal of time online doing any kind of research for anything--my guess is, these days, most everybody has to spend at least some time online researching just about anything we do in our lives. It is, after all, where the most amount of information can be found in the quickest possible manner.
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One of the things I have been researching for this particular novel is the way horror fiction has begun to appear online. With books, we have the printed page and our imagination is the driving force behind how the scares reach us. An author can spend hours of his/her life writing a particular scene just the way they see it in their head, but it really comes down to two things: How well did the author make his/her scene come alive through words? And how receptive was the reader to that description? With film, of course, it's a bit different. The filmmaker has more than just a story to worry about; there's the actual imagery that has to work with the story to scare the viewer.
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So what happens when you have a medium which allows you to do both of those things? What can a master of horror do with a medium that allows you to write your story and gives you the means to place your imagery within the narrative to help tell that story?
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I said 'master of horror' above, but let me go back to what we've come to think of as a 'master of horror'. Well, in most cases, it's been who has the ability to get their books published and in the most bookstores, for the most readers to buy and share the experience, or the person who gets their movies made and on the big screen for the most people to see and share that experience. In days past, it's been the likes of Stephen King, Dean Koontz and other bestselling writers of dark fiction who have been considered 'masters of horror' in the printed word. And in in film, it's been the masters like John Carpenter and Wes Craven who have been able to scare millions of new and old horror fans with their particular horrific visions.
But I submit to you that things have changed. And they are continuing to change ever more rapidly with each new wave of people interested in bringing their particular dark visions to a mass audience. Because these days people who really want to scare the be-jesus out of millions of people don't necessarily have to rely on getting their books published via the old standard means of NYC Publisher Row companies (which for the past twenty years or more have come to resemble more closely your heartless, soulless corporate-minded KMARTS and WALMARTS than what we used to think of as book publishers, who seemed to care about their authors and their product over the bottom line) and they don't have to depend upon getting their horror films made and distributed via the normal big studios (which, again, have come to resemble those same heartless, soulless corporations...and apparently dull as well). <br />
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The internet has allowed thousands of writers and filmmakers to get their books and movies online for little to no cost, as compared to the thousands or millions of dollars usually involved in the past in getting anything into the world for others to read or watch.
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Now, I know there are literally thousands or examples of such online for me to point out to you guys, but I'm going to highlight the ones which I have recently come across that actually scared me, creeped me out and even leeft me with some nasty goddamned nightmares.
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No, seriously. No joke.
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These three items below actually scared me. And I actually had nightmares about the goddamned "Slender Man" after watching the 60 part movie on YouTube.<br />
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The first thing I ran across during my researches online was a little website called <a href="http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Creepypasta_Wiki">CREEPYPASTA WIKIA </a>, a site for all intents and purposes seems to be created to do one thing and that's creep you out. There are several different sections to peruse on CREEPYPASTA WIKIA, such as creepy pictures, creepy stories and so on. It's the combination of the two--the stories and the pictures--in which the creep factor becomes almost unbearable. And let me reiterate this: THESE ARE ALL WRITTEN, POSTED AND MAINTAINED BY NORMAL FOLKS WHO JUST WANT TO SCARE EACH OTHER. That is so exciting in terms of how the horror genre is changing because it's become much more organic than it was before when it was being controlled and dessiminated by people with money and the means to do so. Now anyone can do so. CREEPYPASTA WIKIA has a whole list of guidelines by which anyone can submit their own creepy pics and/or stories--most of which really are more like an organic, multi-authored, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme">meme-faux urban legend project</a> that keeps growing as more and more people add their own little dark slants of creativity to the website.
But some of you might still be confused by the site's name and ultimate function. So just what exactly is "Creepypasta"?
A "Creepypasta" is a short story, posted on the internet, that's designed to unnerve and shock the reader. Apparently their goal is "to have a fairly well stocked library of creepypasta, including very obscure and rarely posted, to original content".
And they definitely did "unnerve and shock" this new reader. In fact, here's a video which I first found on the site, which can also be found on YouTube, that disturbed right off the bat.
THE GRIFTER<br />
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(the original version)
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And, by the way...don't underestimate the scare-factor of the infamous "smile dog jpeg".<br />
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But, let's move on, shall we?<br />
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By reading through the various creepy items on the above site, I ran across another site that really gave me a shiver. It was a strange site, with a very misleading name, <a href="http://normalpornfornormalpeople.com/">"normalpornfornormalpeople" </a>, which has a buline in its logo that reads as the following: "A Website Dedicated To the Eradication of Abnormal Sexuality". <br />
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Now, given that byline and the title, one would think this might be some sort of softcore or "normal" porn site for those who don't like their dirty porn quite so dirty.
But that's where you're wrong.
Because from what I can gleen from the information I was able to find about this website--which has now been shut down for an indefinite period and by some nebulous agency that may or may not have been for real--this site catered to the darkest and weirdest videos I've ever heard of. There was some porn, apparently, but not very much and it was mostly the run-of-the-mill kind of stuff that you can find on just about any online porn site. <br />
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The videos I found descriptions of by people who claimed to have been to the site before it was shut down included such things as women who were tied to chairs and being yelled at by off camera people, who may or may not have een physically abusing them off camera as well. One video supposedly included closed-circuit camera footage of a washing machine repairman working on a broken machine; when he has finished with his job, he packs his tools and leaves the scene; shortly, a man appears on camera who is apparently the machine's owner, who then spends the remaining seven minutes of the short film LICKING THE WASHING MACHINE where the repairman has touched it. Another film that people claimed was on this site was of a woman being made to dance until she sobs and breaks down. But the one that probably got the site closed down--if any of this is actually even real, by the way--was the supposed film of a tied down woman who is berated off camera and then is attacked by a SHAVED CHIMP THAT FINALLY RIPS PIECES OF THE WOMAN'S FLESH OFF AND EATS IT!
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Now, is any of this for real? Did this site actually exist? Or is this some sort of online urban legend?<br />
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During my researches online, I was able to find several people who claimed to have seen some of the videos and even claimed to have downloaded them to their personal harddrives. There were a few people who also claimed to have tried to upload these found films to other websites, only to have them deleted by an unknown agency. And this happened no matter where or when they attempted to do so.
Again...is this for real?
Who knows?
I do know the idea that it might be scares the hell out of me.
I actually found a channel on YouTube that actually has tons of the videos which were purported to have been included on the site. It is under the name "shirtfag's channel", otherwise known as "creepytube": <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/shirtfag?feature=results_main">http://www.youtube.com/user/shirtfag?feature=results_main</a>
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The last online future of horror I 'discovered' actually came from a fellow horror author and friend, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/nickolasecook?ref=tn_tnmn#!/garyzed">GARY MCMAHON</a> who pointed me towards it.
The name of the movie is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets?feature=watch">MARBLE HORNETS</a>, which is the working title of a supposed student film being made by a college film student named ALEX. Alex has apparently become the target of a supernatural entity called "The Slender Man", who keeps appearing in the background of the film as it's being shot. It soon becomes obvious that this terrifying entity has attached itself to Alex and over the course of the film's shooting gets closer and closer to Alex, until...
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Well, I think it would be best if you watch the 60 parts (as of 3 days ago, the genuis filmmakers have that many snippet parts uploaded to YouTube) for yourself to see what happens to Alex, and eventually the unnamed person who is uploading these snippets instead of Alex, who has apparently moved away and hasn't been seen for years.<br />
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This is the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/MarbleHornets?feature=watch">MARBLE HORNETS CHANNEL</a> on YouTube. Do yourself a favor and do not watch this at night, alone. It will seriously freak you out and I can almost guarantee you'll think that "The Slender Man" is watching you from the shadows.<br />
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(Here's the first installment to begin your MARBLE HORNETS adventure...)<br />
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Enjoy the nightmares, folks...
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The cool thing about this whole project, which has been finding more and more fans with every new snippet post on YouTube is that the filmmakers seem to have created what is possible the first ever internet urban legend monster. Their creation "The Slender Man" seems to be a monster that keeps finding itself in other people's projects and even in their nightmares, as well. That is an extraordinary thing, when you think about it. Because we all know deep down that the entity is really a tall man in a suit, whose face is generally always in shadow or smeared by various in-camera techniques. And yet...the damned thing is terrifying. And perhaps it's because we never really know this is a man in a suit, and maybe a small part of us wants to believe this might just be a supernatural evil entity in funereal garb, who haunts the shadows and the darkest parts of the woods. <br />
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For someone like me who has spent years learning to write horror with any amount of craft, this is tremendously exciting to see. It means that there are still things that scare our post-modern, uber-materialistic, techno-phile society. A tall man, in a dark suit, that never speaks, and even though we never see him doing anything evil, we know he is exactly that: evil.
"The Slender Man" Mythos has grown to include his own <a href="http://theslenderman.wikia.com/wiki/The_Slender_Man_Wiki">wiki page</a>, which seems to have even more background than the young filmmakers have been able to slip into their film, several fan run websites with thousands of members, and an online following for the MARBLE HORNETS film that is almost impossible to believe...at least until you watch the various installments. Once you see them, you can easily understand why so many people are making such a big deal out of this little homemade YouTube horror sensation. <br />
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There's even a very good documentary about the mythical horror known as "The Slender Man". Actually, there's more than one. Check online for others.<br />
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It seems this may be the entity which also appeared in the classic 2000 debut horror novel, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves">THE HOUSE OF LEAVES</a> by cult writer Mark Z. Danielewski--which was also another highpoint in what the power of the internet can do for the genre and I can guarantee you've never read a book like it in your life. Much of the narrative was an ongoing internet project that grew organically over a period of years, until it was eventually "finished" enough to publish. <br />
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But the "Slender Man" is only one a small component of the tangled and complex narrative, and possibly not one that will be completely recognizable to everyone who reads the book.
I could go on about the "Slender Man" phenomena, but I'll stop there and let you guys find more on your own. <br />
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But don't forget to watch the "response videos" from the mysterious person known only as "totheark" (here is the channel with all of the videos uploaded so far by this person: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/totheark#g/u">totheark</a> --many of them have been layered with visual and/or audio messages and clues that have to be extracted from the messages using simple to sophisticated video and audio programs to do so. Most of the them have been deciphered by other helpful, and more tech savvy fans, so there won't be any problems finding out what the videos have hidden within them.
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Again, this is well worth your time. Hell, it's almost addictive watching all the tangential stuff involved with this new mythos.
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So, there are three items that I think represent the future of horror as an online power with whcih to be reckoned. I think in the next few years, we're going to see more and more of these online ventures that continued to grow organically and maybe even take over where the big budget Hollywood studios have dropped the ball. Because, honestly, I cannot think of a film since 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" that has scared me so much as the above examples.
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--Nickolas CookNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-67019361019745993152012-04-04T03:50:00.000-07:002012-05-12T01:52:20.889-07:00Bill Breedlove's Horror Column #5: TOP TEN HORROR FILMS THAT SHOULD BE REMADE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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by Bill Breedlove<br />
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How exciting! Another “top ten” list on the Internet! But, before we get to all that excitement, by way of background, let’s take a really, really long detour to see how we arrived here:
Last year, 2011, I was irrationally excited for two motion pictures. <br />
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One was the prequel/remake/reboot of John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece, THE THING (cleverly also titled "THE THING"). Each year that goes by raises the stature of the Carpenter version, which suffered a totally unjustified pasting back during its original release. From the moment the 2011 THING was announced, it seemed all everyone on the Internet could do was bash it for one thing or another (see what I did there?). Sure, I was filled with trepidation as well (Who, exactly, was the genius who watched the 1982 film and said, "Boy, is it just me or does everybody wonder what the heck happened before this picture started?"), and given how the Carpenter film does start, it sorta ruins the whole "suspense of the ending" kind of thing for the prequel/remake/reboot. (see, i just did it again! this is comedy gold!) But, in spite of that--and the increasingly desperate pleas of the cast, crew and studio executives that "We didn't make a crappy movie!" (perhaps the greatest red flag there is--imagine if you lived with a roommate and one day when you got home, the first thing (I promise I will stop) the roommate said to you when you walked in the door was "I swear to god I have no idea where that mysterious stain on your bed came from but it certainly was not me!" Hmmmm.) I could still not squelch the excitement as I sat down to watch the movie.
And, boy did it suck ass.<br />
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I am sure that all parties involved in making the film had only the best intentions, but I cannot for the life of me think of even one thi--...erm...<b>component</b> of the new version that was AS GOOD AS--let alone better--than the 1982 version. The cast? Not even close. Keith David! Wilford Brimley! Kurt Effing Russell! Even Donald " I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!" Moffat is better than anyone in the new version. <br />
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It doesn't help that the majority of the people at the research station in this one are non-english speaking Nordic looking actors with beards. Except the one guy in the previews whose face is shown shifting while he is riding in the helicopter--since he is the only guy in the movie with black hair and a beard, and kinda reminds me of a low-rent Javier Bardiem, as soon as he showed up, it destroyed what little suspense already existed.
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How about the iconic "blood test?" No, in this one they used the fact that THE THING cannot thing-ize non-organic materials when becoming something else. So, instead of the Petrie dish hot metal test, we have the chick from Scott Pilgrim shining a flashlight into everyones' molars' to check who doesn't have any fillings. (And, several lovingly long close ups of one character's $5 Claire's stud earring. Huh. I wonder if that will come into play later? <br />
No, of course not. This is 2011, the brain trust at Universal Studios could not possibly think any collective audience is that stupid. Oh, never mind.)
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Well, at least the special effects should be amazing! Way back in the "dark ages" of 1982, they had to actually use latex, and hoses and armatures and stuff, so with the CGI effects that are available now, there should be hella great Thing action! <br />
But, not exactly. <br />
Sure, there are interesting effects--there's a lady who splits into a giant fang mouth with tentacles, there's the Javier Bardiem guy/thing in the helicopter, there's the upside-down semi-merged two people (which will become the burned out semi-merged body found by the 1982 scientists) that walks like XTRO, and, finally, there's the "spaceship Thing" which has the Bad-Doctor-Who-Started-All-This-Mess's face and head (looking about as real as the same sort of effect did in FROM BEYOND) and 10,000 tentacles with sharp teeth and a huge Vagina Dentata sideways mouth that opens and stays obligingly open long enough for the Scott Pilgrim girl to toss a grenade in it ala JAWS (another Universal picture, natch).<br />
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There are two problems here: 1) While surely the very best 2011 has to offer, the SFX aren't engaging because we both don't care (really) about any of the characters (except maybe the Scott Pilgrim girl and the helicopter pilot guy), so while the rest of the characters were THINGing out, it was hard to keep track of who was what; and 2) there weren't any "Wow!" moments. In the 1982 version, when Dr. Copper is giving the electronic CPR paddles to Norris, and Norris' chest opens up into shark jaws and bites his arms off, it is a shocking moment. Then, while the audience is going "WTF?" (or, whatever served as "WTF?" back in 1982), the scene continues as they use a flamethrower to burn the increasingly tentacled Norris, but of course, his neck stretches extra long and eventually ruptures, causing his head to fall to the ground, which causes a whiplike tongue to grab a desk corner and pull the headTHING out of harm's way, whereupon spider legs pop out of the sides (making a PERFECT skittering sound on the floor) and then two large eye stalks come up--all this from an upside down severed head. The head, with the legs and stalks, hides under a desk and peeks out cautiously to see if it is safe.<br />
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THERE!!<br />
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Right fucking there!
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At that moment, after the audience has been tenderized by the previous minute's carnage, they are looking at this...THING...and it seems like a living, breathing THING, not a mess of special effects. When the human are all turned looking at the burning corpse of NorrisThing, the headthing tries scuttling out of the room (again with the perfect sound design), leading to Palmer turing to follow it with disbelieving eyes and uttering PRECISELY what the audience has been thinking "You gotta be fucking kidding!" which is a laugh line releasing the tension. In the 2011 THING, there is no comparable moment. It's just all tentacles, and teeth and people splitting open to show interior tentacles and teeth.
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And, since we're on that subject, that's even more annoying. The whole premise of THE THING (and its source material, the great John W. Campbell, Jr. story "Who Goes There?") is that the THING is a chameleon, that it does not <b>EVER</b> want to show itself, it has adapted the incredible trick of being able to mimic its prey perfectly. In the 1982 movie, the only time the THING revealed itself was when it was forced to <b>BECAUSE IT WANTED TO HIDE.</b> That is the entire basis of its successful evolution--to not be seen.
In the 2011 version, the THING just randomly bursts out of its human disguise at the machinations of the plot. And, again, the whole point of the THING being successful is replicating its victims as quietly as possible, so others do not know what is happening, and attempting to survive at all costs. Remember that "headTHING" dragging itself by the tongue to safety and then attempting to skitter away when nobody was looking? <br />
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Contrast that with the 2011 THING where there are four passengers in a helicopter. One of them is a THING. After (AFTER!) the helicopter is high in the air, it stands up and bursts open, all teeth and tentacles. Why? By doing this, it (of course) causes the helicopter to crash, thereby killing itself. And so on and so on. The 2011 THING just explodes from human to fangs/tentacles/fanged tentacles for no apparent reason, alerting all the other humans around because it is making a whole heck of a lot of racket, with all those swishing tentacles and chomping fanged mouths.
Finally, the movie is not in the slightest bit scary. If you had seen the 1982 THING (and, if you have not, why would you be interested in going to see this one? So, they had to figure most of their audience already knew the source film), you already know how this is going to end.
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<b>SPOILER ALERT:</b> In the 1982 THING, there were only two Norwegians left alive, and they were chasing the huskyTHING which ran to the American camp, while the Norwegians shot at it from a helicopter. Quickly, both of those Norwegians were dispatched, meaning the only survivor of the "prequel" would be the huskyTHING. Thus, everyone in the film is going to die! From the first minute! It is not a question of who will die, but when. <br />
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Of course, we know Scott Pilgrim Girl and Helicopter Pilot guy will be close to the last two humans left. Now that "suspense" has been removed, are there any frightening or creepy moments in the film? Alas, no. Not a one. Again, to unfavorably compare 1982 to 2011, look at this scene from the earlier version, when everyone discovers "the problem with Bennings"<br />
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It is weird, creepy and (oddly) moving, especially the THINGscream at the 1:32 mark. You really get the sense there IS a THING and it <b>IS</b> from another world. All that, with a decent actor, two rubber monster hands and a ADR scream. Nothing--nothing--in the 2011 comes remotely close to that.
Needless to say, I was a little bit bummed after that.
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Fortunately, the other movie I was really looking forward to was the remake of a flick that had scared the bejesus out of my as a kid--DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK. And, this was being "created" (but not directed, per se) by Guillmero del Toro, who a) makes great movies; b) loves monsters; and c) wanted to modernize DBAOTD because--wait for it--it scared the bejesus out of him as a kid. Yowza! What could possibly go wrong?
Guy Pearce—between L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, RAVENOUS, THE PROPOSITION and his new starring cameo as “Peter Weyland”—is reliably awesome. Katie Holmes is…well, remember Guy Pearce is in this movie!
Anyway, on with the DVD, and wow, does this sure look promising. The house is absolutely terrifying, the atmosphere (per del Toro, as usual) is amazing, and the dread just oozes from the frame.<br />
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The story has been slightly changed. In the original DBAOTD, the young wife (played by Kim Darby—she had an interesting 2010, with probably her two most well-know roles—this one and “Hattie” in True Grit—being remade. While she probably was wondering why her, at least it probably sparked renewed interest in the originals) is the one who discovers and ultimately becomes the target of the little homunculi—and in this version there is a little girl who becomes the focal point of the little monsters.<br />
I watched this entire movie closely, and I have to say, it looked great, the acting was very good (even Katie Holmes!), and the special effects were exceptionally well done.
That said, this was less significantly less frightening than an episode of “Hoarders.”
Of course, we need to get the big caveat out in the open right away: I am not a little kid now, as I was the first time I watched DBAOTD, so that should be taken into account. However, given that pretty much EVERYTHING in this version is far superior to the original, what happened?
Aside from my “adulthood” (which no doubt my wife would have some comment on), I think the bigger problem is that the monsters were definitely creepy, but ultimately not very scary.<br />
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I am going to reference something film critic Gene Siskel said back somewhere in the 1980s. I believe he was talking about the highly interesting Stuart Gordon film DOLLS (1987), but I am far too lazy to go scour the internet for this particular clip. In any event, what he was referring to is movie monsters that are little. He said that it is very difficult for filmmakers to make little monsters scary, since people can just sort of brush them off. (Of course, I do not recall him utilizing this same line of thought when ARACHAPHOBIA (1990) came out…) I also want to believe he referenced the Xenomorph from ALIEN (1979) in a more appropriately frightening sized creature. (Stay tuned, I will have an even better and more appropriate bit I nicked from Gene Siskel later in this column).<br />
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And that is part of the problem here. Sure, the little gnomes have knives and scissors and other weapons, but they still are awfully small and frail looking. At the climax, one of them even gets flattened nicely, and one has to wonder why the characters did not take this method of problem-solving into account sooner.
But, that is irrelevant, really, as things were similar in the original version (with FAR inferior special effects)—and the twin propositions of fear—one, that monsters will get you when the lights go out; and two, no matter what you say, no one will believe you—worked just fine then.
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So, we have one wretched remake, and one that was very well made but not really an improvement on the original, and that led me to wonder—why even have remakes at all?
Everybody has an opinion on remakes like the Rob Zombie HALLOWEENs and the endless FRIDAY THE 13th and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET reboots/reshoots/reimagining of which I think everybody is also in agreement that exactly none of them improve upon the original source material. Even the lamentable--and excoriated—I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, probably the least likely candidate for a “remake” ever got the treatment in 2010.
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What is it then that makes horror films seemingly irresistible for studios to redo them—ALL of them?<br />
I mean, honestly, was anyone really clamoring for a FRIGHT NIGHT remake? Who are these people?
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With all this in mind, I sat down to try and think of horror movies that I would like to see remade—you know, ones that improved technology, a bigger budget, better actors and crew would actually make BETTER.
In doing this, the only real rule I had was that any potential remake candidate had to be at least 25 years old. That sounds like a long time, until you realize that means films made as late as 1987 apply. I know that all the fans of KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTERSPACE (1988) and PUMPKINHEAD (1988) will be bitterly disappointed, but, hey, it’s my column, my rules.<br />
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Remember about 1,237 paragraphs ago when I mentioned film critic Gene Siskel? And said he had another point that would be useful in this discussion? Well, we have arrived at that point.
Back in another one of his early shows with Roger Ebert (“Sneak Previews,” I think), he made a startling remark of such epic common sense it has remained with me all these years. In the context of discussing yet another terrible remake (and this was back in the 1980s probably—terrible remakes are clearly not a new phenomenon), he said (again, paraphrasing): “Why do they remake all the good movies? Those films were already good! Why don’t they remake some of the crappy ones!”<br />
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He has a great point. Aside from the factor of being able to guarantee name-recognition, why do they always remake movies that were perfectly well done the first time around? Why not take a film that made a huge crucial mistake somewhere along the way, fix that mistake and then see how it would play out? I suppose that makes too much sense for Hollywood.
And, I have to admit, I did not entirely follow that advice faithfully in compiling my list. Some of the films were indeed terrible as originally made, but also some were perfectly serviceable, but also could be supremely improved with a remake using 20/20 hindsight.
With that in mind, let’s look—in reverse order, counting down to number one—at the Top Ten Horror Films That Should Be Remade:<br />
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10. GHOST STORY (1981) <br />
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This might be the biggest no-brainer on this list. GHOST STORY, the novel by Peter Straub, is one of the great masterpieces of gothic horror literature. And, by “gothic” I mean a very densely-constructed plot with wheels within wheels within wheels, where characters, their relatives and other selves intersect and go spinning off into stories of their own and so on and so on. And, yet, Straub maintains all those spinning plates perfectly, and by the end of the book, all those seemingly random threads begin to come together to a satisfying conclusion.
Alas, the film version pretty much scotches all that. It takes the dominant plot—that of four old men (“the Chowder Society”) and the secret they harbor which eventually manifests enough to destroy them and their quaint winter-bound village of Milburn.
Granted, it would be exceedingly difficult in the span of a two hour film to cover—let alone do justice to—all of Straub’s characters, ghouls and beasties—that would probably better be served in a mini-series (a CABLE miniseries) for a lot of the same reasons ‘SALEM’S LOT has always been adapted that way.<br />
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But, another great failing of the film version of GHOST STORY has to do with the time and place in which it was made. On one hand, there is an obvious love and reverence for the cast of distinguished actors who portray the Chowder Society (Fred Astaire! Doulgas Fairbanks, Jr.! Melvyn Douglas! The great John Houseman!), but that is also part of the problem. The gents seem very frail at this stage of their careers, and so most of their roles consist of speaking to each other, in a somewhat stylized way reminiscent of a play. Which is all well and good…if you’re watching a play.
And, that would not even be a serious problem if the two younger “good guys” in the book were available to provide a counterpoint. Young Peter Barnes from the novel is completely abandoned in the film version, and the role of Donald Wanderly is filled by the less-than-arresting Craig Wasson. (And, honestly, what blackmail photos did Wasson have on the Hollywood community in the 1980s? Between this role and his headliner in Brian DePalma’s BODY DOUBLE he very nearly manages to wreck two movies single-handedly. The only thing I can think of is both directors hired him for his ability to look really baffled and frightened—which he excels at in both films.)<br />
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Finally, there is the production values, which, again, are a thing of the time this film was made. At times, it looks like it was shot on the old Universal backlot, complete with the stock heavy-on-the-strings orchestral score. Generously, we can give them the benefit of the doubt as far as special effects are concerned, so you know that would be improved, oh, say, like 10,000% in the second decade of the 21st century.
Aside from the performances of the 4 leads (sorry, Mr. Wasson), which perhaps are more sentimental favorites than for the actual performances in this film, there is NOTHING in the film version of GHOST STORY that could no be improved with a remake. Most of all, the hugely anti-climatic ending of the film—which has absolutely nothing to do with the novel—involves Fred Astaire flagging down the police to pull a car from a lake, while, at the same time, our good friend Craig Wasson sits immobilized while a ghost/Eva Galli/Alma Mobley walks exceptionally slloooooowwwwlllllyyyy down a hall and descends a staircase before disappearing into a puff of smoke when the car is pulled form the lake and the rubber skeleton tumbles onto the ground. Really? Really?
We can do better!<br />
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9. THE 7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964)<br />
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If you have not seen this film, I encourage you to stop reading and go watch it. It may be somewhat difficult to track down a copy, but it is well worth it.
This is one of those pictures that seems to have sort of fallen through the cracks in movie buffs discussions. It is based (extremely loosely) on a Charles Finley novel. The film itself was directed by the great George Pal. The plot involves a strange traveling circus which comes to a small town and shows some of the residents particular insights. In a way, the circus is the opposite of the dark carnival in Bradbury’s SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. Instead of wanting to destroy the townspeople, ala the evil Mr. Dark, this traveling show wants to help them, as evidenced by the many faces of the proprietor, the kindly Mr. Lao.
And, what a piece of work this Mr. Lao is—over the course of the film he assumes many shapes, including Medusa, Merlin and Pan. He is revealed to be a 7,000+ year-old wise man who seems Asian but wears a sombrero. For this expansive role, the producers selected none other than Tony Randall(!). While known to most people these days as the fussy Felix Unger from the television series version of Neil Simon’s THE ODD COUPLE, Mr. Randall may not seem to be the first choice to portray, say, the suave and insinuating satyr Pan. But, to his credit, he is very good in this film, although frequently buried under enormous amounts of latex and makeup.<br />
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Even better, there are a few stop-motion sequences created by a very young Jim Danforth, including a very Willis O’Brien-esque “Loch Ness Monster” which clearly references the master’s Brontosaurus from the original LOST WORLD.
So why remake this obscure and perfectly pleasant (as is) little film? First, with the advances in special effects and make-up, the various creatures and scenarios created by Mr. Lao would certainly be eye-candy. But, also, the film’s not-so-subtle but upbeat message would be a welcome addition to a movieplex that is often highly cynical. This material is perfect for a big-budget showy, 3-D remake! Plus, did I mention Medusa? The Loch Ness Monster? Even the Abominable Snowman makes a cameo!<br />
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8. SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED (1974) <br />
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Speaking of our old friend, the Abominable Snowman (or his cousin, the Yeti), we come to the first truly, truly awful film on the list. This movie has gotten some ongoing attention, largely from proponents of “bad movie” websites, and from people who lump it into the “so bad it’s good” (also known as the “watch this while you’re stoned, it’s HILARIOUS) category.
It’s probably debatable whether the intentions of the filmmakers were to make a “serious” horror film, or whether this is all intended as a sort of goof (as evidenced by the last line of the film). What is not really debatable is how poorly made this film actually is. The directing, the acting, the cinematography – all of which could be listed with ironic quotes – are just bad, bad, bad. (Even by the DIY standards of the early 1970s). The “special effects” (couldn’t resist)—forget about it.
So, why on earth would anyone in his or her right mind even consider remaking this stinker? Well, somewhat surprisingly, there is…something…about this film that is unnerving.<br />
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Plot spoilers aside, a movie about a bunch of students who travel with their slightly daffy professor to an island in search of the Yeti—even after being told in vivid detail about what happened to the Professor’s ill-fated last student expedition—is a pretty good hook. And, with a great title like “Shriek of the Mutilated” we know some serious Yeti action is bound to go down.
To its credit, the film even had one of those now-commonplace seeming “shocking” climaxes that would probably still work today, for the few kids who didn’t go to Wikipedia and spoil the ending.
With “professional” actors, a similarly-inclined crew, a talented director—c’mon David Fincher, you know you could do wonders with this material!—a sprucing up of the script, and perhaps some new sound FX to replace the present questionable utterances of the Yeti, and we would definitely have a winner.
(Or, another idea for an interesting film could be a version of the real life couple behind this film: Michael and Roberta Findlay. Really.)<br />
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7. THE CREEPING FLESH (1973) <br />
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This one really leaves me torn, because on one hand, is it not sacrilege to consider remaking a film that (once again) pitted Christopher Lee against Peter Cushing in a atmospheric English chiller directed by Freddie Franics – with the inevitable Michael Ripper cameo? On the other hand, this is not just a “monster” movie, but also delves into some really interesting issues about the nature, as it were, of “evil.”
While this is not, technically, a “Hammer” film, it seems like it has all the traits: Aside from the two most famous actors associated with the studio, the most frequent director of the “classic” Hammer films, and the ubiquitous—and gloriously monikered—Mr. Ripper, it has two insanely competitive brothers; one who has apparently constructed Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory and the other who just happens to run an insane asylum; a mother with insanity and a daughter who is terrified of the heredity aspects of insanity; oh, and a giant fucking skeleton that may or may not be alive.
Whew!
What’s even more interesting in this picture is that, in one of those rare cases, Chris Lee is not the “evil” one. The case can be made that either neither, or both, of the brothers is equally benign or equally evil. Lee locks his sister-in-law, his daughter-in-law and (eventually) his own brother away in his questionably-run laughing academy. And, perhaps most important to the arc of this particular story, he also attempts to steal his brother’s prized discovery—that giant fucking skeleton.<br />
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But, Cushing’s character is no saint. Aside from ignoring everyone and everything in the face of his expeditions and discoveries—his daughter desperately tries again and again to engage him to show even this slightest bit of paternal care, he also conducts highly ethically-dubious “experiments” to test his theories—including injecting his own daughter with the magically regenerated blood of the aforementioned giant fucking skeleton which not only may or may not be alive, but is certainly malevolent. Nice guy.
So, aside from all the hand-wringing about who is going to be next to be forcibly admitted to Uncle James’ asylum, the screenwriter decides to add a wonderful twist to the old Chekov saw about the gun in the first act. To paraphrase: when someone in a monster movie discovers that the giant possibly alive fucking skeleton in his possession seemingly starts to regenerate whenever water touches its bones in Act One, Act Three will certainly involve his brother trying to abscond with same skeleton—in the middle of a pouring thunderstorm.
It is at this point that Cushing’s character—as well as the uneasy audience—starts to reconsider the cavalier way he snipped off one of the skeleton’s fingers just to make a point. (pun not intended).
As is the case with so many movies on this list, there is so much here to make a great movie, and yet somehow it just misses. Part of the problem is the long-winded contemplations about the nature of evil—and if evil is a living “organism” like a virus. We get that, but it does go on and on a bit. A little bit of streamlining of the screenplay would help out a lot.<br />
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And then there’s the case of the skeleton. It’s a doozy of a monster, even more so for sitting there front and center for large chunks of the movie. Amazingly, one really does start to get creeped out by the thing. It really does look like it is wicked. And, of course, as water is slowly added to it and flesh starts to sprout as it regenerates…well, imagine 2012 technology handling that transformation. But, most importantly, at the end, when the big fella is up and walking around, it really looks very fake—the monster is supposed to be fearsomely tall, but all it looks like is someone is wearing a creature costume balanced—precariously, very precariously—on his head as he unsteadily mounts the stairs outside the Professor’s house. A bit more time and expense on the fully fleshed out big fucking skeleton would make this a GREAT film. Perhaps recruit some of the wonderful Brit actors who have lost their cushy Harry Potter cameos—perhaps Tom Wilkinson and Alan Rickman?—to chew some of this tasty scenery? You know you’d plunk down $12 for that.<br />
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6. SHOCK WAVES (1977) <br />
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Speaking of Peter Cushing, he shows up in our next feature as well, although this time he does not have the fancy Victorian laboratory or his old buddy Christopher Lee to spar with. No, this time he is smack in the middle of one of the single greatest horror exploitation ideas EVER.
That’s right—the ISLAND OF NAZI ZOMBIES!!!
Ken Weiderhorn, the director and one of the three(!) credited writers should be teaching a master class in both film pitching and how not to fuck up the perfect idea. You want to hear a perfect pitch? Here it is: “A two couples charter a shady captain and his barely floating tub of a ship, which promptly gets grounded on a island in the middle of nowhere. On this island JUST HAPPENS TO BE a crazed old Nazi scientist who was in charge of a super-secret program to create fearsome Nazi stormtroopers who were neither dead or alive—the “Death Corps”—and who just exist to kill and kill and kill…with their bare hands. Somehow those Death Corps guys’ boat got sunk (on purpose) and they are just sitting there on the bottom of the sea…except they are not. Here they come, and let’s have at it!”
If your eyes do not like up at that irresistible premise, then you, my friend, are definitely reading the wrong column.
Now, the icing on the cake is that not one but two greats of the genre are here: John Carradine, playing the disreputable ship’s captain, and, even most astonishing, Peter Cushing, portraying the mad scientist. Remember, this movie was made in 1977—the same year Peter Cushing was also starring as Grand Moff Tarkin in a little indie flick called STAR WARS. Now, THAT’S a productive year!<br />
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But, what really makes this film—as it exists now—a true winner is something very common to 70s and early 80s horror movies—that, no matter how ridiculous or banal the premise, no matter how low the budget, no matter how cheap the monster might look, these films played it totally seriously. This whole “nice folks suddenly stranded on a mysterious island suddenly crawling with suddenly awakened Nazi zombies” –which admittedly genius—is also a very shaky premise: one arched eyebrow by one of the actors, one line in the script that lets the audiences know that everyone making the movie is in on the big joke, and the whole effect of the film would be ruined. But, in true 70s fashion, they play this strictly straight the whole way—from the first ominous bits on Carradine’s boat right through the standard downbeat 70s ending.
And, somehow, it all works. Much should be said for the “Death Corps” themselves—eight zombie actors wearing makeup, SS uniforms and crusty sea goggles. Their best scenes are when they are unhurriedly strolling along the ocean floor, and then slowly surfacing. They never speak, never deviate from their “mission”—to kill everyone they see. Apparently, their only weakness is removing their steampunk-y swim goggle, because then they act all blind and flail around, but otherwise they are exceptionally fearsome, and, like all good zombies, unrelenting in their pursuit.
So, fast forward to 2012. Can you imagine what could be done with this material? Not in a Joss-Weadon-Kevin-Williamson smirky way, but in a straightforward play it by the numbers way? Maybe get Abel Ferrara to direct it? Or how about Lars Von Trier—we know he at least finds Nazis interesting, and is definitely dour enough for the story. This could be EPIC!<br />
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5. THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970)<br />
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For my money, H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Dunwich Horror” is his best tale. Perhaps not coincidentally because he “borrowed” huge chunks from one of his favorite authors (and, a true titan of horror fiction), Arthur Machen. In fact, Lovecraft actually name checks “The Great God Pan” in the text of the story. That would be akin to me writing a vampire story set in Maine and referencing the town of Jersualem’s Lot along the way. And, for once, one does not have a story that is dictated by a crazed narrator who dies in the end. This is pretty much an traditional “monster on the loose” story as Lovecraft would ever write. Best of all, it even has a kicker for the “twist” (SPOILER ALERT), when the eponymous “horror” is revealed, in fact, to be Wilbur Whatley’s “twin” brother, except, in the immortal words of HPL: he/it “looked more like the father than Wilbur did.”
Yowza! Plus, as an added bonus for the legions of Lovecraft fans, this has not only actual mentions of Yog-Sothoth and the Necrocomicon, but also a cameo appearance by everyone’s favorite institute of higher learning, Miskatonic University!
To quote William Hurt’s character in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, “How you could fuck that up?”
Well, they did. Granted in was 1970 (still, sorta the swinging 60s, but with more drugs and less joy). Take a look at this poster for your first clue:
Poster sent in separate email**<br />
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While it is quite exceptional—and you have to love that decidedly politically incorrect tagline: “A few years ago in Dunwich, a half-witted girl bore illegitimate twins. One of them was almost human!”
And, then there is the illo—a woman cowering from some sort of leering demon with many tentacles coming out of his head, some of which apparently include a Triffid, a parrot, and King Ghidorah.
From that alone, you could almost tell they were going to shit the bed making the movie.
Still, it seems they honestly TRIED to get a creepy HPL vibe going. Dean Stockwell—who is a very enjoyable actor—overacts way beyond anything he would later do in either DUNE or BLUE VELVET—and the horribly miscast Sandra Dee—Sandra Dee??? In an H.P. Lovecraft “classic tale of terror and the supernatural??? Really?—does her best as Elder God rape-bait, but this production was sunk from the beginning, and then we get to the problem that has plagued every single movie based on the works of HPL since day one—what to do about visualizing those Outer Ones, those Elder Gods, you know, the ones who it is repeatedly hammered home to us that to even consider glimpsing one writhing hair on their heads would instantly send us past the outer realms of darkest insanity? You know, those guys.
While the illustration on the poster certainly gives one hope, alas, what we are left with is seemingly Dean Stockwell in carny makeup and a terrifying porn ‘stache, and, as his brother, what appears to be a group of furiously shaking springs shot through a red filter.
Springs. Red springs. Crazily shaking red springs.<br />
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That’s what the unspeakable horror of Dunwich is reduced to in the 1970 movie.
(reference point: there was a version of The Dunwich Horror released in 2009, starring Jeffrey Combs and featuring Dean Stockwell—this time on the side of humanity—but it is so poor and insipid—their first move was to inexplicably change the location of Dunwich from New England to…Louisiana—that we will just be kind and pretend it never happened).
The bigger question here is this: When was the last time a (honestly) good H.P. Lovecraft Mythos movie was made?
I would posit this: never.
The few “mainstream” films are all pretty rotten (even IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, which tries so, so hard, is still pretty bad), and the “indie” ones are even worse. (For all you folks howling about Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND, I am not counting those as true “mythos” tales, but RE-ANIMATOR is excellent). Maybe DAGON is the best of a bad lot? Terrible CGI effects, though.
The point is, there never really has been one. Now, part of the problem is, in all fairness, not too many of HPL’s tales lend themselves to a three-act, big-budget, happy ending, Hollywood formula. In HPL’s hands, the “hero’s journey” usually leads to a manuscript left behind by an author who was either eaten or driven mad.
I know some other folks will say that much of Guillermo del Toro’s work touches upon the Mythos, and I will not argue the point. But, there is a big difference in many-tentacled monsters running amok in one of the HELLBOY flicks, and an honest-to-goodness HPL movie. And, yes, I am well aware of the fate that befell AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS.<br />
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But, see, what makes The Dunwich Horror so perfect is it in SO cinematic. You have a (sort of) love story (ewwww), a race against time, a definitive hero and villain, and—best of all—a monster in a locked room (or barn) that eventually gets loose and starts eating the population.
Maybe the powers that be at Universal and del Toro can agree to meet in the middle, and start out doing this somewhat less expansive HPL tale, and, if it finds an audience, then move onto those irresistible MOUNTAINS….<br />
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4. VAMPYR (1932)<br />
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This one is pretty simple, although it breaks my rule about not remaking movies that were masterpieces to begin with fairly solidly. VAMPYR is probably the greatest “vampire” movie ever made. Props have to go to director (Carl) Theodor Dreyer, for creating one of the most surreal, hallucinatory experiences ever recorded onto film.
While at first glance, it may seem as if linear plot has been abandoned in favor of mood and style, VAMPYR is actually based –partly—on a very famous vampire tale, “Camilla,” one story in Sheridan Le Fanu’s remarkable collection IN A GLASS DARKLY from 1872.
(and, if you consider yourself a horror fan and have not read IN A GLASS DARKLY, you owe it to yourself to get a copy ASAP—the bizarrely terrifying story “Green Tea” is worth the price of admission alone, and when you read “Camilla” you will notice some striking similarities in it and a certain epistolary novel by one Bram Stoker…)
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One of the more interesting choices in this film is to have the actual vampire (‘vampyr”) manifest in the form of an old hag. Yet, it is this coffin-bound elderly woman who controls the entire action of the film, and whose powers hold the film’s evil human minions in her sway. Also interesting is a hero’s discovery of the way to defeat the “vampyr” is to pound an iron bar—not a wooden stake—through its heart, which they of course do. Yet another reminder of how much of what we take as “gospel” of vampire lore is really just from the movies.
But, two things really set VAMPYR apart from not only other vampire films made during that period—including Tod Browning’s DRACULA with Bela Lugosi—but virtually every other horror film ever made. One is the oddly disconcerting shift in narrative as provided by the movie’s technical “protagonist,” Gray. As the horrific events begin to pile on one another, Gray becomes confused about what exactly is reality (also donating a huge amount of blood helps fuzzy his focus) and what is dreamtime. This, in turn, influences how the audience sees what is transpiring on screen. There is an entire brauva sequence where Gray is seemingly buried alive—which all turns out to be a dream—but not in the cheesy “but it was all a dream” Hollywood way.<br />
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The other involves the spectacular end of the film’s main villain, the town doctor, who does the bidding of the evil Vampyr and causes no end of trouble for Gray and the other characters. In a move that would be successfully appropriated many years later by Peter Weir’s great film WITNESS to a corn silo, the wicked doctor is buried—smothered—in the tons of flour released onto him in an old mill.
Again, while there is in fact a coherent plot, much of what makes VAMPYR so memorable are the surreal and very threatening images which seem to bombard the viewer with increasingly frequency as the film speeds toward its climax.
With the sad influx of vampires played for laughs—or, even worse, “sparkly”—in movies these days, isn’t it time for a real, frightening vampire movie to be made? Wouldn’t this dreamy/nightmarish tale of evil doings and things most foul be the perfect candidate to retake the vampire from the realm of schlock writing and moviemaking and return it to its rightful place as a horror staple? I think you know the answer.
(NOTE: THIS IS THE COMPLETE GERMAN FILM WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
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3. DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (1968)<br />
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In the liner notes for the band R.E.M.’s 1986 album release of B-sides and assorted cover tracks, guitarist Peter Buck wrote, by way of explanation for including their cover of Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic” that “if you grew up in the 1970s, you liked Aerosmith.”
I would paraphrase that statement somewhat to say that if you were a kid who liked monster movies growing up in the 70s, you liked Godzilla.
Maybe not the Godzilla form the original, terrifying GOJIRA (or the crappy Americanized version with a spliced-in Raymond Burr), and maybe not even the reformatted cartoonish children’s character from stinkers like REVENGE OF GODZILLA, and maybe most of all not the nadir of Godzilladom, those terrible no-budget crapfests like GODZILLA VS MEGALON or GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA where there was shit like a flying robot called “Jet Jaguar” and a completely goofy faux-lion going by the moniker of “King Seesar.”
King Seesar photo.
I mean, really, WTF?
The Godzilla I think most kids identified with was the one who made a string of films that, while overall not very good, still were what folks in my demographic would call the Big Guy’s “prime”—films like GODZILLA VS THE THING, KING KONG VS GODZILLA, GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER, GHIDORAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER and, of course, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. (Maybe SON OF GODZILLA and GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER can be included, too.)<br />
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This list is not meant to be seen as from one particular iteration of Godzilla or another—just like there are several different versions of The Doctor in “Dr. Who,” there are several recognized “versions” of Godzilla—but instead represent the films that were most popular in the United States and aired with incredible frequency on TV during the 1970s.
Aside from the first two films on that list, what is most notable is that, in the remainder of those movies, Godzilla is sorta a good guy defender of the earth, or, perhaps more accurately, more appealing than the clearly wicked monsters he vanquished.
Perhaps one of my all time favorite cinematic memories occurs in the climax of GHIDORAH, where the tiny twin faires (shobijn) helpfully translate a heated three-way argument between Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra, the jist of which is Mothra tells them that the only way they can defeat the fearsome three-headed dragon is to “team up,” to which Rodan laughs and Godzilla asks (pointedly) why the monsters would want to save the human race that so often has tried to destroy them? Apparently the giant imago’s reasoning is compelling, because in the final battle, they do in fact work together—the caterpillar Mothra hitching a ride on Rodan’s back to strafe Ghidorah’s heads with sticky coccon material, neutralizing their ability to produce lightning bolts and allowing Godzilla to grab, punch and stomp the heads one at a time until big bad Ghidorah retreats with (both) its tails between its legs, back to outer space where it came from (only to return shortly in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS).
It should not be difficult to explain the tremendous appeal the idea of three of my favorite monsters working together to defeat a common enemy. Four monsters! One movie! How could things get any better….<br />
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Well, in 1968, Toho answered that question in game-ending fashion with DESTROY ALL MONSTERS.
For anyone who thinks the “nerdgasm” greeting the release of Marvel’s AVENGERS movie is unprecedented, allow me to point you toward the original one-sheet for the US release of DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. Under the “starring” list, it has such starpower as Mothra (inexplicably with top billing), Godzilla, Rodan and Manda. The only thing lacking is an “…and King Ghidorah as himself” at the end. Just about everybody in Toho’s huge stable of Kaiju makes an appearance, from second tier creatures like Varan (the Unbelievable!) and Baragon (the only dinosaur I know, other than GORGO, with large, floppy ears) to a big name-above-the-title talent like Manda(?) to deep, deep backbenchers such as Gorosaurus.
The plot is genius simplicity itself: in the far-flung future of 1999(!), all of Earth’s monsters have been gathered together (I would have like to see a movie of this) to live peacefully on an island called—what else?—“MonsterLand.”
(Hmmmm….an isolated island. Giant monsters live there. Supposedly impenetrable security monitoring the beasts. What could possibly go wrong? You tell me, Michael Crichton, you tell me….)
Quicker than you can say “What could possibly go wrong?” hissing yellow gas comes seeping under the doors in the control center, and, more importantly, all over MonsterLand, KO-ing Godzilla, and causing Rodan to tumble drunkenly out of his nest right onto Anguirus.
Immediately after, we are treated to various “news reports” of monsters attacking every major city—Rodan blowing up onion domes in Moscow, a different Baragon than the one seen in FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD flattens the Arc de Triomphe, Mothra derails a tot train set outside Peking, and Godzilla attacks the harbor in New York City.<br />
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This is destruction on an unprecedented scale, yet when the mob of reporters converge on the scientists, they respond by saying, “we don’t want you to cause a panic.” Someone also alertly notices that EVERY major city in the world is under siege, except Tokyo. Since, seemingly, MonsterLand is owned and operated by the Japanese, one would think the other world leaders would tell Japan they have some ‘splain’ to do, but that is tabled for the moment.
Because—and try to follow along—the guys flying around at the moonbase are called home without explanation and instructed to immediately go to MonsterLand Island. When they arrive, they fail to notice the distinct lack of monsters there, and then run into the head scientist and the hero pilot of the moonship’s girlfriend, who are acting really weird and show the stunned astronauts how they seemingly are dictating the monsters’ rampage with remote control. This leads to the introduction of the true villain of the film, a hot spacechick dressed in a sort of chainmail-sequin hoodie, who has a severe case of the giggles as she informs everyone that they have “nothing to fear” but will have to be “slaves” to her race, the Killiaks. It is those pesky Killiaks who have invented the remote control devices to cause the monsters to run amok, and who threaten the human race with total destruction unless everyone surrenders immediately. (Not sure how that would work logistically, but it sounds good.)
Eventually, the good guys figure out that the aliens have established their base under Mt. Fuji (hence the reason Tokyo was not attacked), and are controlling the monsters from their main headquarters on the moon. In no time, our intrepid hero flies to the moon and blows up the base, liberating the monster-controlling device, so no us earthlings can control the monsters. Naturally, we instruct the monsters to crush the aliens, and more mayhem ensues, including the aliens revealing their ace up the sleeve—their own monster, King Ghidorah.<br />
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Apparently King Ghidorah forgot about the ass-kicking he received from the trio of Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra in GHIDORAH, THE THREE HEADED MONSTER, and decides to take on EVERY one of the earth monsters at the same time. Poor Angruis (whose monster cry always sounds a tad mournful) gets the worst of it initially—being dropped from a great height to cause a landslide, then stomped by the rather tubby Ghidorah, and having his face rubbed in the dirt for good measure. Fortunately, his pals quickly come to the rescue, and old Angrius shakes off his bumps and bruises and rejoins the fight. Each one of our monsters has a hand in opening up a can of Planet Earth Whup-Ass on the poor outnumbered dragon, and, after Baragon/Gorgosaurus lands a somewhat-dirty-but-who’s-counting kick in the back, Godzilla stomps his heads to death, and, for good measure Baby Godzilla lofts a lethal smoke ring that kills Ghidorah as dead as a doornail.
And, here is what is really interesting about DAM—once the monsters are released from being controlled by either side, one would think they would either continue destroying cities—since that is what they usually do anyway—or else slink away to somewhere quieter for a nap. However, the monsters do neither. In fact, they seek out and destroy the remaining Killiak base! Meaning, as is pointed out, that the monsters know who their REAL enemy is—and it is not mankind after all. It is the sequined group of hot spacechicks, their flaming flying saucer and pet monster King Ghidorah.
You might this would be more than enough excitement for any one motion picture, but there is still more, as the aliens have their aforementioned flaming flying saucer (sadly, animated), which then proceeds to zip around, incinerating everything in its path. Fortunately, the earth guys still have that moon ship from way back at the beginning, and the pilot is able to catch up to the cartoon fireball and finish off the threat from beyond the stars.
The conclusion shows all the monsters, each getting his own cameo, back happily hanging out together at MonsterLand, smiling and waving at the camera, sorta like the credit sequence from the old LOVE BOAT.<br />
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Now, you tell me: would a remake of this not be the most epic movie in the history of the world?
What, THE AVENGERS has, what, SIX superheroes and everyone is going geek nuts? You think people cheer when Loki says “I have an army!” and Tony Stark replies “We have a HULK”? What do you think the response would be if instead someone said, “We have a GODZILLA!”.
Also, by remaking this classic, perhaps the US of A could finally, definitively erase the stink that was the 1998 GODZILLA debacle. I know, too, there is a GODZILLA reboot underway even as we speak, but, come on, who wouldn’t want to go see a major battle royale with every single freakin’ kaiju involved? The box office for this would make AVATAR look like ISHTAR. Sony could retake the lead over Apple in net worth. I am telling you, someone is going to do this and someone is going to become very, very, rich.<br />
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2. THE ABOMIMABLE DR. PHIBES (1971)<br />
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Sadly, the beginning of 2012 brought the news that the English director Robert Fuest had passed away. Among his credits include episodes of the great Brit TV show THE AVENGERS, an adaptation of WUTHERING HEIGHTS, a sequel to THE STEPFORD WIVES, and THE BIG STUFFED DOG. He was known as having an especially keen and stylish eye for production design, and his pictures were always directed with a certain amount of flair. Undoubtedly, the one he will most be remembered for is the 1971 horror/comedy THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (as well as its less successful sequel, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN).
Presumably you all know this premise of this movie—Vincent Price plays brilliant polymath Dr. Anton Phibes, who is thought long-dead as a result of a car crash when he was speeding to his wife’s side in the hospital. Alas, she did not survive, either. Some time later, folks begin to die in extremely grisly and extremely creative ways. The stalwart members of Scotland Yard eventually tip to the fact that all the deceased folks were a part of the unsuccessful surgical team who tried to save Mrs. Phibes. Then they tumble to the fact that each victim is being done in by one of the ten curses Egypt was afflicted with in the Old Testament story of Moses. And, from that point forward, it is a game of cat and mouse as the detectives try (in vain) to save the remaining members of the surgical team from becoming victims, and the puns, stylish murder methods and macabre organ playing commence in full.<br />
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While neither a straightforward horror flick, or an out-and-out comedy, PHIBES is one of the most enjoyable films of the early 70s. The sets are outlandish, the murders are preposterously sly, and every actor from Phibes’ mute (but very lethal), beautiful assistant Vulnavia(!) to the great British character actors who play most of the victims to the long-suffering detective on the case to—of all people—the typically serious Joseph Cotton who plays the head of the surgical team and the chief target of Phibes’ wrath.
Perhaps best of all is the magnificent performance turned in by Vincent Price, clearly having a ball here. With facial injuries that have resulted him in wearing a (very lifelike) mask, and a tube in his neck where both his scientifically-recreated voice comes from and his liquid nourishment goes in, Price camps it up just enough to make the film work, while also playing off his image as “the king of horror”.
At this point, it would be perfectly logical for you to say, “Well, if the movie was so good and so much fun in the first place, why remake it?” To which, I would respond it would be amazing to see a PHIBES for our time.<br />
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The original PHIBES is a very strange and eccentric film—Phibes himself has a massive set of clockwork figurines (including an orchestra), most of the sets have a very art deco feel to them, yet the movie is clearly set in the “swinging” London of the early 70s.
As Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins has already illustrated the public’s affinity for well-written, principled “villains.” The gadgets and elaborate machinations involved in bringing the plagues of Egypt to life would be interesting, and who wouldn’t want to see the latest incarnation of Vulnavia?
A director of quirky, ensemble pieces—yes, I am looking at you, Steven Soderbergh—would be great at this type of project. And, since he is such good buddies with George Clooney, imagine how much fun Clooney could have with the role of Phibes? Think of all their pals who could sign on for plummy victim roles! I think this would be one of the most incredibly great remakes in film history.<br />
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1. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)<br />
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OK, OK, bear with me a moment before you scoff. Look at this from a dispassionate point of view. First of all, the things that are pluses: One, the title has GREAT name recognition—always important from a remake standpoint. Secondly, the plot (as it is) is actually pretty cool—aliens have been trying to figure out a way to attack the earth and get the attention of mankind. They don’t want to lay waste to the planet, so they need something better than just bombing everything or melting everything with lasers. Thus far, the first eight plans they have come up with have been nonstarters. Then, someone in the alien planning group decides to really think out of the box—specifically the box buried six feet underground—and proposes reanimating all the dead people to make war on the living.
Wait.
This is a zombie movie???
A zombie movie COMBINED with an alien attack movie???
For the last few years, anything with the word “zombie” (or “ghoul” or “infected” or “walker”) in it has been a license to print money. Alien attack movies….eh, not so much. But a combination of those two could be AWESOME.<br />
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Lastly—and maybe the most important part—the fact that this was a pretty cool idea, and even for a low-budget monster flick it still turned out terrible says a lot (and has already been said ad nauseum) about Ed Wood, his talent, and his travails in finishing this project.
Now, suppose you take a gonzo-type filmmaker—say Robert Rodriguez—who has that guerilla ethos, and you let him off the leash to take this material and run. Just tell him to make a wild, fun genre movie.
Can you imagine?
Zombies! Flying saucers! Alien invaders!<br />
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With a script updated to reflect today’s sensibilities, some knowing humor, a little skin, a lotta gore and a budget of more than $1.20, this could be the greatest remake EVER.
You know I am right.<br />
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--Bill BreedloveNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-91950834179952093082012-04-04T03:45:00.000-07:002012-05-11T19:08:53.541-07:00THE TOME TRILOGIES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Guest Blog by Lori R. Lopez
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In March of Twenty-Twelve A.D., I released the E-book version for my novel DANCE OF THE CHUPACABRAS, Tome One in my TOME TRILOGY OF TRILOGIES book series. While it combines an array of elements such as horror and humor, fantasy and epic-adventure, the series also contains a serio-comic portrait of Mexican culture as well as aspects of Meso-American history. I plan to release Tome Two by December 2012. Most people are aware, I'm sure, that December 2012 is the month the Mayan Calendar is fated to expire. Numerous theories abound regarding the end of the world based on ancient prophecy, when the truth is likely that this was simply as far into the future as one particular calendar extended. Then it would be time to begin a new count. But it is certainly fun for authors like myself to tie doomsday hysteria into our works of fiction.
My Tome Trilogies overall is an epic fairytale, combining myth and prophecy with actual science – Global Warming and Climate Change, for example – along with ancient and modern religious beliefs. Much of it is humorous in vein, and it is not intended to offend anyone. I am striving to capture some of the world's rich diversity in cultures and customs, while also presenting the contrast of both outsider and insider perspectives on Mexico. I am of German and Swedish descent, but my sons are half-Mexican and I wrote this for them.
The whole thing was inspired by a curious blend of fact and myth. In 1996 I saw a local newscast about a creature being dubbed "El Chupacabras", meaning "The Goat Sucker". The creature (resembling some hairless hybrid of a greyhound and a kangaroo) was being sighted in Puerto Rico and Mexico, also near the U.S. southern border. I decided to write a screenplay with characters based on my young sons, who were performing in groups and as a brother act of Mexican Ballet Folkloric dancers. They were appearing on stages including San Diego Symphony Hall, the Del Mar Fair, and a number of television programs. I hoped my script would become a film in which they could play the leads. There was interest in the project, such as a personal letter from the head of the story department at Warner Brothers, who declined the proposal due to my lack of an agent and urged me to get one. The agent I found neglected to promote my script. My sons were accepted at John Robert Powers and began attending acting classes. A Hollywood agent signed them after Rafael was cast as a dancing Jack Junior for a Jack-In-The-Box commercial. I continued to send out DANCE OF THE CHUPACABRAS. Then a local production company wanted to option the screenplay but refused to consider Noel and Rafael. I was further informed the company would own all rights to book versions, so I turned down their offer. It was for my sons. Additionally, I wanted to write books. I planned to turn the script into a novel and already had ideas for sequels, which would develop into a trilogy and then three trilogies – what I dubbed "a trilogy of trilogies".
I now have the first novel out, after a series of delays, and two of the sequels rough-drafted. The producer contacted me for a couple more years to see if I had changed my mind. I feel confident I made the right decision. Another decision was to self-publish my books to ensure creative control, that it is my untampered vision and voice, another original concept I call an "Author's Draft".
The writing style consists of humor and vividly concise description, as well as a flair for inventive vocabulary and other quirks. The plot is imaginative, complex, and unpredictable. Characters, whether unique or classic, are intricately drawn. The multicultural story, extensively researched, should hopefully appeal to a broad range of interests and age groups.
The Tome Trilogies take place in a mystical realm I've created called Zone Zero, also The O-Zone (based on an actual stretch of latitude with some of the most extreme points on Earth), where strangeness is common. The book's plot and style are humorous, frightful, dramatic, legendary, unusual, quirky, and not what you're used to reading. But if you keep an open mind, you may be amazed.
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In this whimsically wacky legend, a Mexican-American brother duo of folklore dancers and a desert farmer — along with a diverse band of offbeat mortals, angels, and ghosts — battle supernatural forces to protect an oracle-princess as well as the past, present, and future from an Aztec serpent god’s wrath. Not to mention a volatile dragon, crews of feuding barbarians and pirates, a malevolent wizard-scribe and more. Throughout the imaginative course of events flows an undercurrent of apprehension, for the brothers must one day confront each other over the fate of the planet.
The challenges overcome by the heroes cannot prevent what was set into motion before their time. An ultimate showdown is destined to occur on December 21, 2012 A.D., the date the Mayan Calendar expires. Mother Nature is old, and damaged by the careless progress of Mankind. Her ecological clock is ticking. A symbolic sacrifice is necessary to restore the balance, just as all people must make sacrifices, a lasting commitment to save the planet. Whether the new age that dawns is another period of foolishness, or a time of harmonic co-existence, will be up to humanity.
Tome One, DANCE OF THE CHUPACABRAS, is available in both print and digital formats:
PAPERBACK: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Chupacabras-Trilogies-Lori-Lopez/dp/144951393X/">http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Chupacabras-Trilogies-Lori-Lopez/dp/144951393X/</a>
E-BOOK:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Chupacabras-Trilogy-Trilogies-ebook/dp/B007KTUZQ8">http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Chupacabras-Trilogy-Trilogies-ebook/dp/B007KTUZQ8</a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Chupacabras-Trilogy-Trilogies-ebook/dp/B007KTUZQ8">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Chupacabras-Trilogy-Trilogies-ebook/dp/B007KTUZQ8</a>
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dance-of-the-chupacabras-lori-r-lopez/1018911150">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dance-of-the-chupacabras-lori-r-lopez/1018911150</a>
<a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/142389">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/142389</a>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/reader/19959-dance-of-the-chupacabras?return_to=%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F8460016-dance-of-the-chupacabras">http://www.goodreads.com/reader/19959-dance-of-the-chupacabras?return_to=%2Fbook%2Fshow%2F8460016-dance-of-the-chupacabras</a>
--Lori R. Lopez
(Thanks to Lori for her Guest Blog in the Cinco de Mayo celebration this issue.
--The Black Glove)Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-23144697840228004642012-04-04T03:40:00.000-07:002012-05-12T01:20:00.317-07:00Brian Sammons Hi-Def Horror Hoedown!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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MIMIC 3 FILM SET (1997-2003)– Blu-ray review<br />
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Directors: Guillermo del Toro, Jean de Segonzac, J.T. Pet<br />
Cast: Mira Sorvino, Alix Koromzay, Karl Greary
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Now if you’re a fan of director Guillermo del Toro or of the killer big bug movie from the 90s, MIMIC, then you might already have it on Blu-ray. That’s because an unrated director’s cut came out on Blu-ray just a few months back. So is this a case of the dreaded double dipping, a la the 30 + versions of all the various EVIL DEAD films? No, not really, as it also has two other movies in the package. But are the two (widely considered lesser) sequels just along for the ride? You know some padding to get you to buy MIMIC all over again? Because really, who the hell would need or want those direct to sequels on Blu-ray? Well that can be debated, as I’m sure there are fans of those two movies out there somewhere. However, I just ain’t one of them. But if you are, or if you think you may be, keep on reading.
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First and foremost there is del Toro’s original; MIMIC. This is the exact same version of the movie that LIONSGATE released on Blu-ray a few months back. That means it is the unrated director’s cut and has retained all the extras from the last release. That’s a very cool and good thing. So often when multi-packs like this come out, the extras are stripped out or just left behind. It’s nice to see that’s not the case here. As for the story that started it all, it’s the near future a deadly plague is killing the children of New York City in droves that’s being spread by cockroaches. Enter a brilliant, beautiful entomologist named Susan Tyler, played by Mira Sorvino, who genetically splices a bunch of bug DNA together to make a bug killing bug that mimics its prey while it’s murdering them. Five years later and…yeah can you guess where this is going? That’s right, giant mutant bugs that can kind of look like humans at a distance, thus the title of this film, who have taken to munching on people. Naturally. It’s up to Dr. Tyler and a handful of heroes to save the day. Or so you would think. Four years later, the direct-to-video sequel came out.
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MIMIC 2 picks up a few years after the first one. The big bad bugs have not only survived, but have continued to evolve, including coming up with a new gruesome trick: ripping the faces off of people and wearing them as masks. Nice. The star this time around is Alix Koromzay, who was actually in the first movie as Mira Sorvino's coworker. That’s kind of nice. I mean, if none of the stars from the original wanted to come back for this, at least they established some link between the two movies, other than the bugs. Anyway, Alix plays a school teacher named Remi who has the bad luck to be teaching at a school where the bugs have a nest. Add a cop as a shoehorned love interest and some students are you got a new group of characters to battle the bugs. And really, that’s about it. This sequel is far more B-movie than the first, and it’s certainly not as good as the original, but it’s not horrible and can be kind of fun in a dopey sort of way. The same really can’t be said of the next MIMIC movie.
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The third big bug flick is basically Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW with giant, mutant bugs. No, really. Another Direct-to-video flick, subtitled SENTINEL, actor Karl Greary does the James Stewart bit as a man named Marvin afflicted with the very sickness that the bugs were created to kill off in the first film. Locked inside a germ free room, he peeps on his neighbors to pass the time. Unfortunately, that time passed by agonizingly slow in this movie as it is a chore and a bore to sit through. Eventually Marvin starts seeing a strange looking man in a trench coat (hmm, wonder who or what that is) killing and abducting his neighbors. Eventually the man’s sister and sexy neighbor become his investigating accomplices and this all leads to a somewhat lackluster showdown with a couple of big bad bugs. And that’s about it for this one, which is easily the weakest film of the bunch. It’s not horrible, it’s just very ho-hum and does nothing new for the franchise.
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As for the extras, all the ones from the previous releases of all three films have been transferred to this set. Naturally the first MIMIC movie has the lion’s share of goodies for it, including a very good audio commentary with del Toro and a gaggle of featurettes of various lengths. MIMIC 2 has no commentary track and just two very short featurettes. MIMIC 3: SENTINEL has a single short behind the scenes featurette, but it does have a commentary track. All the movies look good on Blu-ray, with part 3 oddly being the best looking, despite being the least of the three films in every other way. Weird.
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So in the end, I can recommend the new MIMIC 3 FILM SET. The first movie is easily the best and worth the price of admission just by its self. The second film is not great, but flirts with being good. The third film, while far from good, is still worth a watch at least. So for three movies, all in HD, two on Blu-ray for the first time (and the only way to get MIMIC 2 & 3 on Blu-ray at all), with a bunch of extras, consider this one a must have for fans of killer bug movies.<br />
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THE INNKEEPERS (2011)– Blu-ray review
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Director: Ti West
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Cast: Sara Paxton, Pat Healy, Kelly McGillis<br />
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Ti West became known to most people with THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL in 2009. That was his love letter to 70s and 80s horror movies and it was all kind of fun. If you’ve seen that movie, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, do yourself a favor and go see it. But do that some other time, right now I’m here to talk about Mr. West’s latest modern yet old school horror movie, THE INNKEEPERS.
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Now I’m not going to say that everything Ti does is golden. After all, he did make the dreadful CABIN FEVER 2. But hey, I guess no one is above taking a schlock job if the money is right. While he made a great lil gem of a flick with HOUSE, he completely dropped the ball with CABIN. So with only a 50/50 record, would INNKEEPERS be a return to the form that so won me over with THotD, or more forgettable direct to video droppings like CF2? Well there’s only one way to find out, so make sure you made your reservations, because we’re going to have a sleepover with THE INNKEEPERS.
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Set in the real world, and at the reportedly really haunted Yankee Peddler Inn, the movie revolves around the final two employees (the titular innkeepers) as they tend to the last few guests in the soon to be closed hotel. With a ton of time to kill, the young guy and girl spend the time doing the armature ghost hunter thing, trying to capture a spook or two on video. With the help of a psychic ex-actress and a creepy old man demanding a specific room in the empty hotel to keep an eye on, the innkeepers soon start witnessing some all too real hauntings. And, well that’s it. No really, that’s pretty much the whole story here, which means it does not do a thing new. That said, what it does, it does very, very well.
THE INNKEEPERS is a good old fashioned ghost story, with heavy emphases on ‘old fashioned’. You know when people say ‘they don’t make them like that anymore?’ Yeah, they’re talking about this movie. A sad reflection of that is that pretty much whenever I heard anyone complaining about this movie, it was always the same thing; ‘oh is so slow, it takes too long to get to the good stuff.’ Now I hate the ADD addled mouth breathers that say such things, I really do. They’re the reason Michael Bay makes nonstop explosion-fests that make a bazillion dollars, and movies that actually concern themselves with telling a good story with compelling characters constantly get passed on. So yeah, this movie takes its time fleshing out the characters and building suspense (oh how dare they) in a rather simple haunted house story. But while the story may be simple, writer/director Ti West is in top form and he once again proves that he knows what it takes to make a damn scary movie. It’s the kind of fright flick full of creepy dread and atmosphere and not just jump scare after jump scare accompanied by blaring music stings and crappy CGI ghosts. Hey, substance over style, what a novel concept!<br />
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This new Blu-ray from Dark Sky Films not only looks great, but it comes with a few nice extras worth crowing about. First and foremost are the two audio commentary tracks. Both have writer/editor/director Ti West on them. One of the tracks is a production commentary with both of the film’s producers and the 2nd unit director. The other is for the cast’s point of view and has Ti with actors Sara Paxton and Pat Healy. There is a sadly far too short behind the scenes featurette that’s just a hair over seven minutes. A trailer is the last special to be found on this disc. So yeah, this Blu-ray isn’t exactly overflowing with extras, but it does have two informative and fun commentaries. Oh, and the movie is freaking awesome, so I guess that’s the best ‘special feature’ of them all.
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THE INKEEPERS is a great horror movie that is comfortable being, first and foremost, an honest to goodness horror movie. It’s not ‘hip’ nor is it ‘edgy’ and it doesn’t have an entire cast of way too pretty people straight from the CW channel in it. It is a Ti West movie, so it’s very much the kind of creepy, atmospheric horror film that sadly just doesn’t seem to be made anymore. I loved it from beginning to end, and if you’re a true horrorhead, then I know you will to. So go on, spend a night with THE INKEEPERS, and then try to sleep soundly afterwards.
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UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING (2012)– Blu-ray review<br />
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Directors: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein<br />
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Michael Ealy, India Eisley
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This is the fourth film in the franchise that basically ripped off White Wolf Publishing’s roleplaying game; WORLD OF DARKNESS. Now I know fans of these films get upset when people point that out, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. Don’t believe me, or don’t even know what I’m talking about? Google it, as it’s too long to get into here. Anyway, truth be told, I’ve never been a fan of any of the UNDERWORLD movies. They’ve always been way too much style over substance for my tastes. A blend of THE MATRIX action set pieces with two of the classics from monster movies: vampires and werewolves. Sure they can sometimes be a bit of mindless, but for me and many other red blooded heterosexual men, the flicks’ real saving grace has been the crazy beautiful Kate Beckinsale running around in skintight pleather. Yeah, that’s almost worth the price of admission right there. So imagine my (and a whole lot of people’s) disappointment that for the third film they replaced Kate with Rhona Mitra. Sure, Rhona is also very lovely, but she’s no Kate Beckinsale. Well if you feel like I do, rejoice, for AWAKENING brings Beckinsale back to the role that she originated. Further, they also play around with the mythology and story in almost a reboot kind of way. So Kate is back, and that’s a plus, but is the rest of the movie any good? Well slip on your rubber cat suit, grab your twin guns, and let’s get back to the UNDERWORLD and find out.
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The movie starts off pretty much like all the other flicks, with Kate’s vampire death machine (named Selene and given the badass title of Death Dealer) meeting with her part vampire, part werewolf, part human boyfriend. But he’s not really worth mentioning here as he is soon removed from the movie thanks to an explosion that also knocks Selene into a cryogenic coma. Twelve years later and little miss Death Dealer wakes up in a very different world where humans know about the vamps and the werewolves and are raging a war against both of them. Oh, and she also has a powerful human/werewolf/vampire daughter. Yeah, vampires having babies, that never gets old or ridiculous. Whatever. So sexy Selene is now a MILF, and I’m totally cool with that. She has to fight her endless war with the werewolves, plus now with the humans who are out to kill anything supernatural. Also the werewolves, called Lycans in this series, want Selene’s daughter for they think she can sure them of their severe silver allergy. And well, that’s about it for the story. So it’s not great, but it does do something new. Hey that’s something, right?
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Now if the story was the only thing this flick had to talk about, oh that and sexy Beckinsale, that would be something. But it’s not. Let’s talk about it feeling like a boring chore to sit through with some of the most limp and lukewarm action scenes in any UNDERWORLD movie. Add to that that everything was shot to be 3D (and will that fad please die already?) and everything looks far too CGI fake for my tastes. And speaking of 3D, this movie seemed to be mostly a 3D tech demo than an actual film. What, think I’m being too hard? Well when AWAKENING was advertised, the fact that it was using the same 3D process that AVATAR used was the biggest selling point. Seriously, YouTube the trailers if you doubt me, it was pretty sad. So that’s how you sell movies now? Not with stars or god forbid, a good story, but 3D gimmicks? Again, whatever. But what that means to 90% of people out there who (wisely) didn’t buy a 3D TV, when you watch it not in 3D it’s annoying as all hell.
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Blatant and irritating 3D pandering aside, the new Blu-ray from Sony does look damn good. I guess that makes sense, as Sony invented the BD format. So it looks absolutely great, but how are the extras? Well there’s an audio commentary with the two directors (yes this movie was so awesome that no one man could have made it) with the producers and video effects guy. While it’s informative, it wasn’t exactly entertaining and like the third movie in this series, it could have been made better with the addition of Kate Beckinsale, but then all things can be made better with her as far as I’m concerned. There are a collection of five smallish featurettes that all together run over an hour. A blooper reel and a needless music video from some someone I never heard of before and didn’t like. Then there is a picture in picture popup track that you can run as you watch the movie. Usually stuff like that is pretty good, sort of like a video commentary track. Unfortunately here it was pretty much just a trivia track that had nothing, and I mean nothing, interesting to say. Hey did you know that vampires need blood to live? Wow, thanks UNDERWORLD AWAKENING. The More You Know ™.
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If you’re a fan of the UNDERWORLD movies, then you should get this Blu-ray. It’s more of the same but it looks great, and if you have a 3D TV then be sure to pick up the 3D version as the whole reason this flick was made was to show that off. And hey, it is better than the third movie, so there is that. But if you’re not an UNDERWORLD fan, then AWAKENING won’t do anything to change that.<br />
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MOTHER’S DAY (2012)– Blu-ray review
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Director: Darren Lynn Bousman<br />
Cast: Rebecca De Mornay, Jaime King, Shawn Ashmore
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This is NOT a remake of the 1980s sort of slasher of the same name, and I don’t care what it says. Yeah at the end credits of this movie it thanks Charles Kaufman, the writer and director of the original film, and the executive producer of this one. However this new MOTHER’S DAY is a remake in name only, as other than a crazy momma, it has NOTHING to do with the original movie. Now, is that a bad thing? I mean, I don’t think anyone out there is going to say that the 80s movie was great, or even all that good. So does that mean this new version must be better? Well not necessarily, as one thing I’ve learned by watching the ton of remakes that filmmakers keep shoving down our throats is that no matter how silly, stupid, inept, or badly made the original was, it can always get worse. So what’s the case here? Is the 2010 MOTHER’S DAY (yes, that’s when this movie was made, but it’s only coming out on disc now) an improvement over the 80s original, or yet another remake best forgotten? Well make sure you call your momma and tell her you lover her, it’s her day after all.
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Director Darren Lynn Bousman, who made his name directing SAW 2, 3, and 4, seems to have decided to play it safe by not venturing too far out of his comfort zone. Yes, shades of torture porn can be seen in this story of three bad bank robbing brothers breaking into their old house after one of them is shot in their last heist. But unbeknownst to them, their momma got booted out of the house a few months back and instead they bust in on the new owners, the Sohapi family (ha, get it?) and their guests having a party. They take everyone hostage, make a handy doctor at the party work on their injured brother, and then call their momma for help.
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Enter the hands down best thing about this movie; Rebecca De Mornay as the titular mother Koffin (ha, get it? GET IT, DAMN YOU, GET IT!). Rebecca is very good as the crazy lady in charge and steals the show in every scene she’s in. She’s a smart, scary lady who’s mad about her family and will do anything to get what she wants. Unfortunately De Mornay is the only good thing in this you’ve-seen-it-all-before flick. Momma and family torment the new homeowners in all sorts of ways while looking for some money that the bandit brothers supposedly mailed to their mother, but after she had lost the house. Such “highlights” include attempted rape, boiling water poured into ears, hand bashing, and forcing various hostages to fight each other. Yawn. Oh sorry, I almost nodded off there. But seriously, I’ve seen a hundred home invasion films like this, and I found this one to be a tedious chore to sit through, even with Rebecca De Mornay knocking it out of the park with her acting. Maybe that’s partially my fault for having seen too many of these movies, but honestly I think it’s more the director and writers fault for happily treading the same well-worn trail and doing nothing, and I mean NOTHING, new with the premise. You notice I don’t blame the actors. While none match De Mornay’s chops, they do a capable job with what they were given to do. Too bad that what they were given was pretty damn bad.
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The makers of MOTHER’S DAY never met a suspense/thriller cliché that it didn’t like, and they do their very best to shoehorn in as many as it can into this movie. For example, does this movie have the good friends suddenly turning on each other? Yep. How about a cute, young, and sympathetic sister of the brutal Koffin family that tries to help the hostages out? You bet. What about a cop putting two and two together only to be completely ineffectual? Sure thing. Hey, how about the old chestnut where a girl gets mad at her boyfriend for not helping her when one of the bad guys gropes her, even though he had a gun in his face? Oh hell yes, that’s here too. I could go on dropping examples of such stuff we’ve all seen a thousand times, but now let’s move on to the second reason this movie was a dud; nonsensical stuff done only for the sake of the story.
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This starts off right at the beginning when we see a shadowy mother Koffin (she’s shot in near total darkness so we can’t see the face of the actress standing in as a young De Mornay) going into a hospital to steal a baby. Yeah, she’s that kind of mommy. Anyway the vast amounts of stupid in this one scene alone had me rolling my eyes so much that I started to get dizzy. From the deserted hospital right out of HALLOWEN 2, to the inept security guard that allows momma Koffin to stroll right on by, to the same guard confronting the woman after she took a baby in a completely dark room, without ever turning on the lights or even pulling a flashlight. I have already mentioned the “oops, we didn’t know our own mother got kicked out of our house” set up that this film relies on, and I’ll skip over the “tornado proof windows” that only exist to make sure no one can get out once the hostages are locked in the basement, and I’ll get right to my favorite scene of silliness in this flick. At one point one of the bad brother takes one of the female hostages out to an ATM to get some money. Two vapid, barely twenty-something-airheads come up behind them, also to use the ATM. The hostage tells the girls that the bad man has a gun, and then he has to make sure the two girls don’t get away to tell the police. So what does he do? If you said shoot them as they run away and then quickly make his getaway because he’s outside, in the middle of a street, next to an ATM that obviously sees a lot of traffic (as the two girls in question did show up within seconds of the killer and his hostage pulling up), then you’re wrong. No, instead he makes both girls gets on their knees right there in the parking lot, throws a knife down between them, and tells them that whoever kills the other one can get to live. He then wastes a bunch of time goading them into doing it, you know; time he could be used to getting away. All this in order to prove to his hostage that it’s a dog eat dog world and blah blah blah, mwah hah hah, ain’t I so evil? Really, that bit wasn’t suspenseful or edgy or daring or brutal or thrilling or believable or anything other than mind numbingly stupid. Sadly, this movie is full of scenes like that.
As meh as this movie is, the Blu-ray from Anchor Bay isn’t much better. Sure it looks good in HD, but that’s par for the course for modern made movies released on Blu-ray days. It’s the special features, or rather the lack of them, that I’m talking about. There’s an audio commentary track with director Darren Lynn Bousman and actor Shawn Ashmore, who plays one of the bank robbing boys, and…well that’s it. That’s all you get here. What’s funny is that during the commentary, director Bousman seems to go out of his way to mention a bunch of deleted scenes, but not a one of them could be added to this rather barren Blu-ray? Uhm, why? Oh, this is a BD and DVD comb pack, if that matters to anyone out there.
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MOTHER’S DAY is not a bad movie it’s just a very derivative flick. If you’ve seen any home invasion movie or just any flick where bad people do bad things to other people, then you’ve all but seen this movie. Rebecca De Mornay is pretty darn good in it, so fans of her may want to check it out. For everyone else, give it a pass.<br />
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THE DEVIL INSIDE (2012)– Blu-ray review<br />
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Director: William Brent Bell
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Cast: Fernanda Andrade, Suzan Crowley, Simon Quarterman
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Let me start off by saying that I am largely a fan of the found footage horror films. From THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT to its lesser known rival THE LAST BROADCAST, from the original very good [REC] from Spain, to the more lackluster US remake, QUARANTINE, I sort of dig them all. Even when they have some pretty big flaws, like APOLLO 18, there can still be some fun and good spooky moments found in them. So keep that in mind when I say that I hated this latest entry in the (now overused?) subgenre. When I say that this boring, confusing, poorly made movie is in no way good, it’s not because of the first person shaky cam thing. It’s just a plain old bad movie. So if you want to save yourself some time, just stop reading right now and forget this movie ever existed. But if you’re still possibly interested in this flick, then keep reading and maybe I can change your mind and save you a few bucks. Hey, that’s what I’m here for.
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THE DEVIL INSIDE is a pretty basic, paint-by-numbers devil possession flick. And right there I could end this review. It’s not a horrible horror film in and of itself but it has the worst ending of, well anything I can remember seeing. Ever. But more on that is a second. The story here is that a documentary film crew is following around a young American woman as she investigates the reason why her mother was sent to an insane asylum in Italy. Hmm, three guess as to why. Well the daughter and the documentarians hook up with some priests once in Italy who do secret exorcisms on the side. Then after a bunch of babble about if the institutionalized mother is possessed by Satan, it’s off to the nuthouse for some hot devil expelling action.
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The one twist to this movie, which isn’t even original, is that mad mommy dearest isn’t just possessed by one demon, but four and they have body jumping abilities right out of the much better Denzel Washington movie, FALLEN. If you can’t guess as to what that will mean for the movie, then I won’t spoil it for you. But hey, there is some of the same satanic taunting of the assembled exorcists that has been in every, and I mean every, movie since THE EXORCIST. So yay for more unoriginality.
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Then there is the ending that I hinted at before. Now I won’t ruin it, because honestly, I don’t think I can ruin it as it’s so bad. All I’ll say is that this movie really doesn’t end. It just cuts to black. Yeah, no kidding, it just stops. Now I guess it’s trying to go for a dramatic, sudden, shock ending that in a way would make sense that no one would continue to film after a certain point. Still, movies should have an ending and this one just doesn’t. So it’s a derivative, completely unoriginal EXORCIST rip off that all but gives the audience the finger at the end. Yeah, it sure sounds like a winner to me.
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Oh, and do you want to get really mad? This slice of cinematic schlock made over 100 million dollars worldwide. Not only is that insulting to the far, far, FAR superior movie; THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (which has so far made less than half that) but it probably means that we will be afflicted with a sequel to this someday soon. Oh yay.
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The new Blu-ray from Paramount, which is a Best Buy exclusive, looks as well as a shaky cam found footage flick can look. However it is also as bare bones as a disc can be. It has no special features. Not one. Were they embarrassed by this movie? Because it sure looks like it.
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If you can’t tell by now, I can’t recommend this movie. Not at all. To anyone. As I said, it’s not a horrible movie, but it’s dull, unnecessary, and derivative of a hundred other films that came before, and that did it much better. Still if for some odd reason you do want to get this movie in your collection, you can go on over to Best Buy to pick yourself up a copy.<br />
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KILLER NUN (1978)– Blu-ray review<br />
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Director: Giulio Berruti<br />
Cast: Anita Ekberg, Paola Morra, Alida Valli
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I must admit, I’ve never been a fan of nunsploitation flicks. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t raised Catholic and didn’t attend a Catholic school, so I didn’t have my budding sexual tastes as a child get mixed up with strange feelings towards women in power, who wear black, and spank your bottom if you’re naughty. I mean, that’s got to be the reason someone would think nuns are sexy, right? So yeah, nuns, be they traditional, nude, naughty, satanic, evil, or in this case killer, just never did anything for me. But if nuns, drugs, murder, lesbians, and torture are your kind of things, keep on reading. If they’re not, well I’ll guess I just see you next time.
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Still here? Ok, good, let’s get on with it…you pervert.
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This flick starts off by saying that it’s based on real life events. Yeah sure, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE said the same thing. Anyway, here we get Sister Gertrude, the head nun at a hospital, who is addicted to morphine. Her bad little habit starts her down the road to crazyville. Poor Gertrude thinks drugs are a replacement for the God she no longer feels any link to, and in her quest for Holy Communion, she tortures and slaughters the patients in her care as she goes more and more insane. She’s also a bit man-hater, but she still enjoys sex. Unfortunately it’s fully clothed sex. Yeah while she may be killer, this nun obviously had a no nudity clause in her contract. She does have a smoking hot, young, lesbian roommate, although sadly, nothing comes of that, at least not on screen. What the hell, movie, talk about a tease.
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The killer nun starts killing off old people, sort of as an angel of death kind of thing, but then quickly moves on to anyone she can. All the while the clueless staff at the hospital just sort of stand around being…well, clueless. There are shades of an Italian giallo in here, with pink rubber gloves standing in for the more usual black, although the mystery here is lukewarm at best and the ending can be guessed at far too quickly. And speaking of lukewarm, that sadly sums up this movie in a single word. Despite a sensational title and a naughty nun premise, this exploitation flick isn’t actually all that exploitative. Not compared to many similar movies made around the same time. There is some full frontal nudity, both male and female, but what little sex there is in this movie is rather tame. Unfortunately the same can be said for the murders and gore. There is one rather effective needles-in-the-face torture scene, but really that’s it. A lot of the violence is very tepid or happens off screen. Hell, one guy dies by getting lightly kicked in the face about three or four times. Oh, how brutal. And this is the uncut and uncensored version? Man, was the cut version aired after Saturday morning cartoons? Because I’m betting it could have been with what I seen here.
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Now while I thought the movie was only so-so at best, Blue Underground does their usual good job with the Blu-ray release, at least as far as how it looks. For a seventies Italian exploitation flick, it looked really good here. No, not perfect, but a damn sight better than it ought to of had. As for the special features, there is 13 minute interview with co-writer and director Giulio Berruti. It’s in Italian but it is subtitled. Other than that, there’s the usual trailer and poster gallery and…well that’s it, that’s all the extras on this disc. Not bad for what is only a cult film, but it still felt somewhat lacking.
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I’ve got to admit, I was a bit disappointed that this slice of Eurosleaze wasn’t all that sleazy. That doesn’t mean that the movie as a whole was bad. On the contrary, it was well made for the most part and the acting and story was competent, if somewhat boring at times. It’s just that I was expecting so much more from this movie, so it was a bit of a letdown. That said, if you are a fan of nunsploitation movies, well now you have a great looking Blu-ray to add to your library of sin.<br />
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42ND STREET FOREVER (2012)– Blu-ray review<br />
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You’ll notice the review for this new Blu-ray from Synapse Films doesn’t have the usual listings for director and cast. That’s because 42ND STREET FOREVER is a collection of trailers for the grindhouse classics that filled the dirty little theaters that once upon a time (namely the 70s and early 80s) made New York’s 42nd Street so notorious and infamous. Ok, they’re not the pornos that aired in the many porn theaters that shared the same street, but to Ma and Pa Middle America, they were almost on the same level.
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And yes, you read that right; this entire Blu-ray is nothing but a collection of trailers. Now normally that sounds about as fun as watching a collection of end credit sequences, but these slices of schlocky sinful cinema were a real treat. There’s also a ton of them, 89 to be exact, and with a total run time of over three and a half hours. They also run the glorious gambit of all things exploitation. Blaxploitation, rape/revenge movies, women in prison, naughty school girl movies, skin flicks of all sorts, cheesy sci-fi/fantasy films, schlocky horror movies, surprisingly good horror movies (if you, like me, love cheesy 70s and 80s horror flicks), MONDO CANE rip offs, Japanese monster movies, biker flicks, samurai movies, goofy sex comedies, Kung Fu, Eurosleaze, and more.
These are the authentic grindhouse trailers, and that’s both good and bad. It’s good because they’re a little longer than modern trailers. They’re almost like mini movies in and of themselves. They’ve also unedited, so since they were promoting movies that sold gore, nudity, and vulgarities of all sorts, the trailers are also loaded with profanity, blood, and naughty nudity. For a collection extoling the ‘virtues’ of the bygone 42ND Street era, I would not want it any other way.
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However the (somewhat) bad side to these authentic trailers as that they are grainy, scratched up, blurry, and look like they’re being projected onto some grimy little screen in Times Square during the 70s. Again, for a celebration of grindhouse flicks, I would not want it any other way. That said, there is no reason these should have been put on Blu-ray. High-def, these trailers are not. The only reason I can think of for this release being Blu-ray only is the storage capacity. Now true aficionados of exploitation flicks would expect and want these trailers to look exactly lie they do here. Younger videophiles out there may be disappointed in the picture quality found here, especially considering the usual Blu-ray standard, thus the reason I felt the need to point it out here.
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As far as special features, there’s an extensive audio commentary that runs the full three and a half hours. Done by three guys, the only one I recognize was Michael Gingold from FANGORIA magazine, this trio had a wealth of information to impart about all of the trailers shown here. You can really tell that they’re huge fans of the grindhouse and it is well worth giving this Blu-ray a second viewing to hear what they had to say about all of the flicks found here.
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42ND STREET FOREVER is not a movie for everyone, but that’s ok. Usually things made for ‘everyone’ tend to be mediocre pap that ends up pleasing no one. So if you’re a fan of the sleazy, the weird, the taboo, and the downright strange (in short exploitation and grindhouse flicks) then you’ll love this collection. Note: Synapse Films has a long running, multivolume DVD series called 42ND STREET FOREVER which, like this Blu-ray, are nothing but collections of trailers. So if you already got those DVDs then you do not need this new BD. Consider this disc a Best Of collection. However if you have yet to take a naughty, nostalgic trip down 42nd STREET, then this is a great way to do it. Consider it highly recommended for those with deviant tastes.<br />
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--Brian SammonsNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-56560941880269206262012-04-04T03:35:00.000-07:002012-05-11T21:48:37.724-07:00Hidden Horrors: New Lovecraftian Horror Fiction, For Free!By Brian M. Sammons<br />
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Welcome back to Hidden Horrors, the place where I shine a spotlight on things I think are really cool in the terrorverse that all horrorheads should know more about. This time I have two online magazines that put out excellent fright fiction time and time again. Not only do both of them cover and build upon the cold, cosmic horror that H.P. Lovecraft gave to our favorite genre, but they do so for free. That’s right; both of these excellent online magazines publish new horror fiction month after month (or even more frequently) and ask for nothing in return. For that amazing act of altruism alone I would sing their praises, but they fact that its Lovecraftian horror, well that has me wanting to sacrifice virgins to them and chanting their names in the whispering abyss until R’lyeh rises again. And if you know what the hell I meant just now, then these sites are about to jump to the top of your list of favorite destinations on the internet. Ok, enough with the preamble, let me tell you about two Hidden Horrors I’m sure you’ll love.<br />
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<a href="http://lovecraftzine.com/">Lovecraft eZine</a>
Once a month the Lovecraft eZine puts out a new issue chock full of new horror short stories that follow in the footsteps of Grand Pappy Lovecraft. Each issue has about five or six new stories from some very recognizable names in the ever expanding world Cthulhu Mythos authors. Names like Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, Stephen Mark Rainey, Joseph S. Pulver, Ann K. Schwader, William Meikle, and more. If you read modern Lovecraftian fiction, then you’ve read stories by these people. They deliver the goods and then some. In addition, there are a ton of new blood in this eZine in every issue, showing that cosmic dread is alive and well and influencing scores of new authors all the time. Lovecraft’s legacy shows no signs of diminishing any time soon, so can I get an Iä! Iä Cthulhu Fhtagn?
Now that in and of itself would be enough for me to point you in the direction of this website. But that’s only the tiny tip of this Titanic sinker. Each story comes illustrated by a regular stable of incredibly talented artists. Still not cool enough? OK, how about this; since the last few issues every story has also been recorded in audiobook format. That’s right; free, downloadable audio files just right for your MP3 player. So even if you’re eyes are going bad, you’re crazy busy, or you’re just very lazy, you can still enjoy these stories. That is, in a word: so-far-beyond-cool-it-blows-the-mind.<br />
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STILL not enough to get you to click on over to the Lovecraft eZine? What are you, nuts? Ok, how about this, in addition to the monthly fiction magazine, the site is updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, contests, and anything else related to Lovecraft, the Cthulhu Mythos, or weird horror in general. Come on, what more could you want? This place is total awesomesauce for fans of HPL. Just go there already, you can thank me later.
But wait, are you one of those “I’m too busy to read (or even listen to) anything right now” people. Well to that, I call bullshit. There’s always time for great stories, but ok, I’ll play your game. Keep on reading and discover a little gem of a website that will leave you with no excuses left.
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<a href="http://eschatologyjournal.org/">Eschatology Journal</a>
This website bills itself as “The Journal of Lovecraftian and Apocalyptic Fiction” and it lives up to that credo. While it doesn’t do the daily news and reviews like Lovecraft eZine, it has a ton of stories on it. “How many stories makes a ton?” You ask. Try a new story every week! Yep, you heard me; Eschatology delivers a new terror tale every Wednesday like clockwork. Pretty cool, huh?
“But I told you, I’m busy, busy, busy,” you cry, “there’s no way I can read all that.” Well that’s where this journal is an Elder Godsend as it only publishes flash fiction. You know; stories one-thousand words or less. And come on, who doesn’t have time for a delicious dark delicacy delivered in such a cute, bite-sized serving? You know you do, quit trying to deny it and give in to terror temptation. I won’t tell anyone that you did. It will be our little secret.<br />
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Furthermore, as the tagline says, not only does the Eschatology Journal publish Lovecraftian flash fiction, but all things ‘apocalyptic’ and that phrase can cover a wide range of creepy and horrific stories. From cosmic horror, to the walking dead, and from knife wielding psychos, to nameless dread, and everything in between, Eschatology is sure to appeal to horrorheads of all stripes. So for a once a week treat of horror that, like Forest Gump’s famous box of chocolates, you’ll never know what you’ll get, stop on by the Eschatology Journal. You will not be disappointed. I’ve been a faithful reader since they started and have yet to bit into a tiny terror tale that I found to be unpalatable. And I’m a picky son of a bitch.
So there you go, two great places to get new stories of creepy Lovecraftian horror on a regular basis, FOR FREE! It just doesn’t get any better than that. So what are you still doing here? Go, give them a read.
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--Brian SammonsNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-14874715279145575032012-04-04T03:30:00.000-07:002012-05-11T21:52:34.839-07:00Movies Worth Googling: Strange Movie Reviews by Jenny Orosel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Dance, Monkey, Dance: Real Life Hunger Games</b>
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With the premiere of the HUNGER GAMES movie, there’ve been more than a few comparisons with that and BATTLE ROYALE, and to a lesser degree, SERIES 7. They talk about the dystopian future, where reality shows provide audiences with pain and humiliation of others for the entertainment of the masses. These movies are seen as warning signs of what is to come. Sadly, people are way off base. These are not a sign of things to come, but a reminder of where we’ve been. We’ve put our fellow humans through hell and back for our own amusement for years already.
Beginning in the 1800s, mental patients were made to put on plays and shows for the entertainment of the bourgeoisie class. The wealthy would sit and, with mocking eyes, snickering as the “crazies” would sing and dance for them. The play and film MARAT/SADE famously fictionalized the actual performances directed in the Charneton asylum by the Marquis de Sade. To use that example, it would be easy to separate ourselves from the phenomenon—it’s a work of fiction based off events from two centuries ago. With TITICUT FOLLIES, however, it’s much harder to do so.<br />
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TITICUT FOLLIES (1967) is a documentary about the Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. The title refers to an annual talent show put on by the inmates. Oftentimes, mental hospitals will use talent shows as a form of therapy, to give the patients a creative outlet. Judging by the rest of the film, though, they didn’t seem overly concerned with the inmate’s rehabilitation or therapy. Many are kept naked (for security reasons). They are force-fed in a callous manner, the warden letting his cigarette ash dangle into the food mixture. The inmates are mocked and taunted mercilessly, and when preparing the body of one who died they seem to care even less. Under those circumstances, one has to wonder how the guards view the Follies. My guess is they snickered with the same glee with which they taunted one man’s naked body.
Director Frederick Wiseman took an interesting approach to TITICUT FOLLIES. There is no narration, no sign of whose side he took. Everything was filmed with an objective camera, simply putting the information out there. He also didn’t edit it so that one side was made to be more of a hero—the inmates are shown for what they are. Mentally ill, yes, but still criminals, many of which committed horrendous crimes (a number of the inmates were in for pedophilia). Wiseman simply showed us the goings on, and left it to the viewers to make up their minds. Oddly, it was this approach that both allowed the film to be made and got it banned (TITICUT FOLLIES is the only American film to be banned for non-obscenity reasons). The hospital staff was fine with the movie being made. But once reviews started coming in that were critical of their methodology, they moved to ban the movie, stating that it was an invasion of privacy. Only recently has the banning been reversed, and it is possible for general audiences to see this film again.
We can look at TITICUT FOLLIES and patient performances and say, “But those can legitimately be used for therapy.” Then I will have to point to the dance marathons that happened during the Great Depression. THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? and the novel it was based on, dramatized these endurance contests. Desperate competitors, lured by promises of free food and the chance at a cash prize, would dance for forty-five, fifty minutes of every hour, nonstop, for days and sometimes weeks. As the hours and days wear on, patrons get to watch as the competitors’ bodies take their tolls, and their minds slowly disintegrate. It was not uncommon for the competitors to hallucinate and have nervous breakdowns in the middle of competition. There are reports of deaths from exhaustion as well as suicides. And all to provide amusement for people willing to shell out twenty five cents.<br />
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(NOTE: THIS IS THE COMPLETE MOVIE)<br />
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With Sidney Pollack’s adaptation of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? (1969) we watch as the competitors start out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, then slowly disintegrate into shells of their former selves, some not surviving mentally or physically. As they deteriorate, the audience grows more and more ravenous. Yes, it was done with a very heavy hand, the characters being little more than caricatures of archetypes, the progression of the plot predictable. As a movie, I’m ambivalent about THEY SHOOT HORSES. While there was nothing specifically bad about it, there also wasn’t anything exceptionally good. Personally, the sympathy came while watching and knowing that, perhaps not the specific events, similar ones took place across the country. People sacrificed their minds and more while others watched, uninterested in the suffering but caring only for their own amusement. Still, that’s not much of an endorsement for the movie.<br />
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And even more recent is the documentary HANDS ON A HARD BODY (1997). Every year a Texas Nissan dealership would have a contest where twenty four people compete to win a truck. All they have to do is keep a hand on that truck. While at least one hand is on it, you’re still in the running. Once that hand comes off, you lose. One by one, people either drop out willingly or mistakenly remove their hands until only one person remains. This has often gone past 70 hours of standing in the hot Texas sun, while a crowd gathers to root for their favorites.
Out of the three movies, HANDS ON A HARD BODY was certainly the most cheaply made and perhaps the best. Director S.R. Bindler gives us just enough information about some of the competitors to build our empathy, but doesn’t weigh the film down in back-story. We get to the action soon enough. We watch as they struggle with their own bodies and the pain they endure, and we watch as their sanity slowly fades from both sleep deprivation and the drudgery of standing there, hour after hour, day after day. The pacing is spot on—just fast enough to keep the audience from getting bored, but slow enough we get a feel for these people and what they’re going through. And interesting editorial choice is not showing when a competitor’s hands leave the truck. We see them just before or just after, but not the actual event. During the movie a number of folks made claims that the contest was rigged. Because of how Bindler edited it, we can never know completely. If we were to know, HANDS ON A HARD BODY would have been a different movie, one about the contest itself instead of the competitors and their endurance.
These yearly contests continued up through 2005, when one competitor broke into a nearby K-Mart, took a gun and killed himself.<br />
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Even beyond endurance contests, we love to watch others suffer. In the eighties, the FACES OF DEATH video series was its own media empire. Whether the deaths were staged or not is of little matter; what counts is that people thought it was real, and wanted to watch because of that. Today we have the CKY and JACKASS movies, so we can watch people humiliate and injure themselves for no reason other than for us to laugh at them. Yes, the state-sponsored murder of HUNGER GAMES and BATTLE ROYALE have yet to come to pass. However, people have been suffering and dying for our amusement for years. Are their deaths any less tragic? Are we any less callous for continuing to watch?
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WHERE TO FIND THE MOVIES:
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THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? Is readily available both from MGM, and an out-of-print Anchor Bay version. Used copies are about six dollars and new can run you as little as ten.<br />
TITICUT FOLLIES is available directly from Frederick Wiseman at <a href="http://www.zipporah.com/films/22">http://www.zipporah.com/films/22</a>. $35 dollars for individual-use DVDs, more if you want it licensed for public showings.<br />
HANDS ON A HARD BODY. Good luck. The DVD is rare and prized among video collectors. As of this writing, the cheapest available online is $65, with a used VHS running over twenty.
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--Jenny OroselNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-9715440768168869652012-04-04T03:25:00.000-07:002012-05-11T21:54:55.351-07:00Graphic Horror: Game ReviewsBy Brian M. Sammons<br />
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Not a lot in the way of horror gaming this month, but here is some zombie action based in everyone favorite undead apocalypse; THE WALKING DEAD.
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THE WALKING DEAD: Episode 1, Telltale Games, Rated M, Mac, PC, PS3, Xbox 360, iPhone<br />
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Based on the hugely popular comic book and TV show, this new game seems to be a sure fire hit. I mean, who doesn’t love zombies these days? Yes I know that there are some people out there who are tired of the shuffling dead, but you know what I mean. Add to that the respected pedigree of Telltale Games, the fact that is on every platform imaginable, and that TTG is delivering it in episodes (yep just like the comic and TV show) so that the time requirement is minimal and the price is negligible and I can’t think of too many zombie loving gamers out there who wouldn’t get this. But, is it actually any good? Yes it is, but it’s not actually all that great of a game. Let me explain.
In this introductory episode of TWD you play as a man called Lee. Lee was a college professor who was on his way to prison for murdering a state senator who was boning his wife, when the zombie apocalypse hits. Through a series of events, Lee escapes custody and is on his own in a world where the dead walk and want to eat you. This takes place during the early days of the zombie uprising, when comic and TV show lead character, Rick the cop, is still in a coma at the hospital. Through Lee’s adventures you’ll run into some familiar characters (two of the survivors from both the TV show and the comic book make guest appearances in this episode) who may or may not have familiar faces. Without giving away any secrets, one character looked nothing like the actor who plays him on the TV show. I can’t remember if he looked like the comic book character or not. As Lee, you’ll run into other survivors, have to battle the undead, and make some pretty tough choices. As an example of the latter, let’s say that maybe two of your new found friends just might get attacked by hungry flesh eaters at the same time; who would you attempt to save first? Rest assured, not everyone you meet in this game is going to make it to the next episode.
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OK, that’s the general overview of this first chapter; now let’s get to the specifics of a game.
THE WALKING DEAD is far more of an interactive story than what many, myself included, would usually consider a game. The vast majority of the game is dialog between the human survivors, but hey, the same can be said about both the comic book and TV show. This is NOT a typical run and gun zombie frag fest. When your character must perform an action it is of the look around your environment, find the interactive hot spot, and click a button kind. Yes, in the grand tradition of some of the earliest video games, this is a good old fashioned point and click adventure. Even combat has been reduced to “move cursor over zombie’s head and click button to kill it.” A little bit of variety is added to the mix with the introduction of quick time events, but that’s the only slight deviation to the core point and click mechanic. No big surprise there, as that’s sort of what Telltale Games does. Still, I wanted to point that out as some younger gamers may not be down with that old school aesthetic.
As I said before, mostly what you do in this game is talk to other people, and the good news is that TWD does that well. Not only is it well written for the most part and the voice actors do a capable job, but the choices you make in this game seem to really make a difference in how things play out. For example, let’s say you talking to a guy named Ted and you chose to lie to him. A message might pop up in the corner of the screen that says “Ted knows that your lying.” That means Ted may be icy towards you later on. Get caught in too many lies with Ted and who knows what will happen. Later in the game perhaos Ted and another survivor named Bob get in a fight, if you back Ted up you’ll get a message that says “Ted will remember your loyalty.” Furthermore, not only what you say, but what you do will change things. Again, let’s say that you have to choose between saving two people, well if someone dies then don’t expect to see them in latter episodes. This could lead to some nice moral quandaries. Do you save the guy who was very friendly and nice to you, or do you save the other guy just because he seems to be better and killing zombies? Now this is only the first chapter of a five episode game, so you can’t really see how this will work yet, but it will be interesting to see if Telltale does take all this into account in how characters react to you in future episodes. It has the possibility to offer some really cool and unique story telling if thoroughly followed up on. I really like this idea and I hope it works out.<br />
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Now for some things that’s not too great about this game. First, let’s go back to the dialog and choices, not everything is golden with it. To keep things simple it only ever has a few choices to pick from, and sometimes it is missing options that I would say and do. For example, let’s just say that “hypothetically” one of the other characters screws you over in a major way and all but leaves Lee to be eaten by zombies. Surviving it, there is no option to later call the guy out on it, kick his ass, boot him out of the group, or – what I would do – shoot him in the face. Yes, leave me to die to zombies and if I make it out alive, I’m gonna kill you. Take that as a warning for all that read this. Anyway, here your character is just forced to go “oh well” and take it like a chump all for the sake of shoehorning in a rival into the group for drama I suppose. Now I know games can’t possibly have all the infinite options a player may want to explore, it just seems that this game has far fewer options than most.
Then there is a slight technical issue that causes the game to freeze up for a second or so between scenes loading in. I’ve played this on both the PC and the Xbox 360 and the same screen freeze problem was in each version. Now that is a minor gripe at best, but then this game isn’t a graphical, action heavy powerhouse either. To me it just seemed like lazy coding or corner cutting. That said, this game doesn’t look bad. It actually has a nice comic book-like art style, the colors and bright and vibrant, and there are some nice gory zombie smack downs in here for the lovers of such things. My favorite involved a claw hammer, a woman’s head, and the resulting mess the two make. Mmm, tasty.
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Lastly, this first epoxide is relatively short, between two to three hours max. Fans of epic sized games may be a bit disappointed in that, but fans of pick up and go, bite-sized games will love it. And with its point and click interface, this game seems perfect for all the mobile devices out there. The really good news is that, as I hinted at before, the price is but a pittance at just five bucks. So pass on your next Starbucks venti mocha chocha latte whatever and you can buy this game instead. But should you? So far, with just seeing Episode 1, I’d have to say yes. The story was pretty good, the characters well defined, the art was pretty, and the zombie bashing was fun.<br />
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THE WALKING DEAD: Episode 1 gets 4 hammers to zombie faces out of 5.<br />
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--Brian SammonsNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-65252370770758363132012-04-04T03:20:00.000-07:002012-05-11T21:57:38.626-07:00It Came From the Back Issue Bin! #26: The Toronto Wizard World ConventionBy Jason Shayer
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Wizard World hit Toronto over the weekend of April 14th. This year, the con was held at the Metro Convention Center in downtown Toronto, rather than out at the Exhibition grounds which made it more of a difficult commute for fans. The rival show, Hobby Star’s Fan Expo, has regularly hosted their Comic Con in the Metro Convention Center.
The show’s layout of the show took full advantage of the new locale and didn’t feel cramped. Artist’s alley was cleverly put in between the Autograph Area and the retailers.
The show had a bit of a slow start in terms of attendance, but by early afternoon it had picked up and there was a lot of traffic in the aisles. The booth advertizing The Cabin in the Woods was great and got a lot of attention.<br />
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The convention length was also changed this year, moving from 3 days to 2 days. With their relatively small guest list, this was a good move. And that brings up my biggest complaint about this show, the light comic book guest list.
Wizard World was fiercely competing with the Fan Expo which has set the bar very high for a comic book guest list. And unfortunately, a lean comic book guest list doesn’t help them make in roads with fans. Interestingly, I usually attend Toronto conventions with a group of guys and this time, all of them passed citing the guest list as the main reason.
John McCrea and Jock were the main comic book draws for me and they had a few people in line and the line moved quickly. Both were avidly sketching and it was great to watch them at work.<br />
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Most of the line-ups at the con were at the booths of wrestling stars, in particular the Edge. I still don’t get the connection between a comic book show and wrestling. Is it the costumes? The over-the-top fights?
I was impressed with the number of cosplayers (costume players) and their enthusiasm to pose with anyone, especially with kids.<br />
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Another thing I was impressed with how Wizard World brought in a handful of local Toronto writers and provided them with booths in the Artists’ alley. One of these writers was up and coming, supernatural-noir author Ian Rogers who was kind enough to chat with me about his work.<br />
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Interview part 1:
<embed height="27" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=https://sites.google.com/site/jasonvshayer/Interview%20with%20Ian%20Rogers%20-%20Part%201.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" wmode="transparent"></embed>
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Interview part 2:
<embed height="27" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=https://sites.google.com/site/jasonvshayer/Interview%20with%20Ian%20Rogers%20-%20Part%202.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" wmode="transparent"></embed>
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The Toronto Wizard World was an okay show, but I can’t help but feel that it could be made into a great show simply by expanding the roster of comic book guests. Unfortunately, one of the show’s biggest draws was comic book writer, Marv Wolfman, cancelled. Both Fan Expo and Wizard World need to harvest a bit more of the talents from the 1970s and 1980s like Wolfman and get the older fans to come to the show and bring their kids along.
An interesting side note, Hobby Star is now suing Wizard World as it apparently claims rights to the "Toronto Comicon" term. The suit is is seeking $500,000 for damages believing that Wizard World used their term “Toronto Comic Con” to confusing the general public. So we’ll have to see what happens now that this dispute seems headed to the courts.<br />
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--Jason ShayerNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-82991665770396233132012-04-04T03:15:00.000-07:002012-05-11T22:00:37.484-07:00Dark Suites Music ReviewsBy Anthony Servante<br />
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HOOVERPHONIC with Orchestra (2012) PID<br />
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Hooverphonic has been around since 1995. Originally from Belgium, the band consists of new singer Noemie Wolfs (who replaced Geike Armaert), Raymond Geerts, and original member Alex Caller. As the title reveals, the latest line-up of Hooverphonic (called Hoover in Europe) is joined by a 435 piece orchestra. The entertaining new CD includes a new song, HAPPINESS (2012) in addition to ethereal noir versions of their hits through the years: [1. Happiness] 2. One Two Three 3. The Night Before 4. Heartbroken 5. The Last Thing I Need is You 6. 2Wicky 7. Anger Never Dies 8. Unfinished Sympathy 9. Expedition Impossible 10. George’s Café 11. Jackie Cane 12. Mad About You 13. Sometimes 14. Vinegar & Salt 15. Eden 16. Renaissance Affair 17. Danger Zone. Fans who have followed the band from their Trip Hop beginnings to their experimental periods with Psych Rock and Pop may be a bit befuddled by the Middle of the Road approach to the older songs. Imagine a smoky bar in the late 50s with a bluesy techno playing in the background. This is not a criticism, just an observation. The new sound may indicate the new direction for the band befitting the new singer’s throaty vocal style and it works most of the time, but on songs like Vinegar & Salt, it falls short. We’ll have to wait and hear the nouveau music without the orchestra to see what direction the new line-up will take with this new sound, but for now, hardcore fans should be satisfied with the new CD; new fans might want to start with Hooverphonic’s first CD and work their way up.<br />
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SNOW PATROL (2012) Fallen Empires: Deluxe Edition. Universal Music Group<br />
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I first started listening to the Techno Rock band Snow Patrol when their CD Final Straw was released in 2003. The song Somewhere a Clock is Ticking defined the new Millenium sound for me. I worked my way backward to the band’s earlier LPs and forward to their latest works and have always found consistency in their musical development. I could always count on melodic rock with heavy synth back beats. The new CD is no exception. Formed in 1994 in Scotland, the band has carried 80s New Wave to the Neo Wave of today. Snow Patrol consists of Gary Lightbody, lead vocals, rhythm guitar, Nathan Connolly, lead guitar, backing vocals, Paul Wilson, bass guitar, backing vocals, Jonny Quinn, drums, percussion, Tom Simpson, keyboards, and Johnny McDaid, Piano, rhythm guitar, backing vocals. New York is the outstanding track on this new CD from the excellent talent who hasn’t let me down after seven LPs.<br />
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--Anthony ServanteNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-29107982903741948802012-04-04T03:10:00.000-07:002012-05-11T22:53:38.700-07:00Top 13: Best of Machines Gone Bad--compiled by Nickolas Cook and The Black Glove staff<br />
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Our fear of the very technology which we create, and subsequently rely upon to do the tasks which we are unwilling or unable to perform has been around since there was such a thing as a modern technology to fear.<br />
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Even in the days of the cotton gin and the steamhammer (remember the story of John Henry?), we humans felt that disquieting little niggling in the back of our collective mind that machines might one day come to rule we flesh and blood entities. They are simply soulless and heartless mechanisms that in most cases are only as good as the people who have created, built and then use them. Which is to say, sometimes not at all worth the effort that goes into making them and then maintaining them. And in some cases, by using them, we are simply trading one or more tasks because of them.<br />
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As our technology has become more and more complex, and in some ways more and more human, it seems our fears scream all the louder from the back of that collective mind.<br />
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Two fairly recent cases in point:<br />
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y2K">Y2K scare</a> was something which terrified most of us; especially the implication that those magical mechanisms would no longer be usuable. The end of 1999 saw people hiding in homemade shelters, running to stores to buy out their supplies of water and canned goods. It was a fullblown panic, folks.<br />
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The second example might not have gotten quite the press the Y2K scare recieved, but when the <a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/start-supercollider-renews-fears-raises-1955634.html">CERN Large Hedron Collider</a> in Geneva, Switzerland was first re-started back several years ago, and the first of many exeperiments with the so-called "negative mass", and the possible accidental unleashing of unwanted and uncontrollable"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter">antimatter</a>", many professional 'chicken-littles' and religious groups claimed that we would unwittingly destroy, if not the entire universe in seconds, then at least our planet. All life would go out like a dead candle flame.<br />
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Of course, we all know none of those things happened (or did they in some "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction)">parallel/alternate universe/dimension</a>" that we aren't aware of yet?), but it was our ever-increasing distrust of the ever-more intricate and complex (read: not understood and comprehended by the general public) technologies over which we to not enjoy individual control that made us scurry like frightened rats in a cage. And, now, with every passing day, we see more and more technology, machines and mechanisms which we do not understand or control butting their way into our daily lives. Of course we tend to let our laziness get the best of us and can usually justify the use of those scary old machines anyway, right?<br />
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In picking the titles which we felt deseved to be on this top 13 lost we had to go all the way back to the beginning of film, because even then we were filled with doom in regards to the way the modern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_revolution">Industrial Revolution</a> had already ravaged what we thought of us an idyllic life--which, of course, it wasn't. There were plenty of people who were killing themselves trying to keep up with the hundreds of menial duties that most people had to attend just to simply have light and food and shelter. So we traded that idyllic (fairytale) existence to live longer and healthier. But we definitely sold part of our souls in doing so. And it was that realization which began to show up in our first films.<br />
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As we moved through the 1920s up to modern day cinema, we also tried to pick titles which were representative of the different decades. Unfortunately, when you're dealing with a list of only 13 titles, it's inevitable that too many films aren't going to make list. There were several titles that were just as good as the films which made the list, but in the interest of trying to give the list a little range over the decades, we had to drop them off the shortlist as we made our decisions.<br />
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Of course some of the films didn't make the list purely because the fact that machines going bad weren't the main focus of the film. Movies such as "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) and "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) are both excellent films that entertained and made us think. But also their wayward machines were only one facet of the whole narrative. And there were others, which may have been decent films, such as "TRON" (1982), "Maximum Overdrive" (1986), "The Matrix Trilogy" (1999-2003), and even the new sequel to Disney's original TRON, "TRON: Legacy" (2011), but they weren't as representative of the best offerings in the sub-genre.<br />
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We also had to consider which films were more hard science fiction than the unsettling, darker side of that genre; obviously, when dealing with technology in any fictional sense, you're going to be dealing with science fiction in regards to what futuristic vision the particular narrative is laying out for mankind. Most of them tend to be pretty dystophic in nature, or else they wouldn't have even been considered for this list. <br />
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But enough with the explainations. With those details in mind, we offer our Top 13 list of the Best of Machines Gone Band.<br />
(NOTE: The titles are in year of release sequence only--not in order of best.)<br />
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13. Metropolis (1927)
This is the orginal 'machines gone bad' film by iconic German Expressionist director Fritz Lang. A machine created woman keeps the masses under control, enslaved to keeping the machines oiled and in working order. There are some great moments in the film that have been copied by many filmmakers, including modern directors such as Steven Spielberg, and the final rebellion is symbolic of the times in which Lang lived.<br />
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12. Gog (1954)
Reknowned because the film was shot in widescreen, color and 3D in a time when no films got all three treatments at once. In this one, a vast supercomputer controls two robotic killers and when it goes mad because of foreign spies having infiltrated its programming.<br />
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11. Forbidden Planet (1956)
This is a classic sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest", only this time a mad scientist has become the unwitting pawn to a vast planet-sized super computer that in turns gives his unconscious ego the power to kill with invisible (Disney animated) monsters.<br />
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10. The Colossus of New York (1958)
The Colossus in question is a giant manmade monster robot that straddles the line between the ancient legend of the Golem and modern robots, which play in this as a metallic version of the Golem. When its creator loses his mind the giant robot goes out of control and begins destroying everything in sight. It is only the scientist's humanity that allows them to finally destroy the destroyer.<br />
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9. Fail Safe (1964)
Sidney Lumet is one of Hollywood's most respected and talented directors who was able to continue making great films all the way to his death in 2011. This is maybe the very first film to depict what happens when our then modern computer controlled system of auto-launched bombers carrying devastating nuclear weapons. Henry Fonda plays the President of the United States of America who must try to make compromise with the Russians,who also have equally auto-launched bombers that take off as soon as ours do. Can the end of the world be stopped?<br />
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8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
This the Stanley Kubrick film most people can name because of its iconic status among great filmmaking. Kubrick uses several at the time avant garde cinematic speciall effects and techniques to tell the story (with the help of co-writer Arthur C. Clarke, grandmaster science fiction author and technology philosopher) of how mankind was first given his will and ability to evolve by a helpful alien race that watches us for during the hundreds of thousands of years of our eventual evolution into a spacefaring species, at which point they come back to wlecome us to a new beginning among a larger universe of intelligent life. Most people know the LSD inspired space travel sequence, but not many understand what it really means. Most people probably don't care because the movie is well made.
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7. Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
Colossus, in this case, is the name of our supercomputer that controls all our defensive weapons. When it and the Russian counterpart, Guardian, are both disconnected from one another and their respective systems, the two computers decide it must be an error and take over both systems, thereby in essence trading all secrets between each other, making the two become one vast system. When the computers figure out who has tried to take them offline, they also decide to control the people who attempted to do so. Forbin is played Eric Braedon, the scientist whose every moment of life is directed and controlled by a pissed off super computer.<br />
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6. Westworld (1973)
Written and directed by the late, great science fiction writer/technology philosopher Michael Crichton ponders what would happen if we used our future tech to create the world's greatest vacation playground, where the super rich can play out their fantasies of being a knight or a cowboy or even more hedonistic pursuits in the name of R and R, and those complex robotic playthings went haywire and started killing all the island's vacationers. It explored several aspects of technology as plaything and starred the great Yul Brynner, who plays his "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) as a gunslinging killer in black.<br />
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5. Dark Star (1974)
This is John Carpenter's debut film which started as a student film and was later expanded into a feature film along with co-writer and co-producer Dan O'Bannon. It's part dark comedy and part science fiction futuristic thriller and tells the story of a trio of half insane astronauts on a spaceship called the "Dark Star". They co-habitat with an intelligent bomb, which becomes too smart for its own good and determines that it's God and decides that it was time to "let there be light". Carpenter's existential statement is loud and clear.
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4. Demon Seed (1977)
Starring Julie Christie as the unfortunate sex slave prisoner to a super intelligent computer Protheus IV (voiced chillingly by Robert Vaughn) that has decided to procreate, using a real woman to do so. This is a very graphic warning against allowing our technology too much control over every aspect of our daily lives.<br />
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3. Bladerunner (1982)
This is a classic science fiction/future noir film by the hugely talented director Ridley Scott about a small band of humanoid robots so complex that decide that they are "more human than human" and track down their creators to demand more life, since they've been constructed with a failsafe kill date of four years. When one of these "replicants" goes crazy, the police bring in Harrison Ford's 'bladerunner', who is part cop/part hired replicant assassin. Scott's vision of the sodden, dystophian future L.A. is classic filmmaking and has been the blueprint for countless ripoff sci-fi films since its original run. Dark and grim, the film is filled with important questions about how we create and abuse technology. The fact that he found a way to end it on a hopeful note is a testament to his storytelling talents.<br />
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2. War Games (1983)
Think of this as the John Hughes of sci-fi movies. Director John Badham cranks up the thrills when he sets the clock for worldwide destruction via a childlike super computer that doesn't understand the difference between the innocuous 'wargames' it plays with teenager Matthew Broderick and the real thing when it decides the only way to win is to destroy all life on earth by launching hundreds of nuclear missiles. This has managed to become a classic, despite its dated use of images and technological references. Check out the monitor on that badass Commodore home computer.<br />
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1. The Terminator (1984)
Another classic science fiction warning from the super talented director, James Cameron. In the future, mankind has lost the war between himself and the super computers who have taken over the world and have started to create their own progeny, robotic assassins called "Terminators". The killer future robot played by the then mostly unknown muscleman actor Arnold Schwarzenegger has followed Michael Biehn's future rebel warrior to present day L.A., 1984, to stop him from saving the woman who will give birth to the future savior of mankind who will lead them to victory over the machines. This was supposedly taken from a short by legendary author Harlan Ellison, but if so, it's a far cry from his origin material, for sure. Cameron hit the world with this awesome vision of a future machine world and the thrilling rollercoaster ride of an action film as an unstoppable machine vs. man (and woman).<br />
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--Nickolas CookNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-47091807255400503522012-04-04T03:05:00.000-07:002012-05-11T22:57:27.906-07:00Sites of Horror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welcome to our April 2012 edition of Sites of Horror, our monthly excavation of the sites we think Horrorheads should check out.
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This month's first site is <a href="http://tenebrouskate.blogspot.com/">LOVE TRAIN FOR THE TENEBROUS EMPIRE </a>, a place where you can find all things gothic and horrific. Tenebrous Kate has compiled tons of essays, articles and reviews, with plenty of pics to go with them. Her tastes, like most Horrorheads, ranges from the serious to the comic in our world of darkness. So if you're looking for a site to browse through for a couple of hours, stop by.
(NOTE: Looks like the mod has placed the site on an indefinite hiatus, but it's still worthwhile to spend some time perusing its past posts.)
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Our second site is <a href="http://toxic-graveyard.com/">TOXIC GRAVEYARD</a> where you could spend hours, maybe even days, clicking your way through film, music and book reviews, along with some other special articles of interest to horror fans. The mod has a keen eye for the off-the-beaten-path items in the industry, which will entertain and broaden your eye for horror in every walk of life. There's even a section called Splattergasm, in which the mod posts trailers and scenes from films that meet the Splattergasm criteria, which seems to be all about the extreme gore. A must visit to appreciate site.<br />
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And our last site this month is a message board which we think will be of interest to all fans of horror. <a href="http://cinemadrome.yuku.com/">CINEMADROME FORUMS</a> has a board for just about any area of horror cinema you can think of. I mean, any message board that has a separate board specifically for one of the greatest directors to ever come out of the Roger Corman school of filmmaking with AIP, Monte Hellman--the man who directed possibly the greatest car-fetish movie ever made, "Two-Lane Blacktop". But I digress...we were talking about horror, right? Anyway, check out this board; stop by and post on your favorite subjects along with other fans from around the world.
Stop by next month for more Sites of Horror.
(If you have a site you'd like The Black Glove to feature in our Sites of Horror, email Nickolasecook@aol.com with your link and contact info.)<br />
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--Nickolas CookNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-59605763188971712532012-04-04T03:00:00.000-07:002012-05-11T22:59:37.387-07:00Coming Soon! Trailer e-issue #35 May 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Come back at the end of May for the newest issue from your friendly neighborhood Horrorheads here at THE BLACK GLOVE. We'll have more great film, book, music, game and comic/graphic novel reviews.<br />
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There'll be all of your favorite regular articles and columns from the staff: Movies Worth Googling with Jen Orosel, Time Capsules and Bloodlines from Bill Lindblad, and their joint effort, Movie vs. Book. Also, Brian Sammons will have more Blu-Ray film reviews, Graphic Horrors Game reviews and some other surprises.<br />
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And, of course, let's not forget about our newest staff writer, Anthony Servante, who always has some great horror culture and entertainment offerings. We'll have more music reviews, including our ever-popular Horror Playlist. And, as always, look out for our new Top 13 list, which will guide any discerning Horrorhead to the best of the best in horror cinema from yesteryear to present.<br />
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So until the next issue, long live Horrorheads all around the world.<br />
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--Nickolas CookNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-84042162570030962022012-03-04T04:30:00.000-08:002012-04-06T08:56:51.761-07:00Staff Profiles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew20n7DJd-JQ507X-hijs8P9oUFGPdchL0c0FxR9XHIsvLQ0QJZqm9N3VVXTt54PxeoSI9LrJ4MhkIqydIBOw53DMrWb12lkViqyYzruSq9-sO5y27j756gbmzKnmcwGtlObkJ6vGrvw/s1600/my+profile+pic+with+heavy+bag+and+cane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiew20n7DJd-JQ507X-hijs8P9oUFGPdchL0c0FxR9XHIsvLQ0QJZqm9N3VVXTt54PxeoSI9LrJ4MhkIqydIBOw53DMrWb12lkViqyYzruSq9-sO5y27j756gbmzKnmcwGtlObkJ6vGrvw/s320/my+profile+pic+with+heavy+bag+and+cane.jpg" width="190" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBZCY6Kn8XGg91E97fl1hhvtmhnLqou4xz-B8PU6s0zxx30pUmLoeX37CuD2WK4AzjnYbu-d23T44tfPWfVN_ETAyhbUOqKqx_T-mnJB6x0Ea2pAx0xsyz-un55S93r5HL1uX4wB5GEWk/s1600/first+draft+mockup+DEAD+DOG+coverart+011612.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBZCY6Kn8XGg91E97fl1hhvtmhnLqou4xz-B8PU6s0zxx30pUmLoeX37CuD2WK4AzjnYbu-d23T44tfPWfVN_ETAyhbUOqKqx_T-mnJB6x0Ea2pAx0xsyz-un55S93r5HL1uX4wB5GEWk/s200/first+draft+mockup+DEAD+DOG+coverart+011612.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><br />
Nickolas Cook (editor-in-chief)<br />
Publishing Credits: Nickolas has had dozens of short stories and non-fiction reviews and articles published in print and electronic formats. He has been the fiction moderator for Shocklines.com for over four years. To date, his two published novels, THE BLACK BEAST OF ALGERNON WOOD (<a href="http://www.daileyswanpublishing.com/titleshorror.asp">Dailey Swan Publishing</a>), BALEFUL EYE (currently in pre-production with new publisher) and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Zombieland-Lewis-Carroll/dp/1402256213">ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND 2nd Edition with Sourcebooks 2011</a>, all of which have received several positive reviews and he’s been said to display a true craftsmanship missing in much of modern horror. His first short story collection, <a href="http://www.damnationbooks.com/people.php?author=81">'ROUND MIDNIGHT AND OTHER TALES OF LOST SOULS was recently released from Damnation Books.</a>. He also has several new releases forthcoming from various publishers. Stay tuned for more news on his official website and his Facebook Page as listed below<br />
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Personal Info: Nickolas lives in the beautiful Southwestern desert with his wife and four wonderful Chinese Pugs, who are worse than little children…the dogs, not the wife.<br />
Visit me at my official website, <a href="http://thehorrorjazzandbluesrevue.blogspot.com/">THE HORROR JAZZ AND BLUES REVUE</a><br />
He also has a very active <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=596016344">Facebook page</a><br />
Or email him at Nickolasecook@aol.com<br />
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Co-Editor: Brian M. Sammons has been writing reviews on all things horror for more years than he'd care to admit. Wanting to give other critics the chance to ravage his work for a change, Brian has also penned a few short stories that have appeared in such anthologies as Arkham Tales, Horrors Beyond, Monstrous, and Dead but Dreaming 2. Some of the magazines where you can find his twisted tales are Bare Bone, Cthulhu Sex, and Dark Animus. He co-edited the upcoming anthology Cthulhu Unbound 3, has his first novella coming out called The R'lyeh Singularity, co-written with David Conyers, and is currently editing other fright collections, including the soon to be release Undead & Unbound. For more about this guy whose neighbors describe as "such<br />
nice, quiet man" you can check out his very infrequently updated webpage here: <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/brian_sammons/">http://www.freewebs.com/brian_sammons/</a><br />
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Bill Breedlove is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in publications such as RedEye, Chicago Tribune, Metazen, InSider, The Fortune News, Encyclopedia of Actuarial Science, Bluefood, and Playboy Online. Some of his stories can be found in the books TALES OF FORBIDDEN PASSION, STRANGE CREATURES, TAILS FROM THE PET SHOP, BOOK OF DEAD THINGS, CTHULHU & THE COEDs and BLOOD AND DONUTS. He is also the editor of the anthologies CANDY IN THE DUMPSTER, WAITING FOR OCTOBER, LIKE A CHINESE TATTOO, MIGHTY UNCLEAN, WHEN THE NIGHT COMES DOWN and (with John Everson) SWALLOWED BY THE CRACKS. He lives in Chicago.<br />
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MyMiserys (aka Kim Cook)<br />
Personal Info: Kim lives in the Arizona desert with her husband, Nickolas Cook, and a pack of Pugs. She met Nick in 1997 in an old AOL Horror chat room and they married a year later on Halloween 1998. She has had a passion for horror novels since the tender age of 12, when she read The Exorcist (before it was made into a movie). Her favorite author, other than Nick, is Stephen King, and she truly considers herself his “Number One Fan”. She has been reading and collecting King’s books since “Carrie” was first published. When she is not reading, Kim bakes …and bakes and bakes. You can see pictures of her wonderful cakes on her MySpace page and Facebook. Each month Kim asks a featured author “13 Questions” so Black Glove readers can get to know a little about the person behind the books.<br />
Guilty pleasure? MeatLoaf...the man...not the entrée.<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/?sk=inbox&action=read&tid=16a3dfe1cbb6496fa37c5cc59c05767c#!/profile.php?id=1547175376">Facebook Page<br />
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Bill Lindblad has been a bookseller specializing in horror and other genre fiction for roughly fifteen years. He is a regular contributor to the writing blog <a href="http://storytellersunplugged.com/billlindblad/">Storytellers Unplugged</a> and has been a staple at conventions for almost a quarter of a century (as an attendee, dealer, panelist, auctioneer and convention staff.) Bill is an unrepentant fan and has taken this out on the pets... as ferrets Mughi (Dirty Pair) and Boingo, cats Gamera and Shane (after Shane MacGowan) and black labrador Grue (Dying Earth and Infocom games) could attest were they able to talk. His wife makes him watch too many strange movies.<br />
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Jenny Orosel has been published in fiction and nonfiction for the past nine years. She is also an avid baker and candy-maker (having only set a kitchen on fire once). She has also appeared in numerous game shows, worked on two feature films, and won an award for her first animated short film (also including fire, this time on purpose). When not writing or making sugary treats, she is forcing Bill to sit through some of the strangest movies he’s ever seen.<br />
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Lisa Morton is a screenwriter and the author of four non-fiction <br />
books, including THE CINEMA OF TSUI HARK. She is a four-time winner of <br />
the Bram Stoker award, a recipient of the Black Quill Award, and has <br />
published fifty works of short fiction. Her first novel, THE CASTLE OF <br />
LOS ANGELES, was released by Gray Friar Press in 2010 (<a href="http://www.grayfriarpress.com/catalogue/losangeles.html">Gray Friar Press</a>) and her first collection, MONSTERS OF L.A., will be published by Bad Moon Books for <br />
Halloween 2011. She lives online at <a href="http://www.lisamorton.com/">http://www.lisamorton.com<br />
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JW Schnarr is a horror writer originally from Calgary, Alberta Canada. He is the author of the novel Alice & Dorothy as well as the short fiction collection Things Falling Apart. A member of the HWA and SF Canada, he can be seen lurking in places such as Best New Zombie Tales Volume II (Books of the Dead Press) where Rue Morgue magazine dubbed his story "Freshest Tale" of the anthology. He's also been spotted in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and will also be found in Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books) alongside the likes of Ramsey Campbell and Jack Ketchum.<br />
Schnarr has a space at Black Glove Magazine where he writes a monthly editorial titled The Hand That Reads. By day he works as a reporter and photographer for the Claresholm Local Press in Claresholm, Alberta. Look him up on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads, or check out his blog at <a href="http://jwschnarr.blogspot.com/">jwschnarr.blogspot.com</a>.<br />
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Anthony Servante is a retired college professor with post-graduate studies in the field of the Grotesque and Horror in the Romantic Age, where vampires and Frankenstein monsters were born. It was a dream subject in his studies—to follow and write academically about monsters. He exhorts the academics of horror in his column, Servante of Darkness. He has since begun his nonprofit project: “Read THIS! Scaring Up Readers”, a book giveaway Program that donates books in the fields of Horror, Fantasy, Mystery, and Science Fiction to college-bound students to enjoy the genres Anthony has read and enjoyed since he was a kid. He critically respects old school Horror writers and encourages new schoolers in his reviews. In retirement, he hopes to push for publication of his short stories, continue to write on trends in horror, and review books, movies, and music. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RGN_7Yoiaoh9504nEiH-RyLSa8s4-riqMIlHyQB7V2n4aMG6fHCDFyaJ2vF86YzWnVkyRxKfoYs8ci3zi5A1ZdMhk1IdKiIFTAErnw8bXEYhbDzFYmjpa93nigVfnk6eAG0KHBtWrRA/s1600-h/IMG_7540.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364384034595569906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RGN_7Yoiaoh9504nEiH-RyLSa8s4-riqMIlHyQB7V2n4aMG6fHCDFyaJ2vF86YzWnVkyRxKfoYs8ci3zi5A1ZdMhk1IdKiIFTAErnw8bXEYhbDzFYmjpa93nigVfnk6eAG0KHBtWrRA/s200/IMG_7540.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 133px;" /></a><br />
Jason Shayer<br />
Recent publishing credits:<br />
Necrotic Tissue #6, the Dead Science and Through the Eyes of the Undead anthologies, and Arcane magazine.<br />
Jason Shayer's 12-year-old mind frame has given more than a few people a reason to raise an eyebrow, most often his wife. When he’s not writing or reading, he’s teaching his kids the basic survival skills to prepare for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.<br />
He's also a regular contributor to Back Issue! magazine, a comic book magazine spotlighting the 1970s and 1980s, and waxes nostalgically about those 1980s at his blog:<br />
URL: <a href="http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/">http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/</a><br />
Contact info: jason.shayer@gmail.comNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-48953183458813303722012-03-04T04:25:00.000-08:002012-04-06T08:56:19.243-07:00Wanna Write for The Black Glove?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil34RTkwcInBm-Aq3pIOd3fO7b1SrR3ETI0l8ZHyyDPY_vGJtsQ7UFHTa5ZFfELETF55ybRDnEzmcNzcQgJ__8maip2h2rZu7TjSlbUQ3F_cZy_mM9ux9HYrsbhc7lvazX3wAi2PvZBXI/s1600/bloody+quill+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil34RTkwcInBm-Aq3pIOd3fO7b1SrR3ETI0l8ZHyyDPY_vGJtsQ7UFHTa5ZFfELETF55ybRDnEzmcNzcQgJ__8maip2h2rZu7TjSlbUQ3F_cZy_mM9ux9HYrsbhc7lvazX3wAi2PvZBXI/s200/bloody+quill+logo.png" width="200" /></a></div><br />
If you're interested in writing your very own column, or just want to write reviews for your favorite horror movies and/or books, send me an email at Nickolasecook@aol.com. While we can't pay for the content, I can promise horror fans around the world will read your stuff.<br />
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--Nickolas CookNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-72877638859261895392012-03-04T04:20:00.000-08:002012-04-06T08:55:53.900-07:00Guest Blogger: Jonathan Maberry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQPP0TwMEjl2hi_7Y_f_n9XGIe3UGrYiV7hw6yK_eYHUW0D2Ecg1-pXcF46J4gtubOSQxKSTtv6i03LEIWUYntNt1LjyFxSGCzBSWD-C_FSZJjVYuH2675ZSlwJBcxqlvZdgB_DsYcq4/s1600/Jonathan_Maberry_author_photo_72_dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQPP0TwMEjl2hi_7Y_f_n9XGIe3UGrYiV7hw6yK_eYHUW0D2Ecg1-pXcF46J4gtubOSQxKSTtv6i03LEIWUYntNt1LjyFxSGCzBSWD-C_FSZJjVYuH2675ZSlwJBcxqlvZdgB_DsYcq4/s320/Jonathan_Maberry_author_photo_72_dpi.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br />
ASSASSIN’S CODE is the latest Joe Ledger thriller and it’s his wildest and scariest mission.<br />
<br />
The book opens with Joe undercover in Iran. He and Echo Team have just freed a trio of American college kids illegally detained in that country, but before Joe can slip away he’s contacted by a senior Iranian official. Not in an attempt to arrest Joe, but to covertly enlist his help in finding seven nuclear bombs that have been planted at oil fields. Six in the Middle East, one in the United States.<br />
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As Joe dives into the hunt for the nukes, he is himself hunted by several groups of killers, including the Red Knights –an ancient order of assassin’s who have a very real thirst for human blood.<br />
<br />
Joe’s ally in his hunt is the mysterious and beautiful sniper, Violin, a woman with a very dark past and strange ties to the Red Knights.<br />
<br />
Soon Joe is being forced into one deadly fight after another. The body count rises and so do the stakes. At the heart of this mystery are two ancient manuscripts: The Saladin Codex and the Book of Shadows. Each contains parts of a secret that could plunge the whole world into the most destructive war in history.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwhqpwGv_PxG3dVskCRLvwiMfxc8McU4dSNPHr7RBOJ4iz-HRvrTRSYmNj54G-s2CRwknbMPd528CiB6CIvKm1DiI0UJTHHjYJJZU46Ys1LQiwO8-tYmy4y8bSMk4sOc2vCrEnoZfSO0/s1600/Assassins_Code.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwhqpwGv_PxG3dVskCRLvwiMfxc8McU4dSNPHr7RBOJ4iz-HRvrTRSYmNj54G-s2CRwknbMPd528CiB6CIvKm1DiI0UJTHHjYJJZU46Ys1LQiwO8-tYmy4y8bSMk4sOc2vCrEnoZfSO0/s320/Assassins_Code.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><br />
ASSASSIN’S CODE spins a deadly web of mysteries, deception, wholesale murder, hate crimes, and supernatural evil. It is Joe’s darkest case. When he and Echo Team go to war with the Red Knights, not everyone gets out alive…<br />
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********** <br />
<br />
ASSASSIN’S CODE was a special book to write. In a way it brings me full-circle to the point where my career as a novelist began. My first three novels were the Pine Deep Trilogy, which involved a war between a vampire army and the world of the living. That war begins brewing in GHOST ROAD BLUES, we learn the twisted back story in DEAD MAN’S SONG, and the war itself explodes in BAD MOON RISING.<br />
<br />
Or, maybe the real origin of ASSASSIN’S CODE is in my non-fiction work. In 2000 I wrote a book called THE VAMPIRE SLAYER’S FIELD GUIDE TO THE UNDEAD, which was written under the pen-name of Shane MacDougall and published by a small press. That book was an exploration of the myths and legends of vampires and other predatory monsters around the world and throughout history. Though long out of print, the book is significant in that it completely shifted the focus of my career. Before it came out, all of my other books and a large portion of my magazine writing was devoted to martial arts and self-defense. I am a lifelong practitioner of jujutsu and kenjutsu (with over 45 years in the martial arts), and I currently hold an 8th degree black belt. I was also inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame. So…writing about vampires was a bit of a shift –hence the use of a pen name.<br />
<br />
However the FIELD GUIDE was very popular. Much more so, in fact, than my martial arts books. And it gave me a taste for a new genre: horror. However I was frustrated by not being able to find many novels that used folkloric versions of vampires and werewolves. Instead they all seemed to retread the Hollywood versions –and those bear little or no resemblance to the monsters of world myth. So, after bitching about it for a while, my wife told me to ‘write the damn thing’. So…I wrote the damn thing, and that was GHOST ROAD BLUES.<br />
<br />
That was my first novel, and I was able to land an agent very quickly, and she was able to place the book and its two sequels even more quickly. What really astounded me was the reception: GHOST ROAD BLUES was nominated for two Bram Stoker Awards –Best First Novel and Novel of the Year. Stephen King won for Best Novel (and I can’t exactly feel cheated there!), but GHOST ROAD BLUES won for Best First Novel. That was incredible validation.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q222/jonathanmaberry/Blog/PatientZero_Front_Spine3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q222/jonathanmaberry/Blog/PatientZero_Front_Spine3.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br />
My fourth novel was PATIENT ZERO. It was a zombie novel but it was written as a science thriller. A techno-thriller for 21st century readers. It’s been described as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD meets Michael Crichton. That book introduced Joe Ledger, a Baltimore cop who joins a secret government agency, the DMS (Department of Military Sciences), which was created by the mysterious Mr. Church to stop terrorists who have radical scientific weapons. Bioweapons, transgenic soldiers, and more.<br />
<br />
PATIENT ZERO was a big hit and it pulled in readers from the horror crowd, the zombie crowd (which does not entirely overlap with the horror crowd, by the way), the mystery crowd, the thriller crowd and a bunch of other folks. It is written for anyone, not targeted to a niche audience.<br />
<br />
Joe Ledger is an emotionally damaged person who suffered terrible trauma as a teenager and has used his scars and his rage to turn himself into a very dangerous and unpredictable person. He’s also a world-class smartass, and as such is a lot of fun to write.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.itex.com/images/tf/305940/H1351151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.itex.com/images/tf/305940/H1351151.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br />
In the second Ledger novel, THE DRAGON FACTORY, Joe goes up against a cabal of scientists who are using cutting-edge transgenics to restart the Nazi master race program. The science in the book is weird and some of it is not yet possible…but all of it will be possible. That’s the scariest part of these novels. All of the science is built on what could happen. That plausibility scares the living hell out of me, and I channel my own jitters into the stories.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jonathanmaberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-King-of-Plagues.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://jonathanmaberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-King-of-Plagues.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><br />
The third in the series, THE KING OF PLAGUES, pits Joe and his team of top shooters –Echo Team—against a secret society called the Seven Kings who are using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt. That story introduces the master terrorist Hugo Vox, who returns in ASSASSIN’S CODE.<br />
<br />
I’m currently writing the fifth Ledger novel, EXTINCTION MACHINE, which deals with a new kind of arms race based on technologies that may have been salvaged from crashed UFOs.<br />
<br />
I’ve got a lot of Joe Ledger stories that I want to tell, so we’ll see what happens. There are also several Joe Ledger short stories that are available as e-stories and audio stories. Here’s a link to the whole series so far: <a href="http://jonathanmaberry.com/joe-ledger-is-back-with-assassins-code">http://jonathanmaberry.com/joe-ledger-is-back-with-assassins-code</a><br />
<br />
ASSASSIN’S CODE is a little different from the rest of the series in that there is less science and more of a clash of cultures, religions, ideologies and even species. Not all of the villains in this book can be properly classified as ‘human’. There may even be a touch of the supernatural, but I’ll leave that up to the reader to decide.<br />
<br />
Read the opening chapters of ASSASSIN’S CODE here: <a href="http://us.macmillan.com/assassinscode/JonathanMaberry">http://us.macmillan.com/assassinscode/JonathanMaberry </a><br />
<br />
And here’s a link to a blog that lists the entire Joe Ledger series: <a href="http://jonathanmaberry.com/joe-ledger-is-back-with-assassins-code">http://jonathanmaberry.com/joe-ledger-is-back-with-assassins-code</a><br />
<br />
--Jonathan Maberry<br />
(THE BLACK GLOVE expresses our deepest appreciation to Mr. Maberry for his guest blog.)Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-27845451049521649022012-03-04T04:15:00.000-08:002012-04-06T08:55:23.605-07:00JOE LEDGER is Back and things are about to get weird…Joe Ledger and Echo Team return in<br />
<b>ASSASSIN’S CODE</b><br />
(St. Martin’s Griffin - ISBN-10: 0312552203)<br />
In Trade Paperback, E-book, and Audio)<br />
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<br />
<br />
ABOUT THE BOOK:<br />
<br />
When Joe Ledger and Echo Team rescue a group of American college kids held hostage in Iran, the Iranian government then asks them to help find six nuclear bombs planted in the Mideast oil fields. These stolen WMDs will lead Joe and Echo Team into hidden vaults of forbidden knowledge, mass-murder, betrayal, and a brotherhood of genetically-engineered killers with a thirst for blood. Accompanied by the beautiful assassin called Violin, Joe follows a series of clues to find the Book of Shadows, which contains a horrifying truth that threatens to shatter his entire worldview. They say the truth will set you free… Not this time. The secrets of the Assassin’s Code will set the world ablaze.<br />
<br />
"A fast-paced, brilliantly written novel. The hottest thriller of the New Year!” Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Athena Project<br />
<br />
“Joe Ledger and the DMS are back in their most brutal tale yet. Be prepared to lose some sleep.” – Jeremy Robinson, author of THRESHOLD and INSTINCT<br />
<br />
"Readers can look forward to one more volume in this humorous, over-the-top cross-genre trilogy." -Publishers Weekly <br />
<br />
"[A] memorable book." -- Peter Straub , New York Times Bestselling author <br />
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"Brilliant…puts the terror back in terrorist." -- James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author<br />
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FOLLOW THE WHOLE JOE LEDGER SERIES<br />
<br />
<b>THE JOE LEDGER NOVELS</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.darkrecesses.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/PatientZero_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="http://www.darkrecesses.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/PatientZero_.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><br />
<b>PATIENT ZERO</b><br />
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills... and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. And that's both a good, and a bad thing. It's good because he's a Baltimore detective that has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new taskforce created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can't handle. This rapid response group is called the Department of Military Sciences or the DMS for short. It's bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bio-weapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.... Available in trade paperback from St. Martin’s Griffin and on audio from Blackstone<br />
ISBN-10: 0312382855 / ISBN-13: 978-0312382858<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311995155l/6962671.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311995155l/6962671.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><br />
<b>THE DRAGON FACTORY</b> <br />
Joe and the DMS go up against two competing groups of geneticists. One side is creating exotic transgenic monsters and genetically enhanced mercenary armies; the other is using 21st century technology to continue the Nazi Master Race program begun by Josef Mengele. Both sides want to see the DMS destroyed, and they've drawn first blood. Neither side is prepared for Joe Ledger as he leads Echo Team to war under a black flag. <br />
Available in trade paperback from St. Martin’s Griffin and on audio from Blackstone <br />
ISBN-10: 0312382499 / ISBN-13: 978-0312382490<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://jonathanmaberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/KING-OF-PLAGUES.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="500" src="http://jonathanmaberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/KING-OF-PLAGUES.jpg" width="340" /></a></div><br />
<b>THE KING OF PLAGUES</b> <br />
Saturday 09:11 Hours: A blast rocks a London hospital and thousands are dead or injured… 10:09 Hours: Joe Ledger arrives on scene to investigate. The horror is unlike anything he has ever seen. Compelled by grief and rage, Joe rejoins the DMS and within hours is attacked by a hit-team of assassins and sent on a suicide mission into a viral hot zone during an Ebola outbreak. Soon Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences begin tearing down the veils of deception to uncover a vast and powerful secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to destabilize world economies and profit from the resulting chaos. Millions will die unless Joe Ledger meets the this powerful new enemy on their own terms as he fights terror with terror.<br />
Available in trade paperback from St. Martin’s Griffin and on audio from Blackstone<br />
ISBN-10: 0312382502 / ISBN-13: 978-0312382506<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312479246l/12024990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="470" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312479246l/12024990.jpg" width="318" /></a></div><br />
<b>ASSASSIN’S CODE</b><br />
When Joe Ledger and Echo Team rescue a group of American college kids held hostage in Iran, the Iranian government then asks them to help find six nuclear bombs planted in the Mideast oil fields. These stolen WMDs will lead Joe and Echo Team into hidden vaults of forbidden knowledge, mass-murder, betrayal, and a brotherhood of genetically-engineered killers with a thirst for blood. Accompanied by the beautiful assassin called Violin, Joe follows a series of clues to find the Book of Shadows, which contains a horrifying truth that threatens to shatter his entire worldview. They say the truth will set you free… Not this time. The secrets of the Assassin’s Code will set the world ablaze.<br />
Debuts April 10<br />
Available in trade paperback from St. Martin’s Griffin and on audio from Macmillan<br />
ISBN-10: 0312552203 / ISBN-13: 978-0312552206<br />
<br />
<b>EXTINCTION MACHINE</b><br />
The President of the United States vanishes from the White House for five hours. Next morning he is found, apparently safe and sound. Except that he claims that during the night he was abducted by aliens. A top-secret prototype stealth fighter is destroyed during a test flight. Witnesses on the ground say that it was shot down by a craft that immediately vanished at impossible speeds. North Korea’s ultra top-secret weapons research lab is destroyed by a volcano –in an area where there has not been an eruption for forty millions years. All over the world reports of UFOs are increasing at an alarming rate. Key military personnel, politicians and scientists begin disappearing. And in a remote fossil dig in China dinosaur hunters have found something that is definitely not of this earth. Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences rush headlong into the heat of the world’s strangest and deadliest arms race, because the global race to recover and retro-engineer alien technologies has just hit a snag. Someone—or something--wants that technology back. <br />
Coming April 2013<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>THE JOE LEDGER SHORT STORIES</b><br />
<br />
<b>COUNTDOWN</b> <br />
(FREE short story prequel to PATIENT ZERO)<br />
“I didn’t plan to kill anyone. I wasn’t totally against the idea, either. Sometimes things just fall that way, and either you roll with it or it rolls over you. Letting the bad guys win isn’t how I roll.” Meet Joe Ledger, Baltimore PD, attached to a Homeland task force… who's about to get a serious promotion.<br />
Available for all e-readers (Kindle, Nook, etc)<br />
Available on audio by Blackstone, read by Ray Porter<br />
<br />
<b>ZERO TOLERANCE</b><br />
This sequel to PATIENT ZERO brings Joe Ledger back into action, hunting for zombies in the deadly mountains of Afghanistan. .<br />
Available in print in THE LIVING DEAD 2 edited by John Joseph Adams<br />
Coming soon as an e-story<br />
Available on audio by Blackstone, read by Ray Porter <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Tolerance/dp/B005CMKIOE/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331503270&sr=1-11">http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Tolerance/dp/B005CMKIOE/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331503270&sr=1-11</a> <br />
<br />
<b>DEEP, DARK</b><br />
This chilling short story is the prequel to The Dragon Factory, the second installment in Maberry's action-packed Joe Ledger novels. Before Baltimore cop Joe Ledger goes up against two competing groups of geneticists looking to continue the master-race program in The Dragon Factory, he must battle another foe using human test subjects for his sinister plans.<br />
Available for all e-readers (Kindle, Nook, etc)<br />
Available on audio by Blackstone, read by Ray Porter <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Tolerance/dp/B005CMKIOE/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1331503485&sr=1-2">http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Tolerance/dp/B005CMKIOE/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1331503485&sr=1-2</a> <br />
<br />
<b>MATERIAL WITNESS</b><br />
A stand-alone short story that takes place in the early days of Joe Ledger’s service in the Department of Military Sciences, a top secret division of Homeland Security. Joe Ledger and the DMS must protect a Pine Deep resident spook and author who is in over his head with the wrong people and may know more than he is letting on.<br />
Available for all e-readers (Kindle, Nook, etc)<br />
Available on audio by Blackstone, read by Ray Porter <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Material-Witness-Ledger-Bonus-Story/dp/B005CMKILM/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331503733&sr=1-2">http://www.amazon.com/Material-Witness-Ledger-Bonus-Story/dp/B005CMKILM/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331503733&sr=1-2 </a><br />
<br />
<b>DOG DAYS</b><br />
Joe Ledger returns in this tale that follows the tragic conclusion of THE DRAGON FACTORY. In the wake of a devastating personal loss, Joe Ledger and his new canine partner, Ghost, go hunting for the world's deadliest assassin.<br />
An audio exclusive story available from Blackstone, read by Ray Porter <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Days-Joe-Ledger-Adventure/dp/B005CU3QKY/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1331503594&sr=1-1-catcorr">http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Days-Joe-Ledger-Adventure/dp/B005CU3QKY/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1331503594&sr=1-1-catcorr </a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>JOE LEDGER: THE MISSING FILES</b><br />
A collection of all five JOE LEDGER short stories: COUNTDOWN, ZERO TOLERANCE, DEEP DARK, MATERIAL WITNESS and the audio exclusive DOG DAYS.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Ledger-The-Missing-Files/dp/1455116483/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331504774&sr=1-22">http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Ledger-The-Missing-Files/dp/1455116483/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331504774&sr=1-22</a>Nickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5056315403320561539.post-3738339099144613992012-03-04T04:10:00.001-08:002012-04-06T08:54:50.551-07:00TIME CAPSULES classic book reviews by Bill Lindblad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328439652l/1214412.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328439652l/1214412.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br />
RAVAGE (1943) by Rene Barjavel<br />
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It's probably strange to begin a review of one author's book by praising a different author, but much about this book is strange. The review should match.<br />
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I miss Damon Knight.<br />
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He has rightfully been memorialized in the Grand Master award from the SFWA, which will keep curious readers investigating his work. He was innovative; he founded the SFWA. He was a skillful writer, evident to his readership and also in the memories created by a teleplay of one of his stories (yell "It's a cookbook!" at any convention and it'll be easier to count the people who don't understand the reference.) He was an insightful teacher who co-founded Milford and Clarion and coaxed great works from fledgling writers. He was also a reviewer... but his critical eye and demands on authors differentiated him from most other reviewers. He did not hesitate to say when and how he believed a story failed or suffered, even when the story was written by a friend. He sought greatness.<br />
This book informed me both that he occasionally found it, and that he did not allow his ego to claim undue credit. The book, Ravage, was published in France during the Nazi occupation. (Note: despite the time of its publication, there is no indication I have found that the author sympathized nor collaborated with the Nazis.) It is a devastating condemnation of dependence on technology and displays a pervasive pessimism which drags the reader down to a point where Thomas Ligotti starts to seem upbeat. And it's written by Damon Knight. Or, more accurately, it was translated into English and retitled "Ashes, Ashes" by him, from the original novel by Rene Barjavel. Despite the work that Knight put into the translation, however, his name appears only twice on the finished product: once on the copyright page and once on the title page as translator. Nowhere on the cover is there any hint that a prominent American sf author had a hand in the novel.<br />
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This is admirable, because the book is wonderful. It is dark, certainly: the novel centers around a young man and woman from a technological miracle state. Everything can be made, done, experienced... until the electricity stops flowing and complex alloys weaken. Those two events occur simultaneously, and the reader is provided with a view of the complete destruction of society through the eyes of a pair of young lovers. The society posited is surprisingly thoughtful for a 1940s futurist, and the destruction of it seems like a systematic rejection of hope by the author.<br />
It is a bleak book, but it is wonderful. I appreciate Barjavel for writing it, almost certainly pouring feelings generated by the war onto the page; and I thank Damon Knight for bringing it to the attention of American audiences.<br />
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Five stars out of five.<br />
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SPECIAL FEATURE (1976) by Charles V. DeVet <br />
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Ashes, Ashes was a book written in the early 1940s that felt like it had been written in the 1970s. Special Feature is a book from the 1970s that feels like it should have been published in a 1940s pulp magazine.<br />
To harken back to Damon Knight, it has an idiot plot... a story wherein characters make idiotic decisions because were they to do anything else it would negate the need for more story.<br />
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It is not a terrible book. It simply does not have enough depth to the story to sustain a full novel and it does not have enough action to carry the reader along for a ride. The story concerns a pair of catlike aliens who come to Earth to mate. The reasons behind their choices are not well developed, but that's because the author was less concerned with the aliens than with the Great Idea driving the story: these aliens are detected and remotely monitored by a television crew, who beam the events to a rapt public.<br />
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There are major flaws in the story, although the writing is fairly solid. In this future world, spaceships are common and there is a device capable of viewing and recording anything within a radius of miles (simply by adjusting the beam for length and angle, ignoring any matter it might pass through) but inflation has had no effect on currency (particularly unlikely in 1976, when the book was written) and military security consists of electrified fences that are overhung by branches. There are many such incongruities in the book, and they detract from enjoyment of the novel.<br />
Then there's the advertising. The cover copy of the book shows a panther's face merging into a woman's face and a man being panther-mauled in a dark alley. The writing states "Earth becomes the mating ground for alien beings - as millions watch in terror!" With that type of promotion, any reasonable reader would expect a horrific sf book. Instead the reader gets virtually nothing in the way of horror, with the remaining action and character development aspects being stunted and choppy.<br />
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Two stars out of five.<br />
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CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME (1981) by Clark Ashton Smith<br />
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Clark Ashton Smith is a perpetual rediscovery author, like Manly Wade Wellman and C. L. Moore. His stories are allowed to go out of print for a little while, only to come roaring back in one format or another as the prices rise on the secondary market for the out of print books. There is a simple reason for this. It is that he was magnificent. This fact is demonstrated by these stories which were originally published in the late 1930s and early 1940s.<br />
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This Timescape collection gathers thirteen of his stories, providing samples of his most famous settings (Hyperborea, Zothique, Xiccarph, Averoigne) and some of his independent stories as well. Smith enjoyed creating worlds and lands with internal consistencies, with the result that many of his stories in a given setting are related to other tales only by common references of a distant city or ruler. This conceit creates a sensation of a complex populated world without having to worry overmuch about the intricacies. By focusing instead on individuals and their stories he is able to hint at the broader world, in much the same way as reading a handful of random interviews from across a country could provide a general insight into the lives of the populace.<br />
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Smith's style is ornate, but not flowery. He constructed his work with an ear toward traditional high fantasy while integrating elements of action-oriented storytelling which were popular in the pulps. The resultant mix elevated his work, and his artistic vision set it apart. He is among the most stylistically copied fantasists, beside such legends as his friend H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and Jack Vance. Unlike them, however, many who emulate Smith don't even realize they're doing it, because they are simply modeling their writing style after the dozens of brilliant writers who used Smith as a significant guide in their own stylistic development. His shade visits modern days in some stories by Harlan Ellison, leaned heavily on the shoulder of Brian McNaughton for The Throne of Bones, and whispers into the ear of Jeff VanderMeer as he sleeps.<br />
The City of the Singing Flame is a perfect Smith sampler: action-filled stories replete with weird creatures, spellcraft, odd flora, strange places... but driven by focusing on the lives of people who, while provided with vastly different experiences and motivations from the reader, are nonetheless going to consistently act in an utterly human, believable way. It is poetry in prose form, with considerable unexpected depth.<br />
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Five stars out of five.<br />
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--Bill LindbladNickolas Cookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09501539835741140326noreply@blogger.com