First off, I’d like to commend Fan Expo 2010 on their guest line up (including William Shatner, David Cronenburg, and Stan Lee) and their exhibitors (DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Disney, and Electric Playground). Their efforts here have put this convention into the top 10 in North America.
However, logistically, they still have a hell of a lot to learn. I was fortunate to have an exhibitor friend at the show who gave me a pass in exchange for working the booth. I didn’t have to endure the horrors I witnessed and have been reading about all weekend on the Toronto Fan Expo Facebook page.
From the attendees’ point of view and mine, the Fan Expo was a terrible disappointment this year. Deluxe ticket holders were left to line up for hours just to get in, re-admission required 2 hours, volunteers/handlers were clueless and yelled at attendees, the show was oversold on Saturday, and tickets were being sold on Saturday despite the fact that they were oversold and that they weren’t actually letting people into the show.
Despite all of the crap and the hot, muggy weather, the attendees deserve some credit as there was no violence. I also felt bad for the exhibitors, as they were screwed with thousands of customers stuck outside and the narrow hallways allow virtually no traffic through.
Fan Expo really needs to expand their venue, perhaps even split up the show across the North and South buildings of the Convention Center (or maybe split the show up by attraction, say having the SCI-FI and ANIME show on another weekend), and really do some research and hire some intelligent and veteran staff who know how to control traffic flow and handle large crowds. They also need to treat attendees as paying customers instead of cattle ripe for herding and the electric prod.
More photo memories of Fan Expo 2010...
Posing in front of the fabled 1967 Chevy Impala featured in the awesome Supernatural TV series.
The Gemini Company: some truly creepy gifts.
Camille Keaton, star of the 1970s I Spit On Your Grave.
Sarah Butler, star of the 2010 remake of I Spit On Your Grave.
I think he was one of those poor folks waiting in line to get in as this year’s Fan Expo was oversold and the lines were horribly mismanaged.
Lovely cosplay here with this young lady (name unknown) posing as Sandman.
Some of the cast and crew of Durham County (The beautiful Michelle Forbes, 2nd from the left), 2nd season out on DVD, well worth your time and money.
--Jason Shayer
(The Black Glove extends an extra special thanks to all the folks at The Fan Expo 2010)
Hi gang. Remember last month when I said summer was the dry season for games and there wasn’t much to talk about? Well chalk down a big fat ditto here. At least as far as horror games go. However there were a few non-terror titles released recently that I will talk about. Hey, better than nothing, right? So consider this one big Genre Break and hopefully, with Halloween just around the corner there are sure to be some new horror games to play soon. But for now, let’s tackle three crime dramas, shall we?
KANE & LYNCH 2: DOG DAYS, by Square Enix and Eidos; Rated M; PC, PS3; Xbox 360
A few years back the first K&L game came out and it was a middle of the road third person cover based shooter with one twist; you played as a couple of criminals, one the typical gangster type and the other a stark raving psycho. This time around the action moves to Shanghai and the story revolves firmly around the said psycho, Lynch. Set a few years after the events in the first game the pair team up once more for a run and gun, fast paced action game. However, when I say fast, I should really say quick, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Right now, lets cover the good points.
First, I like the characters of Kane and Lynch. I like their gruff chemistry and their grim, gallows humor. I like that they are thoroughly, unapologetic bad guys. The kind of thugs you’ve seen in many movies, but hare rarely, if ever, played as in a video game. The gun play action is very workman like, it’s fun but does nothing new. However one very innovative thing the designers tried was the overall look, visual style, and in-game camera. The whole thing is shot as if some invisible camera man with a cheap video camera were following you around, documenting your criminal exploits. The video is grainy, jumpy and shaky, full of graphical glitches and pixilation, and generally often looks like hell. Realistic, sure but it looks like hell. I really enjoyed this effect…for about half the game. After that it got old fast, so I turned it off. However I applaud the designers for trying something new and different, yet making it optional so that if we didn’t like it we could play without it. I wish more games would try to be innovative instead of just going with what’s safe, or worse, copying someone else.
Ok, enough praise (for now) let’s get to the bad. First and foremost, when I hinted that he game was quick, I meant really damn short. The single player story of this game can be completed in about four hours. Yes, four hours. Now there has been a long running debate over how much game play someone should expect for their $60, and that has always been a hard thing to judge. After all, I’ve played some great shirt games and some truly awful long ones, so length alone isn’t he best way to judge the value of something. And yes, you can insert your own penis joke here if you must. That being said, it is incredibly hard to justify making a new game and charging full price for something so short. I mean, I’ve played expansion packs that were longer than four hours. So if that was all this game had to offer then it would easily walk out of the Graphic Horrors zone with a 2 out of 5. Luckily, KANE & LYNCH 2 does have a little extra to offer.
The “extra” comes in the form of a surprisingly enjoyable multiplayer component. As with the camera work, once again the designers add something new in the form of an undercover cop mode. In these games, one member of your online criminal crew at random becomes the undercover cop who’s job it is to bust (read as: kill) all the rest of the players to stop their evil doings. However, the cop has to be sneaky and make it look like he’s shooting at the AI controlled civilians and police so as to not draw attention to himself and then wait for the best time to pick off the crooks one by one less he get outnumbered and outgunned. I really enjoyed this aspect of the game, and again I love it when game designers try new things and they actually work.
The final question has got to be this; is a four hour game with a pretty good online multiplayer worth your hard earned bucks? Well if you don’t play games with others then I would have to say no. If you are an online game junkie then I would raise that to a maybe. So for me, it’s a maybe, and you can’t sum up maybe any better then with…
I give KANE & LYNCH 2: DOG DAYS 3 times Lynch forgets to take his meds and becomes a mouth-foaming murderous maniac out of 5.
MAFIA 2, by 2 K Games; Rated M; PC, PS3; Xbox 360
This game looks like one thing, but turns out to be very different. Some people will like those differences, other will not. Me, I kind of dug it. What I’m talking about is the fact that this game looks for all intents and purposes as an open world, sandbox gangster game in the mold of the GRAND THEFT AUTO but in reality it’s not. True, you get a big playground to run around in, in this case it’s a New York stand in called Empire Bay, but the game is surprisingly linear and there’s really not all that much to do in the big city. The entire game is pretty much wake up, do a job for some mafia type, go to bed when that’s done, and that marks the end of a chapter and the start of a new day tomorrow. Ok, the game is not that cut and dry, but it nearly is, so is that a bad thing? I think not. I’m not one of those people that thinks “linear” is a dirty word in videogames. For me, game controls, story, and characters are far more important. However I did think it an odd choice for this game, and one that I wanted to point out right away so people don’t get the wrong idea about MAFIA 2. Now that I’ve mentioned it, let’s get into those other three, more important aspects of videogames that I mentioned.
As for game control, MAFIA 2 does a serviceable job. You drive a lot and the cars handle well, a far sight better than the rides in any of the GTA games at least. Further, your character, which you see and maneuver around in third person, is also easy to control. While that may seem funny to mention, so many other games like this have clunky handling characters (yes, I’m looking at you again, GTA) that when a game gets this simple task right I feel someone should say thank you for the extra effort, so thank you, game designers. The shooting and targeting system are likewise nothing to write home about, nor condemn so once more I’ll just say that it’s serviceable and move on.
The story in MAFIA 2 is likewise unremarkable for the most part. It is a collection of scenes, ideas, and plot points you’ve already seen in dozens of mob movies. What is a nice touch is that this time you don’t play as a boss, don, Godfather, or anything like that. No, you are a very street-level gangster and I really liked that. Also, there is a part where…oh wait….
Minor SPOILERS ahead!
You get busted and sent to prison. Now in most games when you do something naught and get sent to jail the screen will fade to black, perhaps show a title card saying something like, “10 years later” and then your guys comes walking out of the joint to pick up where you left off. Not so in MAFIA 2. Here you get busted and then for the next hour or so you get to play out your life in prison complete with all the clichés, fighting off rapists in the showers, and odd bits, did prisoners in the 50s shower in their underwear or was that done to spare us fragile gamers the sight of digital penis? Not that’s I’m complaining. After GTA 4’s THE LOST AND THE DAMNED, I’ve had my fill of CGI wang, thank you very much. Hmm, that’s two reviews in a row where I managed to work penises into them. Weird. But anyway, I really liked this unexpected turn of events, so I thought I’d make special mention of it.
End of the SPOILERS!
The characters in this game are probably what I liked most about it. You play as Vito Scaletta and when the game begins it actually more closely resembles CALL OF DUTY than it does GTA as you are a GI in Italy in World War Two. Upon return home you once more take up with your shady best buddy who has made a minor name for himself in the local underworld. This guy actually seems like your good pal, and the chemistry between him and your Vito is strong and believable. Add to these two wannabe wise guys a supporting cast of fleshed out and well voice acted mugs and you got a bunch of characters that seem more real and believable than most of the TV shows now on the air.
Then there are the other odd bits that I liked. The classic cars that looked great. The early do-wop and rock n’ roll songs on the radio, while not perfectly historically accurate to 1951 or so, were still a nice addition. And lets not forget the best video game collectibles ever; vintage Playboy magazines, because looking at beautiful naked woman never gets old.
For all the things this game does well to very well, and the simple fact that it’s just plain fun to play as a mobster, I give MAFIA 2 4 offers you can’t refuse (sorry, couldn’t help myself) out of 5.
SHANK, by Klei Entertainment and EA Games; Rated M; PC, PS3; Xbox 360
SHANK is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up in the vein of the types of games they just don’t make anymore. What makes this one different is the art style, the copious amounts of blood and violence, and a story of thugs, killers, and vengeance straight out of the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez playbook. In this game you play as the titular Shank whose wife is killed by a motley crew of very bad dudes. Now you’re out for revenge and you’ll uses chainsaws, machetes, shotguns, samurai swords, your own two fists, and of coarse shanks to cut a bloody swath through countless underlines until you find the people responsible for the loss of your lady love.
This downloadable game is of decent size, but truth be told the action does start to get repetitive relatively quickly. To vary things up a bit there’s some easy platforming and each of the several boos battles usually has a trick to beating them, but for the most part you hack, slash, blast, and bash your way from left to right. If beat ’em ups are not your thing, this won’t do anything to change your mind. If you liked the arcade brawlers of yesteryear then this plays as good as any of those but has the added bonus of having off kilter, and very adult humor, satisfying kills, and insane characters aplenty. Perhaps the one drawback to this game is the amount of damage the lesser peons soak up. Having to grind and grind and grind on them to put them down isn’t challenging so much as it’s frustrating. That one misstep aside, I did find myself enjoying the fist-in-your-face action this little game had to offer.
Disturbed- Asylum (2010) Review written by Steven M. Duarte
I haven’t decided yet if I have become bored of Disturbed’s sound or have just moved on to other metal bands as I found myself skipping through majority of the tracks from their new release Asylum. Now don’t get me wrong it’s not a horrible album it’s just very much of the same Disturbed formula we have previously heard with Ten Thousand Fists and Indestructible. I remember listening to The Sickness and Believe and feeling so pumped to hear the entire album. Not so much now.
So why such a negative startup to this review? The production values are top notch, and the instrument work and vocals is standard Disturbed. I think I’m just flat out burned out from them. I own all their albums have seen them live twice yet didn’t leave with much after hearing their new album.
Their first single Asylum has a good bass riff intro with some standard David Draiman grunts. The song is decent but not the strongest of the songs on the album. Bands generally want to take the best track from their album to create a single to create buzz for the album. Asylum is good not great. Definitely didn’t push me towards buying the album on the song alone. I personally would have chosen “Never Again” as the first single as it better captures the older Disturbed sound with an angry pissed off David Draiman. Another notable track off the album is “Another Way to Die.”
Asylum is a political infused album just as their recent previous releases. This time around the band touches upon issues such as the Nazi’s treatment of Jewish people during World War 2 and the environment. Who said Disturbed didn’t care about the environment? Asylum is definitely a departure from the anti Bush message that was carried in the Ten Thousand Fist album.
Disturbed is a mainstream metal band that achieved fame with “Down With the Sickness.” Now that fame has caused them to fall into the population of the many bands out there making metal music. Considering their metal history they need to change it up a bit and either take it back to their roots or……dare I say it, create a concept album. Some bands find success in making a concept album and it may just be what Disturbed needs to kick start their career again.
Track List (Special Edition) 1. Remnants 2. Asylum 3. The Infection 4. Warrior 5. Another Way To Die 6. Never Again 7. The Animal 8. Crucified 9. Serpentine 10. My Child 11. Sacrifice 12. Innocence 13. Ishfwilf 14. Down With The Sickness (Live) [Explicit] 15. Stricken (Live)
Murderdolls- Women and Children Last (2010) Review written by Steven M. Duarte
First off let me start by saying Women and Children Last is a very much more mature album than their first release Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls. Drummer/guitarist Joey Jordison of Slipknot fame had always said that the first album was very much recordings from two different bands brought together for the sake of making an album. This time around Joey and singer Wednesday 13 came together to write the new album from scratch. The result is a much more mature heavy/alt punk sound. The glam sound is still there just not as blatant as it was on their first album.
As I mentioned the album is very different sounding from their first release but that’s not to say that they have strayed away from the Murderdolls format. They still like to say fuck a lot and still have themes surrounding their infatuation with death, drugs and rock and roll. Songs such as “Nowhere” and “Summertime Suicide” are very reminiscent of their previous work, especially the guitar riffs.
Their single “My Dark Place Alone,” is very much departure from their previous work and is much more radio friendly than their older material. The song has a dark punk feel to it straying more on the heavier sound of metal. They really were out to change their overall sound and they have definitely succeeded.
Overall Woman and Children Last has some good notable songs on the album such as the previous mentioned songs as well as “Whatever You Want I Got” and “Blood Stained Valentine.” One criticism I do have for their new sound is they sound a little too much like Avenged Sevenfold now. When I first heard the album I had to look at my ITunes list to make sure Murderdolls was playing and not Avenged. I’m not a huge Avenged fan so a little more distinguishable sound would have been acceptable considering they very much created their own sound with their first release. With Slipknots future in question it’s quite possible this may be Joey Jordison’s primary band for the near future.
Track List
1. The World According To Revenge 2. Chapel Of Blood 3. Bored 'Til Death 4. Drug Me To Hell 5. Nowhere 6. Summertime Suicide 7. Death Valley Superstars 8. My Dark Place Alone 9. Blood Stained Valentine 10. Pieces Of You 11. Homicide Drive 12. Rock N Roll Is All I Got 13. Nothing's Gonna Be Alright 14. Whatever You Got, I'm Against It 15. Hello, Goodbye, Die 16. Motherfucker See, Motherfucker Do [Explicit] 17. The Funeral Ball 18. A Moment Of Violence
The Ocean Blue- Cerulean (1991) Review by Nickolas Cook
The Ocean Blue's 1991 Cerulean is definitely a 'lost' classic of the dream pop movement of the late 80s and early 90s. It's got a perfect synthesis of smooth vocals and jangle guitar sound. Released just as the grunge sound exploded worldwide, these guys were unfortunately overwhelmed and forgotten, like other dream pop\shoegazer bands of that period, and unfairly so (Ride comes to mind as well). Listening to this album really brings you back to that moment in time when jangle was king on the alt music charts. It's definitely time these guys were rediscovered and remembered. Funny...despite the definite British accent to their songs, they're from Pennsylvania and were big into the local Christian pop music scene. This album fits smoothly into the small, but well produced, catalogue. Find it, listen to it, and learn why shoegaze is still one of the best movements we missed.
Tracks: 1. Breezing Up 4:12 2. Cerulean 3:58 3. Marigold 3:06 4. A Seperate Reality 4:06 5. Mercury 4:12 6. Questions Of Travel 3:45 7. When Life Was Easy 4:20 8. The Planetarium Scene 3:42 9. Falling Through The Ice 1:25 10. Ballerina Out Of Control 3:54 11. Hurricane Amore 4:48 12. I've Sung One Too Many Songs For A Crowd That Didn't Want To 3:54
The Police- Zenyattà Mondatta (1980) Review by Nickolas Cook
The third album by a group that seemed to create their own sub-genre of post punk/new wave music, Zenyatta Mondatta was a rushed affair that the group claim they have always been greatly disappointed by. But to the music lover/Police fan, this is an album of clever tunes and the usual literate and distinctive stylings of a band who could not be imitated (and obviously still can’t be). There is the slight edge of dub and reggae that they were known for back in the 80s, but nowhere as prevelant as in their earlier albums. Some fans would even say this is the beginning of the transition to the more accessible sound of their biggest selling album, Syncronicity (1983). What most casual music listeners will remember most about this album is "Don't Stand So Close To Me", a song which references classic literature in the form of Nabokov's "Lolita". But there are some really great sonds on this album that most people might have missed (unless you're already a fan of their music, that is). I'm talking songs that are as catchy and hum happy as "Canary In a Coalmine" and "Man In a Suitcase", which have a sort of common musical thread if you listen to them back to back. There's also some rather complicated songs, such as the excellent "Driven To Tears", "When the World Is Running Down" and "Voices Inside My Head". And let's not forget that classic of social rebellion, "De-Do-Do-Do-De-Da-Da-Da", which on the surface comes off as a silly song, but the lyrics are filled with anger. This is an album that is at once a fly stuck in amber and a still socially relevant catalogue of political and social commentary. It also happens to be a classic rock album, so if you don't have it yet, get it. Add it to your horrorhead collection, without delay.
Tracks: 1."Don't Stand So Close to Me" – 4:04 2."Driven to Tears" – 3:20 3."When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" – 3:38 4."Canary in a Coalmine" – 2:26 5."Voices Inside My Head" – 3:53 6."Bombs Away" (Stewart Copeland) – 3:09 7."De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" – 4:09 8."Behind My Camel" (Andy Summers) – 2:54 9."Man in a Suitcase" – 2:19 10."Shadows in the Rain" – 5:02 11."The Other Way of Stopping" (Copeland) – 3:22
A Note These are not the albums I grew up with, or the songs that make me maudlin when I’m drunk. These are some of the albums I listen to every day while I’m writing, or driving around at night, thinking about writing. I’ve always been drawn to instrumental music that drove my imagination, without spoon-feeding it. The first record I loved that didn’t have Tinkerbell waving a magic wand on it was this
When I’m writing, the right kind of music can keep me immersed in a mood and a deep line of abstract thought, and gives the work a tighter rhythm. For ten years, I worked as a “radio research musicologist,” which involved freebasing lethal quantities of alternative rock radio and keeping logbooks filled with Creed and Korn lyrics, so I’d rather listen to a car alarm than anything that’s played on the radio. Another lasting side effect is that music with lyrics tends to leave me feeling claustrophobic in my own head. Either someone’s shouting a story or an impassioned declaration at you, or mouthing some empty nonsense in time with the backbeat, while you’re trying to think. But the right kind of music is like a key for inducing altered states of consciousness on demand. These are some of my favorite keys.
Amon Tobin Supermodified
The best composer and producer alive, for my money. Songs from this disk have spiced up Hummer and Coke ads and graced unworthy movies like S.W.A.T., and Tobin’s scored videogames like Infamous and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. His earlier stuff is insanely frenetic drum & bass, while his later works are more spiky and complex, but this one is still my favorite because it has a lush solidity and a creeping sense of déjà vu that comes from samples so finely chopped and mutated as to be totally unrecognizable, yet still hauntingly familiar. If you’re ever on Maui on a full-moon night and watching the waves and not listening to this disk, just go home. You’re doing it wrong.
Dead Can Dance In The Realm Of The Dying Sun
Among the few vocal acts in heavy rotation in my head, because Lisa Gerrard’s vocals are in a language seemingly of her own invention, while Brendan Perry’s pallid, philosophical lyric-lectures fade into the mix with familiarity. Both use their voices as complementary instruments over grandiose, bombastic neo-Romantic orchestration. Their later stuff uses exotic instruments and looser,“world beat” arrangements, but here, they’re still resolutely Gothic, with a sound so controlled it evokes images of a tortured orchestra in a vast, frigid cellar, toiling under whips and hot tongs to propel Gerrard’s alien, coldly wondrous voice through a hole in the sky for an unfathomable audience of one.
Skinny Puppy Too Dark Park
One of the few things I loved in high school that I still enjoy. At their peak, Skinny Puppy’s music sounded too abrasive, insane and toxic for humans to actually survive exposure to it, let alone compose and perform it. The lyrics never distract me because they are a dehumanized stream of sensational images and rudimentary thought––a dog’s eye view of a world gone mad. Unlike the run of goth and industrial contemporaries, they didn’t just slap on makeup and cry into dead flowers; they immersed themselves in chaos and transmuted it into a raw, oddly beautiful way of capturing the wrongness of the world that made the hardest guitar-based metal sound quaint and masturbatory. Too Dark Park is a sprawling monster movie that never quite ends, but gleefully eats its own tail and starts over again, unless you can bring yourself to stop it. Explosively cathartic, endlessly catalytic.
The Orb U.F.Orb
The antidote to any bad mood. The Orb patented ambient dub that mixed bouncy Trojan reggae beats with noodly space fx and gamma ray-fried samples as psychic guides for a journey to the blind idiot, Minnie Riperton-yodeling center of the cosmos. When it became an easily reproduced formula, they struck back with U.F.Orb, an epic voyage of headphone-buggery and post-psychedelic weirdness that made Tangerine Dream like earthbound polka-mongers. The opening track, O.O.B.E., softly teases your brain right out of your body, if you’re smoking the right stuff, and the succeeding tracks act as landmarks on a terminal headtrip that ditches you on the wrong side of the universe with a broken lighter.
Martin Denny The Exotic Sounds Of Martin Denny
The desk staff at the Waikiki Beachcomber have never heard of Don the Beachcomber or Martin Denny, and not even a tiki plaque marks the site of Hawaii’s answer to the Bat Cave. This injustice must not stand. Les Baxter may have composed the Sacred & Savage suite of syrupy, surreal tropical tone poems, but pianist Denny gave them their trademark languid tropical feel and frog croaks and birdcalls that made them the anthem of every suburban daydream.
Though corny on any scale and tinged with the patronizing naivete of the mid-century American honky, Denny’s collected works are like a dream vacation in a Hawaii of the id. It’s easy to see his influence on artists like Throbbing Gristle, Non and 808 State, and to lament the devolution of popular instrumental music today into smooth jazz.
Ratatat Classics
These guys say they’ve never heard of Martin Denny either, which is surprising, because they have the same penchant for exotic settings and arrangements and passion for sound effects and atmospheres. From the nipple-erecting opening strains of “Montanita”
...to the syrupy organ washout of “Tacobel Canon
Classics is a perfect burnout exotica album. And they’re pretty good live, too.
Ennio Morricone A Fistful Of Film Music
I recently finished a weird western novella during which I listened to nothing but spaghetti western soundtracks. It’s difficult to strip Morricone’s scores away from their iconic context, but his genius for making elemental hooks and unexpected sounds into themes lifts out of the context of the films and starts to project its own brain movies, after a hundred or so listens.
Secret Chiefs 3 Book M
An instrumental collective that thrives on multiple personality disorder, Secret Chiefs 3 often come onstage in hooded robes and play a traditionalist Middle Eastern set...
...then return after an intermission to play Ventures-style surf rock...
...then an encore of spaghetti-western and death metal oddities...
They’ve also done an entire soundtrack album for a fictitious Italian horror movie. Members of Mr. Bungle and Estradasphere show the same legendary flair for experimentation and self-indulgence here, but the overarching vibe is one of mystery and gnosis, the song titles taken from Hashishim initiation rituals and Masonic mythology. Though dumped on by purists for being too polished and techno-inflected, Book M is also a lot less jarring in its stylistic spasms than anything before or after, and features a drum kit with a hunting falcon.
Future Sound Of London ISDN
The Pink Floyd of electronica. From coldly groovy ambient dance tracks like Papua, New Guinea and Lifeforms, Future Sound always had a strain of paranoid genius that stood out among the hundreds of ambient acts that cluttered the early 90’s, and continues to make even their early tracks sound like something stolen from a lost future.
Gary Cobain and Brian Dougans refused to tour, instead doing live ISDN broadcasts from their remote studio, and conducting interviews on a camera remote, like the crew of Discovery in 2001. Supremely self-absorbed douchery? To be sure, but the results of that experiment yielded their best album ever, and gave the hollow ritual of the live rock concert a long-overdue reaming. (I attended two shows they were supposed to “telecommute” to, but no show.) ISDN is like an epic bad acid trip, with fidgety rhythms, dyspeptic saxophones and marooned vocal samples wandering lost amid vast skeletons of pure melodic beauty. Far from sterile, emotionless ambient pablum, this is almost too intensely human. Insecurity, paranoia, fear and despair moans through ISDN like unheeded air raid sirens. FSOL next turned out Dead Cities...
...their masterpiece. It’s a huge haunted house of a concept album, and an almost passionately nihilistic vision of the world without us. Their subsequent Syd Barrett-esque meltdown and descent into excruciating retro-psychedelia is a broken-brained testimony to the incredible strain they were under. Somehow, it serves to remind me better than any humor not to take my art, or anybody else’s too seriously.
Shpongle Tales Of The Inexpressible
The best kind of trip-out music to me is not the kind you only can enjoy on drugs, but the stuff that induces a truly altered state of consciousness when you listen to it sober. Shpongle is made up of a jazz flautist and a trance DJ, and yet Tales is the rare electronic album you can get away with playing for people who hate electronic music. They actually can and do play instruments, with an intensity and a playful complexity that explodes jaded preconceptions about what electronic dance music can sound like. And Raja Ram blows an fucking awesome jazz flute, to boot.
--Cody Goodfellow (The Black Glove wants to thank Cody Goodfellow for his time and effort, and for just plain giving us one of the coolest horror playlist, ever! Please visit Cody Goodfellow at Perilous Press and his Facebook page.)
Last month’s Top 13 covered the most iconic horror actors of all time, so this month we thought it was only fair to do the same for the many ladies who have made a career of screaming and running from the things-that-go-bump-in-the-night. What started in horror cinema as essentially roles in which they played merely victims in need of rescue, screaming beauties for the leading man to come rushing in the save from horrible beasties and madmen, Scream Queens have become empowered badass ladies who don’t need men for anything, especially to be rescued. The trend to have a helpless female and a strong leading man started in silent films, became ever more popular in movies like “King Kong” and “The Mystery of the Wax Museum”, both of which starred one of the iconic ladies on our list, Fay Wray, the first of what we consider a Scream Queen. This trend of helpless females who did nothing but fall down or faint when confronted with the ‘creature’ continued throughout the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, with very few exceptions (Beverly Garland in “It Conquered the World”, for instance). Then in the 70s, something happened to sexual politics in American culture and we began to see women taking on more assertive roles in horror cinema, even becoming the ‘creatures’ themselves or exacting vengeance on their tormenters in ever increasingly violent ways. In short, Scream Queens were doing less screaming and more killing. In the 80s, the slasher films helped set back this new sexual revolution in cinema by making women helpless machete fodder all over again. Some critics and film historians have postulated this was an almost conscious retaliation by male producers against this sexual revolution of the late 70s. Of course, the ‘slasher’ genre did in fact make some of the women on our list quite famous in the horror genre, giving them plenty of opportunity to run and scream, fall down in high heel shoes, to eventually get knifed or cut into little pieces for a primarily male audience. By movie’s end there was always a chase, and there was always a ‘final girl’ (with very few exceptions to that rule, although 1981’s The Burning comes to mind, in which there was a ‘final boy’ instead). By the late 80s, this was part of the horror movie blueprint, even outside of ‘slasher’ films. The most famous of these ‘slasher” movies was, of course, John Carpenter’s “Halloween”, which, if not created whole clothe that ‘final girl’ blueprint, definitely solidified it. Then around the mid-90s, the major studios began to sit up and take notice that women were beginning to see more horror films, and that there was a very vocal uproar from these female fans about more realistic portrayals of strong female characters in horror films. This new attitude was thanks in a large part to stronger female roles in two James Cameron films, 1986’s “Aliens” and 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, in which sexual politics in speculative films was set on its ear with Ripley and Sarah Conner. The major studios began to change the blueprint and soon female characters in horror films were doing a lot more than screaming, running, falling down, and getting stabbed to death. And they most definitely didn’t wear high heels to go into the pitch black basement to find out why the lights had gone out. They knew how to fight, shoot guns, even how to use a sword or knife to defend themselves. In Wes Craven’s 1995 film “Scream”, the ‘final girl’ scenario became a very self conscious, self referential injoke, and the role reversal was coming full circle. Modern horror has become so feminized now, that we are presented with another generation of kickass female leads. Check the “Resident Evil” and “Underworld” series for proof of such—although many, including myself, would argue these movies aren’t truly horror movies at all, but films which use horror iconography for video game adventure scenarios on the big screen. But whether that is true or not, one thing is certain: with the huge cultural and sexual role changes in modern horror films, the Scream Queen ain’t what she used to be. You’ll see that reflected in the Top 13 list below. Most of the names we included are not even of the last 30 years. But before we go to our list, I’d like to mention some names that didn’t make the final list. Some of them only had one or two horror roles that helped define the Scream Queen role in the genre, but never worked in the genre again. Some of the ladies did have a number of horror films to their credit, but didn’t make much of an impact on the genre as the ladies on our Top 13 list. Others are still making horror movies today, working to further redefine the traditional role of women in genre film, but haven’t yet reached the level of impact of the names we did include. Which ever the case may be, I strongly encourage you to find their films and watch them. Think of these ladies as our Honorable Mentions: Brinke Stevens, Debbie Rochon, Janet Leigh, Linda Hayden, Julia Adams, Faith Domergue, Mara Corday, Simone Simon and Elske McCain. They exemplify the tradition of the Scream Queen, even if they didn’t make it onto the final list. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we’re proud to present our September 2010 Top 13. So give up a big Scream for the ladies…
13. Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004)
She starred in several genre defining films, including “King Kong” (1933), “Mystery of the Wax Museum” (1933), “The Vampire Bat” (1933), “The Most Dangerous Game” (1932) and others. Truly the first woman to become known for her piercing scream, and helped define what it was to be a ‘Scream Queen’, she was also one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the screen.
12. Barbara Steele (December 29, 1937-present)
She hit the big time when she appeared in Mario Bava’s 1960 genre classic, “Black Sunday”, and became the exotic beauty in demand for plenty of horror movies to follow, including public domain masterpiece “Castle of Blood” (1964). Typecast as an evil succubus in most of them, she raised male pulses like no one else. Corman found one of the most perfect roles for her in his Poe epic, “Pit and the Pendulum” (1961). She’s still alive today and just as beautiful. If you get the chance to meet her at a genre convention, do so. She’s an amazing woman with lots of amazing stories about her career in cinema.
11. Barbara Shelley (August 15, 1933- present)
A quiet English actress who found horror fame in Hammer Studio films such as “The Gorgon” (1964) and “Dracula, Prince of Darkness” (1966), she brought a reserved, mature beauty to her multiple genre roles, combined with a sort of stoic sexuality. During the 60s, she was Hammer’s number one female star. Unfortunately, she left the horror genre and acting altogether soon after her work with Hammer, but to fans she will always be one of the best of the ‘Scream Queens’, despite her overly hasty exit.
10. Linnea Quigley (May 27, 1958- present)
One of the few modern ‘Scream Queens’ on our list, Linnea Quigley found fame in such 80s classics as 1981’s “Graduation Day”, 1984’s “Silent Night, Deadly Night” and 1985’s “Night of the Living Dead” and many more, including one of my favorites, 1988’s “Night of the Demons”. Although most of her films haven’t been big studio productions, she still manages to bring a slutty charm to her roles. She knew the value of a good nude scene, for sure and never shirked a good chance to show off her body. A big believer in working out to stay in shape, she even went so far as to produce her own workout video ala Jane Fonda, “Linnea Quigley’s Horror Workout” (1990).
(Editor’s Note: I was lucky enough to be at the above event a couple of years ago and got a chance to meet the lady in question. Still beautiful and always entertaining, she knew horror should be fun and didn’t take any of it too seriously.)
9. Ingrid Pitt (November 21, 1937- present)
Once again, we have Hammer Studio to thank for this exotic beauty. She had a definitive co-leading role in the unforgettably gory and sexual lesbian vampire movie, “The Vampire Lovers” (1970). She also appeared that same year in Amicus Studios’ forgotten classic “The House That Dripped Blood” (1970) and had a small but memorable nude role in the creepy genre classic “The Wicker Man” (1973). She’s still appears in films today, including “Minotaur” (2005) and “Sea of Dust” (2006) and often makes forays to fan conventions, so chances are she’ll still be going for years.
8. Caroline Munro (January 16, 1949-present)
She is a raven haired, dark eyed beauty who spent a her early years working as a model before moving into European produced films, working bit parts in movies such as “Casino Royale” (1967). She soon found herself in demand in sci-fi, horror and fantasy films such as “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971), "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1974), and her first, and most memorably shot American production, William Lustig’s “Maniac” from 1980.
7. Beverly Garland (October 17, 1926 – December 5, 2008)
Best known to non-genre fans for her television work in such series as “My Three Sons” and “Scarecrow and Mrs. King”, she is known to we ‘horrorheads’ as the platinum blonde hottie in Roger Corman’s cheapo classic, “It Conquered the World” (1956), who confronts the titular alien with a shotgun and some ripe AIP dialogue. She went on to appear the same year in “Swamp Women” (1956) and later played the lead role in another Corman great, “Not of This Earth” (1959) and Universal’s “Alligator People” (1959). She brought a pouty sexiness to her roles that has made her legend in the AIP sci-fi/horror filmography.
6. Jamie Lee Curtis (November 22, 1958- present)
Truly the greatest of the modern Scream Queens, Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of Hollywood royalty, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh (herself, a major genre icon for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 “Psycho”), has appeared in several genre defining horror films in the 70s and 80s, including the “Halloween” (1978), “The Fog (1980), “Prom Night” (1978) and “Terror Train” (1980). She spent most of the 80s typecast in genre films until she made her way into major productions such as “Trading Places” (1983), “A Fish Called Wanda” (1988) and James Cameron’s “True Lies” (1994). She has maintained a high level of star power despite her departure from horror and is still one of the hardest working actresses in Hollywood. If there is one woman who epitomizes the definition of Scream Queen, it is Jamie Lee Curtis.
5. Hazel Court (February 10, 1926 – April 15, 2008)
Gorgeous red headed Hazel Court came to fame during the 50s and 60s, appearing in such genre films as "Devil Girl from Mars" (1954), Hammer Studio’s bloody "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957), "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" (1959), "Doctor Blood's Coffin" (1961), Roger Corman’s AIP Poe cycle pictures, "The Premature Burial" (1962), "The Raven" (1963), "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964), and making her final genre appearance in "Omen III: The Final Conflict” (1983). She carried herself on screen with a sensuality that was both smoldering and refined. Some of her best known roles were as women who were amoral and murderous, but she still managed to make them desirable as hell.
4. Veronica Carlson (September 18, 1944- present)
Another Hammer Studio beauty that more than deserves to make the list of Scream Queen greats, she appeared in a trio of classic gory redefinitions of the classic monsters, "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" (1968), "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" (1969) and "The Horror of Frankenstein" (1970). She also appeared in a little known cult classic of horror, Tyburn Production’s “The Ghoul” (1975), with Peter Cushing, a movie that demands modern reassessment.
3. Martine Beswick (September 26, 1941- present)
Dark beauty Martine Beswick has appeared in everything from horror to spy films, racking up roles in two James Bond films, “From Russia with Love” (1963) and “Thunderball” (1965), spaghetti westerns such as “A Bullet For the General” (1967), fantasy movies such as “One Million Years B.C.” (1966) and “Prehistoric Women” (1967), and more Hammer horror films, including that classic genrebender, “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde” (1971). She continued to appear steadily in TV series throughout the 70s and 80s, although she hasn’t appeared in anything new since the mid-90s.
2. Asia Argento (September 20, 1975- present)
Born to two of Italy’s greatest horror personalities, mother Daria Nicolodi and father Dario Argento, one of the most famous horror directors in the genre. A Scream Queen since she was a kid, Asia Argento began her acting career at the tender age of nine years old. She has appeared in several movies written, produced and/or directed by her father, including “Demons 2” (1986), “The Church” (1989), and the lead actress role in “Trauma” (1993). She has since gone on to win major film awards for directing her own films, “Scarlet Diva” (2000) and “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” (2004). She also appeared in several U.S. productions, such as “xXx” (2002), George Romero’s continuation of his undead movie, “Land of the Dead” (2005) and Sophia Coppola’s 2006 underground hit, “Marie Antoinette”. Her latest appearance in horror was for her father’s final movie in his Mothers Trilogy, “The Mother of Tears” (2007).
1. Evelyn Ankers (August 17, 1918 – August 29, 1985)
Universal’s original Scream Queen, Evelyn Ankers became a stable player in many classic horror films. Most importantly she was the female lead opposite Lon Chaney Jr. in “The Wolfman” (1941), but she also appeared in several other genre films, such as “The Ghost of Frankenstein” (1942), “Captive Wild Woman” (1943), “Son of Dracula” (1943), “The Mad Ghoul” (1943), “Jungle Woman” (1944), “Weird Woman” (1944), “The Invisible Man's Revenge” (1944), and “The Frozen Ghost” (1945). She was known as “Queen of the Screamers”, thereby becoming the first conscious attempt at a studio to create a true “Scream Queen”. She brought an intelligent beauty and grace to her roles.
This month's Sites of Horror is all about bigtime. Big time horror icon authors, that is. Yeah, they probably get their fair share of internet traffic, but chances are there's a few of our readers who might have missed some really well thought out, incredibly brilliant author websites. Believe me when I say these guys are the cutting edge of internet promotions because they know the value of a website in drawing in new fans to their work and have the resources available to make online magic. Below are three men who have done more the keep the lights burning into the wee hours of the morning for fear of what hides in the dark than any hundred such writers.
First up, let's take a look at one of my favorite authors in all of fiction. Peter Straub is the bestselling iconic genre author of Ghost Story (1979), Shadowland (1980), Floating Dragon (1983), The Talisman/with Stephen King (1984), Koko (1988) and tons more great novels, incredible short story collections, non-fiction and poetry, and his newest brilliant literary take on horror, A Dark Matter (2010). His web site is like a mini-adventure, filled with surprise easter eggs and hidden links all over the place. It can take the better part of a day just roaming his site. Oh, and if you're a jazz fan, like myself, you'll really appreciate his music lists. He knows his jazz, man. Visit his official website here: http://www.peterstraub.net/
Next up, of course, we have to talk about the King himself. Stephen King has always been on the cutting edge of using technology to help create and maintain a high profile online personality to go along with his 'real world' one. He's the author of the biggest bestselling horror novels all time, including Carrie (1974), 'Salem's Lot (1975), The Shining (1977), The Stand (1978), and more recently the huge Under the Dome (2009) and about forty other novels, short story collections, non-fiction books...seriously, if you've read a horror novel or seen a horror movie in the last 30 years, then you should probably already know all about his work. He's an incredibly prolific creator of some of the darkest fictions ever put on paper or cast on the silver screen. He is legend and so is his website. On Stephenking.com you'll find all things King and more, including his genre defining Dark Tower series of books. There are tons of links, artwork you would not believe, and lots of other multimedia things to enjoy. Most importantly, there is a gathering place for King and horror fans alike on his officiallly created and maintained message board. Go thee forth and learn all about King and his work.
Last, but certainly not least, is a man who had been writing and publishing speculative fiction since he was a teenager. Dean Koontz is the bestselling author of classic genre thrillers such as Night Chills (1976), The Funhouse (1980), Phantoms (1983), Lightning (1988), and more recently Breathless (2009), plus about 50 other novels and short story collections. He's one of the nicest guys in the industry and is always eager to meet his fans and readers. Some of his novels have helped make cross genre writing more acceptable to all horror fans. If you've never given his huge catalogue of books a read, do yourself a favor and pick up about a dozen, because you're gonna be hooked right away. Then take a look at excellent personable website for more titles and exciting news about the author, the man, the legend at http://www.deankoontz.com/. And, you know, any man who loves his dogs as much as he does cannot be a bad person to love and admire.
That's it for this month, but, please, make it a point to hit these websites and read what these gentlemen have to say about the craft of writing dark fiction. They are the last of the horror greats of our generation.
Join us next month for our 2nd Annual Halloween issue. --We're going to have our big Top 50 List, this time we're going to give our horrorhead readers what we think are the top 50 horror novels, short story collections and multi-author anthologies in the genre. --We'll also have tons more film reviews from our regular group of Black Glove staffers. --Come check out our Fresh Blood for what's new in book and film news. --Lisa Morton will be back with another THE EAST IS RED installment. --Brian M. Sammons will return with his Hidden Horrors, Graphic Horrors and his all new and improved Hi-Def Horror Hoedown! --Jason Shayer will give us more comic and graphic novel news and reviews. --MyMiserys will ask another chosen one her 13 Questions...who will it be? --We'll announce our Top 13 Lost Gems of Horror contest winner. --There will be more Foreign Fears with Steven M. Duarte. --More Stabbed in Stanzas with Karen Newman. --Another Movies Worth Googling with Jenny Orosel, which means more strange and weird films that might have slipped under the horror radar. --And Bill Lindblad will give us more forgotten gems in his always entertaining, educational TIME CAPSULES column. --Want more? Come back October 20th for more book, film, game and comic reviews and news.
