I attended the premiere of local horror filmmaker Brett Kelly’s latest release, My Dead Girlfriend, just prior to starting this blog. The film was fantastic, with razor sharp timing and rapid fire dialogue that had the entire audience laughing the whole way through. It seems that with every film Kelly becomes more assured as a filmmaker, which bodes well for Prey For The Beast, a little slice of backwoods Canuxploitation he currently has in pre-production. From a talk with screenwriter Jeff O’Brien.

With PREY FOR THE BEAST, producer/director/star Brett Kelly and I are reviving the long-dormant Canadian gorefest. Films such as PROM NIGHT, TERROR TRAIN, HUMONGOUS, BULLIES, etc. defined down-and-dirty, nasty, scary shockers—the kind of films you took Granny to see at the drive-in when you wanted her to get reeeeeally quiet.

My little heart goes pitter patter. If Kelly keeps on this winning streak, Prey For The Beast will be one to watch out for.

The art blog Drawn has the goods on The Graphic Imperative, a poster exhibit devoted to sociopolitical causes such as awareness, tolerance and civil rights. They also seem to have an odd appreciation for giant movie monsters.

The image encourages reconciliation between two “giant” nations, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., symbolized by Godzilla and King Kong. The poster was designed to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. It was included in the “Images of Survival” exhibition project organized by the Shoshin Society, Washington, DC.

Wait a minute. Which one is the U.S. and which one is supposed to be the U.S.S.R.? And why is Japan getting the shaft here? The Cold War was so confusing.

I’ve been sick the past couple days, but I woke up this morning feeling better and with a profound need to dance like I have ass in my pants. Quite possibly the funkiest damn soundtrack for a horror movie, the entire Blacula album can be found over at Dust to Dust.

My fever may have broke last night, but I’ve still got the fever, if you know what I mean. As an added bonus, here’s discotheque fave Soul Dracula (among others), which I originally picked up from the much-missed Dr. Mysterian. I strongly suggest you check his site anyway, if only for a brief history of vampires and their connection with the dancefloor.

You’ve got to get up to get down.

This cheered me up. Jeano Roid of the band The Creeping Cruds visited the location of the cabin from the original Evil Dead and came back with his soul intact.

The walk back down the trail away from the cabin was quite creepy indeed! There were a few property for sale signs in the area which leads me to suspect that sadly someday soon this infamous spot will be just another victim of sprawl.

I love horror travelogue pieces like this, and hope to take a road trip hitting all the hot spots one day. Maybe I should dig out those photos from my trip to the Evans City cemetary…

Really, who doesn’t love physical special effects work? I have nothing against computer graphics, especially with the advances that they’ve made, but no matter how good they get they never seem to have the charm of something that’s really there, inhabiting the same space as the actor and the sets.

Industrial Light and Magic has sold off their physical effects department. In case you think this is just about Star Wars, films that they’ve worked on include Ghostbusters, Labryinth, Dark Crystal and Poltergeist, among many others. When we were little, my cousin and I rented Poltergeist and watched it ten times in a row, over and over again, and at least part of the magic that kept us glued to the screen was watching a man rip his own face off. Sigh.

Everybody’s getting in on the fun. Hot on the heels of Masters of Horror emulator Fearmongers is The Italian Masters of Horror.

This blatant rip-off of the North American Masters of Horror fills me with glee. Italy is a country with a distinguished history of taking successful genre films from abroad, adding their own twist to them, and rereleasing them to an unsuspecting world in a completely different form, many times for the better. I’m really glad that this new format has enticed some of the old masters back into the game. Who knows, maybe this will kickstart a new Italian horror renaissance.

There are so many pressing horror announcements coming out these days that I can hardly find the time to sort through them.  And when I do, the ones that I should centre on the most tend to be remakes, something which makes my soul grow colder with each passing day.  Fuck ‘em.  Today I’m going to talk about Canadian alien invasion movie Decoys instead.

I became aware of the first Decoys movie because it was filming in the city I currently reside in, Ottawa.  It had all the promise of a tawdry live-action piece of tentacle porn, but proved to be an unfunny, scattershot horror-comedy with a nasty and out-of-place mean streak.  After it died at the box office, the producers’ claims that there was going to be a sequel seemed unlikely.  Guess again, as Decoys 2 is currently in production further to the West in Edmonton.  Hopefully they’ve got all the kinks worked out this time around.

Apply within! The Groovy Age of Horror is looking to solidify its global dominance with the addition of an Asian correspondent.

The excitement for Fantasia 2006 is building up. Fangoria has the scoop on what films to expect. while Bloody Disgusting lists a few of this year’s guests.

There’s going to be a 2-part comic book adaptation of Snakes on a Plane. This has been your Snakes on a Plane item for the day.

House of Irony member and fellow tubbing enthusiast Doug Nagy was kind enough to mention this foundling site on one of the recent audio editions of The Movie Blog. In the same podcast linked to above, Nagy takes a stand for all the Mighty Thor fans out there who are sick of the trash talk. Nagy, I’m here to tell you you’re not alone.

Really Scary: We’ re doing this interview at the New York Comicon. Are you a big comic book fan?

Kane: I used to be, back when I was in college. Not so much anymore, but when I was in college, I started collecting The X-Men and Thor. I always liked Thor. By the time I got out of college I had a subscription to almost all of the Marvel Comics.

Next time some punk gets on your ass, Nagy, remember that you have Kane in your corner.

And in one fell swoop I thank a friend, return a favour, mention The Mighty Thor and keep within the parameters of this blog. Now if only I could dig up some Garden of the Dead news so I can thank Kevin for helping me with the design work.

When I was a kid I used to watch Morton Downey, Jr. all the time. Like the exploitation peddlers of old, Downey would couch things that were otherwise unavailable on television within a cocoon of outrage and moral indignation. In other words, if you wanted to see clips from horror movies that you otherwise weren’t allowed to see, the perpetually smoking Downey would showcase them at least once a week in a thick-headed attempt to have them banned.

Morton Downey, Jr. would go on to appear in the television shows Monsters and Tales From The Crypt, as well as the film Predator 2.

One of the things I miss most about living in the Niagara Region is Off-Beat Cinema, a long-running cult movie program hosted by a bunch of beatniks.  I have a few tapes of the show from back in the day, and sometimes when I’m feeling a little homesick I pop one in and watch The Giant Gila Monster or The Exterminating Angel.  One night, Oscar (one of the hosts on the show) said something that has stuck with me for years.

“Charlton Heston.  With Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and Omega Man, he gave up a respected career as an actor to BECOME MY GOD!”

Embrace the glory that is Heston, with these absolutely incredible homegrown Omega Man bubblegum cards courtesy of the fine craftsmanship of Bubblegumfink.  So good you’ll change faith.

Now this is interesting. Some of horror’s most noted indie filmmakers are getting together for their own television series, entitled Fearmongers.

When the Masters of Horror was announced, I was happy to see them place a few of the less historically notable directors on the roster, a decision that was met with some criticism. Looking at what passes for masters of the genre, the majority of directors placed on that pedastal are best-known for movies they made twenty to thirty years ago when they were upstarts themselves. Sometimes the horror community seems to be caught in the kind of nostalgic malaise that comics has found itself in. New works of horror aren’t measured up to the average, or even the best, but to an ideal that has been cultivated over years of worship and probably doesn’t come close to reality.

I’m looking forward to seeing what these young punks can do.

I’m sure you’ve spent late nights wondering who would win in a fight between horror icons Leprechaun and Wishmaster. As you wish!

Fangoria brings us the only horror crossover that matters, Leprechaun vs. Wishmaster.

I don’t know what brought it on, but just last week during lunch my co-workers and I were discussing Leprechaun. From there the conversation eventually turned to the Wishmaster series. I never realized before that the two were so similiar, or that anyone else would make the connection.

I would be first in line at the video store if this were ever actually produced.

Welcome to Crazytown. Twitchfilms points out rumblings among the otaku crowd that there may be an anime remake of Argento’s Suspiria by Studio Gonzo in the works.

Oh, c’mon! Tell me you aren’t the least bit intrigued. If you have to produce a remake, at the very least take it in a completely different direction. That way, if you fail, well, at least it was a spectactular failure destined for cult status instead of an inferior retread that mimics the original shot-for-shot.

In support of their forthcoming Bollywood Horror collection, Mondo Macabre have placed one of the featurettes from that upcoming release on Youtube. Entitled “Freddie, Jason and… Saamri - The Ramsays and the Birth of Bollywood Horror”, it’s a fascinating peek inside a rarely seen sub-sub-genre. The Horror Blog, entertaining and educational!