Thank you for visiting and taking part in The Horror Blog’s first Halloween!

Louis Fowler posts a response by director Ryan Nicholson concerning his review for Live Feed. Also, Louis waxes poetic on Slither.

Warrenzone has the scoop on The Onion’s selection of horror films for left-wingers, and another list of fright films for right-wingers.

Progressive Ruin ponders the terror of… Pinkenstein?!?

Because we like to see T. Van cry, Tomb Of No Concern has posted some special Halloween comics, including a four-pager by The King.

The Monster is Loose! Meat Loaf releases third Bat out of Hell album. There’s evil in the air and there’s thunder in the sky and a killer on the bloodshot streets!

I’m still calling you out, Twitch Film! Don’t think I’ve forgotten our feud!

Fox Atomic is celebrating its Carnival of Lost Souls with the first photos from the sequels to The Hills Have Eyes remake and 28 Days Later. I just hope they keep the dog’s flashback.

The Comics Reporter dishes up a plethora of comics-related Halloween goodies, including great costume ideas for fat guys.

Abebooks celebrates the season by listing the 10 most expensive Stephen King books they’ve ever sold.

Sadly, Bubblegumfink has called it a day.

The most recent Movie Blog: Audio Edition tackles the “toture porn” trend in horror flicks.

DVD Trash points us in the direction of an Italian fan’s trip to locations for Argento’s Suspiria.

You’ve got to be kidding me. Newsarama reports that Marvel is following through with their Marvel Zombies expansion by throwing everyone’s favourite Deadite killer in the mix. Robert Kirkman is onboard as a consultant to keep that ol’ Marvel Zombie continuity from getting out of hand, while writer John Layman takes over the reins.

“This is a story of a guy who is used to fighting the undead, who is used to being a hero, flung into a strange universe full of heroes …heroes who are not only all crazed flesh-eating zombies, but ones with hundreds of different crazy super-powers.”

“How’s a guy with a chainsaw, a shotgun, and a smart mouth supposed to survive that?”

One of the things that I’ve always loved about mainstream comics is that, between their punishing scheduling and their inherent disposability, they’re more than willing to not only take greater chances but to actually get things done. How long do you think something like this would have wallowed in development hell if it were being produced as a movie?

With the casting of Takashi Miike in the first Hostel, and the announcement of a very special appearance by Edwige Feneche in the second, Eli Roth has shown that he likes to stack the deck with infamous cult movie icons. Now Bloody Disgusting has leaked the identity of yet another grindhouse favourite appearing in the sequel.

While enjoying the single best set visit I’ve ever been on, I learned that horror legend Ruggero Deodato has been cast in Eli Roth’s highly anticipated Hostel sequel in an amazing cameo role. Although I can’t spill details I can tell you that the Writer/Director of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust is in one of the best “holy sh-t” moments of the film.

Jiminy Crickets! I wonder if there will be any budding horror fans who watch Hostel 2 and use it as a guide to track down some of horror’s more notably sleazy practitioners, and if so, whether they’ll lean on the side of the angels (Edwige Feneche…sigh…) or in the pits with the devils (Ruggero Deodato).

I didn’t really set out to celebrate October with a any kind of a coherent schedule. My plan was to simply keep providing horror news, opinion and entertainment at a slightly increased pace from the norm. So those of you hoping for a grande finale may be slightly disappointed. That said, I can think of few better artists to end on than Junji Ito.

Junji Ito is quite possibly my favourite horror comic artist, and that’s saying alot. Like many, my first exposure to his work was through Uzimaki, and it completely freaked me out. If you’d like a free sample, Same Hat! Same Hat!! posted a scanlation of Junji Ito’s short story Falling months back. Enjoy!

In a related note, the story above may or may not be available on Same Hat! Same Hat!! for much longer. The site has promised to take it down just as soon as the story gets a proper release in North America. Apparently, Dark Horse Comics has been publishing Museum of Terror, a 15-volume collection of all of Junji Ito’s short stories, but while they have the rights to the entire series the sales have been less than encouraging.

Read the story presented above, or take my word for it, then pick up Museum of Terror at your local comic book store. Either way, do your part in ensuring that Same Hat! Same Hat!! eventually take that story down, and subsequently make your bookshelf a more terrifying place.

I’ve mentioned more than a few times my sordid past as a comics blogger. Those days may be long gone, but if you ever find yourself wondering what my comic blog may have looked like, ableit ten times better, you can always check out the misadventures of Mike Sterling over at Progressive Ruin. Mike is my Evil American Twin, compiling a four-colour smorgasbord every day of the week, filled with the kind of goofy stuff which drew us into comics to begin with and which we often lose track of as time goes on. In short, Progressive Ruin is the place to go when you absolutely must see farmers shooting space aliens or watch as Yoda hitches a ride on Bob Marley’s back. Today, Mike presents to you five fascinating tales from the dark side of the Big, Blue Boy Scout. Enjoy, and please check out Progressive Ruin.

Five Favorite Scary Superman Moments

When one thinks of “scary,” usually Superman comics don’t come to mind. Bright, cheery, sometimes even whimsical, sure…but scary? Not usually, but there are rare, very rare occasions when a moment in a Superman story will get under your skin, sticking with you long after the comic is put away. Here are just a handful of those instances, when the world of Superman was not as bright and friendly:

5. Superman is confronted with his own dead bodies (Action Comics #399, April 1971):

Following the explosion of an experimental power generator, Superman finds himself thrown out of our world…and into a giant crystalline “cell,” where he finds himself trapped with General Custer, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. Eventually Superman breaks free of the cage to discover that he’s in the future, being studied by a time-travelling historical institute…and that the common thread among the “guests” is that they’ve been brought from the past from just before their imminent deaths!

That’s not the only surprise awaiting Superman, as the future historians explain that he is, in fact, the third Superman! Following the death of the original Superman, Earth scientists clones a second Superman to take his place, removing the memories of his death. And when that second Superman died, a third was created…the Superman that has been brought to the future just prior to his own demise.

Superman doesn’t believe this, of course, but by coincidence, the crypt containing the three super-bodies is just below the historical center:

For the most part, this is your standard Superman adventure, with the twist being that Superman was in fact thrown into the future of a parallel universe, and thus the history being related to him is not the history he lived…no cloning, no deaths. But that brief sequence, with Superman being confronted with his own dead bodies, and his own fear at having to see the final clone body, supposedly his own…it remains quite affecting.

4. Superman can’t save everyone (Hitman #34, Feb 1999):

Superman and Tommy Monaghan have a brief heart-to-heart talk about what it means to be not just a hero, but a symbol of what heroism is meant to be, during which Superman relates an instance in which his own symbolism adds to an extra level of despair to an already tragic disaster.

A nuclear space shuttle headed for Mars is in trouble, and Superman has his hands full trying to shield the shuttle’s escape craft from the atomic reactor leak, when he notices another astronaut, previously thought dead, huddling in one corner of the bay.

Superman can do nothing…he has to continue shielding the crew from the radiation or they will be lost. The astronaut in the bay is doomed…he knows it, Superman knows it…and, as Superman says:

3. That werewolf cover (Superman #422, Aug 1986):

Okay, the story inside is no great shakes…yes, Superman fights a werewolf, never actually turning into one himself, and yes, all the characters in the story are scared, but nothing in those pages is actually scary.

That cover, on the other hand…no Superman image can top the sheer wrongness of those hideously overdetailed head and hands attached to the smoothly streamlined body, drawn as only that master of the disturbing image, Brian Bolland, can manage. And on top of that, presenting the image in stark black and white, save for the red eyes…this image is one of the epitomes of superhero creepiness.

2. The final Luthor/Brainiac team (Superman #423/Action #583):

Taking place in the near-future, as Superman’s last battle approaches, arch-nemesis Lex Luthor seeks out and finds the crippled body of Superman’s other arch-nemesis, the robotic Brainiac. Lifting Brainiac’s head, Luthor is startled to discover that his mechanical “comrade” is not as lifeless as he seems:

Using Luthor as a host-body, Brainiac trundles off into the distance, preparing whatever revenge he’s planning to exact on the Man of Steel…

…Until the story’s climatic battle, when, face to face with a super-powered Lana Lang (don’t ask), Luthor is able to break Brainiac’s hold just long enough to plead for death from his fellow former Smallvillite:

And if that’s not enough, Brainiac attempts to continue commanding his dead host body, until it gives up completely:

That whole sequence is creepy in and of itself, but what makes it even more affecting is the unique position this particular version of Luthor holds in Superman’s long history. This is the sympathetic Luthor, the Luthor who’s protective of his young sister Lena; who loves the people of the alien world Lexor, who worship him as a hero; who admires Albert Einstein; and who, when the time came, was able to call out to a former childhood friend and beg her to release him from his living hell.

1. The Phantom Zone #1 - #4 (Jan - April 1982):

Of all the Superman stories ever printed, none can top this for what may be one of the most off-model adventures for the Man of Steel. A very basic explanation of the plot sounds like it’s right out of the Silver Age: the Phantom Zone villains escape their prison, trapping Superman (and former Zone prisoner Quex-Ul) in the Zone in the process, and then proceed to wreak havoc on the Earth while Superman tries to escape.

What makes this different, however, is the brutal storytelling of writer Steve Gerber and artist Gene Colan. Colan’s portrayal of the Man of Steel’s adventure is unlike any other artists…dark, moody, and mysterious, all shadows and swirly smoke, when Superman is usually presented as bright and triumphant. For example, the Phantom Zone itself, the extra-dimensional prison for Krypton’s worst criminals, usually looks like it’s just a room filled with grey clouds and transparent “ghosts” who are just normal looking folks colored all in white. Colan’s Phantom Zone looks more like what one would think of as a nightmarish spiritual world:

Gerber pulls no punches from the story’s get-go, as he details the crimes of the various Phantom Zone villains back on Krypton…mass destruction, mayhem, and, in the case of the PZ villain Faora Hu-Ul, tortured and murdered men:

This brutality continues, as the freed Zone villains begin their reign of terror upon the Earth, threatening civilians and easily overpowering the remaining superheroes. And it’s not the typical clean, antiseptic superhero action you’d expect. In Gerber and Colan’s hands, it’s horrifying: buildings are razed, people are burned and broken, and none can stand against the freed Kryptonian criminals.

Trapped in the Phantom Zone, Superman and his companion, the former Kryptonian criminal Quex-Ul, travel deeper and deeper into the depths of the ethereal prison looking for an escape route…and find themselves confronting the alien presence whose being apparently encompasses and creates the Zone itself. Bizarre beings and scenarios are thrown into their path, such as this temple of masked priestesses, whose masks hide a frighteningly symbolic visage for Superman:

As the series reaches its climax, Superman and Quex-Ul find themselves in direct contact with the central alien intelligence controlling the realm, which tries to absorb their spiritual forces into its own. Quex-Ul makes one final attempt at defeating the creature, flying directly into the monster’s maw, only to have his soul destroyed in the process. Superman, angry and defiant, makes his own attack upon the being, avoiding Quex-Ul’s mistake but finding himself in a place that wears heavy upon his soul nonetheless:

Having passed through this final portal, Superman finds himself back in the corporeal world, and the Zone villains are quickly dealt with. But General Zod, the most famous, most notorious of the Zone villains, gets some special treatment from Superman for the part he played in sending Quel-Ul to his death in the Zone:

And of all the elements of this particular story, this is the one that sticks with me the most. This isn’t the staid, mannered Superman of the Silver Age, tricking villains into defeating themselves, or finding himself in a superheroic domestic comedy, trying to hide his identity from Lois. This is a Superman who is showing real human emotion, real anger — this Superman is, quite frankly, pissed off. And, for the 13-year-old kid I was when I read this comic for the first time, back in ‘82, back before “pissed-off” superheroes were the norm, this was indeed just a little scary.

The following is my contribution to the Film Experience Vampire Blog-A-Thon. Check it out.

Like garlic and running water, there exists in this world certain elements which I try my best to avoid. One of those is the Vampire. While I can forgive even a bad movie, book or comic many faults if it features a type of character which I have a weakness for, such as Underwater Nazi Zombies or Post-Apocalyptic Barbarians, Vampires automatically receive a few knocks against it before I even crack open the case or pages. It’s true, I’m prejudiced against Vampires.

I do have a reason for this seemingly unfounded intolerance. I have enjoyed the occassional vampire story over the years, but it has to be told within a particular style for me to sink my teeth into it. I can’t stand the romantic vampire, or even the vampire story which attempts to rationalize a vampire’s existence in the real world, with various cliques and traditions. Even the tragic vampire story starring a protagonist who fights his affliction holds no real interest for me. I leave that one for the werewolves. This may seem to suggest that I’m just being cranky and would rather these types of vampire stories shouldn’t exist, but considering they have an audience which enjoys them, I bear no ill will. Rather, I become so frustrated at not being able to seperate the kind of vampire story I like from all the rest that I’ve practically given up on the genre, a defeatist stance that resulted in my avoiding the magnificent I Am Legend for so long.

So if I don’t enjoy the permutations of vampire fiction detailed above, what do I like? Nothing scares me as much, or keeps drawing me back as frequently, as loss of self. And, again, I don’t mean a gradual loss, the kind that results in a protagonist sacrificing their life for a loved one, or retaining just enough control to herocially alter events. No, what hits me hardest are those bleak vampire stories in which the character almost instantaneously turns into a feeding machine, it’s emotions swept away by an insatiable need to prey upon mankind, including and especially loved ones. The very idea that one overwhelming biological change could so alter a lifetime’s worth of moral guidance makes me anxious just thinking about it.

This, to me, is pure horror. Love, compassion, heroism and all the other traits humanity clings to made meaningless with a simple bite on the neck.

The Toronto Star has printed an article by Rue Morgue’s Chris Alexander detailing his visit to the set of George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead, where the director spills the beans on some of the movie’s details.

“Diary of the Dead talks a lot about the media and this whole electronic eye that’s everywhere out there, all the time. And the main character, well, you don’t ever see this guy, he’s a voyeur. The film argues about the importance of media, and status of someone in that position … it’s an entirely new take on my themes.”

While I’m glad to see Romero trade in big studio money for less artistic interference, I can’t help feeling a little disturbed to see the director attempting to shoehorn social commentary into his films once again. It’s not that I think such tactics don’t have a place in genre filmmaking, just that I don’t think Romero is very good at it. By far my favourite film of his, Night of the Living Dead, is also the most unassuming. It feels more like the work of someone who is subconsiously filtering his outrage into a horror film, as opposed to simply creating films that replace subtlety with a more ham-fisted approach.

Yahoo has the first available teaser trailer for Hostel 2, the sequel to my favourite movie of the year. The kicker is that the teaser is in German. Lion’s Gate marketing executive Tim Palen explains.

“German is more guttural and harsh. I think a lot of people will be taken aback, but with the success of the first ‘Hostel,’ there will be no confusion as to whether the movie is in English. For the discerning horror fan, it will separate ‘Hostel II’ from the typical kids-stranded-in-the-middle-of-nowhere horror film.”

I think Palen may have overestimated the intelligence of the general movie-going audience. After watching the first film in the theatres I heard more than a few people commenting that Hostel was a harsher ride than the director’s previous efforts, like Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Oh, well. Place this firmly in the category of a stunt designed solely for me and the handful of similarly like-minded people out there.

This is how kids get their kicks these days. Squatting in filthy rags, all hopped up on goofballs and ludes, pretending at freedom. That is, until Daddy’s money runs out and the world comes knocking. Then those lousy beatniks end up looking down the neck of a bottle, or the barrel of a gun. Just like we did when we were kids. Yeah, the gutter is one sure way to close the generation gap. And if I were to place the blame for this epidemic of delinquency anywhere it would be square on the shoulders of one Little Danny, proprieter of a happening little pad called Office Naps. He’s the pusher. The one playing all the tunes and calling all the shots. Do you know what your children are listening to? Whatever Little Danny wants them to…

Shock Music in Hi-Fi

Hello Horror Blog readers! Little Danny of Office Naps here. The Honorable Mr. Wintle graciously extended the invitation for a Halloween-related post, and, in response, I’ve included a vintage bit of odd-io for your delectation.

I suppose the common complaint about some of our favorite holidays is that, in the interest of selling holiday-related merch and placating the anxieties of our more righteous, religious sectors, these same holidays tend to be expurgated of their color, piquancy, and content. That is, if you’re disappointed by the way that Halloween is routinely represented by ridiculous, warmed-over pap like “The Monster Mash,” I’m here to say that I feel your pain, horror fans. Of course, you likely know better. You likely know, when seeking your Halloween audio fix, to turn to the very musical underpinning of your obsession: the horror soundtrack. Yes, from the eerie synthesizers of the Italian horror oeuvre to classic Hitchcock-style staccato strings, the horror soundtrack has always been - and will always be - where the most unapologetically terrifying sounds dwell.

Enter Shock Music in Hi-Fi. Released in 1958, it was the first of two similarly-themed volumes (the second entitled, naturally, Panic: The Son of Shock) by noted composer, arranger, and producer Creed Taylor. These weren’t soundtracks per se. They were, rather, albums comprised of miniature 3 minute tableaux, self-contained musical storylines which took their cues from horror cinema and exercises like The Twilight Zone , and which set about terrifying us with dark, jazzy arrangements, creepy sound effects, and titles like “The Crank,” “You’re Driving Me Crazy,” and “Time Runs Out.” Take “The Crank,” for instance. We hear a phone number being dialed, we hear the phone ringing, we hear a friendly male voice answer. And then we hear the click of disconnection. It’s hard to convey its distinctly banal variety of psychological terror, but, repeated with increasing frequency - and set against a rising crescendo of dissonant horns and strings - this routine was typical fare for Shock Music in Hi-Fi. And it served its purpose very effectively.

Hand picked for the Horror Blog, this selection, “Heartbeat,” is also exemplary. Here we’re reminded that nothing can be as weirdly ominous as the awareness of our own breathing and heartbeat at the threshold of a darkened room. And the awareness of… ahem, someone else in that darkened room.

As you’ll hear. Here, then, is to heavy breathing! Happy Halloween!

The Creed Taylor Orchestra, Heartbeat
from Shock Music In Hi-Fi (ABC-Paramount, 1958)

As many of you may already be aware, the release of Brokeback Mountain unleashed a torrent of faux-trailers which used the theme song and some judicious editing to make two otherwise heterosexual characters seem as if they were going to get it on. Video slash fiction is go! Probably my favourite attempt, and one of the most surprisingly successful, is this mingling of Day of the Dead with hot and tender man-on-man action. Oh, Bub. Will you ever find the love you seek?

The cover of A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die. The hand glows in the dark.

Probably my biggest fear in opening up The Horror Blog to outside contributors was the possiblity that they would show me up and reveal me for the fraud I am. I’m happy to report that our first guest blogger, Teresa, of the always edifying In Sequence, has done just that. Teresa is my comrade-in-arms from my days of haunting the comics blogosphere (as well as a superb belly-dancer as seen in the picture to the left) and it warms my heart to see one of the old guard still providing quality observations on the world of sequential art. Thanks again, Teresa, and if you like what you read below I urge you to visit In Sequence for more of the same.

The Flesheaters: A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die

When I first heard the Flesheaters second album, “A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die,” I didn’t think of it as being connected to the horror genre, a relationship that seems obvious to me now.

I was a teenager then, and the angst expressed by the punk bands I liked was what attracted me to them. Intellectually, I knew these bands were considered shocking and aberrant, but emotionally, they seemed like natural extensions of the feelings I had every day.

Listening to “A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die,” I felt drawn into an infernal yet sympathetic nocturnal world. The first cut, “Digging My Grave,” begins with a spooky slo-mo chant:

Joyride leading to jail
And as it breaks through the wall
A ten-year-old learns how to die
Headache under florescent light

The creaking noise beneath the chant quickly changes to a driving rock beat, punctuated by lead singer Chris D.’s screaming vocals and a piercing, demented saxophone. Marimbas chime in the background, creating a velvet mood.

The stories told in the album lyrics, all but one written by Chris D., are macabre. They begin with a grim tale of family murder and end with an ode to lycanthropic transition. The hand-scrawled lyrics contained on the album liner added to the sensation that the album was an urgent communication from a captive in a demon-filled insane asylum.

My favorite song on the album is “River of Fever.” The lyrics contain what I have always considered a profound meditation on fear:

Fear subdued by thought was no fear at all
And strength is left undone
Deep down you’re bold and clever
Til those fingers close round your heart

What it means to me is that fear is a primary, or frontline, emotion. True fear is not something that can be easily reigned in or overcome. Our more civilized or developed feelings, such as bravery or rationality or thoughtful planning may, in time, grow from having had a fearful experience. But in the moment, one does not quell fear. In the moment, fear is always bigger than one’s self.

You wouldn’t know it by this blog but I do have a number of interests outside of horror. For example, I also enjoy chillers, thrillers, terrors, creepers and all sorts of other cinematic genres. So far as music goes, one of the consistent loves of my life has been ska. No matter how it’s preceived by the rest of the world, usually due to the insidious influence of various punk-bands-with-horns, I’ve always stayed the course and danced to that ska and rocksteady beat. Distinctly Jamaican Sounds, a wonderful mp3 blog devoted to all kinds of Jamaican music, has taken up the mind-boggling challenge of presenting 21 tracks of horror-themed music for the month of October along with interesting information and anecdotes accompanying each tune. So sit back, relax, have a Coke, crack a joke. Put on your dancing shoes, and listen…

Thanks to Senses Working Overtime for the link.

Describe your favourite Halloween tradition.

Don May, Jr. - Synapse

Not anymore, but every HALLOWEEN, when I lived in Illinois, I used to go over to a friends house and watch a couple scary movies we’d pick out. We’d load up on Monical’s Pizza first, though… I miss those years. For the past 5 years or so, I now really enjoy taking my business partners kids our trick or treating. It’s a great time and I really love those kids.

Doug Nagy

I drink a goblet of goat blood.

Mark - Exclamation Mark’s SciFi/Horror Review

Every year, without fail, I watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Sometimes I watch it twice, the day before Halloween and then Halloween night.

Bill Cunningham - DisContent

Flaming bags of poop…

Gary Wintle

Trick or Treating! The older ladies and soccer moms are really starting to get pissy though. “You’re taking the candy away from the children!”

Curt - Groovy Age of Horror

Pathetic, I know, but I love watching Halloween programming like AMC’s Monsterfest and ABC Family’s special lineups.

Tim - Mondo Schlocko

I have a few faves that I dig out for the occassion which are more fun in nature than horrific such as FRIGHT NIGHT. However, I do try and buy a few new flicks that I have not seen and try to watch what the cable channels have going for Halloween.

JA - My New Plaid Pants

Sometimes I miss it, but I always try to catch “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” on TV when I can. And it’s on tonight! 8pm on ABC! No, I don’t work for ABC. But it sets the mood for the next several days.

David Z. - Tomb It May Concern

Every Halloween I make double sure to send out presents too many of my friends. It is usually unexpected and saves me at Christmas when I normally get caught up in the family giftgiving and may miss someone. This year I found dollar store action figures from CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (…a little Ollie Reed with a baseball bat??). Nothing says fun like HALLOWEEN GIFTS!!

Thanks to all the contributors for participating in this month’s seasonal roundtables. Make sure you visit their sites and see what goodies you can grab. And remember, no zig-zagging, wear your reflector, and only visit houses of people you know.

Yeah, right.

When you run in horror circles, you often hear people refer to Halloween as their Christmas, that is, it being the most important holiday on their calendar. I see Halloween slightly different. I think if Halloween were to have a parallel to another holiday, it would be more like St. Patrick’s Day. Once a year, everyone’s into horror.

This is what went through my head as I was planning things to do for The Horror Blog’s first Halloween. I had originally envisioned asking various horror experts, creators and aficionados to give their take on the genre, but my thoughts kept returning to those people who don’t make horror a daily part of their lives. Sometimes we’re so close to a particular subject that we miss the obvious. That’s why, for the next few days, I will be showcasing guest posts by some of my favourite non-horror bloggers, each with their own take on a subject that thrills and chills them.

Happy Halloween! Everyone!