Name something in a horror movie that frightens you or makes you squirm but doesn’t seem to scare anyone else you know.

Casey Criswell - Cinema Fromage

Spiders make me scream like a girl. For instance, I watched Arachnophobia from my best friends kitchen peeking around the corner. Just this past weekend, when watching “The Mist”, there was a particular scene in which I had to literally cover my eyes and damn near crawled into the lap of the friend that came with me.

I’ve seen tons of horror flicks. Gore doesn’t phase me, cannibalism doesn’t phase me, monsters don’t phase me. If there’s spiders? You better watch out because my 260 lb ass is most likely vacating the room in a hurry.

Eric - Bloody Good Horror

Well, the scene in “The Lost Boys” where Kiefer Sutherland gives Michael the Lo-Mein, only to have him look down and discover that he’s been eating maggots, that always makes me squirm in my seat. Pretty much anything with maggots really screws with me, and makes me not want to eat anything for the rest of the day. Also, the scene in “The Ring” where we see a flash of the dead girls’ body in the closet, mouth agape and face all drained of life, that scares the shit out of me… it gets me still to this day, but reviewers seldom seem to mention it.

Jeff OBrien

Spiders. The scene in The Giant Spider Invasion where one gets turned into a mixed drink. A real plump one/

Also Slugs - the scene where a slug in a head of lettuce is chopped up and mistaken for salty sliced olives…

Dave - Rue Morgue’s The Abbatoir

I’d have to say that I’ve got a bigger-than-average aversion to centipedes. When I was a kid, there was a period where I was sleeping in our unfinished basement and remember seeing the odd centipede scurry across the floor, which really, well, bugged me out. I really hated them. When I saw the giant centipedes in King Kong, I got a King-sized dose of the heebie-jeebies. A close second might be any J-horror film with hair gurgling up from a drain. If you’ve ever lived with someone whose long hair gets caught in the drain and has to be pulled out in a giant clot, you know why this is yucksville.

Louis - Damaged 2.0

Skin ailments, like cracked, bubbling, scaly or craterous lesions or dryness. I actually still have nightmares about stuff like that.

Rony

There is one thing that always gets me in horror movies and that’s when someone is being dragged away and the victims finger nail gets ripped off from trying to hold on to things. Seeing the nail being peeled off always gives me shivers!

Nathan - MicroHorror

Eye stabbing? Fine with me. Children in danger? Bring it on. There’s not much that I truly can’t stand to see in a horror movie– it’s fiction, after all– but there is one thing that keeps cropping up in movie after movie, and I hate it every time. Don’t laugh, now. It’s violence against cats.

What can I say? I love cats! I live with three, and I adore them all, even the old and grouchy one and the one who pees where he’s not supposed to. I dread the very thought of anything bad happening to them. And yet if I see a cat in a horror movie, I know that it’s almost certainly doomed before the credits roll. It always seems to happen early in the movie, too– before any humans get killed. It’s as though murdering a cat were somehow less horrifying than murdering a
human, and frankly I don’t think it is.

Lines from dead cat scenes haunt me.

Pet Sematary (1989): “Play dead! BE DEAD!”

May (2002): “Oh, Lupe. I’m going to miss petting your soft fur.”

Awful, awful stuff.

I watched the Masters of Horror episode “Jenifer,” and the one thing that most threw me out of the story was the knowledge that no matter how sexy you are, if you were to kill and eat one of my cats, that would be the end of the relationship right there. The male lead in the episode evidently disagreed with me.

Or another MoH episode: “The Black Cat.” I watched the DVD with one of my beasts by my side, and when I saw a cat-murdering scene coming up, I covered his eyes so he couldn’t watch. What else would a responsible parent do?

So, yeah. Next time you make a movie, kill all the humans you want. Men, women, children, it’s all good. But please, leave the kitties alone. Thanks.

Sean T. Collins - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

Oooh, you know what I HATE? Those little bubbles that form on the backs of the mogwai and gremlins when they get wet and start to multiply. I have a phobia of growths, or anything resembling them, and seeing that gets me all twiggy.

JA - My New Plaid Pants

It just has to have more than four limbs. It doesn’t even have to be in a horror movie; you could show me a bowl of shrimp at a banquet in somebody’s wedding video and I’ll jump out the window.

My greatest fear is that I won’t remember to thank all this week’s Roundtable participants. Do you have a cinematic phobia? Let it all out in the comments below.

Douglas McKeown directed the cult classic creature feature The Deadly Spawn which Stephen Thrower devoted an entire chapter to in his excellent tome devoted to American independent horror, Nightmare USA. I highly recommend both the film and the book. Mr. McKeown was reluctant to plug his most recent work, but his modesty which will get him nowhere. He is the current facilitator of Queer Stories, a storytelling workshop, and is in the process of writing a gothic horror musical for the stage.

Can’t decide which of these remembered movie moments scared me the most – take your pick:

By the way, I laughed out loud when you cautioned ‘Please no “Today’s headlines” or “The Government.”’ Now, THAT’S horror.

Normally at this point in the week I’d be prepping the latest Roundtable, putting the finishing touches on another installment of Scarred and taking the weekend off, but there’s something I have to share before I leave.

David Z. has posted everything you need to play the Dawn of the Dead board game.

And it is awesome.

Horror-Movies.ca takes a look at the estimated box office for this year’s AfterDark Horrorfest and asks why it didn’t get the support from the community it deserved. I can think of a few good reasons, and none of them have to do with a lack of interest.

One solution should be obvious to Horror-Movies.ca, considering their base of operations. I didn’t attend the AfterDark Horrorfest because it didn’t play in Canada. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal. After all, it wasn’t until just recently that Canada even had a regular horror convention. I’m used to getting the short end of the stick. But in this case I was even considering crossing the border to catch the Fest. A few weeks before AfterDark was set to begin I checked their site to find the closest possible theatre in New York state and up until that point they didn’t have one listing. Not one theatre in the sixth most densely populated state in the U.S. Looking at the listings now, they added a handful of theatres in New York state, including a few that I could have reached, but the cities were added a little over a week before the event which left me no time (or interest) to make preparations for the trip. I’m sure others were in the same boat, and in a way I’m glad that I couldn’t make it because according to some reports this lack of preparation on After Dark’s part resulted in numerous theatres not showing their full engagement by cancelling some of the weekend screenings, leaving numerous pass holders holding the bag.

Happily, it looks as if AfterDark has realized their shortcomings and are prepared to take action. On the AfterDark message board, in response to various complaints, an employee of the company in charge posted the following message.

We are listening carefully and taking notes so that next year will be better. I can’t give you any details at the moment. It’s a bit soon for that. I’ll just promise that things will be different next year, different in a good way.

There’s nothing quite like watching a horror movie on the big screen, but unfortunately the gap between theatrical sreenings and direct-to-DVD seems to get wider with each passing year. I would love to see AfterDark work out, and I’m sure many genre fans feel the same. Here’s hoping they iron out the kinks. Until then, I hardly think the fans are to blame.

Movies

L.X.A vs. T.H.O.R.C.U.Z.F.E.
My New Plaid Pants is cursed.
Twitch has three clips from Inside.
Japanese Alien vs. Predator trailer. Via.
Next Friday the 13th may not be remake.
Horror movies and the Unrated Conspiracy.
Searches for ‘Cthulhu’ up 63% because of Cloverfield.
It took a Joan Jett cameo to get me interested in Repo!
Dark Sky Films to release movies on XBox Live Marketplace.
Horror makes its way onto 10 Greatest Movies About Eating.
George A. Romero Presents … Deadtime Stories begins shooting.

DVD

The Video Watchblog on the sorry state of The Maneaters of Hydra.

Interviews

Cast and crew of Sweeny Todd - IESB.
Junji Ito and Junko Mizuno - Japanarama. Via.

Reviews

Evil - It’s A Scream!
The Mist - SkullRing.
Bacterium - Cinematical.
Amicus Collection - Twitch.
Ice Spiders - Damaged 2.0.
The Giant Claw - Exclamation Mark.
Carry On Screaming - Frankensteinia.
Vacation For A Massacre - Giallo Fever.
Amateur Porn Star Killer - Cinema Fromage.
Erotic Nights of the Living Dead - Horror Yearbook.
Horror Rises From The Tomb - Exploitation Retrospect.

Television

Cloverfield/Heroes crossover?
Billie Piper returns to Doctor Who.
The Hills Have Eyes 2 vs. the Advertising Standards Authority.
X-Files meets Cronenberg meets Altered States? Count me in.

Literature

Bookgasm revisits I Am Legend.
The Boston Globe investigates Ghost.
Totally macabre Gallery of Novelizations.

Comics

Scans Daily presents Madam Satan. Via.
Pappy unlocks The Secret of the Key. Via.
Fringe Benefits enters The Fog prequel. Via.
Parasyte Vol. 2 - Warren Peace Sings The Blues. Via.
Comic Monsters speaks to Halloween writer Stefan Hutchinson.
Preparations for the imminent zombie apocalypse, in comic form. Via.

Gaming

Hot rods, zombies, nukes and the Wii.
Music from Clive Barker’s Jericho to be performed in concert.
Primotech interviews Adrian Ciszewski, producer on Dead Island.

Music

The Manchester Morgue presents the Demons 2 soundtrack.
Exclaim! reviews Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein solo album.

Events

Design an ad campaign for Stephen King’s next novel.

Contests

Last chance to win Flight of the Living Dead.

Misc.

Coffin pr0n.
The Zombie, revealed.
Kevin DuBrow 1955 - 2007.
Cthulhu meets Scooby Doo.
Zombies take to the country.
American student suspended over Death Note.
No new leads in Belgian Death Note killing. Via.
If I were ten, this would be on my Christmas list.
Monroeville Mall zombie walk breaks world record.
There’s no such thing as too much information. NSFW.
Edgar Allen Poe adaptation needs party people for extras.
The Search For Weng Weng talks to Weng Weng’s brother.

Josh Simmons is the cartoonist responsible for the critically-acclaimed wordless horror graphic novel House, available from Fantagraphics. His next projects include Jessica Farm, also published by Fantagraphics, and Night of the Jibblers for the Kramers Ergot 7 anthology. He is also the first, and probably last, person to use the term ‘nuggs’ in this blog, and for that I will be forever grateful.

When I was about 15 I went to see Candyman in the theater with zero expectations, fully expecting it to be a ho hum, halfway decent waste of time. I’d started getting disillusioned with a lot of the books/movies/comics I had enjoyed up to that point, gettin a lot pickier in what I enjoyed. But from the very start of the film, with the screen completely filled end to end with bees, and the deep intonation of Mr. Candyman’s shpiel, I was seriously unnerved and sucked into the flick. And the rest of it did not disappoint; I recall really brutal violence hinted at or barely off screen; people getting ripped from genitals to throat, a little boy’s pecker chopped off and tossed in a toilet. This was probably one of the last times that a movie really scared my nuts off. However, I haven’t seen it in years, the present me may well consider Candyman silly garbage.

I must have been 17 when I was home alone one night and decided to watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I also had a mass load of marijuana, and so ripped nuggs before and throughout the film. I knew next to nothing about David Lynch at that point and had never
seen one of his films before. From the start I was sucked in and intrigued by the movie, but shortly into the flick was the scene that put serious chills up my spine. Laura Palmer is in a psychiatrist’s office and is crying and freaking the fuck out; She grabs his head and pulls his face real close, spitting out with slow, feverish intensity: “Fire.” “Walk.” “With.” and then for the “Me.” suddenly for a split second she has blue skin and orange teeth and virtually growls/roars the word. I jumped out of my skin over this scene, and then was afraid to walk around anywhere else in the darkened house for the rest of the night. The remainder of the movie’s surreal fever dream bad trip vibe seriously sold my ass on Lynch’s movies from then on.

It’s always struck me that the one thing unions never attempt is a little ol’ time religion. Over 65 horror writers staged an exorcism yesterday at the Warner Bros. studio lot as part of the WGA strike, many of them wearing t-shirts that proclaimed “Horror Writers on Strike — We Eat Scabs”. The attendees included such luminaries as comic writer Steve Niles, Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris and was organized by 70s remake specialist Scott Kosar. There are many more pictures and comments at the link, including the startling fact that in the first 10 months of 2007 horror DVDs accounted for over 450 million dollars gross. I wonder if that’s worldwide or domestic.

In the mythical age before the internet, the best chances an awkward teen had of tasting forbidden fruit were sword and sorcery movies, porno found in the woods and horror flicks. It was far easier to sneak a nudie horror film past your parents then it was trying to convince the clerk at the video store to let you into the back room. And without some sort of guide, most onscreen nudity was a pleasant surprise.

Mr. Skin has released their guide to the Top 20 Movie Nude Scenes of 2007 and horror takes up a sizable chunk of the winners, though mostly at the tail end. No pun intended.

14. Bug - Ashley Judd
17. Halloween - Danielle Harris
18. Hostel: Part II - Heather Matarazzo
20. Rise: Blood Hunter - Lucy Liu

I’m amazed at my younger self’s ability to separate the sex from the violence, because current me has a hard time finding anything sexy about that list. Admittedly, Danielle Harris’ inclusion is refreshingly old school, and Lucy Liu is more the hero then the victim, but I just can’t see many people stroking it to Ashley Judd’s insect-infested paranoid. Especially bizarre is the inclusion of Heather Matarazzo, from a scene that involves copious amounts of pain, humiliation, and gallons of blood and snot.

Is there anyone out there that can pull off upside-down breasts?

“I’ve literally been waiting 50 years to do this. I’m excited.”

David Cronenberg’s early flirtation with literature was bookended by the two obsessions which have marked his career; science and film. Although he received a B.A. in literature from the University of Toronto, a major he took after abandoning his initial foray into science, Cronenberg soon found cinema to be more to his liking and he hasn’t looked back. Until now.

The Globe and Mail reports that Cronenberg has been offered a book deal by Penguin Canada to be publish a novel for 2010. Details on the novel are understandably scant, but the deal was finalized based on a few sample pages, and rumour has it that it will be “Cronenberg-esque”, with at least a few scenes set in Toronto.

It’s the final Tuesday installment of Scarred, and today we’re bringing you the nightmarish experiences of the duo behind The Blair Witch Project. Considering the tone of that landmark horror film, is it any surprise what scared these two men?

First up is Daniel Myrick, whose latest project was the murderous cultist film Believers.

The moment when the kid runs into Bigfoot in the woods in, “The Legend of Boggy Creek.”

Scared the pee out of me when I was young. Still get goosebumps.

Eduardo Sanchez has also been keeping busy, most recently with Altered, a tale of alien abduction and vengeance.

The PATTERSON-GIMLIN film is probably the scariest single piece of media that I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know if you call it art or entertainment, but it chilled me to the core when I first saw it as a kid and it still creeps me out every time I see it.

Years later, the spirit of that little piece of filmmaking became a major contributing factor to the initial idea that later became THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Actually, our goal at the time was to make a feature-length documentary filled with PATTERSON-GIMLIN style moments. I can only hope that we came close to succeeding.

I didn’t get a chance to write about it before the story got too old to bother with, but I have to admit I was plenty excited by the possibility of Jason Voorhees hitting the small screen in an appearance on Supernatural. It seemed like a win-win scenario, with New Line keeping the Voorhees brand in public view and priming the pump for his inevitable return to cinemas, and the CW getting the bump in viewership that such a guest appearance would entail, with the possible side effect of enticing some new blood into their viewership. In hindsight I’m glad I didn’t post the original rumour, because it turns out it isn’t true. Instead a masked fascimile of Jason will be facing the Winchester Boys.

I’ll admit to being a little bent out of shape about this. In the original article that revealed the Voorhees/Supernatural mash-up, show creator Eric Kripke states “We have cleared the rights to actually use Jason,” but Supernatural producer John Shiban later makes the claim that rights clearance issues prevent them from using the character, making it seem as if that’s how it’s always been. So, was Kripke mistaken? Was he misquoted? Did New Line pull their support? Did they just decide not to go with the real Jason Voorhees despite having the rights? Or is this some sort of bait and switch? Because I’ve spoken to a fair amount of people, none of whom had ever watched the show previously, who were very excited about this episode and I have to admit that a stunt like this isn’t likely to endear the show to potential viewers, myself included.

Author Simon Clark has been terrorizing Britain and the world at large for nearly 2 decades. His visceral, doom-laden prose is so relentless that it’s almost a miracle he manages to cram a little hope in there. I especially recommend Mr. Clark’s evolutionary takes on the zombie archetype, Stranger and Blood Crazy, both of which freaked me out. His latest includes The Rage of Echoes, a twist on the vampire mythos which just hit North America in paperback form last month, and if you’re lucky enough to live in the U.K. you can grab Lucifer’s Ark, a tale of psychosis on the high seas, on sale this month.

GHOSTWATCH. A MASTER CLASS IN HORROR.

You know something? I now own GHOSTWATCH on DVD. And it is still frightening.

Movies

Possible Cloverfield review?
The Mist places ninth at the box office.
Ghostbusters, Robocop and more Sweded.
Four Horsemen done and hitting theatres in December?
Stephen King and David Lynch - Compare and Contrast.
Old Dark House on I Am Legend film adaptations. SPOILERS.
No Country For Old Men snags 11th place; still not playing near me.

DVD

The Crazy Ass Alien/Predator DVD set.

Interviews

Stephen King - Time.

Reviews

The Mist - ADDTF.
Uzumaki - Wet Streets.
Killer Nun - Giallo Fever.
The Mist - The Movie Blog.
The Mist - Dinner With Max Jenke.
Horrors of Malformed Men - Twitch.
The Mist - The Blood Spattered Bride.
Bell Book and Candle - Moon in the Gutter.
A Chinese Torture Chamber Story - dreamlogic.
Death Steps In The Dark - Trash Cinema Review.
Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals - Bloody Italiana.

Television

Dexter breaks Showtime record.

Literature

The Groovy Holiday Wish List continues.
The University of Calgary Gauntlet reviews World War Z.

Comics

The Comic Book Bin reviews Uzumaki vol. 2.
The Horror of It All encounters The Beast From Beyond.

Gaming

Dead Rising may be coming to the PC.

Events

Trash Palace changes locations, acquires pinball game.

Misc.

Reg Park 1928 - 2007.
Weng Weng count - 8.
Mayor escapes Satanists.
Basis for Vampire legend?
Ozzy and Zombie not for kids!

As I’ve mentioned previously, occasional Horror Roundtable contributor and Rose City Roller Doug Nagy has begun his career as a professional blogger. His duties include video reviews, like the one for The Mist which he filmed with The Movie Blog proprietor John Campea.

But really I just wanted to post this so I could mention that I smoked that fuckmunch at Zombies! earlier tonight. That’ll teach you to mess with the Zombie Plow.