How often do you get to read, watch or listen to something on this blog that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy? For the sake of our emotional well-being, I have to break up the mayhem every once in awhile and bring you something unbearably sweet. Please enjoy this ode to brotherhood and compassion, as only the The Horror Blog can bring it to you.

And, hey. Take care of one another out there.

In other potentially disappointing news, Kevin Smith let slip at Wizard World Chicago that his next project may be a horror movie.

A straightforward “what’s next” led to a game of rock-paper-scissors to determine if Smith would reveal his upcoming project. Although the fan lost the match, Smith said that he would be making a horror film.

I can’t find the source, but rumour has it that this may be a slasher film. The one thing I’m most curious about is whether Smith is going to go for a straight-up spoof, which the world probably doesn’t need, or as Bloody Disgusting is reporting whether he’ll be playing against type and actually attempting to film a regular horror movie.

As an animator, I work in one of the most highly concentrated nerd environments imaginable. For the past year I’ve heard enough about World of Warcraft I could almost believe that I’ve played it myself. A few days ago it all paid off. A co-worker noticed my What Would Jason Do t-shirt and asked me if I was aware that there is a Crystal Lake in World of Warcraft. And upon further investigation, it appears that standing on a dock overlooking Crystal Lake is a fisherman named Jason. And as if that wasn’t enough, near the lake is an inn where players of the game discovered a group of children standing in the form of a pentagram with a ghostly echo playing in the background.

WTF Blizzard. WTF indeed.

I didn’t realize just how much news comes flying out of the San Diego comic convention. It’s like having Halloween sneak up on you.

“We’re going to make two, sleazy grindhouse movies that will deliver on the posters… and beyond! This isn’t some Twilight Zone the Movie fucking thing. This is not a faux double feature. This is two fucking movies for the price of one! Your $10 will be well spent at the Grindhouse, baby!” - Quentin Tarantino

The most exciting news to come out of San Diego is a batch of Grindhouse announcements. Clips from Rodriguez’ zombie portion, Planet Terror, were shown, a description of which can be found here.

Tarantino’s segment, Death Proof, is not yet in production. He made up for a lack of clips by revealing the name of the actor playing the villain in his piece, previously believed to be Mickey Rourke. Instead, Kurt Russell will be taking the role. As ridiculous as that may seem to some, this is a man who actually kept his Snake Plissken costume for decades just so he could wear it in the sequel. In related news, Rodriguez is in talks with fellow director/composer John Carpenter about creating music for the film.

And with that piece of news my initial excitement is alternating with the fear that a heavily contrived faux-grindhouse flick just can’t match the sleazy intensity of the real thing. Only time will tell.

Poster courtesy of Bloody Disgusting’s excellent coverage of the convention.

Horror Roundtable champion David Zee (or as we like to call him up here, David Zed) has posted about as many links in one day as it takes me a week to manage. Among them are an invitation to check out his work at the reincarnation of Horror/Metal ‘zine G.A.S.P. etc., news on the Eurotrash inspired band The Giallos Flame, and a killer Jack Kirby cover. What clinches it is a rare trailer for an unfinished film by the name of Chunkblower. It was to be directed by Jim Van Bebber with a screenplay as written by the world’s most renowned gorehound critic, Chas Balun, practically a guarantee of sleazy, gruesome fun. What a shame that it never got off the ground.

Steve Bissette has developed an interesting way to broker a resolution between the United States and North Korea; an old-fashioned campout at Crystal Lake.

Take Kim to Camp Crystal Lake.

Let him shoot arrows into Bing Crosby’s son, slit some throats, lop Betsy Palmer’s head off with a shovel, sing around the campfire and toast some dogs and marshmallows, whisper “sskkkhhh, sskkkkhhhh, kill, kill” with all you good ol’ Connecticut-born Texan dictator-types.

I knew that Kim Jong-il was a huge fan of the cinema, but I never imagined that would extend to the Friday the 13th franchise. It gets even more interesting when you combine his adoration with Jason with this quote from director Shin Sang Ok, who was kidnapped by Kim Jong-il for the express purpose of starting a North Korean film industry.

In some ways he is ignorant. He looks at films like they are social documentaries. I told him that films like Norma Rae reflect reality, but most American films are fiction.

Maybe the censors were right all along and constant exposure to horror movies can lead to a blurring of the line between fantasy and reality.

I wonder what he thinks of Jason Takes Manhattan.

According to the filmmakers behind Freak Out, their movie has garnered universal acclaim, including compliments from such media heavyweights as Fangoria, SFX Magazine, Hot Dog, Ain’t It Cool, Film Threat, Bloody Disgusting and many more. Well, make that near-universal acclaim.

But alas MISTER KIM NEWMAN (I empthasise the MR due to the creepy trans-gender ring to the name) has decided that FREAK OUT ain’t all that and myself and co-star James Heathcote are, in fact, ‘a couple of gits’.

For about 46 minutes I was a little steamed that a near-death pube coated jizz sponge would flippantly attack our humble 4 year effort with a twist of his booger catching nose merkin and a grin of the girl-repellant that he commonly know as his face…

What a bizarre reaction. You would think that so many positive reviews of Freak Out would create a buffer for the negative criticism that would inevitably sneak through. I haven’t seen Freak Out yet, and I hope that this episode won’t colour my perception, but this kind of tantrum can only serve to turn people off of the film.

I’m going to shoot through the remake news as quickly as possible.

You’ve probably already seen the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake prequel trailer. Final Girl has a handle on the poster.

The 40-Year Old Virgin 2 : Wicker Man trailer is up as well. The less said about that the better.

The Stepfather is stepping up to the plate. Somehow it makes me even more sad to see some of the minor classics up for remakes than it is to see the majors.

The only remake on this list that has me the least bit excited is the possiblity of a made-for-TV Wolfen movie. I have a particular fondness for the low-budget aesthetic of the television movie. It often adds to the lurid quality of the film. That and the original Wolfen, though probably too slow and confusing for a 7 year-old, creeped me out enough that I even tried to read the novel.

And finally, some behind-the-scenes for the upcoming Black Christmas remake. For the record, Black Christmas is my favourite horror movie, behind only Night of the Living Dead and the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, so I have no hope that this will come to any good. Regardless, whether you’re actually interested or morbidly fascinated, there are a few neat tidbits in there for you.

It seems a little redundant at this point to bring up Rob Zombie’s directorial committment to the remake of Halloween, but the news is still just sinking in. I was never that big a fan of the original series, including the first installment (comparable and inferior as it was to the earlier Black Christmas), but the news that Zombie is restarting the series is just interesting enough to draw me in.

This the new HALLOWEEN. Call it a remake, an update, a reimaging or whatever, but one thing that for sure is this is a whole new start… a new begining with no connection to the other series. That is exactly why the project appeals to me. I can take it and run with it.

I talked to John Carpenter about this the other day and he said, “Go for it, Rob. Make it your own”. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

I thought House of 1000 Corpses was awful, which is understandable for a director’s first film, but thought it’s sequel, The Devil’s Rejects, was better by leaps and bounds. After watching that, I was ready to follow Zombie anywhere he went with his film career, especially if he kept improving at the rate he seemed to have going. I just never imagined that he would abandon original material to jump on the “reinvisioning” bandwagon.

Could Zombie have turned the franchise around? Yeah, probably. But he’s going to have to pull off one of the best genre films ever made to even attempt to get out from under the shadow of the original Halloween, if that’s even possible. You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.