Attack of the Killer Foot Final Cut from Greg Anderson-Elysee on Vimeo.
“We sort of tried doing one mad Interscope vieo sort of thing, big budget like a rock version answer to a rap video. It was kind of fun to do, but I felt a bit immoral doing it.”- Gavin
But anyways, Marcus Nispel, the director of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, directed this fantastic horror video. I dare you to watch it and not feel a bit weirded out or confused about it. A short movie running about 7 minutes, Nispel does a great job setting up a strange and dark mood and atmosphere.
as David Drayton, a loving and caring father who takes charge of a strange situation after a thunderstorm hits town. After the storm, David and his wife and child notices a strange mist coming from the mountains. They casually shrug it off as David decides to go into town to buy supplies for home along with his son and his neighbor who has had past tension with him, played greatly by Andre Braugher. While at the supermarket, Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn) rushes to the store with a bloody nose claiming that there was something in the mist. He gets people to shut the market door as people outside of the mist start screaming in agony and soon enough, the mysterious mist surrounds the whole market place. 
Theories begin to pass around about the cause and effects of this strange mist and what people should do. While in the supermarket, we're introduced to a variety of different characters, played wonderfully by their actors. Among them that truly steals the show is Marcia Gay Harden who portrays religious zealot Mrs. Carmody who sees the strange situation as the Wrath of God coming to punish his sinful children. I will say, though, although I absolutely loved this character, aspects of this character starts to become a bit too extreme and I do feel that the constant portrayal of religiously heavy characters like Mrs. Carmody could get a bit annoying in contrast to actual Christians with a grand faith. But I'll just leave it at that as I refuse to say too much. Another character that stands out is Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen) an elderly school teacher who thinks for herself and kicks monster ass. As the day goes by, people begin to die one-by-one as people attempt to escape and investigate as strange giant bug creatures break into the store, causing havoc and death.
The thing that I love about the movie is that although this could be classified under monster film, it's truly a study of humans and how they handle themselves under stress and the effects they cause on people and situations around them. I'm more interesting in the things they say to each other and what they do then who's going to die next and how the monsters look. Now not to say I don't get tense when they go out and a creature is around them, but the film truly shines on the characters and their decisions and relationships to each other. Some are very caring to each other, some very violent, some attempting to find an easier way out of life through the situation that arises them. This aspect of the film makes me think of The Walking Dead, a comic book character study about a group of people who struggle to live on after the world is infected by zombies, written beautifully by Robert Kirkman. Awesomely enough, Darabont himself is heavily attached to the upcoming Walking Dead TV series.
cast, and good suspense.The use of music works perfectly as it's actually not that noticeable. The rise in tension is used perfectly when no music is played and when it does play, it's a very beautifully composed sordid and menacing sounding piece that helps dig the strangeness under your skin. For the people who can't get into their head that gore doesn't make a horror movie, there's at least a bit here for them as the slight gory scenes really stand out but don't particularly pull you out of the story or take center stage. Though one particular scene when a bunch of spiders creep out of a man truly gets me itching and uneasy. Yeeesh! I don't want to say too much because the movie came as an absolute surprise of how good it was and I'm glad I avoided all reviews and spoilers besides people here and there telling me it was a great movie. And the end, oh boy the ending! It was advertised on the trailers about how insane the ending of this movie was and I just fell in love with it. A bit of a predictable ending, but still heart-wrenching and a perfect ending for this movie.
First we had Drag Me To Hell then the recent Paranormal Activity, and Zombieland has been getting some great reviews all over which I've yet to see for myself and now this nice little gem called Trick 'r Treat directed by Michael Dougherty and produced by Bryan Singer. From what I understand, this movie was set to come out in 2006 but it was delayed by Warner Brothers for whatever reason and it's finally been released on DVD about a week or so ago. Decided to pick it up due to some of the great reviews I've been reading and hearing about and finally watched it and have to say it truly is a nice little gem to own and watch with some buddies.
You don't want to mess with Sam and break a Halloween tradition, I'm telling you. As the movie progresses, we come across various creatures of the night such as demons, zombies, werewolves (the werewolves segment had to be my favorite part of the whole movie), vampires as each segment beings to interlock and connect with each other in some way shape or form. One of the exciting things about this anthology is putting together the pieces of when certain things occurred as various scenes are in fact out of sequence.
job behind the helm. Visually, this movie definitely grabs you and gets you interested. He knows how to definitely bring a script to life through the camera using some great camera movements with beautiful editing transition shots, all adding greatly to the quirky but creepy fun of this movie. He also picked a great set of actors as his characters who all seemed to be very comfortable in their skin and all enjoying their parts in this movie.
everything that was showcased without spoiling some stuff. It was cleverly written with some nice subtle touches throughout. I honestly couldn't help but allow myself to fall in love with this movie. This is definitely a movie to be enjoyed by anyone with the Halloween spirit. It's not the scariest film you'll ever see, though there are some really jumpy parts and some great tension built up in certain segments, but it will be one very fun evening you'll have watching this with a group of buddies or some family members. Even though I do think it'd make a fun flick to watch with family for Halloween, it isn't a kids movie. There's language, sexual innuendo, killings, mutilation, and breasts. I know growing up, I wasn't scorned against watching stuff of the like, but a fair warning to parents who want to watch this with their little kiddies.
off his mask that a bit of the mystique of the character sort of loses me. Now it helps for the story where you see his look, but I could have done without seeing it. And the second would definitely be the running time. 82 minutes of this? Why couldn't we get more? Ah well. I do hope this movie does very well and WB notices they screwed up in not releasing this when this was originally suppose to come out. This definitely has the markings of a big cult favorite and following. Hopefully a wide-released sequel? I do know Dougherty himself has plans for one.
remain at the top of favorite movies for me. When I was a kid, I dreamed of being part of this kooky family that was created by the masterful Charles Addams and it was these two movies that cemented my love for this morbidly humorous family. The film stars the late Raul Julia as the energetic and romantic Gomez, Anjelica Huston as the vampish wife Morticia, Christopher Lloyd as the indestructible Fester, Christina Ricci as the morbidly deadpan Wednesday, Jimmy Workman as the unintelligent naive Pugsley, Judith Malina as the curse-inducing Mama in the first film and then Carol Kane in the sequel, Carel Struycken as the Frankensteinish butler Lurch, Christopher Hart as the handful Thing, and finally John Franklin as the too kool to shave Cousin Itt. Each actor perfectly brings the family to life in both movies that feature non-stop laughs ranging from disturbing actions and high morbid humor.
Fester, to steal treasure and become rich. Gordon, as Fester, slowly begins to feel more like part of the family despite at first being completely uncomfortable with their weird life-style. Morticia found no problem with finding cyanide in his suitcase, Pugsley laughs at having his arm caught in Gordon's bear trap, Thing attacks him to sleep, and Wednesday watches him from her door in a suspicious way. A huge question is constantly brought up about if Gordon is actually in fact really Fester or really an impostor. The overall plot of the movie isn't strong, but you still can't help but fall in love with the characters. They're kookier than the 60's television show (I know, as if that were possible) and their constantly one-liners are too perfect not to love.
Morticia are. They're the most perfect couple I've ever seen in any movie with hardly any tension in their relationship, just complete adoration and love. The chemistry between both Huston and Julia works perfectly and are completely believable. When the two get into a scene that requires them flirting, you can't help but smile and laugh at their lines to each other. The scene when Morticia is tied up and being tortured and Gomez is speaking to her about real torture being to live without her and their theme music begins to play as they're about to kiss and are interrupted is truly hilarious and gets a chuckle out of me and people I'm watching it with every time. Lloyd does a wonderful job playing the extremely chaotic Fester and watching his love and appreciation for the family grow is a delight to see, especially when he grows especially close to Wednesday and Pugsley and teach them how to sword fight and blow up bombs and 
play pranks against Mama. Besides the fantastic scenes between Gomez and Morticia, it is Ricci as Wednesday that steals the show. Wednesday in the original series/cartoon/strips is a completely different character as she's more happy-go-lucky and sometimes very sad character but Ricci plays her with such deadpan humor that it's impossible not to love the ret-conned personality. Ricci's portrayal of Wednesday fits perfectly for this type of movie and it would have been extremely weird seeing a different portray than what we got.
, the white-dressed and extremely beautiful Debbie played hilariously by Joan Cusack. She seems right at home with the family as she isn't quite freaked out by their life-style and even says a few lines that fit perfectly with the Addams way of thinking. As she's introduced to the members of the household and shown through the house, she takes an interest to Fester who's extremely shy of her. As the movie progress, she tries to get close to him and they eventually get married. But during her first night at the Addams Mansion, it is revealed to us that she is actually the murderous Black Widow who marries rich men and kills then during their honeymoon, collects their money and vanishes until she's broke. Due to Debbie, the family starts to slowly deteriorate as Wednesday and Pugsley are sent to a freakishly happy summer camp that hates them and tortures them with songs, hugs, and Disney movies, Gomez seems to slowly go insane and may possible die, while their baby has transformed to a rosy cheek and blond curl baby who may fearfully become President one day.
plot-wise, I have a slightly bigger love for the first movie due to the music and editing. The soundtrack score composed by Marc Shaiman is very enticing and grasping as when the tracks from the movie play on my Media Player, I can't help but reply them over and over for a long while, my favorite piece being A Party for Me? and the Finale. Shaiman plays very well with the energetic family while adding some horror sounding music that complements the family very well. Editing-wise, a huge favorite transition of mine is the scene when Morticia and Gomez waltz for a few seconds and Morticia pulls off a sheet that then brings us to the grand ball for Fester. Beautifully well made films, both movies are directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. If you haven't seen either of these movies, you've been living under a rock and need to be stoned with that rock and enjoy it.
but put yourself in Coraline's shoes and view it as a lil' kid, you'll piss your pants!). But yes, this film is a mockumendary directed by Oren Peli starring Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat as a couple who decides to video document strange occurrence in their house. We are presented through this story through the video documents taken by the characters.
sounds and creaking doors and lights flickering. Each night is a lil' more and a lil' more and tension grows as you're not sure what to expect next despite quite a few scenes being fairly predictable. The slowness and gradual build-up really grasps you until things really start unfolding finally. The director did a wonderful job growing suspense and using time and quietness to his advantage. It's really refreshing to see how a low-budget movie done in seven days can get you uneasy with hardly much special effects. I also see this as a way of getting into "horror fans" heads who only believe that a good horror movie should be rated R with a ton of gore and tits. If this movie had eliminated all the cursing, it could have definitely been a PG-13 movie and still frighten the viewers it's been frightening. And speaking of, I enjoyed hearing girls scream their asses off and panic through the movie. Now some scenes I felt weren't too strong to fully get me to jump or be fearful, but I did have a hell of a good time watching this film. I felt it was well made and may not be a top favorite of mine, but it's good money spent and good to watch with some buddies. Hell, bring your girl friend. I shoulda done that. Heh... there's always next week or so... But yes, in the end I could have done without the final second or two of the movie as I felt it was a tad cliche but a way of Peli having some fun. So go have some fun with Peli and others and allow yourself to enjoy this good horror film. Don't put too much thought about if this will live up to the hype. Just go see it.A Motherf***in' Rat from Lucas on Vimeo.
acques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton. A common thing about Lewton's films were that he had a title and had to make a story around that title. This was one of them. The movie is about a Canadian nurse, Betsy Connell (played by Frances Dee) who gets hired to watch over an ill woman named Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), wife of Paul Holland, a sugar plantation owner in the Caribbean island of St. Sebastian. In the first night she meets Paul (Tom Conway) who warns her that the beauty she sees in this island is really misery and death, his brother Wes, Alma the maid, and Jessica who walks zombie-like to the protagonist at the dead of night frightening her and beginning the problem of the story. Betsy is told that a tropical fever had caused the strange case of Jessica's condition but underneath it may in fact be a supernatural cause to this. After a few nights of Jessica's condition not improving, Betsy becomes desperate and searches other means: finding a houngan, the local Vodou priest to help her recover. When she reaches the village, a mob of Vodou practitioners approach Jessica, stabs her with a sword and sees that she doesn't bleed, thus revealing her state as a zombie. This then leads to many other complications as the film goes on with Jessica's condition and a Vodou priest getting involved in trying to recover Jessica for whatever reasons.
watching it. It could be my bias as to my recent interest in the religion of Vodou, but I was intrigued into this film since the beginning till the end. The atmosphere and mood of everything was very chilling and engrossing. The characters all stood out very well, even if they weren't main characters. I especially loved the depiction of the black characters in the movie. For a film done in 1943, I was expecting some random offensive depictions, for example the maid and Vodou practitioners, but I was surprised to see them depicted quite well.
Jessica through a mysterious field to reach a Vodou ritual. As they move deeper and deeper, the scene gets creepier and creepier and very tense until we meet Carre-Four, an actual zombie who appears throughout the film in very creepy fashion. The scene caught me entirely off guard and would scare the living hell out of me if I were in her shoes. But the thing that got me was that Carre-Four was explained to be a guardian of the crossroads and that you wouldn't be able to pass through him without a Vodou badge, which Betsy had lost on her way there. Carre-four just walks away, letting them pass. After that, we see Carre-Four being controlled by a Vodou priest to retrieve Jessica. Now what got me questioning this was that ever since hearing "Carre-four" was in this movie, I was expecting to see "Kalfu" which was pronounced the same. Kalfu in the Haitian Vodou religion is a god and not someone to mess with, the Lord of crossroads and known as the grand daddy of sorcery and black magic while he allows bad luck and destruction. There was no way in hell Kalfu would allow a Vodou priest to control him as a zombie. It was until I did a bit of research of the movie and saw the name was used mostly as a nod to him. I will say, though, Carre-Four was creepy as all types of hell in this movie. Especially when he creeps towards us, arms wide-open... sheesh!
As mention, part of this website mission is to unleash hidden talent for the world to see. To expose goldmines regarding stories and art that might be tucked away from the general public. For our second interview, we've contacted Greg Anderson who recently published a short story within an comic anthology called Loving memory.
let's get this interview started.
So can you tell us what the name of your published piece is called and what it's about?
Hey, it's great to be here. The name of my piece is In Loving Memory... and could be found in an anthology called RX Tales: Stories To Make You Feel Better! published under MC Studios. It's a very short story, about 8 pages, of a woman speaking to her comatose husband to awaken. There's a bit of a reversal at the end which I won't spoil. It's also drawn by Kotsu, a fantastic artist from Jersey. We were very fortunate to find her.
Wow, that's pretty deep. So did you have plans to expand this into a mini series or was this going to remain as just a one shot?
Always meant to be a one-shot deal. I tend to leave some of my short stories with a bit of a cliff-hanger which I developed through my love for reading and writing horror stories but this was a one-shot story and not horror, but a complete love story.
I see, so how exactly were your approached with this opportunity, did they come to you?
Nepotism. Heh, nah, just something my cousin-in-law, George Hartman, and I started discussing. George is a big comic geek and whenever there's a family reunion we're to the side just talking about comics. One day he told me he was putting together an anthology that focused on hospitals, whether it be doctors, nurses, patients, etc ranging from all types of genres. He asked if I wanted to contribute and there was no way I was going to pass that up. I at first wanted to write a horror story but decided to challenge myself and write something else out of my element and I have to say I loved how it turned out.
Wow, and how was that for you? As an aspiring artist, I can definitely admit it's a daunting task to work outside your element. Did you feel you did it successfully, and how did you feel about the finish product of your writing?
It was great. Although I'm mostly a bit of a horror writer, I definitely try and love to dabble in other genres. There's usually a good bit of comedy and character moments I love to put into my writing. Even if a work isn't horror, I've added at least a very small element or supernatural thing to it. But I do like to challenge myself as a writer. Sometimes it's a little hard for me to step out of my element, but that's usually when it comes to poetry. When writing scripts, I could come up with anything of whatever genre/topic, but tell me to write a poem, it'd usually come up quite morbid, haha. And I swear it's not intentional. When I do try to write poetry out of my element, you could tell it comes off a bit forced but it's something I'm trying to cross as I don't feel depressed, least not for the past few years, But I think it's one of those things where it's said pain makes good art. I tend to only write poetry when I'm down. Only a few times I've written poetry in a good ecstatic mood... I just may do that right now...
So tell us a bit about the artist. How did you find her and do you feel she captured your script the right away? How did it feel to see your creation come to life?
The artist is Kotsu. A girl from New Jersey and a damn good artist. Funny, she's also more of a horror fan from her love for zombies. It was George who found her in time to do the art for my script. After locking her in, George sent me a link to her myspace and deviant art and I was excited. What was funny was that her and I were already friends from myspace, but never interacted. When George sent the first batch of preview pages to me, I was the giddiest school girl you'd ever see. I was speechless for a while with a twinkle in my eye. I was truly beyond ecstatic to see something of mine produced into such good artwork. I printed a few pages out and showed it off to some friends and folks at my comic shop, haha. I feel she truly helped bring the story to life, especially the flash back scenes of the main characters' date. I was also very excited to meet her at the Mocca Fest a few months back. Sadly I didn't get to take a photo with her or have her sign my copy of the anthology.
Wow, the art does appear very impressive. So how have sales been so far, and for those that maybe interested in this anthology, how can they purchase it?
Well, I don't know much about overall sells, but the one day I was at the Mocca Fest promoting, we did sell a good amount. I know George was able to sell a lot more the days I wasn't there. Anyone interested in purchasing a copy could get one by e-mail George at GEORGE9448@aol.com. Just leave a subject topic indicating RX Tales.
Excellent, so now we have an avenue for those interested in the anthology. So how much is the price of the anthology, and what are you currently working on?
It's $3, so pretty cheap. Currently I'm mostly working and focusing on school. Planning on turning one of my comic scripts into a thesis film, hopefully half live-action/half animation. Fingers crossed on that one. Beyond that just writing scripts as practice. But George is planning on another anthology which I've written a script for. This time a horror, heeeh heeeeeehhhh......
So we definitely know what to expect from you in the near future lol. Thank you so much for conducting this interview with me. Do you have last words for our readers out there?
Eat a roach.
showcasing horror movies by Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur. The first movie we watched was 1942's Cat People. It was directed by Tourneur and produced by Lewton. The movie stars Simone Simon as Irena Dubrovna and Kent Smith as Oliver Smith. The film focuses on these two stars as they play a couple who meet at a zoo, fall in love, and get married. But there lies a problem. A problem in which Irena fears that if there were any moment of passion, even a slight kiss, she would turn into a cat and kill her lover, a curse that was passed on in her old village of Serbia. Oliver struggles to love Irena as he continues to try to convince her that it's all in her mind while Irena pleads against it and grows jealous of her husband's budding friendship with co-worker Alice, played by Jane Randolph. Tom Conway plays Dr. Louis Judd, a psychiatrist who tries to help Irena get through her fears but also starts to develop feelings for her.
g from the supernatural class I took over the past summer, was that horror - usually films of the supernatural - dealt with the eruption of the repressed, usually sexuality. This is showcased in films like The Innocents (my favorite horror film) and also in this movie. In this movie, if Irena's frigidity or passion is unwrapped, the horror comes out. Underneath, this film is about a woman unable and afraid to express and develop her sexuality. This is one plot point that makes it a very interesting movie to watch, as we begin to wonder if Irena isn't in fact crazy.
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