Minds of Greg

Rest in Peace, Dwayne McDuffie

2011-02-22T22:58:00.006-05:00

The comic world has been hit hard today. I'm still in complete shock and overwhelming sadness over the news today that Dwayne McDuffie, also known as "The Maestro" to many of his fans has passed away due to surgery complications. Upon reading the news, I just sat staring at the screen in school, minutes passing by before I can do anything else. This is a truly sad time for a lot of comic book fans. I actually feel like I want to throw up right now. I've looked up to this man for years and bought and enjoyed so much of his work. Static, Deathlok, Icon, Hardware, JLU, Fantastic Four... We had even interacted to do an interview some point soon. One of my biggest goals was to finally meet this man in person. He's one writer I've looked up to for years that I've never got to meet. As a young black inspiring comic writer, McDuffie opened up my eyes to a lot of aspects of the medium concerning black characters and opening the field for a lot of those characters to be brought in through authentic feeling ways, showcasing characters that felt 3D. McDuffie has always been one writer I've aspired to be like in some of my craft, from his strong character development and commentary to his fantastic and hilarious humor that rang true to human nature, especially in jokes concerning those of African-American backgrounds. Upon telling my best friend this news, not only was he also in shock, but he then came up with a statement saying, "African Americans just took a step back in the comic book world." One can only imagine now with McDuffie's constant fighter for diversity within comics.

More often than most, McDuffie always found a way to crack me up with character scenes. Here's one of my absolute favorites that never ceases to crack a smile on my face. I'm more than sure a lot of us black folks can relate to this scene in some way shape or form. Haha!

Your guidance and heroism will continue to live on in my heart, Maestro. Thank you so much for all you've done and all your work will continue to do for me and many others as we continue to re-read your craft. Your stories will continue to be there for us. Thank you for all you've done and all your inspiration. A legend may have left our graces, but your grace is still among us.

Condolences to all his close friends and family.

Oh, The Horror! #60: Frozen

2011-01-10T00:30:00.004-05:00

I was original suggested this movie by my oldest god brother a few months back. Since then, I've been hearing other people from the online community recommending it and giving it rather good feedback. So a few weekends ago, I'm spending time with my older godbrother and one of my brothers and I finally sit down to watch Frozen. I didn't know this was even out in theaters, I assumed it was direct to DVD. But this seem to be a flop in the box office. After watching this, I do sort of wish I saw it in theaters just to hear the audience reactions through out. This move was very tense and director, Adam Green, set out to make a clear horror-thriller and in my opinion did a very fine job. It wasn't excellent but this was by far a very well executed horror film that I would truly recommend.

The film follows three friends (two best friends and a girl friend) at a ski resort. They lie their way to pass and go on a sky lift and later on attempt to take advantage of this again only to accidentally get trapped in mid air. Due to mistakes and circumstances, they are left stranded there and the next time the resort will open will be in five days. So there they are hoping for the best as they're stuck in mid-air, freezing cold with no food, water, and no cell phones. This movie could have gotten incredibly boring but it seem near impossible too. The way shit and more shit started to go wrong kept you at the edge of your seat wondering how they'll get out of this mess. A true reason for the intensity of this film was due to the fact that something like this can indeed happen to anyone. It also got pretty exciting when wolves came into the picture, waiting for those humans to make a mistake and take advantage of that fresh white meat! The only really issue I had was that I was coming up with various ways they could have gotten out of quite a few predicaments, and sometimes they'd come up with it a bit too late. There were quite a few dumb decisions in this film that just made me want to face palm and could take away from some enjoyment.

The movie could have been better than it was but that doesn't make it any bad of a film. It seems with a lot of horror films now, either they suck or either they have elements to be truly great films with some stuff missing. The acting was decent as such with the character work. Wasn't great but it did a well enough job for you to like the characters. Suspense was well made with some very good practical special effects. One of my favorite parts contains a particular shot of a wolf staring at one of the characters out of nowhere. The sub-plot seem to come out of nowhere yet it still set up right and added to the intensity.

Once again, not a perfect film, but truly a good film to watch to pass the time and enjoy.

Oh, The Horror! #59: Black Swan

2011-01-06T02:21:00.005-05:00

So for my birthday shindig, I gathered some friends and family and headed straight to the theaters for a grand time of Black Swan.

Wow... just... wow. I love this movie. I do, I truly truly do. I walked out of the theaters feeling as if this movie was done for me specifically. This is the type of movie that I continually pray for as a fan of horror. And not just horror, psychological horror. A solid and engrossing story? Check. Performance? Check. Great direction? CHECK! From beginning to end I was totally engrossed in the story Darren Aronofsky was presenting of a shy and innocent young ballerina dancer named Nina as she struggled with the pressures of being pushed to play the dual role of the Queen Swan. Now, the overall themes and sub-text may have been done before and is nothing new, but the execution and the telling of the story of this particular character was just so very strong. While you can argue there's ambiguity and things to think about, there's a lot of things spelled out to you through implications and obvious symbolism, but seeing Portman's portrayal of an artist going mad for perfection of her craft while also raising into a state of confidence just refuses to let you go. I truly felt glee watching how well made this film was, especially as a film-maker who feels very dishearten with a lot of the current output of what passes as horror films. Thank you, Aronofsky. You're one of the few who comes out to prove to me that I can still proud call myself a fan of this genre in this day and age. The direction, the cinematography, the fantastic and beautiful sound mixing and the beautiful score! Jeez!

If you don't know the premise for this film already, Nina Sayers is a dancer in a NYC ballet company. She's been dancing for quite some time now and although has been known for her dedication and being a fantastic dancer, she doesn't quite have that special spark that truly makes her stand out. When the director of the ballet company decides he's ready for a new production, Nina, much to surprise, gets picked the lead role of the Swan Queen. In playing the Swan Queen, she must both portray the White Swan, innocent and sweet and kind-hearted compared to the Black Swan, the evil twin sister who's conniving and devious and sexual. She fits the role of the White Swan to a perfect T, but she lacks any resemblance of the Black Swan. She's constantly being pushed and a target of insults and sexual harassment by her director, Thomas (played by Vincent Cassel, a growing favorite of mine) while having to deal with her overbearing and protective mother (Barbara Hershey). Of course her life doesn't become any easier when Lily (Mila Kunis) from San Francisco joins the company, a dancer who is impulsive, confident and in other words pretty much is the Black Swan and essentially threatens Nina's chances of being Swan Queen. Nina starts to obsess over being perfect and can't seem to grasp a hold of her reality. Things go crazy and we're not sure if anything is what it seems.

I had so many favorite parts and aspects of this film that it really is hard for me to pick one defining part. I actually found it surprising some criticism I've heard of the movie walking out with some friends and family as we all discussed the film. A lot of the discussion I would post here, but I truly don't want to spoil this movie at all. Just go and see it and have a grand time of fine directing.

Oh, The Horror! #58: Horror of Tim Burton

2010-12-19T17:18:00.008-05:00

I'm a huge nut for Tim Burton as he's the reason as to why I'm currently a film major and lover. Since I'm so all over the place with a busy schedule then I've ever been, decided to at least do an easy update posting trailers of Burton's horror films. Now, some of these films weren't horror per se, but the man has a knack for incorporating his love for horror and Gothic art in various of his movies, for one getting various actors from the old black and white horror days to appear in his film, legends like Michael Gough to Christopher Lee.

One of my absolute favorites was in PeeWee Herman's Big Adventure. Everyone knows this scene, the Large Marge scene. I can't post an embedded version, but here's the link. It's a lot of fan's favorite scene in this movie and I remember how much it scared me as a kid watching this for the first time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzolCu-QLw0&feature=related

Next up is the great Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Winona Ryder. A horror comedy which never gets old. A ton of charm and hilarious moments with some fun, zany special effects.

Nightmare Before Christmas. A lot of people mistake this as a Burton directed film, but he was the originator of the story and the producer. It still essential counts as a Burton film as it has all his staple and style. This is a movie that also never gets old, especially for the Christmas season. Great music by Danny Elfman. Jack, the Pumpkin King of Halloween, wishes to take over Christmas from Santa Claus. Next to Edward Scissorhands, Jack has always been my favorite of Burton's outsider characters. He's just so damn relate-able.

Sleepy Hollow, perhaps Burton's most straight forward horror movie. Adapted from Washington Irving's classic tale about the Headless Horseman, Burton does a fantastic job with Andrew Kevin Walker's script with the help of his number one man, Johnny Depp as Icabod Crane.

Corpse Bride. I truly cannot understand the aversion for this movie. I've noticed quite a few people don't like it but I find it to be a truly brilliant and haunting movie. The characters were all very done in a sympathetic way and you can tell Burton had all types of fun with this. I do think a problem people have with this movie is that they can't help but compare this to Nightmare Before Christmas. I had that problem initially when I first saw this movie and was disappointed. But watch it as it's own and I find it to be bliss. A romance horror movie about a shy and timid man who accidentally marries a corpse. Has win written all over it. And it has the awesome track, Remains of the Day. Heck, even my mom loved this movie and she's not into animated films.

Remains of the Day! It even has Ray Charles!

"Die, die, we all pass away! But don't wear a frown 'cause it's really okay! You might try and hide and you might try and pray, but we all end up the remains of the day!"

"At last! My arm is complete again!" Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Love love love love this movie. Love horror, love musicals, and Burton does a beautiful job which I honestly can't help but see this as a bit of a masterpiece. I feel a lot of his previous films have all been practice to make this one movie. Although very critically acclaimed, I do know from non-critics it seems to get a mix reaction, but that's due to them having terrible taste! Depp once again and the great Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett.

Although not really a horror movie, Edward Scissorhands is my favorite film and incorporates a lot of horror elements, from the gothic atmosphere and setup, a Frankenstein influence plot and imagery, some truly dark moments, and horror scream king Vincent Price!!! The soundtrack from Danny Elfman is also a favorite of mine and always cheers me up whenever I'm in a down mood.

Last, I'll post Tim Burton's Vincent, his homage to the great Vincent Price, an actor I truly adore. He's one reason as to why I wouldn't have too much of a problem if I end up getting typecast as a horror actor. Him and Boris Karloff. We need more horror actors of their caliber in status.

That'll be all for now. Thanks for checking this out. I think I may do more of these type of posts/updates if I can't churn a review out here and there.

Screen Caps of my film, Crossing Fear

2010-12-11T20:49:00.004-05:00

One reason as to my busy schedule and not being able to keep this blog as up-to-date and frequent is due to me working insanely on my film thesis, Crossing Fear. Very excited thus far of the product and how it's coming out. Still have a few ways to go before fully finished, sound and animation being the big final touches.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010)

2010-11-29T20:25:00.004-05:00

Apparently this is a remake of an old made for TV horror flick. But this looks all types of sick! Written by the great Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins, directed by Troy Nixey. Starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, and Bailee Madison.

Oh, The Horror! #57: Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil

2010-11-23T22:13:00.002-05:00

A TON of fun is what this one-shot was. To begin, I am a Hellboy fan, from the movies to the animated series and the comics, although I'm not too well versed on the universe of the character in the funny books. I have two trades and a few issues here and there. I know the essentials of the character and I feel whatever story I read of the universe always leaves me pleased and satisfied. The last one-shot I recall was the issue with the Mexican wrestlers teaming up with our hero to battle some demons. Good fun.

This issue once again was no different. Mike Mignola continues to breathe life and horrific enjoyment into the mythos of his character as he scripts a double feature piece, two short Hellboy stories where he encounters two different types of evil. The first being a haunted house that pays it's "resident" coins every time he leaves a poor victim for the house to snake on. The second story being a gift shop employee at a museum who gains the powers to summon assistance of Egyptian Gods and control mummies. These stories are big epic stories with deep meanings. While there are other Hellboy tales of that ilk, this one-shot was a way to just entertain you and make you laugh. The ending of both stories got a good chuckle out of me and you can sense the enjoyment Mignola has for this character all these years.

Richard Corben's art just works perfect with these two stories. I'm one of the majority of Hellboy fans who wish Mignola continued on art for his character. No one can beat Mignola when it comes to his Hellboyverse, but he always finds the perfect artists that still captures his spirit on each new story. The art, like typical Corben fashion, is grainy but filled with fluidity. It reminds me a lot of the old school horror movies where the film stock was filled with grain and added to overall texture and mood of the film. This book captures that perfectly. And let's not leave out Dave Stewart on colors, both muted and dull yet seemingly sharp and direct at the same time.

And speaking of films, starting and ending each stories with a group of corpses sitting down in an old, deserted movie theater and watching the Hellboy adventures introduced us to just what to expect and it left a wonderful smile on my face and a good chuckle at the end when the corpses clapped at the end of the book. Bravo indeed, Hellboy crew. Another winner in your hands.

Also, geekgasm at the poster of Val Lewton's Cat People!!!!

Rating 11/10

Oh, The Horror! # 56: What's Your Horror? Part 2: Movies

2010-11-01T14:14:00.005-04:00

Part 2 of my recent comic column where I ask creators about their favorite horror movies.

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/features/face-to-greg/11169-lets-ask-3-whats-your-horror-part-2-movies.html

Nathan Edmondson (Image Comics' The Light and Who Is
Jake Ellis?): THE BIRDS because its execution is flawless and its viewers are left clawing after, but at the mercy of the mystery in the end. THE SHINING because those halls will never lose their dread.

Jimmie Robinson (Image Comics' Bomb Queen): This is harder [than books] because, and I'll be honest... I'm pretty desensitized to horror films. Nowadays I search for the most obscure, extreme and surreal horror because it takes a lot to get my motor running. It's not that I need to see the knife going into the eye without cutting away, I also want to see and feel something unique and horrible. Most horror is made for an audience that already knows the rules. Sure, some films have bent those rules but not many have completely broken them and replaced them with a new language of horror.

But if I must pick something perhaps the French film, MARTYRS could float my raft off a deserted island. Not just for the violence, but for the deeper meaning found in the twist ending -- which makes an impact after sitting through an hour of torture porn. It's an interesting take on the subject of gore, plus the horror aspects dwell in the extremes that some people justify for *their* cause -- whatever it may be. It also keeps you guessing to the end and that's brilliant.

Erik Larsen (Image Comics' Savage Dragon): PLANET TERROR from GRINDHOUSE comes closest.

Mahmud Asrar (Marvel Comics' Shadowland: Powerman): I think I'd go for THE RING by Gore Verbinski. Although I watch a lot of horror movies and have many favourites, The Ring was really a movie that terrified me especially came at a time when I gave up on the horror cinema. Great visuals, lots of atmosphere and that said I do enjoy a wide variety of horror films from the likes of ROSEMARY'S BABY to NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET to ALIEN to THE DESCENT.

Hector Casanova (Image Comics' Screamland): It's hard to have a single favorite horror movie, especially for a horror movie fan. So I am breaking it down into subcategories, as the Horror genre really is much too diverse. I am a HUGE fan of certain subgenres of horror, like Creature Features and Magical Realism, whereas I do not care at all for others, like Torture Porn or Slasher flicks... and then there are the ones that could go either way: Vampires, Haunted House, Dark Fantasy, etc.

SO, favorite Creature movie: THE HOST (2006) by Joon-ho Bong- A giant walking fish monster that swallows its victims whole only to vomit them up again later back in its den for slower enjoyment? A 10-year-old girl survives regurgitation and tries to escape? There is nothing not-awesome about this movie. Plus, it has the most realistic, freakiest, grossest creature I've seen yet, and just enough slapstick humor to keep you from being completely traumatized. If all creature movies were this good...

Tomm Coker (Marvel Comics' Daredevil Noir and Image Comics' Undying Love): THE EXORCIST is the scariest film ever made. William Friedkin approached the subject matter with an almost documentary style, playing the situations as real rather than fantastic, and in doing so grounded the story in a way that was believable and relatable and therefore more frightening.

David Hine (DC Comics' Azrael and The Spirit, Image Comics' Bulletproof Coffin, and Radical Comics' Ryder on the Storm): ERASERHEAD because it's the most innovative and disturbing film ever made. The Radiator Lady alone would have made it a classic, or the embryo/baby, the chicken dinner, Jack Nance's hair!

Harold Sipe (Image Comics' Screamland and IDW's Garter and Ghouls): My favorite horror movie in forever was THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE. There are such horrifying subtleties in that film. The scene where you first see the ghost still gives me chills to think about.

Phil Hester (Image Comics' Firebreather and Top Cow's The Darkness and Boom! Comics' The Anchor): I find NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD to be the scariest, mostly for the matter of fact presentation, newscasts, and claustrophobia. For newer stuff, I really dug THE RING, but not the sequels and knock offs. I should also add that my favorite monster movie is AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. Perfect blend of horror and humor.

Alex Grecian (Image Comics' Proof: Endangered) : I'm gonna go ahead and be conventional and say that THE EXORCIST is still the scariest film I've ever seen. I saw it when I was a little kid and it kept me awake for weeks afterward, terrified that I might end up possessed by a demon. (Or worse, visited by a priest in my bedroom.) On the other hand, I also saw the first HALLOWEEN film and Kubrick's THE SHINING when I was a kid and thought they were great. The Shining was amazing fun and Halloween was just the right amount of creepy. Speaking of creepy, there was a scene in SALEM'S LOT with a little boy vampire hovering outside another kid's window that prompted me to keep my curtains closed at night. More recently, THE RING gave me goosebumps. (I know a lot of horror fans make fun of that film, but who isn't scared of little girl ghosts?) And LET THE RIGHT ONE IN was a wonderful movie on nearly every level.

Reginald Hudlin (Marvel Comics' Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers): Hmmmm, I guess 28 DAYS LATER because it felt really logical and totally terrifying.

Shaky Kane (Image Comics' Bulletproof Coffin): When it comes to movies it changes all the time. Although saying that as far as impact goes it would be hard to beat THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE. Its a 'once in a life time' idea, and what a great character Dr Heiter is.

Visionary and fucked-up I loved every thing about this movie.

Oh, The Horror! #55: Let's Ask #3: What's Your Horror? Part 1: Books

2010-10-31T11:12:00.002-04:00

On my recent Face To Greg, I ask various comic creators what their favorite horror books are.

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/features/face-to-greg/11167-lets-ask-3-whats-your-horror-part-1-books.html/

Hector Casanova (Image Comics' Screamland): IT by Stephen King. At over 1000 pages, it's a fatty, but it's totally worth it. Pure King at the top of his game. It's got everything: mysterious deaths, ineffable monsters, killer clowns, alien invasions, domestic violence, even kids having sex... but most convincing, and scariest of all, is how well King can capture what it's like to be a 12 yr old misfit, terrified and terrorized by your peers and the world around you.

Jimmie Robinson (Shadowland Comics' Bomb Queen): Stephen King's NIGHT SHIFT. I like short stories and King did well with this book back in the day. It's also one of the most movie-optioned books in history. So many films were based out of this book that I think he set a record. In particular, Children of the Corn was especially well done. Granted the film version(s) is akin to a made-for-Syfy-Channel-movie, but the original story was solid. King is good at conflict creation. The ultimate "what if...?" writer. His high-concept stories (which Hollywood loves) have always held a place in my reader's heart. He also has a large body of work to dwell on and often you can find some connective tissue between books, and I appreciate that. However, he's not the only star in the horror sky, but since the question aims at a single work then I'll let it stand where it is.

Nathan Edmundson (Image Comics' The Light and Who Is Jake Ellis?): My favorite horror book is THE OATH by Frank Peretti. That, or IT [by Stephen King]. THE OATH is hardly a "horror" book, but I read it when I was about 5 and it scared me pretty good. IT seeps into you, and few other books have had me looking out the window like that one--and reaching for the book in the dark, too. For more shock horror, I think I could qualify BLOOD MERIDIAN.

Erik Larsen (Image Comics' Savage Dragon): Seriously--the closest I come is THE WALKING DEAD and it's more of a survival story than a horror one.

Mahmud Asrar (Marvel Comics' Shadowland: Powerman): This is a difficult one but when it comes to novels I lean towards the classics. Stuff with a Gothic setting and an ominous atmosphere really grab me. I'll have to go for BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA.

Harold Sipe (Image Comics' Screamland and IDW's Garter and Ghouls): My favorite horror book of recent memory has been Joe Hill's HEART-SHAPED BOX. There is a really chilling scene pretty early on in which the main character has to walk past a ghost sitting in his hallway. No gore. No screaming and carrying on. The horror came from all the description and subtlety of the scene, this seems to me where Hill really excels. I am really enjoying 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS by Hill as well.

David Hine (DC Comics' Azrael and The Spirit, Image Comics' Bulletproof Coffin, and Radical Comics' Ryder on the Storm): JAPANESE TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION by Edogawa Rampo. The Japanese author took his name from the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allan Poe and he set out to outdo the master. Three of the stories in this volume would be in my all-time top ten: "The Human Chair", "The Hell of Mirrors" and "The Caterpillar." Here's the basic plot of "The Human Chair": A guy falls in love with an unattainable woman, so he constructs a chair that he can crawl into and stay there in a seated position. His arms are in the arms of the chair, his upper torso in the back of the chair and so on. Then he has the chair (and himself) delivered to her. Whenever she sits on the chair, she's sitting on him. He basically lives in there, only sneaking out at night to eat. Now that is scary...

Reginald Hudlin (Marvel Comics' Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers): I've never read a true horror novel. In comics, CROSSED is the scariest thing ever. WALKING DEAD is brilliantly written and drawn. Alan Moore's NECROMINCON is pretty damn good so far.

Tomm Coker (Marvel Comics' Daredevil Noir and Image Comics' Undying Love): DRACULA is where it all began. Horror in an extended novel form with all the mood, scares and beast we've come to expect from monsters and ghouls. Stoker invented the structure and created a great love story that scared my socks off as a kid.

Alex Grecian (Image Comics' Proof): The most disturbing novels I've ever read are probably LORD OF THE FLIES and THE ROAD, but they probably don't qualify as horror, so I'm gonna nominate Stephen King's THE SHINING as scariest ever. It's the only thing I've ever read that scared me so badly I had to stop reading and actually hide the book. I threw it as far back under my bed as it would go and never finished reading it. If you're curious, the chapter that did it for me was the one with the ghost lady in the bathtub. Yikes!

Oh, The Horror! #54: The Devil You Know by Mike Carey

2010-10-15T22:22:00.009-04:00

Mike Carey is a master. I wanted to get that out of the way first and foremost. I’ve been into Carey’s writing since his churn in Vertigo’s Hellblazer, chronicling an era of everyone’s favorite John Constantine and then followed Carey for a whole on X-Men and been enjoying the hell out of The Unwritten (until my shop suddenly stopped ordering the damn book!). I finally finished his first novel The Devil You Know and once again… master!

In Devil You Know, we’re introduced to a freelance exorcist by the name of Felix Castor, a cheeky, rigid, and sarcastic English man who reluctantly takes up a job to exorcise a ghost haunting an old museum. Castor tries to figure out the mysterious background of this strange ghost and her connection to the museum. As his “research” goes on, more mystery gets introduced. What if this ghost isn’t haunting just to be a demonic nuisance, but she’s actually currently a victim of a continuing scheme? Filled with intrigue into an occult underworld and a humorous perspective from the protagonist, The Devil You Know is an enriching and engrossing page turner as we’re introduced to dark corners filled with ghosts, loup-garous, a beautiful and deadly succubus, a rival exorcist, and last but not least a powerfully scary gang boss and pimp. Carey does a fantastic job in building this world surrounding Castor and actually making us care for him, his supporting cast, and horrific truths as they unravel through each and every chapter.

It also didn’t hurt that Carey found a way of incorporating a loup-garou into the story, an animal/ghost/demonic shape-shifter who I’m accustomed to always hearing about through Haitian folklore. Be sure to read this book at night for a really filling and thrilling feel. It is a truly fantastic and great horror book for your collection. I can’t wait to read the sequel!

Oh, The Horror! # 53: Radical Comics' City of Dust

2010-10-03T09:54:00.005-04:00

Let me start off by saying that although Steve Niles is dubbed as a modern master of horror, as a writer he doesn't do much for me. I've read his 30 Days of Night and while I was initially in love with it, I couldn't say it stayed brilliant with me through another reading. I've tried some of his other works and have always felt a tad underwhelmed. The one project of his I did like a lot was his short-lived Simon Dark book for DC Comics which I ended up dropping due to financial reasons, but sadly the fact that the book was heavily decompressed didn't make it a hard decision. I don't want to bash the guy. I love his enthusiasm for the horror genre and you can see his love and devotion for it. Heck, I've met the guy once and thought he was mega cool peoples. But I always feel as if a lot is missing in his work and I can never put my finger on it. I love his ideas, but execution can be a lot better.

And once again I feel the same for his Radical book, City of Dust. City of Dust me meet a cop in the future by the name of Philip Khrome who turned his father in when he was a child after hearing a fantasy story from him. So yes, we're in one of those futures where fantasy, literature, religion, imagination are all banned and illegal. Even porn!!! While we are introduced to the main character, he gets caught up in a weird murder mystery strangely connecting to monsters- monsters that are so far resembling monsters of old tales – Tales of Dracula, werewolves, etc. Things get a tad difficult when Philip kills a criminal for praying and later he discovers a children's book and starts reading through it. Oh boy!

Now, premise is cool and grabbing. Sure, it's a retread of Fahrenheit 451, but its still a rather good premise in this day and age when kids, even many adults, aren't even reading anymore (it tragically pained me when my little sister and cousin told me they've NEVER heard of Anansi the Spider!!). Niles does a pretty good job with the characters, my favorite parts being the scenes with the protagonist and his love interest, a prostitute. Niles also does a good job blending sci-fi with horror monsters with a mix of crime noir. The art is moody and works well with the atmosphere and world we're introduced to. No complaints with the art, Radical tends to always do well with that. But like all Niles books, I'm left unsatisfied. I still feel there's something missing. Extra beats that could have really helped it be great. For one, I felt the villains were a bit too weak in comparison to the protagonist. Not weak as in threat, but weak in execution. While they're wrecking havoc since the beginning of the book, they still don't seem to give an alarming presence. They seem to come out of nowhere, cause trouble, and move on. There's a revelation of how they come to be, but it gets presented in a seemingly nonchalant way where you just want to see this end.

If you're into monsters and a good blending of genres, check this book out for yourself. There's enough grit and gore for these type of horror lovers. Also keep in mind that I started off explaining the relationship between me and Niles' writing, so if you're a fan of his, maybe this'll be up your alley. Beyond that, I can't say I fully recommend this.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

2010-06-01T09:12:00.008-04:00

I am officially obsessed with this trailer and anticipating this movie's arrival! Next to Inception, this may be my most anticipated.

The first trailer that was released a lil' while back...

Oh, The Horror! #52: Carnival of Souls

2010-05-31T14:24:00.004-04:00

I love this movie. I really really do. And I really appreciate it the more I see it and the more I think about it. I remember thinking this movie was just bizarre when I saw it the first time but the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. Carnival of Souls, directed by Herk Harvey in 1963, is a horror cult classic. It is a very low budget film, being filmed with the budget of $33,000 and without much use of special effects, it's really the atmosphere and the use of mood that really helps this film pop.

The film follows a young woman named Mary Henry (Candace Hilligross). She mysteriously survived a car accident in which her friends all died when their car sunk in a river after a drag race. We get an indication that Mary has changed since the accident as she decides to leave town and become an organist for a church at Salk Lake City. It is through her travels that we start to see her dilemma: she starts seeing a creepy looking man staring at her. As the movie goes on, Mary finds herself going crazy when whatever turn she makes, this spooky looking man just keeps popping out and walking towards her. It also gets even stranger when Mary starts walking around and tries to interact with people but instead is ignored, people around her being unable to see or hear her.

There isn't too much to say about the plot. It is a relatively simple story but Harvey, who also plays the spooky spectre dude, does a great job in building tension and using simplicity to actually get you uneasy. There's some wonderful scenes throughout the movie of the Man just looking at Mary, just standing simply next to her with a small smile on his face that is so effectively creepy that you just can't help but enjoy this film. The music also helps too. Now there are some errors in this film, that mostly being sound errors. There are times when Mary's fingers on the key boards of the piano doesn't match the music playing nor when she's running does the sound of the clicking heels match, but those small little ticks adds some weird charm to this already weird film. Man, do I love these creepy old black and white horror movies. I watch films like this and just get inspired.

Oh, The Horror! #51: The Strangers

2010-05-17T00:05:00.003-04:00

This film being Bryan Bertino's first theatrical directorial prosper shows a ton of promise within the horror realm. The movie stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman (glad to see he's still getting some work) as a couple dealing with their relationship after James (Speedman) proposes to Kristen (Tyler) but sadly gets a rejection. The two drive off to their summer home where it is awkward between them. When things finally start to look a bit better for the two, there's a knock on the door. "Is Tamara home?" asks a young woman at the door. After being sent on her way, James' character decides to take a drive in order to clear his mind while Kristen's character stays at the house... but she's not alone. "Is Tamara home?" girl shows up again and is then followed by a creepy man wearing a mask quietly stalking Kristen in the house. There are little subtle moments that add to the creepiness of this wonderful scene. Before James left, Kristen mentions that she was out of cigarettes, no cigarette in sight for her to smoke. After James leaves, Kristen is noticeably tense and picks up a cigarette not realizing it wasn't there before, adding a slight bit of uneasiness watching. Things also start to be revealed to have been misplaced and you see that creepy man standing somewhere in the background, still like a statue. Yeesh. Definitely my favorite scene in this whole film. When Kristen starts to realize something is wrong, she calls James back home and soon after starts to get terrorized by three different strangers, all making it seem pretty clear they're out to kill her. When James finally returns, he's added into the danger when he finds his car smashed in, and phone missing, leaving the couple vulnerable.

The performances of the lead cast I felt were very strong and really added a lot to the overall film. Bertino also has a wonderful idea on how to build up tension and creepiness extremely well, a craft that seems to be missing in a lot of horror these days. Bertino adds just a right bit of pace, music, sound effects, and jump scares that's easy to get someone uneasy. Despite everything that's going for it, the film falls flat. The story could be a lot better and although you're finding yourself tense and hoping the couple make it out in the end, you're left wondering to yourself, "What's the point of all this? Why am I watching this?" While the pace of specific scenes are superbly used, the overall pacing of the story seems very off and is a bit discouraging. It makes me think about how much I enjoyed Vacancy over this film.

Overall, if you're interested in seeing specific tense rising scenes, Bertino's clearly shows he understands the craft. You can check it out for that. If you're looking forward to see a solid story, something that will shock and get into your head, I wouldn't recommend this. I will say, though, this film does a lot better job in actually scaring you than the recent Saw and Hostel films. While you can see this film as a slasher film and there is some gore, its the uneasiness that works well and places itself in a higher position that the torture-porn films with almost to no substance.

Inception Trailer

2010-05-08T15:50:00.002-04:00

New Christopher Nolan!!!

Apologies and a Street Fighter Video

2010-05-08T15:31:00.007-04:00

Man, I haven't been keeping this blog up to date for quite some time! Apologies for some of my readers. I've been so damn busy with school this semester, especially due to one class where we had to put on a show where I played the Devil, mwahahahaaa!!! Boy was that a freakin' blast. Working with everyone on the ensemble was just a wonderful blessing. I plan to post some pics/videos here when I can.

For now, I'll post this fan film Street Fighter video I just stumbled onto it. Bloody bleedin' awesome!

The Human Centipede Trailer

2010-04-03T17:35:00.002-04:00

Awww man, this trailer cracks me up. I may want to see this.

Oh, The Horror! #50: The Others

2010-04-01T17:26:00.006-04:00

A movie I've been wanting to see again for years. I had only seen this movie once before and recall being absolutely amazed by it, from the quality of production to the performances to the ending. The ending is a fantastic modern classic twist if I do say so myself. Actually, the first time I seen this movie fully, I knew the twist because I walked in to the last 5 minutes of the film when it was in theaters when I was looking for my mother who was watching this film. But now that I finally own this film and watching it now with a clearer mentality and love for film-making and horror in general, this movie definitely still has and showcases the type of horror that I absolute love and strive to study and hopefully capture with my own art whether it be writing or filming.

The movie stars Nicole Kidman as a stern and sometimes very cold mother named Grace. She is very hard on her children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), constantly pushing the words of the Lord and Bible in their minds. She is also highly protective of them due to their disease of being photosensitive. If the sun were to hit their skin, they'd get a terrible allergic reaction and die. Therefore Grace makes sure to cover the whole house in curtains in safety of her children. While she is very strict, you still get a sense in every scene of the love and devotion to her children. Her husband has also been missing and declared dead from fighting in the war and all her servants have abruptly left the house. Grace ends up opening her house to three servants passing by. While very nice and charming, as the movie progresses you're not quite sure what exactly their motives are. Especially in connection to the strange occurrences in the house. Grace one day hears the sounds of a child crying. She rushes quickly to her children but neither of them admits to the tears. That is when Grace's daughter, Anne, brings up a boy named Victor, the name of a ghost in the house. Grace, a believer of the afterlife and her religious teachings, refuses to believe this and punishes her daughter until she herself begins to experience the occurrences. She is very tough as she tries her best to find out what is going on in the house and attempts to fight these unwanted ghosts out of the house while protecting her children and trying to keep her sanity.

Director Alejandro Amenábar does a fantastic job guiding us through this psychological supernatural thriller. The atmosphere, tone, and mood set up since the very beginning is done beautifully and is compared well with the fantastic use of music, sound effects, and mixing. All the technical setups including seamless camera shots and editing really brings us to a very tight and coherent production. Combined with strong performances from the actors, the Others is overall a plain winner in my book. Very underrated, if you ask me. I also applaud the fact that I don't recall seeing any real CGI special effects. Nearly everything seen in the film seems very practical to shoot. It seems many people forget that you can easily get under people's skins and/or astonish them with just great use of camera work, tense shots and moments along with sounds and moving doors that you can simply have some one move with their hands while under the camera view, heh. If you have not seen this film, what are you waiting for?

Oh, The Horror! #49: Quarantined

2010-03-27T20:32:00.005-04:00

Finally having seen this, this was probably the 4 or 5th time I've attempted to watch this movie and finally saw the whole thing. Not that the previous times I found it lacking or boring, I would just always fall asleep from tiredness or have been interrupted in someway shape or form. So finally about two months ago I was finally granted by the Fates to watch this film uninterrupted with the lights turned off with my wonderfully soft and warm cover. And wooo-boy was this fun! Now I have not seen the original but from what I hear, like nearly every remake, people were very annoyed that this film was made to begin with when you had the original titled REC from Spain. I've also read that both films are in fact nearly exactly the same, as the film seems to be a shot-by-shot recreation of the original. As someone who hasn't seen the original but only seen the remake, I have to say I'm definitely a fan and was entertained. I may have to look for the original to own if I found this remake so darn fun to watch.

The movie is filmed in a "found footage" style, the style of Cannibal Holocaust, Blair Witch Project, and recently Paranormal Activity. The movie begins with reporter Angela Vidal (played by very believably by Jennifer Carpenter) and her camera man Scott Percival (Steve Harris) filming footage introducing us to their next assignment where they follow a group of firefighters for the night. Through interviews and b-rolls, we're introduced to different firefighters, Jake (Jay Hernandez) and Fletcher (Johnathon Schaech), showing them the ins and outs of the fire station. Angela, who mentions when she was a kid wanted very much to be a fire-fighter, is anxious to get a call to go out and get some action. Boy, does that "Be careful what you wish for" saying come true. The crew gets a call and they rush over to a three story building where it seems everyone's in a panic. We meet the various tenants in the building and a police officer, Danny (Columbus Short) who isn't happy one bit when Angela and Scott get in his face with their camera, especially after shooting to death a tenant about to rabidly attack him. Angela's night of excitement is quickly halted after seeing an old woman get shot to death. This is no longer a "fun, laughing" matter. Her world will completely be turned upside-down by the end of this movie. The building suddenly gets sealed up as the tenants, including the cops, fire-fighters, and news crew get trapped inside of the building by what seems to be the government, cutting off their cable and cell phones. This ends up causing the building to become a death trap as a weird virus begins to trigger the tenants, bringing them into a state of rage as if being affected by rabies and attacking each other. The bacteria seems to be spread through biting and any type of saliva and while people begin to get infected one-by-one, there's seems to be no way out of this whole nightmare.

I absolutely enjoyed the heck out of this film. Having the film shot in found footage style really helps pull you into the action and it certain helps that the characters, actions, reactions, and decisions are entirely believable. None of the movements, specifically the camera, come out forced in anyway shape or form. It doesn't seem convenient that the camera was looking at a specific thing before an action took place. Cinematography through out was simply perfect. While I was enticed and having a ton of fun watching, as the movie progressed I really started to feel generally scared for the characters and would get annoyed when an infected character would come to cause terror. I laughed at how much I was into this film and I really wish I saw this in theaters to hear people shouting at the screen, "Run!" "Oh, you stupid bitch! Stop making noise!"

Directed by John Erick Dowdle, if you haven't seen this film I'd definitely recommend it. I feel with all I've been reading and what I've seen of this film, the film itself was recommending me to be interested to see the original which I plan to do now. Also take note of Doug Jones being in the film! I love Doug Jones! Yes, I said Doug Jones, so if anyone's familiar with that name, you know for sure what kind of role he'll be playing and of course he's as creepy as ever. And major props goes to the lead, Carpenter. Is it safe to call her a new-aged Scream Queen after this and her Exorcism of Emily Rose role where she was also excellent in?

Predators Trailer

2010-03-18T20:10:00.006-04:00

Robert Rodriguez's upcoming Predators! I only recall him signing up for this film recently. And I'm still waiting for Sin City 2, dammit! C'mon, Robbie!!! But anywho, I have't seen the original two films in years, since I was a lil' kid. Hated Alien vs Predator despite drooling over Sanaa Lathan. Besides that... sign me up!

Oh, The Horror! #48: Angel Heart

2010-03-05T09:27:00.005-05:00

A masterfully done film, one of my absolute favorites. Starring Mickey Rourke as Harry Angel, Robert De Niro as Louis Cyphre, and Lisa Bonet as Epiphany, a Vodou mambo, from start to finish you're hooked into this hard boiled noir inspired horror film. Alan Parker does a wonderful job crafting a film of complete and utter mystery, tension, and suspense. You're constantly at the edge of your mind wondering just where this film is going to go and the climax totally lives up. The tone given from beginning to end is creepy, enchanting, and pulls you in. From the music to the colors and the strong performances, you truly believe what you're watching. Is there a supernatural element to this movie? Is it all just in our heads or is the film tricking the viewer? You should see for yourself.

Harry Angel is a private detective hired by Louis Cyphre to look for a man who seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth, the man named Johnny Favorite. Harry searches high and low from NYC to New Orleans searching for Favorite. But things start to get highly tense when the the people Harry questions start to drop off like flies through disturbing ways. The cops start to pursue Harry along with other questionable people. He also meets Epiphany, a beautiful young Vodou priestess who's connected somehow, further entangling Harry into this strange web and world of Vodou.

I give this film full praises throughout from direction to overall production and acting. A lot of the tense moments are only pushed further by the fantastically strong performance of Mickey Rouke. I have to say from the different films I've seen played by Rouke, his turn as Harry Angel is by far my favorite, especially by the end of the film when everything gets revealed. De Niro clearly has a lot of fun in this weird role as Angel's client and Bonet is fine as a Vodou priestess. I'm impressed greatly in the scene where Bonet shows off her Vodou dancing skills along with a huge group of Vodou practitioners and Bonet really falls into character, making a sacrifice to whoever she's dancing to (why don't we find out she she is dancing to?). I also really adore the sex scene between Bonet and Rourke. A truly enticingly horrifying and mind-bogglingly scene, fantastically well shot with quick jump cuts and highly intense with blood dripping from the rain and pouring on the lovers. Definitely one of the very best "love" scenes I've seen in a movie that compliments well with the suspenseful tone of this masterpiece of a film. A highly recommend piece of art. If you haven't seen this do so. It's a wonderful film to add to your collection, whether you're a horror fan or not.

Also noted, I want to mention the special features from the DVD. There's a wonderful documentary going into details of the religion and practice of the Vodou religion in contrast to Hollywood Voodoo that's been pushed forth in movies. I loved this documentary and hope people check it out and don't have a close-mind of the belief and actually take into account just how much Hollywood and the media as tainted people's minds on the Vodou faith.

Oh, The Horror! #47: The Last House on the Left (Remake)

2010-03-01T21:16:00.003-05:00

One of my god brothers introduced me to this film as he's a fan of both this and the original. I haven't seen the original and only heard about the movie until after the remake hit theaters. It seems my god brother is a big Wes Craven fan as he's introduced me to films such as People Under the Stairs and Serpent and the Rainbow. But anyways, he showed me this film and I can't quite say I loved it, but I was into it at least. The story follows a family, Emma (Monica Potter), John (Tony Goldwyn), and their daughter Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton), who head out on vacation to their lake house. While convincing her parents to take the car and spend time with her best friend, Paige, they meet a young boy and got to his motel room and hang out. Everything is all fun and dandy until his father (Garret Dillahunt), uncle, and father's girlfriend come along and begin to torture Mari and Paige to the point of raping poor Mari in the woods. After all this, almost coincidentally (not too coincidentally, but whatev...), the criminal family make their way to John and Emma's home, both sides unsuspecting of their connection with each other. The tension between this is fairly well done and gets you interested in what's going to happen. It really becomes fun to watch when Emma and John figure out what these criminals have done and actually turn the tables on these killers and go all out on them.

This isn't a must see or total recommendation, but I do feel there are some winners in the film. The acting is fairly good, especially the main villain and the main parents (is Monica Potter trying to become a Scream Queen?). I really liked Potter in this film and I feel Paxton does some good stuff with her scenes. A lot of good tension rising moments throughout the movie but this film is rather passable although not terrible. The ending I felt could have been a lot stronger as I felt the protagonists could have done a bit more with the main villain, but that's just me... Nah, not just me, it would have been a stronger ending.

If you've nothing else to do, this is one of those films. Beyond that I wouldn't really recommend to go out of your way to catch this.

Directed by Dennis Iliadis.

Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer 2

2010-02-25T09:48:00.002-05:00

Well, the second preview for the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was released. If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I just recently became a fan of the premise of Nightmare on Elm Street after years of being rather disappointed in it due to all the terrible sequels and feeling Freddy Kruger wasn't being used right to his full potential. I don't have too much faith in this remake as I've recently found a big appreciation for the first film, but here's hoping there's some redeemable aspects in this. I was very interested in seeing how Freddy could be used with all the advancement we've made with computer tech, though it seems most of the kills and special effects will just be rehashes of the original.

Sweet Rebecca (Poem for Valentine's Days)

2010-02-14T23:31:00.003-05:00

Sweet Rebecca was a pretty little thing
Who believed in love but kept getting flings.
Her lips were red as the color of blood
And her heart longed for a man to love.
Sweet Rebecca met Mark with eyes blue like the sea
But he had two left feet and could not match a beat.
Sweet Rebecca danced well with Chris
But his kiss could not give her bliss.
It was Chip who had the talented lips
But his face was filled with leaky zits.
Sean had a wonderful complexion, face with clarity
But had the most foul personality.
Sarah though had a wonderful heart, as if woven
But Rebecca remembered she was straight and Sarah was a woman.
Then Rebecca met Drake who had just the right sized penis
But his face kept reminding her of a deformed fetus.
Rebecca met Jamie, handsome with a chiseled jaw
But his chest was saggy and torso was a bore.
Jason, though, had just the perfect pecs and abs
But one day died in an accident in his science lab.
“What should I do?” Sweet Rebecca asked herself
Then an idea hit her head after finding a stitch in Jason’s shelf.
She met Mark again and cut out his blue eyes like the sea
And chopped off Chris’ talented and lovely right and left feet.
Sweet Rebecca ripped off Chip’s soft lips
And skinned Sean’s face that had no zits.
She cut out Sarah’s bloody beating heart
And also Drake’s right size penis and kept him apart.
She also detached Jamie’s chiseled jaw
And her smile lit up like a bright star
As she thought to put together all the pieces like a fine puzzle
She wondered if it’d be a struggle.
Sweet Rebecca returned to Jason’s science lab
And admired every pack of his hard shaped abs.
Days and weeks and months went by
And finally that one day she let out a sigh.
She finally created the perfect man And decided to name him Dan.
He had blues eyes like the sea
And could match a beat.
He had kissable lips
And had no zits.
He had a great heart you couldn’t buy with a dime
Whose penis fit her with just the right size.
He had a wonderful strong jaw
And each second of the day it was Rebecca he adored.
Of course he had the nice abs and great chest
And Rebecca loved Dan with all the best.

Rebecca and Dan lived happily ever after.

Oh, The Horror! #46: The Wolfman

2010-02-13T02:28:00.005-05:00

The Wolfman is a film directed by Joe Johnston, a remake of the original 1941 Wolfman movie that starred horror scream king Lon Chaney, Jr. I'm going to start off this review by saying that I wasn't a HUGE fan of the original film when I first saw it. There were some shots I absolutely loved next to the setting and the mood presented in the film. The foggy forest? Just masterful. Chaney, Jr. as Larry Talbot was very appealing and of course you had the great Bela Lugosi making an appearance. This movie stars Benicio del Toro, one of my favorite actors, as Larry Talbot, a popular stage actor who is called back to Blackmoor after his brother is gruesomely murdered by what seems to be human... and inhumane at that same time. He is awkwardly reunited with his father (Anthony Hopkins) and meets his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) who was the one to track Larry down. Larry promises Gwen that he'll find the person behind his brother's death which leads him into the gypsy square near the forest where a werewolf causes death and injury to a lot of residents. Larry bravely goes after it only to be bitten, thus leading to his cursed transformation as the titled Wolfman.

So did I find this to be a great horror movie? Does it deserve hype from the trailers and special effects? Is it worth spending hard earned cash for? Eh. It was okay. So-so. The movie had good and bad parts. But not terrible. Let me start with the good. First and foremost: performances. All top-notch and it helps that everyone in the film were very well, established actors who knew their craft. Del Toro played a good performance of a brooding and cursed Larry Talbot although that's pretty much it. Besides playing a very good tortured character, that's all you'll see from him. The character himself is pretty much nearly one-noted besides specific scenes which I won't spoil. Anthony Hopkins plays Sir Talbot, Larry's father, and actually nearly steals the show during the first half of the movie and makes some scenes very creepy. Scenes that you'd believe would be cheesy under a lesser actor. Emily Blunt plays Gwen, the woman who eventually falls in love with Larry and becomes entangled in the whole story of the Wolfman. Blunt added a lot of depth and humanity to this movie and became my favorite thing about in this film. Hugo Weaving plays Inspector Francis Aberline, an officer determined in bringing Talbot down and stopping the murders. Although I flashed a grin when Weaving entered the screen, hoping his arrival will mean "shit is finally gonna go down!" he's nearly wasted in this film. Next to Blunt being my favorite part of the film, there were also scenes of Talbot's hallucinations starting to plague his mind. Larry's hallucinations were by far the scene-stealers of the movie. They were fantastically gripping, all focusing on Talbot's fragmented mind as both man and a werewolf, nearly driving him crazy, mixing reality with the surreal where you couldn't quite tell which was which at various moments. I was near the edge of my seat when those scenes played out.

Now the bad... the film was a tad boring. While I felt the performances kept me some-what interested with some amazing shots throughout the movie with very excellent musical scores from Danny Elfman, the movie couldn't quite get me excited. There were a lot of scare scenes that were in fact VERY well done, but the plot itself just seemed weak in parts. The first half of the movie dragged. Yet when it seem something was finally going to happen, it seemed rushed. The film did a decent job in adding some suspense here and there, but the story itself didn't seem to fully sustain the suspense that was going with it. While I also liked that the movie sort of strayed away from the original film, there were many times I wish it sort of did follow the original. For one, Larry Talbot was a much cheerier and happier person in Lon Chaney, Jr's version. You were amused and charmed with him when he started sweet-talking and courting Gwen who was also very happy-go-lucky. Then there was the weird feeling when Gwen's friend gets a bad omen. In this version, everyone is so gloomy since the very beginning of the movie. I missed the happy Larry who's world turned upside down when he gets bitten and cursed as a werewolf. Now there are some twists that I saw coming and I know it would be split between viewers if they liked this twist or not. Some people would find it cheesy while others would find it a very welcome surprise. I myself found it a welcome surprised although I did see it coming from near the beginning of the film.

The special effects were overall well done. I appreciated the Wolfman actually resembling the monster from the original movie but besides that there isn't much to really say. The transformation was okay, but its the use of the special effects with the hallucinations that take the cake for me. Gore and violence were all well done and none looked cheesy or out of place.

Would I recommend this film? Not really. There are things in the movie that would be enough to entertain people, but it'd be very hard for me to know which type of people that would be.
I will say, though, that I was very happy to see one of my favorite shots used from the original. The scene where Gwen is running towards the right of the camera in the foggy forest. Although the beautiful atmospheric fog was missing, the nod surely got a slight smile from me. I'll conclude that although I wasn't a huge fan of this movie... it really made me appreciate the original a lot more than I did before. So take that as you will.

Oh, The Horror! #45: Jennifer's Body

2010-02-06T02:00:00.005-05:00

"The pieces of Jennifer's boooody..." Sorry, I'm a Hole fan and Jennifer's Body is one of my favorite songs from their album Live Thru This. A song which was also the inspiration for the title, Jennifer's Body. A film starring sexy It-girl Megan Fox as Jennifer and the very lovely and talented Amanda Seyfried as her best friend, Needy. The film was directed by Karyn Kusama and written by award winner screenwriter of Juno, Diablo Cody, who also created United States of Tara, a television series I absolutely adore (at least the episodes I've been fortunate to catch). So it seems from all that I've stated this movie had a lot going for it. So was the movie good? Eehhh. Whatever. That's how I felt overall by the movie. It wasn't terrible and it wasn't good. It was just there. One of those watch it then shrug type films. Though I can see this being a film that some people find as guilty pleasure and some just downright hating that they spent their time watching this than doing something else productive, like writing a better script for a horror film.

The movie follows the character of Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried who I absolutely adore ever since she cracked me the hell up in Mean Girls. Needy is the awkward girl in school with a loving boyfriend and is best friends with the extremely hot and popular cheerleader, Jennifer, played by Megan Fox. We begin with Needy in a psychiatric center where she's put into solitude due to attacking a doctor trying to help her. She then tells us how she got there, starting at a town named the Devil's Kettle. There we see her relationship with boyfriend Chip, probably the only true likable character in this movie and we see her rather weird... lovingly abusive relationship with Jennifer. Jennifer is sexy and spunky with the right type of humor that is easy to annoy you if you were on the receiving end of it. That is the first strike for where this film failed where it could have succeeded, but we'll get to that later. Jennifer talks Needy into going to the local bar to meet Low Shoulder, a indie band from the city. Jennifer's plan is to get cozy with the lead singer, played by Adam Brody. While at the bar, we meet one of Jennifer's sex buddies and learn that she isn't a virgin, not even a back door one. While the band is playing, fire ignites and causes the death of some locals, destroying the whole bar. Needy and Jennifer make it out safely. Nikolai, the lead singer of Low Shoulder, talks Jennifer into leaving with him in his van with his band mates while Amanda sadly watches her friend go after arguing with her not to. Moments pass and Jennifer is sacrificed by the band to Satan for fame and fortune. Here's where the band messed up. Believing Jennifer is a virgin, this has caused a succubus to invade and take over her body, while Low Shoulder enjoy rising success. So now Jennifer comes back as if nothing has happened and feeds off of boys after seducing them to keep her strength and makes her way to Chip, while Needy is determined to stop her former best friend.

Now to the flaws and things I thought were okay. The biggest flaw I can say for this film were the characters. Besides Chip and a teacher played by J.K. Simmons, there really aren't much likable characters. We're also introduced to a lot of other characters in the film but there's nothing there to even care much for them. There's a emo goth kid who's fairly likable but besides being rather weird and quirky and slightly charming, what else is there when he becomes a target for Jennifer? Now Seyfried tries her best to bring some likability to the character of Needy, and while Needy is in fact a very strong protagonist, there's a lot of fault in the script that hinders and undermines her. So while the character herself isn't bad, it's the poor script that brings her down. And the main hindrance of the script goes to Jennifer as a character. The first mistake I've noticed upon first watching this was just how unlikable Jennifer was BEFORE she was killed and turned into a demon. This girl was an absolute bitch. She was mean to her best friend and just plain annoying. The film-makers failed there as they could have at least put some redeeming factors in the character for us to feel sorry about when she is shown being killed. Or at least show us a contrast! I wouldn't mind seeing a spunky but goodhearted Jennifer at first. That would have made her transformation as a demon a lot more interesting upon seeing how different she's become. Sure, it's a cliche, but for this movie the cliche could have worked well.

There were a lot of things I felt this movie could have done to make the overall watch a better experience. For one, if we maybe went into details on just how the demon works and who she picks to be her victims, specifically why them over other guys. Maybe if she could only seduce them a certain way or if they couldn't get it up, maybe she couldn't fully do much. But no, things were just happening and in a failed attempt to be hip, well... it failed, plain and simple. The one scene that I felt worked perfectly was the make-out scene between Needy and Jennifer. Jennifer seduces Needy into making out with her, but there obviously is a lot more to this... it was more of Needy allowing herself to be seduced. Underneath all the best friend stuff, she had actual sexual feelings for her friend and she responded back. The film was doing a great job with that with the scene actually being creepily done... but then it shifts back to "eehh-ness." And speaking of connections with the character, there's a weird supernatural-like connection between the two main character which is hardly EVER mentioned or explained besides Needy licking Jennifer's wound when they were kids. Um... ok. Whatever.

This film I will say did have some cool stuff here and there, notably Amanda Seyfriend as you can see I dig her a lot. Megan Fox was ok as Jennifer. I felt it was great to see her as someone in a film who knows she's hot and exploits herself despite not being likable. And there were some dialogue that were actually rather charming and gave the characters some personality. But the overall film was a bit of a dub. I also did love that Needy was a sexually active girl and the film didn't fall into the cliche "You're a bad girl if you have sex, and only girls who wait till marriage and study are good girls." While I didn't HATE the movie, I could have done without seeing it and wouldn't really recommend it. But who knows? I watched it tonight with two good buddies and they seem to dig it a lot. So... enter at your own risk, I suppose.

Day 2: Mr. Terrific

2010-02-02T23:51:00.000-05:00

For some reason, calling Michael Holt, aka Mr. Terrific III, a prodigy seems like an understatement.
At the young age of 6, Colt was already comfortably familiar with the works of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Aage Bohr. Holt also possesses 14 Ph.Ds, including Physics and Engineering with doctorates and masters in Mathematics, Law, Psychology, Political Science, and Chemistry. He also holds gold medals, being an Olympic Decathlete, and Black Belts in 6 different martial arts disciplines.

Michael Holt grew up taking care of his mentally challenged older brother, Jeffrey. At the age of 15, Jeffrey died, devastating Holt. He eventually married a woman named Paula, a day Holt considers his proudest moment. Tragedy struck when Paula was killed in a car accident along with their unborn child. Crushed, Holt contemplated suicide until he was visited by the Spirit of Divine Vengeance, The Spectre who told Holt of the life of Terry Sloan, the original Mr. Terrific. Inspired by the story of Terry Sloan and in memory of Paula and Jeffrey, Holt took up the mantle of Mr. Terrific and decided to use his anger and frustration positively.

Using his genius intellect, Mr. Terrific created “T-spheres” that responds to his mental and vocal commands, functioning as a computer, holographic projection, projective weapons including explosives, a means to allow him to fly along with many various other uses. Due to his T-Mask bonded on his face, he is invisible to all forms of electronic detection.

Though relatively new to the Justice Society of America, his natural leadership skills led to Terrific getting elected as the chairman of the team, which he lead until the members disbanded for a short while. He was then offered by Green Lantern Alan Scott to take part in rebuilding the agency Checkmate, becoming Bishop to Scott's White King and started a romance with Black Queen, Sasha Bordeaux. The relationship was complicated when Mr. Terrific became Checkmate’s new White King when Alan Scott was forced to resign.

Mr. Terrific's adventures can be found:

JSA vol. 3 #1-current
Checkmate #1-25
JSA vs Kobra
JLA/JSA: Lightning Saga

Comic Book Black History Month, Day One: Blade

2010-02-01T19:25:00.003-05:00

Man, remember when this was also suppose to be a blog where I also focus on comics I like, heh heh? Been far too long...

http://www.theouthousers.com/content/view/6388/203/

Blade

One of the most popular comic book characters in the mainstream due to the portrayal of the titular character by Wesley Snipes in Blade, Blade 2, and Blade Trinity and then reprised in the Blade television show by rapper/actor Kirk “Sticky Fingaz“ Jones. Blade is a man on a mission, set on ridding the world of the undead, of vampires. One thing though: he’s half vampire himself. Born Eric Brooks, on the night of his birth, vampire Deacon Frost disguised himself as a doctor only to feed on his mother, Tara. When Tara died from the attack, Deacon’s vampire abilities passed onto Blade, giving him the strength and superhuman abilities of his sworn enemies. Yet at the same time in a strange event, the newborn Blade was sparred of the weaknesses attributed to vampires including garlic, sunlight, crosses… all leading to the nick name: Day-Walker. As a child he was trained by Jamal Afari, a trumpet player also with a vendetta against the undead. Blade quickly gained the skills to successfully become a vampire slayer, with skills surpassing Olympic level athletes and excellent hand-to-hand combat combined with an amazing talent of weaponry ranging from wooden knives to swords to guns.

Created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, the character made his debut in Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973) as an enemy of “protagonist” Dracula. Blade was a hardcore, nails to the wall bad-ass, letting nothing get in his way while he took down vampire after vampire. Over the years, the character has had multiple short-lived series where he continued his blood lust hate for vampires and demons of various kinds, fighting his “creator” Deacon Frost, Morbius the Living Vampire, and of course Dracula. He has teamed up, on many occasions, with the likes of Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Brother Voodoo, Hannibal King, and Spider-Man. He even formed an alliance with supernatural heroes, dubbing themselves the Darkstalkers, in hopes of protecting the innocents from evil.

Recently, Blade was seen leading a black ops-team named Vanguard, with Black Widow, Dominic Fortune, and Micromax. Shortly after, he joined with Captain Britain and his mean of MI:13 members where he helped fight Plokta and his army of Mindless Ones and once again his long standing opponent Dracula. While with the MI:13, Blade’s blood lust of vanquishing vampires led him to staking team member Spitfire who was secretly a vampire. After being saved, Spitfire has had numerous fights Blade which surprisingly led a romance and connection between the two which quickly blossomed. They have been together ever since.

Blade adventures can be found in:

Blade: Black and White
Tomb of Dracula Essentials Vol. 1, 2, and 3
Blade: Undead Again
Blade: Sins of the Father
Captain Britain and the MI:13: Hell Comes to Burmingham
Captain Britain and the MI:13: Vampire State
Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington starring Wesley Snipes
Blade 2, directed by Guillermo del Toro starring Wesley Snipes
Blade: The Series starring Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones

Oh, The Horror! #44: The Final Destination (4)

2010-01-28T11:38:00.003-05:00

Ugh, I'll try my best not to cuss through out this review... ah, fuck it. FUCKING TERRIBLE! This movie was beyond garbage. GAR-BAGE. This movie was such a complete waste of time that I pray to all that is holy that whoever sees this review steers clear of this movie. Hopefully anyone who isn't even reading gets some kind of force to steer them clear because this movie is a complete waste of time. Don't be tricked by the 3D special effects. This movie has no point to its production except to annoy me. The plot was nearly non-existent, no believable characters or character beats, on top of more and more crap. Why oh WHY did they continue this franchise? The first movie I felt was a solid film and stands well on it's own. The second was a decent follow up. The third they should have stopped right there. Terrible film the third one was but it wasn't as much of a piece of stinking maggot filled turb that this film was. Usually with a film I don't like I'd find something redeemable or likable about it whether it's camera work or a specific shot, or a specific character or actor or SOMETHING! This film doesn't have any of it. There's not even an awesome cameo by the great Tony Todd! Skip this piece of crap, please.

PLEASE!

Oh, The Horror! #43: A Nightmare on Elm Street

2010-01-20T05:31:00.006-05:00

Let me be first to say that although I am a Robert Englund fan, I wasn't always a Freddy Kruger fan. Since I was a kid, I never got too much of the appeal of these films. I knew they were a HUGE favorite for horror fans, but I was never enthusiastic to watch Freddy films. Now I have seen a few, many I can't quite remember except for specific scenes. About a week or so ago I watched 2.5 Freddy films and feel I was maybe a bit too hard on the it. Some time last year I tried to watch the first A Nightmare on Elm Street and really couldn't get into it at all. I felt it was fairly laughable and nothing grabbed me. Upon watching it again, I found myself finally getting into it. The characters were all there and the premise was in fact strong. As to why I had a dislike for it, I can't possibly say. The premise has such strong potential and a lot of promise for stories and the first did a rather decent job with that. A mysterious, burnt killer with knives for a hand invading your dreams is completely horrifying, especially for the fact that when he kills you in your dreams, you die in real life too. Upon finally giving this film another shot - a fair shot - I felt the movie franchise would have been extremely strong without the pointless sequels. Now, the third part of the series, Dream Warriors, had some great ideas and itself was a fine film, the series could have done without sequels period. The first film was a solid horror tale and by itself would have been a solid footnote of a scary movie.

Visually, this film was very well made, especially blurring the lines between dream and reality, creating some surreal scenes. Examples being the first victim's death, Freddy's various appearances, among other things. My favorite scene would surely be when Nancy, the film's protagonist, is asleep and Freddy's figure begins to slowly come forward through the wall atop her bed. Very creepy scene and very well done. Visual-wise, I'm actually looking forward to see what kind of nightmares and special effects are used for the up-coming remake despite my dislikes for the current remake genre. My biggest complaint also for the film was in fact the use of music. I felt most of the music used for this film were very poor choices and could have highly improved the creepiness of the film if a more subtly creepy type score scheme was used. The main musical theme is very good, but other musical pieces in other scenes I found to be quite jarring and sometimes nearly took me out of the scene.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a creepy fun movie that stands rather well on it's own. I'm glad I gave it another fair shot after all this time of un-interest and somehow completely disliking it last time I watched it. Heck, I didn't even bother to finish it last time. But hey, if you're like me about this franchise, give the first film a fair viewer. You may like the interesting premise and may in fact like Freddy himself. The character works better as a sinister and creepy monster then the wise-cracking joke-ster he ended up being as the franchise went on. And here's hoping the remake does some justice. I'll try to give it a benefit of a doubt.

Directed by Wes Craven.

Oh, The Horror! #42: Halloween

2010-01-16T18:12:00.003-05:00

Another wonderful classic. I'm glad I'm seeing this now. Don't ask me why, but I just am. John Carpenter directs an extremely creepy and well made craft of a little horror tale about a psychotic stalker with a weird mask on his face as he kills through local town teenagers, his target baby-sitter Laurie, played by Scream Queen, Jamie Lee Curtis. Besides that little tid-bit, there isn't too much to say of the plot for this movie. That synopsis is pretty much it along with a psychologist roaming the town in search of stopping this psychotic killer, Michael Myers. Jamie Lee Curtis, following her mother's horror footsteps, does a fine job as the very likable Laurie as she struggles to combat Myers who just keeps on coming back from whatever you dish at him.

My absolute favorite aspect of this film is just how darn creepy this film is and just how simple it is. Great shots, great use of space and raising tension, good use of a creepy musical score, and VERY minimal amount of blood. Now, I know people may get annoyed at my annoyance with people's disapproval of horror films with no blood and gore, but here is a classic slasher horror film that doesn't rely on gore or blood whatsoever. Heck, I can't even think of any blood in this film. There's a lot more to the craft of horror then just blood and guts and I wish modern horror fans would get that into their heads. But dammit, let me not rant about this... The atmosphere and tone produced int his movie is very much masterful and pushes forth an insane amount of creepiness that still resonant to this day watching this film. The movie overall looks beautiful.

Besides a bit of a flat ending, this is a great film I'd highly recommend. I'm not a huge fan of the slasher genre, but this here is one of the very first slasher horror films that started such a great trend and it's well deserved of all the craze and acclaim this simple film gets.

Oh, The Horror! #41: The House Centipede

2010-01-14T03:11:00.002-05:00

Okay, remember that post I made way back of Barry? Well, here's another critter, this one very much more common. So common that you can stumble upon it in your own bedroom, hell... right next to your freakin' pillow. Say hello to the common house centipede...

Creepy as all hell, how could this NOT get it's own entry on Oh, The Horror!? This thing is horrific. Nothing with all those legs should exist. Their main purpose seems to be to just creep into your house and cause you to start scratching yourself while you climb a top of a chair, praying to all your Gods that it doesn't climb onto that specific chair you're standing on.

Now, if you're not creeped out by this creature, you're set. It can in fact be very helpful around the house as they tend to eat a bunch of insects that infest your home. But it doesn't help that it's even scarier than the common spider or roach. These centipedes are harmless, but trust me, you can make a nightmarish horror film starring these things. Yulch!

Oh, The Horror! #40: The Shining

2010-01-13T15:14:00.003-05:00

I know I've seen this before but I don't recall ANYTHING about it. But I finally bought the DVD and watched this a few nights ago and wow... just wow. This is a horror film. This is my type of horror movie. A lot of people know that my favorite horror is the one that focuses on the mind, the psychological horror sub-genre is my absolute favorite of the horror-verse, The Innocents being my absolute favorite horror film. The Shining, directed by legend Stanley Kubrick, is an automatic hit with me and is a classic from beginning to end. If you're a horror fan and haven't seen this film, what are you waiting for?

The story follows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) who has been hired to watch over an over-sized hotel for the winter while he gets space and time to write his novel. Along with him is his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son, Danny (Danny Lloyd). Early on we discover Jack's previous drinking issues along with Danny's imaginary friend, Tony. Danny also seems to possess an ability referred to as The Shining, which we discover from the hotel's chef, Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). It seems with these abilities, Danny can see things from the past and things that are going to happen, these things mostly being bad things. Jack is told by the manager of the hotel about the last family that stayed in the hotel and how the father went crazy and killed his wife and children with an axe then killed himself. Jack tells the manager that there's nothing to worry about and that he and his family are thrilled. Though I wouldn't quite say that as Danny starts to see weird visions of two creepy little girls asking to play with him and a hall way being filled with blood. As the months pass by, Jack slowly begins to get grumpier as he attempts to finish his story and gets incredible terrifying around Wendy who just wants to be a loving wife, so it's completely frightening when Wendy begins to fight for her life when Jack finally loses it through push from the weird supernatural elements in the hotel.

Wonderfully shot and directed, the musical score throughout is completely masterful and lends really well to this creepy masterpiece. The performances are all top-notch, my favorite being from Shelley Duvall as the very sympathetic and loving Wendy as you wonder if she'll lose her mind when both her child and husband start to crack in this mysterious hotel. Now the movie isn't without it's faults. The only fault I have with the film was that I felt a lot of beats and pieces to the story were missing. Time just goes by and we see the passage of time, but I just wish we got to see more. Jack's transformation seems to almost come out of left field although there's signs of it through gradual build up from the beginning of the movie. Also, reading how much King dislikes this film and seeing a lot of story sub-plots that was excluded for this film does make me ponder, but excluding all that other stuff, the film stands completely well on it's own. My favorite type of horror film indeed.

Oh, The Horror! #39: Attack of the Killer Foot!

2009-12-19T15:07:00.002-05:00

The final cut/version of my editing project. Had a ton of fun making this. This is my homage to two of my favorite horror films, Psycho and Jaws, and of some of the old cheesy no-good B&W horror films that had a bit of fun element to them still. Besides the score riffs, I had some inspiration from the great Eraserhead film that made this an even more fun experience.

Was glad to hear a lot of good feedback during the final showing and some good laughter, especially at some of the identical scenes from this and Psycho which I was hoping to hear.

Attack of the Killer Foot Final Cut from Greg Anderson-Elysee on Vimeo.

Oh, The Horror! #38: Greedy Fly by Bush and Marcus Nispel

2009-12-07T01:47:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite bands and favorite videos ever. From Razorblade Suitcase, Greedy Fly was the second single off that album. Gavin has said of the song, "...You invite thing into your life; you know, that we are all ‘servants of out formulaic ways." For a few years know I've analyzed the song to be about suicide and the weird thought process of it.

“This was our ridiculous movie, shot in the same building where they filmed ‘Seven.’ It was just crazy. We spent almost half a million quid on it, which is a stupid, immoral amount of money that I can’t really justify. It was fun to have done an epic like that once.”- Gavin

“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.

Attack of the Killer Foot rough cut

2009-12-04T15:06:00.003-05:00

A film I originally made with my sister and sadly lost the footage. For editing class, decided to reshoot it, this time with a better camera, lights, tripod, a small crew composed of family, etc. This is a rough cut of the project, a homage to two of my favorite horror films: Jaws and Psycho. Sound and music will be added later for the fine/final cut. Hope you like it, tell me what you think...

Attack of the Killer Foot Rough Cut from Greg Anderson-Elysee on Vimeo.

Oh, The Horror! #37: The Mist

2009-11-15T17:12:00.004-05:00

I've wanted to see this movie since it came out two years ago and finally caught it. Written for the screen and directed by Frank Darabont and adapted from a novella by Stephen King, Darabont and crew develop a wonderfully directed and acted piece of horror film which I will say is very underrated. Sure, I've heard a few people here and there praise the film but I honestly feel it could get a bit more. This is definitely on the list of actual great horror films in the past few years which people don't like to acknowledge when they say the horror genre is dead.

The ensemble cast is lead by manly-man Thomas Jane 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.

But back to the movie, highly recommend. Seek this out if you haven't. Great directing, acting 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.

Sippin' Poet #8: Obstacled Union

2009-11-08T03:44:00.001-05:00

You’re a welcoming warmth of release
To an untamed devil with eccentric charms.
Use to a returning tray of cloud
She came in with a strange entrance, ringing alarm.
Let the confusion and disputes unwrap
Our differences quickly interact
But our weirdness finds a way to relax
Into a pool of ridiculous prosperity.

A complex fit to two paranormal worlds
There’s no reason for this bliss, I’m sure.
My charm that tears down large nations
Getting you bothered and breathless.
Try not to forget your obligations
As I kiss and let my hands explore
A very wrongful sensation you continually adore
With no reason to fully allow in
But you can’t help to just give in.

Slow and calm yourself down now, woman
As we cause earthquakes with our destructive temples.
My apple in your mouth, I am the filth
Corrupting a once flower, I’ll respectfully accept the bill.
Ms. So-called innocent with pleasures of burning wax
It’s no wonder we’re at times intact.
Mutuals attempt to push forward that fact
But we just can’t let it be… or I can’t…

Some feelings of doubt underneath layers of suns and droughts
And instead of just numbing numbing numb thoughts
I’ll let myself go and enjoy the ride.
I’ve already let you inside
Just promise me you won’t bite
As I’ll excavate through your body, that WonderLand
Where I quench my thirst as you quiver
And my tongue welcomes your shivers.

A sting’s a sting, and not of the sweet kind
And your sweet sting I’ll try to bare
As we’re held together rather close and near
Strange duplications in a twisted fucked up sphere
Where there’s constant troubles of portals forever spacing our plans
While you search through time to attempt to find me.
I’m not an image of perfection
Yet you love my affection.
Why? I dunno, but I’ll try to comply.
I said I’d try. There’s no right guarantee.
My vodou can only go so far and no promise
But I’ll try.

Various occasions I may push away
It’s due to a breach in comforted security.
A sense of space to recollect my sowed mind
Is what I ask for, but don’t fret, you may still be priority.

So here we are, in front of this door.
Are we in or are we out? Whatever it is, have no more doubts.
I know my place You know our place.
Follow me for once and don’t think.
Just be.
Appearances may visualize otherwise but I’ll attempt to meet
At the crossroad half-way.
Just for now allow yourself to be with me.
So just be.

Brother Voodoo celebrates Halloween 09!

2009-11-01T11:37:00.003-05:00

Went as the good doctor for Halloween! Only a fraction of last night.

.............

Now it's time for bed!

Oh, The Horror! #36: Trick 'r Treat

2009-10-18T14:19:00.007-04:00

What the heck is this now? Horror films are becoming fun again? 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.

The movie revolves around four stories all taking place in the span of a few hours in a town during Halloween. You have a sadistic murdering principal played awesomely by Dylan Baker, a virginal girl dressed as Little Red Riding Hood played by Anna Paquin who is being stalked by mysterous man in a mask and cloak, a group of kids who collect Jack o' Lanterns and recount a town's creepy urban legend, and a grumpy ol' hermit, played by Brian Cox, with no Halloween spirit and needs to be taught it. Through out the movie is one small figure named Sam who appears in all four segments and plays a bit of a role as the Spirit of Halloween, making sure things go according to plan with this special holiday. 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.

Dougherty, who wrote and directed this movie, does a great 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.

I honestly don't know much else of what to say about this movie without going into full detail of 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.

But enough of great praise. There were but two things that didn't quite do it for me. For one it was one of the designs for Sam himself. The look he has through the movie is fantastic and quite adorable. You can't help but love the character just based on his visual alone. It's when he takes 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.

So c'mon, guys, get into your Halloween spirit and enjoy this nice little fun movie. You're never too young or old to follow the traditions of this festive holiday. But then again, go ahead, don't follow the traditions. When you see Sam on your doorsteps, I sadly won't get the chance to tell you I told you so.

Oh, The Horror! #35: The Addams Family & Addams Family Values

2009-10-12T00:10:00.009-04:00

I re-watched both movies a few nights ago with my girl and both 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.

The first movie revolves around a plot of a greedy woman named Abigail Craven played by Elizabeth Wilson who dresses her son, Gordon, to resemble Gomez Addams long-lost brother, 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.

Craven: Love/hate. Hate/love. Like for Mama, no?
Gomez: But I didn't hate my mother. It was an accident!

Morticia: Gomez.
Gomez: Querida?
Morticia: Last night you were unhinged. You were like some desperate, howling demon. You frightened me. Do it again!

A most definite favorite part of both movies are completely how into each other both Gomez and 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.

Girl Scout: Is this made from real lemons?
Wednesday: Yes.
Girl Scout: I only like all-natural foods and beverages, organically grown, with no preservatives. Are you sure they're real lemons?
Pugsley: Yes.
Girl Scout: Well, I'll tell you what. I'll buy a cup if you buy a box of my delicious Girl Scout cookies. Do we have a deal?
Wednesday: Are they made from real Girl Scouts?

The sequel, Addams Family Values, takes place about 9 months from the last movie where Morticia reveals to Gomez that she's pregnant with a third child. When the child, Pubert, is born, Wensday and Pugsley grow highly jealous to the point where they drop him from the roof of their home and try to decapitate his head. The loving wife and husband see fit to find a nanny. After various failed attempts, they finally find just the right nanny, 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.

Once again, this movie is filled with even more of the humor that's loved in the first movie:

Morticia: Oh Gomez... you still desire me after all these years? The old ball and chain?
Gomez: Forever.
Morticia: I'll get them.

And we get more laughs and destruction. And it's inpossible not to fall for the adorably new-born Pubert who fits perfectly with the kooky family especially by the end of the movie as he laughs happily after causing a death of a character.

Overall, both movies are very fun and well made films. While the second film is much stronger 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.

And major props to David Hine for making me a part of the Addams Family.

Oh, The Horror! #34: Paranormal Activity

2009-10-11T00:38:00.004-04:00

Most over-hyped film in recent years or does it live up to it? Honestly you'll have to see for yourself, but for me personally I'm definitely in the middle. Now not to say I didn't enjoy it, I enjoyed the hell out of it. But when I hear people deem this as the scariest movie made in decades, I have to stop and ponder... and it is rather hard to think of a truly terrifying great movie recently, all I could think about are Drag Me To Hell and Coraline (not really terrifying, 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.

We begin the movie with Micah testing out his new video camera then meet his girlfriend of three years, Katie, as we watch them all lovey-dovey on a normal day. As to why Micah has the camera, Katie reveals to us a little later that she's been haunted by a strange entity since childhood. One day while asleep with her sister, she noticed a big black mass standing at the foot of her bed. A few days later her home burned down. A few years later the same entity haunted her and and this time it was happening again now that she was happy with her new wise-cracking boyfriend. The characters are fairly likable which is a plus to have when you make a horror movie, but Micah is definitely the character that gets you irritated watching the movie as he's warned against certain things such as antagonizing the entity and thus making things worse than it could have been. Note to everyone: DO NOT MESS WITH OUIJA BOARDS!

So yes, the movie documents about two weeks of strange occurrences that includes load banging 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.

But I do have to ask, though... people really threw up watching this movie?

A Motherf**kin' Rat!

2009-09-16T22:58:00.001-04:00

A recreation of Annie Hall that I helped some friends do. I'm the dude in the film. Weird seeing me act...

A Motherf***in' Rat from Lucas on Vimeo.

Oh, The Horror! #33: I Walked With A Zombie

2009-09-16T00:00:00.008-04:00

I Walked With a Zombie was a 1943 movie directed by Jacques 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.

Now I will say that although not much happens in this movie, I had a delightful time 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.

A few aspects had caught me by surprise, though, that got me intrigued. One being the scene when Betsy travels with 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!

Another scene I especially loved was when Betsy found the village and the locals were singing in actual Haitian dialect. That made me proud, oh yes, especially hearing that the film-makers did a big bunch of research, even hiring actual Vodou practitioners and Vodou musicians. But something did get me later... the use of a Vodou doll. So I'm guessing it was this film that gave Vodou dolls a bad name, huh? The Vodou priest begins to use a Vodou doll to control Jessica and later causes things to happen while in control of her. Now, from what I understand, Vodou dolls have nothing to really do with Haitian Vodou but with Louisiana Vodou and is actually used to bless and protect people, not control or do harm. Thanks, Hollywood. Heh.

So yes, throughout the movie, there is a constant sense of questioning where all this is going to go. You're not too sure which characters will do what or how they'll act out through the movie. There's simply a sense of not knowing anything, who's to blame, who's the villain, etc. That definitely gives the movie a big plus from me with the ambiguity as questions are left unanswered in some way despite there being... well, let me stop before I spoil something. But overall, definitely watch this movie. I especially loved the depiction of zombies- not the cannibalistic superhuman monsters we're used to now, but the monsters that are easily controlled and aren't too frightening, but you sure as hell don't wish it to happen upon you. Although Carre-Four is scary as fudge. Watch this for Carre-Four!

edit: Oh yes, I also read that the Saw creators are planning on remaking this movie... WHY?!? PLEASE DON'T!!! NO!!!!

I was interviewed...

2009-09-14T08:36:00.000-04:00

http://comicdiversity.atspace.com/Loving%20Memory%20Interview.html

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.

Icon

2009-09-08T12:29:00.000-04:00

"Icon is that rarest of creatures -- a well-told adventure story that achieves genuine political depth. Highly recommended."
-Alan Moore (writer of WATCHMEN)

ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME TP NEW PRINTING
Written by Dwayne McDuffie
Art by M.D. Bright and Mike Gustovich
Cover by Denys Cowan

The flagship character from Milestone Comics is back in this new printing of the classic title collecting Icon #1-8. This is the title that introduced Augustus Freeman, a successful lawyer who covertly uses his alien super-powers to help those in need. But when a teenaged girl from the streets convinces him to use his abilities to inspire his people and becomes his sidekick, Rocket, the affluent Augustus embraces his true destiny and becomes Icon, the hero of Dakota.

Advance-solicited; on sale September 30 • 192 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Oh, The Horror! #32: Cat People

2009-09-07T22:40:00.002-04:00

For this semester in school, I enrolled in a film class 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.

A continuing point that gets made in my class, starting 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.

This wasn't my first time watching this movie. I had seen it previously during the summer and wasn't entirely sure how I felt about the movie. To me it was very slow but I did enjoy parts with Irena freaking out and her scenes with animals who all seem to have a sixth sense and would react wildly around her. One particular scene with a canary gets a good chuckle out of me and people who watch it. Second time watching, while I still felt was a little slow, I was more into the movie. Despite having over 90% over at Rotten Tomato, I do feel that watching this film may be a required taste for people use to watching movies of the now. But who knows, maybe there are some who'd enjoy it. Though I'm not too sure who among my friends would sit through it.

Another note about the movie: it was the first to use the horror technique bus. From wiki...

"Lewton and his production team claim credit for inventing the popular horror film technique called the "bus". The term came from the scene where Irena is walking behind Alice; the audience expects Irena to turn into a panther at any moment and attack her. At the most tense point, when the camera focuses on Alice's confused and terrified face, the silence is shattered by what sounds like a hissing panther—but it is a bus pulling over to pick her up. After the excitement dies down, the audience is left uncertain whether anything supernatural or life-threatening actually happened. This technique has been adapted into a great many horror movies since then. Anytime a movie creates a scene where the tension rises and dissipates into nothing at all, merely an empty boo!, it is a 'bus'."

Nice.

Oh, The Horror! #31: Bram Stoker's Dracula

2009-08-24T23:00:00.009-04:00

Wow, did I have a good time watching this movie. This is a movie I've been wanting to see for years but never to any avail. Finally this past weekend I caught this with my brother and god-brother after watching Blacula also for the first time and felt this movie lived up to my expectations. Yet at the same time I didn't know much of what to expect with this movie. I just knew I'd be into it due to Gary Oldman playing Dracula and Anthony Hopkin as Van Helsing. Get Winona Ryder as Mina Murray to round off the ensemble cast and sexy Monica Bellucci as one of Dracula's three brides. The movie begins in the past during the Turkish invasion where Vlad The Impaler (Oldman) defeats the invasion to come back and find his wife (Winona Ryder) had committed suicide after false news of her husband's death. Vlad, feeling betrayed by God after fighting for his cause and finding out his wife's soul was damned to hell, curses Him and the church and swears the rise up with all the powers of darkness.

Centuries pass and Jonathan Harker, a law clerk played HORRIBLY by Keanu Reeves, travels to Transylvania to Count Dracula's castle to arrange the transfer of Carfax Abbey in London, Dracula's current real estate acquisition. During Harker's stay at the castle is where I really fall for the movie. Shadows of Dracula never match the vampire himself, often moving slowly or making a violent movement among many strange things. The visuals of this movie are astounding and really gets you on the edge. Just for the visuals alone you can't help but fall in love with the movie. As the stay progresses, Dracula sees a picture of Harker's beautiful wife, Mina Murray, who looks exactly like Dracula's deceased wife. As Dracula plots to go to London in search of Mina, Dracula's three wives feed on Harker and force him into intercourse, leaving him too weak to escape. The scenes with the vampire brides are also very beautifully done.

When Dracula arrives in London, he meets Mina, falls in love with her, and effectively seduces her. At the same time, he also entices Mina's best friend, Lucy, turning her into a vampire and leading the other characters of the movie to take notice of this strange occurrence going on and thus introducing us to Van Helsing, played bad-assly by Sir Anthony Hopkins. The scene where Lucy gets glamored by Dracula as she travels through a maze in search of him with her long red dress flowing in the windy night once again strikes you as amazing and just entices you to keep watching. The scene goes into a shocking climax when Lucy is found having sex with a humanoid wolf.

Now as I may praise this film, there are aspects of it where I felt could have improved. The plot seem to move very fast and there really was no moment to breathe. The movie progressed fast and got stranger and stranger, but not enough to have you fall off. In a way, I felt the movie could have been longer to help develop some more, but overall the movie itself was a good winner. The ensemble cast, besides Keanu Reeves in his worst performance EVER, were all great in their roles, Oldman definitely taking the title role and having you care for him despite being the villain and Sadie Frost playing the flirtatious and dangerous Lucy. I'd definitely recommend this movie to any horror fan with an eye for visual beauties. As stated before, the visuals alone are enough to watch and enjoy the movie. The make-up for the vampires, most particular Oldman as an old and pale and beautifully ugly creature is massively impressive. Overall this movie was very much like watching someone take full advantage of all the resources and money to make a childhood dream film.

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Oh, The Horror #30: The Corpse Bride

2009-07-25T18:50:00.009-04:00

Directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, The Corpse Bride is a fantastic stop-motion film filled with wit and eye-popping fun. The movie takes place in a Victorian era town where a young and shy young man named Victor, a fish merchant's son, is arranged to get married to Victoria, the daughter of soon to be penniless aristocrats. Both are worried of meeting each other in fear that they wouldn't like each other but hit it off rather well as compared to their parents respectively. During their wedding rehearsal, Victor stumbles upon his vows and accidentally sets Victoria's mother's dress on fire. He is threatened by the pastor to learn his vows, setting Victor off to run away into the woods to practice his vows. Suddenly, he recites it perfectly with a new sense of confidence and places the ring onto a stick resembling a hand, only for the hand to grab Victor's arm and reveals itself to be the hand of a corpse. Frightened, Victor attempts to run away to safety only to be followed in an extremely well down scene which would scare the hell outta me if I were in his shoes. The corpse takes Victor to the Town of the Dead where, well... every one's dead. And as compared to everyone living, they're happy. Here we learn the back-story of the Corpse Bride, named Emily, and of her "fate" to be set free when she finds her truly love, this being Victor. Thus introducing us to the problem of the film for our protagonist: Does he pick Victoria or does he stay with Emily, who unlike a real corpse is very clever, funny, free-spirited, and beautiful.

Voicing Victor is Burton's main man, Johnny Depp, who gives a wonderful performance as the clumsy protagonist in love with Victoria, voiced by Emily Watson. Helena Bonham Carter voices the titled character and we're rounded off by other cast favorites the likes of Albert Finney as Victoria's father, Michael Gough as Elder Gutknecht the elderly skeleton with knowledge of magic, and Christopher Lee as Pastor Galswells. For me, though, it's definitely Lee and Gough who steal the show. It's a ton of fun seeing old school horror alumnus voicing such hilarious characters, their voice being extremely recognizable that I have to have a smile on my face, especially when Gough recites the line, "Now, why go up there when people are dying to get down here? " which never fails to get a chuckle from me.

The animation is amazing. Every time I watch this movie I'm amazed at just how far stop-motion filming has come. I stated before back in my Coraline review that I tend to prefer stop-motion animation over plain old CGI film-making and it's because it seems to have this really raw and gritty feel to it. It feels a bit more real to me in a sense. The colors in this movie, although low-key, really help put you into the movie too. Especially when you get to the Land of the Dead. The Land of the Dead is vibrant and always has skeletons ready to have a blast singing a song as compared to the Land of the Living where everyone is slow and dull and the lighting is bland. It's extremely entertaining watching all the civilians of the Dead town getting excited and ready to throw a party over a new arrival. And speaking of song, who doesn't love Bonejangles song about how Emily came to be the Corpse Bride, The Remains of the Day? That specific song number is enough to watch the film. Danny does a great job with the raspy jazzy skeleton who loves a woman with meat on her bones. I have to say, though, besides that song, the other numbers aren't quite as memorable. Especially compared to the wonderfully memorable tunes of The Nightmare Before Christmas. When one starts watching this movie for the first time, they can't help but start comparing both films. I will say, though, try your best not to. When I first watched this movie, I couldn't get into it because it wasn't The Nightmare Before Christmas. When I watched it again, this time seeing it as it's own movie, I enjoyed it immensely.

From watching this film you could tell every one probably had a great time. And it helps as it's a really enjoyable film. I was able to talk my mom into watching this movie as she tends to disregard films of this nature and she caught herself really getting into it and finding a lot of scenes hilarious. It's in fact a fun family movie, although I have a feeling some parents, particular with strong Christian faith may not want their child seeing a film of this nature. Just my two cents with that. Only real complaint from me was that I felt it could have been a longer film. Would have enjoyed more fun, but hey. You get what you get, least it was entertaining.

Gays and Blacks Are Contrived, Dammit!

2009-07-24T18:07:00.001-04:00

My new Face To Greg is up where I discuss my annoyance (what a surprise) of internet trolls and their prejudice...

http://www.theouthousers.com/content/view/3914/156/

Jennifer's Body Trailer

2009-07-07T10:23:00.001-04:00

From the creator of Juno...

Martin Scorcese's Shutter Island

2009-06-11T12:19:00.002-04:00

WHOA WHOA WHOA!

Haha! Bring it on, I'm pumped!

RIP, Stevhan Gobble aka Face of John Constantine

2009-05-22T11:27:00.004-04:00

It's been announced this past Wednesday, May 20th, that Stevhan Gobble has tragically past away in a car accident in Chicago. Gobble, for 7 years, was the face of wise-cracking bastard, John Constantine, in Vertigo's Hellblazer series as he graced the covers illustrated by brother-in-law Tim Bradstreet from issue # 134 - 215. It's a sad time for his family and Hellblazer fans. My condolences to his family. May Stevhan always be remembered.

Oh, The Horror! #29: Drag Me To Hell

2009-05-22T00:26:00.005-04:00

Okay, first off let me say that I was not looking forward to this movie. The trailer didn't do much at all to appeal to me and I felt it reminded me so much of the Unborn, a movie I wouldn't recommend unless you were bored with nothing to watch, but only if it was showing on cable. Anyway, as weeks went by I've started seeing a bit of good reviews here and there and I thought, "Eh, it's Sam Raimi. Why not?" Well I just came back from seeing it today with one of my best friends and I must say it was awesome! Don't worry, as sucky as the trailer looks, the movie isn't. It's nowhere near sucky. It's a really good horror movie and a complete great time. Great scary jump scenes and lots of great laugh out loud moments. Sam Raimi has returned to horror and I must say he is in top-form.

The story revolves around a young woman named Christine Brown played by Alison Lohman. She's a bank loaner on the verge to being promoted to Assistant Manager. Her one problem is that her boss doesn't believe she can make the "tough decisions" as well as her seedy rival, Stu. In an act to prove herself worthy, she denies a strange old woman, Mrs. Ganush played by Lorna Raver, a third extension on her mortgage. Ganush, desperate to keep her home gets down on her knees and begs Christine. Christine calls security which then leads Ganush to attack Christine. The guards lead Ganush out of the bank. Thinking everything is over, Mrs. Ganush attacks Christine on her way to her car which leads to a new definition of cat fight. The two women really go at it and it's beyond intense. Without the charm of Raimi's film-making, I can't imagine this fight any other way. It was beyond brutal and at the same time filled with good humor. After the fight, Mrs. Ganush curses Christine and vanishes. As the day goes by, Christine starts getting attacked by invisible forces and is getting terrible nightmares. She finds out a demon by the name of the Lamia is after her to take her soul to hell. Now Christine stops at nothing to stop the Lamia from taking her away.

Filled with non-stop scares, this movie does not let go. Scares pop out nearly everywhere as Christine starts to go crazy from all the haunting around her and they are pretty much all effective. There does come to a point where some of the scares start to seem pretty cheesy but if you know Sam Raimi from his other films, you can catch the satire in them. Heck, tons of stuff in this movie were damn hilarious. The thing that made this movie so much fun was how much fun it made of itself. Heck, even the demon Lamia had a ball in this film and led to some chuckles. There were also things that seemed rather convenient to move along the plot, but they were used so obviously that if you were a Raimi fan, you'd get the joke of it all, thus not taking everything too seriously once again. This movie is simply a film to have a ridiculous great time watching and it surely doesn't disappoint. The story was solid, humor was on-point, effects were great, and the music and sound effects were beautifully utilized. A huge element of making horror films and scares effective are the use of sound effects and tension rising music, and Christopher Young provides it well. I actually can't wait to pick up the soundtrack some time soon.

Also, I do know there are tons of people online complaining how terrible it will be due to being a PG-13 movie. This movie here shows how effective a PG-13 horror movie could be. They do exist and could be done really well. And no worries, either. Although no specific gory moments, there is a scene with a ton of blood that will catch you so off guard, so you PG-13 haters can rest easy.

But yes, as I conclude this, I know many folks reading or hoping to see this movie do have one more thing on their mind and that's if our man of steel, Bruce Campbell, makes an appearance. I must say with a frown on my face, "No." But I'm sure he'd like for you all to see this movie and enjoy it. Don't let the weird trailer fool you. Go and enjoy paying the 11 bucks it costs to watch a film now. It's well deserved. Horror is indeed alive and fun and it's name is Drag Me To Hell.

Drag Me To Hell Trailer

2009-05-11T10:33:00.001-04:00

New Sam Raimi coming out later this month.

Disney's The Princess and the Frog

2009-05-10T10:15:00.004-04:00

If you know me, you'd know that I'm a big fan of Disney flicks, more specifically the older 2D animation. Pocahontas, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame being among my absolute favorites. Now for years I've been complaining to many people that I want to see a return to 2D animation for Disney again and this winter I get my wish. And not only that, but finally a black princess as the main character (also sharing the name with my best bud, Tiana) AND an evil Vodou priest voiced by the man Keith David!!!

Channelling Forth My Inner Brother Voodoo

2009-05-07T13:19:00.003-04:00

Well, some of you know that I used to draw. Not as much as I used to but from time to time I'll still doodle. But I've never been really good at it. In art school I was always better doing stuff like sculpture, paper mache, all that kinda stuff. For a while I tried to get back into drawing because it's damn hard to find an artist when you're a writer, but that went nowhere.

A few nights ago I was rewatching The Serpent and the Rainbow with one of my best buds, Nadia, and for some reason that excited me. I thought of Brother Voodoo, an underrated Marvel character and a favorite of mine. I really want to write a buddy book with Voodoo and Blade. I can definitely see it working out. At the same time I REALLY want to see a horror Brother Voodoo book with someone like David Hine, or Phil Hester, or Mike Carey writing and someone like Leonardo Manco or Ashley Wood on art. Damn, just think of the craziness!

But yes, due to that excitement, I started drawing the character... then I did another... and another... and quite frankly I don't recall the last time I've been so excited about drawing so much. Man!

So below are the Brother Voodoos I've been churning out for the past few days now...

The next one has to be my favorite, thus far. Love the snakes. And if you look close enough, you'll notice a Batman voodoo doll. Ha!

Wanted to do one of the Bro sitting on a throne looking scary with a woman on his lap. I was at my local comic shop and was getting idea suggesting from some friends. It came down to Witchblade, Jean Grey, or a zombie. I decided for a zombie Jean. Drawing didn't come out how I wanted it to, may do another draft later on.

And lastly is some doodles I did in class yesterday in sound class. I keep trying to make Voodoo look scarier, but to not much avail or what I have in mind. These doodles seem to be pointing to the right path, hopefully. And I love the way the one on the bottom came out. May make it an actual drawing.

Rx Tales: Stories To Make You Feel Better Update!

2009-04-11T18:45:00.004-04:00

Man! Last week I got some copies of the anthology and I was so excited to finally have it in my hands and read my script with a smile on my face! So excited! Thus far I've had some good feed back from a bit of folks who's read it and the manager of the comic shop franchise I go to became my very first customer and been telling folks about it and how he loved my story and how good the art was.

If you're just joining in and have no idea of what I'm talking about, just check out these links below...

http://gregae.blogspot.com/2008/10/rx-tales-stories-to-make-you-feel.html

http://gregae.blogspot.com/2008/10/rx-tales-stories-to-make-your-feel.html

If anyone is interested in a copy, you can contact my cousin George at George9448@aol.com who's selling them for 3 bucks. Hope all is well. Peace.

Oh, The Horror! #28: The Vampire Bat

2009-04-10T14:50:00.008-04:00

Haven't been watching as much horror flicks as I'd like to due to school getting in the way, etc. Still have some stuff to do during my spring break, but someone I know from the net sent me a link of some old classical horror films that he knew I'd love so I decided to check it out. Man, am I excited when I saw the flicks they have in their selection. He recommended The Vampire Bat which I just finished watching just a few minutes ago. Not bad at all. I felt it was a little slow at first, but man did it start to pick up by the second half of the movie. In a small village named Kleinschloss, each night a new murder is discovered. The towns people begin to believe that a vampire is at bay and causing the murders due to teeth marks on the sides of the neck. The main inspector on the case, Karl, is highly skeptical on this whole deal while Dr. Von Niemann cares for each of the victims. A strange mentally disturbed man by the name of Herman Gleib is the main suspect as the vampire due to his love of bats.

After going after Gleib, more story details are discovered about this whole murder situation which I'll back off from spoiling. Not a great movie that keeps you on your toes but it's a good hour to spend when you have nothing to do. I did like some camera movements, especially in the beginning. The characters were very well done, Dr. Von Niemann and Herman being my absolute favorite, Herman being played by Dwight Frye, best known for playing Fritz in the original Frankenstein movie.. And boy, I wish I had some pop corn when the revelation of the murders started making sense.

If you're a fan of the original King Kong, actress Fay Wray, the original scream queen, plays the love interest of Karl, who was played by Melvyn Douglas.

Directed by Frank R. Strayer.

Oh The Horror! #27: "Barry"

2009-04-03T17:19:00.003-04:00

Can I say, "EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!"

EW EW EW EW EWW!!!!!

http://news.aol.com/article/giant-sea-worm/412269?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fgiant-sea-worm%2F412269

April 2) - Staff at a British aquarium have captured a massive sea worm that had been terrorizing other aquatic life.
For months, the 4-foot-long creature -- which staffers call "Barry" -- had been devastating coral reef at Newquay's Blue Reef Aquarium, the Daily Mail newspaper reported Tuesday. The menacing monster also apparently injured a Tang fish.

Initially, aquarium workers weren't sure what was harming the coral, which in some cases was cut in half. After weeks with no clues, they decided to take the display apart to see if they could find the culprit, the Mail reported.
Workers laid bait traps, which were mysteriously destroyed in the night, as the glutton apparently devoured the fish hooks right along with the bait. Finally, staffers spotted the tropical worm, which bit through a 20-pound fishing line before staffers were able to successfully remove it from the tank.

The creature is covered with nasty bristles that sting and can cause permanent numbness in humans, the newspaper said.
"Tt really does look like something out of a horror movie," Matt Slater, the aquarium's curator, told the Mail. "It's over 4 feet long with these bizarre-looking jaws."
Slater said he suspects Barry arrived as a baby in a shipment from another aquarium. The worm now lives in his own tank.

Christopher Priest's Black Panther Run Petition

2009-04-03T08:55:00.001-04:00

I'm attempting to start an online petition for Marvel to collect and trade the rest of Christopher Priest's 62 issue run of Black Panther. Thus far, only 12 issues have been collected and that was years ago. I know there are some Priest fans here. Help, signatures, and supports would be greatly appreciated.

http://petitionspot.com/petitions/PriestBlackPanther

RIP, Test

2009-03-14T09:44:00.000-04:00

I haven't been a big wrestling fan for a little while now but I've always said to my friend if Test returned, I'd be watching regularly again. He was my favorite to watch, always found him entertaining, especially as the asshole heel. This morning I found out he was found dead in his home last night. Details are unknown but I have a faint idea on what happened. Poor guy. You'll be heavily missed, man. No one delivers that killer Big Boot like you. Rest in peace, TJ Thunder.

Being Inked by Dan McDaid!

2009-03-10T17:30:00.006-04:00

Dan McDaid is the amazing artist and co-creator of the new Image hit Jersey Gods. A book about a god who marries a lovely human on Earth. It's a seriously funny comic, written by Glen Brunswick. Now I've been hanging out at their boards for a little while and I go cruising through Dan's art blog. One day I tried getting my drawing itch back and started a sketch of one of their characters, Helius, but soon after gave up. I told Dan about it and he asked me to draw it but I denied. I didn't think I'd do any justice to the character. One night while going through Dan's blog I stumbled upon a very small sketch of my boy, Harvey Two-Face and brought it to his attention. He then told me that he'd draw me a Two-Face sketch if I drew that Helius pic. DAMMIT, DAN!!! But hey, there's NO WAY I'd pass up on a Harvey sketch so yes, he talked me into it. So I did my sketch of Helius and I had a ton of fun drawing it. I had it done for a while before the NYCC this year but wanted to surprise Dan and not tell him I had drew it. When the NYCC came I presented it to him and it was great to see his reaction. He asked me if he could ink it and I said sure. And below, there it is! And it looks amazing! His inking really brought my picture to life, and made it actually look good! Just plain wow, this has surely made my day. WOW, DAN! I'm not even sure I want to call this my own because he did such a beautiful job with this. Goodness gracious!

And here is his bad-ass Two-Face. This contributed to the NYCC this year being one of the most awesomest days I've had in my life.

Terminator: Salvation Trailer

2009-03-02T20:43:00.002-05:00

Holy nuts!

Oh, The Horror! #26: Hack/Slah #20

2009-03-02T19:19:00.003-05:00

A good buddy of mine is a huge Hack/Slash fan. All he does is praise the book and continues to try to get me to check out the book. At first something about it didn't seem to grab me. Eventually I decided, "Sure, I'll give it a try." What better time than the NYCC this year. I was actually starting to really look forward to the book as the more I started to hear about it, the more intriguing it seemed. And I was looking forward to meet the creator, Tim Seeley. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find Seeley and all my cash was gone. I actually felt bad and annoyed about it but anywho, once again my friend, Eric, got on me to check it out and wanted me to read #20 and review it.

So here's the review, Eric, for you to stop bugging me. ;)

Now I pretty much have no knowledge of this book except that it's a horror book that stars a hot female lead who reminds me of Megan Fox, hello hel-lo! Cassie Hack, the lead, goes to a police station for help only to get thrown behind bars after quite some counts against her. In the meantime there's some moments between her supporting cast who includes a deformed man by the name of Vlad, and a girl who's name I can't remember seeing in the issue but basically there's tension between them due to Vlad feeling unimportant now that Cassie seems to have become closer to her, even sexual-wise. There's also a scene with a guy and a demon-y looking creature named Pooch who adds to quite some funniness in the book.

The main story then returns to Cassie being transfered to prison. The drivers of the police fan gets killed and Cassie gets knocked out. She awakens, tied up and sees a bunch of naughty things around her that consists of dildos, porn mags, condoms, etc. She also sees a bunch of middle age folks who are dressed in weird costumes ready to stab her. Cassie is able to escape and beat the crap out of the cult members while still cuffed and even has a knife fight with one with her using one of the dildos. That got a good chuckle outta me.

So yeah... um... Hack/Slash #20. I was lost and had no idea what was going on or why, but I really really enjoyed it. The writing was enough to keep me interested and the art was very very crisp. The characters seemed to be great also. I would really like to read more and I'm sure my bud, Eric, is happy to hear that. So when I have a good bit of extra cash, Hack/Slash omnibus, here I come.

Oh, The Horror! #25: Alien

2009-03-02T19:11:00.001-05:00

So... yeah. I finally saw this movie. I know, I know, where the heck have I been, huh? But better late than never as they say. And man, this was a fun watch. Sigourney Weaver stars as Lt. Ellen Ripley as she battles a terrifying alien life form that stalks and kills the space crew of the Nostromo. At first a slow moving film but when the Alien starts to come into the picture and becomes a big problem, you're hooked. The first part of the film mostly has to do with the workers trying to go back to Earth after having to haul a refinery and twenty million tons of mineral ore until they receive a transmission from a nearby planetoid. While there, they discover strange remains of a giant alien, ribs all exposed. Kane, played by John Hurt, discovers a mysterious egg that hatches. The creature inside it attacks him and paralyzes him while attaching itself onto his face. The crew rush him back into the ship and tries to get the creature off of him to discover the creature's blood is acid as it leaks and drips several floors. The creature eventually detaches itself and dies, Kane soon awakening.Everyone assumes everything is fine and dandy until during a lunch break, Kane's chest bursts open with a small alien popping out in oe of the most memorable scenes in horror. My cousins and baby sister screamed in disgust while I just applauded and laughed. The rest of the film now consists of the crew attempting to track down the alien while it stalks and eliminates each crew member one by one. It's a lot of fun and a very suspenceful film. Nice little scares here and there.

The acting and directing were all top notched and helped keep you at the edge of your seat with a smile on your face. I'm looking forward to seeing the sequels, hopefully they're as good as this one was.

Obsessed (movie trailer)

2009-02-20T08:04:00.003-05:00

This looks darn interesting. Definitely a type of movie I'm interested in and I usually talk to my friends about how you never see black leading actors in roles like this where their race isn't a factor. Starring Idris Elba, and man... it must be something to have both Beyonce and Ali Larter fighting over you!

Friends' Shoot

2009-02-19T22:51:00.002-05:00

Well, friends of mine had a film assignment and I thought it'd be awesome to help out if they needed an actor. Originally they had a different story but it got changed to me now being a victim tied up and tortured by a loving husband and wife (who are married in real life and is the parents of one of my friends, ha!) But yeah, I had SO much damn fun and we do a lil' more shooting on Sunday. Here are a few pics from the dad's cam.

Oh, The Horror! #24: Coraline

2009-02-16T09:51:00.005-05:00

Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, teams up with book wizard Neil Gaiman to bring us the magical world of Coraline. This stop-motion 3D film will simply blow you away. The simple word "brilliant" comes to when I think back of this movie. Coraline is about an 11 year old girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who moves into a new home with her parents who are less than attentive to her. She meets a strange boy by the name of Wybie and a black cat that seems to pop in and out whenever it pleases. She also meets her neighbors, Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, a pair of retired actors with lovely jumpy dogs and maybe dozens of them dead and stuffed on their walls, and Mr. Bobinsky, a blue-skinned acrobat who's also a circus ringmaster of jumping mice. As Coraline gets bored in the new house in which her parents always being busy never helps, jumping mice begin playing around in her room late at night which eventually leads her to discover a door to another world. Another world where her mother is a good cook and is happy to see her and her father is a chipper pianist who has helpful hands coming out of the piano and gardener who makes a garden resemble Coraline. One strange setback: they have buttons for eyes. Yeesh. At first Coraline is skeptical about this world and goes to sleep after being treated with delicious food and wakes up back into her world. Confused but at the same time excited, she later visits the world again and greets her other parents and this magical world with open arms. But previously before, she was warned by many that she is in grave danger. But of course, she isn't going to listen. Where's the fun in that?

Now I'll admit the story is a little slow at first. But once the story picks up, holy goodness does it pick up! There comes to a point where Coraline visits the world again where it's time for her to be a part of it. This leads to the happy and chipper Other Mother, voiced delightfully by Teri Hatcher, to bring Coraline her own pair of buttons to sew into her eyes. This is when everything gets flipped out and even more bizarre than it already was, especially when Coraline sees that she can't wake up back in her real world. Now Coraline must battle her Other Mother while trying to find her way out of this world and at the same time release the souls of kids who the Other Mother had trapped previously along with her guide, the black cat voiced by awesome-that-is Keith David. An absolute joyride is this modern Alice in Wonderland and you will have a blast watching this. My little sister was asking me to see it when she first saw the commercial and I was excited myself given that I love "Gaiman films" (still need to finish reading a lot of his books I started and never finished!) and I love stop-motion animation more than straight CGI. There's just something about stop-motion animation that seems a bit more raw and fascinating than straight CGI. And when you see this movie you'll be amazed of just how much stop-motion has advanced to get what we have today for this movie. The visuals were just amazing and enough to keep you hooked. Besides to magical story is wonderful eye-candy. This is a movie for everyone and their grandmother. Heck, even the music was catchy as all heck and kept you happy and joyful while watching. The song the Other Father played Coraline is still stuck in my head after two days and I loved the bouncy music that was played when Coraline visited the other Mr. Bobinsky and his jumping mice. And once again, Hatcher as the Other Mother was superb. For me she definitely stole the show and added to the creepiness of this story. I can definitely see kids being frightened of her but not too scared that they want to leave the theaters. I think it's great that we can have such movies like this with so much heart and magic and still be a horror movie for the whole family. It put a smile on my face when the movie ended and I took off my 3D glasses with my baby sister and she said to me with glee, "Now that was a horror movie!"

Oh, The Horror! #23: Jaws

2009-02-08T17:34:00.004-05:00

Yes, Jaws! Can you believe a few nights ago was the very first time I've seen this movie? And holy nuts was this just beyond awesome. Definitely one of the top horror flicks I've seen and it deserves all the hype it gets since the 30 plus years it's been out. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, this is a movie that just has you on edge and it's damn chilling and creepy. The beginning with the girl on the beach just vanishing into the water was definitely one of the best and creepiest intros to a movie I've seen. Starring late Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, he has to team up with scientist Matt Hooper played by Richard Dreyfuss and shark hunter Quint played by Robert Shaw to protect beach-goers in a town in New England from a killer Great White Shark that spans to 25 feet. There's some complications due to the money hungry town mayor who refuses to shut the beach down due to losing tourists who come to celebrate the 4th of July. The characters are well done throughout the whole movie. You cheer them on and fear for life for them as Jaws just attacks whoever he deems suitable for a snack. And Jaws is terrifying. Definitely one of the scariest movie villains in history and the damn music by John Williams doesn't help alter that belief. Once that music plays, you get tense thinking, "Oh no! Get the f'k out of the water!" And every time I see a shot of the water I get scared. That's fantastic horror for you. And I cannot get into my head how this got a PG rating. Although not too gory except for one specific scene, this movie would be too frightening for kids and I can understand why many people at the time this movie came out refused to go to the beach again after this because I really don't know if I want to step into a beach again. And I love beaches. Damn you, Spielburg! I also have to mention how much I loved that scene of when Brody was dropping meat in the water and Jaws just peers up for a slight second and Brody just jolts up, face stiff and in fear. Amazing scene, one of my all time favorites now. Ha! "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

If you have not seen this movie yet, do so asap! It's a horror classic that has been praised continually for years and a few days ago I finally knew why. One of the best films I've seen and one that is generally damn scary.

Interviewing Yildiray Cinar and Mahmud Asrar!

2009-01-31T15:09:00.001-05:00

New Face To Greg! I interviewed two fantastic artists, Yildiray Cinar and Mahmud Asrar. Check it out!

http://www.bludblood.com/content/view/707/51/

YES!!!!!! GIMME SOME STATIC!!!!!

2009-01-28T07:04:00.002-05:00

STATIC SHOCK: REBIRTH OF THE COOL TP
Written by Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III
Art by John Paul Leon and Steve Mitchell
Cover by John Paul Leon
Static, currently appearing in TEEN TITANS, is back in this new collection of classic stories from his hit Milestone series!
When a mutagenic gas accidentally gave him superhuman abilities, Virgil Hawkins was reborn as Static, the electrically powered teen Super Hero. And while Static tries to balance the pressures of his school work, after-school job and family life, he also protects his inner city neighborhood against villains including Holocaust and Commando X. Collecting STATIC #1-4 and STATIC SHOCK!: REBIRTH OF THE COOL #1-4.
Advance-solicited; on sale May 27 • 192 pg, FC, $19.99 US

Sippin Poet: Hmmm...

2009-01-27T06:12:00.000-05:00

There’s nothing.
There is nothing to be said or thought of
Nothing but the burden of stillness.
Emotions being emotionless
And thoughts sitting by like the unblown sands.
There’s no real need to try to understand
Or any type of drive to walking on forward
Or a light or even darkness to run towards.
So what now?
A sense to finally be mentally at peace?
Headache finally at ceased?
A bit of slight R&R for the next few hours
Until hours are up and it’s back to being sour.
So for this moment I’ll be still.
Still with no real need or want to be filled.
Cause being alone in silence can be a reward
But at the same time… a double edged sword…

Oh, The Horror! #22: Gravedancers

2009-01-26T09:00:00.008-05:00

I watched this with my godbrother, Rony, a few weeks back but never got to write my review. This was a strange one. A rather strange one. Dominic Purcell stars in this horror movie as a happily married man named Harris who reconnect with two of his older friends, Harris and Kira, after another one from their group passes away. After his wife, Allison, leaves him to be with his friends, one of them being his ex, they go back later in the night to their recently deceased friend's grave and drink to him, remembering old times, etc. Later on, Sid finds a letter in which he reads from. In reality, this letter is a curse which he misinterpretations to be a letter telling them to live life up and dance. So, well... they dance. Of course later on, the three of them start to get haunted by ghosts. Harris is haunted by a creepy looking woman who plays the piano and tries to kill you with an ax, Sid by a little boy who's obsessed with fire, and Kira is haunted by a sadistic man who loved to torture women when he was alive. These ghosts were the graves that the three friends danced on.

Although not particularly a great movie, there are in fact some enjoyable bits. The acting was a bit sub-par, characters I didn't feel were developed too well or the actors I just didn't care too much for although I thought Allison, played by Clare Kramer (Glory for the Buffy fans) was the more likable and believable character and Kira, played by Josie Moran, was lovely eye candy. A lot of it being a rather original script. And the make-up for the ghosts really adds to the creepiness and fun of watching. The ghosts always seem to have this extremely creepy smile to them and they just look... aww man. Sick. I read a bit of back ground on this movie and director Mike Mendez mentions how he had a dream where he was haunted by ghosts and they were smiling instead of the typical rage-ful looking monsters. That inspired their look for this movie. And I think it worked well in the movie. It was definitely the best part of the movie and a lot of the scary scenes were damn scary. I wouldn't fully recommend this film, maybe if you had nothing to do and needed to pass the time. Overall, you won't be too bored. Still some pleasing elements in the end.

I interviewed Phil Hester!

2009-01-20T23:29:00.001-05:00

A link to my recent article where I interview Phil Hester where we discuss his books Golly!, Firebreather, and the Darkness and discuss plenty more. Kool guy, check it out.

http://www.bludblood.com/content/view/700/51/

I interviewed Phil Hester!

2009-01-20T23:29:00.000-05:00

Dead Snow Trailer

2009-01-19T06:39:00.000-05:00

Okay, this movie looks awesome!!

Oh, The Horror! #21: Ava Adore by The Smashing Pumpkins

2009-01-13T18:17:00.003-05:00

A band I really got into recently by my dear bud, tokka. I've had their Adore album for a few years but never seen a video from it until maybe a month ago. I freakin' fell in love with their Ava Adore album. Such a beautiful piece of art in my opinion, nice lil' horror nods and imagery.

Some nice little tid-bits about the video from wiki:
-The video, filmed in one long take, is notable for its use of slow and fast motion while the speed of the camera is apparently static, and the band continues to lipsync to the song in perfect rhythm. The calculations required to work out the speed changes caused massive delays on set, causing the band to nearly call off the entire plan.

Return of Face To Greg with various guest stars!

2009-01-11T16:31:00.003-05:00

I ask various comic creators about that one significant comic book, series, creator, etc that influenced them to start thinking of becoming creators themselves. Tell me what you think!

http://www.bludblood.com/content/view/694/1/

Oh, The Horror! #20: Blade

2009-01-09T13:02:00.010-05:00

One of my all time favorite comic book characters, the bad-ass Blade. If I was given the chance to write any book for Marvel, it'd most likely be Blade. There's just something about him. A bad-ass half-vampire who can dish out some sick martial arts moves to take out those creepy crawlies that stalk in the shadows. His head is focused on one thing: killing the vamps. And on top of that, he has their thirsts. He can easily slip and become one of them, but with enough self-control and a focused hatred against that kind, he instead works to protect the world from them. And the guy's a riot also. "Motherf'ker, are you outta your damn mind?!" Ha! I still crack up every time I hear that line delivered by Wesley Snipes when he's shot at by cops in a hospital.

In my last entry, I wrote a review about "The Unborn." The writer/director of that movie is the writer of the Blade movies. And like I mentioned in that previous entry, when other directors seem to have his script, they do a wonderful job in crafting it into the big screen. Directed by Stephen Norrington, we are transferred into a dark world where vampires exist, living in the underworld in their own sacred hierarchy where they have connections everywhere that include nightclubs, politics, and the police. Then enters Blade. A hard-hitting half-man/half vampire who hunts the vampires along with his mentor and closes thing to a father-figure, Whistler, played by Kris Kristofferson. We are also introduced to Karen Jensen, a hematologist who gets bitten by a vampired named Quinn who was burned earlier by Blade. Karen, played bad-assly by sexy N'Bushe Wright, is our every-woman who brings us into this crazy world that is just below the surface if we just open up our minds. Karen gets directly involved in the essential plot as she begins to help Blade with a strong serum to suppress his thirst for blood and she also creates nice batches of serums that explodes suck-heads and even cures herself from vamperism. Sheesh. And she was a tough lil' cookie who was able to stand with Blade in battle and interrogations.

So yes, we got the heroes down and a brief mention of Quinn, the main villain's second in command. We are also introduced to Deacon Frost, played by Stephen Dorff, who sees humans as simply cattle, food to vampires. He speaks against the elder vampires who plan out all the rules and who disregard him for what they see as "stupidity" as Frost presents his ideas to bring forth La Magra, an ancient vampire god. With the rise of the vampire god, vampires will be back on top and the humans will all be food. But there's one problem. Blade. Yep, Blade is the Boogeyman! And he's coming to get you! Heh, sorry, got over excited there. But yes, the rivalry between Deacon and Blade is actually a lot of fun to watch. Everyone in this movie is a lot of fun to watch. While you're awed due to the fights and effects, you're laughing and smiling due to how much the characters stand out. It generally is a fun action film to watch and you don't need to be dumb to enjoy it. Snipes is Blade in this movie and I don't think Blade wouldn't have been as much of a success without Snipes there playing him, producing the film, and choreography of the fights. Also, this was the film that got Marvel to notice that they could make more movies like this hence us soon getting X-Men and Spider-Man after wards. This movie also appeals to many. If you like a good solid plot, you can get into this. If you like horror, you can get into it. Heck, martial arts, all out action, bullet time, whatever it is. Just go and pick this movie up and see why I love this character so much. You most likely will not regret it. And c'mon. Who doesn't love that blood bath scene at the beginning?

My Bloody Valentine 3D Trailer

2009-01-08T19:10:00.004-05:00

I've only seen this trailer today (movie comes out next week) but been seeing the posters on numerous occasions on walls, subways, etc. Someone on a message board was talking about it and how excited he was so I decided to check out the trailer. Looks alright, could be good fun. How often do you go to see a 3D Horror flick? I guess I'll check it out. Plus, it has awesome Jensen Ackles from Supernatural in it!

Oh, The Horror #19: The Unborn

2009-01-08T15:19:00.006-05:00

Now this movie I was semi-excited for. You can tell given that I put that trailer of it on this blog not too long ago. I saw the trailer and I saw it as a movie that would probably attempt to go back to the roots of the type of horror movie I enjoy watching. One of my best buds, Nadia, ended up getting free advance tickets and saw it as a proper birthday present for me so we went to go see it on Tuesday. As soon as the movie starts you're taken into the plot and it hardly lets go as the horror goes and goes. The special effects were great, scares and shocks were damn well done, but the story was "eh." Now, as stated before, I felt it seem like a movie that was attempting to recapture the charm of old school horror and when you watch the movie you see that, but it falls rather short in trying to achieve it. The story just isn't completely there. It seems incomplete and very simple and just... there. The plot-slash-premise were very damn interesting and the back-story were very attention grabbing along with the constant scares but there was just something missing.

The story is about a girl named Casey Beldon, played by Odette Yustman, who gets haunted by dreams and strange events in reality by an evil spirit revealed as the Dybbuk. Along with her best friend, Romey, played by sexy Meagan Good who also serves as a bit of a comic relief, tries to uncover the mysteries behind why Casey is the one experiencing all of this. She begins to learn about her family past which connects to Nazi geneticists and demons attempting to come into our world by possessing people and hoping to completely get into the world by being reborn as a deceased twin that was killed in the womb. We find out that Casey's grandmother had to kill her brother when he got possessed and also Casey's mother, played by Carla Gugino, had to also deal with this demonic entity which left her in an asylum and led her to commit suicide. So now it is Casey who is now next and it's up to her to stop it. She seeks help from a rabbi played by Gary Oldman who at first isn't too willing to help Casey due to her lack of faith but then becomes very determined to rid of this demon. She also has a Christian priest who comes to help her, played by Idris Elba, and her boyfriend. Let me not forget we have sexy Meagan Good who is determined to stick by and help her best friend despite all the warnings she gets. Mmm... Meagan. But anywho!

This movie also has something that I always shake my head and have to wonder why do people do that. Why is it that every time a character hears something weird they have to slowly... and slowly... walk... towards the noise... to see what it is? And this happens in the movie many damn times too. It's like the main character doesn't learn. She's experiencing all this weird crap, stop walking towards something suspicious. If you hear some weird noise on the other side of the wall, leave the damn room! Ugh! And there's also a part of the end of the movie that got me and my friend Nadia saying, "Oh, you a stupid bi-- um.. girl!" It's something that really got me annoyed but that cliffhanger I guess you can say you could see coming and is a staple of horror films. I won't spoil it for those interested in seeing this.

As stated, the effects and shocks are good. Damn good, in fact. But if that's what you want to see in a horror film, it'll appeal to you. One specific scene I loved was when Casey goes to visit her mother. The effects of that scene was fantastic and a few scenes that include bugs haunting Casey. But if you want a good solid story, this movie probably won't do much for you. If anything, I'd say wait for the DVD or till it premieres on cable. Despite me not caring much for the movie, I'm glad to see the attempt of trying to explore the supernatural old school elements of horror that I feel is missing nowadays. Directed by David S. Goyer who's written works are usually damn good to watch as they're directed by other folks but seem to fall short when he's on the directing seat. So take that as you will.

Oh, The Horror #18: An American Haunting

2009-01-08T14:52:00.005-05:00

A few nights ago my god brother put this on and a few of us watched it. The story is essentially told from the basis of an old ghost story of American folklore taken place in the 1800s, the story of the Bell Witch Haunting. Donald Sutherland plays John Bell, the man of the house of his family who's house are being haunted by a witch. All the signs point to Kathe Batts, a woman who's land was stolen by John previously. She then curses John and his precious daughter. Soon enough, John finds himself being attacked by a spirit of a wolf while his daughter gets attacked and abused by an invisible force who pulls her sheets, tugs on her hair, makes her float into the air and then proceeds to constantly smack her face back and forth. This happens for many nights, the Bell family in shock and horror as nothing they do seems to work. Even trying to escape their house causes problems where the spirits track them down and nearly kills them until they have to get back into their house. Now, the story was in fact rather interesting but gets very repetitive. Characters outside the family start to help out, slaves, professor, etc, but nothing they do seems to help. As the attacks gets worse and worse, clues start to fall into place as to exact what the spirit wants and why it's haunting this family. The twist at the end when everything gets revealed I would say I saw coming but still was well done and felt it was one of my favorite parts in the movie. But I don't think it helped the movie in it's appealing factor. As stated previously, the movie seem to get rather repetitive and at times boring. It's the same thing over and over and it just leaves you feeling, "Eh, whatever. Next movie, please."

The performances are pretty good. Sutherland as John Bell, Sissy Spacek as his wife and distraught mother of Betsy Bell, the daughter being haunted and attacked. Overall, it's a whatever movie. I wouldn't recommend it and would tell you to just pass it.

Oh, The Horror! #17: The People Under the Stairs

2009-01-05T19:35:00.007-05:00

Huh. Another Wes Craven movie that I had a great time watching. I guess I should look more into his stuff. I mean, I know he's a horror legend but previously I've only seen the Scream franchise (the first one was the only one I really liked as a kid) and Nightmare on Elm Street which I watched recently and really could get into. But my same god bro, Rony, who introduced me to The Serpent and the Rainbow, presented this one to me and my brother and I had good fun watching it. One thing that really made it a fun was just how original and rather outlandish the characters and ideas were but made it even creepier in a way that you can actually see it happening. The world is a scary world we live in. And the thought that crap like this can happen despite the absurdity is just... wow.

But yes, the movie is about a young boy, nicked-named Fool, from the ghettos of his city who finds out that he is being evicted by his money hungry landlords while his mother is sick and bed-ridden of cancer. His older sister is dating a man named Leroy who comes up with an idea to go into the landlords house and steal some money. The problem is that they do not know is that the landlords are crazy and seem to have "children" that they lock up in the basement who are all deformed due to their punishment. Some have gorged eyes, cut off ears, etc. All look like weird pale monsters and are fed pieces of meat from people who pass by. They also have a young daughter who is very pure and innocent but is punished by her "parents" due to their impossible standards of purity. If she speaks, hears, or sees evil, then she is damned to hell. The "parents"/antagonists are damn CRAZY! The father runs around in BDSM gear shooting the walls with his shotgun in hope of killing Roach, a child who runs inbetween the walls, while the mother is as over the top and insane shouting as she holds up a knife yelling, "Go to hell!"

So now Fool and Leroy are trapped in this house where it's literally built as if it were a prison. Locks everywhere with traps while being hunted down by a large hungry rottweiler. It's a crazy cat and mouse game that just puts you at the edge of your seat and has you cheering, afraid, and laughing your butt off. This is definitely a movie I would recommend and not have originally watched. So I guess I'm saying don't pass it down. Also, I found out a remake of this may be coming out. I'm not too sure how I feel about that as I feel this movie should be it. A remake would certainly not be able to recapture the weird charm of this entertaining flick. So yes, good fun weird film.

Oh, The Horror! #16: Let The Right One In

2009-01-05T16:06:00.005-05:00

I first heard about this Swedish vampire movie on a few message boards a few months ago. Every review and opinion I've read essentially praised it so I indeed was interested. Why wouldn't I be? I like vampires. But yeah, a week back my brother told me that he was planning on going to see "Let The Right One In" and I immediately took interest and told him I've been meaning to see it. So for my birthday (2 days ago) I decided we should see it the day after and was hoping to have a guy's night out with some of my best buds although most of them wasn't able to make it so it was just me, Berto, and Lebert "TeardropJones." Overall, the praises the movie was getting I would say is pretty much justified. The movie had a lot of heart to it as it's essential a story about alienation and a boy finding a connection with a girl who moves in next door who is revealed to be a vampire. The boy, Oskar, is constantly picked on at school by a boy and his crew and Eli, the vampire, gives Oskar confidence to finally stand up to him. Also, Eli basically becomes his best friend and his girlfriend. Seeing their relationship grow through each day is very interesting to watch despite Eli's thirst for blood which causes a big set of problems and events in their Sweden town which includes the death of a few townsmen and infecting someone else into becoming a vampire which later leads to a fantastic scene with cats. You'll have to see it for yourself to see why that scene was simply amazing.

I wish I could say more on the story but the story is very simple that saying much of anything else would surely spoil something and I wouldn't want to do that. It isn't like other vampire movies, it's really more about two outsiders befriending, accepting, and being there for each other. Although rather slow in the beginning, the story begins to really pick up when Eli's thirst really starts to come into the central plot. There were also some fantastic special effects. A few that took place in a hospital and one amazing one in the end when Oskar has his final confrontation with the bullies. I found it to be a really heart-ful ending and was beautifully shot. I can see a few film lovers buying the DVD just for those final shots of the confrontations with the bullies.

So yes, if you can definitely check out this movie. I looked up some stuff online and saw that it was previously a novel and there were a lot of themes that were omitted from the movie. And there's suppose to be an American version coming out which is supposedly suppose to be remade from thebook rather than the Swedish movie. We'll see how that comes out although my brother and I are a bit iffy about that.

I'll leave a final quote that Lebert said when we exited the theater that gave me a good chuckle, "Man, movies like this is what makes me think about being a vegetarian."

Oh, The Horror! #15: Serpent and the Rainbow

2009-01-03T12:40:00.000-05:00

Man oh man! Where the heck have I been to have never heard of this movie until last night? For a little while now I've had a bit of an interest in learning some stuff on Haitian folk lore. I feel that there are many types of stories that can be seen as pretty darn scary back in my parent's homeland and I'm always interested to hear a story from the country. So when my god brother told me about this movie, it taking place in Haiti, I was automatically intrigued. My brother, Berto, and I watched the movie and just had an absolute blast. You should have seen the way we were freaking out at a lot of the scenes, mostly because it seems to hit close to home with us. Let me tell you that Haitians are some of the most superstitious folks you'll ever meet and a lot of things about the supernatural is driven into our minds since being very young. Heck, I lived there for a short while too. So a lot of the things in the movie scared some bit of craps out of me watching, not in jump out of my seat thing, but more of a mentally fear thing. And I loved every moment of it.

Bill Pullman plays a doctor who goes to Haiti to find the reasons why a once buried man is now walking around again. Of course, he's a man of science but he also gets haunted by these strange and extremely freaky dreams and we are introduced to the villain of the story played by Zakes Mokae And let me say that I do not understand why this guy isn't in a top villains list. This guy played no games whatsoever and was damn terrifying as he led his group of Ton Ton Machutes, a special police force in Haiti who are known for being quite... well...unlikable. As the movie goes on, we are pulled into the world of voodoo and zombies. And the movie just gets freakier and freakier. I can definitely see this movie scary folks from even visiting the country. So much twists and turns, enough to keep you at the edge of your seat and frightened for the main character and his love interest. And that torture scene. Oh man! When they strapped Pullman's character on the torture seat, I said to my brother, "Oh no! Haitians DO NOT PLAY when it comes to torture." And man, was I right. Sheesh. Another thing I loved about this movie was it being shot on location and hearing the Haitian language being spoken throughout. Everything seemed very authentic and helped with the creepiness. Fantastic movie that I fully recommend for horror fans. Below is a trailer.

Oh, The Horror! #14 : I Am Legend

2009-01-02T23:16:00.004-05:00

What if you were the only man alive left in NYC?

I saw this movie when it came out and thought it was merely okay. I didn't enjoy the experience though due to annoying ass girls behind my friends and I who saw it fit to talk and give their own commentary throughout the whole movie. But anywho, that's besides the point...

I watched it again a few days ago this time with my baby sister and still can't seem to decide if I enjoyed it or not. I really loved the first hour of the movie with Will Smith doing his daily routines along with his partner-in-crime and best bud, Sam, his canine. He exercises and goes hunting for deers to eat in NYC. Oh, did I forget to mention that he's the only man alive in the city? He's walking around everyday, picking out movies to watch, and talking to mannequins. He also broadcasts on the radio a message out to any survivors out there. At home he's trying to find a cure for the disease that wiped out about 90% of people in the world with not much luck. One day on another hunting trip, something goes wrong where we are introduced to the Darkseekers, vampire-like creatures that only come out at dark in search of survivors to devour. The story really begins to pick up though is when Smith's character, Neville, captures a female Darkseeker to experiment, not knowing she was in fact the alpha female of her group. This leads to an intense rivalry between him and the alpha male of the group. And man, lemme say that it is intense and one of the most fun watching in the movie. Despite all that, the movie starts to take a bit of a downfall during the second half of the film. We find out that he just may not be the only man on Earth when he meets a woman and her son and a lot of the intrigue just seems to disappear from me. Also, a story of faith and God just appears out of nowhere. I didn't quite mind that part of the movie, bu I can understand how people may feel confused as to why it just appeared and seemed rather ham-fisted into the story.

The effects are alright, not great. I remember reading originally the Darkseekers were played completely by people until director, Francis Lawrence, decided to just turn them CGI. I think that was a bit of a mistake as they looked, well... very CGI. I believe that it took some edge and creepiness off of the Darkseekers themselves. Although once again the Alpha Male is just simply bad-ass.

Overall, I don't think I'd recommend this film fully. There's aspects I loved, especially the first half and I loved Smith in this movie. I absolutely loved his last scene in the film store. You really felt for him and understood his state of mind at that point of the movie. Man...

Oh, The Horror! #13: Sleepy Hollow

2009-01-02T23:02:00.001-05:00

Man, it's been darn long, hasn't it?!? Now that school is over just for a month, hopefully I can bring this back on track. I've missed doing this. But yes, without further ado... SLEEPY HOLLOW!

Another one of my absolute favorite movies and another directed by my favorite film maker, Tim Burton. I've seen this movie quite a lot of times. When I had gotten the VHS, I've watched it so many darn times and hardly ever missed when it came on TV. A few weeks ago was the first time I've seen it after maybe 2-3 years and I still have a great time watching it. The imagery, the characters, Johnny Depp as Crane, the music, special effects, everything is an absolute blast to watch. Watching this movie always made me wonder what happened to horror. Why don't we ever get more horror movies like this? Now its all slasher this, etc. How come we never get any real solid story-telling with supernatural forces scary the daylights out of us? I want to see more movies like this and really showcase just how great horror film is rather than what;s clouding people's mind of what horror is. I don't mind what people proclaim as "torture porn" or whatever, but it's not the only type of horror in the genre. C'mon, now!

But anywho, if you've never seen this movie, you just HAVE to. The direction is absolutely amazing with a story that never lets go of you. All the characters play wonderful parts and just fascinates you into this mystery of the Horse man. If you're a fan of the classic tale by Washington Irving, I think you'll have a blast watching this interpretation besides quite a few liberties being taken, such as Crane being a constable instead of a teacher, and although still a bit of a coward he has the brass balls to stand and fight against the Horseman himself! And c'mon, who doesn't love Christopher Walken who plays the Hessian, the man who ends up becoming the head chopper. Although we know who the killer is, there is a mystery conspiracy plot throughout the movie as we wonder just how people are connected in this strange town of Sleepy Hollow and just why the Horseman is going after certain folks and why he lets certain people live. The special effects are magnificient. It's not a man wearing a cloak over his shoulders, but an actually man... headless! And he see him chopping off people's necks and cutting a man in half. The effects are just simply amazing and adds to the creepiness and chills of the movie. And Danny Elfman's music... ah man is it ever so nice to hear him with Burton adding more creepiness to this film. And to top it off, you get a wonderful performance by Miranda Richardson who I have to say really steals the show along with horror alumnis Michael Gough and Christopher Lee with small parts.

There is one thing that I do find weird about this movie and that's the flashbacks and dreams we see of Crane's character. Those scenes I have to say are probably the most beautiful scenes in the movie, but I don't quite understand why they're in the movie. They seem to not play much of any roles besides to look awesome. Like the scene when his mother is dancing in the forest and begins to float and finding out that his mother is a witch and his father was actually a man of faith, a minister. In one specific dream, when his father walks past a young Crane, the man turns into the headless horseman. Huh?

Heh, but anyway. Fantastic movie. Definitely a top of Burton's best.

Sippin' Poet #6: The Drifted and Fallen

2008-12-20T01:07:00.003-05:00

You involve a gun
A bullet to my head
No darkness ever left
To a loser with no lead
A lover with no land
Without a moment's purpose
While my mind's a tangled circus

A falling pedal ripped away from time's time
And a dreamer's life is now gone inside
Because the life has come undone
Been years since we've won
A trophy for our times
Hardships tearing us apart
With pain of some sort
Angry tears to masquerade
Some grief, a wall of hurt
Crashing us like waves
Keys to a stone's heart
And my voice is now ignored

No, I am not ignored!
Oh, I hope you are annoyed!
Enter in to feel my hate
I'll be crushing out your air
Tell me now what's fair
Tell me now, my dear
Are we now what's fair?
Are we now, my dear?

...And it's gone
You're leaving me
It's all leaving me
Leaving me alone
So I guess that this is...

Sippin' Poet # 5: Agan

2008-12-17T10:47:00.002-05:00

There is no courage, there's no speak
But I have a duty inside of me
I've read you right but that was half
Where do I go from here?

Where do I go from here?
Should I just talk and stare?
Let the new go through fear?
Is there nothing inside in there?

There is a sign, maybe a reason
A much noted smile, must be a new season
Walking through streets and stairs to feed
Seats up in levels for a time to eat

Another losing speeding ball
How must I catch?
Another time, another fall
I'm on and latched

So where do I go from here?
What's the remark?
Is there nothing inside there?
Or should I just march?

Oh, The Horror! #12: Hellfire from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

2008-11-29T23:30:00.003-05:00

Goodness gracious, it's been so long, ay? I've seen quite a few flicks over my absence but due to them not being too fresh in my head, I don't think I really want to write about them. But I'll post this video from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. This movie was considered really dark for kids and seeing this video below, you can see why! This definitely deserves an "Oh, The Horror!" mention:

Sippin' Poet #4: Cassandra

2008-11-27T22:42:00.000-05:00

Feel my wraith as I drop you to a curse
Now your days are all much worse.
I felt your walls all around my root
Due to you, in your mouth I shoot.
You shall always be ignored
My once loved one I adored.
A mix of sorrow and upcoming destruction
And all you had to do was agree to my seduction.
Yes, my priestess, recite my prophet
T’was all a simple night for you to commit.
Intriguing really my power over you
Come closer to my root…
I promise, it’s just a little view.

Sippin' Poet #3: Dream vs #?

2008-11-27T22:06:00.001-05:00

I recite the kiss I give invisibility
My friend around in my story of lost hope.
A slight to major repression
Always wishing for some pieces of smiles to sow.
Wild and out and confused about
Here’s your entertainment: me still in doubt.
I dream of Dream, the long haired friend
Always there to put me asleep.
I’m obviously going crazy, but I’m feeling free
So I guess I’ll just continue to let me be me.
But no, that’s not entirely true
When the sun comes out I become quite blue
And that new smile later is in fact new
But once again, what is there to do?

The Crow = Me Update 2

2008-11-02T23:14:00.003-05:00

Well, Halloween was tons of fun, I had an absolute blast! Nearly everywhere I went, it was like I was a celebrity. I was being asked and pulled left and right to take pictures and I was darn looking it, lol. I scared a few people here and there, especially lil' kiddies. One kid even called me Satan. There was a whole family trick or treatin' wanting to get a picture with me and their lil boy dressed as Spider-Man kept his distance and was so frightened.

It came to a point when my friends and I tried to move but people kept holding me back and slowing my group down, I loved it, lol. Great time with my friends and there were some fantastic costumes all around. Of course quite a good number of Jokers, a lot of them very well done. I can't wait for next year. Hopefully I can get more pics from my friends up asap.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Story Mode Trailer

2008-10-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

This looks so darn awesome!

Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans Trailer

2008-10-26T14:26:00.002-04:00

I loved the first movie, second one was decent. This one looks like it'll be it's best in the franchise! And great to see Raze in this, and love to see Lucian as the lead. He was the best thing in the first movie.

Crow = Me Update

2008-10-24T14:18:00.003-04:00

Well, as ya'll know, I am darn excited for Halloween and I'm going to be the Crow. I wrote about it here.

Just thought I should post pics of the make-up progress as I decided to test it out today that way in case I try it the day off and it sucks. But yeah, here is he... the Crow I'll be...

New Watchmen Trailer and Poster

2008-10-23T08:04:00.004-04:00

I just love the way the music ends with the trailers of this movie. The dying sounds of the song, just amazing. But yes...

Your Top Ten X-Men

2008-10-16T10:52:00.005-04:00

Over at the Outhouse, a forum I tend to teleport to, Bubbakanoosh started a thread where you post your top 10 X-characters and he'll tally them up to make a list of from least popular to most. Whether its members from X-men, X-Factor, New Mutants, Excaliber or whatever. Any incarnation is allowed.

Here's the thread here. Also, post your top 10 and I'll just send the list over to him. This should be fun. I'm anxious to see how this goes.

Poetic Influence (Music)

2008-10-16T06:16:00.006-04:00

Like a lot of folks with a soul, I am grooved by music. Next to writing, music has often been a way of therapy for me as a way of me accepting myself and as a way to calm my bones when shattering. More than most types of music I'm big on rock. In high school I used to be given a weird eye for being at first one of the VERY few black guys into rock music. Actually, I think I stood out more for being that guy and many people came to me if they got interested in the genre. I was even in an extremely short lived rock band. But yes, as the years gone by I've fallen in love with many different artists, even dwelling a little out of rock at times. I'm big on No Doubt and love that they like to branch off to different types of music despite a lot of people's disdain for it. I love reggae, LOOOVE Bob Marley, you should see my ipod. Been rocking to Aaliyah lately and the Sweeney Todd soundtrack and Smashing Pumpkins along with rediscovering my love for The Servants and the magnificent Roots Manuva.

Now for this entry I just wanted to present a few musicians that influence me as a writer, mostly poetic-wise. The three I'm specifically talking of here below are Roots Manuva, a British rapper who's my favorite rapper by far; Blindside, a Swedish rock band with such uplifting music and lyrics; and Gavin Rossdale, former frontman of Bush and Institute and a musician who I've loved for years and can't seem to get enough of dispite noticing a lot of people look down on him.

But anywho, those artist really inspire me when I want to put something creative down on paper. Now, I myself am not a rapper although I have done a few songs in high school and have performed them live, especially singing with other rappers, most of the time with one of my best friends, Teardrop Jones. A month or so ago Jones sent me a beat and told me to write to it and wrote a rhyme that I'm actually rather proud of. Throughout writing it, I thought of the way Roots Manuva would write. He definitely doesn't fit the norm of mainstream rap and he really stands out for me. His lyrics are very haunting and imaginative and very funky and it goes well with his moody atmospheric music. Blindside's Christian Lindskog probably writes my favorite type of lyrics that I myself love to analyze. Each line of lyric just have this wonderful use of imagery that I try to emulate sometimes in my writing but can never seem to accomplish. And many times listening to the lyrics and music is of me trying to rediscover who I am and just what makes me happy. I get a real sense of just spiritual and inner bliss when I listen to Blindside. You should have seen me at their concert last year, October 13! I'll never forget. I even snuck backstage to meet the band and they were all so damn awesome. I ended up stealing a drumstick from upstage which the drummer, Marcus Dahlstrom, ended up joking about with me later that night when I bumped into him. And dear ol' Rossdale! Probably my favorite living rock star today. His music with Bush has always been very influential to me and I always feel that I can just have a strength to be myself listening to him. I can't really seem to put into words my adoration for this guy's music, it just is.

But yes, below are videos from each artist with lyrics accompanying them (excluding Manuva, darn lyric for this song is hard to find!). The Blindside and Rossdale videos aren't actually videos as they're just to showcase the music. All of them are currently my favorite tracks from each artist. Blindside's City Lights is in The Great Depression album (favorite song and album by them), Let The Spirit is from Roots Manuva's latest Silme & Reason, and Rossdale's Trouble I'm In is a haunting duet with Garbage's Shirley Manson from his recent album Wanderlust. They may not be their very best in their catalogue, but these are my current favorites of theirs.

City Lights by Blindside

I took a walk down the 4th avenue when i saw it
This red line in the grey concrete
Leading somewhere out of sight
Something compelled me to stop
So I jumped over the fence and
Started following what appeared to be
The trail of a leaking tin can
Leading away from the light

Is this what needs to be done
Blacklight shining in the dark
Brings out the brightness more than in the sun

Trade love for the city lights
Tonight you chose me to stay
Trade light for the city love
Tonight you chose me to stay

So what if i continue this walk
The red line is taking me down
Trashcan lonely street, yeah
The streets have their names but how come this people doesn't love just for fun
I'm starting to smell something beautiful
Though these streets are rotten

And now is this what needs to be done
Blacklight shining in the dark
Brings out the brightness more than in the sun

Trade love for the city lights
Tonight you chose me to stay
Trade light for the city love
Tonight you chose me to stay

Let The Spirit by Roots Manuva (I find it very funny that later in the video he talks about how he doesn't know what the f**k the song even means)

Trouble I'm In by Gavin Rossdale featuring Shirley Manson

Who do you lie between
Who has your love
You give it like poppy seed
You flow in the blood

I don't wanna fight no more
I don't want to see you crying
I don't want an all out war
You got soul that's dying again and again
You gotta let me in
You gotta let me in
She's under my skin
She's under my skin

Not looking for a scientist
I don't want a lift
Not looking for a doctor
To get me fixed

I don't wanna fight no more
I don't want to see you crying
I don't want an all out war
You got soul that's dying again and again
You gotta let me in
You gotta let me in
She's under my skin
She's under my skin
All the trouble I'm in (x4)

All eyes are watching me
I'm a stranger in this town
I must have lost my way
Since I took a turn awhile ago
These streets I do not know

Who do you lie between
Who has your love
I don't wanna fight no more
I don't want to see you crying
I don't want an all out war
You gotta let me in
You gotta let me in
She's under my skin
She's under my skin
All the trouble I'm in (x4)

All the trouble I'm in (x2)

Hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think?