From Zombos' Closet comes a classy and trashy collection of popular culture artifacts for those who love the terrors and treats found in movies, books, and Halloween.
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...Veronique Chevalier of Polka Haunt Us, haunts us with her Halloween...
Why is Halloween important to you?
Besides the opportunity to masquerade as a different character than the person I am in daily life, I love Halloween because it's a socially-acceptable way to celebrate our "Shadow Selves"- those dark portions of the collective consciousness that we try to keep at bay most of the time.
Because our society is so "Darkness Phobic" for want of a better term, Halloween is a welcome safety valve for many people to poke fun at, and with, the things that most folks would rather not have to address directly. And of course, it gives humans a ritual focal point for harvest season. Even though we are no longer an agrarian-based culture, we still seem to have a collective need to celebrate the change of seasons.
Describe your ideal Halloween.
I love performing at Halloween time as my “Hellga The Devil's Beer Maid” character, because it's one of the rare occasions when I get a chance to interact with people of all ages, be it private parties, Harvest Festivals, Halloween Carnivals, etc. Last year I performed at an all-ages punk show, and the kids accepted me as one of their own!
As someone who didn't replicate, I am saddened that our society is so compartmentalized- families with kids interact only with other families and their offspring; and the singles mingle with others in similar situations, and the old folks are all warehoused together, off to the side. Dressing up in costume removes some of the barriers that separate us during the rest of the year.
I’ve loved monsters and the macabre and summer turning into autumn since I was a kid. And candy! Most people will say their favorite season is fall. I have lots of good memories associated with those things. It’s a time when I can really indulge my love of horror, although truthfully I do that all year long. Still, it’s fun to take an entire month and watch and read nothing but. And over the years Halloween has really become a huge money-making industry with decorations and costumes being more and more prominent, which I dig. I think it’s the mainstreaming of the early 1980s Goth-punk subculture, melding that with the kid-friendly environment of Halloween. Thank Tim Burton, I guess.
Describe your ideal Halloween.
Throwing a big Halloween party! My girlfriend and I did this a couple years ago, but we had it a week before, so it didn’t conflict with other parties—that’s always a problem. We also didn’t insist that people dress up because honestly, some people don’t like to do that. We made tons of food, got lots of booze, and decorated her apartment like crazy. It took us nearly a week to get it all ready! We had three or four TVs going with horror movies on—Hammer Draculas, Universals, Fulci, Price/Poe—and mix CDs filled with horror movie soundtracks and artists like the Misfits, the Cramps, Roky Erickson, Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Black Sabbath, etc. It was a huge success but we haven’t been able to recreate it since.
What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?
I love monsters toys and whatnot and decorating with Halloween tchochkes all year ’round. I’m amazed at what a place like Target has for Halloween, so much fun monstrous stuff you can use anytime. Recently on eBay I found some kids’ monster books that I had when I was young; those bring back fun memories for me. And I love those skeleton candies that come in a little plastic coffin.
When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?
My elementary school would have a Halloween fair in the gymnasium, complete with a haunted house and bobbing for apples and all that stuff. I can remember the cool fall night, walking over to the school in a costume—I believe a Ben Cooper Sleestak—and then winning some kind of Halloween toy. Probably came home and watched the Charlie Brown Halloween special afterwards! I was around 6 or 7 and knew about Halloween of course, but I think that was what made me a lifelong fan.
What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?
Lately I've been waking up Where I am, I cannot tell It seldom looks like paradise And it usually feels like hell (from Lately by John Frazee)
Zombos Says: Very Good
I've been mostly disappointed with the spate of small press and digital press horror books and comics pouring out of late, especially those solicited to me. Either the writing is mediocre or structurally bad, or the comic art is so attrocious it soils the story--you know, like spilling a bowl of soggy bran flakes and milk on a table: a mess that not only looks terrible but becomes worse the more you look at it as you wipe it up.
Then I go and succumb to another request. Perhaps, deep down, I'm hoping to find a diamond in the coal pile. My stone wall of decisiveness cracks and I agree to review another book or comic, dreading having to say it's not what it should or could be in case it turns out to be not what it could or should have been--in my opinion--so don't bum-rush me with invectives about that: all reviewers have critical opinions.
Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine is not quite a diamond, but it shines almost as much with its stories, poems, and art. It's edited by Jeani Rector and anthologizes submissions to her Horror Zine website. Her impressive selection of stories, finely printed by Bear Manor Media, are what I hope for when reading an anthology, and provide a variety of lengths and styles and glimpses into the ether between terror and the unknown. Paragraphs, poems, and graphics read shoulder to shoulder instead of poking you in the eyes with shoddy typesetting or a high school sense of layout. I'll just mention a few of my favorites, but this anthology is full of high caliber work.
Terrence Faherty's Uncanny hints at an older style of foreboding, one akin to an Arthur Machen story where spirits best left unseen refuse to hide. Or is it the main character's unhappiness about being forced to take an Alaskan holiday that's causing some fellow passengers on the cruise to vanish? Mean spiritedness or a mean spirit at play? Faherty does his best to leave you guessing.
Were I forced to confess to my absolute favorite story in the anthology, it would have to be Christopher Fowler's The Threads, in which an unhappy couple, the Markhams, taking holiday in Africa, hope to keep their marriage from completely unraveling--she hopes, anyway. Unfortunately for Mrs. Markham, Mr. Markham begins to unravel after he insists on stealing a small carpet from an odd little shop. The desperation from being in dire need in a foreign land, where aid is not forthcoming, creates a level of tension in this story that energizes the macabre situation the couple finds themselves even more.
A Bad Day is had by Melanie and the robber who shot her in Larry Green's quick and tidy story of a deadly convenience store robbery, but it turns out to be very convenient for Melanie in the end. In the same vein, Soul Money by Terry Grimwood is a quick journey into and out of evil, only the lucky wallet Nick finds turns out to have a really big and nasty owner who insists on being paid every last cent. It's a stretch that, nearly ludicrous in it's idea, still manages a wicked-wild sense of comeuppance scariness, the kind often seen in anthology television shows like Tales From the Darkside.
The poems, including those from Joe R. Lansdale, Peter Steele, and Alexandra Seidel, to name a few contributors, either ryhme or don't, and set the odd tone, the out of place, and a conjuration of lightness and heaviness in lines describing twisted thoughts, weird imagery, and unhealthy situations. The artists are just as disturbing (or is it disturbed?): I'll leave you with this happy couple photographed by Beth Robinson. She must have taken this right after they read Twice the Terror.
Acourtesy copy of Twice the Terror: The Horror Zine was provided for this review by Jeani Rector.
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...with Paul Castiglia of Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies ...
Why is Halloween important to you?
“Important” is too strong a word for me to use in this case. My relationship with Halloween is one of “pure fun.” Specifically for me it’s become a time to revisit some old-school horror flicks (the more black & white the better). I’m not a big costume guy – used to do that more when I was younger. And I’m on a diet so I’m trying to limit my candy consumption!
But there is one thing that has become a Halloween tradition for me: I hold an annual Halloween movie night at my office. I try to keep things on the light side with classic horror films and horror-comedies, or films that fall into the PG realm without graphic content (whether it’s classic TV movies like “The Night Stalker” or recent animated hits like “Monsters vs. Aliens”).
Describe your ideal Halloween.
I think I just did – as long as I can watch some fun spooky movies I’m set!
What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?
I love movie posters and lobby cards, old movie magazines, trading cards, comic books, books about old movies and the films themselves (when I was a kid in the 1970s that meant Super 8 digest versions of the classics; as an adult it’s the entire films on DVD). Not that I actively collect any of the above with the exception of the movies and books about them. But from time-to-time if I run across an interesting item I pick it up.
When was your very first Halloween, the one whereyou really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?
I can’t recall the year but it had to the early 1970s. I had a Batman costume, but it wasn’t one of the cheesy vinyl costumes with the plastic masks – this was a cloth costume with a cloth cape and I believe it may have had a cloth pull-over cowl as well. I’m guessing this was from Sears or some other department store. Within a year or two of that Halloween, my sister and I made a Spider-Man Costume – she sewed it and I used permanent marker to draw all the webbing onto it! It was cool because it had a pull-over mask that fully covered my head and I insisted that we use gauze for the eyes so they could be white (enabling me to still see-through the mask).
What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?
Q: If you could go back in time and watch any movie you wanted in a theater for Halloween, what would it be?
A: My answer would have to be the classic William Castle-directed Vincent Price starrer “The Tingler” – complete with the rigged seats!
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...with Musing the Trauma of Blog of a Dead Dreamer shares a blast of October dreams...
Why is Halloween important to you?
Halloween is the greatest time of the year, by far. You can have your Christmas and all the others. Sure, they are nice, but for me, Halloween is my Christmas. It has been for a very long time. Each year friends can look forward to my patented 'trick or treat' bags full of all kinds of goodies and/or gifts. They may or may not get anything for Christmas, but at Halloween, it's a guarantee that I will do my best to get everyone into the spirit.
Halloween is a great time where everyone just let's go and becomes more relaxed. It doesn't contain the formalities and etiquette of other holidays so there is a more relaxed air and no one has to put on any pretenses or be on their best behavior. It's a time for people to gather and just have some fun and it doesn't even have to cost you a dime. It's a time of year that everyone, at least for one night, is especially friendly and fun, and what can be better than that?
Describe your ideal Halloween.
My ideal Halloween would certainly be spending that particular night in a documented haunted site. Something along the lines of heading to a spot with Zack and Aaron and the crew of 'Ghost Adventures'. Maybe somewhere like Savannah Georgia or a scary little spot in England. Something definitely reported to be haunted, though, and with a team that has the equipment to do readings and video etc. That would be awesome. It used to be seeing Gwar live on Halloween but that got to happen. Gwar, Halloween, and being covered in fake blood from the band is a pretty good way to go on that night,too.
What Halloween collectibles do you cherish, or hate, or both?
As far as Halloween collectibles, I am in love with Spooky Town. I absolutely love everything about them. The artwork, the detail, the painting, the themes, the figures and sheer mass of variety. I could not believe that someone had finally taken the old, ceramic, classic Christmas Village theme decorations and turned it up a notch for Halloween. They are awesome and every year I look forward to adding to Spooky Town and putting it out. This is also the time of year I put out my collection of Todd Mcfarlane's Twisted X-mas.Those never cease to get a comment by anyone who has never seen them before.
When was your very first Halloween, the one where you really knew it was Halloween, and how was it?
I don't recall how old I was, maybe 6 or 7. this was the first time that I knew something special was going on for this holiday, so it must have been about 1977/78 or so. My brother and his wife went through a great deal of trouble to get together one very scary costume for me. It was a hand sewn Creature From the Black Lagoon costume and it was pretty cool. It probably could have been sold in any store for quite a bit, his wife was quite the seamstress. they knew loved monster because while most kids lugged around a teddy bear, I never went anywhere without my Godzilla.
What made it stand out, though, was that people were out in full force. It seemed to me at such a young age, that it was thousands of people and kids in costumes in my neighborhood. It was a neighborhood of row houses so it was an excellent spot for trick or treating. This was my first scare by someone in a costume, a very elaborate Dracula costume. I was frozen in my tracks with fear but couldn't take my eyes off of him. This is when I knew what Halloween was about.
What's the one Halloween question you want to be asked and what's your answer?
A Halloween question I would like to be asked, hmmm?
I'm not sure about that one, but one thing I would love to know from others around the country is if Halloween is still going strong in their part of the world?
It seemed to me not as many kids were out and about, so I was stunned to learn that Halloween is actually the 2nd biggest holiday of the year. Maybe people just do more for the holiday in a controlled environment these days, such as parties, etc., and not so much with the trick or treating outdoors.
I guess my question would be, would you be upset if Halloween went the way of the dinosaur? My answer would be absolutely, yes. I would probably stop celebrating any holiday at all if that happened.
Here's a little something I made just for fun about a year ago, and thanks again!
I once wanted a TV ministry. Now all I want is health insurance. (Cotton Marcus in The Last Exorcism)
Religious motifs in horror movies have been explored as far back as the 1920 movie, The Golem, the story of a rabbi using sorcery to bring a giant clay man to life. Usually what's involved are questions of faith (either too much or too little), questions of spiritual morality (again, either too much or not enough), and nasty demons chewing on souls and scenery with equal zeal (you can never have too much of that).
Often there are also important tests of faith when vampires--remember Fright Night's vampire and cross confrontation?--Satan, assorted minions of Satan, and especially Uwe Boll are involved. Strong characters--or at least heavily stereotypical ones--are essential for selling all that flashy Hell and licking flames of damnation mumbo-jumbo convincingly enough to seal the deal, too.
Minister Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) does the mumbo-jumbo in The Last Exorcism "like nobody's business" as his wife would say, only he doesn't have faith in what he does. Coming from a family lineage of exorcists--they even have an old Latin guidebook with illustrations to identify those pesky minions of Hell--he's the last exorcist, but only in showmanship, not spirit. He knows it's simple quackery, on a par with snake oil, sold with hidden string pulling and MP3 recording playing. He explains his showy casting out of demons "gets all the press because they got the movie" and okay, maybe it does help those who believe in the devil's Hellfire of possession; but for him it's another payday after an easy salvation sale is made.
We know how he feels about this because he's doing a documentary to reveal the truth and, like the 2-person film crew in tow, we follow him as he does his knee-slapping sermons, illustrates the Prince of Lies' trickery with card tricks, and takes on a dare by preaching a Banana Bread sermon. He can summon a sparkle of brimstone between his fingertips with a snap and an Amen as easily as he dons his linen suit to reveal how he fakes an exorcism at the Sweetzer farm in Baton Rouge. After cattle killings have convinced Mr. Sweetzer the Devil's on the hoof and soul-snatching his daughter, Marcus answers the call for Nell's salvation. It's really another dare because to Marcus it's all so easy to do.
Nell (Ashley Bell) is all milk and honey and innocence. She draws beautiful pictures and hangs them on her wall. Mr. Sweetzer (Louis Herthem) is a devout, devil-fearing father who home-schools his daughter and fears for her immortal soul because she's possessed and butchering the cattle. Nell's exorcism is conducted in-between Marcus' revelations of the gimmicks he employs. The father is satisfied the demon has been expulsed and Marcus collects his pay.
When Nell shows up later at the hotel room where Marcus is staying, unresponsive and in her pajamas, the minister is unsure and no longer in control, two feelings he doesn't have much experience with. Returning to the Sweetzer farm, the test of faith for Marcus, the unintended revelation of another truth for his documentary, and those creepy new pictures that Nell drew and hung on her bedroom wall--pictures of Marcus and the camera crew in pieces--call for more involvement beyond what he had in mind, and another exorcism: this time a real one.
Or so it would seem. The Prince of Lies is either dishing it out hot and heavy, or someone else is putting on a better show. Marcus is eager to dig deeper, but his film crew is getting the willies. And for good reason: The Last Exorcist plays unfair with its handheld camera point of view style made famous (or perhaps I should say infamous) with Blair Witch. Like the unexpected shift in point of view seen in The Last Broadcast, Daniel Stamm directs in pseudo-documentary style, then ignores it by using more refined setups and music, two things you normally don't see in pseudo-documentary style because they confuse the effect. He even let's Nell hold the camera for a while: a surprisingly effective twist of possession, about her possession. The ending is surprisingly audacious also, but if you pay close attention earlier in the movie, not completely unexpected.
The Last Exorcism is a clever, well-acted, oddly directed, and a I-can't-believe-you-actually-did-that-ending scary movie. You won't see copious pea-soup vomiting, bed levitations, or 360 degree head turns, but what you do see is damn good terror. I'll stake my soul on that.
John Erick Dowdle (Quarantine) locks us in a stranded elevator with five strangers and the Prince of Darkness in Devil, a tidy traditional horror movie that works well by balancing its terror with its Ten Little Indians' mystery: Who are these five people? Is one of them the Devil? Why are they being tormented?
It is a minimal premise delivered with a 1970s tempo and plotline, propelled less by gory acrobatics and more by the increasing antagonisms within the tight space as Ramirez (Jacob Vargus), a religious and superstitious security guard, whose mother told him stories of how the Devil would appear unexpectedly in odd places to claim souls, is the first one to recognize what's happening.
Brian Nelson's (30 Days of Night) screenplay, based on a story by M. Night Shyamalan, evenly mixes the interplay across the helpless people inside the elevator with the equally helpless rescuers outside, led by Detective Bowden (Chris Messina). Dowdle and Nelson underplay the drama to keep Devil from becoming pretentiously silly and preachy, dropping the pedantic sledgehammer Shyamalan has been pounding us with in his more recent efforts.
Ben (Bokeem Woodbine), Tony (Logan Marshall-Green), Sarah (Bojana Novakovic), Jane (Jenny O'Hara), and Vincent (Geoffrey Arend) are trapped between floors when Elevator 6 goes into inspection mode. The inocuous muzak warms tempers and attitudes as time passes while the engineer finds out why. Vince, the swarmy mattress salesman tries to convince Sarah she needs a good night's sleep on a new mattress. Ben, the temporary security guard, doesn't like to be confined: as kids, his brother locked him in a trunk for hours. Jane, the irritating woman with a can of mace from the 1980s, jangles nerves. Increasing everyone's frustration is the one-way communication with the outside world: they can hear the security guards but the guards can only see them, and the camera in the elevator is not very good for reading lips.
Ramirez's opening narration explains what to look for when the Devil comes calling, and when a suicide leads the police to 333 Locust Street, he's the only one--he even makes sure he's right by dropping a slice of toast with jelly to see how it lands--who knows it won't end well. Detective Bowden, who shares an important connection, unknowingly, with one of the five stranded passengers, identifies each person, giving us clues as to why they're in their current predicament, and alternate reasons for what's happening; but the alternatives are for Bowden to investigate, not us: the Devil is in the details and remains so as he takes souls, one by one, when the lights go out.
I hope the heavy marketing campaign that pegged Devil as an M. Night Shyamalan movie does not deter its potential audience: given his recent movies, it might. Devil is a thoughtful, low-throttle horror that easily avoids inciting snide remarks about going-down in an elevator.
Zombos Says: Fair (but only because I like Milla Javovich)
Watching the lissom Alice (Milla Jovovich) adroitly manhandle automatic weapons only goes so far to entertain in this unending series of flying bullets, flying kickassery, and flailing plotlines, padded with relentless undead and increasingly inane T-Virus mutations. Paul W. S. Anderson's unending slow-motion, freeze-frame interruptions to the CGI action are almost as annoying as the numb-thumping soundtrack that rocks on, oblivious to its purpose. Resident Evil: Afterlife is as glossy as a MySpace page and as dramatically rendered.
An NRA supporter's dream--mine, too-- of seeing an army of tightly-clad Alice clones rapid-firing their way through the evil minions of the Umbrella Corporation, and countless slobbering undead, lasts only as long as the CGI budget allows. After that it's up to the original Alice to fly around in her two-seater plane looking for survivors.
An impossible crash landing on the roof of a maximum security prison introduces a few more characters for us to play with. Oh, sorry, this isn't the interactive game, just the uninvolving movie: I keep forgetting. There is the sports star (Boris Kodjoe), the expendables for the monster attack scenes, the feisty and determined Claire (Ali Larter), the nasty producer who you know is going to screw everyone because he just wants to go home (Kim Coates), and the mysterious military guy they've locked up (Wentworth Miller).
With that amazing kind of luck that only happens in bad scripts and Resident Evil movies, an arsenal of heavy-duty firepower has been left behind by the army, but access to it is submerged under the water that's now flooding the lower levels of the prison. I won't spoil your fun--this movie does its best to do that already--but my favorite slacker hack of bad scripting, the air vent big enough to crawl or drive through, comes to the rescue as T-Virus nasties begin piling up.
The biggest nasty wears a sack over his head and wields a meat tenderizer and axe combo that is as big as that air vent I mentioned. No explanation is given--and I suppose none is really expected at this point--for this nine-foot mutant showing up at the prison gates. He winds up in the shower with Alice and Claire (but not like that). Anderson's action-interruptus slow-motion kills the excitement anyway.
The Umbrella Corporation's evil mastermind (Shawn Roberts)--he wears black and tauntingly slicks his hair back--shows up for the finale. He's ingested some T-Virus himself and tries to put the bite on Alice. More action-interruptus ensues.
You may have noticed I haven't mentioned the 3D. That's because there is nothing to say about it. Its use in this movie is as pointless as everything else.
Ancient Romans co-mingle with ancient vampire slaves in this sword, sandal, and fang tragedy from the pen of Stuart C. Paul and the pencil of Christian Duce. The first issue hints at political intrigue and conspiracy as the Ides of March (the 15th of the month) approaches, placing this period drama in 44BC, when Caesar ruled Rome as a dictator with imperium over the Empire, which led to his assassination by Marcus Junius Brutus.
Taking its cue from Shakespeare's classic play Julius Caesar, and perhaps its earthiness from television's classy Rome, Ides of Blood portrays a Roman Empire literally sustained by the blood of its people. After Caesar conquers the Transylvanian clime of Dacia, vampiric slaves serve the rich, the powerful, and the plebian citizenry. Held captive by silver chains and their own descent into subservience, the vampires provide servility, commodity, and satisfaction for baser needs to those who can afford and desire them.
Valens, vampire and former slave, has ascended to become a Praetorian Guard and a presence in Caesar's eye. He is tasked with finding the killer known as Pluto's Kiss, who is murdering the rich and powerful. Walking both worlds of light and shadow, Valens' ambition is at odds with his past and potential future.
Duce's heavy black lines are suffused with red hightlights (Carlos Badilla is the colorist), making this Rome darker and more sinister in look as well as in spirit. Valens leads us through Fang's Alley Brothels and the dirty streets of the city to find the killer. Tracking down a lead using the senate-enforced branding all vampires must submit to--a unique idea for identifying a vampire from their bite--Valens heads to Danube's Delight to find Ione of the Drodescu, a barbarianess with no patience for his questions, but with ties to a radical group known as the Vrykolaka Res Publica.
Ides of Blood is an intriguing variation on the vampire theme. With a hint of the Machiavellian machinations of Twilight's Volturi, and the positioning of vampires as common slaves ingratiating themselves into the cultural fabric, Paul and Duce appear to have side-stepped the current genre debate over sadistic vampires driven by bloodlust being more proper than coutured vampires driven by romance and familial obligation. Paul's vampires are slaves who yearn for freedom, and Valens' lust is steered more towards growing the modest grapes on his vine and sleeping with Caesar's niece, while his ambition is to rise in power and acceptance.
These three goals--wine, sex, and power-- defined ancient Rome quite well.
What goes into making a horror movie freak? A modicum of passion for the genre, for sure, and certainly an appreciative knowledge of old and new fright flix. Don Sumner brings both together in his easy-reading and highly informative Horror Movie Freak.
I'm ocasionally asked why I've never written a horror movie book: my ready answer is "the shelves are chock full of tomes both wonderful and mediocre. What more can be said?" Sumner does something wonderful by not offering more to be said, but making sure what needs to be said is concisely and clearly done. His simple premise is that if you want to be a real horror movie fan, you can't hide behind a single genre, evade a decade or two, nor shriek away from the moldy oldies. You don't need to like everything, just make sure you know what you're talking about before you start pissing on Dracula's cape or tugging Freddy's sweater. The style is brisk, light, and appetite-wetting for newbies, while reassuring and comprehensive enough for seasoned fans to appreciate as a handy reference.
The perfunctory "why we love horror movies" section is one I usually speed through (really, why do you love horror movies? is a more important discussion), but one paragraph stands out and could easily be the basis for yet another book:
There are many ingredients to an effective and enjoyable horror stew: storyline, special effects, script, and scenery, but one of the most important is the star. Not the actors and actresses in the film, but the real stars--the heroes, villains, ghosts, and monsters.
I'll go a step further and say this is the most important ingredient. Sumner's assessment points out the major problem with today's remakes and reimagines and reboots: the real stars are missing. We get cardboard standees of monsters instead of the memorable performances that were so monstrously frightening and endearing in the first place. I love horror movies not so much because of the scares but because of who is scaring me.
The who and what of horror is covered all the way from the silents, the Universal Horror Golden Age, Hammer's bloody good reign of terror, and up to the chapter titled Remake Nation. Other chapters break down the major areas of terror onscreen: aberrations of nature, aliens, foreign horror, homicidal slashers, psychotics, supernatural, vampires, zombies, and ghost stories. Each movie receives a page or two of highlight coverage, with enough posters and photos to appropriately balance the visual dance between text and eye-candy, and it's a thorough selection of cinematic creeps to fill up a fan's must-see movie list.
Anyone still looking for a good movie to watch on Halloween will find ample choices in Sumner's Ten Days to Halloween. Each one is a worthy recommendation, but I'll second Darkness Falls. How can you pass up a murdering tooth fairy swooping in when the lights go out, especially on Halloween night?
Horror Movie Freak is that rare book that will spend as much time in your hands as it does on your shelf. After you read it, you will be a walking arsenal of lethal horror movie knowledge, ready to fend off anyone dumb enough to try and knock the Fedora off of Freddy's head.
Radical Publishing collects the three-issue comic series of the FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, based on the spoof organization's website. The artwork is gorgeous, the story tried and true, but the logic of the premise escapes me. Why would vampires pollute their preferred food source by turning people into zombies? It does not make longterm practical sense for their survival.
David Hine fortifies the FVZA idea with enough pseudo-historical context and political name-dropping to flesh out the agency's growth, spanning back to the days of the Wild West. Briefly disbanding after vampire and zombie activity seemed to stop, Dr. Hugo Pecos, the pragmatic and unemotional leader of the agency, is given the go ahead to start it up again when a new zombie virus, released by a scheming vampire, breaks out.
Given the numerous "agencies" dealing with supernatural or fantastic events that are now policing the horror, sci fi, and fantasty mediums, it would be easy to dismiss the FVZA as another would-have, could-have plotline, but Hine keeps it involving by focusing on Dr. Pecos' little emotional armor chinks, his incessant training of his niece and nephew after their parents are killed, and a well-constructed narrative that ties it all together through the people it involves.
Landra and Vidal are tutored in fighting techniques and the history of the agency, a lengthy preamble that's made visually engrossing by Roy Allan Martinez and Wayne Nichols as it moves from the Copper Creek Siege of 1885, through a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, and ends with the shutdown of the agency in 1975. The pencil art is painted by Kinsun Loh and Jerry Choo, lending a near irredescent quality across the colors, enriching the somber mood with a darker tone while giving expressive highlights to the vampire and zombie action.
Hine uses a neat dramatic wrapper to begin and end the series. In the opening Dr. Pecos is about to be shot dead by Landra. The events leading up to this point are illustrated across the three issues, finally bringing us back to Landra and Dr. Pecos, and the gun she's pointing at him ready to fire. A childhood story Dr. Pecos would tell her at bedtime, Kiss Me Dead, provides the effective--and I would add noirish in its importance--sad but necessary denouement.
The vampires in FVZA: Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency are vicious, ugly, and hungry. The zombies are victims, but still hungry. The agency and its people are also hungry, but their hunger is more personal and harder to satisfy.
Let me assure you, my friends, this is a thriller! (host Boris Karloff)
The first horror-tinged episode in the television series Thriller is The Purple Room, written and directed by Douglas Heyes. It first aired a little ahead of Halloween on October 25th. It also scared the Dickens out of me and many other viewers, a foreshadowing that Thriller would become one of the best horror anthology series--Stephen King in his Danse Macabre considers it the best--done for the small screen.
Have you any idea what it takes to scare you or me in-between commercial interruptions (when the series originally aired)? The producers and talent behind Thriller assuredly did, once they moved away from the crime story episodes and allowed Boris Karloff, the epitome of the horror mood, to introduce his kind of story. Recently released in a complete 14 disc DVD set that includes all 67 episodes remastered, with commentary and additional features added, Thriller can be savored like a fine, tingly-tart wine: take a sip from Robert Bloch's Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper; swish around a little of Robert E. Howard's Pigeons From Hell; then gulp down Donald S. Sanford's The Incredible Dr. Markesan. If your head should get a little fuzzy, go lie down in The Purple Room.
Duncan Corey (Rip Torn) inherits a Baton Rouge Victorian mansion, complete with threadbare carpets, dreary drapes, and tragic ghost story. The will stipulates he spend one year living in the house before he rightfully owns it; that is, one year after one mandatory night spent in the desolate house, which Norman Bates recently vacated (horror fans will immediately recognize it as the Bates Mansion from Psycho). Duncan smugly agrees, knowing a land developer will pay handsomely for the property. His cousins, Oliver (Richard Anderson) and Rachel (Patricia Barry), drive him to the mansion and make sure he's made as uncomfortable as possible by telling him all the sordid details of the death and madness that took place in the purple room. Hint: they will inherit the property if he doesn't.
With no electricity, candle-light and noir shadows make the atmosphere dramatically gloomy. Duncan tells his cousins he expects them to try and scare him. He warns them he's armed and shows his handgun. He even bangs the walls looking for the secret passages they might use to skulk around in. When they drink liquor from a decantor in the purple room, he exchanges drinks in case they try to drug him. After Oliver and Rachel leave, creepy sounds of doors opening, chains rattling, and things walking around--best left unseen--begin, causing Duncan to joke how amateurish their attempt to frighten him is. But are his cousins doing it? Duncan holds our attention as he alternates between cockiness and uncertainty, making us wonder if it's real or fake, until he walks into one of those best left unseen situations.
The intense black and white chiaroscuro and Boris Karloff's signature presence make this episode a thriller best left seen.
Five questions asked over a glowing Jack o'Lantern, under an Autumn moon obscured by passing clouds...in between mouthfuls of candy corn...Veronique Chevalier of Polka Haunt Us, haunts us with her Halloween...
