The Graves
DVD
DIRECTOR: Brian Pulido
STARRING: Clare Grant, Jillian Murray, Bill Moseley, Tony Todd, Amanda Wyss
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: March 23, 2010

For four straight years now, After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For has been unleashed. Eight original horror films to quench your thirst for blood and gore and screams galore. Last year I was able to check out and review their third collection of horrors (Read: DVD Review: After Dark Horrorfest III: 8 Films To Die For), and was rather excited to check out their new slate this year! Instead of cramming every review into one mammoth review, this year we’ll take it one flick at a time, with this little opener stuck at the top of each one.

The Graves tells the story of two 20-something rocker comic book geek sisters named Megan Graves (Clare Grant) and Abby Graves (Jillian Murray) who, while on a road trip together before Megan moves to New York, find themselves visiting a shady old mine town that has transformed into a tourist attraction with promises of being incredibly haunted.

It’s clear that something doesn’t feel right and Abby — the more reluctant of the two — tries desperately to convince her sister to keep moving and ignore the mine town. Of course, this wouldn’t be a horror flick if they left, and Megan convinces her sister to check it out. [...]

Batman: The Long Halloween
Trade Paperback
Written by Jeph Loeb
Art by Tim Sale
Cover by Tim Sale
Publisher: DC Comics
Price: $19.99

Recently I have been reading a lot of older comics and graphic novels and one that has stood out the most lately is Batman: The Long Halloween. If you haven’t read this trade, written by Jeph Loeb with art by by Tim Sale, it is absolutely amazing!

The story deals with a serial killer named Holiday who is picking off major members of the Falcone crime family in Gotham City. The reason why the killer is named Holiday is the fact that he only strikes on major holidays. He starts his spree on Halloween and goes on for about a year murdering over a dozen people. It’s up to Batman to find out who Holiday really is and why he’s killing all these people.

There are so many twists and turns with the plot of this story that it will keep you on your toes until the very last panel. […]

Ray Bradbury + Leonard Nimoy x Halloween = WIN!

The Halloween Tree is a 1993 feature-length made-for-TV cartoon movie based on the 1972 fantasy novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury.

The story centers on a group of children all dressed up and excited for a night of trick-or-treating. When one of their friends, Pip, goes missing, the gang sets out to look for him, thinking the boy is just playing a joke on them. On their quest to find Pip, they end up going through a forest and into a mansion where they met Mr. Moundshroud (Star Trek‘s Leonard Nimoy). Moundshroud is concerned after learning that the children don’t know the history behind the costumes they’ve picked to wear for Halloween, but eventually the kids go back in time to various eras and countries to learn the origins of Halloween and also save Pip.

The entire cartoon is up on YouTube in seven parts, which I’ve embedded here below. While The Halloween Tree was released on VHS in the 1990s, there’s no DVD version, nor does there seem to be any plans for one at this time [...]

Oh, it’s that time of year when demons, ghouls, clowns, and serial killers invade local cornfields, wooded areas, and abandoned warehouses to charge you money so that they can literally try to scare the crap out of you. Of course, I’m talking about Haunted Houses!

I don’t know if you guys pay much attention to your local advertisements, but if you do, you’ve probably noticed that commercial haunted house ads are some of the most insane ways to sell a product. One of our local haunted attractions boasts a location where “5 dead teenagers were found decapitated” and something to the effect of “The Devil himself won’t step into these haunted woods.” This is hilarious, because there’s no other time that would ever be an acceptable way to market something.

So, for your benefit, I have tirelessly dug through the deep annals of the Internet (aka YouTube) and pulled up some of the craziest, most detailed, and a couple of hilarious advertisements for haunted houses from across this nation. Enjoy! [...]

Oh how I love me some Edgar Allan Poe. He’s always been one of my favorite authors since I was a kid, and last Halloween, I spent the day in Poe’s cellar (no, seriously, I did, in his home in Philadelphia). Therefore, anything Poe gets my immediate attention, which is why I thought I’d point out a new video that has actor John de Lancie performing Poe’s famous poem “The Raven.”

Check out the 9-minute video here below.

What makes this video even cooler is that de Lancie happens to be an alum of Star Trek — he played the omnipotent Q on TV’s Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as a few other Trek series. Did I mention I’m obsessed with Star Trek? Well, cuz, I am.

The video, which was produced by de Lancie, is the first in the QMx Masters Series video series created by collectibles company Quantum Mechanix.

Of the video series, QM said, “Masters Series distills performance down to its purest form: a single camera, a microphone, the actor and you. It’s an intense, mesmerizing experience you won’t want to miss.” [...]

AMC sent me the first two episodes of The Walking Dead in advance, the second of which was not the final air version. After watching both several times, here’s my spoiler-free review.

There aren’t too many new shows that can get me to jump onto them right away. It took me two seasons to give True Blood a try and I still haven’t seen Lost. But don’t misunderstand — I love television shows, but as my DVR can attest, I just don’t usually like to watch them as they air. But every so often a new series comes along that I feel I just have to be there at the beginning of it all, and one such series is The Walking Dead, developed for AMC by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist).

The Walking Dead is based on the comic book series of the same name created by writer Robert Kirkman, and it’s anything but mild. It’s a serious tale of a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse, and there’s blood and gore and death galore. Unlike cable networks like HBO and ShowTime that can air R-rated content, AMC has to adhere to stricter television guidelines, which if handled poorly, could be the downfall of the series. Luckily, from what I’ve seen of the first two episodes, the network and the show’s creative team have managed to skirt the rules and give us what looks to be the best new television series of the season [...]

It’s Halloween time and this year zombies are all the rage. If you’re not already planning to dress up like a zombie, you can still see what you’d look like as one with Make Me Zombie.

Visit the site and upload a photo of yourself and click “Make Me Zombie” and in seconds, you’ll be zombified!

Check out the photo of me here at right — not too shabby, I’d say!

Once you get your zombified picture, there’s options to save it and to share it on Twitter and Facebook. It will also give you the URL to your photo (like this).

Go ahead and get yourself zombified, then leave the link to your photo here in the Comments section.

Have fun!!! [...]

Lake Mungo
DVD
DIRECTOR: Joel Anderson
STARRING: Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe, Steve Jodrell
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: March 23, 2010

For four straight years now, After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For has been unleashed. Eight original horror films to quench your thirst for blood and gore and screams galore. Last year I was able to check out and review their third collection of horrors (Read: DVD Review: After Dark Horrorfest III: 8 Films To Die For), and was rather excited to check out their new slate this year! Instead of cramming every review into one mammoth review, this year we’ll take it one flick at a time, with this little opener stuck at the top of each one.

Most of the movies that you’ll see when watching an After Dark Horrorfest title will involve a whole lot of graphic violence and some pretty horrific other-worldly beings. And while that’s expected and usually pretty entertaining to a horror fan, Lake Mungo brings a completely different and rather refreshing tone to the table. [...]

Twenty five years ago the world was introduced to a little movie called Back To The Future. One of the major jokes in this movie is when the character of Marty McFly played by Michael J. Fox visits his father, George McFly (Crispin Glover), in the middle of the night telling him that he was Darth Vader from the Planet Vulcan and urged him to take Loraine to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance.

Well, now fans of the movie can get their hands on the 3D or 2D poster for the fake film Darth Vader From The Planet Vulcan.

Head on below to find out where you can get them!

This is such a great way to pay tribute to this awesome film and its a great gag gift for any fan of classic science fiction. The poster shows a figure in a radiation suit carrying a woman on what seems to be like the moon. [...]

As you might have noticed, “found footage” movies are pretty popular these days.

It all began with The Blair Witch Project before movies like [REC], Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, and any sequels or remakes continued to prove the success of such an outrageous style of filmmaking. Some people don’t have the stomach for these them park-worthy adventures, but for the rest of us, most of the movies can be a whole lot of fun. Just like first person shooter video games, these movies make you feel like you’re right there in the middle of whatever madness is unfolding, and they’re without doubt an effectively entertaining experience to behold.

Most of these films have been made on incredibly low-budgets and without any top-tier actors or directors involved, but now it appears that this is about to change.

It’s being reported that Roland Emmerich, known for his massive summer blockbuster fare in titles such as Independence Day, Godzilla, 10,000 B.C., and 2012, is about to begin filming on [what was] a secret project called The Zone. [...]

When all is said and done Tron: Legacy is going to be the movie of the year for me, regardless of whether or not it lives up to its boundless potential or the exciting previews that have been trickling out of the Mouse House’s mighty marketing division.

The original 1982 Tron is one of my personal favorite films of all time; I love just about everything about it, from the performances to the snappy writing to the musical score by Wendy Carlos (with awesome contributions from Journey) to the spectacular visual effects which gave the film a look that has and always be ahead of its time.

There’s a timeless, ethereal beauty to the computerized world of Tron that could never be dated in my mind and only grows as a cinematic work of art with each passing year as most video game-based and influenced films seem to embrace a grittier look deprived of any sense of wonder or imagination. It’s an absolutely perfect film to me so the idea of a sequel emerging nearly three decades after the release of the original both excites me and fills me with dread. [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day over at Amazon today is Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Seasons 1-7 on DVD for only $89.99 (that’s 66% off the list price of $266.98).

Note, this sale is only for today, Saturday October 30, until midnight PST while supplies last.

This 20-disc set includes all seven seasons of the horror anthology series based on EC Comics from publisher William Gaines, that ran on HBO from 1989 to 1996. You’ll probably remember Tales from the Crypt from its popular host, the rotting corpse, the Cryptkeeper.

Math time: $89.99 for 7 season DVDs = appx $12.86 per DVD; super deal!

What stood out about the show is not only that thanks to its being on HBO it could contain adult content, like sex, profanity, and violence, but also that so many popular celebrities guest-starred on the series, like Brad Pitt, Demi Moore, Tom Hanks, and many, many more. Also, some big name directors were behind the camera on a lot of these episodes, like Robert Zemeckis and Richard Donner [...]

A 22-year-old woman in Jacksonville, Florida named Alexandra V. Tobias has pleaded guilty in the death of her 3-month-old son, Dylan.

The reason for such a despicable act? She tells investigators that she was busy playing the highly popular Facebook game, Farmville, when the child started crying. She explains that she became so angry, she shook the baby, went and smoked a cigarette to try and calm down, and then shook the baby more. She also added that while she was shaking him, he might have hit his head on something.

Tobias has been charged with second-degree murder, and could face up to life in prison…though it is noted that this sentence could be much, much less because “state guidelines” place the charge at 25-50 years imprisonment.

Farmville is a real-time strategy game that allows users to maintain their own virtual farm, plowing your lands, planting crops, harvesting what you’ve grown, and raising your own various livestock. [...]

Earlier today, we told you about the Pumpkin Geek, a master pumpkin carver who creates jack-o-lanterns with the likeness of popular movie and TV characters.

Now, the funny peeps over at College Humor have posted “Seven Easy Jack-O-Lantern Ideas,” two of which are movie-related and worth noting. Of course, each instructional illustration is highly humorous, but yet surprisingly informative as well. There’s one for making an Inception pumpkin — Pumpkinception — which, like the film, is quite elaborate. There’s another for The Human Centipede — The Centipede Pumpkin — which, like the film, makes me want to just vomit at the idea of this concept, and this is just a damn pumpkin!

Click the image at right for the Inception illustration, and be sure to head over to College Humor for the full effect, and to check out their other clever pumpkin ideas [...]

This is a reach back in time, but far before Bryan Singer made his big budget Superman adaptation, Tim Burton was actually set to direct the movie from a script by Kevin Smith. It sounds strange to even think of such a duo now — and if you’ve seen Smith’s An Evening With Kevin Smith then you know of the many hilarious stories that came from that endeavor — but it was happening for a time, and Burton did some work setting up his Man of Steel.

Steve Johnson, a special effects and makeup artist who worked on the movie before it was scrapped, has now released a ton of pictures from what they came up with. Most of the images show either the test suit they were working on for Superman, and some concept stuff they were developing.

You can see exactly what we mean by clicking on over to the other side. Be warned, Superman purists, you may experience sharp pains in various parts of your body just by thinking of what this would have looked like on the big screen! [...]