What Scares Horror’s Biggest Stars?

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What Scares Horror’s Biggest Stars?

Happy Halloween!! October has come to an end and the best time of the year is finally here (although I’ve been celebrating Halloween since October first in my home). I came across this article from TheWrap.com about what horror films scare some of the genre’s biggest stars and knew I had to share this with you all. The article is written by Joe Otterson and can be found here. This is a great list of horror celebs and it is nice to know they all have great tastes in horror films!! Here is the original article, unedited and unaltered. Enjoy, and have a great Halloween!!!

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24 Scary Movies That Terrify Jason Voorhees Actor Kane Hodder, Other Horror Stars

TheWrap delves into the spookiest films that haunt some of the biggest stars the genre has ever seen

Halloween is Saturday, which means it is time to watch all of your favorite scary, gory, and all around creepy movies.

In honor of the ghoul-tastic holiday, TheWrap spoke with several legends of the horror genre to find out what movies will be keeping them up with the lights on this year.

Check out each horror star’s list and why they like each film below.

Kane Hodder (“Jason X,” “Jason Goes to Hell”)

-“The Exorcist” (1973) — “Best horror movie of all time! Untouched subject matter at the time. By the time you reached the theatre, you were already scared.”

-“The Shining” (1980)– “I would like to say one word: Nicholson!”

-“Poltergeist” (1982)– This started my interest in the paranormal world and inspired me to form the Hollywood Ghost Hunters.

-“Frankenstein” (1931)– “I patterned Jason in “Friday the 13th” (somewhat) after this character

-“The Birds” (1963– “The first movie that scared me as a kid.”

Bill Moseley (“Texas Chainsaw Masscare 2,” “House of 1000 Corpses,” “Devil’s Rejects)

-“Night of the Living Dead” (1968)– “The first of the ‘modern’ horror films I saw as a youth scared me as a story and captivated me as a brilliant vessel of scathing social commentary. George Romero really is the godfather of the modern horror movie. Casting an African American as Ben, the movie’s stalwart & resourceful hero, was a master stroke.”

-“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)– “Scared the crap out of me when i first saw it on the tail end of a double bill featuring Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter the Dragon’ at the old Paramount Theater in Boston’s Combat Zone back in the summer of ’76. The fear finally left me when I joined the Sawyer family as Choptop in the spring of 1986!”

–“Ghost of Frankenstein” (1942) — “Bela Lugosi steals the show as Igor, Dr. Frankenstein’s not-so-trustworthy assistant. Moody, wonderful sets, score & cinematography, but the non-Dracula Bela is the standout here!”

-“Carnival of Souls” (1962) — “A B&W indy gift from Herk Harvey by way of Lawrence, Kansas, and Salt Lake City, Carnival stars the oddly fetching Candace Hilligoss as a church organist who is stalked by a strange & frightening fellow with black rings around his eyes. Climax at SLC’s old Saltair Pavilion. Spooky, scary, cheesy- how would you like to be locked in a department store changing room and no one can hear you scream?!”

Michael Berryman (“The Hills Have Eyes,” “The Devil’s Rejects”)

-“The Hitcher” (1986)– “Captivating and very intense”

-“Silence of the Lambs” (1991)– “Disturbing and eerie.”

-“Dracula” (1992)– “Dreamscape, omnipresent, mystifying”

-“The Hill’s Have Eyes” (1977)–“Gritty, honest, in your face.”

-“The Exorcist” (1973)– “Got on my knees and prayed with a conscious effort!”

Allison Tolman, star of FX’s “Fargo” and Legendary’s Upcoming Horror Comedy “Krampus”

-“The Descent” (2005)– “Surprisingly feminist ass-kicking shit show.”

-“The Babadook” (2014)–“A perfect combo of psychological and literal horror and Essie Davis is the KWEEN.”

-“The Orphanage” ( (scary that melts into heartbreak is the best you guys).

Colin Geddes, TIFF Midnight Madness Programmer and Lead Curator of Horror Streaming Service Shudder

“An American Werewolf in London” (1981)– “Rick Baker’s Oscar award-winning transformation certainly is one of the main attractions of the film, but I am always struck by our hero’s loss of control and helplessness in the situation. Plus, the best double nightmare sequence featuring Nazi werewolves!”

R.A. Mihailoff (“Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III”)

-“Freaks” (1932)– “This is the inspiration for the TV show ‘American Horror Story.’”

-“Carnival of Souls” (1962)– “Very atmospheric and spooky.”

-“Theatre of Blood” (1973)– “How can you go wrong with camping horror revolving around Shakespeare?”

-“Night of the Living Dead” (1968)– “First modern classic horror film ever. Created a genre still thriving today.”

-“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)– “Another game changer in modern horror”

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As always, I’d love to hear what your favorite horror films are. Sign off below in the comments section.

Stay Bloody!!!

Filed under: Guest Contributor, Horror Lists, New Posting

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Exclusive: EVIL DEAD Documentary Reveals Final Teaser Trailer

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Exclusive: EVIL DEAD Documentary Reveals Final Teaser Trailer

SHOCK gets the exclusive teaser trailer for new EVIL DEAD fan documentary HAIL TO THE DEADITES.

With the premier of Starz’ ASH VS. EVIL DEAD series ready to unleash on Halloween night, Montreal based production outfit Digger Films have given SHOCK the exclusive look at the final teaser for their epic upcoming EVIL DEAD fan doc HAIL TO THE DEADITES.

HAIL TO THE DEADITES is the brainchild of Steve Villeneuve, co-founder and co-owner of Digger Films and it features the participation of EVIL DEAD franchise alumni like Ted Raimi, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Tom Sullivan ,Dan Hicks ,Kassie Wesley DePaiva, Sarah Berry, Rick Domeier, Bill Moseley and the King himself Bruce Campbell.

The film isn’t a movie about the EVIL DEAD pictures themselves rather it targets the global cult of superfans, collectors and cosplayers that surrounds Sam Raimi’s original three DEAD films (THE EVIL DEAD, EVIL DEAD 2 and ARMY OF DARKNESS) as well as the 2013 remake and the new ASH VS. EVIL DEAD series.

The Digger team have been unleashing a new teaser every week in October (you can see them all by going to the official HAIL TO DEADITES Facebook page)

Here’s the exclusive look at the final teaser:

HAIL TO THE DEADITES is scheduled to be released in 2016.

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Concert Review: GHOST Haunts Salt Lake City

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Concert Review: GHOST Haunts Salt Lake City

Theatrical rock heroes GHOST rocked Salt Lake City and SHOCK was there.

A mere three blocks from one of the largest theological epicenters in America, the force of nature known as GHOST stormed into Salt Lake City rock palace The Depot  on Wednesday night in all their Satanic glory and laid waste to a full house of adoring followers.

The Swedish band’s infamous live show has become incredibly honed in the last three years and it’s clear that the band’s success is being put right back into the production The huge backdrop, the crazy lighting rig, the new masks for the Nameless Ghouls, newly minted frontman Papa Emeritus III’s multiple costume changes; all a staggering site.

Visually and aesthetically the band may seem extreme, but what is most remarkable is their sense of melody and willingness to embrace a more gentle music at times to deliver their dark message.

Papa III speaks words of truth.

The GHOST look may say ‘Satanic KISS’ but the music is pure old school rock, with a sound hearkening back to bands like Coven, Arthur Brown, Roky Erickson, and in particular Blue Oyster Cult. The more aggressive stuff rears its head at key moments, with a heavier sound pointing occasionally to bands like Megadeth and in particular, Mercyful Fate.

As a long-time supporter of the Papa and The Nameless Ghouls, beginning with their demo, it’s been quite a sight to see this confrontational (albeit tongue in cheek) band skyrocket into Grammy-winning mainstream popularity. With the new album “Meloria” selling briskly and the video for their single “Cerice” nearing a whopping two and a half million views, there seems to be no cap on their success.

Factor in the band’s appearance on Stephen Colbert (tonight in fact! October 30th!), as well as their impending arena tour with IRON MAIDEN, and I think it’s safe to say GHOST(s) do indeed exist…

Need more proof? Check out this clip from the show!

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Screenwriter John August on SCARY STORIES Feature Film

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Screenwriter John August on SCARY STORIES Feature Film

An update on the long in development feature film version of children’s horror classic.

Remember SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, Alvin Schwartz’s horrifying children’s books with illustrations by Stephen Gammell designed to shave at least three years off your childhood?

Of course you do.

And remember when Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the scribblers behind the SAW films, were prepping the long in gestation film version?

So do we.

But that was then. What about now?

Crave’s William Bibbiani caught up with BIG FISH screenwriter John August, who is the new pen attached to the impending picture, during a Writer’s Guild of America Q&A and the writer had this to say:

“I am still working on it, yeah. As a screenwriter I have no fortunetelling ability to know whether the movie is going to [go into production] or if the movie is going to be good, but I can say that I’m really excited with what we’ve been able to do so far and if we are able to make the movie I kind of hope we’ll be able to make, it’s going to be something great, and a very unique movie that we haven’t seen before.”

But August had so much more to reveal about the subject.

And you can read all about it via Crave’s exclusive interview HERE..

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Eerie Psychodrama ONE EYED GIRL to Hit Blu/DVD in December

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Eerie Psychodrama ONE EYED GIRL to Hit Blu/DVD in December

Award-winning psychological thriller to release this December.

SHOCK has just learned that first-time director Nick Matthews’ jet-black psychological horror film ONE EYED GIRL will hit Blu-ray and DVD on December 8th from Dark Sky Films.

Horror fans who appreciate slow-burning, atmospheric, elegant and emotionally wrenching cinema, films along the lines of MAGIC, MAGIC, ANGEL HEART and MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, would be wise to circle the date on your creepy calendars…

Here’s the synopsis:

Travis is a young psychiatrist on the brink of a nervous breakdown after the death of a patient to whom he was inappropriately close. But his life appears to take a change for the better when he meets Grace, a mysterious teenager and the representative of a secret church that promises salvation to even the most troubled of its members.

Intrigued, Travis joins the group and meets its leader, the charismatic Father Jay, who indoctrinates him into the sect’s sometimes radical practices. But when a series of tragedies befalls Father Jay and his flock, Travis must decide if his loyalty truly lies with Father Jay, the ever-elusive Grace, or himself.

ONE EYED GIRL stars Mark Leonard Winter (THE FEAR OF DARKNESS), Tilda Cobham-Hervey (GIRL ASLEEP), Steve Le Marquand (VERTICAL LIMIT), Craig Behenna (THE BABADOOK) and Sara West (THE DAUGHTER).

Check out the trailer below…

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Chris Alexander’s Top 5 Halloween Picks

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Chris Alexander’s Top 5 Halloween Picks

SHOCK editor picks 5 Halloween horror flicks to watch this weekend.

SHOCK editor Chris Alexander was on legendary Toronto radio station Q107 this morning, sitting in with the gang on Derringer in the Morning to talk all things horror.

One of the components of the half-hour appearance was for Chris to partake in the show’s “List-O-Mania” segment and pick his 5 favorite flicks to watch on Halloween.

Here’s that list. Enjoy…and have a Happy (and safe) Halloween!

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Audio Interview: Anne Serling Talks About THE TWILIGHT ZONE

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Audio Interview: Anne Serling Talks About THE TWILIGHT ZONE

In this exclusive audio interview, SHOCK talks to Anne Serling about her father Rod Serling and his landmark TV show THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Anne Serling is the youngest daughter of maverick television writer and visionary Rod Serling, creator of the greatest series the small screen has ever seen or will ever see, THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

And though her beloved father passed 40 years ago (June 28th, 1975 to be exact), Anne took many years to process her grief as well as her feelings about her dad’s life and work, the result of which was her haunting memoir AS I KNEW HIM: MY DAD, ROD SERLING. Released in 2013 and still selling briskly, the critically acclaimed book collects Anne’s memories of her gentle father as well as unearthed letters from her grandparents to her dad while he was fighting in WWII, an experience that scarred him both emotionally and physically and hard-wired his deep, abiding sense of morality, justice and  unshakable melancholy, all elements that marked the best of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Here, in this exclusive audio interview, SHOCK editor Chris Alexander talks to Anne about her father, her book and her reflections on the dark fantasy entertainment that changed, and continues to change, the world.

Enjoy…

To connect with Anne Serling and read more about AS I KNEW HIM, visit her OFFICIAL SITE.

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Jekyll and Hyde (2015)

AnythingHorror Central

Jekyll and Hyde (2015)

I’ve seen the billboards for this 10-part series on the UK’s ITV channel my way to work more than once, but never really gave it much consideration, despite the obvious horror connections. Why? Because Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde has been done to death almost as much as Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood and Dracula. Jekyll and Hyde has been in movies, TV miniseries, comic books, cartoons, on stage as both straight drama and musical (my own favourite was a drug-fuelled comedy in 1982 called JEKYLL AND HYDE… TOGETHER AGAIN, which I thought was hilarious when I was 16 but which I haven’t dared revisit because I know I would find it a piece of shit now, though the movie did end with a scene of  Stevenson literally spinning in his grave).

(Oh, and I’ve got to give a special nod to what was probably the worst adaptation, DO NO HARM, which I reviewed here, an NBC series which was so bad they cancelled it after the second episode, after I reviewed it. I HAVE THE POWER!)

Someone was paid to come up with this…

To the best of my knowledge an entirely faithful adaptation of Stevenson’s original novel has never been done (few realise that the original story was told from the perspective of an outside character, and he (and the reader) never realised until the end that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person – that was a twist has long since been eroded, and really could never been done now and be able to surprise anyone. And there have been liberties taken with the details to the story, where Hyde, initially described as a weedy, verminous creature, and we’ve gotten some huge, bestial creatures, especially in looser adaptations like LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, and of course, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, where the metaphorical inner beast of the civilised man is made more explicit.

Yeah, yeah, we get the connection…

And the strange thing is that when someone tries for a more faithful adaptation of a classic tale, people’s perceptions have already been influence by other examples. When Francis ford Coppolla brought out his version of Dracula, some critics complained that he had changed the story by having his vampires appear in the daytime unharmed, when in fact the original Stoker novel never said that vampires would die or crumble to dust in daylight, that was just something started by NOSFERATU, and was adopted and accepted as a feature of vampires ever since. reviewers praised how Guy Ritchie made the partnership of Holmes and Watson as equals in his SHERLOCK HOLMES movies instead of making Watson the bumbling idiot everyone thought him to be, simply because that was how he was portrayed in the classic Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone. And of course, Frankenstein’s Monster was never originally an unintelligent creature as Boris Karloff made him to be.

But I digress. I gave the first episode of JEKYLL AND HYDE a watch last night, just to see how bad it would be, because without knowing anything about it, I fully expected an adaptation leaning towards some young romance bullshit.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

Someone’s been eating their Wheaties…

We get a brief opening shot of Victorian London, and a familiar-looking figure in a cloak and top hat causing some general mayhem, and for once, it’s not Charlie Sheen’s great-great grandfather but the original Two Face himself, ;s Edward Hyde… and then, we cut to the 1930s, and the balmy backcountry of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where we meet Doctor Robert Jekyll (Tom Bateman, DA VINCI’S DEMONS), who is working in a clinic with his adoptive father Dr Najaran (Ace Bhatti). A runaway truck crashes into the clinic and pins a young girl underneath it, and Jekyll rushes over and tries to lift the vehicle up to free her. And to everyone;s astonishment, he succeeds – but then a manic glee eclipses his face, and he begins pressing his foot down on the poor girl’s face, though he quickly regains his composure as the girl is rescued and Dr Najaran takes him away to give him his medicine for his “special condition”.

Bet you can’t guess what his special condition is, could you?

These are your grandfather’s Men in Black – so naturally Will Smith wouldn’t have been allowed to join…

Meanwhile somewhere else, three men in gas masks and sporting wicked-looking weapons track down this fucked-up looking creature called a Harbinger and kill it, though not before it warns them that something powerful is coming. The men’s boss, Bulstrode (Richard E Grant, HUDSON HAWK – yeah, I’ll reference his worst movie!), runs a secret organisation called MI-0 (MI-5 deal with domestic threats to the Crown, MI-6 with overseas threats, and if you guessed that MI-0 deal with the supernatural, give yourself a cigar or cocaine or something). These proto-Men in Black are aware of young Jekyll’s existence, and obviously know more than Jekyll himself will know.

Dinner didn’t end well.

News of Jekyll’s heroic save of the girl reaches London, and a lawyer named Max Utterson (Christian McKay, ME AND ORSON WELLES) contacts Jekyll in order to finally dispose of the outstanding estate of the original Jekyll. Young Jekyll makes his way to London, runs into damsels in distress and rescues them (and steals kisses as well, which is definitely bad sport, old boy). He probably should have stayed in Ceylon, however, as his adoptive family are attacked by ghouls led by the undead Captain Dance (Enzo Cilenti, THE FOURTH KIND), Bulstrode’s rival with his organisation called Tenebrae, who are also interested in Jekyll.

Needless to say, Dance’s encounter with the family doesn’t end well for them. And when news of their deaths reaches Jekyll, he, um, hulks out, and goes on a bender that would kill Nick Nolte, along his way meeting some underworld types who remember the original Hyde and his taste for sex and violence…

Somebody put him on the Naughty Step!

When the first episode was broadcast, ITV and the TV watchdog Ofcom received hundreds of complaints that the show was too gruesome and violent for the time when it was broadcast (Sunday night at 6:30pm), though the channel has refused to reschedule it and the show’s creator and writer Charlie Higson advised people to “grow up”. I’d have to agree. Based on what I’ve seen and learned, the show will lean more towards a MEN IN BLACK theme of monsters among us, as well as making Jekyll/Hyde more like the aforementioned Incredible Hulk than an allegory about drug addiction and repressed sexual psychology. We’ll also be seeing more monsters in future episodes, and who doesn’t want to see more monsters?

Son of Eraserhead Strikes!

The look of the show is very stylised and both modern (the fight scenes are the now-ubiquitous fast/slow motion sequences) and old-fashioned (where we’ll zoom in on a faded poster of a steamship and then cut away to actual steamship), and hopefully we’ll get a bit of dieselpunk going, which at least makes a refreshing change from the brass steampunk look. The cast is fine, particularly Bateman as Jekyll/Hyde (am I the only one who looks at him and sees mark Ruffalo, yet another nod to the Hulk connection?)
There’s no news as yet as to when it will be broadcast outside of the UK, but I expect we’ll hear soon. Below there’s a clip from the opening episode that’ll give you a taste of what’s to come.

Deggsy’s Summary: 

Director: Various

Plot: 4 out of 5 stars

Gore: 2 out of 10 skulls

Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains (so far, though; we may see zombies later)

Reviewed by Deggsy. Don’t make him hungry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s hungry. Especially when you see him eat a McRib Sandwich…

Jekyll and Hyde ITV

Filed under: Deggsy's Corner, New Horror Releases, New Posting, TV Horror

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TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 504, ‘Devil’s Night’

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TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 504, ‘Devil’s Night’

Alyse Wax recaps last night’s episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY.

John wakes to a phone call from Scarlett, asking if she can stay with her grandmother longer. John agrees; he is distracted by blood dripping down the walls. Heading upstairs to investigate, he finds Ms. Evers. She is out of sorts, a little mad, remembering her son, who was killed in 1925. They commiserate over their missing children. 

Evers took her son, Albert, trick-or-treating. She didn’t have time to make him a real costume, so he went as a ghost, a costume he hated. While Evers chats with another mother, Albert is kidnapped and falls victim to the Wineville Chicken Coop Murderer. Evers doesn’t really know exactly what happened to her son. When the cops raided the place, there was only one living boy there. All they found of Albert was a bloody ghost costume. She suddenly remembers she has much to do to prepare for the master’s “autumnal banquet” and scampers off. Later, at the police department, John discovers the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders took place in 1925 – and Miss Evers looks exactly as she did 90 years ago.

The “autumnal banquet” Miss Evers speaks of is an annual gathering of Mr. March’s murder students. Aileen Wuornos, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, and the Zodiac Killer are all in attendance. When Aileen picks him up at the hotel bar, he is too drunk to figure out she isn’t wearing a costume, and doesn’t care about the consequences. She tries to kill him and he fights back, handcuffing her before going down to complain to Liz Taylor. Liz fills him in  on Devil’s Night and gives him his invite to the party. Back in his room, Aileen is gone, but a tuxedo has been left for him.

John attends the banquet with trepidation. He promises he is just there to arrest Aileen; no one seems too concerned. The group shares in some absinthe, and March introduces himself and his diners. John thinks this is a trick, but the killers all reminisce about how they came to find March as their mentor. Most stumbled upon him while passing through town. March was the first man to treat Aileen with respect; Gacy could have had a higher body count if he had really listened to him; he taught Ramirez to kill indiscriminately. 

Ms. Evers serves dinner. Dahmer is offended that he is given a salad, so she brings him an amuse bouche: a scared young man. Dahmer proceeds to drill into his brain and pour in some acid, so he has a mindless zombie who will never leave him. Despite being handcuffed to the chair, and being drugged, John fires his gun at the madmen. He clips Dahmer, who doesn’t even flinch. “Don’t you get that we’re already dead?” March sees his collection of deviants as the definition of American success. They have made their marks on history; their stories will live on forever. 

Now it is time for dessert. Sally brings in an obnoxious businessman she picked up on the street. After dosing him with a high ball, he was easily led into the murderer’s ball. This will, apparently, buy Sally a year of “being left alone.” Ms. Evers presents a tray of knives; everyone chooses one, then they go into a frenzy stabbing the drugged businessman.

John starts screaming in a panic. But everyone is gone. He is left in the room, dark and empty, with Sally trying to calm him down. She swears he is hallucinating, and promises she is real, she is his protector, and she isn’t going anywhere.

Meanwhile, Alex has brought Holden home. Jasper, the dog, barks at him like crazy. Alex thinks it is because he doesn’t know Holden. He is distant, awkward. He wants the drapes drawn and his temperature is only 75.5. She hugs him; he is thirsty. Alex goes to get him some juice. By the time she returns, she finds Holden bloody, crouching over Jasper’s corpse. “I don’t feel good. I need my mommy,” he says pitifully. Alex points out that she is his mommy. “My other mommy.”

With few choices, Alex returns to the Hotel Cortez with Holden. He rushes ahead and climbs straight into his coffin. Elizabeth is waiting for Alex. “You must have a lot of questions. I have a lot of answers.” She takes Alex back to her room and promises that she saved Holden; she saved all her children from what she saw as neglect. Elizabeth describes what Holden has as an “ancient virus, a blood disorder.” Alex pulls a gun, demanding she change him back. Elizabeth isn’t scared of the gun and informs her there is no cure. She offers to turn Alex, reuniting her with her true love. All she asks is for her undying loyalty. Alex promises to go to the police and tries to leave. As she does, Tristan appears and punches her. Elizabeth tells him to let her go.

As the episode comes to a close, Alex returns to Elizabeth. She cannot lose her boy again and is ready to be transformed. Elizabeth promises the transition will not be easy, and that she must surrender completely, allow herself to be ripped apart, ravaged. “You will feel like you are dying.” She feeds Alex, and the transformation begins.

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Deaditorial: Streaming Services are Killing Horror (And What They Can Do To Save It)

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Deaditorial: Streaming Services are Killing Horror (And What They Can Do To Save It)

It’s a bit hard to imagine, but I’ve been a paying Netflix subscriber for over ten years now. At first, what appealed to me wasn’t the convenience of never going to the local video store, which was a ritual I cherished then and miss dearly now, but rather the impossibly huge selection. As much as […]

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In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s 8MM

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In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s 8MM

SHOCK goes to bat for Joel Schumacher’s devastating neo-noir horror film 8MM.

It’s as good a time as any to scribble about a motion picture that I cite as one of the most underrated genre films of the past quarter century and certainly, the most undervalued in the Nicolas Cage cannon. It’s a movie that positions itself as a noir-steeped murder mystery but goes so deeply into phantasmagoria that it becomes, almost imperceptibly, a full blown horror film. And while there isn’t anything explicitly supernatural in the film, there is a leather-clad Frankenstein monster-esque porn stud-cum-gimp named “Machine” who acts as the angel of sexual death for an egomaniacal snuff film pimp named Dino Velvet. Isn’t that element alone reason enough to make it SHOCK friendly? I think so…

Perhaps some of you have gleaned that the movie I’m raving about is the Andrew Kevin Walker (SEVEN) scripted psychodrama 8MM. The film was released in 1999 and is directed by the Hollywood gun-for-hire hack Joel Schumacher, he of slick and empty entertainments like THE LOST BOYS, FLATLINERS, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and the despicable BATMAN FOREVER and the even more dire BATMAN AND ROBIN. Outside of the latter two pictures, however, I actually rather like Schumacher. He’s a sleazier Tony Scott in some ways, making glossy, easily packaged product that nonetheless has covert personal kinks splooging around on the peripheral and often, palpable heart at their cores. I believe 8MM to be his his masterpiece and certainly, it’s further evidence that Cage is one of the great dramatic screen presences when used properly and when dialing down his patented eccentricities (though I am indeed a huge devotee of said eccentricities).

The film sees Cage playing Tom Welles, an affluent and easy going Private Investigator living a life of domestic bliss with his supportive wife (an unfortunately wasted Catherine Keener) and beloved infant daughter. Welles’ beat is cheating wives and insurance fraud and rarely does he take on any sort of case that would put him – or his family – in harm’s way. He thinks he knows the dark side that lines the hearts of most men. He thinks he’s better than it. He think that he’s mastered it. But unbeknownst to him, that protected world view is about to get stained with all manner of fluids and truths.

One night Welles is summoned to the looming mansion of his latest client, a rich widow (Myra Carter) who, while sifting through her late husband’s estate, is disturbed to discover an unmarked 8mm film loop. The mourning woman had been devoted to her late husband, a man who was, by all accounts, a wonderful, loving husband and cherished father. Except the film in question seems to indicate otherwise. Welles obliges to watch the picture in the drawing room, the projector sputters to life in the dark and unveils the most sickening sights imaginable: a young girl, glassy eyed and starring into the lens, is beaten, raped and viciously murdered by a zipper and leather-decorated monster.

Shaken and drained, Welles confirms the widows suspicions that this indeed appears to be a legitimate snuff film however, as many of these legendary loops have historically been proven to be fakes, he takes the case on, promising to not only uncover the identity of the girl in the film but determine whether or not she is indeed alive or dead.

Kissing his family goodbye, Welles begins his investigation, a serpentine quest that first leads him to the lonely home of the girl’s emotionally ruined mother (Amy Morton in a haunting turn) and then, eventually into the seediest depths of LA’s porno underworld (with a quick stop off to meet the girl’s shithead ex-boyfriend, played by a young Norman Reedus). He picks up a partner, a seemingly world weary, but ultimately sweet and gentle, adult video store employee (deftly played by Joaquin Phoenix) who ushers him deeper into the belly of the beast and straight into the lair of cult fetish porn filmmaker Dino Velvet (a reptilian Peter Stormare) and his arguably more despicable partner in exploitation, Eddie Poole (a pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini, who has never, ever been better than he is here). For better or for worse, Welles becomes bound to his targets, his world view changed, his life inexorably altered as he sinks deeper and deeper into a world of privilege, pain, perversion, pornography and the lowest, most insidious distortions of humanity to ever slime their ways through city streets.

To give away more about 8MM’s downward spiraling narrative would be to rob you of the picture’s mesmerizing power. Suffice it to say, this is a grim, unpleasant movie (as would be expected with Walker’s name on it) and with subject matter this lurid and horrific, it needs to be. The tone is decidedly bleak from the get go due in no small part to cinematographer Robert Elswit’s shadowy, lurid color pallet, Gary Wissner’s austere production design and especially, Canadian composer Mychael Danna’s nightmarish, Middle Eastern tinged and smothering score. The violence and sex is sleazy and suitably exploitative but never graphic to the point of being gratuitous. Schumacher’s direction is measured, cool and assured when it needs to be and stylized to the point that, in my original review of the film, I claimed that “this is the best horror movie Dario Argento never made”. When I told Cage this he responded favorably, being an Argento fan (and horror fan in general) and he also told me that, although the film flopped and was a North American critical disaster, Europeans, especially the French loved it and embraced it. Take from that what you will…

As Welles, Cage is in almost every scene and he’s nothing short of magnetic. This is Cage at his best: haunted, hurt (his hangdog face and wounded eyes are the films’ greatest special effect) and driven by an ever increasing moral outrage that sparks an equal teeth gritting anxiety in the audience. The scene where, while mulling over a decision to commit murder, Cage calls the little girl’s mother and asks her for permission to “hurt the people who hurt her daughter” is emotionally leveling.

But as shattering and frightening a film as 8MM is, there are enough kinky and colorful quirks in it to push it into cult film territory, which over the past decade and a half it has slowly been recognized as. Stormare’s preening Velvet is as campy as he is vile and the world he inhabits is, again, a very stylized vision of the mythical snuff underworld. Phoenix’s cheeky presence adds much levity as well, but it’s a real performance with a very real and tragic heart beating within his characters’ glib exterior.

There’s so much more to say about this strange movie’s sick spell but really, my hyperbole can’t properly do it justice. If you’ve seen this movie and dismissed it, I strongly advise you to re-evaluate it. If you haven’t seen it at all, you as a horror film fan are doing yourself a grave disservice and are wasting time reading this essay when you should be watching it. And if you still resist, because you’re one of the select cineastes who can’t stand Cage, again, this picture might just make you understand and appreciate the man a bit more.

The post In Defense of Joel Schumacher’s 8MM appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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FANGORIA Podcast Network: “THE HORROR SHOW” Dissects “HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH”

FANGORIA®

FANGORIA Podcast Network: “THE HORROR SHOW” Dissects “HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH”

With Halloween only 72 hours away, THE HORROR SHOW hosts Sean and Joe prepare to celebrate the festive and frightening season by closing the book on a timely fright flick that is as loved as it is hated. That’s right: THE HORROR SHOW podcast has decided to revisit the red-headed stepchild of the HALLOWEEN franchise, […]

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Horror-Comedy Garden Party Massacre Wraps Principal Photography

AnythingHorror Central

Horror-Comedy Garden Party Massacre Wraps Principal Photography

The horror-comedy GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE recently completed principal photography and is currently in post-production. The film is written and directed by Gregory Blair and stars Andy Gates, Nichole Bagby, David Leeper, Lise Hart, Dawna Lee Heising, Matt Weinglass, and Marv Blauvelt. Check out the press release, which also contains the plot crunch:

Comedy/Horror Film GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE Wraps Principal Photography!

Gregory Blair’s hilarious new film has wrapped and heads into post production.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2015 – PRLog — Just in time for the Halloween season, Gregory Blair’s hilarious new film GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE has wrapped principal photography and heads into post production for a 2016 release.  With his award-winning psychological thriller DEADLY REVISIONS making its marketplace debut via SGL Entertainment, fans are eagerly awaiting Blair’s next film.  With editing about to go under way, the wait is now just a little shorter.

GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE is a fast-paced, hilarious romp in the vein of Shaun of the Dead and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, telling the tale of a backyard gathering of friends that goes horribly awry when an unexpected guest arrives.  With a pickaxe.  And an attitude.

A longtime fan of horror comedy, Blair was eager to make his own contribution. “I think horror easily lends itself to comedy because the emotions are so high and the situations are often outrageous.  I love films that successfully walk that line between horror and comedy, whether it’s witty and referential like the Scream or giddy low camp like Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.”

The film stars actors from film and television, both horror and comedy.  Andy Gates (“The Young and the Restless”) and Nichole Bagby (“Stupid Bitch”) are the harried hosts and the guests include Lise Hart (“Deadly Revisions”), Dawna Lee Heising (“Legend of the Red Reaper”), David Leeper (“Fifth Helena Drive”), Matt Weinglass (“Hitchcock”) and Blair (“Ooga Booga”).

Until the release, fans can get involved and get updates at http://www.GardenPartyMassacreFilm.com.  There’s also a fun Playbuzz.com quiz “Which GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE Character Are You?” where fans can choose between personality traits, weapons and more to reveal the character from the film they are most like.  The quiz can be found at https://www.playbuzz.com/gregoryblair10/which-garden-part…

GARDEN PARTY MASSACRE is coming your way via PIX/SEE Productions and writer/director Gregory Blair promises it will be–pun intended–a scream.

— End —

Stay Bloody!!!

Filed under: Breaking News, Independent Horror Scene, New Posting, Upcoming Releases

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Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS

Shock Till You Drop

Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS

Retail giant Walmart offers preview and audio sample from horror legend Stephen King’s new book.

Stephen King has partnered up with Walmart (we don’t make this stuff up!) to give his fans a sneak peek at his latest literary shocker, THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS, by rolling out the foreword exclusively via the retail giant’s website.

You can read that foreword by going HERE.

Additionally, you can hear reading portions of the tome via his audio-book below:

THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS is King’s 6th collection of short stories (arguably, King is at his most potent in the short story format) and it releases everywhere on November 3rd. To celebrate, Walmart is discounting all King titles (including BAZAAR) by 40%.

To learn more about the book and for all things Stephen King go to King’s  Official Site.

The post Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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SHOCK’s Top 10 Horror List…of Horror Lists!

Shock Till You Drop

SHOCK’s Top 10 Horror List…of Horror Lists!

National treasure Heidi Honeycutt rounds up her Top 10 List…of Lists!

Lists are an integral and important part of modern journalism. As Halloween rolls around, readers are inundated with lists of the top horror films, including top horror film deaths, horror films of the last year, horror films of the last decade, horror movie villains…it can be overwhelming to know which lists you should be reading when there are so many on such different websites. That’s why here at SHOCK we have put together the ultimate list of horror movie lists so you don’t have to wade through the muck yourself. Some of these lists come from websites dedicated to horror movies, while some are from general film and entertainment sites. Still, others are websites specializing in lists and rankings. We feel this is a well-rounded list of lists that represents the best of horror lists from around the web. If you feel we may have missed a list that belongs on this list, don’t hesitate to write it in the comments section. Enjoy! We hope you have as much fun reading each and every list on this list as we had making the list of the lists.

11) HitFix’s Ultimate Horror Movie Poll

HitFix did the unthinkable and asked over 100 of the most important horror writers, directors, authors, actors, critics, bloggers and scholars (except me) to pick their top ten greatest horror films of all time. Then, they used a special algorithm designed by NASA to tabulate the results thus making the definitive, ultimate, 100-film-long list of the best horror movies ever. The best horror movie ever? THE EXORCIST.

Check out the science by going HERE.

10) Crave Online’s 50 Best Horror Movies of the Century (So Far)

This beautiful list, co-curated by SHOCK’s own resident horror experts Alyse Wax and Chris Alexander, and with input from renowned film genius William Bibbiani, lists the 50 best horror movies of the past 15 years. That means that 3 and 1/3 horror movies from every year from 2000-2015 ended up on this list! Accidentally, John Carpenter’s GHOSTS OF MARS (2001) ended up on this list (accidentally, my ASS – ed), but everything else is extremely accurate.

Check out the GHOSTS OF MARS-heavy list HERE.

9) MFF Reader Poll: 21st Century Horror Films That Don’t Appear On “Best of” Lists

Horror films that don’t appear on any lists? There’s a list for that. Moviesfilmsandflix.com lists really good films like DOG SOLDIERS (2002) and SLITHER (2006) and the list makes you go, “Why aren’t those on any of the other best horror movie lists? Those are really good movies.” It’s a thoughtful and well-written list with input from 5,300 voters and voting options scoured from obscure Reddit posts and the comments on AV CLUB articles. I’m pretty sure the author of this list is an autistic genius, as I have never seen this level of thought and care and intelligence go into any list before.

Dig into the Mensa-approved list HERE.

8) Here’s 8 Of The Scariest TV Horrors From Yesteryear

Oh look! It’s one of my own lists that I made for another horror website. This amazing list of TV horror from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s is just so amazing. This list has such thoughtful insight, such a great sense of concise knowledge, such art to it. This writer is so knowledgeable. Hey, did you ever hear of LATE NIGHT HORROR? This writer must be so smart to know about all this stuff. Even noted cynic Shade Rupe said of this list, “I was sad at first, but this is a thoroughly informative article.”

Learn what Shade learned by going HERE.

7) Six Amazing Non-Genre Halloween TV Episodes You Must See!

It’s a horror list about Halloween that has nothing to do with horror at all. It’s Alyse Wax’s list of must-see Halloween TV episodes of non-horror things! (Definitely click this link because it’s also on Shock Till You Drop.) Do you remember when Roseanne and Dan turned their house into a spooky Tunnel of Terror on their lower middle-class income budget? I do too! What a great episode. Their couch was so ugly.

Help SHOCK get more hits by going HERE.

6) Ten Horror Movies That Hurt So Good

No list of horror movie lists is complete without a list from Stacie Ponder, who is The New York Times’ resident horror expert and has actually testified in court as an expert on horror films. Her palate is so refined that she can actually distinguish between the bad kind of horror movies that cause pain, and that good kind of bad horror movies that hurt so good. This list, which was commissioned by AMC, answers the question once and for all so we all know which bad horror movies are safe to watch, and which are poisonous.

Masochists can go HERE.

5) Top Ten Cheesiest Horror Movie One-Liners!

This fun little list from Bloody-Disgusting points out the best bad writing in silly horror movies. In this list, however, not only do we get the cheesy one-liner itself, but we get the context and level of cheesiness rating from the dedicated writer. The movies they list are ones that don’t normally appear on any lists at all, like FEARDOTCOM (which I actually love lots – ed), and the list ends with a classic cheesy one-liner that all horror fans honestly do love and quote incessantly.

To sample the film-y fromage hit HERE.

4) Horror Movie Mistakes So Scary You Missed Them (PHOTOS)

This list of photos showing horror movie mistakes comes to us from Moviefone, which is not a phone system of any kind, but used to be back in the 1980s. Now it is a website, and they made this list of horror movie mistakes as one of those photo slideshows that you can flip through, but the page reloads every time you click on one of the photos and ads will reload on the page too. I wanted to make sure to include one of those in this list, and this one in particular is pretty nit-picky, so die-hard horror aficionados will enjoy it immensely.

Check out all the bloody bloopers HERE.

3) Top 10 Horror Movies No Pregnant Woman Should Watch

There’s an entire website devoted to Top Ten Lists called top10hq.com, and while their business model is questionable, we wish them the best. They host a horror film list of movies that should scare the crap out of pregnant women and so they should not watch them, like Paul Solet’s GRACE (2009). Most impressive about this list is the inclusion of the segment Z IS FOR ZYGOTE from THE ABCs OF DEATH 2, which, in my opinion, is probably the best short in that entire anthology.

Get knocked out by thems who is knocked up by going HERE.

2) The 32 Best Death Scenes In Horror Movie History

This tasteofcinema.com list has a pleasant little intro paragraph discussing how different film genres elicit different reactions from the audience and sets up the 32 film scenes nicely. What I like best about this list is that it provides YouTube links to watch all of the death scenes it describes so in- depth. Thirty-two death scenes take a lot of room to write about and embed, so this list ends up being four Internet pages long. It really won me over when it included the crazy hanging death scene in SUSPIRIA as number 8.

See all the big screen bucket-kicking by visiting HERE.

1) Dread Central’s List Section

Last but not least, for those who want to do some horror list exploration on their own, DreadCentral.com has an entire tab on their menu devoted to listing their horror lists. I am extremely impressed that the staff is posting several lists a week, minimum, and even a recent ranking of Michael Meyers’ various masks throughout the franchise, from 1 through 9. Dread Central definitely wins the number one spot for horror lists for its list of horror lists.

For the List-o-Mania go HERE.

The post SHOCK’s Top 10 Horror List…of Horror Lists! appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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