Stephen King Previews His Latest Book THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS

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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.

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

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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.

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Comic Review: Action Lab’s TRANCERS

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Comic Review: Action Lab’s TRANCERS

SHOCK reviews Acton Lab Comics’ revamped TRANCERS comic.

TRANCERS is the type of movie that dives straight into its world with little warning. With a tagline of “His name is Deth, he hunts Trancers, even in the 20th Century”, the audience is warned that they are in for a trip, a promise that it fulfills in every sense of the word. It’s definitely a trip alright. This low-budget sci-fi wonderland about a detective who travels through time to stop a dastardly villain has spawned five sequels and a thirty minute short, creating a fan-base that is as committed to its infinite continuation as it is to the B-movie fun that every subsequent film seems to release in spades. So, is it any wonder that in our age of nostalgia that TRANCERS has once again seen the spotlight? Thanks to Action Lab Comics, TRANCERS the comic is back, this time shining a bit of backstory on our hero’s obsession with villain Martin Whistler.

Much like the movie, the comic is heavily shadowed with Jack Deth’s internal monologue. It begins as he races his way down the streets of New Vegas on the resort planet of Mekon Seven. Per movie mythos, will not end well for Whistler, but we finally get a glimpse of what led up to their eventual confrontation. Deth narrates who he is, the tragic story of him and his wife, and why exactly he’s there to kill the man that took everything away from him. As he reaches his destination, there are more than just bad feelings standing between the two and as the blood begins to flow, a battle of the mind is soon to follow.

Though it’s obvious to fans of the movie that there was a bit of budget issue (which perhaps helped solidify into its cult status), comics have no such limit but the imagination, and this comic feels like the movie that the creators wanted to make. Fast paced action in a uniquely sci-fi setting, the reader gets a front row view of Deth’s one minded pursuit to destroy the man who destroyed him. As a prequel to the first TRANCERS movie, it’s fun to see the places only mentioned in the film and get a little more into the protagonists head. Unfortunately, there is no indication if the follow up issues are going to be different from the initial movie as the first issue literally leads into where the movie started off on. Perhaps we’ll see some between-the-scene’s scenes or a further exploration of the TRANCERS world?

Also, this is very much a TRANCERS comic, the story is very particular to this work, including using phrases and technologies only seen in the series, and might be a turn off to new readers. While this may not be an issue for bigger 80’s nostalgia works such as BOOM! Studios BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA or IDW’s BACK TO THE FUTURE, because TRANCERS is so low flying, it’s hard to really embrace the entirety of the work without having to hunt down the movie.

As stated, this is not the first TRANCERS comic to have been released, the first one having come out in 1991 via Eternity Comics. Both series are the product of Full Moon Entertainment and explore different aspects of Deth’s life, though the current incantation is planning on beating the previous run by one more issue (the original series got cut off at two issues). The writers, Jimmy Palmiotti (Harley Quinn, All-Star Western) and Justin Gray (All-Star Western) weave a story that is solid homage to the movie series, from the heavy sci-fi opera to the technological goofiness such as giving Whistler wings on his suit. Deth’s personality mirrors actors Tim Thomerson’s original portrayal, albeit, perhaps a tad bit less wise-cracking. The art does get a bit scrunchy in places, especially when the action bits are in play, but it’s not so distracting as to take away from the work as a whole.

TRANCERS the comic continues on the cheesiness and attempted seriousness of its originator, but might turn off readers who are not already initiated into the overall series…

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Interview: Writer Todd Casey Talks TRICK ‘R TREAT: DAYS OF THE DEAD Comic

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Interview: Writer Todd Casey Talks TRICK ‘R TREAT: DAYS OF THE DEAD Comic

Writer Todd Casey gives SHOCK the scoop on TRICK ‘R TREAT: DAYS OF THE DEAD and his work on KRAMPUS.

TRICK ‘R TREAT is the classic rags-to-riches movie. A limited release after a two year delay almost sucked this movie into obscurity, but thanks to a few determined horror fans and an overall solid critic rating, it now sits comfortably on the cult collectors market. With its hard times behind it, the TRICK ‘R TREAT franchise has nothing but good times to look forward to, beginning with the new TRICK ‘R TREAT: DAYS OF THE DEAD comic.Helmed by TRICK ‘R TREAT writer/director Michael Dougherty, with writing by Todd Casey and Zach Shields, the word brings together a collection of unique talent from all across the comic world, each adding a strand to the TRICK ‘R TREAT mythos.

Todd Casey was kind enough to sit with us at SHOCK and talk about his contribution to the soon-to-be-classic comic.

SHOCK: What attracted you to the project?

CASEY: Sam is actually the reason I met Mike a little over ten years ago. I was working in development at Cartoon Network and we brought him in for a general meeting after seeing his short “Season’s Greetings.” We became friends from there and didn’t collaborate on anything until KRAMPUS. When the comic book came up, Mike invited me to write on it and, as a fan of the film, I jumped at the chance.

SHOCK: Why set each story in different time period instead of the one town/one night that was popular for the movie?

CASEY: There’s an economy in shrinking the story to a single location that’s hugely helpful in film, but wasn’t a necessary constraint here. We got a little wide-eyed at the realization we could go anywhere and do anything and really wanted to take full advantage of the comic book medium. The stories are connected thematically and by a framing device, but don’t criss-cross the way the stories in the film did. That’s one of my favorite parts of the film and we had to work a little harder to create a sense of cohesion between these disparate tales so as not to lose that. There’s also a bit of us simply not being able to pick a flavor of ice cream and deciding to have one scoop of each.

SHOCK: Did you do a lot of Halloween research, (i.e traditions, folklore) or just kind of jump into it blind?

CASEY: If you live by the beach, you can’t help but get a tan. And if you spend enough time with Mike Dougherty, you can’t help but absorb arcane Halloween secrets. In terms of the historical periods, we started with what we all knew and didn’t delve into anything that was too unfamiliar. We then did some rough fact checking to make sure we weren’t going to embarrass ourselves. The stories grew out of legends we already knew or things that interested us — like the Red Scare in Hollywood, Native American folklore, Celtic traditions, and our own childhoods in 1980s suburban America.

SHOCK: Why did you choose the graphic novel route instead of doing single issues?

CASEY: To be honest, I’m not sure how that came about, but I’m happy about it. From trying to force comics into the hands of people that don’t read them, I’ve found it’s easier to do so if it’s all in one book. Covers are really what I love most about single issues (and the suspense, I suppose), so I’m pleased that we have a cover for each new story at the start of the chapter. Plus some bonus covers in the back.

SHOCK: Sam seemed to be more ingrained in the backgrounds of the story than really a part of them, was that intentional?

CASEY: Sam doesn’t take a lot of direct action — like lollipoping someone’s throat open – but his magic is at work in every story. We wanted to deepen the overall Sam mythology and give some further insight into what his “code of ethics” (for lack of a better term) is. One of the most surprising things about Sam is that he (stop reading if you haven’t seen TRICK ‘R TREAT and go watch it) doesn’t kill Kreeg in the end. So we know he has some kind of operating system more complex than just binary killing. He has an agenda and a purpose and these stories explore that. The less academic reason is that Mike has a really good Sam story and it’s TRICK ‘R TREAT 2.

SHOCK: Both Fiona Staples and Marc Andreyko have both come back to work on this second installment of the TRICK ‘R TREAT comic line. How did it come about that those two came back?

CASEY: I love Fiona’s work and am friends with Marc, but that decision was all Mike. I tracked Fiona down at Comic Con and shoved a copy of Saga in front of her.

SHOCK: Will this tie into the second movie?

CASEY: At this point I can’t say, partly from lack of information and partly from fear that dispensing the information I do have will result in some painful and ironic death.

SHOCK: You two are also tied to the KRAMPUS project (both comic and movie) out later this year. What can you tell us about it? What’s the story?

CASEY: It’s about a dysfunctional family trying to get through the holidays… while an ancient Christmas demon picks them off one by one. Max (Emjay Anthony) is just a bit too old to believe in Santa, but he won’t let go. He’s been watching his family deteriorating around him and, in Christmas, he sees a chance to call upon supernatural aid to fix the problems he’s powerless to solve. But he gives up a moment too soon and essentially dials the wrong number, summoning KRAMPUS instead. It’s not quite a “horror comedy,” but more of a dark Christmas fairy tale with a sense of humor, which sounds like an overly specific Netflix category. If it was in Netflix category, it’s safe to say “Gremlins” would be right alongside it.

SHOCK: The idea of KRAMPUS has been very popular this year, especially with comics. Are you worried about competition?

CASEY: No, I think we can only help each other. From comics and horror, we know that fans are more than happy to read vampire or Batman or Batman-vampire stories from different creators across different mediums. If nothing else, it’ll really fill out those “You might also like” suggestions on Amazon. From what little I know of the other projects, they are all very, very different, which I think is testament to how broad the Krampus legend is.

SHOCK: Any more comic (or film) works in the future we can look forward to?

CASEY: It’s a ways off, but I’m writing a long-form graphic novel with Noelle Stevenson that’s due in 2017 from HarperCollins. It’s called 4 WIZARDS and, while it’s not without its demons and magic, it’s decidedly more “whimsical” than TRICK ‘R TREAT!

You can order TRICK ‘R TREAT: DAYS OF THE DEAD HERE.

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HALLOWEEN: The Mythology of Michael Myers

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HALLOWEEN: The Mythology of Michael Myers

SHOCK’s Alexandra West slices into the deep, cinematic mythology of mass-murderer Michael Myers.

Michael Myers – the man, the myth, the enigma. Since he slowly lumbered on to the screen and into horror fan’s hearts in John Carpenter’s 1978 classic HALLOWEEN, Michael has become synonymous with horror movies and the stuff of nightmares. While Michael was on the pop culture scene before his counterparts Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, both of whom arguably exist due to Michael’s influence, Michael has had a harder time fitting into a larger pop culture context. Easily recognizable to horror fans, many mainstream audience members didn’t click with Michael the way they had with the wise-cracking Freddy (despite his history as a child murderer/pedophile) or Jason’s oddly sympathetic rage. Michael never fit into a mold which would grant him mainstream recognition. It didn’t help that while the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13th franchises grew into wacky parodies of themselves, the HALLOWEEN franchise maintained its stoic and dark roots. Michael Myers is the blank canvas of evil; producers, directors and writers added to his mythology as though they were playing a never-ending game of Jenga hoping they weren’t the one to pull the piece that would make the entire franchise come tumbling down. So, how do you solve the problem of an unstoppable force that is seemingly stopped at the end of each film he appears him? Revise, rewrite and hope the audience isn’t paying too much attention. But for the horror fans who have a soft spot for the figure originally known as The Shape, his convoluted back story is part of his charm. Each Halloween sequel has its supporters so the purposes of this piece we’re going to treat each one as canon in an experiment to see what we truly know about the man behind the mask.

 Myers began his reign of terror as a boy, killing his older sister, Judith on Halloween when he was six. He was then committed to Warren County Smith’s Grove Sanitarium where he escapes from on Halloween 1978 kicking off the events of the first film. He returns to his home of Haddonfield, Illinois wreaking havoc on the small town. Focusing his attention on Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends Michael is an unmovable force. Laurie is able to defend herself long enough for Michael’s attending physician and boogeyman expert Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) to arrive and shoot his patient. Unfortunately for Loomis and Laurie, the madness is far from over as Michael’s body disappears at the end of the first film.

Primed for return, Michael Myers tracks Laurie down in a hospital in HALLOWEEN II (1981) which picks up immediately after the events of the first film. HALLOWEEN II takes on many of the same thematic and filmic styles of the first film but the main thrust of the action (outside of the randy nurses and doctors) stems from Michael consistent pursuit of Laurie who the audience learns is Michael’s younger sister who was adopted by the Strode family. Dr. Loomis is still at work trying to track Michael down eventually connecting him to the occult and Samhain, a Gaelic end-of-harvest festival which ushers in the beginning of the “darker” half of the year. These two connections, which are briefly mentioned in the film are meant to explain some of Michael seeming indestructibility, come across as throwaways but these elements will return soon enough. After some more stabbings and shootings in the hospitals Laurie and Dr. Loomis manage set Michael on fire. The final images in the film are of fire pouring out of Michael’s white mask implying an almost certain death.

HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982) attempted to deviate from the slasher set-up favoring witchy Halloween masks and the sex appeal of Tom Atkins. When HALLOWEEN III proved to be box office poison producers decided to resurrect Michael Myers with HALLOWEEN IV: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988) a title decision playing on the name recognition which had already been established with Jason and Freddy and a promise to the audience that while HALLOWEEN IV would deny them a shirtless Tom Atkins, Michael would indeed be back. HALLOWEEN IV would begin what became known as the Thorn Trilogy which would see a mysterious cult try to control Michael adding some of the most outrageous yet interesting elements of the Michael Myers mythos.

The opening of HALLOWEEN IV explains that Michael survived fire shooting out of his mask in Halloween II though sustained burns and has been in a coma since. While transferring Michael to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium by ambulance, the two paramedics discuss the events of the first two films and in doing so; they mention that Michael has a niece, Laurie’s daughter Jamie (Danielle Harris). Michael attacks the paramedics, crashing the ambulance and beelines to Haddonfield to find his niece. The young Jamie is tormented at school and still struggling to find her place in the world after the death of her parents. Though her adopted teenage sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell) does the best she can to make Jamie feel at home, Jamie can’t shake the strange presence of her uncle Michael that she feels is growing closer to her. The character of Jamie functions in a similar capacity as Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) in the Friday the 13th series suggesting a child would take up the mantle of a malevolent killer. Halloween IV keeps to the chasing and slashing but ends with a final coda mirroring the opening prologue of the first film with Jamie attacking her stepmother while the camera adopts her gaze from behind the mask that she wears as part of her clown costume.

HALLOWEEN V: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1989) begins with Jamie institutionalized and almost mute after the experiences of the previous film. While her remaining friends and family are picked by her un-killable uncle, Jamie’s psychic bond to Michael grows stronger and Dr. Loomis becomes determined to use this power against Michael. Luring Michael to his old home where Michael killed his older sister all those years before, Loomis uses Jamie as bait. At the moment when Michael shows some semblance of humanity and reaches out to Jamie his urge to kill overtakes him and he attack her and Loomis subdues him by beating him with a piece of plywood. Michael is taken to jail but is broken out by the mysterious Man in Black.

HALLOWEEN VI: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995) not only complicates the story of Michael Myers but also caused it to fracture with the release of the Producer’s Cut which would add in various subplots which were filmed but ultimately cut from the film’s original release creating two divergent plots for the film. HALLOWEEN VI follows Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) who’s all grown up after Laurie Strode’s Adventures in Babysitting (aka Halloween 1978). Tommy is still obsessed with Michael as is the entire town of Haddonfield. Jamie is also all grown up and is being held by the mysterious Thorn cult. Michael kills Jamie after she gives birth (in the Producer’s Cut it is revealed that Michael is the baby’s father). Tommy finds Jamie’s baby and takes it for safe-keeping. The film runs at a cutthroat pace in an attempt to resolve many of the questions asked in the previous films but only serves to leave more loose ends in its wake. Ultimately, the final take away from HALLOWEEN VI is that Michael Myers is sort of controlled by a cult who has been a part of Michael’s life since he was institutionalized. Yes, there could be other take-aways, such as Michael is anatomically correct and can be filled with corrosive goo for a Fun-Time version of Michael but these elements are more like wacky add-ons that you get with a special edition action figure. There are multiple uses of a sinister tattoo and star configurations that appear around Halloween causing the Curse of the Thorn which Tommy speculates causes Michael’s murderous rages to wipe out his entire family. Tommy theorizes that the Curse of the Thorn is what makes Michael invincible and that his son/great-nephew is his Michael’s last sacrifice which makes about as much sense as anything else in this movie.

A mere three years later, Michael Myers would reemerge in a filmic landscape reinvigorated by the reception of SCREAM (1996). Ignoring the events after HALLOWEEN II, HALLOWEEN H20 (1998) focuses on Laurie Strode now a dean at a private school. Still traumatized after the events of that fateful night she watches over her son John (Josh Hartnett) like a mother bear on steroids waiting for Michael to show his face again which he inevitably does. In the larger mythology of Michael Myers, HALLOWEEN H20 only serves to illustrate that Michael is very good at taking off his clothes and putting them on someone else. At the climax of the film, Laurie unleashes her rage and kills who she thinks is Michael. A lot of the press materials and interviews given in 1998 noted that this would be the final movie and that Jamie Lee Curtis returned to the role not only for the fans but also to give Laurie some sort of closure….

But when HALLOWEEN H20 performed better than expected, Dimension Films greenlit what would be the final sequel HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION (2002) which saw Michael finally kill Laurie and terrorize a reality show that was being filmed in his old home. So we know that Michael hates reality television and is probably more of a PBS guy.

As remakes became the go-to studio model for horror after the success of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2003), it was only a matter of time before HALLOWEEN got a makeover. Rob Zombie’s two HALLOWEEN films divided audiences but ultimately served as an exercise for Zombie himself rather than an exploration of the notions of good and evil. Zombie adds extensively to the Michael Myers backstory depicting his family as low-income with his well-intentioned mother (Sherri Moon Zombie) serving as the only one able to tap into his humanity though she ultimately loses her son to the darkness that would consume him. Through the two films, Zombie cannibalizes elements from all the other HALLOWEEN films re-framing them as 1970s grindhouse, exploitation films making Zombie’s HALLOWEENs an experiment in aesthetics rather than plot. While Carpenter’s film (as well as its subsequent sequels) depicts Michael as the emblem of the banality of evil, a small child from an average suburban family driven to commit unspeakable acts for no reason, Zombie’s imbues Michael’s story with a level of sympathy. Could Michael have been saved if the rest of his family weren’t suck dicks? Probably not. Zombie’s HALLOWEENs provided enough fodder for other properties (FRIDAY THE 13th and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET etc.) to be remade with an emphasis on the backstory of the killer.

Michael Myers has been viewed as many things. He lacks the kicky backstory of a Freddy or a Jason but can instill as much, if not more, fear in an audience. For all the films in which Michael has appeared, we now know for sure that the easiest way to subdue Michael is to beat him with an inanimate object (see HALLOWEEN V & VI for a detailed how-to), his eye color is black and that he can be filled with goo (HALLOWEEN VI). What we do not know, and will never know, is what drives Michael which is the scariest unknown of all…

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Shock Video: David Koechner & Michael Dougherty Talk KRAMPUS

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Shock Video: David Koechner & Michael Dougherty Talk KRAMPUS

A visit to the Krampus haunted house with Michael Dougherty & David Koechner!

After director Michael Dougherty’s Halloween horror anthology Trick ‘r Treat was barely released in 2007, it somehow, miraculously, found the audience that appreciated its blend of humor, imaginative production design and scares on DVD. Now Dougherty is back and ready to take on Christmas with Universal and Legendary’s slice of holiday horror titled Krampus, and we had the chance to do an exclusive video interview with him and actor David Koechner (Anchorman, Final Destination 5) at the Scarehouse in Pittsburgh. Currently housing both Krampus and Trick ‘r Treat-themed haunted house attractions, we had the chance to do a special video walk-through of this maze of terrors, as did Koechner and Dougherty!

Check out the videos of the interview and our tour of the haunted house below, along with a gallery of pictures from our visit to the Scarehouse!

Based on the figure from German folklore, which has had a pop culture resurgence in recent years, Krampus follows a young boy named Max (Emjay Anthony) whose dysfunctional family disillusions him about Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers. All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.

Written by Dougherty, Todd Casey and Zach Shields, the film stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell, Emjay Anthony, Stefania Owen and Krista Stadler. It will be released by Universal Pictures on December 4.

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

Krampus Scarehouse Experience

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Guillermo Del Toro, Tristan Risk, Debbie Rochon and More Pick Their Favorite Movie Murders

Shock Till You Drop

Guillermo Del Toro, Tristan Risk, Debbie Rochon and More Pick Their Favorite Movie Murders

Guillermo del Toro, Tristan Risk, Debbie Rochon, Barbie Wilde and Tom Holland pick their favorite movie murders.

Watching people die in real life sucks. Watching them die in ‘reel’ life can be thrilling, delightfully disturbing, majestic and unforgettable. Horror films have, of course, made their bloody bones on scenes of stylized death (my is the operatic elevator scene in maestro Brian De Palma’s brilliant 1980 neo-giallo DRESSED TO KILL) but phantasmagorical, superbly orchestrated and, er, executed on-screen murder isn’t necessarily relegated to the genre…

We polled a pack of our famous ‘”friends in fright” to see what their favorite movie murders were and, almost universally, these heavy hitters chose bloody ends from pictures only vaguely associated with full-blown horror.

Have a look…

Guillermo Del Toro (CRIMSON PEAK, CRONOS, PACIFIC RIM)

MACBETH (Dir: Roman Polanski)

“The Decapitation of Macbeth”

GDT: The decapitation of Macbeth follows one of the greatest sword fights in film history and then, in 4 impeccable cuts, Polanski uses a dummy and a decapitated head to unparalleled effect. Plus, we later get a POV of the severed head!

Tristan Risk (AMERICAN MARY, THE EDITOR)

KILL BILL: PART ONE (Dir: Quentin Tarantino)

“Massacre at the House of the Blue Leaves”

TR: Ooh yeah… My favorite murder scene is a multiple murder, in Kill Bill Part One where The Bride (Uma Thurman) battles the Crazy 88s and Gogo. The sheer insanity of the whole thing is a joy to watch. I can only imagine how long that whole thing took to capture, so I doff my hat to Mr.Tarantino, and his crew for that…

Debbie Rochon (TERROR FIRMER, THE WRATH OF CROWS)

TAXI DRIVER (Dir: Martin Scorsese)

“Travis’ Rampage”

DR: The end sequence when Travis wipes out Iris’ pimp Sport and his Time Keeping cohorts. Scorsese drops the use of music as soon as Travis gets out of his cab and confronts Sport. This delivers a sense of hyper-realism and forces you into the moment. The realistic shooting of all Travis’ victims, as well as Travis being shot himself, is what makes this revenge scene work so well. One simple gunshot shot doesn’t bring down any of the characters. Scorsese also uses slow motion during this sequence for the character of Iris which gives just that one character a dream like moment stretching our her response to the mass murder. It’s topped off with more realism; when Travis tries to unromantically, no hero shot used, shoot himself in the head. But he fires his gun, which is planted firmly to his jaw and clicks the gun multiple times to no avail. Seeing the character is serious about blowing his own brains out, he then gets another gun which bares the same results. No bullets left. Travis then sits on the couch knowing the plan has now changed – just as it did when he had unsuccessfully planned to kill the presidential candidate. Scorsese only brings the Herrmann score back in when the police arrive…

Barbie Wilde (HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II, Author of THE VENUS COMPLEX)

LA CONFIDENTIAL (Dir: Curtis Hanson)

“Jack’s Murder”

BW: Kevin Spacey’s demise in LA CONFIDENTIAL was spectacular in its subtle realism. “Have you a valediction, boyo?” asks the dastardly Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), just after he shoots the unflappable and unsuspecting Jack Vincennes (Spacey). “Rollo Tomasi…”, Jack whispers and squeezes out a last little ironic chuckle of triumph before he fades out and then, astonishingly, THE LIGHT GOES OUT OF HIS EYES! How the hell did Spacey do that? I found out later that he simply de-focused his eyes, but damn, I’d never seen it in a movie before LA Confidential. Brilliant. (“Rollo Tomasi” was Jack’s coded message from beyond the grave to fellow cop Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) as a clue to snag Dudley.)

Also, this scene is notable for the fact that the villain doesn’t explain a damn thing about his devious goings-on before the brave detective wrestles the gun from him and makes the arrest. Nope, Dudley just puts the kettle down, turns around and shoots Jack. What a shocker. No verbal foreplay, no egotistical showing off how brilliant Dudley’s plans were, no toying with his victim, no chat to allow Jack to get the upper hand. Just one of the most surprising murders I’ve ever witnessed in a film.

Tom Holland (PSYCHO II, FRIGHT NIGHT, CHILD’S PLAY)

PSYCHO (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock)

“Marion’s Murder”

TH: My favorite murder is the most important murder, the shower scene in PSYCHO. The scene birthed the slasher movie and the very concept of “kills.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4

So, dear readers…what’s your favorite movie murder? Do tell in the comments below…

The post Guillermo Del Toro, Tristan Risk, Debbie Rochon and More Pick Their Favorite Movie Murders appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

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