In the 70s Aurora had an amazing line of horror themed model kits which I haven’t looked at since the Carter administration. Well the vintage Aurora kits are back! And man I forgot how silly they were: When you’re a kid everything seems so much more serious — but after looking at this cover art for the Monster Scenes Dr. Deadly Model Kit I couldn’t stop laughing. Yeah you’ve got the poorly attired doctor doing something, well what is he doing? Well it must be evil, but the best part is the added touch of his little pet to the right. That bunny looks completely silly, it reminds me of the Monty Python killer rabbit sketch: Read more…
Kazuo Umezu (楳図 かずお) is the the godfather of the Japanese horror manga genre. A new film has been released in Japan which profiles the author/artist who got his start in 1962 and is still active. Umezu is best known for such works as The Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan and Reptilia. The Drifting Classroom was turned into a live action film in 1987. Here are some samples of his wonderfully gothic work: Read more…
I just came across the YouTube video below which mentions casting reality TV star Kim Kardashian as Frankenstein in a cult horror film which hasn’t started shooting yet. Now normally I’d dismiss this as a hoax, but the video is by Glenn Andreiev who actually has a decent body of professional work out there. Although frankly I can see more easily see Kardashian as a vampire, but not so much a Frankenstein: Read more…
On this day in 1960 the British film The Brides of Dracula made it’s American debut. The film was produced by the beloved Hammer Film Productions which did some amazing horror and science fiction work in the 50s with films like The Quatermass Xperiment and The Curse of Frankenstein. Although by 1959 they started to revert to sequels and by 1974 had produced a total of 9 Dracula flicks. Of course in this case the Dracula title is slightly dishonest as the lead vampire Baron Meinster (played by handsome David Peel) was in fact just a mere disciple of Count Dracula as seen in this trailer: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 4, 2009 in Cinema, Horror
What do you get when you mix up Dracula, a cloned version of the comedy team of Martin & Lewis and a guy in a gorilla suit? Well on this day in 1952 you got the opening of the cult classic comedy film Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Frankly poor Bella was always an afterthought, in fact he only spends a few minutes on the screen although it’s his name that has kept the flame going for lovers of camp films all these years later. The film was made at the height of fame of the comedy act of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis — in fact the duo sued to stop the film but failed. Read more…
Beasts of Burden got started as a collaboration between Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) and Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) for the anthologies The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings, Witchcraft, the Dead, and Monsters. The result? They won the Eisner Awards for Best Short Story and Best Painter categories. So I’m pleased to see that Dark Horse is working to publish an mini-series based on this initial appearance which is due to debut on September 16, 2009. Read more…
As a magazine publisher Warren Publishing was born out as a result of the infamous comic book code of the 50s which made the genre a bit too family friendly: Along with sister publications like Eerie and Vampirella, Creepy magazine kept alive the tradition of horror comics from 1964 until 1983. Next year on January 27th, 2010 Dark Horse will be publishing a set of trading cards based upon covers of the magazine. Read more…
On this day in 1932 the horror film Doctor X opened: Directed by Michael Curtiz and featuring King Kong’s girlfriend Fay Wray this film is interesting because it was one of the last Hollywood films shot before the infamous Production Code and as such it features all sorts of mature themes like murder, rape and cannibalism that wouldn’t find here way back into filmmaking for decades to come. Another thing that makes this film interesting for the 30s is that it was shot in Technicolor — so it’s a rare color film from that era: Read more…
Update: My apologies! I was looking at the 1:30 mark and they seemed to be UFO hunting (i.e. “We’re investigating a meteor!”) by well informedsources tell me that there were no aliens in the comic book that the film is based upon. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 5, 2009 in Cinema, Horror
This is where science fiction ends and fact begins! On this day in 1962 the post-apocalyptic film Panic in Year Zero opened. The film was directed by Ray Milland and also stars him in the lead role of Harry Baldwin, a man who takes his family out on a simple fishing trip only to find out that that loud noise that they heard was the destruction of Los Angles by a nuclear attack. But it turns out that radiation sickness, looters and killers are the real issues of the day — what’s makes you civilized is the ability for a man to get a decent shave: Read more…
Everyone knows that the two scariest things in the world are puppets and zombies. Now, imagine if these two horrifying objects were combined, ala Freddy versus Jason. Horror masterpiece, right? Wrong! However, what you do have is a novel one minute and forty-eight seconds of your life you can’t have back. You’ll still click it though, come on! It has zombies and puppets in it… Read more…
No self respecting fangurl can be seen at the Mountains of Madness without the proper millinery and this 100% original crochet toque designed by Lesley A. Karpiuk does just the trick! With handmade tentacles and wings soft worsted weight yarn mere mortals will fear your every move. Frankly zombies are so last year — real fashion forward folks in-the-know know that Cthulhu is set for a huge comeback this season… Read more…
It’s with a heavy heart that I learned of the passing of Forrest J Ackerman because so much of what we take for granted today as fanboys we owe to the man and his generation. Forrest was among the members of First Fandom: The first generation of fanboys who during the 30s invented science fiction conventions, fan clubs, fanzines and cosplay. And Mr. Ackerman did all of that by playing a leading role in establishing the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society in 1934, attending the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939 and published on the first fanzines Futuria Fantasia in 1939. Here’s an interview with him talking about the early days of science fiction fandom from 1996: Read more…
The trailer for this videogame looks like it’s very true to the 1984 film of the same name, but as a fanboy I’m asking if this is really a good thing? Yeah on a technical level I’m impressed that Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd look exactly like Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but does that mean it will make a good videogame? I think sometimes the best thing to do with a Hollywood based title is to have some fun with it (example: Batman Lego) but for a film that was a comedy this title seems a tad serious from this first glance.
While Ridley Scott’s Alien is an amazing horror film, my favorite in the genre goes to his brother Tony Scott who directed The Hunger. To me the genre of werewolves can be a bit campy, but if there is anyone who can get it right it would be Ridley Scott:
“We learned of some interesting news this evening as we were tipped off that Ian Jeffers, who wrote both James Wans’ drama-thriller DEATH SENTENCE and Sylvain White’s upcoming adaptation of CASTLEVANIA, has sold an original script to legendary director-produce Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner). Here’s the juicy tid-bit… apparently the film is a werewolf project! No other details were revealed, but it sounds like we might have something pretty huge to look forward to in the coming years.”
Neil Marshall Writer/Director of the Descent and Dog Soldiers returns to the big screen with Doomsday. In 2008 the Reaper virus lays siege to Scotland, killing people by the thousands. In response the British government puts up a 30 foot wall around Scotland, separating it from the rest of the world and trapping those infected within. Anarchy ensues as people rape, loot and kill in a lawless land while the rest of the world looks on.
Fast forward thirty years. The rest of the world has turned their back on England, London has become a third world haven for the downtrodden who live on the streets because they can’t afford to live anywhere else. It is among the masses that victims of the returning Reaper Virus are found. Martial Law is declared by Prime Minister Hatcher (Alexander Siddig a.k.a Dr. Bashir from Star Trek:Deep Space 9) and a plan is drawn up to find out why some people survived within the quarantine zone of Scotland and to find the cure for the Reaper virus.
Eden Sinclair played by Rhona Mitra ( Shooter, The Number 23, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans ) is chosen to lead a team back into the wasteland to find a survivor and the cure. The team, of course, is filled with throw away good guys who’s only job is to get slaughtered and make Eden look all the more bad ass.
Shown above are two samples from an amazing gallery that features posters from classic Bollywood horror films. On the left is the poster for Khoon Ki Pyasi Dayan and on the right is Gumnaam from 1965. The website is here:
The first film released by WWE Films, See No Evil stars WWE Superstar Kane (a running theme in WWE movies with The Marine starring John Cena and The Condemned starring Stone Cold Steve Austin). The basis for the movie is a basic horror film formula. An abandoned building, a psycho killer and a group of kids just waiting their turn to die.
I’m sad to report that Maila Nurmi (known to us fanboys as Vampira) has passed away. Her career highlights include starring in Ed Wood’s classic epic Plan 9 From Outer Space and had her own TV show in Los Angles. This is the notice from her website:
Werewolves are back in the movies! Underworld and it’s sequel have managed to make the wolf man a popular topic for film in the new century and the latest release in this genre is Skinwalkers. With a PG-13 rating and a pretty formulamatic plot Skinwalkers was perceived as another tired retread from a Hollywood in desperate need of originality. Yet as the movie progressed it showed itself to have a little spark and a cast of actors and characters that you found yourself caring for.
Every day Ian Stone starts his life, at some point during that day Ian dies a terrible death only to find himself in a new life with an unsettling feeling that he’s been through something horrific. Thus the plot setup for the Deaths of Ian Stone for the best movie to come out of Horrorfest in 2007.
I’m starting to hear some good things about Cloverfield, but the Statue of Liberty treatment reminds me a bit too much of the end of Planet of the Apes and we’ve already seen the blowing up New York City thing in Independence Day. And not to make it personal but in my mind JJ Abrams is still not on my “friends list” until he patches things up with William Shatner over the next Star Trek film. Although that won’t stop me from standing in line to see the movie on opening day of course…
P.S. Although I have to say that Cloverfield’s marketing campaign is very blogger friendly which makes me happy!
