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Archives For February 2012

3 Great Horror Comedies You Might Have Missed: Part II

Ryan —  February 27, 2012 — 4 Comments

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There are a lot of movies out there that you can put under the category of a horror comedy and most filmgoers are no stranger to them. Movies like Evil Dead II and Dead Alive really paved the way for the future generation of horror comedies. Everyone loves these types of films whether they know it or not. Shaun of the Dead is a perfect example of this. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like that movie and that’s because it is exactly why we see movies in the first place. To have a good time. Not only is it their goal to show enough blood to make any horror hound happy but they also want to make you laugh. Here I have a little list of some great movies that do just that. Enjoy. Continue Reading…

In List black sheep, , Fido, , , horror comedies, , Murder Party
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The Double Feature of the Week Presents:

Ryan —  February 24, 2012 — 4 Comments

Re-Animator / Slither

Here we are with the fourth double feature of the week. Can you believe that, already four have gone by. These are some of my favorite posts to do because it’s a lot of fun coming up with two films that can compliment each other so well. This week I picked two movies that might not seem like they would go together at first with Re-Animator and Slither but I assure you, these two were made for each other. Here we have two films that are somehow not nearly as popular as they ought to be, in fact I hardly know anyone who has seen Re-Animator let alone even heard about it. That, my friends is an absolute crime. Slither is a little bit more popular simply because it was made just a few years ago but even then its one of those movies that you just don’t hear anyone talking about how great it is. With these two films you are gonna get every bit of cheesy B-horror amazingness that any horror fan could appreciate.

Re-Animator
Directed by Stuart Gordon
Released: 1985

Never will I forget some of the scenes in this movie because they are so off the wall bat-shit that they will leave you either laughing non-stop or making you question your sanity. Take the bondage rape style “love” scene for example where a severed re-animated head being held by its own body is involved and of course the eye popping, exploding head scene. Re-Animator easily has enough gore to satisfy. It is also hilariously funny and just as equally and exquisitely disturbing. It’s perfect blend of humor and gore is really what makes this one unforgettable. It’s one of those movies that if you haven’t seen it, when you finally do you will be wondering why the hell you didn’t see it sooner. The humor is really what sets this film apart from a lot of movies because it keeps it from being just another gore-fest. This is B-movie at it’s finest right here, it can easily sit on the same shelf as Evil Dead 2. In my opinion this is one of the best horror-comedies ever made and it’s a shame that not many people have had the fortune to see it. It’s one of those movies that only true horror fans can appreciate, and that is exactly the way it should be. It has the classic story of Frankenstein with an Evil Dead-like approach and is one of the all-time gore classics from the 80′s. It doesn’t get much better than that. What I love about this movie is that it isn’t afraid to go way beyond it’s limits as to what most movie-goers are used to seeing. This was adapted from an H.P. Lovecraft story and you can honestly see how much the directed really loved the source material because he put his heart and soul into this movie. Re-Animator is about a medical student and his girlfriend that become involved in a strange experiment into reanimating the dead. In this campy sendup of an H.P. Lovecraft story the main focus is on it’s humor but once the dead begin to walk, there is gore aplenty.

Rotten Tomato Score: 92%

Slither
Directed by James Gunn
Released: 2006

This one isn’t as much a B-movie as it is a homage to B-movies which is what makes this movie so worth while. Most movies try not to be a B-movie since most people do not go out of their way to see a that type of film, but Slither tried its absolute hardest to be exactly that and it exceeded on all levels. This has to be easily one of the most enjoyable films of its kind in recent memory because it does exactly what it sets out to do, and that is to purely entertain it’s audience. Slither is one hell of a good time and when it isn’t making you laugh historically it’s making you squirm, the perfect movie. Slither is sure to become a classic and will be instantly loved by any fans of movies like Shaun of the Dead. This movie is splatterific and a perfect love letter to the great B-movies of the 80′s. As you guys know by now I’m a huge fan of films that use practical effects and Slither fits into that perfectly. It does an excellent job using practical effects, the few times it does use cgi is when the filmmakers had no other choice and that is something that I can really appreciate because it shows that the director really wanted this movie to have the look and feel of the old-school B-movies.

“If I weren’t about to shit in my pants right now, I’d be fuckin’ fascinated.”

Slither is an entertaining movie in every kind of way, it succeeds in being absolutely hilarious, disgusting, and even at times it can be touching. Oh yea, there are also zombies… lots of zombies!

Rotten Tomato Score: 85%

Why they are better together:

Well guys we are at the end here and I must say, I’m pretty proud of this one. Are these films totally the same? Certainly not but I can assure you that you wont find a better double bill than this one. These two films capture the very essence of what films are all about and that is to entertain its audience. The first film is as much of a B-movie as you can get with Re-Animator while Slither sets out to recreate the B-movies of the 80′s and succeeds on every possible level. Both of these films will have you laughing one moment and shocked the next. Two of the hardest things to do in a movie is to make its audience scared and to make them laugh, both of these films do both effortlessly. If you somehow have managed to live this long and not see either of these movies than it looks like you found exactly what to do this weekend and trust me you wont regret it.

As always, thanks for reading! Check out last week’s double feature if you missed it:

The Fly / The Thing

In Horror News B-Movies, Double Feature, , horror comedies, , Re-Animator, Slither
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Mondo Gallery

Ryan —  February 21, 2012 — 5 Comments

Movie posters have been around for as long as film itself and have always been a very popular way of attracting audiences. Posters have changed drastically over the years and rarely do we get a very original looking poster anymore. If you look at a movie poster for a film today, 9 times out of 10 you are going to see what I like to call the floating heads of hell. Essentially the posters are horribly Photoshopped giant floating heads of all of the main characters. Why this style is so popular I will never know because they look down right horrendous.

An unsupervised retarded monkey could create a better poster than some of the crap that’s laying around these days.

Not all is lost however, because there happens to be a wonderful company called Mondo where they recreate posters for films that are regarded as cult or genre pictures and recapture the vintage flair that movie posters used to have while still making them modern. Every poster these guys do are very unique and I felt like sharing some of my favorites with you guys. Hope you enjoy.

Dracula

by Aaron Horkey & Vania Zouravliov

 
 

Swamp Thing 

by Florian Bertmer

The Burning

by Phantom City Creative

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 by Jeff Proctor

Dawn of the Dead 

by Jeff Proctor

Hobo With A Shotgun

by Jeff Proctor

House by the Cemetery 

by Jeff Proctor

The Shining

by WBYK

28 Days Later

by Charlie Adlard & Jon Smith

Halloween

by Methane Studios

Well there you have it guys, some of my favorite Mondo posters. These select few don’t even scratch the surface as to how many great ones they have. And honestly they really don’t have any bad posters. If you want to check more out for yourself head over to their archives by clicking here: Mondo

And as always, thanks for reading!

In Art , Mondo Posters, Movie Art, Vintage
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A Look Back: Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho

Ryan —  February 20, 2012 — 2 Comments

Writing about a film like Psycho is like writing about why eating is important. Psycho is responsible for almost every horror film that came after it. It started something that no other film had done before, it created the slasher genre as we know it.  Anyone who has ever watched Psycho has their own opinion about it, mine however, is that I think this film is perfect in every way.  I believe Psycho is one of the most important films ever made. Amongst all of Hitchcock’s thrillers and suspense films Psycho was his first true horror film, audiences from all around had never experienced such a film in theaters before it.  Psycho changed the face of horror forever.

What Hitchcock did with the character Norman Bates was something that was truly unique.  He took a mamas boy who was very nice, quiet, and wouldn’t hurt a fly and turned him into a monster.  Psycho was one of the first films to portray a completely normal human being as a monster and this terrified audiences. Before Norman Bates, monsters were seen as Werewolves, Vampires and Aliens but he changed that forever, he showed that real humans could be monsters. This film shows the very first serial killer as a young male full of psychological problems which becomes the exact basis of all the other future slasher characters such as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Leather Face, and Freddy Krueger.

There are many scenes in Psycho where the Master of Suspense deliberately gets inside your head almost as if he just wants to laugh at you as you squirm in your seat. A perfect example of this is the scene in the movie where Norman sinks the car that has Cranes body in it. Timing here is everything because as the wetlands begin to swallow the car, Hitchcock wants you to think that maybe someone is going to spot Norman doing this and he will get caught. That is simply not the case because that would be much too easy. Instead, the car starts to sink rapidly ,taking that hope from you.  Once the audience accepts this fate the car suddenly stops sinking making you rethink everything all over again.  So here you are saying to yourself “Now what?”  Then just as quickly as you come up with that thought, the car starts to sink again. Hitchcock does this to show you who is in charge… it’s not any of the characters in the movie, it’s Hitchcock, the true master of the genre.

Another thing Hitchcock does is take something everyone does everyday and he turns it into a terrifying place and that is… you guessed it, the shower. The shower scene is one of the most important scenes in the entire film. To show the importance of this single scene in the film Hitchcock used almost 70 different camera angles. What adds to this memorable moment is the masterful score by Bernard Hermann. He uses a scratchy violin sound that could only be compared to nails on a chalk board — something Freddy Krueger himself could appreciate. The combination of Hitchcock and Bernard’s genius work turned out to be one of the scariest and most memorable scenes in all of movie history.

For me personally the final scene of Psycho had the biggest affect on me.  Anthony Perkins who played Norman Bates in the film has such an amazing performance in the end that is beyond scary, it gives me chills every time.  He doesn’t say a single word but his facial expressions say everything as you can hear his mother talking while he is thinking. The last line of the film leaves an everlasting impression and is very unsettling to the audience.

“They’ll see and they’ll know, and they’ll say, Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly…” 

Psycho is a perfect example of a film that changed things forever in the horror genre. Its combination of horror with a psychological theme was something never seen before.  Turning a normal human being into a monster is truly the scariest thing of all. True horror is what one human being can do to another.

In Horror News , , master of suspense, Norman Bates, , Slasher
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The Double Feature of the Week Presents:

Ryan —  February 17, 2012 — 2 Comments

The Fly / The Thing (1982)

This week in the double feature I decided to go with two of my all time favorite sci-fi/horror movies. Both of these films are equally scary but for two completely different reasons. The Fly is scary because you have to watch the character slowly and gruesomely change further and further from being human. Then you have The Thing which is just terrifying because there is absolutely no one you can trust, who is good and who is evil? Both of these films do something you almost never see anymore, they both use practical effects which is when the filmmakers use effects without the aid of computer generated images. There is something about handcrafted monsters that have a way of creeping into your nightmares and these two films have some of the best you will ever see.

The Fly
Directed by David Cronenberg
Released: 1986

The practical effects in this movie are absolutely disgusting as you are forced to watch Brundle’s body shed away the parts that are no longer necessary. I’ll never forget the first time I saw this movie, it ruined my sleep for weeks. The scene where Brundle looks into the camera and says, “This, is how Brundle-Fly eats” has got to be one of the greatest cinematic moments in sci-fi history. He then goes and nonchalantly pukes up this disgusting looking stomach acid onto a friggin donut held in his pincer-like hand. It doesn’t get much better or freakier than that folks. The Fly is just one of those movies that, honestly, anyone who calls themselves a fan of anything horror or sci-fi needs to see, if not own. The Fly centers around an eccentric scientist who has successfully solved matter transportation. After transporting a living creature with no problem he thinks his machine is ready for a human subject. Himself. When he attempts to teleport himself a fly gets into one of the transformation booths where he soon finds out he is a changed man.

Rotten Tomato Score: 91%

The Thing
Directed by John Carpenter
Released: 1982

This is such a perfect horror movie with its relentless suspense and amazing visuals. The special effects really pushed the boundaries creating some of the most unforgettable monsters ever put on screen. This is paranoia at it’s finest, the film does such a great job at making you feel isolated with the characters and it keeps you guessing literally up until the credits roll and beyond. There is a scene that, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, still scares the shit out of me every time. You know the one. When they come up with this ingenious way of testing who is the alien and who isn’t by putting a hot wire to someones blood on a dish. You just watch in horror waiting…..and waiting…..and waiting. Masterfully done, one of my favorite scenes of all time. Where man is the warmest place to hide, you might find yourself moving further and further away from the person you are watching this with because you never know who the alien’s next victim is going to be. Set in the Antarctic, The Thing is about a scientific expedition that gets interrupted by a group of what seems like insane Norwegians in a helicopter chasing and shooting at a dog. When the helicopter crashes while pursuing the dog they are left with questions that have no answers. They soon realize that an alien life-form that has the ability to assume the appearance of the people that it kills has taken over their camp. They don’t know who might have already been taken over and can trust not a single living soul.

Rotten Tomato Score: 78%

Why they are better together:

The reason why these two films work so perfectly together is because they were made in a time where films weren’t totally relying on the ability of a computer generated image, instead they had a team of extremely talented people create truly scary monsters that you just don’t see anymore. I don’t know about you but when I see the monsters in movies like these ones they just feel so much scarier. They have a perfectly life-like feeling to them that you don’t get with cgi. When I see a cgi monster I look at it as exactly that, computer generated, not a living, breathing thing. I think a lot of times films can lose its authenticity when they have their actors performing in front of a tennis ball. I understand that cgi is easier and much more convenient and often times totally needed, it’s just sad knowing that this form of movie making is slowly dying. So with these two films you get a chance to look back at some amazing work from very talented people and see some terrifying monsters. This double feature is sure to keep you up at night. Trust no one, and be afraid. Be very afraid.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out the last weeks double feature if you missed it:

Thirst / Let the Right One In

In Horror News David Cronenberg, , John Carpenter, Monsters, Practical Effects, , The Fly, The Thing
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The Seasoning House

Ryan —  February 15, 2012 — Leave a comment

The Seasoning House is Paul Hyett’s long awaited directorial debut. His name might not sound familiar to you but his amazing work should. For the last 20 years he’s been doing special effects make-up on films like The Descent, Attack the Block, and most recently The Woman in Black just to name a few. The film is currently shooting on an abandoned air force base right outside London. Expect this movie to blow you away with its hard hitting action and suspense. Hyett compares his film to a mixture of Martyrs, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Die Hard. Now that’s one hell of a mash-up right there.

The Seasoning House takes place in Eastern Europe where soldiers kidnap young girls who are kept in a run-down house and sold off as prostitutes. A deaf mute orphan named Angel is a slave to the soldiers whose job is to tend to the girls that are in a drug-induced state. What her captors don’t know, is that to she secretly moves between the walls of the house, wriggling through vents, lurking in the small crawlspaces where she observes the soldiers, learning and planning her escape. One day, the the very men who are responsible for brutally murdering her entire family happen to show up to indulge their sick appetites. When she viciously stabs one of them to death, the time has finally come to make her escape.

The director Paul Hyett said in an interview,

“The moment the knife hits his chest, the fairytale feeling shatters and it gets faster paced, very messy, extremely nasty and completely mad.”

I love this guy. This movie sounds like it’s going to be one hell of a suspenseful and gruesome ride. Hope you guys are as excited as I am for this one. There is no set release date for the film that I know of but hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.  As always, thanks for reading!

In Horror News directorial debut, , , , Special effects,
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Director Spotlight: Ji-woon Kim

Ryan —  February 14, 2012 — 1 Comment

Korean director Ji-woon Kim gets the first edition of the director spotlight because he’s a director who simply knows how to entertain an audience regardless of the type of genre his movies are set in. Kim started directing theater but slowly worked his way into feature films where he is known for his stylization. This is a director who really loves what he is doing and goes through great lengths to produce quality films for his fans. Something that is a bit unusual is that he goes out of his way when making the dvd’s for his films by making sure they are filled with all sorts of extensive documentary materials and commentary. Gotta love when a director does this type of stuff, it really shows how much he cares about his product and the audience. Kim is most known for his visual style of directing, he tries to make every scene look perfect and it’s one of those things as a fan you can really appreciate. He has a way of bending his movies in order to make something new and unique. The two movies of his I decided to feature are not only great but also prove that Kim can tackle any type of film whether it be the terrifying darkness behind a brutal serial killer or one of the most fun action adventure films in years.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird

In 2008 Kim released his film The Good, the Bad, the Weird which is a western set in the 1940′s where three Korean gunslingers – a bounty hunter, ruthless killer, and a train robber – find a map that they all want for very different reasons. Occupying Japanese forces also want the map, as does the Ghost Market Gang. They are all enemies to each other and as they cross paths more and more bodies pile up. It’s hard to find a movie more entertaining than this one. It starts out with a bang that grabs your full attention and doesn’t let up with a constant pace of thrilling action. This movie has something for everyone with a mad chase for a treasure map, plenty of double crossing, and a perfect blend of dark humor. It would be nearly impossible for you to watch this movie and not enjoy it. Best way for me to describe this is if you took Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns and made a baby with Spielberg’s Indiana Jones you would get Kim’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird.  See it!

Rotten Tomato Score: 84%

I Saw the Devil

I Saw the Devil is about a psychopath killer who murders for pleasure. His victims range from young women to even children. Police cannot seem to catch him after chasing him for a long time so one day a top secret agent decides to take things into his own hands. He wants vengeance no matter the consequences, even if it means becoming a monster himself in order to track him down. His most recent film I Saw the Devil is such an unbelievably great serial killer thriller. He takes the simple concept that has been around for years and approaches it from a new angle that is truly unique. This was easily one of my favorite films that I saw last year because of its originality and downright brutal nature. It’s a cat and mouse movie like you have never seen before and Kim pulls it off better than any. I Saw the Devil is not for the feint of heart, this is for the cult fans who know exactly what extreme Korean cinema is all about. It is a powerful and shockingly violent tale of murder unlike any other where the good guy is just as evil as the bad guy.

Rotten Tomato Score: 79%

Currently Kim is working on his first American feature film called The Last Stand which is getting a lot of attention. The new film which is set to release in 2013 has a lot of action junkies excited because it’s a long awaited return to the genre from the man that single handeldly defined it. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A lot of people will say that Schwarzenegger has gone soft over the years and is too old to be the leading man in action films anymore and while those are valid points, if anyone can make Arnold look like a badass again its Ji-woon Kim. The Last Stand sounds like it’s going to be a pretty cool thrill ride. It’s about the most notorious drug kingpin escapes from the FBI and is fleeing towards the border with a hostage and an army of gang members. A small town stands between them and the border where the U.S. law enforcement will make their last stand and attempt to stop him before crossing over the border and disappearing forever. I have plenty of faith in Kim to make this a pretty damn good film, so this is definitely one to keep an eye on. Be sure to check out some of Kim’s films, he’s an amazingly talented and stylistic director who is sure to be around for a very long time.

Thanks for reading!

In Horror News Action thriller, , , I Saw the Devil, Ji-woon Kim, The Good the Bad the Weird, The Last Stand
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The Double Feature of The Week Presents:

Ryan —  February 10, 2012 — 4 Comments

Thirst / Let the Right One In

The second week is upon us and with that we get another great double feature to watch.  I know it’s going to be hard to top last weeks double feature but I feel really good about this one and I’m excited to share them with you.  Because I did a couple of older films last week I decided to go with something more recent.  The vampire genre has been more than worn out over last few years with movies like Twilight and unfortunately people forgot what a true vampire film is supposed to be like.  True vampire films are supposed to be extremely dark and scary while still having a sense of beauty.

There isn’t a whole lot of room to be doing their hair and sparkling in the sunlight.

These two films are everything that vampires are meant to be and are sure to prove that the vampire genre still has some blood pumping in it.

Thirst
Directed by Chan-wook Park
Released: 2009

Thirst is about a priest working for a hospital who volunteers for a secret vaccine project intended to destroy a deadly virus. However, the virus eventually takes over his body. He nearly dies, but makes an impossible recovery by an accidental transfusion of vampire blood. He soon realizes his sole purpose for living is for the pleasures of human blood. Chan-wook Park’s vampire tale is such a refreshing take on the genre that you will be glad the Korean director didn’t follow the mold of all the new vampire films because his is really something special.  His often funny yet very brutal film holds on to the true vampire legend while putting his own spin on it.  I really loved how Park shows a more realistic portrayal of what a “real life” vampire would be like. Thirst is more of a dark drama than it is a horror film but it packs enough punch to scare it’s audience with its down right brutal nature.  The major driving force and life of the movie is watching the downward spiral the two main characters go through as they slowly descend into a life of murder and darkness with an unforgettable finish.  This is one you don’t want to miss because it really puts the vampire genre back on it’s feet.

Rotten Tomato Score: 82%

 
 
Let the Right One In
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Released: 2008

If you haven’t already seen this movie then where the hell have you been?  Whether you like the vampire genre or not you need to see this movie for the sake of watching one of the best films to come out in the last few years.  Let the Right One In is about a 12-year-old boy who becomes friends with a mysterious young girl whose appearance in town suspiciously happens around the same time as a series of brutal murders. The boy soon realizes that she is the vampire responsible for the recent rash of deaths around town. Despite the danger, however, his friendship with the girl ultimately means more to him than his fear of her and they fall in love. Although the main characters are played by two young kids the acting is phenomenal. This is the type of film that builds slowly with excellent storytelling. It’s very rare to see a horror film invest so much time on the love these two characters have for one another. And because of this you really feel for the characters and you can truly see why they are willing to do anything for each other. It is a beautiful yet terrifying film that is perfectly crafted and you would be doing yourself a favor to see it.

Rotten Tomato Score: 98%

Why they are better together:

Obviously the major theme here is vampires but they aren’t the vampires audiences these days are used to seeing. Instead, these are vampires with true darkness in their eyes that kill for survival and pleasure. These are two films that are not only wonderfully made but they both successfully brought life back to an exhausted genre. Both directors give the audience vampires that have been forgotten about over the years while still putting their own spin on them to make them feel new, which is truly something special. They are both tales of love and what the characters are willing to do in order to preserve that love while still being raw and frightening.

As always, thanks for reading and if you missed last weeks double feature you can check it out here:

Evil Dead II / Dead Alive

In Horror News , , Let the Right One In, Thirst, Twilight, vampire genre,
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The horror you didn't know

Ryan —  February 9, 2012 — 2 Comments

Don’t you love being the one in the room to point something out in a movie that no one even remotely had a clue about? Shit yes you do. So here is a list of some pretty cool things about some classic horror movies that not a lot of people know about. The reason why I chose these in particular is because I figured most people have already seen them and this wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if you haven’t seen the movie.  It’s a lot of fun to go back and re-watch these films knowing this kind of stuff, trust me!

Evil Dead II

I’m starting off with Evil Dead II because it has one of the coolest things hidden in it. Next time you watch this movie be sure to look very carefully during the toolshed scene where Ash cuts the head off of his newly turned deadite girlfriend. Why? Because, hanging above the door of the toolshed is none other than Freddy Krueger’s glove. Pretty cool right? Well, the reason Sam Raimi decided to hide this little gem in his film is because Wes Craven shows The Evil Dead playing on a television screen in a scene of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I love that Raimi did this because it has to be the ultimate crossovers of horror movies. What if Freddy existed in Ash’s universe, was everything Ash going through just a dream created by Freddy!? There is also another scene where you can find Krueger’s famous glove during the film but I’m not going to spoil it for you.  You guys are just gonna have to find that one on your own. Check out the picture below to see if you can spot the glove in the toolshed.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

That leads us right into this next one. Not only was A Nightmare on Elm Street Johnny Depp’s first movie but his famous scene has been dubbed as one of the greatest movie deaths of all time. Before Depp’s character dies you can hear the broadcaster on the radio say, “It is now twelve midnight and this is station KRGR leaving the air.” And what do you know, Krueger shows up immediately after. The scene involves hundreds of gallons of fake blood using a rotating set that was built upside down. They then mounted the camera so the scene would appear right-side-up and literally let a waterfall of blood fall through the hole in the bed.  The set was supposed to turn in order to keep the blood from going everywhere and destroying everything but it turned incorrectly and did just that. The blood rushed outside of the set causing the power to go out leaving the entire cast and crew in the dark and covered in blood.  This incident is known as the “Ferris Wheel of Hell”.  Also, the very first time Robert Englund (Freddy) tried on the infamous Freddy glove, he cut himself!

Halloween

It is hard to find anyone who hasn’t seen Halloween. Even to this day the movie still holds up extremely well. For this being one of the scariest films of all time it is very surprising that you only ever see blood in the movie three times. Only three! One thing many people don’t know about this movie is the fact that they had hardly any money to make it. Like literally the budget for this movie was so low they could only pay their leading actress 8,000 dollars. Ouch. It turns out, being poor can sometimes be a good thing.  Because of their shoestring budget they decided to go out to the department store and buy the cheapest mask they could find. The same mask that the Michael Meyers wears in the film. That mask also happens to be a Star Trek William Shatner mask. In order to get the mask so creepy they spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eye holes. Shatner even admitted much later that he had absolutely no clue that his face was used in order to create one of the scariest horror characters of all time. Can you imagine just randomly finding something like that out one day,

“So you’re saying a man wearing my face went on a killing spree?”

During the scene where Laurie is babysitting you can hear a movie playing on the television.  That movie was The Thing from Another World. Just four years after Halloween, John Carpenter would go on to directed the remake. Made on a budget of $320,000, Halloween became the highest-grossing independent film ever made at that time, taking home roughly $60,000,000 world wide.

Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead was Romero’s first feature film that became one of the most successful independent films of all time. Romero’s film was one of the first ever to graphically show violent murders on screen. The movie was regarded as so violent that in 1968 Readers Digest tried to warn people from watching it because they claimed if ever watched, it would inspire cannibalism. Because the movie was shot in black and white they were able to use bosco chocolate syrup to simulate the blood in the film. If only it were that easy these days. In one of the scenes where the main character Ben is nailing up wooden boards you can see small numbers on them. These were written on the backs of the boards so they could be removed and replaced in between shots. The reason some of the numbers are visible is because they were accidentally nailed up backwards. Never once in the movie are the undead referred to as zombies, in fact, the only thing that the media could come up with at the time was “ghouls”. Surprisingly George A. Romero earned almost nothing from his classic film because he knew very little regarding distribution deals so the distributors ended up walking away with all of the profits.

There you go everyone, now you know some things about these movies that I guarantee your friends won’t.

Oh, and before you go. Here is one quick-bit that I absolutely love.  You know the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?  Well, before they settled on that title it had been given the name “Headcheese”.  Yea, you read that right… “Headcheese”.  Can you imagine:

“Oh, is that the one about the radio active cheese man that goes around force feeding people cheese causing death by rapidly clogging their arteries?  Wait… What? You mean it’s about a guy who wears peoples skin and hacks them up with a chainsaw? Yea dude… that sounds way better, let’s go see that instead.”

In Horror News A Nightmare on Elm Street, , , , , Night of the Living Dead
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